A Story Only I Don't Know - Part 1
The long stretch of adventuring had left the party thoroughly worn out. Even after sleeping soundly in a sanctuary thick with holy power—no night watch required—an expedition that had stretched past ten days for the first time was bound to take its quiet toll on their bodies.
So there was no post-battle celebration, no lingering. The moment they stepped out of the Tower, they drifted off toward their respective lodgings like wilted flowers. Han Se-ah didn't even bother sneaking a camera on them in that state—that said everything.
The next morning, after each of them had soaked thoroughly in hot water, they gathered around a guild table with soft, fresh faces, ready to look for commissions related to the thirty-fifth floor. That was when the Adventurers' Guild doors burst open.
"Adventurer Roland! Is Sir Roland present?!"
The one who came crashing through the doors was a Temple knight in pure white armor. From head to toe she was clad in the same spotless white plate, helmet pressed firmly down—but this time, a pleasant, beautiful voice rang out from beneath the helm.
A Temple knight was a rare enough sight on its own. A Temple knight with a lovely woman's voice was rarer still, and every gaze in the room swung toward the entrance. A beat later, several of those gazes swung right back to me.
Upper-grade and highest-grade adventurers who already knew my name and face from the swamp incident fixed me with pointed stares, as if to ask what on earth I'd been doing to have a Temple knight hunting me down.
"I'm Roland…?"
"Oh! Sir Roland! Just as I'd heard—a most striking gentleman."
She'd barged in demanding someone by name, yet when I answered carefully—uncertain who I was dealing with—she strode straight toward me. In a medieval fantasy world, picking a fight with the Temple was never a smart move, so I meant to tread carefully. But there was no hostility or anger in that excited voice. None at all.
…This was, more than likely—
"I, ah, I heard you can use holy power."
Because of the holy power, of course.
People who spent their entire lives following the Goddess's will, and she looked as giddy as a child in front of a birthday present. The clanking white gauntlet that seized my wrist without the slightest hesitation was almost startling.
I'd half expected a commoner adventurer who used holy power without belonging to the Temple to be shunned or eyed with resentment. Apparently that had been the thoroughly marinated modern-fantasy-novel take on things.
Faced with that pure, utterly unhostile enthusiasm, I found myself gathering holy power into the hand she was holding.
"O-oh! Truly pure energy!"
"Ahem. The story will take care of the helmet when it's ready. If you go sidling up to yank it off now, I can already see the future where your arm gets twisted and you get pinned like some subway pervert."
A Temple knight turned full limited-edition-figure otaku, gently stroking my fist, and Han Se-ah filming the whole thing while trading increasingly unhinged banter with her viewers. Even as a veteran warrior who'd weathered every storm over ten years, this was a hard scene to process.
The rest of the party, still seated at the table, threw looks at Irene as if to ask what any of this meant. Of course, even Irene—the only one among us with any connection to the Temple—didn't seem to know the Temple knights' internal affairs, and looked just as confused.
If I left her to it, she looked ready to admire my holy power all day, so I dispersed the energy and asked a question.
"By the way, might I ask why you came looking for me? Were you planning to commission something related to the corrupted swamp?"
"Ah—ah, right! I got so excited I completely forgot to say."
Only after the holy power reinforcing my hand vanished did the Temple knight lift her helmeted face. I'd always pictured Temple knights as rigid, severe, blindly devoted to discipline—but the woman in front of me seemed almost freer than free.
Under my bewildered stare she finally released my forearm, cleared her throat, and brought a clenched fist to her lips to compose her voice.
"Ahem. Sir Roland, who has walked Sister Irene's path of penance alongside her. In the name of the Goddess, I wish to invite you to the Temple. Your companions are, of course, welcome as well."
Then she squared her shoulders and offered her arm as if escorting a lady. Did these people just default to calling you "Sir" and treating you like a knight the moment they decided to show you hospitality?
Was it like those martial arts novels where everyone went around calling each other "Great Hero"?
With that random thought drifting through my head, I nodded. I had a feeling this had something to do with the Fragment of Unknown Dimension I'd received as a quest reward on the thirtieth floor.
