Chapter 796: Strengthening Period
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 796: Strengthening Period
“You spoke with the Pope through communication magic, right?”
“Hm? Yes. Of course.”
“Then how about this? Let’s take today off and go see her in person at the Holy See. You might feel a little more at ease after seeing her face-to-face, don’t you think? We can get there with a teleportation circle, right? I’ll go with you.”
There wasn’t much I could say in a situation like this.
My usual trick of lightening the mood with a joke wouldn’t be appropriate here.
So, after racking my brain, that was the suggestion I offered Matilda.
“You… No. It’s all right. I’d hate to be a bother over something like this.”
But Matilda flatly rejected my offer.
Still, seeing the faint smile on her lips, she seemed to be in a better mood than before.
“No, I don’t think it’s ‘something like this.’ And if she’s your grandmother, that makes her my grandmother-in-law.”
“No, really, it’s fine. My grandmother would want me to focus on breaking my curse as quickly as possible. And I also…”
As she spoke, Matilda’s cheeks flushed a soft pink.
And though she wasn’t in full pink mode yet, she kept glancing my way with eyes that were clearly heading in that direction.
This… I can take this a certain way, right? I’m not misunderstanding, am I?
“Should we? Right now.”
“What? We can’t. That’s not…”
Not yet in pink mode, Matilda spoke like the proper Cardinal she was, even making a slight gesture to pull away. But judging by her voice and her actions, her resistance was practically nonexistent.
“Why not?”
“Why not…? Well, because…”
I tightened the arm I had around Matilda’s shoulder, pulling her body against mine. With our bodies pressed tightly together, I stared directly into her eyes and asked my question.
As we faced each other, Matilda’s eyes began to glaze over in a dreamy haze.
The moment her hands came to rest gently on my chest, I pushed her back onto the bed.
“Nngh…?”
Just as Matilda and I landed on the bed in an embrace, a cute voice that wasn’t ours sounded from right beside us.
I turned my head toward the sound and my eyes met Silvia’s, who had been lying in the bed.
Ah, I’d forgotten for a second.
The thought flashed through my mind, but it was already too late.
“G-good morning?”
“……Hauuuh…”
Silvia, still groggy from sleep, stared at me with a blank expression, seemingly unable to process my awkward greeting or what was happening. Then, with a sound like a final gulp, her head lolled to the side and her eyes closed.
“No! Hey! How can you just faint again?!”
I shouted in a panic, but of course, Silvia didn’t open her eyes.
Seriously, aren’t you a little too dedicated to your character archetype?
“My daaarling… If you don’t look at me, I won’t like it.”
And there was one more person here who was firmly in character.
“What?! Hey, wait! Silvia is right next to… Mmph?!”
Th-this girl?! She actually kissed me?!
Hey! Look at the situation! Read the room!
You can control your pink mode, can’t you?! You’re usually so good at it, so why now of all times… Hey, wait! Seriously, no! It’s… It’s getting hard! If you touch it there, it’ll really get hard!
Why the hell are your skills so good when you’re not even a Gumiho or a Succubus?!
Honestly, the clergy in this world…!
No, wait. If you think about it, I’m their prime representative!
No matter how aroused I was, I couldn’t do that first thing in the morning right next to Silvia.
After a long struggle, I finally managed to push Matilda off me.
Damn that Matilda. Once she enters pink mode, it’s incredibly difficult to calm her down.
In the past, I could snap her out of it by being rough, but I couldn’t do that anymore.
This was making me dread today’s hunt. …Nothing bad will happen, right?
Anyway, after calming Matilda down, I ordered room service. As we were eating our later-than-usual breakfast, the smell must have woken Silvia, because she naturally opened her eyes.
After finally managing to send a mortified Silvia on her way—she was ready to die of embarrassment over last night’s events—we were at last ready to begin the day’s hunt.
“It seems Silvia’s fears became a reality after all.”
But just as we were about to leave the village, Matilda brought it up again.
“Hm? Oh, yeah. That? Well, I guess so.”
She’d been trembling when I saw her yesterday morning, so she must have been on edge even before leaving the mansion to come here.
It wasn’t strange at all that Matilda knew what Silvia had been afraid of.
I nodded nonchalantly, but Matilda just stared at me with a look of pity.
Why are you looking at me like that? It was a night for just the two of us, so we could do whatever we wanted!
“…What’s with that stance?”
But it seemed that wasn’t the reason for her expression.
“Oh. We’re about to start hunting. I thought it’d be good to be careful.”
Realizing I had reflexively adopted a guarded stance, I straightened up with an embarrassed look and replied.
“You know… Even for me…”
“You’re confident you won’t go into pink mode this time?”
“…I’m not.”
I’d asked with a sliver of hope, but the answer was just what I’d expected.
“You’re not?!”
“I-I can’t help it! It’s because of the curse!” Matilda shouted, her cheeks flushing slightly at my retort.
Yeah, I get that! But could you at least give me a reassuring answer!
Maintaining a slightly guarded posture, I decided to think about today’s hunt before we left the village.
Alright, how should we approach combat today?
Matilda’s basic role in our party is to guard the rear, but strictly speaking, her job class is similar to Silvia’s.
She’s only in the back because of my stubborn insistence on our party’s safety and my abnormally high ability to draw aggro. In a normal party composition, Silvia and Matilda would be on the front lines.
I would be right behind them as a close-range dealer, with the other three providing support from the rear.
So, there would be no problem fighting in a similar way to how I did with Silvia yesterday, but another thought occurred to me.
Could this be a golden opportunity to raise Matilda’s skill levels?
