LRAB Page 288
Page 288
"...Never mind, it's already pretty much polluted."
He recalled Jennifer's previous mention of the offering book, and a wave of despair washed over him, a sense of hopelessness that the God of Light was beyond saving. He looked down at his ring in despair, twirling it around, feeling the subtle metallic roughness against his skin, and muttered:
"I wonder what I can sacrifice... The Pope just handed over divine magic to me like this, isn't that a bit too childish!"
"You can sacrifice whatever you like!"
Jennifer swung her leg, stood up, tossed the pillow into Latis's arms, and, while curiously looking at the room's furnishings, corrected him, saying:
"Actually, through repeated attempts, I discovered that during sacrifices, the God of Light receives more of the will that people entrust to the offerings. The form and content certainly have some influence, but it's not entirely based on the content. For example, I once sacrificed a bunch of books of various themes together, and in the end, I found that the ones accepted by the God of Light were only my favorites..."
"Is there such a thing?"
Latis scratched his head, thought for a moment, picked up the Epper fruit pit he had eaten earlier from the trash can, and while using his consciousness to activate the sacrificial magic in his ring, he said:
"Then I'll give it a try."
"Hey, even if that's the case, sacrificing leftover Eper Fruit is way too much! The God of Light isn't all-powerful..."
Before Jennifer could finish speaking, a flash of white light appeared on Latis's ring, and then the Epper kernel in her hand vanished instantly.
"Yes...yes, yes." She stammered, repeating herself twice, a puzzled expression on her face. After a moment of thought, she scratched her head as if she had finally figured it out, and sighed:
"Lazi, you really do like Amberfruit, don't you?"
“...Jennifer is so smart.”
Latis, with a stern face, patted Jennifer's head. Suddenly, a divine power of light, emanating from the heavens and earth, slowly gathered in the room and then merged into Latis's body.
"This is... it seems the God of Light has given me a faint divine spell in return, and its effect is..." He sensed the presence of that divine power and said uncertainly:
"A halo of clarity?"
"Aura of Clarity... seems to be a mid-tier support divine spell."
Jennifer touched her chin, feeling her mind become clearer under the slight activation of divine power. With this benefit, she quickly recalled the effect of the "Clarity Aura" from her memories.
"It is indeed a mid-level support spell. As a combat-oriented knight, I didn't choose this... Its effect is to temporarily eliminate the influence of the physical senses of allies within range on their thinking. It is suitable for situations where knights are in a state of mental dullness due to injury during battle..."
“It’s a very useful divine spell.” Latis nodded. Although he realized that the effect of this divine spell would only last for less than a day, it was practically a free buff since only one Epper core was sacrificed.
“…But isn’t it a bit too easy for the God of Light to eat even the fruit pits!” Jennifer muttered, sitting back on the bed. With her thoughts now slightly sharper, she raised her hand as if suddenly remembering something and said:
"By the way, there's one more thing."
"what?"
"My divine power can transform between light and darkness."
Jennifer scratched her head, seemingly not quite understanding the situation. She stretched out her hand, conjuring a ball of pure light. With a slight movement of her divine power, the light was tinged with black.
"In short, I haven't had a chance to experiment yet." She used her divine power to remove the wisp of darkness from the sphere of light, and then said:
"The Pope studied this dark power and found that its nature was actually similar to pure light, so let's call it pure darkness for now. He guessed that if I were to completely transform my divine power into dark power, I might stay in that state for a while and not be able to turn back, because the way light power and dark power operate is not quite the same. The first complete transformation might only be possible after the body has adapted."
"I see." Latis, who had been somewhat tense, breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing there were no negative consequences. He stroked his chin and asked, puzzled:
"Then why don't you experiment with your dark form in the Holy City?"
Jennifer raised an eyebrow, gave a cold snort, and did not answer.
stare--
"?"
Latis paused for a moment, looking at the expression on Jennifer's face, his mind racing under the effect of the "Clarity Aura".
