Chapter 194
When Franz opened his eyes, the world was already brightly lit.
Judging by the lessened fatigue in his body, he had definitely slept. But wasn’t his mind fresh from meeting the Goddess? The thought of wanting to sleep again filled his head.
After tossing and turning in bed for a while, Franz eventually failed to fall back asleep and sat up.
Sleep eluded him because his body wasn’t tired, and moreover, there were far too many things weighing on his mind.
“I need to check on the Magic Tower members, and I also have to find out what happened to Hera.”
There was still quite a bit of time left until the Magic Tower members were supposed to gather. So, he just needed to solve the latter problem first.
Getting up right away, Franz left the room, but surprisingly, solving the problem wasn’t easy.
'I don’t know where Hera is…'
Normally, he would have been able to detect Hera’s mana wavelength and pinpoint her location immediately.
But in the end, wasn’t that only possible by using mana?
In his current state, where he couldn’t even draw out mana, let alone use magic, it was impossible.
“Still, you never know…”
Franz directed his steps toward the quarters where the Clerics, specifically the nuns, resided.
Since it was a place where only women lived, he couldn’t help but be cautious.
It wasn’t as if romance or marriage was forbidden by the doctrines of the Goddess Church, but…
The Clerics voluntarily distanced themselves from such desires to protect their pure hearts toward the divine.
Simply put, the nuns' dormitory was an absolute no-men-allowed zone.
That fact did not change, even for a Saint, no, even for the Pope.
Eventually arriving near the nuns' dormitory, Franz began to peek around and look for Hera.
His heart pounded, making him feel like he was committing a sin for no reason. Not that he had any intention of peeping, of course.
It was then.
Creaaak-.
Suddenly, the window right next to him opened with a loud noise.
“Yaaawn, I’m so tired.”
The person who let out that sluggish sound while yawning was none other than Yusti-ah.
Naturally, Franz’s gaze was directed at her.
Belatedly, Yusti-ah also spotted Franz and met his eyes.
Blink, blink-.
They stared blankly at each other for a moment, and the first to react was Yusti-ah.
“Wh-wh-what are you doing here?!”
Yusti-ah was startled and covered her body with both hands. She was embarrassed because she was wearing thin pajamas.
“I’m looking for Hera.”
Unlike Yusti-ah, Franz was merely dry and matter-of-fact.
Just how many times did she think he had seen her in her pajamas anyway?
He had seen her in much more revealing states several times, so mere pajamas felt like a joke.
With Franz acting so brazenly, Yusti-ah ended up feeling awkward instead.
“I-is that so? If it’s Hera, she’s in the next room.”
“Thanks. More importantly, you look tired, so get some more sleep.”
“I think you need to sleep more than I do…”
“I tried to sleep a bit more, but it didn’t work out.”
“Is that so… Anyway, wait there for a moment. I’ll call Hera for you.”
Yusti-ah disappeared inside, leaving the window wide open.
It wasn’t long before Hera came outside.
“Franz, I heard you were looking for me.”
“Yeah, I was. But you…”
Hera was wearing clothes that nuns would typically wear. It was the black habit one would commonly imagine.
The sight was both fascinating and bizarre, leaving him at a loss for words.
“I-is it strange by any chance…?”
Hera asked in a voice full of worry.
Along with that, her long ears drooped downward.
“No, it looks fine. I was just a bit surprised, that’s all.”
Hera probably had no other choice either. The clothes she had been wearing were turned to rags from the battle with the Demon God.
Arian had cast a spell to clean them, but restoring the clothes was a problem on a different level.
“More importantly, is your body okay? If I had my way, I’d want to lay you down and nurse you day and night.”
“I’m doing all right.”
Of course, that didn’t mean he was perfectly fine.
It felt like a cracked glass bead wrapped tightly in tape, so to speak.
He was somehow holding his mana core together with divine power.
Anyway, that wasn’t what was important right now.
“Hera, did something happen when we were fighting the Demon God?”
“Something minor happened, but it’s nothing to worry about.”
Hera spoke calmly and offered a smile, but it wasn’t hard to tell that there was no sincerity mixed into that smile.
