Morning comes. The diligence engraved in her body for a lifetime reacted to the sun, forcibly awakening the Saintess.
Birds chirped, and the sun drove away the dark dawn. At this time, the Saintess bit her lips tightly and started pulling the curtains to hide from the sunlight.
She hated the sun. To be exact, she hated waking up.
“Haa, haa-.”
The moment she woke up, a wave of heat surged through her, making her burn. Instinctively, after somehow managing to stop her hand from heading towards her lower abdomen, the Saintess lay blankly staring at the ceiling.
Her mind was already covered with one thought. A vulgar and lewd thought that a cleric should absolutely never have.
‘I want to die.’
A feeling wishing for death. If there was a reason the Saintess had survived until now, it was due to the Bible verse forbidding suicide and the shame of meeting the countless heroes who sacrificed their lives to save her.
Of course, whether becoming like this or meeting the heroes who sacrificed themselves for her in heaven, either way, it would have been equally embarrassing.
Knock knock-!
─Saintess, may I come in?
“……Yes.”
─Excuse me.
Shortly after, the maids who entered opened the curtains and collected the sweat-soaked blankets and pillows.
Taking the drenched Saintess to the bathroom, they splashed cold water on her with a ladle to awaken her spirit.
Every time the freezing water fell on her spine, the Saintess trembled while enduring the cold.
“It’s over.”
“Water magic-.”
After the shower ended – a pre-waiting sorcerer removed the water clinging to her body. They couldn’t use towels or fire to dry her because they were too stimulating.
The maids dressed the now-dry Saintess in clothes so thin it was questionable whether they were even being worn.
It was the kind of clothing that could easily reveal what was underneath – but her body had become so fragile that it couldn’t even bear the tightness of underwear.
“I will pray.”
“─Sovereign God, please look upon your lamb as she prays-.”
By consuming tasteless porridge, the non-stimulating morning routine ends. Afterward, prayer until lunch. After eating lunch, prayer until dinner. After dinner, prayer until bedtime.
After finishing the holy water bath before bed, she falls asleep.
The Saintess realized that these non-stimulating actions ironically fueled the desires within her body even more. But there was no alternative.
‘Please, someone save me from this hell.’
The fact that she couldn’t fulfill her desires wasn’t hell.
Feeling desire itself was hell.
For the Saintess, who had lived in a bland world, her suddenly changed body was an unbearable calamity.
* * *
“─Lowering the development level is impossible.”
Sera spoke. Though she maxed out alchemy using the game system, there was no item to fix the Saintess’s current condition.
To begin with, she hadn’t mastered alchemy and magic with her own abilities; she relied on the system – thus, she couldn’t create items not in the system.
As expected, in most games, items to lower someone’s affection or reset development levels don’t exist.
“The developers wouldn’t make such user-unfriendly items.”
“Does anyone know how to make them?”
“To begin with, alchemy is already a half-dead industry. In an era where more kids learn magic instead of wasting time on alchemy, what can you do?”
As she said – alchemy was an industry overshadowed by magic. It required talents overlapping with sorcerers, yet cost more than magic, and despite that, earned less in this strange industry.
Frankly, without the system, Sera probably wouldn’t have touched alchemy. One could live comfortably as a sorcerer alone, and whatever alchemy couldn’t do, magic could create.
“So what about the Saintess? To fix this messed-up world, we need to connect with the Sovereign God. First, fixing the Saintess is the priority.”
“Indeed, that’s somewhat of a problem. We saved the Saintess, and there’s no reward…”
Sera grumbled about the lack of reward for the quest to save the Saintess. Such a difficult mission, yet no reward?
Setting aside the lack of reward, why did the Sovereign God completely vanish – that was also a big issue.
“Hurry up and appear, declare that everyone should get along～ Without that, it’s going to be a world war.”
Divine power hadn’t disappeared. However, the issue was that new believers receiving divine power from him had vanished.
Every field stagnates without influx, and with the Holy Kingdom destroyed, clerics were even rarer.
New clerics needed to be replenished soon. Otherwise, future wars would require more bloodshed.
Though Sera thought of this world as a game, it wasn’t good at all. There was no gore filter even if you were inside a game.
“Well, there are ways in situations like this.”
“There’s a method?”
“Yes. It’s a bit… awkward to say.”
“…Don’t tell me.”
“Exactly that!”
Even without saying it, Kail understood what Sera meant. He slightly hardened his expression as he looked at her.
