Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: The Saintess's Forbidden Craving
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The Illusion Magic Circle was displaying a temple of the Goddess Church.
It was a prayer room primarily used by priests, saintesses, and holy knights when offering prayers.
In the prayer room, where sacred sunlight poured through the long, narrow windows and even the high ceiling contributed to the atmosphere, a distinctive air of solemnity hung in the air.
‘It doesn’t seem to be the Central Temple.’
The scale was too small to be the Central Temple in the empire’s capital.
I had visited the Central Temple myself once.
The massive temple, comparable to the Sun Palace in grandeur, possessed prayer rooms several times—no, dozens of times—larger than the one I was currently in.
I approached the saintess, who stood in the center of such a prayer room, admiring her surroundings.
This unfamiliar prayer room I didn’t recognize was probably a scene from the saintess’s memories.
‘This illusion wasn’t designed by me to fulfill some desire. It activated to test whether the saintess’s Divine Word works even within illusion magic.’
Unlike my usual designs and setups, the magic circle was structuring itself based on the saintess’s memories.
‘But could the magic circle implement something this perfectly on its own?’
Magic circles I didn’t personally design always had holes, showing flaws somewhere.
They either failed to construct the illusion perfectly, consumed an insane amount of mana, or crashed midway with errors.
Bugs were the norm, yet the illusion unfolding now had a higher level of completion than anything the magic circle had produced solo before.
‘Could it be because of that?’
I recalled the new golden pattern engraved on the magic circle before we entered.
A golden shadow and a golden lily etched between the runes of the magic circle.
It was clearly a new pattern inscribed by the saintess’s Divine Power, and it seemed to enhance the existing magic circle’s performance.
I’d need some hands-on experience to gauge its capabilities fully.
Finishing my thoughts, I approached the saintess.
“......”
“Where is this place?”
“......Ah.”
She was so entranced by the prayer room that she hadn’t even noticed me approaching.
Startled by my voice, she flinched, then looked up at me quietly.
She still seemed wary of her own power, the Divine Word.
“...This is where I first proved myself as a saintess.”
“It’s like a hometown for you.”
“...Yes. A church I can never return to now. For a saintess who must receive constant revelations and act accordingly, such indulgences aren’t allowed.”
Was it because she was seeing a church like her long-lost hometown?
The saintess’s eyes sparkled.
After taking a moment to soak in the nostalgia while gazing around the prayer room, she spoke.
“I don’t know why this prayer room appeared before me.”
The magic circle had shown her the place where she first became a saintess because it was the space she longed for most.
[I want to talk normally, like everyone else.]
[How long do I have to live alone, oppressed by this power?]
I recalled the saintess’s thoughts that had flowed from the magic circle.
“It’s probably because this space reflects Your Holiness’s desires.”
“...My desires?”
“This Illusion Magic Circle is like that. It’s a mirror that reflects the user’s desires.”
The magic circle was fulfilling its role of revealing desires perfectly.
‘Did exposure to Divine Power cause the magic circle to version up?’
Not bad at all.
“...Desires...?”
“Yes. Our Hall of Illusions sells a service that draws out the user’s desires to their extremes.”
She lowered her head, lost in thought for a moment.
“Th-then... could I avoid using Divine Word for desires too?”
I hadn’t expected her to bring it up first.
It showed just how heavily the burden of Divine Word weighed on her inner self.
“Of course. Within illusion magic that distorts everything, no power manifests properly, no matter how strong. The mana gets twisted, preventing the power from activating.”
“...Divine Power too?”
“Divine Power isn’t 100% guaranteed. You’re the first saintess to try it. Even if Divine Word activates, the illusion just shatters, and we return to reality—no harm done.”
“...I see.”
The saintess looked at me.
“Th-then... I can try it, right?”
“Feel free.”
“Hoo...”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in and out, then fixed her golden pupils on me, flashing brightly.
-Kneel.
......
She put force into her voice, but nothing happened.
-Run away.
-Stop.
-Raise your weapon.
-Tell me the truth.
From simple Divine Words that compelled action.
-Spell interference.
-Defense.
-Prayer to the God.
To Divine Words that activated Divine spells.
She uttered various Divine Words aloud, but none activated properly.
Each time she spoke one, I felt a faint vibration.
‘The distortion engraved in the magic circle is preventing Divine Word from activating at all.’
The subtle vibration, barely perceptible unless focusing, was likely the backlash from the magic circle’s distortion activating.
Honestly, I hadn’t imagined it could truly block the Divine Word of a saintess who had even subjugated the Demon King.
My magic circle was this powerful?
The Meisters always said one thing.
-The way to break a magic circle is to disrupt it with overwhelming force.
Conventional wisdom held that no magic circle, no matter how strong, could withstand being crushed by force beyond its limits.
However, illusion magic displayed illusions, not reality.
