Chapter 1 – Founding Day #1

There exists a world called Pleiades.

This world, with one sun and two moons, had two great continents, divided by their geographical location into the Western and Eastern Continents.

After the fall of the highly advanced magical kingdom of the High Elves and the iron kingdom of the Ancient Dwarves, countless human nations rose and fell on the Western Continent.

And how much time had passed?

The Western Continent, once plagued by daily wars, found stability under two great powers.

The Argon Empire, ruling the north of the continent, and the Sailun Kingdom, ruling the south.

These two powers, known as the Two Great Powers of the Continent, remained locked in a tense struggle for over three hundred years, while a dozen or so smaller nations scattered across the continent switched allegiances as needed to ensure their own survival.

And now.

Another nation was about to be established on the Western Continent.

A tiny, tiny nation, so small it couldn’t compare to even the dozen or so minor countries, let alone the Argon Empire or the Sailun Kingdom—a nation so small it was almost embarrassing to call it one.

But no one could ignore this nation.

No, it went beyond not ignoring it; even the Argon Empire and the Sailun Kingdom, the so-called Two Great Powers, were forced to tread carefully around the newborn nation.

The name of the nation was the Holy Nation of Yudelia.

It was, in the most literal sense, a land where gods resided.

A commercial city located between the central and southern regions of the Sailun Kingdom.

Deep within a beautiful white castle in the very center of the city was a large, splendidly decorated room. There, a woman so beautiful she looked as if she had stepped out of a painting—no, a woman whose beauty no painting could ever capture—was pouting as she glared at the book before her.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

At the woman’s call, an incredibly handsome man standing beside her asked with a refreshing smile, as if wondering what was wrong. The pink-haired woman replied, her eyes filled with suspicion, fury, and indignation.

“You’re trying to mess with me, aren’t you?”

Though her question sounded like the growl of an angry beast, the handsome, black-haired young man merely tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“Mess with you? What do you mean?”

Faced with his impossibly feigned innocence, the woman took a breath before shoving the book in the young man’s face and shouting.

“This! I’m talking about this!”

A black-covered book of a moderate size and thickness.

The book, which resembled what one might call a scripture, was densely packed with magnificent illustrations and passages written in a beautiful script.

“Whoever made this did a fine job.”

At the young man—Yuder’s—words, the pink-haired woman—Cordelia—grew furious once more.

It wasn’t that Yuder was wrong.

It truly was a well-made scripture.

The illustrations were beautiful enough to be considered works of art in their own right, and the text, printed with metal type, was perfectly aligned without the slightest flaw.

The paper was, of course, of the highest premium quality, and the leather for the cover was a truly absurd, top-of-the-top-tier product—the hide of an Ancient Dragon, treated by the hands of a Dwarf tanner.

But even so, Cordelia couldn’t help but be furious.

After all, just how high-quality the scripture was wasn’t the important issue.

There was only one important issue.

The fact that the protagonist of the scripture was none other than Cordelia herself.

“What is this! What! Huh?!”

Roaring, Cordelia spread open the page she had been reading and shoved it in Yuder’s face.

It was the page detailing the birth of Cordelia, the ‘Goddess’s Avatar.’

[When Cordelia-nim, the Goddess’s Avatar, was born, seven angels descended from the heavens, blowing their trumpets to bless the avatar’s birth.]

Next to the beautiful passage was a beautiful illustration, sitting there for all to see.

An illustration of a brightly smiling red-haired baby, surrounded by seven circling angels blowing trumpets.

Cordelia tapped the illustration several times with her index finger, as if to say, Look closely, but Yuder just kept up his pretense of ignorance.

“Hmm? What is it? Didn’t angels descend and bless you when you were born? I thought that’s what happened.”

“As if that would ever happen!”

Angels descending to bless me, my ass!

“And how can a newborn baby have such long hair?”

“Oh, to think you’d point out such a detailed aspect. Cordelia, you’ve grown.”

