Opportunity from the Game Becomes Reality, Episode 116
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Opportunity from the Game Becomes Reality, Episode 116
29. Goddess Sepia (3)
[The goddess Sepia, who descended after 300 years. Everyone was captivated by her holy figure.]
[A visit to celebrate the birth of a new Saintess and Holy Son? There are also opinions that the ominous warning she delivered at the end was the true purpose...]
[If it were merely advice, she would have delivered an oracle as usual. Her personal descent means there was someone she had taken special notice of.]
[Does the 'fall of the black star' the goddess mentioned mean an invasion by demons? The church is currently investigating, and they have strongly requested that no one make remarks that stoke anxiety, as Sepia's advice may not necessarily signify war.]
[The fiercely contested Saintess contest! The one chosen by the goddess is Ibril Barnet! She will spend one year assisting Saintess Sylvester, learning the work, and then inherit the position of Saintess!]
[The keen eye of Duke Adrian El Lawrence, sponsor of candidate Lady Barnet! The entire Kingdom of Rhinehearts is in a festival mood!]
Due to the appearance of the goddess Sepia, Ibril ended up feeling pushed to the sidelines despite gaining the honor of being chosen as Saintess.
But being overshadowed in attention didn't diminish the value she held as Saintess, so it didn't matter much.
If anything, excessive attention would only burden Ibril, who came from common birth.
"Can I, still so young, truly manage this?"
At Ibril's worried question, I nodded.
"Of course. Everyone around you will help you, Lady Ibril."
Unlike Earth, where there are many corrupt religions, in this world's religion, committing corruption for personal gain is unimaginable.
As seen with this recent issue, the goddess Sepia takes great interest in the mortal world and even intervenes directly.
So how could she possibly allow clergy bearing her name to commit misdeeds?
A fallen priest loses divine power and eventually faces the church's judgment, so committing corruption was tantamount to suicide.
Thus, no one would try to exploit the new Saintess for being young.
"And what about you, my Lord?"
Ibril's heavy dependence on me couldn't be helped.
After all, there was hardly a single action in the contest where my influence wasn't felt.
I reassured her, telling her not to worry.
"I'm partly the reason you became Saintess, so I should do my best to help."
"Then I'll still be able to see you even after becoming Saintess?"
"Of course."
Ibril finally let out a sigh of relief.
"But what about the title 'Lady Ibril'? I can't get used to it."
A Saintess, a Holy Son, and a Holy King each one is a being who doesn't bow even to the Emperor of the Empire.
I could no longer casually call her "Miss Ibril."
"You must get used to it. From now on, Lady Ibril is someone who need not lower her head even before the Emperor of the Bringham Empire."
Though she hadn't formally inherited the position yet and couldn't be called "Your Grace," she was a successor-in-waiting whose claim to the position was more solid than any Imperial Crown Prince of any empire.
After all, she was a figure personally chosen by a goddess of course it was natural.
Rather than me changing how I addressed her, she should be the one adjusting.
Because I was no longer her Lord.
"You mean I shouldn't call you my Lord? Then what do I call you?"
"Duke Lawrence, or if you prefer, just add 'nim' to my name."
"Adrian-nim?"
"Yes, like that."
She seemed to think that was better than simply calling me Lord, and wriggled her body as if embarrassed, letting out a silly laugh.
"Ahem! What a lovely sight. If you don't mind, please call me by my name too."
At that moment, the Crown Prince, who had insisted on visiting my Lord's estate just to see Ibril, cut into the conversation after being treated like part of the scenery.
Even though she had already met him once, dealing with the Crown Prince seemed difficult for her Ibril spoke with an awkward expression.
"Mi, Mikhail "
"Yes, that's fine."
"Crown Prince Michael van Rhinehearts."
The Crown Prince's title was settled on his full name.
Her social level was still too low to act familiar with him.
