Chapter 128 — Please Protect This Land (5)
Chapter 128 — Please Protect This Land (5)
So in Rayorun,
there was a story about a yokai named Fiora?
A short fragment without even an illustration.
Roan flipped through the pages before and after it,
but that was the entirety of the tale about the yokai called Fiora in this book.
"Fiora."
He gripped the hilt and called her name again,
but Fiora remained silent.
"Did you come from Rayorun?"
He waited a while for an answer, but she said nothing.
Could she not hear him, or was she ignoring him?
Roan closed the book and leaned back in his chair.
At this rate, all he was doing was adding to the list of questions he needed to ask the Goddess.
"I guess I really do have to ask her myself."
Even for me, diving alone into the middle of Merde felt a little unsettling.
It seemed the time had finally come to head to Merde's capital, Spros, and use a cheat key.
The main stage of Legend of the Holy Hero: Merde.
And Merde's capital, one of the continent's most dazzling cities: Spros.
Also the hometown of Grünent and Helen.
And, at the same time,
the place the Demon King should currently avoid above all others.
Roan gave a bitter smile.
"And my internal intimacy with them is so high, too..."
It had been a map implementation full of areas you couldn't visit,
but he had still dashed around everywhere to uncover the whole map.
Where to go to find a hidden beautiful barmaid,
what to smash to get a hidden gem.
He had scoured that place more thoroughly than his own neighborhood back home.
To think he now had to sneak in like this.
Half in troubled thought,
half in excitement, Roan recalled the moment the Hero had been greeted by her first manifestation.
**
「Message — How much will you donate?」
「1. 1 Silex
2. 1 Copper
3. 1 Silver」
"Ah, why do I only have exactly 3 Gold and 1 Copper...? Didn't I have any Silex change? Damn it. I don't wanna break a Gold..."
「Hero — 2. I will donate 1 Copper.」
「The priest looked me up and down with a disapproving eye and reluctantly clasped his hands together.」
「Priest — May the Goddess bless you.」
「Message — The Blessing of Goddess Laurecia (Minuscule) is applied.」
"That money-grubbing little bastard... tsk, tsk."
「In any case, there's no sign of Helen. Where did she go?」
「I head deeper into the Order's building.」
「Message — Would you like to speak with an NPC?」
「1. Knight Commander Matthias
2. High Priestess Lilina
3. Wealthy Donor 1
4. Walk past」
「Hero — 4. Walk past」
「A few Order officials eye me strangely, but when I say I'm looking for my party, they lose interest and dive back into their own conversations.」
「I pass the rear garden and arrive at a shabby place.」
「Hero — This place is....」
「The building looks old but cozy.
The window is too dark to see inside.」
「Flowers bloom here and there in a garden that doesn't seem particularly well-tended.」
「Message — Collect?」
"Why does it keep asking me to collect things... flowers... do they even have a use...?"
「Message — 'Unknown Flower' x1 collected」
「Message — 'Unknown Flower' x1 collected」
「Message — 'Unknown Flower' x1 collected」
「Message — 'Unknown Flower' x1 collected」
「Message — 'Unknown Flower' x1 collected」
「Message — 'Unknown Flower' Bouquet acquired」
"...What the. A bouquet? I can use this when I'm running Grünent's route."
「Helen — 'Cheol-i♡', were you here?」
「Hero — I was looking for you, Helen. I got lost wandering around.」
「Helen smiled.」
「Helen — This is the orphanage where I grew up.」
「Helen had approached before I knew it, her hands full with bundles.」
「Hero — What are those?」
「Helen — It's hard to eat your fill and wear clean clothes here... so whenever I visit the temple, I try to bring a gift.」
「Hero — Let me help you carry them in.」
「To take one of the large bundles Helen was holding, I set the bouquet in my hand down on a flat rock nearby.」
「Suddenly, there was a flash of light.」
"...? Huh? What's this? What's wrong with the screen?"
