Chapter 77: The Enting Young Saintess (02)

  The Holy Week has returned.

  inally, Holy Week was a time for lo during the grueling training periods, visiting the temple to refocus spiritually, and enjoying delicious food while receiving encing words from the clergy and the Saintess, making it a great time for recharging.

  However, nowadays, with so much rest already, going to the temple seemed like a waste of time. Delicious food, which used to be a treat during times when even a piece of bread was hard to e by, had lost its allure with the improvement i varieties and the development of alchemical fertilizers, enrig our diet to the point where temple food has bee synonymous with tastelessness.

  If it's sidered worse than military rations, isn't that saying enough?

  At least military meals, desigo nourish the body, include plenty of meat and be made patable with some salt or spices purchased individually.

  While some with fiastes like Jake might pin about military meals, for folks like Dain ahey were quite edible.

  To say that I'm a try bumpkin isn't quite right since I frequently buy snacks in the capital, but holy, our unit’s food is better than most average restaurants.

  Of course, it falls short pared to gourmet restaurants, but sidering it’s free, I think it’s pretty good.

  The temple, oher hand, used to prepare food for many people, and uhe belief that gluttony and overeating were ive traits, it aimed to produce as much as possible for the money, striving for cost-effectiveness. But the quality dropped to the point where one might rather starve...

  Lastly, the clergy and the Saintess.

  There was a time when most people were devoutly religious, and if a priest decred that wheat would fall from heaven, they believed it. If the Saintess cimed she could turn sand into wheat grains, transform stones into meat, and fold the earth to traverse kingdoms in a day, then their words were worth listening to.

  But as education levels have risen and theological loopholes have been exposed, not to mention the revetion of corruption withiemple, the widespread belief that the clergy are her as virtuous nor corre their preag as ohought...

  Regardless, for us, the current Holy Week was more like a week of ordeal.

  "Alright, let's go inside."

  The senior knight was still sendihe representative trainee knight, prettied up into the temple, but sihe others had used the holiday as an excuse to flee, I had no choice but to visit as the only trainee representative.

  "What about the e soldiers? Now that I think about it, they were there!"

  They seemed like they would listen well iemple, and if the e soldiers participated in religious activities, wouldn’t their loyalty increase?

  "As I said st time, accepting e soldiers led to flicts with other orders. Are you saying we should bring them?"

  "But isn’t the temple supposed to wele everyone?"

  "Just because it’s a temple doesn’t mean it’s free from the strife between orders. It's more about watg the Knights thaemple."

  "..."

  "And that’s also why they insist on taking at least orainee knight."

  My head inning.

  From the moment I ehe temple, that distinct... the specific smell of the temple hit me.

  It felt as if I shouldn't be there, and the air at the entrance made my body stiffen with disfort.

  "Sigh... Alright, let's go in."

  Since I was dragged here anyway, I might as well try to enjoy the situation.

  "Ugh! The smell of the temple......!"

  Ihe temple's dining hall, various foods were id out, but naturally, none of it was tasty, aher the visiting children nor adults touched the food.

  "Ladies alemen, you are wele to eat as much as you like of the food prepared."

  The young clergy in charge of distribution tried hard to hand out food to visitors, but no one accepted, with most people responding like this:

  "I'm full already, so I’ll leave it for those hungrier believers."

  Essentially, they didn’t want to eat it.

  "They should just improve the food or find a solution..."

  While the nobles followed a vishly decorated path, arriving by carriage ihe temple uhe escort of their personal knights, in the area where I and the senior knight entered, only a few visiting clergymen, several Knights, and a handful of visitors wandered.

  "Is the young Saintess not visible... Is she praying right now?"

  Typically, the Saintess is extremely busy during Holy Week without a moment’s rest.

  The young Saintess who had been distributing cookies st time had only retly been appointed and was not yet fully perf her duties, so she had time to distribute cookies to children, but now it seemed she was inside learning her official duties.

  "That’s a relief."

  With the sin of mixing with a succubus retly, I probably would have burned up just getting close to the young Saintess.

  "It seems like only the seniors e during the Holy Week?"

  "Are there more than three senior knights in the Mage Knights? Besides, I'm the least senior among them, and above all, I fit i here at the temple."

  "Oh, perhaps there is someone you love..."

  At that, the senior knight raised his left hand, showing a ring on his ring finger.

  "What? Senior, are you married?"

  "Didn’t you know?"

  Of course, I didn’t.

  Why would I pay attention to a man's ring finger?

  "Ugh... Don't you guys do this."

  Pulling out the typical line spoken by married adults, the senior knight began gulping down alchemical potions and stomach protectors he brought.

  "Well, I’ll be off then."

