Goddess of Atonement

After returning from the Mirror Scroll Dungeon, I had been holed up in my room for almost three days straight, intending to sort out my complicated thoughts.

During that time, quite a few people came and requested to visit, but I politely refused all of them. This included the Silver Dawn Knight Captains, and Aurora was no exception.

I didn’t even respond to Caecilia’s commands.

It was a severe rudeness to the point where it wouldn’t have been strange at all if I were dragged out of my room and questioned for my transgression right then and there. However, instead of doing so, Caecilia merely came to my door and quietly left.

I wondered how far the rumors about me had spread, as even Minerva, who should have been engrossed in researching ancient scrolls, came to visit for a moment. She didn’t enter the room, only came to the door.

Excluding Aurora, these were all women with the ability to break down and enter through such an ornate door hundreds of times over, yet they seemed to respect my wishes.

Nevertheless, it had little to no effect. My head was still complicated, and my thoughts were practically as disorganized as before.

The words Nyx had mysteriously uttered before disappearing: a world much further in the past than B-Dark 3, and a world much further in the past than that much further past world.

It was clear she was referring to Brightest Darkness 1 and 2. And it was clear she was asking who the main characters of B-Dark 1 and B-Dark 2 were.

Who was the main character of B-Dark 1, who burned themselves to restore the world’s stability or became chaos itself, and who was the main character of B-Dark 2, who pieced together a crumbling world or became its ruler themselves?

‘……Why did she specifically say something like that to me? What connection do they have to me?’

-Knock-knock.

As the situation only grew more complicated the more I thought about it, I was clutching my throbbing head when I heard someone knocking on the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

It was Rije.

I glanced at the time. It was almost time for the shift change. For Rije, it would be about time for her shift to end, so she must have stopped by on her way back to her room.

“Why are you here?”

“Why am I here, you ask? My man has been holed up in his room for three days straight without coming out, so I was worried, and I came to see if I could enter this time. If not, I’ll just go back. I have no intention of forcing you to open the door.”

Her voice was filled with worry. Guilt pricked at my chest, and it seemed like it was about time to consider other methods, so I made a decision inwardly and opened my mouth.

“You can come in. It’s open.”

“Oh? Really? No taking it back later, right?”

As if she had been waiting for those very words, the door swung open. Although she wasn’t wearing armor, she was dressed in the Silver Dawn Knights’ uniform of a white sleeveless top and blue dolphin shorts, as usual.

“……Why do you look like that? Are you okay?”

Rije looked at me with a very worried expression and stepped inside. Her butt, clad in dolphin shorts, gently perched on the edge of the bed.

Tiny beads of sweat on her skin, and glimpses of peach-colored skin visible through the white sleeveless top clinging to her body. As soon as she sat beside me, Rije’s scent wafted through the warmth emanating from her.

“For once, you’re not saying, ‘Want to touch my chest?’ After always saying that until now.”

To try and change the mood, I chuckled and threw out a joke. Rije puffed out her cheeks in a pout, pushing air into them, and poked my cheek with her index finger.

“I know how to read the room too, you know? You’ve been holed up in your room for three days straight without coming out, Delta, and after finally getting permission to come in, your expression looks like death. Do you think I’d make such a weird joke?”

“So you yourself thought it was a weird joke, too?”

“……”

Her finger poked my cheek with even more force. I smiled and gently pulled Rije’s wrist. Rije obediently followed my lead.

Even if she weren’t obedient now, I’d be able to overpower her anyway.

I leaned back diagonally against the headboard of the bed and slightly parted my legs, seating Rije between my thighs. Rije sat demurely between my legs and leaned her back against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her chest and hugged her.

Her sleeveless top was slightly damp, likely from sweat, but I didn’t mind. Not only did she not smell at all, but even if she did, there was no way I wouldn’t do something like this for her.

Rije remained still in my embrace. Normally, if we were in this position, she would subtly rub her butt against my crotch, or pull my arm to her chest to make me knead it.

“What happened to make you like this? It’s the first time I’ve seen you make such a serious expression.”

“……Nothing much. I just had a lot to think about.”

“A little? It doesn’t seem like just a little. Look, your face has gotten so thin. What on earth were you thinking to make a kid who was just holed up in his room end up looking like this?”

Rije, who had slightly turned her body sideways, looked up at me and gently caressed my cheek. Her fingers rested near my cheekbone, then slowly moved down to my jaw.

“Indeed. Why did I end up like this?”

At my answer, which implied I didn’t want to tell her directly, her finger poked my side.