It seemed she really didn’t want to talk about it…
Sorry, but that wasn’t going to fly.
“Keeping secrets from your Master, I see…”
“W-well, you see, it’s really nothing major…”
Flustered, Hera began to ramble on.
As if to express her feelings, her ears flapped up and down, and her eyes shook violently.
“If it’s nothing major, tell me.”
Franz’s voice was firm, as if he had grabbed her leash and refused to let go.
He didn’t particularly want to be her Master, but shouldn’t he use that at times like this?
Besides, the World Tree had personally asked him to.
“The truth is…”
With her shoulders slumped, Hera began to speak in a low voice.
“When you were unconscious, a crisis happened. It was truly a foolish thing. It was no different from throwing away the opportunity you risked your life to create…”
Franz’s prediction that victory couldn’t be guaranteed had been correct.
Even in an incomplete state, the Demon God was that overwhelming of an existence.
“I sacrificed my lifespan to the Spirit King. It was better than dying right there, after all.”
“…How much?”
“Sixty years…”
For an Elf, a long-lived species, sixty years was a somewhat bearable amount of time.
Franz was about to feel relieved.
“…is what I have left. I sacrificed everything else.”
His relief vanished, his heart dropping with a thud.
“Franz, I know you’ll feel guilty, so I’ll say this in advance. I do not regret it. Even if I went back to that moment, I would make the same choice. From deciding to follow you, to sacrificing my lifespan - all of it. So please, act as you normally do.”
He was already feeling guilty as it was, so how did she know his heart so well?
Naturally, there was no option to refuse. That was the way to show respect to her, who had sacrificed her lifespan.
“…And it’s not like there are only bad points.”
“There’s a good point to having your lifespan shortened…?”
“Th-that is something you don’t need to know…! Anyway, I’ve told you everything, so I’ll be going now…!”
Hera hurriedly turned around and went into the nuns' dormitory.
The long ears poking out through her green hair were dyed red, but Franz failed to notice.
Franz was blankly staring at the spot where Hera had disappeared.
“Sigh…”
Suddenly, a sound came from behind him.
Turning his head, he saw Yusti-ah, who had changed into her Saintess attire at some point.
Resting her chin on one hand, she was wearing a sullen expression for some reason.
“Is something wrong?”
“Not really? I was just thinking that everyone goes through a lot of trouble because of a certain idiot.”
“…Me?”
“I never said it was you, though?”
…Then who else is here besides me.
Swallowing those words inwardly, Franz shrugged and brushed it off.
He didn’t even have the energy to argue right now.
“Ah, right. His Holiness the Pope will call for you later.”
He didn’t even need to ask to know what the summons was about.
He definitely wanted to hear about the battle against the Demon God.
“From where to where do I even have to explain this…”
From the damn hologram to Mistilteinn and becoming a demigod, with such complicated circumstances tangled together, it was truly a troubling situation.
“Ah, here he comes.”
Franz turned his head, following Yusti-ah’s gaze.
There stood a paladin clad in armor.
“Saint, Saintess, His Holiness the Pope is calling for you.”
“Yes, we’ll go right away.”
The paladin took the lead, and Franz followed behind him.
Yusti-ah, who had come out of the dormitory at some point, naturally joined Franz.
The corridor, bathed in golden sunlight from the large windows, exuded a deeply sacred atmosphere.
Passing through that corridor, they arrived at a place even Franz was visiting for the first time.
“He is waiting inside.”
The paladin’s guidance ended there.
He bowed his head in greeting and immediately disappeared.
It was a situation where he would meet the Pope just by passing through the wooden door in front of him.
Phew-.
Franz let out a short sigh to drive away his tension and pushed the door open.
“You’ve arrived.”
It was a space completely covered in religion-related books.
A square table sat in the center, and in front of it, the Pope was brewing tea.
“Please, sit comfortably. I brewed the tea myself, so I hope it suits your taste.”
Franz realized something.
All the high-ranking figures in this world had a hobby of torturing people with tea.
“Excuse me, then.”
Of course, having been trained through the emperor’s torture, Franz had some level of immunity to it.