Under normal circumstances, we would have sold our mana stones, taken a commission, stocked Han Se-ah's inventory with stew and soup ingredients from the market, bought Grace her alchemical arrows, and spent the day on maintenance.
"This way, if you please."
Instead, what stood before us were Temple knights of the utmost courtesy. The moment we accepted the invitation, white-armored knights poured in as if escorting honored guests and formed a ring around us—as though even the citizens' gazes ought to be blocked by plate.
Of course, a dozen hulking figures in spotless white armor marching in a pack, each bearing the Goddess's symbol large across the chest, was always going to draw every eye in the street.
Adventurers heading for the Tower, merchants hurrying about their business, townsfolk sweeping shopfronts or arranging stalls—every last one of them turned to look at us.
"Hmm. Looks like Roland's character quest is tied to the Temple. I figured only Irene, the candidate Saint, would be connected, but suddenly Temple knights are looking for Roland. Must be because his title is Paladin?"
Compared to Han Se-ah, who was used to people's stares, and Katie, a noble young lady, Grace and Irene shrank under the attention.
The way the two of them looked at Han Se-ah—who seemed so composed only because she was busy talking to her viewers—made me wonder if they were cooking up some "genius mage Han Se-ah" theory of their own. Under that escort-that-wasn't-an-escort of Temple knights, we arrived at the Temple.
The knights led us deeper than the prayer hall open to citizens, deeper than the playroom where orphans were cared for.
"Oh, this is a zone that doesn't show up on the minimap. Guess you only get here by pushing the story. Or, thinking about the freedom of the game, maybe it's more like you need a connection with the church—some kind of affinity level thing."
"My, all the way here…"
The place we arrived at was a hall of pure white pillars, the same white as the Temple knights' armor. If the public areas outside had been modeled on a cathedral, this place felt closer to a Greek temple.
Even so, Irene—as befitting a candidate Saint—seemed to have been here before, and let out a soft murmur of wonder as she looked around.
A broad hall lined with white columns. Temple knights standing between the pillars like statues. The lady knight who had guided us courteously raised a hand to stop the party, then escorted me alone to the center of the hall with equal formality.
"Roland. Sir Roland of Lombardo. One who answered the Goddess's call, awakened holy power, and carves a path through dark and treacherous roads."
Where the hell is Lombardo.
Standing in the center of the hall, someone spoke to me. The voice didn't come from in front of me so much as from the empty air itself—not a person speaking, but a voice carried by magic or sacred arts, like a broadcast through a speaker.
The problem was that I couldn't make sense of the soft woman's voice echoing from nowhere. Of course I couldn't. I'd dropped into Roland's body as an adult; I had no idea about his origins or hometown.
…And I'd never even read Roland's character profile. I'd written a long community post, spammed it with a macro, and fallen into this world—so the background lore was a blank to me too.
I'd lived ten years in this world and still had neighborhoods I'd never heard of popping up. Like the Grand Duke of the North, this was probably newly patched-in lore. The price of hearing Han Se-ah talk to her viewers without a filter, maybe, was that the patch notes every NPC would naturally know never made it into my head.
"……"
Faced with a story I didn't know, I couldn't answer, so I simply bowed my head a little. In moments like this, matching the mood in silence got you halfway there even if you didn't understand a word.
"If you settled for the world as it is, wealth and renown would be yours. If you turned your back on the darkness, a life of comfort and peace would await. And yet you still set your feet toward the unholy Tower's towering heights—who, then, could deny your labor? …And so, Sister Irene?"
"Y-yes!"
I was bowing in silence, thinking something along the lines of well, yeah, because I have to clear the quest—when the spark suddenly jumped sideways. Irene clearly knew whose voice this was. She startled so hard she was trembling, looking equal parts adorable and pitiful.
I glanced sidelong at her as she shuffled, shaking, toward the center of the hall—and then, only for a moment.
Fragment of Unknown Dimension confirmed.
The blessing of an unnamed god settles into the flesh.
"……?"
Unlike last time, there was no vision. No system message asking if I wanted to confirm anything. And yet a system window had appeared announcing that confirmation had already happened.
What, exactly, had I confirmed?