「Message — Goddess Laurecia, pleased by 'Cheol-i♡'s offering, graciously reveals her holy form in your dream.」
"Huuuh?? An offering? Whoa, wait, this is— oh, oh, ooooh!!! Did I just find a hidden quest!"
**
"It'd be nice if it worked that easily."
Roan tapped his fingers on the desk.
He had discovered that situation after already playing through the game several times.
He stopped by the temple now and again for blessing buffs,
but since Helen usually joined the party early on, you normally didn't accept the temple's low-efficiency blessing while they squeezed you for donations. You could just get it from Helen.
Later in the game, if you reached the point where you no longer cared about 1 Silver, you could drop Helen from the party and spam the temple's blessing as if to say "it's only 1 Silver."
Nobody chose the ambiguous, cheap 1 Copper blessing. Even if you donated 1 Silex, a coin smaller than 1 Copper, you got the same Blessing (Minuscule).
But that time, he'd had exactly 3 Gold and 1 Copper left in his inventory. He had just finished clearing Helen's route, so she wasn't yet providing blessings through proper party activity.
He had simply needed a blessing, and rather than break a Silver, he'd wanted to use the leftover 1 Copper to even out his currency, so he took the cheap 1 Copper blessing.
And the flowers blooming in that garden behind the temple only appeared during that one season: autumn.
Collecting was also something you could do with hundreds or thousands of plants out in the fields.
Usually, you gathered medicinal herbs; people clicked on those sorts of 'Unknown Flowers' a couple of times and then gave up.
On top of that, the 'Unknown Flowers' in the orphanage's front garden spawned randomly at 4 or 5 blossoms.
If 4 spawned, you couldn't make a bouquet.
Making a bouquet by spam-clicking had been pure luck.
In one run, after successfully clearing Helen's route during the Grünent rescue operation and returning to the temple right away,
he'd made a 1 Copper donation on his first temple visit and
succeeded in making a bouquet.
Then the dialogue about Helen and that orphanage appeared, and the Goddess event began.
"The main element is that rock where you place the offering... but there's no way to move it."
Later, when he posted that quest to the community, countless players began bringing all sorts of offerings to the orphanage.
Ultimately, the most effective thing was still those flowers you could only find on that one specific day, but—
the key item was the rock lying in the corner of the orphanage garden. It was an immovable object in the game, but here in reality, he might be able to lift and move it himself.
Of course, there was no guaranteeing it would still function if he did. 'Goddess's Advice,' once unlocked,
was a high-grade buff you could use multiple times throughout the late game if you kept making proper offerings.
It was particularly useful if you played a Holy Knight or Priest build.
"...Using it like a diplomacy tool or a curse-breaking item is pretty ridiculous, though..."
Roan killed a laugh under his breath.
Since the Goddess was a generous being, giving even someone like him a chance and speaking in Helen's dreams...
maybe it would be okay to ask her for a small favor.
"If I said I wouldn't fight the forest elves, she might say 'Good job' and tell us to get along."
Saying it out loud made it sound surprisingly plausible.
According to Helen, the Goddess had even called the demons her children...
If he could relay that to the forest elves, things would become infinitely simpler.
The disguise tool's operating time was three or four hours.
In order to enter the temple and trigger the event within that time,
he unfortunately couldn't tour every place in Spros he wanted to visit.
He was mulling over his route as if planning a day trip when the secretary knocked on his door.
"...Your Majesty. The lord of North White Territory requests an audience."
"Mm."
It seemed the Count had finished his research for the day.
In the end, Grünent did not come to see him until the sun hung low, ready to set.
'What in the world was she trying to do?'
The brilliant Grünent would surely handle things well enough, but he felt a bit of curiosity and a bit of worry.
Guided in by the secretary, the Count glanced around the unfamiliar office for a moment, then bowed his head deeply.
"You summoned me, Your Majesty?"
His voice was strangely more docile than before.
"How did things go today?"
"Ahaha, it isn't easy. Research is always a tedious process of repeating boring steps before a brilliant result emerges."
