Saintess Silvia Sunshine (2)
“How did you get here?”
It was the third day since arriving in Hollidral. Yesterday, I'd played to my heart's content without a care in the world, and only now had I come to the temple.
“I'm here to see the Saintess.”
“So you've come for an audience with the Saintess. You do know the audience fee has gone up recently, right?”
I was surprised by the guard at the entrance, but I wasn't worried. I'd known there was an audience fee, and since it had been two years, I'd brought a bit extra just in case it had increased.
“Wasn't it 1 gold?”
“It was 1 gold. It's been about half a month since the hike—it's been 5 gold ever since.”
5 gold. Considering that a commoner's monthly living expenses were usually around 500 silver—half a gold—that was an insane price. Whoever this Saintess was, her greed was probably written all over her face. A Saintess who didn't even pray for people, too busy stuffing her own pockets. It was enough to make me pity Lai for having to keep such a creature alive for the sake of the continent.
“There's no way Silvia would do this...? That pure little girl from two years ago, why...?”
I could feel Lai's shock just from seeing her spaced-out expression after our talk with the guard.
“Must be that the taste of power is just that sweet.”
“The Saintess is like a symbol to humans, after all.”
“She's just a kid who doesn't even know what power is... Maybe something happened?”
“What are you asking us for? Let's figure out a way first. We don't even have 5 gold.”
As we stepped away from the temple entrance and thought about our situation, I let out a massive sigh. When we'd left Lai's cave, we'd only packed the bare minimum for expenses. Truth be told, that was an excuse—we'd pretty much cleaned out the cave, but it only came to a little over 2 gold, so that's all we took. I remembered nagging Lai about how she'd spent 500 years with so little money. At least we had some spending cash right away, I'd thought.
“What now? We need to meet the Saintess to kidnap her or shake her down for info.”
“If the Saintess were a guy, I could do something about it. This is frustrating.”
I'd told Alicia Sien the truth—about the Curse of the Forgotten God that Lai had explained to me while giving her some space. It didn't feel right to hide from a fellow party member why demons like us needed to visit a temple or meet the Saintess.
“Lord Cluster, if it's something only the gods know... how does Lai know about it?”
“She found it in an old abandoned dungeon of the church. Seems like she picked up a lot of knowledge there.”
“A nun with unclear origins who can't even heal properly... She gives off a shady vibe.”
“That girl's such an idiot she was offered up as a sacrifice. And her name's Lai, to boot.”
“Ah...! Lai. Got it.”
“And call her a priestess. She gets sulky if you say nun. It's exhausting.”
Of course, I'd hidden Lai's true identity. The cave I'd been in turned out to be an old abandoned church dungeon, and Lai was a priestess who'd been offered as a sacrifice there. The obvious story was that I'd saved her after she'd survived over two years in there, and now she followed me around to repay the favor. That setup gave legitimacy to a priestess and the Demon King being friends.
“Silvia...”
“If she even steps outside, I'd grab her by the hair and drag her off.”
“The Saintess wouldn't go out alone, though. How about grabbing my tail instead? I told you before, right? A succubus's tail is her weak spot.♡”
This party of mine couldn't even have a serious meeting. One was spaced out and quiet for once—instead of her usual noisy otaku self—and the other seemed reliable enough until her succubus nature kicked in with some random heat out of nowhere. The innkeeper who'd eyed me enviously last night for sharing a room with these two should see this.
“Alicia, mind scouting the temple for an opening? Sorry.”
“Sorry? It's only natural for your servant to obey orders... Hng♡ Wh-what, suddenly yanking my tail like thaaat♡”
I hadn't wanted to play along since it felt iffy, but with nothing else to do right now, I tugged her tail. She went into full-blown ecstasy and slipped out the window. I worried she might get caught, but as a high demon, she'd handle it.
“Silvia...”
Snap!
“Oh, nice ripe watermelon.”
It was nice and quiet, but with our most crucial member zoned out, nothing was progressing. So I gave her a light flick on the forehead to snap her out of it.
“Ow!”
“Get it together. Let's think of a way to meet that Silvia whatever first. Once we do, we can beat some sense into her.”
“That little kid doesn't even have a spot to hit...”
Even a greedy, worldly Saintess was wrapped in love as “her person.” Guess this otaku really was a goddess.
“No ideas? Like, issue a divine oracle or something? You're cosplaying as a priestess anyway—maybe meet inside the temple.”
“Cos? You mean corn soup?”
“...Never mind. No ideas at all? You appointed her Saintess—maybe say you're here to check on her?”
“Like I said before, I can't even hear Silvia's prayers... Even as a goddess, I have to respect privacy, so I put a self-imposed restriction blocking me from seeing her...”
“What if you lift the restriction just for a bit?”
“That's the thing... I'm scared I'd just lift it whenever I wanted to peek. It's a restriction sworn on my very existence—if I break it, I'd get banished to the divine realm.”
You sweet, sweet otaku goddess...
“What about going in as a priestess? Slip in naturally in your robes.”
“I asked the guard earlier, but since I don't belong to a temple, my identity isn't verified. No meeting the Saintess...”
You overly nice otaku goddess...
I had to meet the Saintess to get back to my original world. Our money situation... mostly blown on Lai's snacks, less than 2 gold left. Earning more would take months. The temple made it hard to meet her unless you had guaranteed status—for her protection, probably. Did I really have to risk my life breaking in and dragging her out?
“That's it! Relief activities!”
As I pondered ransacking the temple, a dopey voice piped up beside me.
“Relief activities? Put on a nun outfit and suddenly love's bubbling up in your heart? That into volunteering?”
“Nooo! That's not it! I think we can meet Silvia soon. And it's priestess robes!”
The temple had periodic relief activities centered on the Saintess—once a month, usually.
“Then we can catch her then? When do they do these relief things?”
“Schedule changes a lot, so I don't know exactly, but probably soon?”
“I don't think so.”
“Alicia?”
Alicia slipped back in through the window mid-explanation of the relief activities.
“Here. Take a look.”
The paper she handed us said the Saintess would be excluded from upcoming relief activities.
“The Saintess's health is poor...? You don't think...”
“Is the Curse of the Forgotten God Lord Cluster mentioned already starting to activate?”
I glanced at Lai at the mention of the Saintess's health. Alicia's gaze naturally followed. She knew Lai was the source of info on the curse and the Saintess's life tying to the continent, so it was a given.
“Did Silvia catch a cold or something? Then we'd have to wait another month...”
“......”
“......”
Alicia and I both looked away from Lai at the same time and met each other's eyes.
Hey, you too?
Yeah, me too.
We both shook our heads at Lai, who was muttering sharply but failing to connect the curse to the Saintess's health.
“Seduce the Pope...”
“Silvia's the type to tough out a cold...”
“O-of course, my body belongs to Lord Cluster, but...”
Three grown adults crammed in a tiny room barely big enough to stretch our legs, racking our brains over a problem with no answers—it was giving me a headache. And these two weren't helping with their nonsense.
“I'm gonna go clear my head.”
“Lord Cluster, take me with you!”
“You're going to eat something tasty alone, aren't you!”
“Nah. Wanna sort my thoughts solo. You two have fun.”
I shook off the clinging Lai and Alicia and headed to the central fountain square along the darkening streets of Hollidral. Too close to the fountain and the vendors swarmed you, so I took a bench a bit away. The faint music from a distant bard actually calmed me down.
Alicia seducing the Pope to get close was a solid idea in theory. But the Pope was the Pope for a reason. Even as a high demon who'd broken the succubus mold, Alicia couldn't get past the elite holy knights guarding him. This was the Gaia Empire, called the Holy Empire, where the Pope was basically the emperor. No way a single high demon pierced that security. She knew it too—just frustrated talk. As if Lai wouldn't know.
“My head's gonna split.”
“Mister, does your head hurt?”
A little kid in white clothes, lugging a backpack as big as herself, plopped down next to me with a cheerful oof! while I stared blankly at the moon.
“I can make it not hurt!”