Events within the magic circle were illusions, so real-world influences didn’t apply properly—a fact that now blocked even the ‘saintess’s’ power.
‘Perfect.’
A smile crept onto my face at the realization that my magic circle could block even the saintess’s Divine Word.
This was it.
This was technological progress, wasn’t it?
‘Am I a genius after all?’
Max, you crazy bastard—why don’t the other schools recruit a guy like me?
Ah, right, I didn’t go.
“I-it really didn’t activate.”
The saintess, who had been uttering Divine Words across from me, widened her eyes.
Tears began welling up in the corners of her wide-open eyes.
“I-it’s real! Finally, I can escape the suffocating Divine Word the Goddess gave me...”
If a devout follower of the Goddess Church heard her, they’d faint from shock.
The saintess’s power was no different from a blessing from the Goddess.
It was proof of the Goddess’s existence, alongside the Divine Power called a god’s blessing.
If word got out that the Silent Saintess—who had subjugated the Demon King, no less—cursed her own ability, Divine Word...
‘It’d cause an uproar.’
I got it, though.
Even if it was a blessing from the Goddess, if that power prevented her from expressing her own will properly.
If it restricted her daily life that much, I’d want to curse it too.
“You seem happy.”
“Of course! I’ve always wanted to speak like this. I wanted to talk like normal people. They said this power would be reclaimed after I drove out the Demon King, but there was no word. Do you know how long I’ve waited for a moment like this where I could just chatter away...”
The saintess chattered excitedly.
Her vibrant energy made me question if this was the same person who’d only made mosquito-like noises until now.
“I did every mission the Goddess gave me just to somehow shed this power. I thought maybe it’d return me to normal someday. Honestly, I even wondered if it was a curse from the Goddess.”
“Was that why you came to our shop?”
“Yes. I couldn’t ignore the Goddess’s revelation.”
“The Goddess must have felt like a devil.”
“Not quite. Thanks to it, I’m treated this well. It was just a bit stifling.”
As expected of a saintess.
She didn’t voice any resentment toward the Goddess.
“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, I’d never have felt this way. Oh, come to think of it, I still don’t know your name. What’s your name, Brother?”
“Max.”
“Brother Max. I’m Eirin.”
“Is it okay to reveal a saintess’s name so casually?”
“What’s wrong with that? My saintess powers aren’t active right now anyway.”
Eirin let out a faint sigh.
“Freedom feels good.”
I’d gathered enough data.
Proof that once inside the magic circle and immersed in the illusion, even the saintess’s Divine Word could be blocked.
‘Data collected—time to wrap this up. Can’t show her the next part.’
This Illusion Magic Circle had the power to reveal a person’s ‘desires.’
People had many desires, but most shown by my magic circle led to ‘sexual desire.’
That was the intent from the start.
It hadn’t been long since activation, so it hadn’t fully savored her yet.
‘Soon enough, some incident will unfold based on the saintess’s desires.’
Even for an open-minded guy like me, showing a saintess porn via illusion magic was out of the question.
The very person suspected of being a devil couldn’t show her something taboo in the Goddess Church.
If I showed the wrong thing...
‘Blasphemy—they’d brand me a heretic on the spot.’
This wasn’t part of my plan up to here.
Since it started as a test, I’d end it accordingly.
I spoke to the saintess reveling in her liberation.
“Time to head back.”
“Huh?”
“We need to return to reality. The test is done.”
“N-no! I don’t want to go back.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know how long it’s been since I talked to someone like this? Ten years! Not once since becoming a saintess.”
“W-well... I understand how you feel, but...”
This is tricky.
“Let’s exit first, refurbish the magic circle, and come back in.”
“No. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to live anxiously wondering when I’ll activate Divine Word, having fake conversations with people. Always communicating only through priests...”
“I get it, but we have to leave. So, even if by force...”
That was when it happened.
Boom!
The church shook violently.
“What?”
[Saintess Eirin's Desire: I don't want to leave.]
[Applying desire.]
I’d set it initially to apply the saintess’s desires for the test.
Was it because the desire was so intense?
The magic circle rejected my control to end the scene.
This was a first.
‘Is this because of the Divine Power inscribed in the magic circle too?’
Improvement was good, but it acting uppity was annoying.
“I’m not going back. So don’t tell me what to do.”
Damn, what now?
The service phase was about to start soon.
That was when it happened.
[Calculating user Eirin's sexual desire.]
[Applying desire.]
A message from the magic circle appeared.
“Huh?”
My libido started rising steadily.
“......Huh?”
The saintess looking at me began to flush too.
My vision only cleared after her head had grown two sizes larger, letting me realize my own arousal.
Two horns sprouting from her head and skin tanned to a deeper bronze than usual.
And then.
[Saintess Eirin's Desire: I want to be blasphemed by a devil.]
Hold on, Saintess.
“You had tastes like this?”