thefictionvixens Page 152
Page 152
[As you read the text aloud without any emotion, you spurred your horse to catch up with Jennifer. Looking at her unwavering, resolute expression, you couldn't help but exclaim, "Is this what a knight of unwavering faith looks like? That iron will, that iron will... I truly admire you..."]
"W-what?" Jennifer snapped out of her daze, looking at your face full of emotion, and whispered:
"I just found a doujinshi where a female knight and a male mage are forced to undergo gender swapping, and they can't change back unless they do something erotic. I'm starting to get a little into it..."
A question mark appeared above your head. You took a deep breath and shouted, "Don't make assumptions about everything! You can't do this kind of thing!"
"It seems a bit sinful..." Jennifer said, touching her chest with a repentant expression. "I'll find two copies of the Passion of the Goddess to offer to the God of Light later; he loves reading these..."
"Is this for real or fake?!" You couldn't help but cover your face and shout, "Does the God of Light know you're ruining his reputation behind his back?! And that's not even the point! I treated you like a brother, and you're trying to betray me?!"
"Of course it's true!" Jennifer retorted, unconvinced. "The first time we tried to offer tribute, the God of Light's divine power only trembled slightly, but the subsequent times, the fluctuations in his divine power were much greater!"
After saying that, she gave your backside a lewd look, and seemed about to say something more, but blushed and remained silent.
"…Fine, fine." You shut your mouth, feeling utterly frustrated, and began to reflect on yourself. Was your thinking still too conservative in this other world? After a long while, you sighed deeply, silently admitting that you were a traditional man.
[Who says polygamy isn't a tradition? You mercilessly mocked your own lustful nature, then gazed at the magnificent holy city in the distance.]
The Church of Light has two holy cities in the mountainous region: Promia in the west and Romnia in the sparsely populated east. You roughly estimated that it would take about seven hours to travel from Silverpath Town to Promia on horseback, but if it weren't for these mountains, you could run for much less time...
The small tornadoes you occasionally see along the way gradually make you tense. Although you haven't engaged them in combat, this is the first time you've seen hordes of monsters poised to attack.
[From a preliminary look, there are dozens of different kinds of monsters inside the tornado. Besides bird-like monsters, there are also many strange monsters such as insects, bats, and flying monsters...]
[Wait, something strange flew by... Are you looking at that thing that looks like a giant sugar glider? (The author gives a look like an old man staring at his phone on the subway.) Even though nobody pays attention to monsters' appearance, they can't just look like that!]
"From summer to autumn, the light energy in the Mountain Wasteland will begin to decrease rapidly..." Jennifer followed your gaze to the small tornado on the hill not far away, and said solemnly:
"The monsters from the earth are inherently lethargic due to the presence of light energy. When the light energy diminishes, they become active again, either migrating across the continent or seeking entrances back underground. Either way, they cause violent upheavals in their path."
You nodded, stroked your chin, and pondered for a while, but still couldn't come up with a way to completely solve these problems. In your view, these monster invasions were more like a natural phenomenon than a simple conflict between humans and monsters, something that human power simply couldn't handle.
[You rode into the holy city of Prometheus with Jennifer. The holy knights guarding the city did not stop you, for the divine power within Jennifer was the best proof of your identity.]
[And you, though you may appear to be a chaotic and evil succubus, and are indeed a succubus, now that you are in Jennifer's hands, you are presumably unable to tarnish this light.]
Without wasting time in front of the various buildings in the Holy City, you followed Jennifer directly to the sanctuary of the Church of Light, walking briskly past pairs of patrolling and training knights, until you reached the central chapel.
"I have informed His Holiness the Pope, and he will arrive soon." The girl in the priest's robe bowed slightly to Jennifer, then hesitated for a moment before looking up at you and asking, "And this gentleman is...?"
"He is..." Jennifer paused, coughed lightly, and said loudly, "He is my partner, no, I should say, he is my sovereign as a knight!"
The girl was taken aback, nodded hesitantly, her gaze shifting between you two. Then, as if she had suddenly thought of something, a look of delighted surprise, like she had unexpectedly found candy, appeared on her face.
You paused for a moment, exchanged a glance with Jennifer, and she immediately understood, turning her gaze to the girl who was lost in thought.
"Ahem!" Jennifer coughed deliberately, looking seriously at the startled girl who looked up, and asked, "Priest, your face is red, what happened?"
