Chapter 3
Love everyone and give without reservation.
And be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
According to the doctrine of the Goddess Church.
Saintess Roselyn loved.
More precisely, she loved every story that contained love between people.
Whenever a love-themed play was staged, she was the first to rush over and fangirl in the front row all by herself.
Regardless of the puzzled looks asking why on earth she would read such things, she devoured every kind of erotic novel.
...including even some that were a little more explicit.
To her,
the much-talked-about novel she had finally gotten her hands on after waiting more than a week for a restock, 'Zeus's Love Story,' was supposed to be a welcome rain after a drought.
But.
"I, I, how indecent...!"
She could tolerate the blatant descriptions you would never find in a typical erotic novel.
No, in fact, she liked how nakedly explicit it was.
That's what love is...!
But the problem was the protagonist's setup.
He was the head of the twelve gods of Olympus.
In other words, he held the position of the chief god.
From there, the faintly tangy scent of heresy had already begun to waft up.
Besides, if it had only been mutual love between people, that would have been one thing.
Rape, incest, adultery, even bestiality...
Is this... love...?
Of course, if you looked at it as the process by which other figures in the work, such as Artemis and Athena, came into being, it wasn't all that different from the so-called origin myths people talk about.
Still, this had crossed the line.
Even if the Goddess was a generous deity who encouraged love, depending on how you interpreted it, it was an expression bordering on blasphemy.
How could a chief god act so brazenly while bearing such a title!
And yet.
Roselyn felt deep curiosity about this writer's work.
What if someone other than herself, some other inquisitor, caught him and he ended up with a permanent publication ban?
At worst, what if his wrist were cut off...?
"I have to make him repent...!"
A national loss.
It would be no different from crushing a seedling destined to become a master of erotic fiction...!
Straightening her clothes,
Roselyn opened the very last page of the book and checked the publisher's name.
Fortunately, it was a city nearby.
It was time to bring the lamb back into the Goddess's embrace.
* * *
When I came to,
I was sitting in the confessional booth.
And beyond it...
"Sob, sob, poor Hippolytaaaa...!"
while looking at the draft of the next work confiscated on charges of blasphemy...
the saintess was completely engrossed.
The core of the Heracles story is, of course, the Twelve Labors.
It varies by version, but
after killing his own family in a fit of madness, he had to complete the twelve labors imposed by Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, as atonement.
It was the very essence of a romance-filled adventure tale, but...
The saintess on the other side of the wall skimmed over the adventure bits and was completely absorbed in the scene where he secured the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
"No, no! How can you kill your partner, whom you even allowed to share your bed, so easily? And you still call yourself human? Beast, beast! How insolent!"
...So she's lenient about adultery?
"...It's a novel, Saintess."
The saintess's overinvestment didn't stop there.
In the ending part...
"Waaah, hngh, waaaah...!"
"...Are you all right?"
"You... are a devil..."
She was utterly unable to tear herself away from the salty appeal of Greek-style misery drift.
Meanwhile.
['Olympus Story – Zeus's Love Story' has surpassed 2,000 copies in sales! A bonus skill has been granted!]
[C-rank] [Hermes's Persuasiveness]
[Hermes, one of the twelve chief gods, is the god of messengers, shepherds, and language. In particular, he even once deceived his father, the chief god Zeus, with his eloquence. Like him, you will be able to overcome unfavorable situations through your eloquence.]
[(31 days remaining) 3,000 more copies are needed to obtain the next skill]
[Expected skill: [C-rank] Herm■s's ■■■]
"Oh."
"Sniff, sniff, y-yes?"
"Nothing."
Persuasiveness, eloquence.
I wasn't sure how the ability would work, since the persuasiveness of my words wasn't even something that could be measured numerically.
Anyway, sociability is one of the essential abilities in life, so I had acquired a skill that seemed sure to help.
It felt as though my tongue had become a little softer.
.
.
.
"Ahem, ahem. Let me confirm once more. You're Kim Yul, the author of the novel Olympus Story, correct? Your name is rather unusual."
"Please, just call me Yul."
After a whole bout of fangirling.
The saintess began a formal interrogation.
"Why did you use the expression 'god'? Are you aware that such wording can be interpreted as blasphemy, and even heresy?"
Unlike her earlier frantic antics, a rather solemn voice flowed from beyond the wall.
And.
It seemed to be the effect of the skill──
Even that question, which sharply struck the very point I had originally been worried about, began to make it clear in my head how I should answer to satisfy her.
* * *
After a sermon that went on for more than an hour.
"...Still, please refrain from anything that could be taken too far."
"Of course."
Roselyn had succeeded in guiding Kim Yul onto the right path.
More accurately...
She had been persuaded.
- I borrowed the grand name of a god, but this is ultimately a human story. Chief god Zeus is also a god with thoroughly human traits, and if you look at it from the doctrine of preserving the species, you could even say he was striving to be fruitful and multiply in harsh conditions. Without such behavior, how many of the twelve chief gods who built the world would have remained?