In any game, the method to resolve the needs of a developed character was simple.
Sex.
That is, intercourse.
“With whom….”
“Ex- In this situation, obviously, it has to be you, right?”
“No, hey. I’m—”
Kail made a sour face at Sera’s words. That’s because he…
“I’m married. I even have kids…”
He was a married man with a pregnant wife.
Tell him to embrace another woman?
For Kail, with modern sensibilities, it was quite a difficult task.
Sera shrugged as if it wasn’t her concern.
“Then let’s have a world war.”
“Shit…”
If Kail had encountered this situation while gaming, he would’ve chuckled.
Save the world with sex? What kind of adult game is this?
But here, it was reality. His reality. Kail, with a hardened expression, said he’d think about it and left the room.
Anyway, it wasn’t something he could decide alone – he immediately headed toward the mansion where his wife was.
* * *
[■■■Is it?]
[Denied. It was merely a means to fend off attacks from unauthorized access.]
[■■■■?]
[Not authorized.]
[■■■Punishment.]
The Sovereign God clenched his teeth at the system’s decision before him. However, he couldn’t refuse it. If the Sovereign God was the master of this world, then that was the rule of this world.
As the master, he could change the world but couldn’t alter predetermined rules. Prohibition of direct intervention was one of those rules.
[You’re letting the Evil God invade freely like that…!]
Complaining bitterly to the system, but the system remained silent. Despite not detecting the Evil God sneaking into the Sovereign God’s world and plundering its inhabitants – every time the Sovereign God tried to do something, the system nitpicked.
Knowing the Evil God exploited the system’s loopholes and wormed his way in, it was only natural for the Sovereign God trying to protect the world to feel frustrated.
Ultimately, the Sovereign God reluctantly accepted the system’s ruling.
[I accept further intervention restrictions.]
[■■■Permit intervention in case of emergency.]
[Haa- Like such a case would remain…]
Observing the mortal realm for a moment after hearing the system’s words, the Sovereign God realized why the system mentioned it.
[The Saintess…]
The connection point with the Sovereign God. One was severed, and the other was barely hanging on. Though it was contaminated by the Evil God, nonetheless.
The mortals below successfully completed the Sovereign God’s given mission.
[Then hurry…!]
If the remaining contamination in the Saintess’s soul was purged and she reconnected with the Sovereign God, then—
[Hurry and purge the contamination, Kail Meyer!]
Activity became possible again.
The Sovereign God watched Kail with a pounding heart.
Waiting for the Saintess and Kail to copulate.
* * *
How would it feel to be caught cheating on your wife?
I don’t know exactly, but it would surely be less frigid than now.
Since she already knows, Yuri must have decided whether to tolerate or not forgive him. No significant emotional change would be felt.
However, what about now, telling his wife he might ‘cheat’?
Even meeting a murderer who killed his parents wouldn’t elicit such an expression.
“……”
He might have to have sex with the Saintess.
An hour passed since conveying that fact.
Yuri hadn’t uttered a single word.
“Um… Yuri?”
“……”
“Can you say something?”
“………”
“I was wrong…”
It felt like returning to when they first met, the emotionless Ice Princess period.
Having seen only her warm smiles recently, Kail found enduring her current expression quite difficult.
“…Do it.”
“Eh, eh?”
“If you want to, go ahead.”
“What?”
Never expecting permission, Kail looked at Yuri with surprise. However, Yuri’s so-called permission wasn’t permission at all.
“Sign the divorce papers too.”
“No… I don’t particularly want to.”
“Then don’t do it.”
“Because there’s no one else.”
“Are you the only man in the world? I didn’t know. I was selfish.”
Somehow deflecting Yuri’s icy smile, Kail explained why it had to be him.
“The Saintess’s condition is due to traces left by the Apostle of the Evil God on her soul, and to erase it, powerful holy power is needed…”
“And?”
“The Pope is already dead, and among the remaining people, the only one with strong enough holy power is me, who bears the stigmata.”
“Because there’s no one else?”
“…If I don’t do it, well – the world might end like this.”
“Is the world more important than me?”
“Because I want to live with you. We must save the world.”
At those last words, Yuri bit her lip slightly. Being greedy beyond this point was unreasonable.
Deeply sighing, she added a few conditions.
“…Just once.”
“Huh?”
“This one time. Finish it somehow in one go. And don’t even dream of other women.”
Kail, having received permission, nodded vigorously.
That was what he hoped for too.
He didn’t wish for something like this to happen again.
