Chapter 1262: Side Story – The Saintess and Maria (1) (Mature Illustration)

A day like any other at the Hope City Guild.

As I was quietly reviewing documents at my window seat, Maria approached calmly and called me in a small, quiet, business-like voice.

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“Father, next week’s external meeting has been rescheduled to 10 AM.”

“Yeah, I got it.”

As if simply conveying what she needed to, she calmly adjusted the schedule and returned to her seat.

Lulusia, the Saintess of the Vatican Holy Kingdom. And Priest Maria, dispatched all the way from the distant Holy Kingdom to the Republic of Korea to assist her.

Even though it had already been two months since she took on the role of my temporary secretary, there were still many awkward and questionable things.

An expressionless face with almost no discernible emotional range.

That look felt similar to how Eunbyul used to be under Sihee. Focused solely on protecting her master, devoid of any feelings towards me.

Of course, compared to when I first met her, the current Eunbyul has become quite a bit more charming and shows her emotions more readily, so perhaps Maria might become like that too.

…Well, since she’s completely put up a wall towards me, it might be hard to see it flowing that way.

“Maria, isn’t it about time for your ‘Guild Master Session’? As I always say, Recovery-type Awakened individuals have these sessions to ensure they don’t lose their divine power, so maybe once….”

“I appreciate the offer, Father, but I’m fine. It’s not like my sexual desire has piled up to the point where I need your help.”

She always refused like this without a change in her expression, making it difficult for me to insist further.

Of course, if her sexual desire truly hadn’t piled up at all, I would have thought, ‘She’s just fulfilling her role appropriately as Lulusia’s assistant,’ and left it alone… but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

With a bright red heart indicating over 300 Estimated Acquisition Points displayed beside her every morning, I couldn’t help but notice it in the Guild Master’s office.

‘I think it was only around 50 when I first saw her in the Holy Kingdom.’

After she started taking on my temporary secretary role in the Guild Master’s office, it seemed to rise little by little, and now it’s quite a high number.

Simply put, 300 wasn’t a low number at all. Han Min-ah’s Estimated Acquisition Points were also 300 when she went berserk during her heat cycle and lunged at me. It meant a level comparable to a Beast-type Hunter’s heat cycle, so it wasn’t a problem to be taken lightly. Especially seeing how it skyrocketed so suddenly in such a short period.

…And the cause of that is probably me.

‘The interview room is right next to the Guild Master’s office.’

Although the main act happens inside Belle’s dungeon, the process before and after sometimes catches my eye, and besides, I know perfectly well what they’re going in there to do. For female hunters who subtly enjoy being touched even before going in, they might show their foreplay, or hunters who are carried on my back or dragged out after a long session – it’s a position where I can’t help but have various thoughts.

In other words, it means that while her expression doesn’t change outwardly, she’s internally suppressing intense desire by imagining the sex of other hunters.

‘I should probably let her release it once.’

Because if I approach her predictably like usual, she’ll obviously refuse indifferently. Of course, I’d have to create a suitable pretext.

Fortunately, there wasn’t a lack of suitable pretexts. If I use the excuse of Lulusia being pregnant, Maria wouldn’t be able to refuse and would have no choice but to agree.

『Lust Fetish: Saintess-nim, Responsibility, Father, Desire to Explore, Curiosity』

Maria’s sexual inclinations, confirmed through the Lust Sight, were mostly related to Lulusia. Affection for Lulusia, whom she has served since childhood, or the sense of responsibility to protect her. And although she’s become somewhat accustomed to it now, having been born and raised in the Holy Kingdom, she does show signs of a little curiosity and desire to explore regarding men. Since she had almost no knowledge about sex itself, there weren’t parts that could be called fetishes, but regardless, enough pretext could be made to bring her onto the bed.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Night descended upon the sky of Hope City.

As Sung Taekyung and I returned to the guild apartment, Maria, who got off one floor below his, quietly bowed her head.

“Good evening, Father-nim.”

“Yeah. You worked hard too, Maria.”