“Are you going to keep messing around? Huh?”

Looking like she would die of frustration, Cordelia thumped her chest and flipped through the pages of the scripture again.

Once again, beautiful illustrations and absurd passages began to catch her eye.

[When Cordelia sat in the garden and sang, all manner of birds gathered to listen to her song.]

[When Cordelia entered the forest, a fierce wild boar rushed forth and prostrated itself, offering itself up to her.]

[When Cordelia—]

“Hey! W-what the hell is all this! Huh?! It says I don’t go to the bathroom? What do you mean I don’t go! I went just this morning!”

“Ah, um. Right.”

As Yuder cleared his throat, Cordelia felt a fresh wave of embarrassment and seemed to blush—though in truth, her face was already so red with anger it wasn’t noticeable—and thumped her chest again, venting her frustration.

“If you’re not really trying to mess with me, then what is this? Huh?”

What would people think of her if they saw this?

Especially if those who knew her well—like Scarlett, Kaisa, or Adelia—saw it.

“Ugh… It’s so embarrassing just thinking about it.”

Covering her face with both hands, Cordelia’s legs finally gave out, and she couldn’t help but collapse to the floor.

It was truly that mortifying.

Yuder crouched down in front of her, stroking her hair as he spoke.

“Don’t worry too much, Cordelia. The worst they’ll do is roll on the floor clutching their stomachs with laughter right in front of you. And seeing you blush in embarrassment will probably be the cutest and most lovable thing in the world—Ouch! Hey! That hurts! I said it hurts!”

“I’m hitting you so it hurts, you jerk!”

Slapping Yuder’s arm repeatedly with a palm full of mana, Cordelia let out a sigh and her shoulders slumped.

A scripture with Cordelia herself as the protagonist.

To be more precise, it was the scripture of the ‘Cordelia Church,’ which worshipped ‘Cordelia,’ the new Goddess of the Sun.

“Cordelia, you do understand, right? That we need a scripture.”

At Yuder’s words, Cordelia nodded with a tearful expression.

In truth, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to argue about why this was necessary, but winning an argument against Yuder was impossible from the start.

‘He’ll definitely rationalize it with all sorts of sophistry.’

And in fact, just as Yuder said, Cordelia herself recognized the need for a scripture to some extent.

One way or another, a new religion had been founded, so it did need a scripture containing its various teachings and laws.

“Cordelia, you are the avatar of Cordelia, the Goddess of the Sun. To put it simply, you’re like the sun god’s earthly agent—a saintess. So it’s better to emphasize that you’re a special being. And you really are special.”

Before establishing the Cordelia Church, Yuder had distinguished between Cordelia the Heavenly Archangel and Goddess of the Sun, and Cordelia the human avatar. The reason was simple.

‘If a god were to reside on earth, she’d be pestered by her followers all day long.’

Heal my illness, grant my wish, make me rich, and so on.

Faced with people rushing at her with blind faith, Cordelia’s spirit would surely grow weary and eventually break.

Just like the heavenly archangels who had descended to earth in the past.

That was why Yuder had separated the Goddess Cordelia from the Avatar Cordelia from the very beginning.

The one who can wield divine authority is the Goddess Cordelia.

The Avatar Cordelia does not possess such divine authority.

Only when the Goddess Cordelia permits it can the Avatar Cordelia wield divine power.

Of course, even with this separation, followers would still flock to her, and it was as clear as day that those who failed to have their wishes granted through Cordelia would send her undeserved resentment and curses.

But even so, the Avatar Cordelia would attract far fewer people and far less resentment than the Goddess Cordelia would have.

Listening to Yuder’s explanation, Cordelia’s expression showed that she understood with her head but still couldn’t accept it with her heart. She let out a groaning sound and said.

“Still… isn’t this glorification a bit excessive?”

“But you’re an avatar. You need at least this much glorification. Don’t you think?”

“Ugh… Fine. Let’s say I accept that. Then what’s this?”

