Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Sisters' Tearful Reunion
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“…….”
Hearing the clattering crash of the items tumbling from my arms, the popes halted what they were doing and turned toward me. They froze solid in the exact pose they'd been in upon seeing me.
The area around us was an absolute disaster. Where the building leading underground had once stood, there was now a gaping pit several times the height of a person. Heaps of dug-up earth were piled around it like mountains, as a bonus.
Floretta's face was streaked with tears. The tip of her nose was bright red, and shimmering droplets fell from her emerald eyes. Occasional sniffles echoed as she swallowed back sobs.
The reunion with the sister she'd longed for so desperately had finally happened, yet the tears Floretta shed were not of joy, but of sorrow.
In stark contrast, Luna looked utterly drained, as if she might collapse at any moment. Her face was deathly pale as she clutched her little sister's hand, trembling uncontrollably.
“Honored Guest! You arrived just in time!”
“We need your help, Honored Guest.”
Stella and Selene, who had been floundering in panic beside the popes, lit up the moment they saw me and rushed to my side in an instant.
The two of them each grabbed one of my hands. Then they started dragging me toward the popes. I was utterly bewildered. What the hell was going on here?
I'd returned to the surface in high spirits, so why was the Pope of the Sun wailing like that, and why did the Pope of the Moon look like she'd lost all will to live, staring blankly into space?
Regardless of my confusion, Stella and Selene hauled me right up to the popes with desperate urgency. Floretta swallowed a sob.
Her tear-soaked emerald eyes and Luna's lifeless violet ones fixed solely on me. I held back a sigh that threatened to escape and opened my mouth.
“What in the world happened, Your Holiness?”
“Hic… Honored… Guest… You're… alive…?”
“If I showed up alive, does that mean I came back dead somehow? I'm perfectly fine and breathing. What on earth is going on with you? What's this situation?”
“I… Hic… I….”
The moment Floretta heard my voice, fresh waves of grief seemed to surge, and tears streamed down her face anew. She tried to speak several times, but each attempt dissolved into sniffles, preventing her from getting the words out.
I turned to Luna, hoping she'd calm her sister down a bit. But the Pope of the Moon was lost in her own daze, unable to snap out of it.
Looks like I'd have to step in myself.
I reached out and gently wiped under Floretta's eyes with my thumb. Tears smeared onto my finger, the clear liquid trickling down to the back of my hand.
“Why are you crying? I'm right here. You can stop the tears now.”
The tears kept flowing. I wiped under her eyes so much that I worried her skin might chafe, but no matter how many times I stroked, there was no sign of it.
Floretta wept like that for a good while longer. Only after my hands were thoroughly soaked did the sniffling finally subside a little. She was still hiccuping away, though.
“Are you a bit calmer now?”
Floretta nodded faintly. Her cheeks flushed slightly, as if embarrassed by her outburst right in front of me.
“Then let me ask again. Your Holiness. What exactly happened?”
“We thought… you died… with that monster… Sob….”
“Died? Me?”
Nod, nod. Floretta nodded again in lieu of words.
“May I ask why you thought I died? Because I took too long?”
“That too, but… we heard an explosion… from underground… so….”
Her usual calm, benevolent tone was gone, replaced by choked sobs that broke her words apart. I only caught about half of it, but I could roughly piece together the reason.
To sum it up, it was due to the special death animation of the forsaken creation. She'd heard the explosion when its body burst.
'Whoa, that sound reached all the way up here?'
I'd figured it only echoed a bit in the boss room.
The situation clicked into place in my mind. Floretta must have been waiting here for me to come up when she heard the blast.
After the explosion, hours passed with no sign of me, so her imagination had spiraled into the worst-case scenario.
In reality, it was just a special death effect, but she had no way of knowing that. Plenty of room for misunderstanding.
Thanks to the mysterious power that kicked in midway, it had only taken about an hour—maybe less—to dispatch the forsaken creation.
Yet here I was, freeing the popes from the curse in that time, only to vanish for several times longer without a trace.
And with a massive explosion audible from the monster's lair all the way here, it was the perfect setup to think something had gone wrong.
'…I thought nothing would happen if I was just a little late.'
Who would've guessed. Good thing I hadn't dawdled because I hated sticking around that place any longer. If I'd been even later, things could've gone completely sideways.
“It's fine, Your Holiness. See? I didn't die. I'm back safe and sound.”
“Yes… Y-You're right. Sniff. You came back alive.”