“A complete transformation takes time, and there will be a period of time after you turn into your dark form that you can’t revert back. You rushed back right after the meeting, which clearly shows you didn’t want to waste any time…”
He looked at Jennifer's increasingly angry face, remained silent for a moment, and then said guiltily:
"Because you missed me."
"Hey you stinky bastard, take this! Drink up!"
Jennifer flew off the bed with a whoosh and headbutted Latis hard in the chest with a rocket-shaped headbutt.
The ill-fated chair let out a numb, mournful cry in the collision, and once again shattered into pieces.
……
After playing around for a while, Jennifer excitedly ran off to cook dinner with Frico. In the meantime, while Atelier was still away, she was determined to dominate the room.
Latis still harbored doubts about Miss Hines's practical abilities, but under the influence of her "clarity aura," she didn't voice them.
It's really useful; it's a godsend for straight men.
He sat cross-legged on the ground, repairing the poor chair with alchemy while pondering Jennifer's last words before she went downstairs.
Aside from the issues discussed at the meeting, the Church of Light also discovered a more serious problem: the incident involving Gita, a good friend of Leafa, Jennifer's new apprentice.
Gita comes from the Bernard family, a local noble family in the Wilderness Territory. This family originally had a good reputation in the Wilderness Territory, and the previous heads of the family were all ambitious and enterprising types.
However, in the past two years, the living standards of ordinary people under the Bernard family's rule have plummeted, to the point that some have even fled to the Church of Light. When the Pope heard about these events, he initially took them as normal rise and fall of a noble family, but what happened to Geeta suddenly sounded an alarm for him.
After completing her pre-knight training in the spring and summer, Gita set off for home. However, whether it was because the changing of the seasons in the Wilderness Territory came earlier this year or for some other reason, she unexpectedly encountered commoners being enslaved and controlled by the patriarch. Out of the righteous spirit of a pre-knight, she immediately resisted, but was severely suppressed by a group of cunning villains wearing black hats.
Gita couldn't recount the final outcome herself, only gleaning speculative answers from the priests' reassuring inquiries. They speculated that a sharp and intense internal struggle had triggered the divine mark left on her by the God of Light, causing her to kill all those she perceived as malicious oppressors.
The God of Light would not offer misleading guidance, and Geeta herself knew this. So she honestly bore all the conflicting emotions about right and wrong in her heart. With this mindset, she gradually fell into the path of the Dark Knight and was eventually taken away by Holnet.
The issue concerning Gita is not yet on Latis's shoulders; the problem between the nobles and the Black Hats is something the Pope did not publicly address even at the core meetings.
Admittedly, the livelihood of the people in the Wilderness Territory is a matter that the Church of Light cannot ignore, but they have no right to govern matters related to the nobility, since this is, after all, the Kingdom of Norard, not the Kingdom of Light.
Although the Holy City is independent of the kingdom's political system, it cannot be easily overthrown. This can be seen from the fact that the knights' principles are based on independent will. The Church of Light is unwilling to be subordinate to the royal family. Once they overstep the boundaries of the government, the situation will be completely different.
Latis also knew that the Church of Light, which did not actually have gods, was essentially a folk organization that could not interfere in matters concerning nobles. He did not know much about the Bernard family this time, but he had dealt with the Black Hat organization many times. Moreover, judging from Torso's Black Hat badge, the Black Hat organization actually had deep ties with the royal family.
What is the relationship between Queen Whiteley's royal family and the Black Hat organization? The Kingdom of Norard stands at the top of the entire Atlantic continent thanks to its magic network and powerful magic, while the Black Hats' agenda seems to be to destroy the existing magic network. How do they coexist?
Latis couldn't help but recall the "Magic Network Landing Campaign" that the Queen had launched at the end of the last simulation, and how, during the annual mission, he had discovered through the time-space flow that the mysterious woman who appeared to be the Queen was actually the one who came to track him down in the end...
A thought suddenly occurred to him: the Black Hat organization might be on the same side as the Queen!
