Chapter 15
Chapter 15: And Then She Got Taken Again……
Early the next morning, Lilu pried herself up from the bed, every inch of her body aching and heavy. She stared at the room with a bewildered expression—it looked as though a storm had blown through. Her clothes and Fred's clothes were scattered everywhere, and the extensive damp patches across the bedsheets seemed to speak for themselves.
Wuuu wuuu wuuu—she'd been taken again!
Lilu looked up at the ceiling, her dead-eyed gaze passing straight through it, seeming to see the Goddess on the other side wearing a mocking expression—as if to say: you cannot escape the palm of my hand, hehehe.
"You wretched Goddess…… how…… how could you do this to me?"
Holding back tears, Lilu groped her way to the edge of the bed and tried to get down. She felt as though her waist was about to snap clean in two, and she was sticky all over from head to toe. She cast a glance at Fred lying beside her with a thoroughly satisfied look on his face, and her first instinct was to punch him—but she looked at her own pale, soft little hands, then looked at Fred's two chiseled pectorals and perfect Eight-pack Abs, and three words floated up in her mind: can't beat him.
She let out a long, defeated breath. Lilu's head gradually cleared, and fragments of the previous night drifted back to her. Although it had hurt at the very beginning, as waves of overwhelming pleasure crashed over her one after another, her consciousness—already clouded by the alcohol—had sunk completely into it, until at the very end she had given in entirely and was simply craving more. To summarize: a girl's body was truly something else. She'd only been through it twice, and she was already addicted.
Wuuu wuuu wuuu—this had gone beyond a matter of staying clean!
Goddess, just drop dead!
Moving with the ease of someone who'd done it before, Lilu found her way to the bathroom and hurriedly washed up. She slipped quietly back into the room, picking up her clothes one by one, piling them together and using Purification Arts to strip away every stain, then put them all back on. The overwhelming sensation still hadn't fully faded—Lilu's cheeks were tinged with a faint flush and the tips of her ears were red. She had every intention of making a quick escape to somewhere quiet to collect herself, but looking at Fred lying bare on the bed, she hesitated for a moment before walking over and draping the thin blanket over him.
Sigh—she couldn't help it. Not because she had gone soft—but because this man was simply far too handsome. On top of that, his perfectly sculpted physique that could only be described as a work of art, and the formidable power of his Holy Sword—Lilu's cheeks flushed pink again. Why, though? It hadn't been all that long ago that she was still a boy!
Just as Lilu was about to sneak away, a large hand suddenly seized her wrist. Lilu flinched and turned around, involuntary tears welling up in her eyes.
When Fred opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Lilu's pair of moist, glistening eyes—crystal clear, like those of a dazed little fawn. Fred's heart skipped a beat. He found himself, to his own embarrassment, genuinely moved. His Holy Sword, which had already completed its mission, was stirring with renewed intent. He unobtrusively propped up his left leg beneath the thin blanket—that way it wouldn't be noticed. At eighteen years old, an Elf Race member was legally an adult by the Empire's laws—and yet the way Lilu looked was simply too adorable, which stirred a flicker of guilt about his own desires. Though not a very large flicker.
"Fred…… um…… I……"
Lilu had completely lost her composure by now. She could feel the warmth radiating from the hand holding her, and the little fawn in her heart began leaping about in a panic again. Her rational mind told her: you were a boy not that long ago—you've been taken twice already, are you really going to keep sinking further? But another voice murmured in her ear: sink into desire—become my faithful servant.
The Goddess! It had to be the Goddess tempting her! That indecent Goddess was trying to turn her into a fallen Holy Maiden with nothing in her head but depravity! Anchored by her hatred for the Goddess, Lilu managed to claw her rational mind back—but her eyes went almost imperceptibly red, and in Fred's view, this only made her look even more pitifully endearing.
"Lilu—don't go!"
"We…… I mean…… " the words of refusal got stuck in Lilu's throat. "What I mean is…… what I want to say is……"
Fred leaned in and kissed her directly on the lips, then pushed her firmly down onto the bed.
"Lilu, you're too adorable—I can't hold back anymore."
"Fred, wait—ah, it hurts!"
That first moment really did hurt. Lilu let two wide rivers of aggrieved tears run down her face, hands gripping the bedsheets tightly……
As a result, it was not until evening that Lilu finally made it back to the Church, utterly exhausted, her waist feeling as though it might snap at any moment. Aernis simply scooped her up and carried her, occasionally giving her a gentle teasing poke along the way. Lilu rested her little head against the muscle on the side of Aernis's shoulder, which was, for some reason, a little uncomfortable to press against.
"Lilu, how did things go with Fred? Have you decided to join our party?"
"Damn it……"
Just thinking about it brought two wide rivers of tears streaming down Lilu's face. She had meant last night to lay her cards on the table with Fred—to use the fact that they were different races to turn him down properly, and break things off between them completely from that point on. But the words that reached her lips had come out as "do with me as you please." And the result of having said those words was that she now couldn't even walk steadily.
Damn it, damn it! It was all the Goddess's fault!
***
Southern Empire. Holy Capital—Central Sanctuary.
A white temple rose above the surface of a deep blue lake. A forest of Gothic spires and domes formed a magnificent architectural complex, constructed almost entirely from white marble, set at the very center of the lake.
Inside this white temple, a network of small canals crisscrossed in every direction, carrying clear water that shimmered with light—almost entirely pure, like the legendary Holy Water of scripture. Pilgrims who had come to pay their devotion wore gray robes, their faces concealed beneath hoods, and were led by temple acolytes along the sweeping grand corridors at a measured pace toward the Great Sanctuary at the temple's very heart.
They passed by a Cardinal of stately, commanding bearing. The acolytes and pilgrims came to a stop one after another to offer their reverence. The Cardinal smiled and nodded—but the moment he turned his back, the amiable smile was replaced by a cold, expressionless face.
In a garden where flowers bloomed in full, the Cardinal came to a stop. He gazed straight ahead at the Goddess Statue at the garden's center—the marble-carved Goddess wore a look of sorrowful compassion, like a benevolent deity who held all creation in her heart—but the Cardinal's lips curved into a faint, contemptuous smile, his eyes brimming with disdain.
"Your Eminence, a Holy Maiden Class holder has appeared."
A faint, disembodied voice drifted from behind him. The Cardinal showed little sign of surprise. As the foremost of the Holy Light Faction's three Cardinals, he had little concern for what went on in the Goddess Faction's affairs. The Holy Maiden was the one exception.
"Oh—where?"
"Bedrock Town."
The Cardinal thought for a moment, and only with some effort dug the name out from the depths of his memory.
"Is that not in the northwestern part of the Empire? I recall there's a dungeon nearby—only rated C."
"That is correct, Your Eminence."
After several seconds of thought, a cold smile formed at the corner of the Cardinal's lips.
"Dispatch an Executor. Kill the false Holy Maiden."
"But……" the shadow hesitated, "the Holy Maiden is with the Hero……"
The Cardinal let out a profanity so foul it made even the shadow wince.
"A Hero and a Holy Maiden—has the Mechanism of Fate been activated again? Damn Goddess—just how many lives do you intend to sacrifice before you're satisfied! What an absolute outrage!"
The shadow said nothing, waiting for its orders.
"Quietly pass this information to Molay. That fanatic won't disappoint me."
"As you command."
The shadow vanished. The Cardinal turned and walked out of the garden, leaving the compassionate Goddess Statue behind him.