I gently wiped the fresh tears forming in Floretta's eyes, then turned to Luna. She sat staring blankly at me until our eyes met, at which point she flinched.
“Pope of the Moon, Your Holiness.”
“…Yes. I'm listening.”
“I kept my promise.”
There was no need to boast about my feats or spin a long explanation. Those four words conveyed everything.
I'd promised the Pope of the Moon that she wouldn't have to sacrifice herself anymore—that no such sacrifice would ever be necessary. And I'd fulfilled that promise to the letter.
No one had to die now. That was the entirety of what I needed to say.
The Pope of the Moon bowed her head and stayed like that for a long while before finally speaking in a subdued, choked voice, her shoulders shaking intermittently.
“Thank… you… Truly….”
Sniffles punctuated her words as she desperately held back tears. I gave Floretta's eyes one last wipe and stood up.
Floretta startled and looked up as I rose. I chuckled and said,
“You've confirmed I'm perfectly fine, so isn't it time to do what you need to?”
I flicked my gaze toward Luna. She cautiously lifted her head. Her violet eyes darted between me, gradually receding, and her sniffling sister.
Right after I surfaced, they'd been too caught up—one sobbing, the other zoning out in each other's arms—to even properly greet one another.
Once I confirmed the Pope of the Moon and the Pope of the Sun gazing at each other through tear-filled eyes, I stepped back to a suitable distance. Stella and Selene flanked me on either side.
“Couldn't you have come just a little sooner, Honored Guest?”
Her tone bordered on petulance. From their perspective, it must've been a nightmare. With the popes mourning my death, they had no clever way to console them.
“As you can see, I had a lot of baggage. Took a while to gather it all.”
I pointed to the pile of items I'd dumped behind me. Selene asked in a slightly daunted voice,
“…What are all those?”
“Stuff from underground. No idea if that monster had a hobby of hoarding treasure, but there was a decent amount anyway. Couldn't just leave it.”
“I see, Honored Guest. Understood. We'll prepare an extra carriage.”
“No need. Really.”
“Pardon? Then how will you carry them?”
“I don't need them.”
“Wait, Honored Guest. What do you mean—”
Stella and Selene's eyes went wide in shock. As Stella opened her mouth to question it, I raised my right index finger vertically to my lips in a hush gesture.
Catching on to why, they both clamped their mouths shut and looked ahead. Floretta and Luna clasped hands, gazing at each other.
“…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Evangeline. For the harsh words, for hitting you, for everything… just… I'm sorry for it all… Everything….”
Tears finally burst from Luna's eyes too. Floretta gripped her hand tightly and shook her head firmly.
“No. I know why you did it. You wanted us to hate you, so we'd grieve less if you had to sacrifice yourself, right? What do you have to be sorry for….”
Unable to continue, the popes just wept, then threw their arms around each other in a flood of tears.
Their nearly exposed breasts pressed together at the center. Both pairs compressed slightly, changing shape as they squished outward to the sides.
Flesh mingled with flesh, breasts rubbed against breasts. The translucent fabric barely covering their pink tips shifted aside, brazenly displaying the symbols of abundant motherhood.
Tears streaming from emerald and violet eyes smeared across cheeks with every rub, growing sticky. A few droplets trickled down, pooling at their chins before falling onto their bosoms.
The clear liquid settled between the massive fatty mounds. Slick now, their pressed-together breasts began gliding even more smoothly.
Arms wrapped tightly around each other naturally met at their backs, slender fingers splaying to caress the bare skin beneath the sheerest of see-through fabric.
Their other hands intertwined in a clasp. Fingers locked as if vowing never to let go. Nails dug into the backs of hands, but that only tightened their grip further.
I heard Stella sniffle beside me. Selene looked misty-eyed too.
Having witnessed the popes' suffering up close, they must've been overwhelmed at the thought that it was finally over.
As for me, watching the popes' reunion…
*'Don't react now, you perv. Think pure thoughts. Pure thoughts. Pure thoughts. Pure thoughts. Pure thoughts.'*
I desperately tried to find somewhere else to look.
It should have been a touching sisters' reunion, but their outfits and the way they moved together just screamed erotic. Even knowing it was an unavoidable male instinct, I felt a twinge of self-loathing.
The popes continued like that for a good long while, rubbing tear-streaked cheeks together and pressing their breasts as they shared the joy of reunion.
My own inner turmoil dragged on just as long.