Chapter 198: Second Saintess (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 198: Second Saintess (6)
"Our Delmoa is a Saintess."
"Since when was she 'our' Delmoa?"
"From the moment she called me 'Papa'."
"Are you a crazy bastard...?"
Boradori looked at me with an expression one might make after biting into a hamburger and finding half a Mr. Roach inside, but I didn't particularly care.
Because...
"Do you really have the time to be worrying about Delmoa right now?"
"Shit..."
Even though the emergence of a second Saintess was an unprecedented event in the long history of the Holy Kingdom, the focus was currently shifting.
The Holy Kingdom was showing more interest in Violet than in Delmoa, the second Saintess.
She was, after all, the childhood friend of Saintess Daisy.
For some reason, even the Pope was being strangely friendly toward her.
Despite being present at a site where the Goddess's power was used with unprecedented intensity, she remained unchanged.
And now, the child who was by her side had become a Saintess.
Naturally, people began to spin a narrative.
—She is a human who carries the Goddess's will.
—Perhaps Saintess Daisy was only able to become a Saintess because she spent so much time with this person named Violet.
—There’s a reason the Pope always wants to be near her.
—They say just being near Violet can turn you into a Saintess.
—She is a saint blessed by the Goddess herself.
—Actually, she’s an avatar sent to earth, a piece the Goddess tore from her own self.
—Actually...
"The latest hypothesis is that you are the Goddess herself."
"What kind of asshole would say such crazy shit..."
"I heard it's a rumor circulating among the Heresy Inquisitors."
"So they were crazy bastards...!"
Anyway, such rumors were leaking out among religious officials.
And not just from some random low-ranking nobodies, but centered around the high-ranking priests.
If such talk was coming from that level, there was no telling what the common folk would be saying soon.
Which meant...
"You're dead meat now."
As these rumors piled up, the eyes of the dark mages would naturally shift from Daisy to Violet.
"It's already too late."
"Why?"
"The Demon who showed up said so."
"Oh, so the formal name is 'Demon Tribe'? I just thought of them as half-demons."
"The meaning is similar. And the formal name is the Demon Tribe. But that’s not what’s important! A person's life is at stake here!"
"The RoFan world is rife with schemes and machinations. It’s always been dangerous."
"Stop bullshitting! Where are the schemes and machinations these days?! All of Esid's political arcs are being skipped. It’s just ambush, ambush, ambush every single day! If it’s this much of a one-pattern development, the novel is going to fail!"
"Well, whatever. It’s a RoFan, but the romance disappeared ages ago anyway."
"And who ruined all of that?!"
How unfair.
Why was she speaking as if it were my fault that the RoFan male leads ruined everything?
I even had the Kingdom's agents prepare things for Daisy, who seemed to be in a bad mood for some reason.
Our RoFan male leads haven't even prepared anything like that, have they?
"...Actually, they have."
Apparently, they had.
"They did?"
"Yeah."
"And I didn't know about it?"
That couldn't be right.
Come to think of it, while my time with Ellen had decreased compared to last year, I still had a source for news about the other RoFan male leads.
If the other male leads had made a move, there was no way the other agents wouldn't have mentioned it.
"......"
"Those other agents have been busy lately, too."
"Ah."
"And usually, private stories like that tend to start and end within the club."
"...We call them friends, but aren't they rivals in love?"
"They were. That’s why last year they would ask you or the other agents for advice or complain to you."
But things were different now.
And the reason was...
"You."
"Me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To be honest, if I were a reader looking at this story from a third-person perspective, I’d think the blue-chip stock among the male lead candidates right now is the Adam Smith Coin."
"......"
"Honestly, since I’m living this RoFan life for real, I know the Adam Smith Coin is a pump-and-dump... no, a manipulated coin. But to someone who doesn't know, it feels like you guys are bound by a fake dating contract that’s bound to become real."
"Why must such a tragedy..."
"Because the rest of the coins are preparing for delisting! They have to do something stupid for the market price to fluctuate! But they do nothing, or even if they try, they fail midway. The price doesn't go up or down! You know that scene in medical dramas where the heart monitor goes 'beep, beep' if they're alive? Theirs is just a flat line!"
The scene from dramas naturally popped into my head. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeee.
"That means they're pronounced dead."
"Exactly! That’s why the romance in this RoFan is dead! Is this even a RoFan anymore? It’s a 'Block the Dark Mage Wave' game!"
She had a point.
Every turn, money comes in from the Empire to expand defensive facilities.
Every turn, a wave of dark mages comes to break through.
As time passes, both sides leveling up is exactly the same.
"I thought I entered a RoFan, but it was actually a defense game."
"What kind of light novel title is that...?"
"It’s better than 'Regarding the Fact That I Thought My Childhood Friend Was a Saintess, but I Was Actually a Saintess Maker'."
"Shit..."
However, the one who was truly screwed right now wasn't me—even if I held the largest share of romance in this RoFan.
It was Violet, who was being treated as the Goddess's terminal that pumps out Saintesses.
For me, it ends once someone takes Daisy off my hands.
But for Violet, it’s game over if she gets kidnapped by the Holy Kingdom or assassinated by the Evil God's forces.
"Save me."
"I have no power..."
"You said you'd take responsibility! You said you'd take care of me!"
"I can take responsibility for a common countryside noble. But someone who produced two Saintesses... even for a Leon, that’s a bit much..."
Violet? I acknowledge you.
You were now a big shot that even House Leon couldn't contain.
"D-Don't acknowledge me!"
Just as I was busy swatting away the hands she reached out with a tearful face...
"Mr. Adam Smith. Your time is up."
It seemed my time to meet with Violet had ended.
Because Violet was under the intensive management of the Holy Kingdom, this private meeting was only possible due to Daisy's guarantee, Violet's request, and the support of the Heresy Inquisitors.
Otherwise, it would have been difficult even for Prince Ellen to meet her.
"Take care! I'll send you some snacks!"
"I'll curse you! I'll use the Goddess's power to curse you if I have to!"
And so, in exchange for snacks, I received a curse.
But from what I could see, the Goddess didn't seem particularly inclined to help Violet anyway.
I stepped outside, lightly brushing it off, only to find an unexpected face waiting for me.
"Mr. Adam."
"Is there another problem?"
"Well..."
Following Marian, who let out a sigh with a rare look of distress, I entered a room to find...
"Saintess!"
"I'm not a Saintess...!"
Delmoa was there, riding gallantly on the back of a Heresy Inquisitor.
I filled Delmoa's cheeks—which were puffed out with air—with bread instead.
"Are you listening?"
"Mm-hm."
Sitting her on my lap, I rested my chin on Delmoa's head as she munched away.
"......"
Was it just my imagination? The comfort I felt before was gone.
When she climbed onto my lap, she felt a bit heavier.
She really is growing.
But does it make sense for her to grow this fast in such a short time?
According to Boradori, she was supposed to be around our age.
Was she growing rapidly now because she was finally stuffing herself after being unable to eat before?
"Ah."
Then, it suddenly hit me that I had relied too much on Violet just because Delmoa was a character from the original work.
Delmoa didn't just fall out of the sky.
She was originally from a famous family in the Holy Kingdom before falling into ruin due to the cardinals' conspiracy and being sold into slavery.
If I had just dug through the Holy Kingdom's records, I could have easily found out her age.
"Hmm..."
However, looking at Delmoa as she inhaled her fifth piece of bread on my lap, I couldn't help but worry.
Even though I had initially refused the 'responsibility without pleasure' of being called 'Papa' the moment we met...
If this cute little thing turned out to be older than me... that would be quite a shock.
Come to think of it, maybe I had been ignoring the obvious fact that I could get information from the Holy Kingdom for exactly that reason.
"Delmoa."
Munch munch.
"Just nod if you can hear me."
Nod, nod.
Seeing her head bob, I asked as many questions as possible without interfering with her eating.
"Can you hear the Goddess's voice?"
Nod, nod.
It seemed the Goddess had indeed marked her.
"Do you dislike it?"
Nod, nod.
"Is the reason... 'Why now?' Something like that?"
Nod, nod.
Watching her head nod repeatedly in rhythm, I began to suspect she was just bobbing her head for the sake of it.
"Do you plan on forgiving her, though?"
Shake, shake.
Seeing her shake her head so vigorously that her hair whipped around, it seemed she wasn't just nodding out of obligation.
"Hmm..."
Watching those swaying locks, I pulled out more bread and a piece of ribbon from my subspace pouch.
As I fed her the bread to calm her down...
"......"
Delmoa stared at me as if asking if this was all it took to appease her, so I even poked a straw into a carton of strawberry milk for her.
Only then did she look satisfied. As she sipped the strawberry milk, I toyed with her hair and asked.
"So, as for what the Goddess said... I'll ask about that later. Um. So, is the Goddess forcing this power on you?"
Shake, shake.
An unexpected answer, but the head-shaking was as expected.
I pulled out another piece of ribbon and toyed with the other side of her hair.
"If she didn't force it on you, that means you agreed to it. Did you agree because of the situation back then?"
Nod, nod.
The picture was starting to form.
The sudden attack by the half-demons—no, the Demon Tribe? Anyway, Boradori had been flustered and fought hard, but she lacked the strength.
When she was on the verge of death, the Goddess must have whispered to Delmoa.
—Do you desire power...!
Well, she probably didn't say it exactly like that, but the fact that she acts just like a Magic Sword is undeniable.
Anyway, for the sake of Boradori, who had been kind to her, our sweet Delmoa had to swallow her tears and ask for power from the very deity worshipped by the wicked cardinals who destroyed her peaceful home, killed her family, and threw her life into the gutter.
...The Goddess really is trash.
Looking at how she acts, she probably asked before and got rejected.
To wait for a moment when she couldn't refuse to present the contract and finally get the seal...
I stroked the head of poor Delmoa, who had to receive power from her enemy, and asked one last question.
"So, are you going to be a Saintess?"
"......"
At those words, instead of moving her head, Delmoa turned around and looked at me with a face full of discontent.
She chewed her bread for a long time, swallowed it down her throat, and then...
"Never."
She answered with a rare display of intense will. But that wasn't what I wanted to hear—or rather, see.
"Could you answer by shaking your head like before?"
"......?"
Though she frowned as if asking what I meant, she shook her head with as much conviction as before.
Slap, slap.
The pigtails I had worked so hard to tie swayed and slapped against Delmoa's face.
I thought they would suit her, but they look even better than I expected.
"......"
However, as Delmoa reached up to untie the hair that seemed to bother her...
"If you don't untie that, I'll give you more."
"......"
"By the way, this was made together with the... um... the Red Unnie."
"......"
Just like the Goddess, I was able to protect Pigtail Delmoa through an offer she couldn't refuse.