Farewell Banquet – 4

Groggily, my closed eyes opened. The drunkenness that had enveloped my entire body had long since disappeared. As I tried to sit up, I turned my head at the heavy sensation in both of my arms.

Floretta and Luna were asleep, each using one of my arms as a pillow. As a bonus, they were completely naked, pressing their chests tightly against me and hugging me close.

As the events of last night came to mind, my lower body slowly began to stir.

Trying to maintain my composure, I carefully separated the two of them. I, too, was without a stitch of clothing, just like the Popes.

“Uuung…….”

As the object they had been hugging disappeared, Floretta and Luna made strange noises and flailed their arms. I gently pushed Floretta’s back. The Popes’ bodies clung together.

The two hugged each other tightly, snoring softly, and fell back into sleep. I turned my eyes away from the sight of their nipples gradually hardening between their touching breasts and got out of bed.

It was a ridiculously huge bed. This one bed alone seemed comparable to a decent-sized room.

‘Where did my clothes go?’

I looked around. I needed to go outside, but I couldn’t see where my clothes had gone.

After all, I couldn’t walk around this hallway naked. No matter how confident I was in my size, being treated like an exhibitionist pervert was out of the question.

But no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find the clothes I had taken off. There wasn’t even a towel to cover my body. The only thing I could use to cover myself was the blanket on the bed, but the Popes were currently using it.

I wondered what kind of room this was for; apart from a huge bed and a shower room, everything else was just golden ornaments. It certainly didn’t seem like an ordinary place.

As I stood idly in the middle of the room, unable to do anything and with a troubled expression, the door suddenly flung open.

A woman with golden bobbed hair that reached her collarbones and a woman with a silver ponytail long enough to wrap around her body several times entered.

“Did you rest well last night, Honored Guest-isiyeo?”

“Oh, you woke up quite early, didn’t you? I thought you would still be sleeping.”

It was Stella and Selene.

The two paused as they were about to enter the room, seeing me standing idly in the middle. To be precise, they paused at the sight of my thing, still erected at an almost vertical angle.

Selene, as if jumping up from her spot, hastily covered her face with her hair, and Stella covered her face with her hand.

However, since her fingers were wide open, it was no different from pretending not to see. Her green eyes, peeking out between her fingers, kept glancing at my lower body.

I tried to cover it too, but realizing that due to its size, it was awkward to hide with bare hands no matter what posture I took, I cleanly gave up. To perfectly conceal it, there was no choice but to turn my back.

“Instead of just staring, could you please give me some clothes first? What is there to see that you keep glancing like that?”

“Ah, ahem. Yes, I’m sorry, Honored Guest-nim. You were standing so gallantly that I lost myself for a moment.”

Stella made a remark that was ambiguous to judge what was ‘gallantly standing,’ then approached me and held out the clothes in her hand. I hastily put them on.

As my body was covered, my mind also felt stable.

“Where are the other Knight Commanders?”

“The nuns are taking care of them. They woke up briefly in the middle of the night looking for water, and since then, they’ve been sleeping soundly. Since they drank a whole glass of Moon’s Kiss, they won’t be able to wake up until at least this afternoon, no matter how early.”

“……I drank the same amount, though?”

“You possess divine power, Honored Guest-nim. Why else would Moon’s Kiss be a drink only provided to the faithful?”

Ah, so that’s what it was. At least it was a relief that the worst-case scenario wouldn’t happen.

My worst-case scenario was the Knight Commanders, who woke up first, searching everywhere for me and then finding me and the Popes asleep in the same bed.

As I was sighing in relief inwardly, Stella glanced at Floretta and Luna, who were sleeping tightly hugged together in the bed. A satisfied smile appeared on her face.

“How should I put it, it’s a mix of complex emotions.”

“In what way?”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen the Pope of the Sun sleeping with such a peaceful expression. She always wore a benevolent smile, but when she was asleep, she could never smile. She was either sad or melancholic, one of the two.”

“…….”

“But now she’s sleeping with such a peaceful expression… I should certainly be happy, but tears keep welling up in my eyes.”

Stella, her face devoid of a wistful expression, smiled brightly.

“All of this is thanks to Honored Guest-nim. I keep feeling it, but I can’t thank Honored Guest-nim enough.”

Stella had watched firsthand how much the Pope of the Sun and the Pope of the Moon suffered due to the revelation, so her emotions must have been even more profound.

However, half of that peaceful expression was probably due to the sexual intercourse last night. Thinking that, the mood was completely broken.

“……Honored Guest-isiyeo, may I ask you a question?”

Selene, who had been frozen for a while with her face covered by her ponytail, finally seemed to have recovered and carefully opened her mouth.

“It doesn’t matter. What is it?”

“You might consider it rude or an unreasonable request, but your thoughts on staying in our Holy Nation instead of the Empire-“

“I’m sorry, but that might be difficult right now.”

I sharply cut off Selene’s request. I didn’t know about after finishing the main story, but even if I tried to settle down in the Holy Nation right now, I still had to go to the Empire for the main story progression anyway.

Besides, I didn’t know what Kaikilia, who had me taken from her, might do.

“Right now, you say…? I understand, Honored Guest-isiyeo. I apologize for making an unreasonable request.”

Selene, who had chewed on the word “right now,” quietly retreated.