"Ah, Sir Knight!" Unable to come up with a reason, the girl could only resignedly lower her head and say, "I...I was just thinking nonsense, I was wrong..."
Jennifer suppressed a laugh, waved her hand, and said, "It's alright, you can go now. We'll just wait here for the Pope to summon us."
"Yes." The girl raised her head dejectedly, muttering to herself as she walked, "How could I, a follower of the God of Light, think such things..."
"It's really fun teasing little girls..." Jennifer muttered, watching the girl about to enter the side hall. She then coughed deliberately, and seeing the girl stop, Jennifer straightened her collar and raised her voice slightly, saying:
"Master, you've worked hard these past few days. Keep up the good work tonight!"
[A thud was heard, and the girl in front of the side hall stumbled and leaned against the doorframe. Her face flushed, she glanced back at you, then fled like a guilty thief.]
Jennifer, suppressing a laugh, gave you a thumbs-up and playfully punched your shoulder. You looked at her, rather exasperated, and after a moment's thought, whispered in her ear, "My little knight, don't roll up in the blankets tonight, or I won't be able to get my hand inside."
Jennifer's smile froze. She instinctively took a step back, her voice trembling as she said "Hey" twice, then shouted fiercely, "Come on then! Who's afraid of who!"
You chuckled, pinched her cheek, and were about to say something when a clear bell rang out from inside the chapel.
Jennifer heard the bell, snorted, pinched you, caught her breath, and nudged your waist, saying, "Let's go in."
You take a deep breath, and with a lingering, solemn reverence for the Church of Light, step through the chapel doors.
"Above you is a pointed, double-arched roof, with carved wood veneer, sky-blue painted decorations, and adorned with golden fleur-de-lis patterns..." With the solemnity of facing a deity, images of Notre Dame Cathedral flash through your mind. However, just as you're about to marvel at this magnificent sight becoming a reality before you, you see the Pope, a bald man, brushing his crown.
"Jennifer, you're here?" The Pope didn't look up, but raised his brush, spat on it, and continued brushing his crown.
[“…” You snapped back to reality, as if the magnificent dream had vanished in an instant. You rubbed your temples, feeling a headache coming on, and thought to yourself, “How could I have held onto any hope for this abstract, otherworldly place? Heh, I’m so pathetic. But the God of Light shouldn’t be so…”]
You looked up at the statue behind the Pope, and suddenly paused, stunned.
The towering stone statue, reflecting a warm glow, bends down at you with a compassionate smile, seemingly offering salvation to all beings. However, it wears an eyepatch emblazoned with the iconic flying eye of the popular Londian fantasy game "Yuan Shen." Furthermore, its ears are stuffed with rags of unknown origin, through which the words "The God of Magic Saves the World" can be faintly seen…
"...This world is probably beyond saving, isn't it?" you thought to yourself without any emotional fluctuation. After witnessing so much, you started to feel that you... were actually quite normal?
"Oh dear, Your Holiness, what are you doing?!" Jennifer hadn't even had a chance to greet him when she saw this and was immediately shocked. She rushed forward and reached for the head of the statue of the God of Light.
"Ah, as expected of my little knight, she's still perfectly normal..." You nodded with satisfaction, your hope for a better world returning.
"I've already told you, the God of Light doesn't like 'Fate Gods'!" Jennifer removed the eye patch from the statue, replaced it with another eye patch featuring dead fish eyes, and said:
"It's better to wear this 'Yesterday's Chariot' blindfold, Your Holiness. You're getting old; before you do anything wrong in front of the God of Light, have those younger priests cover you up first."
You stare blankly as Jennifer removes the rag from the statue's ear and replaces it with one printed with "*Londonian profanity." In a daze, you feel all your hopes and expectations for the world crumble instantly.
"What? Don't slander me." The Pope placed his freshly painted crown on his head, frowning as he said, "What if the God of Light heard the foul language you were uttering at the door? Wasn't I protecting you?"
"No way!" Jennifer retorted guiltily, glancing at the statue of the God of Light, which was enveloped in a halo of pure white light, and abruptly changed the subject: "See! I told you, the God of Light really does prefer these!"
"Oh!" The Pope's attention was drawn to the statue. His eyes widened, and he couldn't help but give a thumbs up, exclaiming, "You really know your stuff, Jennifer!"
