Chapter 127 - Fever

-System Message

▶ You are handling the Side Quest smoothly.

▶ A reward related to ‘miracles’ is available.

▶ Speak with ‘Morrigan’ to claim this reward.

▶ This reward is highly likely to affect the target’s affection. Good luck!

-System Message

▶ ‘???’ is pleased with you.

▶ This target’s affection is already at maximum.

▶ You cannot copy the target’s skills.

▶ A ‘Skill Enhancement Ticket’ will be awarded as an alternative reward.

▶ You can enhance a skill you already possess.

... That was a lot of text.

But there was clearly nothing there he could afford to overlook.

Above all, an explicit instruction to claim a reward through ‘conversation’ surely meant...

‘... Wait.’

Hadn’t similar rewards appeared for Katya and Noel before?

It felt as though his relationships with them had changed drastically from that point onward.

Noel’s Bond had changed to Utter Infatuation, and Katya’s to Obsession.

Did this mean his relationship with Morrigan might change that way too?

“...”

... Hmm.

Come to think of it, unlike those two, with whom he had been through some major incidents, he didn’t yet have that sort of history with Morrigan.

Surely not.

More importantly, there was the message below it.

Aiden narrowed his eyes as he quietly scanned the window.

Come to think of it, hadn’t a similar window appeared before?

The one saying he couldn’t copy skills because the target’s affection was already at maximum.

‘... Why, though?’

Unless the target had known him for a long time, their affection couldn’t possibly reach its maximum all at once.

Actually, he couldn’t even imagine what sort of relationship with him would qualify as maximum affection in the first place.

Unlike last time, though, he had received an alternative reward.

‘An enhancement ticket...’

Being able to obtain something like this certainly wasn’t bad.

He would have to use it to find out how much it enhanced a skill, but considering how effective his skills were, the mere ability to enhance them made it hard to call this a bad reward.

That aside, he wasn’t entirely happy about seeing a window like this.

Whatever the circumstances, gaining affection merely by resolving the situation meant that someone unknown was watching him even now.

He could take a positive view of the fact that they liked him, but it was exceedingly difficult to think well of someone who kept scheming behind the scenes.

“... Heave-ho.”

Anyway, he could take his time thinking through all that later.

It wasn’t easy to sit still inside a dragon’s mouth while his whole body grew wetter by the second.

Covered in blood and saliva, Aiden wriggled out of its maw and saw people rushing toward him with horrified expressions.

“Hey, are you all ri—!”

“What were you thinking, doing—!”

Remarks somewhere between scolding and concern poured out without pause, but Aiden ignored them and kept walking.

As everyone stared at him in bewilderment, he came to a stop before the commoner student struck by the dragon’s breath earlier.

“...”

He quietly gritted his teeth.

The people around him seemed to understand what he was thinking. They merely watched him in silence.

With a sigh, the Pontiff swept back her hair and addressed him.

“It’s not your fault.”

“... I know.”

“I said it’s not your fault.”

“... Yes. I know.”

“Then why the hell do you look like that?”

Of course, he wasn’t the one who had killed this student. He wasn’t to blame for this.

And yet.

He probably felt responsible because he knew he wouldn’t have had to see this if he had only done a little better.

His face shadowed, he looked down at the student, whose consciousness was fading away.

In truth, the student had long since lost consciousness. Strictly speaking, this was already a corpse.

‘... Saving them...’

Was a distant prospect.

Of course, he had healing skills such as Flame of Regeneration, but those were strictly a form of ‘healing.’

They clearly weren’t powerful enough to miraculously regenerate a person whose vital functions were on the verge of stopping altogether.

However remarkable a skill or miracle might be, reviving the dead was a domain that required borrowing a god’s authority.

There was nothing he could do.

Nothing—

-System Message

▶ You can enhance ‘Skill: The First Vow: Revised.’

▶ Would you like to enhance it? [ Y / N ]

“...?”

Aiden stared blankly at the window that appeared.

... No, wait.

The message had appeared before him with exquisite timing, as though it had read his thoughts.

As though enhancing this skill would give him something he could do.

That was the impression it gave him.

“...”

And Aiden was a man who placed a great deal of trust in intuition.

The ticket might allow only a single enhancement, but he could find some way to earn another later. Another opportunity was bound to come along.

But if he didn’t use it right now, someone would die before his eyes.

So.

He accepted the instant the message appeared, and the window began flashing with golden light.

-System Message

▶ ‘Skill: The First Vow: Revised’ is being enhanced.

▶ Analyzing the qualities of your divinity.

▶ Your divinity is being refined to more closely resemble that of ‘the first seeker.’

▶ Upon fulfilling certain conditions, you can communicate directly with a god.

-System Message

▶ The god of purification watches over you.

▶ You have achieved ‘Spirit Invocation’ three or more times. A new entry has been added to ‘Weaver of Fate’!

As the messages appeared, he felt divinity being forcibly drawn out of his body.

Immediately afterward, a small ball of fire floated before his eyes like a will-o’-the-wisp.

‘... Huh.’

Aiden’s eyes widened at the familiar feeling emanating from it.

This was definitely...

Similar to what he had felt upon seeing the flame at the Grand Temple’s altar, where the first divinity was kept—

“... A divine presence?”

Before he could finish that thought, the Pontiff beside him murmured those words in a daze.

At that very moment, the little flame flashed gold and began taking human form.

Without a doubt, it was the same feeling as when Aiden had burned himself at the altar.