Crown Prince Michael scratched his cheek with an embarrassed look and glanced at Arcia, but
"His Highness Crown Prince Michael van Rhinehearts."
He was only addressed by his full name with the title "Your Highness" attached.
The Crown Prince, unable to break through the iron walls of the kingdom's finest women, smoothed things over with an awkward smile.
Then the Crown Prince changed the subject.
"Does anyone happen to have any idea what the goddess Sepia's words might have meant?"
So that was the real business, huh?
From that remark, I could tell the Crown Prince hadn't visited just to greet Ibril.
Ibril was currently receiving training from the Saintess Sylvester, but she was clearly a key figure in the church's inner circle.
Because of that, her information was bound to be of the highest quality.
The Crown Prince phrased it as a question to everyone present, but I could tell his target was Ibril.
"Since the title 'Black Star' has never once been used in any oracle, no one can offer a confident prediction."
And the naive Ibril simply shared what she knew.
"Hmm, is that so?"
"Still, I've heard that when words like 'black,' 'dark,' 'shadow' appear, there's a high chance it's connected to demons."
"But if the subject were a demon, would there be any need to attach such a grand title as 'Star' to an ominous color like black?"
"That's exactly the part everyone at the Holy Land finds questionable. At first we thought the 'star' might refer to some demon and investigated, but that turned out not to be the case either."
The conclusion was that she had no intel either.
A thought struck me out of curiosity.
"Oracles come down fairly often, don't they?"
"Usually about once every two to three years. As if to tell us to prepare in advance before a calamity strikes."
It was the Crown Prince who answered my question.
"But are oracles always this ambiguous?"
"No, not at all. Ordinary oracles aren't that hard to understand."
"Then why is this one so riddle-like?"
"My thoughts exactly."
At that, a single possibility flashed through my mind.
'An oracle is the goddess's advice conveyed to the world. What if this one isn't an oracle at all?'
Could it be advice given not to the world, but to a single individual?
If so, those ominous words of the goddess weren't warning of a threat to the world they were worrying about one person's personal danger.
Having felt like I met the goddess's eyes at the ceremony, I couldn't help but furrow my brow.
"What are you thinking so hard about?"
But I couldn't reveal these thoughts to anyone else.
An individual receiving the goddess's personal concern...
Even as a guess, it was too much of a stretch.
"Nothing worth mentioning."
"I don't want to let a single word from Duke Lawrence slip past me."
The Crown Prince looked at me with serious eyes.
But I shook my head.
"I just approached it from a different angle. It's nothing worth disclosing once I've organized the information, I'll let you know."
I hadn't thought much of it until now, but I should look into it steadily through Blue Moon.
Crown Prince Michael nodded, looking regretful that I kept dodging his question.
"One thing is certain... if it were something that would turn the world upside down, the goddess wouldn't have stopped at just this level of warning."
"True, that's fair."
If the world were truly in danger, she would have sent something terrifying like "The infernal flames of hell will burn everything" or "A prelude to destruction."
But the goddess's words were...
[As chaos in the world never ceases, beware the fall of the Black Star.]
Just that much.
Looking at the overall tone, it wasn't "You're all doomed!" but rather "Be careful!" in feel.
That's why everyone was going about their days as usual, merely spreading all sorts of speculation.
"While curiosity was indeed one reason I came seeking answers, I have another purpose for this visit."
"Yes?"
"We can't very well keep the parents of the prospective Saintess as mere servants, can we?"
"I was actually about to grant them a mansion along with the title of Baron myself."
Trying to score points with Ibril, are we?
At my words, the Crown Prince scoffed that such a gesture wouldn't be enough and continued.
"I'll grant them the title of Baron along with a domain. Additionally, I'll bestow soldiers, knights, Vanguard equipment, and even one Heaven-Piercing Fortress."
At that, Ibril's eyes went wide.
After all, this meant her family would become nobles.
"A generous gift indeed."
"Aren't they the Saintess's parents? We happen to have plenty of spare land, and there's an excess of equipment forcibly confiscated by the royal family, so this worked out well."
