Chapter 5 - With Intentions That Impure, It Might as Well Be Black Magic

[Ending (1) Locked]

[I-It's Not Like I'm Saying I Like You, Okay?]

『Out of the blue, the academy's Goddess confessed her love.

It happened before even a single semester had passed since enrollment.

Laward still had plenty of people to meet and things to learn, but decided not to worry about that.

After all, an unbelievably beautiful girl had confessed her love. Wasn't that enough?

Hadn't he fulfilled his life's purpose as a man?

There was no need to mourn the other relationships that had yet to come.

Laward decided to spend the rest of his life with Esther.

But the world came to an end.』

Endings Remaining Until Tier 1 Bonus Unlock: 4

I still had no idea why, but... one ending had been locked.

One of the five endings on Esther's route.

Judging by the ending text, this seemed to be the ending that played when Laward accepted Esther's confession. The earliest ending a player could reach.

And now, an ending that had been locked away.

“... I did it.”

I clenched my fist and let out a long breath.

My decision to sabotage the romance routes had been right after all.

For the first time, I had prevented an ending. Small as the change might be, it was my first step toward defying an immense destiny.

If I kept this up, that damn protagonist wouldn't get together with the heroines. If they stopped caring about romance and grew stronger, we could prevent the apocalypse that turned everything—humans, animals, and monsters alike—into undead.

A zombie apocalypse in a fantasy world. What kind of bizarre end was that?

“Whew.”

I slowly reined in the urge to buy some booze and raise a celebratory toast right this instant.

Only one out of thirty-one. It was too early yet.

Besides, the message that had appeared after the ending text bothered me.

A Tier 1 bonus unlock. Four endings remaining.

This was the first I'd heard of hidden bonuses in the game. Was that because I'd only ever cleared the hidden ending?

What was the bonus reward? And what did “Tier 1” mean?

There were still so many questions. Well, I'd find out naturally as I blocked more endings.

I slipped into a change of clothes and went out into my lodgings' sitting room, where a letter from home awaited me. I recognized it immediately by the seal bearing two crossed spears.

In short, it said:

Our family is participating in this summer's monster subjugation campaign, so it's time you came home.

Ever since returning to the past, I'd spent a long time away from home searching for the protagonist. It was a clear departure from my previous life, when I'd stayed cooped up at home.

The protagonist and the heroines were active in a certain marquess's territory, quite far from the County of Hasgard. Naturally, I'd never come anywhere near here in my previous life.

I could understand Father's concern. Fostering talent was all well and good, but he was probably worried his youngest son might get into trouble so far from home.

I couldn't tell him the details, but I should at least tell him not to worry. I was preparing for everything, from the end of the world to the destruction of our house.

SCRATCH

I began writing my reply. In short, my response amounted to: I'll be back soon, so don't worry.

In particular, I assured him I would return before the Subjugation Festival—the pivotal event that marked the beginning of House Hasgard's downfall.

With that, I added the final period and lifted my pen from the paper.

There was still something I had to do before going back.

Despite being rejected ten times, Esther still seemed to like Laward. More importantly, she hadn't learned healing magic yet.

I had to make her useful before I went home. I'd need a healer for the Subjugation Festival Father had mentioned.

“Healing magic...”

I sighed and leaned back in my chair.

Unfortunately, the academy's magic department didn't teach holy magic.

No. It couldn't.

Holy magic—and healing magic in particular—was the symbol and authority of the Church. Only clergy who had passed the Church's test were qualified to learn healing magic.

It would have been wonderful if I knew healing magic, but the only magic I'd learned was “Enhancement,” a buff spell.

I'd gone all in on a single spell. I hadn't learned healing magic.

The only way to teach Esther was to somehow obtain the spellbook and give it to her.

There were three ways to acquire a Church spellbook: take the Church's test through the proper channels, find one on the black market, or approach a corrupt cleric.

“Hmm.”

I'd go with the first option. I knew what the test involved, and it wouldn't be remotely difficult for me as I was now.

005

I visited a nearby monastery and said I wanted to take the test.

“Brother, it brings me great joy to hear that you will join us on the path of glory.”

The priest who greeted me spoke plainly. Perhaps because of his square jaw, he looked rather stern.

“However, there is one qualification that comes before all others for those who would enter the clergy: a chaste body. Forgive the intrusion, brother, but may I check whether you qualify?”

His words were polite, but what he said was offensive. A “chaste body” was simply his way of asking whether I'd had any “experience.”

Only the wording was restrained. The question itself couldn't have been more blatant.

Had he recognized me as a noble from my clothes? And assumed there was no way a noble could still be chaste?

To someone from the modern world, it was an incredibly tasteless question. But having come here of my own accord, I had no choice but to play along.

“Go ahead.”

At my answer, the priest nodded and stepped closer.

“Then, if you'll excuse me.”

HUM

The priest's right hand shone with pure white light. A moment later, he gently placed that light-wreathed hand on my shoulder.

“...”

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

A spell to check chastity.

I'd been subjected to it a few times in my previous life, but it gave me the creeps every time.

There were two occasions when this spell was used: on prospective clergy, and on one's betrothed.

Apparently, it was almost never used on a betrothed anymore, but shouldn't a spell this horrifying be banned?

I didn't know who had developed it, but with intentions that impure, it might as well be black magic.

It deserved a global ban.

HUMMM

While my thoughts spiraled, the priest's spell continued.

A little later, he exclaimed, “Oh, brother, you qualify! Your body is chaste!”

Well, of course it was. I knew my own experience better than anyone.

But what was this feeling? Why did I feel so offended?