Be fruitful and multiply.
Although the process involved all manner of atrocities, including incest, it still doesn't seem entirely wrong in the end...
- It was a device created to persuade readers of the Olympus setting; from here on, stories centered on humans, like the Heracles story you just read, will unfold. I will never include anything that could undermine the Goddess's authority, so you can rest assured.
At first, Kim Yul had seemed so nervous that the words barely came out in order.
But after I read the draft purely to interrogate Kim Yul for heresy and spoke with Kim Yul again, everything Kim Yul said was extremely valid and reasonable.
At those words, Roselyn could only nod, completely off-balance.
Kim Yul's logic was coherent.
"If there are any problematic parts... I'll revise them as much as possible. And I'll be careful from now on."
He had even shown a willingness to cooperate.
A saintess's duty.
She could say she had done her part in safeguarding the faith.
Today too, she had succeeded in bringing a lost lamb into the Goddess's embrace, and saved the wrist of a future master of erotic fiction!
Of course.
Not every heretic, black mage, or demon worshipper reveals their true colors easily.
...black hair and black eyes.
Appearance alone wasn't enough for her to withdraw her watchful gaze.
But for now, there weren't any suspicious signs.
"Um, Yul-nim."
"Yes?"
"You have talent. From now on, please work hard writing even richer love stories—no, just love stories. No tragedies. Absolutely no sad endings! Happy endings!"
"...Haha."
There was the stick, so now the carrot.
And there was a touch of genuine self-interest mixed in.
"You said you already had a copy anyway, right? Then I'll keep this... no, confiscate it! Ah, before that, could I get your signature here, author?"
After even getting an autograph on the still-unpublished draft of 'The Heroic Tale of Heracles' through the narrow gap.
The saintess stood up, humming to herself.
as she left the confessional booth.
"I saw you had a talent for drawing too. Wouldn't you try drawing as well?"
She belatedly voiced praise for a talent that was a little awkward to compliment in front of a writer.
Of course.
That illustration was, naturally, an AI image Kim Yul had generated with a click.
* * *
The front line where humanity fought unknown enemies: the Demonic Frontier, Makyung.
Rather than the short, intense battles people imagine, it was a place where attritional warfare could drag on so long it sometimes felt boring.
Thus, heroes dispatched to the Makyung often stayed there for long periods—anywhere from a week at the shortest to several months at the longest—depending on mana output.
So proper mental and physical stability for heroes was essential.
And when it came to mental and physical stability, sweet or tasty food and entertainment were, as always, the best.
Porters who crossed back and forth between the Makyung and the human world, handling support for heroes, were such a dangerous profession that an academy had been established separately for them.
"Delivery!"
"Oh! It's here! My pick-me-up!"
The elusive porter's bundle was undone, and all sorts of items came tumbling out onto the floor.
When the tank and ranger grabbed a board game and headed straight for a corner, and the priest and mage started wolfing down snacks right where they sat.
The hero began picking out the books he had requested, one by one, from among the items.
Then.
"The Heroic Tale of Heracles?"
"It's a work by a rookie author who's been gradually gaining popularity in the empire. It was pretty hard to get, hehe."
Intrigued by the porter's banter, the hero opened the book and looked over the table of contents.
"Ooh."
One trial alone would have been a burden, and yet he overcame twelve.
As he flipped through the pages to get a rough sense of the content.
"Huh...?"
The hero's expression hardened.
It was a scene that, for a rookie author, had been rather generously illustrated, but the fact that there was an illustration wasn't the important part.
"Everyone, gather. Now."
The moment the hero's low but resolute voice rang out, the party members gathered around him in an instant.
And then.
"Huh, what's that?"
"Ugh..."
"What is it? Is it perhaps a newly published monster ecology book?"
"I-I hate that one..."
What the illustration depicted was.
The mighty beast that had recently bound their feet and refused to let them advance any farther.
It was almost identical to the White-Faced Demon Dragon, Baekmyeon Gwiryong.
Soon, everyone's gaze, which had been fixed on the illustration, shifted to the text beside it.
"A novel...?"
"A snake whose venomous head regenerates even if cut off, and from the severed head two new heads sprout... the features are similar too."
"Burn it with fire as soon as you cut it off... hey, mage. Can you do that?"
"Hmm... my specialty is ice magic, but I can use basic fire magic. Or I could bring in a scroll."
"Well, the priest has been handling the antidotes all along, so we needn't worry about that part."
If they said they drew strategic inspiration from a novel, someone might laugh.
But since the White-Faced Demon Dragon had stymied them for nearly a month, it was only natural to cling to even the slightest hope.
"Let's try it first. If we can catch even a tiny clue, then even if it's not us... it'll be a hint for our successors."
.
.
.
A week later.
The vicious monster that had devoured three hero parties so far.
News that the White-Faced Demon Dragon had been subjugated for the first time reached the empire.