I get stronger quickly, descend to the lower layers quickly, and have Matilda actively participate in battles to raise her skill levels. That way, she can learn Goddess Advent as soon as possible.
That was the original plan, but it felt like a waste to just throw away an opportunity like today.
“Wh-what is it? Are you trying to seduce me as a test?”
As I stared intently at Matilda’s face, lost in thought, she seemed to be desperately trying to restrain herself, growing more and more restless.
“No, so don’t go falling for me all over again just because I look cool while I’m thinking.”
“Wh-who said! I…! Ugh! I can’t help it! You’re so handsome! Everything about you… you’re… Aah.”
Hey. I said something that arrogant and you’re not even going to call me out on it?
Well, fine. I don’t care if you don’t retort, just hang in there a little longer. Contrary to your earlier lack of confidence, you’re holding out surprisingly well. Just hold on like that for a bit more.
Leaving Matilda to suffer in her inner turmoil, I opened her skill window to check her abilities.
High Priest’s… ah, no. I need to find Holy Knight’s Faith.
Since Matilda had switched jobs back and forth, her High Priest and Holy Knight skills were all mixed up, so it took a little time. But eventually, I found the skill called Holy Knight’s Faith.
The skill level was… 93.
Unlike her High Priest’s Faith, which had been quite low, her Holy Knight’s Faith was at a very high level.
Well, that made sense. She only became a High Priest after being cursed and unable to go outside. She said she had been a Holy Knight for a long time before that.
What the. Then she’s really not far from the max level, is she?
Does that mean she’ll be able to use Goddess Advent soon?
No, it’s true that leveling gets harder the closer you get to the max, and she might not be able to max it out on this layer.
Alright. Still, let’s see how far we can get.
“Matilda. Your role today is healer.”
“…Yes. What?”
Matilda, who had been wrestling with her inner demons, looked at me as if I’d just said something completely out of the blue.
“I mean, you can use healing skills, can’t you?”
I had just checked her skill window and confirmed she had proper healing skills.
“Of course I can, but…”
“It’s fine. Even if it’s a little less efficient.”
The goal, after all, was to raise the level of her Holy Knight’s Faith skill.
Frankly, the fastest way to do that would be to have Matilda actively participate in combat, but that would slow my own growth, which would be putting the cart before the horse.
Of course, I wanted to have the Goddess descend again as soon as possible to find out the real reason she sent me here, but I had to make a decision that looked toward the future.
With that decided, I set out to hunt with Matilda assigned to the healer role.
My own combat style, of course, would be the same as yesterday: using only the skills of the Moon Shadow Warrior.
However, Shadow Movement was sealed.
I know, I’m disappointed too, but it can’t be helped. Right now, Shadow Movement is a skill better used for evasion than for ambushes.
Since I’d assigned Matilda as the healer, I had to get hit a reasonable amount during combat, which meant I had no choice but to seal all my evasive skills.
As someone who always prioritized style over efficiency when I played games, sealing this cool skill was definitely not what I wanted to do.
“Haah… Haaah…”
As I fought, taking hits moderately and having Matilda heal me each time, her breathing grew progressively heavier.
Should I have summoned an air spirit to talk to her instead of pressing our masks together, even if it wasted a little mana?
Or was the problem that I’d allowed her to use touch-based healing magic when she said she wanted to conserve her divine power?
No, but Matilda must have seen Leia heal that way every time. It would have been a little weird to refuse only her.
“Hey. Calm down. Calm down, I said. We’re in the dungeon, okay? A dungeon! It’s just the two of us here! If you go into pink mode now…”
“Haaah… Huuungh…!”
No! Hey! Why did your breathing get even heavier when you heard we were alone?!
I’m telling you, no! I’m not kidding, this is seriously not okay!
Dammit! I’ve teased everyone else with Healing Sex jokes, so why am I the one who has to be so scared with her?!
Though I spent the entire day feeling like I was walking a tightrope, we ultimately finished the hunt safely and without incident.
This girl! She was going to hold it in just fine in the end, yet she had to make me so anxious!
After finishing the hunt, we both raced toward the inn room, as if competing to see who could get there first.
The moment we arrived, I instantly threw off my clothes and looked at Matilda. With a sweet voice, as if she couldn’t bear it any longer, she called out to me and clung to my body.
“Aah… my daaarling…”
Then, as if she could die from how much she loved me, she stared right into my eyes with a gaze that would have had hearts in it if this were a comic.
…Hey. Ms. Matilda. This is all great, but why are you still wearing your clothes?
I mean, I guess it makes sense since it was your pink mode that couldn’t take it anymore, but you should try being in my shoes after listening to your ragged breathing all day!
It was incredibly lewd! To the point where I had to waste precious mana just to calm my erection when I should have been focusing all of it on hunting!
After getting a man that worked up, you should have stripped the moment you walked in, for my sake!
What were you even doing while I was taking off all my clothes?! Just standing there waiting?!
Don’t you know the saying?! If someone shows you theirs, isn’t it polite to show them yours… ah, no, that’s not it. Anyway!
With thoughts so jumbled I didn’t even know what I was trying to say, I grabbed Matilda’s shoulders and hastily pulled her away.
“Aahng… my daaarling… Kiss me. Kiiiiss…”
But Matilda wrapped her arms around my neck as if she didn’t want to be separated, puckering her lips.
Seeing that, I went ahead and pressed my lips against hers.
W-what was I supposed to do?! No matter how worked up I am, pretty is pretty!
I only hate the pink mode when we’re in the dungeon. When it happens like this, I’m just grateful and find her beautiful!
Why would I hate it when a girl this beautiful is throwing herself at me because she likes me so much?