The feeling of Sier, the god of purification, manifesting.

“What, again, what the—fuck! How many times are you going to invoke a god in such a short time?!”

“... What? Invoke a god?”

“None of you can see her form, I imagine. But I can feel her. The god of purification is here right now?”

The Pontiff answered Morrigan’s dazed question in a voice that, most unusually for her, sounded as though her sanity were cracking apart. Aiden was no less astonished.

‘... Were gods always this easy to summon?’

Sure, most things restricted to a single use boasted absurd power, but he hadn’t imagined this would bring an actual deity down to the mortal realm again.

Weren’t they beings who could only be summoned under special conditions, like the Lord Protector’s Remnant or a sacred altar...?

“...?”

While he was thinking that, Sier tapped her cheek and looked back and forth between Aiden and the student on the ground, who was about to cross the river into death.

[—]

Silently stroking her chin, she soon nodded as though she understood the situation.

Then she bent low, tilted her head, and stared at Aiden without a word.

“...”

[...]

“...”

[...]

Wait.

She seemed to understand what he wanted to do, but she was giving off the impression that she wouldn’t do it for nothing.

He couldn’t begin to guess what she wan—

‘... No, hold on.’

Watching Sier smile at him, Aiden suddenly had a thought.

He had never done this before, but instinctively, he thought he understood what she wanted.

... She looked exactly like Katya, so if he imagined she was Katya...

He did have an idea. Katya had done similar things a few times.

This.

Was that.

... She wanted him to praise her.

“...”

Uh, hold on.

Was he allowed to praise the god of purification like that?

Could he treat a god of the pantheon the way he always treated Katya...?

“K-kgh, cough.”

While he was thinking that, the student on the ground coughed up bloody phlegm. Their body trembled, too. They were truly on the verge of their last breath...

Startled, Aiden blurted out the words on reflex.

“... You look even cuter than usual today.”

“...”

“...”

Spirit Invocation.

A god was here in person, and he was spouting things like that. He could see the people around him gaping in horror.

Some of them looked close to passing out...

“... Y-you, what are you saying to the god of purifi—”

As the Pontiff spoke in disbelief, Sier smiled brightly and bent down, bringing her ear a little closer to Aiden.

It seemed to be her way of saying that wasn’t enough. Apparently, she needed something stronger...

“... Yes, you’re the best.”

The god of purification nodded as if to say, Yes, yes.

“... I can always depend on you. I have faith in you.”

She even clapped, as though saying, That’s right, that’s right.

But she still showed no sign of acting.

... Then he had no choice but to hit her with something as potent as he could think of.

Aiden squeezed his eyes shut. His face was burning red with embarrassment.

“... I like you. I’m always thinking about you.”

Hearing that, Sier covered her face and turned away shyly, with a gesture that would have perfectly suited an excited squeal.

And finally.

The golden flames composing Sier’s body lost their shape and began moving as if they had a will of their own. They swept once over the student lying on the ground.

When the dazzling radiance passed...

The student, who had been a living corpse, was completely restored, without a single wound.

“...”

... He’d saved them.

Thank goodness. Thank goodness, truly...

Aiden repeated that thought to himself.

“...”

“...”

Though, feeling the heavy silence settling over everyone, he also felt as if something else inside him had died.

‘... I saved them, anyway.’

That would have to be enough for now.

He would make himself think of it that way...

▣

... A few hours after that bizarre communion with a god.

Night had fully fallen, and the participants scattered by the dragon’s appearance were gathering in one place to set up camp.

The Black Night rite lasted several days and nights, so everyone had at least brought basic camping supplies.

The problem was...

“... Something is definitely wrong.”

That was the conclusion Aiden reached as soon as he looked around.

Under normal circumstances, the event should have been called off long ago, the moment a ‘real dragon’ appeared out of nowhere to match the original account.

In that light...

No matter how he looked at it, there wasn’t a single member of the Grand Temple’s organizing staff anywhere in sight.

In fact, even if they had been there, he wouldn’t have been able to see them.

True to the name Black Night, their surroundings were blanketed in an unusually pitch-black darkness.

“... It is in the original account.”

The Pontiff narrowed her eyes as she murmured.

“‘A pitch-black night lasted for days on end. The first seeker advanced through that darkness without fear, as though walking through his own home’... That’s what the scripture says.”

“... Are you saying everything happening right now is written in the scripture?”

“Yes. It feels like someone is trying to recreate those events for real.”

The Pontiff spat the words out in front of the crackling firewood.

“Whoever the bastard is, I’ll beat them to death the moment I find them. Pulling this shit on my turf?”

“...”

... What a personality.

Aiden smiled wryly at the thought.

“For now, let’s conserve our strength. We don’t know what else might happen.”

“Yes, we should.”

The Pontiff sighed as she answered.

“... I haven’t quite been myself for a while now.”

“Yes, I thought so.”

Earlier, he had distinctly felt she was struggling. Hadn’t she started running out of stamina partway through?

He was about to ask why when the Pontiff swept back her hair again and continued.

“No, something really is wrong.”

“... Pardon?”

“... I feel a little dizzy.”

“...?”

“It, shouldn’t, have, gotten, this bad, yet—”

With those words...

The Pontiff crumpled to the ground.

“...?!”

Aiden rushed over in alarm and caught her, only to look down at her with a fresh shock.

Her face was flushed bright red, and cold sweat poured off her.

Above all...

Her entire body was burning hot.

“...”

There was clearly something very wrong with her.