Her purple eyes, directed at me, were faintly gleaming.

The Knight Commanders groaned and came to their senses only in the late afternoon, and even after waking up, they remained in bed under the care of the nuns until the next morning.

To borrow Claudia’s expression, she said it felt like the drunkenness had permeated every corner of her body. Seeing her cackling that it was her first time getting this drunk, it seemed she wasn’t in much pain.

Rije clung tightly to my side and showed no intention of leaving. Thanks to that, I ended up lying down all day.

True to her nature, she asked if I wanted her to secretly ‘help me out’ with her hand even with the nuns still in the room, but aside from getting turned on by me instead, it wasn’t a bad time.

Iris and Erica quietly suffered from hangovers. Iris seemed to be able to tolerate it, but Erica, who was particularly weak to alcohol, groaned even more.

Moon’s Kiss must have been quite potent, as the Knight Commanders failed to recover their condition until the evening of the next day. Naturally, the date of our return to the Empire was delayed accordingly.

In the end, the date we finally departed was two days later than originally planned.

“You’re leaving now.”

Floretta saw us off with a wistful expression. Luna stood beside her, with the same expression as her sister. Stella and Selene took their places a little distance from the Popes.

The number of people saying goodbye was many if you consider it many, and few if you consider it few.

While it wasn’t a numerically large group, being only four people, those four were the Pope of the Sun and the Grand Inquisitor, and the Pope of the Moon and the Inquisitor, respectively.

With the two Popes, who were practically the Holy Nation itself, and the Grand Inquisitor and Inquisitor, who were called the pinnacle of the Holy Nation’s military might, gathered in one place, who could complain about the number?

“From our perspective, you could have stayed in the Holy Nation forever, but… it would be impolite to hold back those who have decided to leave. We pray for peace on your path forward.”

Floretta and Luna had returned to their usual Pope-like selves, with no trace of them kissing each other and entangling their tongues, or licking all sorts of embarrassing places and being intoxicated with pleasure just a few days ago.

Their attire, too, was their usual sacred vestments, not that ridiculous ‘dress.’

That too was an absurd outfit that made my jaw drop when I first saw it, but it was much better than that outfit, which was practically an insult to the very concept of clothing, being called a dress.

It was a time that made me realize that exposure is, after all, a relative factor.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Your Holiness.”

Iris bowed politely. Floretta smiled brightly in response.

“No, not at all. Rather, we received a much greater blessing. A great blessing, so immense that its value cannot even be measured by material things like these.”

Green eyes and purple eyes simultaneously turned towards me.

“Honored Guest-isiyeo.”

“……Yes?”

“There is something I wish to give you before you depart. Could you please come here for a moment?”

Forcibly suppressing the unease that was slowly creeping up, I approached Floretta. It was with the thought that surely, they wouldn’t do anything strange with so many eyes watching.

Floretta waited for me to approach with her arms half-spread to the sides, then tightly hugged me as I came right in front of her. My face was deeply buried between her enormous breasts.

As I inhaled, I smelled the unique scent of her skin, which could be likened to a peach fragrance, from her breasts.

“May a brilliant sun always shine on the path of this lamb. May they be able to find their way towards the bright sun, even amidst any tribulation and hardship.”

Mwah, Floretta finished speaking and kissed my forehead. Then she kissed both of my cheeks once each, and finally, gave a long kiss on my lips before letting me go.

Next was Luna. Luna, who buried my head deeply between her breasts just as Floretta had done, recited a prayer.

“May a clear full moon always rise in the sky that this lamb gazes upon. May the blue full moon illuminate their path, even amidst any darkness and abyss.”

The process that followed was also the same. She kissed my forehead, then alternated kissing both of my cheeks, and finally gave a long kiss on my lips.

Dumbfounded, I opened my mouth.

“Your Holiness, this is……?”

“It is a blessing spell passed down to the Popes since ancient times. This is the first time we’ve used it ourselves, so we only know that it bestows a blessing. It certainly won’t harm Honored Guest-nim.”

Was having my head buried between breasts and being kissed a blessing? I returned to my original spot with a sour feeling.

Glares, whose owners were not hard to guess, pricked my back.

However, Rije, who I had expected to show the sharpest reaction, had an unexpectedly calm expression. Come to think of it, it seemed like she had tried to say something last time but was cut off.

While I was trying to endure the poking glares, the Pope of the Moon drew a circle beneath us. Seeing her use teleportation without even a divine catalyst, she was indeed a Pope.

“We look forward to the day we meet again, Honored Guests-isiyeo.”

“May peace dwell in your future.”

Along with the Popes’ farewell, a silvery-gray aura of light enveloped us. A sensation as if floating upwards was conveyed, and the light pricked my eyelids. Even with my eyes closed, it felt bright in front of me.

The light faded away shortly after. My vision was dyed black again. As the sensation of floating subsided, I opened my eyes, and we had already arrived in the garden of Aurora’s mansion, where we had first departed.

I looked around. This time, all the Knight Commanders were fine. I saw Rije and Claudia patting their chests in relief. It seemed the previous teleportation had left quite a strong impression.

Since the place we appeared was coincidentally the mansion, it was at that moment I thought it would be fine to just report to Aurora right away.

‘……Huh?’

Before our eyes, an unexpected situation was unfolding.