You suddenly covered your face, muttering in anguish, "This is so damn mentally polluting..."
After learning some lessons from Jennifer, the Pope put away his holy book, came to his senses, and looked at you, saying, "Friend of the Church of Light, I'm truly sorry to have made you laugh."
"No, no..." You sighed insincerely, rose from the prayer chair, shook hands with the Pope, and said, "We've come here today because..."
"I know, the God of Light has already told me," the Pope nodded and said. "You want to marry Jennifer, right? The God of Light has agreed."
"...Gaia!!" You clutched your head, crying out in pain, then quickly regained your composure and said in a low voice, "Is that so? I understand..."
"What do you know?!" Jennifer interrupted your conversation hastily, shouting in embarrassment and annoyance, "It's about the seasonal tornadoes! Pope, are you really listening to God?!"
The Pope glanced at the smiling, closed mouth of the statue of the God of Light, remained silent for a moment, then turned back and nodded earnestly.
"What a joke!" Jennifer angrily threw the "Magician Saves the World" rag she was holding at the Pope's face.
After a series of back-and-forth moves, the three of you finally began to communicate normally.
"A seasonal tornado? This isn't a huge deal, but it's not insignificant either..." The Pope subtly wiped the remaining soap from his crown, rubbed it on his clothes, and said:
"The power of light will weaken with the changing seasons; this is an unchangeable fact. At that time, not only will surface monsters begin to roam, but some shadow-loving monsters from underground may also emerge from the ground due to the dissipation of light."
"Wouldn't that make things even worse?" you asked worriedly. "How can we eliminate these monsters?"
"The Church of Light will not send knights to fight monsters head-on," the Pope said, shaking his head. "Normally, in years when seasonal tornadoes are particularly fierce, we send several powerful holy knights to a target area using divine magic. The remaining light energy will lure the monsters to follow, causing them to gather together."
"And then? Wipe them all out in one go?" You gasped. Could the Pope really use "Little Boy"?
"How could that be? Your thinking is a bit too extreme," the Pope said, frowning. "Remember, that's called purification."
Half an hour later, you walked out of the chapel, looked at the bright midday sky, and sighed.
The Pope tells you that purification treatments are generally a last resort; until then, each town will have to deal with seasonal tornadoes on its own.
Although there are some casualties every year, the cult can only send some knights as reinforcements, which cannot solve the fundamental problem.
[You inquired about the situation on the magic network and learned that, aside from the occasional legendary mage who kindly offers assistance, the people of the Wilderness Territory have generally endured these disasters on their own.]
[Regretfully disconnecting from the magic network, you suddenly recall the vanished dwarven kingdom. How did they defend themselves against the monsters? You suddenly feel an intense urge to know the answer to this question.]
You recall the dwarven fortress that appeared in Teacher Yin's photo. It's much larger than the dwarven rooms you found in the mine. Could there be a solution inside? With this thought in mind, you decide to set off immediately to explore it after returning.
[Even though you've come this far, and what you want to do has far exceeded the scope of the annual mission given to you by the Magic Network, after careful consideration, you still feel that if you just leave it alone, it might be easy, but it would be too pathetic.]
[Since you're already in this other world, how can you not seek the best way to make everything perfect? Remembering your identity as a walking, talking harem king, you can't help but laugh. You just want everything you like. Hesitation and giving up are things for melodramatic youth literature; in your case, you're determined to achieve a happy ending through countless attempts!]
"Damn it, I've been fleeced by the goddess! I'll make her pay for this someday..." you muttered to yourself. "I wonder if I can get some compensation from the God of Light to make up for my loss..."
Jennifer, riding beside you, hesitated for a long time before softly telling you, "The God of Light doesn't actually exist."
Chapter 162 Will a God Who Nurtures Hisself Dream of His Doujinshi Followers?
You were shocked and immediately pressed Jennifer for an explanation, asking what she meant by the God of Light not existing. Through her uncertain answer, you finally learned the truth.
[It turns out that the God of Light did not truly not exist; on the contrary, he could bestow divine magic, answer prayers, and receive offerings. However, compared to the lesser gods of the Anium United Nations, the God of Light appeared very silent.]
When the Pope was young, he visited Janium and was puzzled as to why, despite the God of Light's divine power being far superior to that of the lesser gods, they could not truly "communicate" with each other.