Always the same ordinary farewell greeting. Maria entered her apartment, seeing off the Father of the Vatican Holy Kingdom who was going up one more floor in the same elevator.

After work, she entered her apartment without a word, opening the front door. As soon as she closed it, she let out a faint sigh.

“…Hoo.”

A sigh deeply suppressed amidst tension. But her expression remained unchanged as she quietly hung the veil she was wearing on the hook and turned on the water for the bathtub.

Asking about Saintess Lulusia’s well-being, coordinating Father Sung Taekyung’s schedule, doing simple paperwork as the Guild Master’s secretary, and exchanging a few business-like words with him. However, Maria was also cautiously sensing that Sung Taekyung’s gaze lingered strangely on her amidst it all. Although she just pretended not to notice, hiding her emotions like usual.

“…….”

-Seureureuk.

Along with the sound of fabric sliding, her priest’s robes were quietly removed. Her white undergarments, matching her robes, were also removed, revealing her body.

-Chalbak.

“Hoo-eu….”

Maria gently lowered her body into the bathtub, embracing her neat but not ascetic form. Her quiet breaths echoed softly within the bathroom.

‘My mind is… complicated.’

The man loved by the Saintess-nim. Not only that, but he’s a man with a complicated love life, loved by over a hundred priests left behind in the Vatican Holy Kingdom, and by women numbering over a hundred even here in the Republic of Korea. However, he was also the man who had recently been constantly entering her mind and disturbing her peace.

Born in the Vatican Holy Kingdom, raised accepting sexual abstinence as a creed, the past years spent serving and nurturing the young Saintess. She had become accustomed to even the concept of desire being an object of control… but indeed, after stepping out into a different place than the Holy Kingdom, her senses in that regard couldn’t help but become accustomed.

Advertisements blatantly revealing men’s bodies, which would have been censored in the Holy Kingdom, or male idols on TV wearing outfits no different from underwear while dancing.

…However, the curious thing was that even while knowing such appearances of men in the media were clearly ‘lewd’, she rarely felt aroused. Rather, the element stimulating Maria’s curiosity towards men was much closer by – naturally, it was the sight of Sung Taekyung engaging in intimacy with various women every day in the Hope City Guild’s ‘session room’.

‘Several women every day… It certainly seems like he has the ability to say he’ll embrace all the women.’ The audacious completion during the Father Ritual was a sight so impressive that it still remains in Maria’s mind. Even the fact that he impregnated all the participants, including Saintess Lulusia, in the Father Ritual. Truly, a man like a new chapter in the history of the Vatican Holy Kingdom. Even while working as a temporary secretary at the Hope City Guild, his illusion wasn’t broken; rather, it was being renewed day by day. Not to mention the female hunters of the Hope City Guild consistently going into the session room on a monthly cycle; it was natural and unavoidable that curiosity arose seeing them like that.

‘Surely, since everyone feels so good, they must be engaging in intimacy so enthusiastically.’

Honestly, I can’t know how good it feels. Because Maria had never had relations with a man even once since birth. Although there was a record of her rubbing his ‘thing’ with her chest or stimulating it with her mouth to the point of ejaculation during the purification ritual, strictly speaking, that was merely an act akin to service, not sex. For her, confined within the framework of cold reason and abstinence, the pleasure derived from sexual intercourse with a man was uncharted territory.

…She was also inwardly thinking that it would probably remain that way in the future.

‘I came all this way to assist the Saintess-nim; my body must not be recklessly stained by lust.’

Duty and responsibility came before curiosity or the desire to explore. Even though Sung Taekyung deliberately called her, creating an opportunity, she stubbornly refused without complying. If I put it bluntly, Sung Taekyung didn’t insist on forcefully persuading her either. Inwardly, she actually had the desire to have relations with him once and know what it felt like… but still, she held back. For Maria, who hadn’t shown her emotions in front of others for over ten years, refusing his request without batting an eye wasn’t a difficult task.

…While deluding herself into thinking that any occasionally rising sexual desire could be sufficiently satisfied just by doing it herself.