The Count scratched his head and swayed his tail.
Roan smiled faintly.
And inwardly, he steeled his resolve.
This decision was not easy for Roan either.
"What business did you have in mind for me?"
"There are two things to tell you."
"Yes."
After offering the Count a chair in the office and having him sit, Roan retrieved a few crystals from the room.
"Ah-ha, just what are you going to say that requires such an intimidating setup?"
"Hmm."
If he revealed this power,
the Count might come at him even more ferociously—the thought made him hesitate for a second.
Even so, Roan opened his mouth.
"First, there is something I must disclose to you, Count."
"What is it?"
"It's about my power."
"...!"
The Count's eyes went wide,
then narrowed as the corners of his eyes curved downward.
"...Trying to persuade me with words is futile. I still won't give up my right to experiment."
"Then you had better see for yourself."
Roan took a crystal out of the sealing box.
A crystal that had not yet received Roan's power at all,
the one that even appeared pitch-black to Roan.
The Count flinched at its mana-draining power and stepped back a little.
"Do not be alarmed."
By the time Roan had silently produced the crystal, the Count was already alarmed, and he opened his mouth to grumble in a playful tone.
That very moment.
'Blessing of the Stars' was cast.
"...Ehhhhhh?!!!"
Roan's warning had been utterly useless.
The Count gaped in astonishment, unable to tear his eyes from the crystal emitting a mysterious light.
The crystal was barely the size of a fingernail,
but the light it radiated under Roan's magic was bright enough to illuminate the sizable office.
He watched the subtle light, a mixture of blue and purple, shimmer brilliantly.
The Count's tail puffed up to its full extent.
"Th-this— isn't this different from Helen's blessing?! What in the world is this magic? Is this... Your Majesty's power?!"
"Yes."
"Your Majesty, don't tell me you can use divine magic?!"
The Count's eyes were wide as he threw the question, manners be damned.
Roan nodded.
"...You could... see it that way."
"No, how can a demon use divine magic...? Perhaps Your Majesty isn't a demon— ah, no. You're saying this is divine magic? It isn't, though. The reaction is different from Helen's magic. Why?"
The Count had fallen into a panic.
In his unfocused eyes, madness gleamed.
His gaze was fixed on him, but what he truly saw was not Roan himself but something else.
His voice began to fade as he muttered increasingly incomprehensible words.
"Mana and holy power cannot coexist... If that's the case, does it mean the theory that the demon coefficient values differ from humans is wrong? There was something similar in Vinoken's theory, which chapter was that...?"
"...Count."
"Was it the end of Chapter 3? The experimental formula he wrote back then was definitely..."
"Count."
When Roan touched his shoulder,
the Count lifted his head with a jolt, as if waking from a dream, and looked at Roan.
"I cannot explain it in detail. I obtained this power by chance, and it is difficult to explain what principle it operates on. But I've been told this power is a little different from the holy power human priests use."
"Yes...! The density of the power, the amount of power employed, it is clearly distinct! How in the world did you..."
"What matters is that I changed this crystal."
"...Huh?"
Only then did the Count look at the crystal still held in Roan's hand.
And only then did he realize.
The color of the crystal was a color
the Count had never seen before.
"Ehhhhhh?!"
The Count shot to his feet.
The chair he had been sitting on clattered noisily as it toppled backward,
but neither the emperor nor the Count paid it any mind.
The Count's hand trembled violently as he pointed at the crystal.
"H-how did this— this color...?"
"I... seem to have a knack for it."
"Uh, uhhhh..."
The Count could form no more words and slumped to the ground, clutching his head in both hands.
He looked like he was suffering from vertigo, so Roan stepped closer to check his condition.
"...Count. Are you all right...?"
"Your Majesty! I really must experiment on you, after all!!!"
"What?"
The Count seized the emperor's shoulders.
The instant Roan shot back a question, a deep furrow forming between his brows—
the office door suddenly burst open.
"My lord! I will sell that experimental right for you!"
"I'll buy it!"
Hey.