It was a sort of investment meant to bind the relations between the Kingdom of Rhinehearts' royal family and the Saintess even more tightly.
Since I had no reason to refuse, I told Ibril to accept it.
She must have been worried too.
After all, no matter how upright the Saintess and Holy Son might be, there are not a few relatives who cause trouble in their names, so it was customary for everyone except the individuals themselves to remain in their home country rather than the Holy Land.
Ibril's expression, which had been inwardly worried about her parents' treatment, brightened.
But what she said next put even the Crown Prince in an awkward spot.
"Instead, I'd like to have a domain near the Duchy of Lawrence."
A sly fox like the Crown Prince would have naturally planned to grant her parents a title while also separating them from me.
After all, if I held the Saintess's parents in my grasp, there would be nothing good in it for the royal family.
"Very well. Let's do that."
But since the Crown Prince couldn't refuse her request, that plan ultimately ended in failure.
"Wow! Thank you!"
There is no one politicians find harder to control than a naive wielder of power.
* * *
A month had passed since the descent of the Goddess Sepia and Ibril's selection as the Saintess.
In that time, nothing special happened to me or those around me, and the world remained peaceful.
Meanwhile, the Holy Land and the major nations conducted investigations into the Goddess's words, but found no meaningful clues.
And even though the Saintess and Holy Son walked the Path of the Goddess seeking answers, the heavens gave no response.
As a result, the media began to lean toward the notion that it wasn't actually anything significant.
[Did the Goddess point out an environmental issue?]
[There's also speculation that it was actually a warning about the recent increase in wars...]
[The Goddess's words are surely advice regarding human conduct.]
But all of this is mere speculation, and since the party in question hasn't given the answer, everyone just continues their days as usual.
For reference, my "usual" means dumping all my work on my retainers and spending time leveling up in Chronicle Online.
This was the one thing I never missed no matter how busy I was I devoted myself to it more than anything else.
And now, with no more major matters demanding my attention, I could invest even more time into the game.
My current leveling pace was 1 level per week, so I judged that with some effort I could push it to 1 level every 6 days, and set that as my goal.
"Ha, no way."
But my goal came apart before long.
Not in a bad way in a very good way.
I had certainly hoped for a 1-level-per-6-days pace, but surprisingly, I've been maintaining a 1-level-per-5-days pace.
I've currently reached level 249.
Now, only a single level remains until I can clear the next Opportunity quest.
The reason this is possible is that our party gained a new companion.
Namely, a healer called 'Bug.'
"Just by adding one healer, things changed this much?"
The reason I never brought in party members despite my slow leveling pace.
It's because I absolutely cannot trust the humans I'd be playing with.
Our party is different from ordinary parties in many ways.
Not only do we feel pain when hit, but anyone who closely watches Arcia and Black Eagle, our supporters, would realize they aren't ordinary programs.
We were already famous for the money-flinging incident during the PK incident, so having it revealed that we were clearly different from others on top of that would do us no good.
That's why we don't take on party members and just play among ourselves and now, conveniently, a being we can use without worrying about anyone's judgment has appeared.
Bug, wearing Isabella's shell, had zero issues with gameplay.
So I bought a healer account and decked it out with top-tier items, and our combat speed and safety improved dramatically.
"Praise me, you commoners."
At Bug's words, Arcia kicked the bastard in the rear as was her habit.
"Ow! What was that for! It hurts!"
"Pretty words."
"You wag your tail for that man, but you only act up with me."
-THWACK!
"Agh! I'm sorry!"
Well, the bastard isn't all-powerful either.
To clear the final stage of the Opportunity quest, we have to fight a named monster, and Chester told me that no one except me, Arcia, and Black Eagle can enter that fight.
In other words, the bastard is only useful for leveling up.
"But that's already huge!?"
I was absolutely thrilled just from the faster leveling speed alone.