Flipping through the scripture again, Cordelia pointed to an illustration of the Goddess Cordelia holding a pink heart to her chest and asked.

It was an illustration of Cordelia as the Goddess of the Sun and ‘Love.’

“Since when did I also become the Goddess of Love? Huh?”

At a stretch, she could accept being the Goddess of the Sun.

After all, she truly was Cordelia, the new Archangel of the Sun who had succeeded Solari, the previous Archangel of the Sun.

But the Archangel of Love?

The Goddess of Love?

Cordelia pointed out the blatant fabrication, her eyes narrowing, but unfortunately for her, her opponent was none other than Yuder.

Yuder, wearing a black-hearted smile as if he already had an answer prepared, said in a smooth voice, “Cordelia.”

“What.”

“What are you and I?”

“Huh?”

“What do people call you and me?”

This was a trap.

She could tell just by looking at Yuder’s impossibly bright expression.

But the moment she heard Yuder’s words, she couldn’t help but recall it.

“The… The couple of the century?”

That was right.

Yuder and Cordelia.

The couple of the century who had shaken the Sailun Kingdom.

“And?”

“The… The symbol of eternal love?”

Lovers who were one and the same.

A couple acknowledged by everyone on the continent.

Cordelia’s face turned red again.

No, now the blush spread past her face and down to her neck.

“You remember where we spent our first night, right?”

She remembered.

The Temple of Eros, the Archangel of Love.

The events of that night—no, the events that had continued for a whole three days and nights.

Cordelia ended up covering her face with her hands again, and Yuder said with a bright smile, “You’re already the avatar of the Goddess of the Sun. At this point, wouldn’t it be more convenient to just be the avatar of the Goddess of Love, too?”

“Ugh…”

With her brain already overheating from embarrassment, Cordelia was in no state to retort that this wasn’t something to be decided by convenience.

And in truth, Yuder’s reason for securing the position of Goddess of Love wasn’t just for the personal satisfaction of seeing Cordelia get embarrassed.

‘I’ll be able to gather divine power.’

Pleiades was a world where gods and magic truly existed.

Belief itself could become power, and if Cordelia became established as the ‘Goddess of Love’ in the collective unconscious of humanity, she would be able to acquire a considerable amount of power.

‘You never know what might happen.’

Auriel, the Archangel of Judgment, and Asmodeus, the Overlord, who had brought ruin to Pleiades time and again, had been annihilated.

The Heavenly Realm and Hell were no longer connected to Pleiades, and the world was finally free from its promised destruction, able to move toward a new future.

But that didn’t mean they could let their guard down.

There were still six Overlords of Hell remaining, and in the East, a considerable number of demon worshippers still controlled the continent.

Therefore, they had to secure power in preparation for any contingency.

They had to cultivate the strength to protect Pleiades and Cordelia, without ever letting down their guard.

Yuder looked at Cordelia again.

The sight of her, biting her lip with a tearful face, was so beautiful and lovely.

So Yuder smiled.

He playfully pinched Cordelia’s cheek, then kissed her on the forehead as she puffed out her cheeks in protest.

“Let’s get going. The main character can’t be late, can she?”

“I’m not the only main character, you know.”

If Cordelia herself was the Goddess’s Avatar, then Yuder was the Pope of the Cordelia Church, which served and worshipped the goddess.

So Yuder lifted Cordelia’s hand and pressed his lips to the back of it once more.

As both Cordelia’s lover and the Pope who served her, he whispered softly.

“O, Avatar of the Goddess descended to earth, will you grant me the honor of accompanying you?”

At the polite request from Yuder—who was dressed in the ornate yet dignified robes of a pope—Cordelia put on a prim expression to hide her suddenly fluttering heart, but only for a moment.

Soon, she let a small smile slip and nodded.

One year and several months after the decisive battle in the capital that had decided the fate of Pleiades.

The Founding Day, which would officially proclaim the establishment of the Holy Nation of Yudelia, had begun.

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Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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