He returned to Norard with many conjectures, and during his subsequent papacy, he revised and verified those conjectures. However, due to his responsibility for the overall operation and management of the Church, he lacked the time and manpower to investigate many of them, and ultimately, none of them came to fruition.
"The Pope has privately mentioned a few conjectures to us, such as whether there's some obstacle to communication with the God of Light..." Jennifer said, slowly riding alongside you, "Or perhaps the will of the God of Light isn't in this plane, or maybe the will of the God of Light hasn't yet taken shape..."
"The Pope said that if the will of the God of Light has not yet taken shape, then communicating with him more should facilitate the process. So we will also try to offer him various things in order to find opportunities to communicate with him." Jennifer radiated a warm, luminous power, which condensed into a sphere of light. She held the sphere in her hands, then watched it slowly dissipate, and said:
"However, even without the God of Light, the Church of the God of Light will still exist. We need to come together for a reason, and it is because of this reason that we can work hard with peace of mind."
"Whether the ultimate goal is peace, justice, or simply to protect those around us, having a God of Light is certainly better, but not having one makes no difference."
You turn to look at Jennifer, whose expression is resolute, and suddenly it dawns on you. Although she has always presented herself as a carefree, homebody in your eyes, she, as a young lady, has never complained, whether on duty in Lundia or on missions.
[Recalling the previous simulations where she embarked on a solitary journey to find her true name in the starry sky, and how she tried to protect her family single-handedly, you suddenly realize that Jennifer isn't just your sunny and cheerful girl, but also a truly trustworthy knight.]
You laughed heartily, patted her shoulder forcefully, and said loudly, "It's okay. Later, when I've helped someone become powerful, if we really can't find that damn God of Light, we'll just give up! At worst, Jie Jie, you can just become a god!"
"What do you mean, 'At worst I'll become a god'?!" Jennifer's resolute expression shattered instantly. She snapped, her face falling, "I don't want to answer my believers' prayers every day! My own beacons are all silent except for you!"
"No, think about it. What if your followers offered you books every day?" You said, your eyes darting around, trying to persuade her. "And if you became the God of Light, wouldn't you be able to tease those young female priests every day?"
"Hiss..." Jennifer gasped, hesitated for a moment, then showed a tempted expression. "What you said seems to make sense..."
You finally couldn't hold back and burst into laughter. Amidst her bewildered gaze, you patted her bottom, then spurred your horse and rode off in a flash.
Jennifer then realized you were teasing her. She screamed and yelled, casting a spell on her hawk and charging at you. Seeing the danger, you jumped off, hoisted the horse onto your shoulder, and fled at an even faster pace, laughing hysterically as you swung your long legs. Jennifer, watching your bizarrely running figure, finally couldn't help but burst into laughter.
[So whether the God of Light exists or not doesn't make much difference to either of you. Although the thought of not having a god's protection sounds heavy, you secretly asked the God of Light if Jennifer could take his place to protect all living beings, and the God of Light agreed.]
"However, those conjectures the Pope proposed are actually quite possible..." After the playful fight, you silently pondered as you continued your journey to Silver Path Town. "In the previous simulation, the monsters in the shallow underground mentioned 'the will of the gods.' Just to speculate, perhaps the will of the God of Light is trapped underground... But the reason for this still needs to be explored slowly. Why would the will of the gods be trapped..."
"As for the fact that the will of the God of Light has not yet been formed and requires continuous communication to promote its formation... this conjecture is indeed a bit shocking." You scratched your head, looked at Jennifer's back not far ahead, and silently complained:
"No, with your Church of Light's tradition of offering doujinshi as tribute, if it actually succeeds, what kind of god will it ultimately create?! A god of doujinshi? From now on, the Church's rituals should just be called something like 'Reitaisai C90,' it feels like it's already reached the level of being included in the SCP Archives..."
You take a deep breath, feeling a slight sense of reverence for the Pope's plan to cultivate divinity, and then silently pray, "God of Light, if you ever gain consciousness, please remember to send me a few more sisters. If you don't say anything, I'll take that as your agreement..."
Jennifer's orb of light suddenly jolted and fell on you. You cried out in pain and tossed it back into the air. You glanced at the dim sky, shook your head, and urged your eagle-horse to quicken its pace.
As evening fell, you returned to Silverpath Town. Looking at the small tornadoes slowly gathering around the town, you frowned.