“You are ready to enter the clergy.”

And just like that, I became a Church-certified virgin.

It was still an offensive certification...

“... Hmm?”

Suddenly, the priest's eyebrows arched in surprise.

“How could this be...?”

His eyes visibly wavered.

“Forgive me... but may I ask your age?”

My age? Out of nowhere?

I was twenty-one this year, wasn't I?

“That is... astonishing. Your body holds a chastity deeper than the years you have lived. As though it has lain in a deep sleep for some thirty years...”

Thirty years.

That number rang a bell. Daywin Hasgard was twenty-one, but if I included the time I'd lived in Korea and the five years of my previous life, I was thirty.

My actual age: thirty.

That insane spell had even detected my actual age.

In other words, the priest was saying I'd been chaste for thirty years.

“Brother, you are truly devout... I've never met anyone like you!”

The priest clasped both my hands, his voice brimming with excitement. He didn't stop there; he even called the other clergy over.

“Everyone, look at this brother! We must all follow his example!”

Before I knew it, the monastery's priests had surrounded me. They each placed a hand on my shoulder and cast the spell, then marveled without exception.

“Ah... Such purity...!”

“To preserve such unblemished chastity at an age when all manner of passions rage within... The Goddess has sent you to us, brother...”

“Everyone! Let us pray for our brother!”

It was bad enough having my thirty years of chastity exposed, but now they were praising it as though it were some great achievement.

These demonic bastards...

I'd had no choice! If I gave up my chastity, I'd lose my paladin powers too...

“That should be enough preparation, I trust.”

I irritably brushed the hands off my shoulders.

“I'll take the test now.”

“Ah, yes! Excellent! In fact, I'd very much like you to take it here.”

The priest who had first greeted me clapped his hands in delight.

“Here, take this.”

A little later, he returned with a carefully preserved copy of the scriptures.

“Once you've spent the next two years memorizing the scriptures, you'll be eligible for the test. I wish you well, brother.”

“I don't have time for that.”

“We cannot defy tradition. Or do you mean you will not memorize the scriptures, brother? That will not do. The Goddess said, ‘In the hands of those who do not toil, grace shall...’”

“‘Grace shall not abide. Desire without deeds scatters the seed; only those who act shall reap.’”

As I continued the passage, the priest's eyes flew wide open.

“The Chapter of Abstinence, verse seventeen, isn't it?”

“How...?”

How did I know?

I might not know the other passages, but I'd memorized the Chapter of Abstinence thoroughly.

One morning after joining the paladin order, I'd experienced that... physiological phenomenon any healthy man did, where one particular part of his body rose along with the rest of him.

Unfortunately, the Bishop had caught me and locked me in a punishment cell until I'd memorized the entire Chapter of Abstinence.

Even now, recalling its verses brought that humiliation flooding back.

“Ahem. You do seem to... have memorized the scriptures. V-very well. But you still cannot take the test now. Those two years are not spent merely memorizing scripture. You must also learn to wield divine power during that time.”

The priest spoke emphatically, his expression resolute.

“Even if you have already memorized the scriptures, wielding divine power is an entirely different matter.”

As soon as he finished, the other priests nodded in eager agreement.

“I'll tell you what the test entails. Once you've heard it, you'll understand that it is beyond you for now.”

He rolled up his sleeve and pointed to the bracelet on his right wrist. It was silver, with a cross-shaped charm that swung back and forth as he held out his arm.

An equal-armed cross.

It was the cross of the Goddess's faith, its four arms perfectly even, like a plus sign (+). It gleamed extravagantly for a cleric's accessory.

On the front of the charm was a relief depicting a scene from scripture: the Goddess laying bricks amid ruins.

The tiny charm wasn't even five centimeters long, yet it was carved in minute detail. Clearly, it was the work of a master craftsman.

“The test is to recreate this using divine power. All of it, of course, without leaving out even the tiniest carving.”

The priest removed the bracelet and laid it on his palm.

“For a beginner, it is like sculpting with flowing water. Now, brother, if you begin your studies today, you should be capable of it in two years. Ah, someone as devout as you may manage it sooner.”

He gave me a small, coaxing smile.

“Ha.”

I looked him in the eye and smiled back.

“... Hmm?”

He sounded distinctly flustered, as though he hadn't expected me to smile.

A test of converting mana into divine power and reproducing an intricate ornament.

It certainly wouldn't be easy for a beginner. It demanded such effortless control over divine power that two years seemed an unreasonable time frame.

For Esther, who couldn't even control her mana yet, it was a distant prospect.

But I'd been the commander of a knightly order.

Sure, I'd been fast-tracked through the ranks because my superiors kept dying one after another, but I'd still been the commander.

“Please, sit. Let us begin with the enrollment procedures. Once those are complete, you will live and train at the monastery...”

SNAP

I snatched the bracelet from his hand.

“... Brother?”

Then I stared intently at the cross-shaped charm hanging from it and concentrated for a moment.

I pictured its details in my mind and etched them anew with mana.

RUMBLE

Done.

An ominous rumbling, like storm clouds gathering, came from the roof with its broad expanse of stained glass.

“Huh?”

The priests noticed the thunderous noise too, and just as they looked up at the ceiling—

CRASH!

A gigantic cross-shaped pillar tore through the roof and slammed down.

The shining pillar stood tilted in the middle of the monastery. It wasn't merely showing off its enormous size; it also reproduced every carving on the priest's charm.

No. Its carvings were even more beautiful.

“Uh, uhh...”

The priest's mouth moved sluggishly, as though he'd only just woken up.

“B-brother, what... what is this...?”