  And just like st time, he left me alone a deeper into the temple.

  "Take care, then."

  The senior knight was here not just to pass the time, but to engage in power struggles with representatives from other orders. Being part of the Mage Knights, which cked support and were even so lowly regarded that they had their horses taken away by the Royal Guard, and now being the only trainee knight left, I couldn't help but feel intimidated.

  Of course, that person is sliough to have a hundred mias up his sleeve, so he probably won't be easily outmatched.

  "The Goddess of Love and Marriage..."

  I was looking at the statue of the goddess, which emitted a soft white light of holy magic just like st time.

  During the a wars.

  Humans, exhausted from fighting among themselves, were overwhelmed by the sudden onsught of demons and were pushed back overwhelmingly.

  Even back then, when the demon forces had advao the capital, which was the kingdom's seat, and as people suffered or went mad uhe demons' curses, a girl orried about the scripted soldiers prayed for her beloved to be protected.

  The Goddess of Love and Marriage heard her prayers and desded upon her, maing the first Saintess in history. Her powers alleviated the curses, saving the suffering people. Around her, people gathered, receiving the gift of holy magic, creating the clergy of the goddess, and began to hold back the demon forces. A hero emerged who would eventually defeat the Demon King, causing the demon forces to retreat.

  However, the scripted man was listed as missing, and it resumed he had died a gruesome death at the hands of the demons, his body unrecoverable. The Saintess, suffering from the side effects of divine possession, began to disie as her body was sublimated into holy power.

  Before her body pletely disied, the Saintess imbued a rge ro the capital with her blessings received from the goddess, and this rock, empowered by the goddess's power, shone and transformed into the grand statue of the goddess.

  Sihen, instead of the Saintess, the statue of the goddess has protected the capital from demons, and girls chosen by the Goddess of Love and Marriage appeared as Saintess in ter geions. However, uhe first Saintess who fully embraced the goddess, these Saintess only received part of her blessing, diminishing over time...

  "...is the religious interpretation from the temple."

  Nowadays, with improvements in the world, records from those times have bee accessible.

  inally, it wasn't the rock that received the goddess's blessing and became a statue; it was actually a grand statue crafted to boost people's faith, heavily financed by the royal family, especially using orichalcum-rich ore known for abs divine power.

  Moreover, the statue wasn’t maintained by the holy power of the inal Saintess but eriodically recharged with prayers and holy magi the Saintess and clergy to maintain its faint glow.

  "Actually, there is no effect that prevents demons from appearing around the capital..."

  If there were su effect, summoning succubi nearby would be impossible, and there wouldn't be is of succubi wanderihe trainier sedug men.

  "Ugh, thinking about it still makes me angry... being uniterally pyed by that senior succubus..."

  Clutg my stoma bitter frustration, I looked again at the statue of the goddess.

  "e to think of it, the succubus picked out my ideal type as a goddess... It seems quite irreverent now that I think about it."

  But gazing at the beautifully sculpted statue of the goddess, it was clear that the inal craftsman had pushed his skills to the limit. Even after receiving blessings through holy magic, the statue was so beautifully made that just looking at it could excite anyone.

  "Isn’t it the problem that I'm having irreverent thoughts, or is it that the statue of the goddess is made too beautifully? Shouldn’t it be a bit plumper to avoid arousing lust and instead fenuiion?"

  How skilled was the sculptor to craft the parts draped in clothing that suggest the goddess's skin was so estic?

  "It’s not just me; there must be at least a few others who get excited or masturbate looking at the goddess statue..."

  Indeed, my peers might dislike ing to the temple, but they admitted that the statue here was arousing.

  So much so that they seriously pted acquiring a life-sized statue of the goddess, but it was impossible sihe temple does not sell them to individuals.

  "Beautiful, isn’t it?"

  "Yes. Holy, the goddess statue is arousing... Oops!"

  I was agreeing with someone who had casually spoken beside me when I sensed an object flying towards the bay head and swatted it away with my hand.

  Thump!

  The object I knocked away with the bay hand was the pommel of a sword; though I blocked it, the impact made my hand throb.

  "Who... ah...!"

  Turning around to see who iemple would dare attack me, I found the young Saintess looking shocked by the situation, apanied by her female knight guard, who was obviously the one who had struck.

  "Lady Jenny, why did you do that?"

  "No, I'm sorry, my dy."

  I had nearly blurted out something bsphemous in front of the Saintess, who is sidered a diviermediary, but luckily the knight intervened, and I let out a sigh of relief instead of getting angry.

  "But... weren't you busy?"

  Already feeling a tingliion on my skin, I realized I o be careful with every word, feeling the tension in my body.

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