Although it sounds incredibly sensational—that an evil organization disrupting the kingdom's order is on the same side as Her Majesty the Supreme Queen—Latis currently feels that this is the most plausible possibility.
"Noble...Queen...Black Hat."
Latis muttered to himself, feeling as if an impenetrable net stretched across the sky above the Kingdom of Norard, and that he would inevitably crash into it as he continued to move forward with time.
"I must strike first."
His gaze gradually hardened. For his own future and that of the girls, he was determined to venture into the lion's den to find out what was going on. After making this decision, the next question was how to enter the circle of nobles.
"...Perhaps this could help advance Principal Zerris's diplomatic plans. If I remember correctly, I'll receive a noble title after the first phase of diplomatic negotiations, so my immediate priority is to rise to a higher rank as soon as possible and urge Old Deng to get to work..."
Latis stroked his chin, still feeling that this direction was a bit too time-consuming, but he didn't have any better ideas at the moment, so he had to settle on this strategy for the time being.
"Anyway, let's have dinner first!"
He stood up, yawned, stretched, walked to the door, and opened it.
"oops!"
As the door opened, a petite figure cried out in surprise and stumbled in from outside. Latis was startled, but reacted quickly and caught the person in his arms.
"Big, big brother..."
The heavy backpack fell to the ground with a thud, and the petite figure struggled for a moment before raising its head in a panic. It was a robin.
Seeing herself safely nestled in Latis's arms, she breathed a sigh of relief. After hesitating for a moment, she tugged at Latis's sleeve, lowered her head, and said in a voice barely audible:
"Big brother... um, I came here... to have you check my body..."
Chapter 291 The Robin's Confession
A physical exam?!
Latis was taken aback, then immediately remembered that the robin seemed to have mentioned something like that before. Perhaps she was harboring some new feelings in this new life, and she seemed to have finally embarked on the path of awakening her abilities and differentiating herself.
This differentiation means that the little bird is finally going to figure out her gender. However, she is not sure which direction she is differentiating in, so she comes to ask Latis for help to check.
'It seems the little bird isn't quite sure about its desires for the future yet; this child is still shy!'
Latis shook his head, looked at the robin's slightly nervous face, pondered for a moment, and sighed.
"Although it would seem more appropriate for Jennifer to do this here, it might be a bit too much of a blow to the little bird..."
Perhaps because the robin was still young, her thoughts were easy for Latis to understand. First of all, she trusted Latis, Artemis, and Yashutia, who were her family. Secondly, she harbored many vague feelings in her heart, a point that Latis had also deeply felt in the previous simulation.
In short, only he can do this.
Under the influence of the "Aura of Clarity," Latis felt that his intelligence had made a huge leap.
"Damn it, what do you mean by a leap forward? It's just that as men, we suppress our intelligence too much..."
He muttered something to himself, then patted the robin's head and said:
"Little bird, why don't you sit on the bed first?"
"Okay..." Robin couldn't help but lower her head and rub her clothes, take a deep breath, put down her schoolbag and walked towards the bed.
Latis peeked out of the door, looked around, listened for a while, and, after confirming that Jennifer and the others were still downstairs making dinner with great enthusiasm, breathed a sigh of relief, went back inside, and locked the door.
"Little bird, we..."
He turned around, intending to give Robin a proper lesson on gender, when he saw that she had already taken off her shoes and was sitting on the bed. Her thick pantyhose were folded and placed aside, and her hand was on the waistband of her skirt, hesitantly pulling it down.
"and many more!"
Latis was taken aback and quickly raised his hand, shouting:
"Wait...wait a bit before you take it off!"
……
"First of all, this is what a woman looks like. You see, it has this structure..."
Latis explained as he drew on a blank scroll:
"Normally, everyone's will be different..."
"Wow...oh! How amazing!"
The robin knelt on the bed, her face filled with curiosity as she listened to Latis's popular science lecture. Watching Latis expertly draw diagram after diagram with his quill pen, she couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: