Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Off to the Holy Kingdom
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[Stats]
[Level] 25
[Health] 1
[Mana] 1
[Faith] 1
[Endurance] 1
[Proficiency] 1
[Strength] 1
[Magic Power] 10
[Divine Power] 10
[Durability] 7
‘That’ll do.’
I pumped my Durability up to 7 with stat points, then let go of the Ability Check Orb. As the blue light faded, the letters and numbers floating in the air like a status window vanished.
It had been worth steadily clearing out those trash mobs along the way. Compared to the abysmal stats of the Abandoned One back when I first arrived at the Silver Dawn Knights—back when everything was a feast of 1s—it was a massive leap forward.
From now on, I’d just raise Faith to around 3 or 4 and balance Strength and Mana appropriately. Or, depending on the situation, put a bit into Endurance to shore up stamina. It was up to me.
Health was a completely meaningless stat in hardcore mode, and Faith was plenty at the level of casting a spell or two. Proficiency wasn’t all that necessary either unless you were a pure magic or faith build.
To be precise, even melee builds needed different stats depending on the weapon type and playstyle, but with my build, there was no reason to ignore Strength in favor of Proficiency.
‘Now the only issue left is how to get that weapon.’
Lost in thought, I stepped out of the room. The conditions were perfectly met, but there was still the blind spot of how to acquire the weapon to use after the Bloodied Sword.
That was because the quest required to obtain it was infamous as an utter nightmare.
Not because it was hard, but because it devoured insane amounts of time—and on top of that, it was boring. It was similar to the Rock Centipede quest, which got endless flak for being equally long and tedious.
The Rock Centipede was the “Why the hell did they make this like this?” type, while this quest was the “They made this shit just to screw us over!” type. It was so blatantly obvious in its intent that it actually got less hate.
Even in the game, fully clearing it took over 10 hours in real time. Now, it could easily take months if things went wrong.
“Ready to go?”
As I turned the corner in the hallway, deep in thought, Lize greeted me. She was clad in gleaming silver armor, her helmet tucked under her arm. She’d clearly put extra effort into polishing it today—the surface shone brilliantly.
“I’ve been ready forever. You, Lize? Nah, no need to ask. I can tell just from the armor.”
“Good to know my hard work paid off. Even Delta noticed right away.”
“It’s impossible to miss. You could use it as a mirror. What’d you do, polish it like this on purpose?”
“We’re going to meet the Pope himself. Can’t half-ass it. To them, the Pope of the Holy Kingdom is on the level of our Emperor—no way I’m skimping on prep.”
‘Emperor, huh…’
Her words left a faint bitter taste in my mouth. Two days ago, when Selene dropped the bombshell that the Emperor was intensely interested in me, I’d pulled an all-nighter staring at the ceiling.
Time had passed now, and my emotions had settled a bit, but I still couldn’t fathom what about me had caught his eye so much—especially since we’d only met face-to-face once.
“You’re really going like that? No armor? Aren’t you nervous?”
Lize scanned me up and down. I was in my usual cloth shirt and leather pants, comfortable sneakers, with the Bloodied Sword at my waist.
I didn’t need anything else. We weren’t handling our own food and lodging in the Holy Kingdom anyway.
Armor? It’d just get in the way of rolling. Nervous? It was a game, but I’d met the Pope hundreds of times already. All I had to do was pray his personality hadn’t changed much.
“Armor’s a hindrance, like I said.”
“…That’s not the point.”
Lize shot me a pouty glare.
“Delta, you have to spill that secret of yours later. No excuses.”
Her reaction was even more insistent than before, but she had reason to be.
After Selene left, while recounting the Arachnainera subjugation, I’d let slip that my stats had gone up. Probably how the Inquisitor detected my Divine Power.
I had an excuse ready: as I gradually regained my past memories, my physical abilities were recovering bit by bit.
But I hated lying again, so I ditched the excuse and just called it a secret. Aurora and the Knight Commanders had glared at me like they wanted to kill me as a bonus.
‘Can’t let the Emperor find out, no matter what.’
I’d considered telling those five the truth by now. The Knight Commanders were reliable allies who’d believe me unconditionally, and Aurora wasn’t the betraying type.
But after Selene’s words, I decided to keep quiet longer. Someone might be watching me from anywhere, anytime.
If the Emperor hadn’t taken an interest, I would’ve spilled the secret soon.
Until I was confident I could handle that interest, none of my secrets could reach the Emperor’s ears. I could barely handle it now—giving him more ammo would spell real disaster.
“Of course. I’ll tell you someday.”
“…I’ll be watching.”
I ruffled Lize’s hair as she jutted out her lip. I could guess the extra meaning in her “watching.” She closed her eyes obediently, accepting the touch.
Heading to the castle’s main gate, I spotted the Knight Commanders in their shiny silver armor. Iris, at the front, spoke up as she saw me.
“No armor again. Aren’t you tense at all?”
“Nah? Lize asked the same thing. Does armor even relate to tension?”
“…You’re probably the only one who could stay this calm heading to meet the Holy Kingdom’s Pope, aside from His Imperial Majesty, Delta.”
Her response dripped with disbelief. I thought Iris would keep her composure, but apparently not.
“Is everyone here?”
Pop. Selene appeared right beside us, her robe pulled over her head just like our first meeting. The Knight Commanders reflexively reached for their weapons at the sudden arrival, then relaxed upon recognizing her.
“That was… magic?”
“Please call it a miracle. It’s entirely different from magic.”
Selene answered flatly, drawing a sacred catalyst from her robe’s sleeve. It was a deep silver overall, with a full moon etched at its center.
“Gather near me. We’ll move now.”
With those words, the sacred catalyst glowed brightly. Darkness seemed to descend around us, then bright moonlight pierced through. White light, half-silver, spread everywhere.
Ding-a-ling. The clear, resonant bell sound unique to sacred catalysts rang out. Light enveloped us.
When the light faded, we stood in the lord’s manor garden. Aurora waited ahead, arms crossed.
“Lord Aurora?”
Iris sounded baffled upon spotting her.
“I asked the Inquisitor to stop here before heading to the Holy Kingdom. It’s not like you’re just hunting monsters—you’re meeting the Pope. I couldn’t just let you go off on your own.”
Aurora uncrossed her arms and strode over, handing Iris a heavy pouch. Iris opened it.
It was stuffed with imperial gold coins.
“This is…?”
“I put in a reasonable amount. Holy Kingdom currency matches ours, so no loss holding it. Might not need it, but just in case.”
“Understood. We’ll gratefully accept. Should we return any leftovers later?”
“What? Why return it? It’s yours. Split it, use it for the Knights’ funds—whatever. That pig bastard from before embezzled so much it’s pocket change to me anyway. No need to feel burdened.”
“Understood. Thank you, my lord.”
“…”
After finishing, Aurora fixed her signature golden eyes on me intently. It was almost burdensome. It reminded me of the black-haired, golden-eyed Emperor.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just curious. What exactly are you that even the Emperor isn’t enough—you’ve got the Holy Kingdom’s Pope this interested too…? You’ve got a ton of secrets, sure.”
“If I knew, I’d have dodged it ages ago.”
The main story hadn’t progressed much, yet the Emperor and Pope were fixated on me. That was way outside expectations. I would’ve replanned from the start if I’d known.
Aurora smirked at my reply.
“Well, I’m hardly one to talk.”
“Huh?”
“Come back safe. Don’t go dying from some reckless stunt.”
With that, Aurora spun on her heel and sauntered back to the manor, hips swaying. The Knight Commanders all stared at me.
Their helmets hid expressions, but I could feel what they were.
“Finished with greetings?”
Only Selene acted like nothing happened, infusing faith into her sacred catalyst to prepare another teleport.
The Knight Commanders turned back to her. Lize lingered on me a moment longer before looking away.
“Seems so.”
“Understood. We’ll head to the Holy Kingdom now, but you have limits on teleport distance per cast. We’ll split into groups over several jumps with rest breaks in between. Any objections?”
“Anyone got something to say?”
No one spoke. Selene confirmed and raised the catalyst.
“Then we begin. This is much farther than before, so it might make you dizzy—brace yourselves.”
The clear bell rang again, silver moonlight wrapping us. Our bodies floated lightly, then we were sucked away.
Everything spun wildly. Not kidding about the dizziness. Sense of direction gone, no up or down. I couldn’t even tell if I was upright.
“We’ve arrived.”
Subjectively over 10 seconds of flailing later, Selene’s emotionless voice hit as my feet touched ground. I wobbled a bit before regaining balance.
I looked around. If I was just mildly dizzy, the Knight Commanders…
“Th-this… isn’t ‘slightly dizzy,’ is it?”
“Seems… so…”
“W-wait. My legs gave out…”
“…Same here, sis.”
But contrary to my guess, every Knight Commander trembled and staggered on the ground. I froze, dumbfounded.
“You’re less affected due to your sacred power. They lack it, so it hits them harder. It’s unrelated to physical toughness—they can’t help it.”
Selene had silently approached to explain. My pre-allocated Divine Power stat had kept me fine.
Not that I’d planned it.
“Inquisitor, how many more of these to reach the Pope…?”
Erika asked, raising her shaking hand.
“If same distance as before: eight.”
“…Ah.”
A faint wail echoed through the forest—no telling who.