“Don’t just suffer by yourself. If you need anything, tell us anytime. His Majesty the Emperor, His Holiness the Popes, the Lord-nim, and our Silver Dawn Knight Captains. We’re all your women, Delta. If it’s within our power, we can grant you anything you wish.”

“Our Silver Dawn Knight Captains?”

“No, the rest of them will be soon too, I’m telling you. Really.”

Instead of answering, I tightened the arm wrapped around her chest. Rije quieted down a bit.

“There is something…… I need.”

“There is? Really? What is it?”

“Not right now. Probably much later.”

Yes. Not right now. Because there was something else I had to do later.

If I can’t find the answer by thinking about it alone, then I just need to borrow the power of something else.

‘It must be around here.’

I looked around and took a step. In a forest so densely overgrown that it was slightly dark even in broad daylight, it was a highly unsuitable place to search for anything, logically speaking.

First, it was true that there was no one around here. Though it wasn’t completely empty. I pushed through the bushes and walked, following the trees that had grown bent in unnatural directions.

If there hadn’t been trees growing bent like in the game, even I would have gotten completely lost. As it had been so far, at least these things were the same as my memories, which was a relief.

‘I remember there being a few of those guys roaming around here…….’

Just as I was about to think, ‘Why aren’t there any?’, I spotted a wolf prowling ahead.

‘My thoughts are always so premature, anyway.’

Blaming myself inwardly, I was about to draw Wingless Nightmare, but then I paused.

This might be an opportunity to test the black magic I learned from honorific-speaking Nyx. I had cast a few spells into the air half out of my mind, but I hadn’t put them through a real-world test.

Instead of drawing Wingless Nightmare, I slightly clenched my left hand. Mana began to gather in my left hand. The blue color gradually turned black.

Perhaps sensing something strange, the wolf turned its body. Just as it was about to howl to call its companions, I swung my arm.

A jet-black orb generated from my left hand struck the wolf. It was ‘Black Flame Orb,’ one of the black magic spells Nyx had taught me. The jet-black orb directly hit its head.

-KWAANG!

“……Huh?”

Causing a grand explosion, it sent the wolf flying backward. The creature couldn’t even make a sound, flew a long distance backward, hit a nearby tree, and collapsed. It was an instant kill, no need to check further.

I was dumbfounded and looked down at my left hand, which had just used black magic. I wondered if that power was right. That guy isn’t an early-game monster, for one.

Of course, 60 Magic Power is a stat level sufficient to defeat even the final boss by game standards, but does that mean it’s a stat that can one-shot that thing in a situation where Dark-Light Mode is applied-

‘…….’

Nyx’s words, who had described stats and levels as a process of ‘reclaiming’ my original power, came to mind again. And also the question of whether this current world could simply be dismissed as a ‘mod.’

‘Let’s not overthink it. Because I’m going to ask about that.’

After forcibly pushing those thoughts to a corner of my mind, I carefully walked past the wolf’s corpse, which had turned into a jet-black lump of charcoal. Following the strangely shaped trees, I walked much deeper in.

After some time passed, the entrance to a cave became visible. At the end of this was what I was looking for. A place where I couldn’t be disturbed by anyone, and where no one else came.

I stepped inside. The interior was empty. It was just like an ordinary cave, and there wasn’t even a single human skeleton, which would typically be found in such a place, let alone a torch.

‘Found it.’

At the end of such an empty cave, there was a small statue. Unlike my memory, the woman’s face was quite beautiful, but that didn’t really matter. It wasn’t like this was the first or second time such a situation had occurred.

A face that felt quite attractive despite being a statue, hair that reached down to its ankles, and a gender that was clearly female at a glance. That was all the information I could gather.

Because its entire body was wrapped in something fluffy and fur-like, I couldn’t see anything below its neck.

This was the statue known in the game as the ‘Goddess of Atonement.’ If one became hostile with an NPC, they could pay experience points here and request atonement to clear the hostile status.

But I hadn’t come here for atonement.

‘This was the Holy Kingdom’s deity, right?’

Near the statue, a very faint emblem of the Holy Kingdom of Raphaella could be found. The emblem itself was so faint that some people initially thought it was a bug causing the model to appear in a strange place.

There was much debate over whether it was the sun or the moon. In the original game, it wasn’t the image of a perfect beauty like this, but rather an androgynous figure, so while it was called a goddess statue, there was also much controversy over its gender.

So, hoping to find out if they found another one, countless users scoured the map, but ultimately couldn’t find it.

‘Before I start, first…….’

I approached the statue. In the game, there was no way to check the inside of this. It wasn’t even implemented in the first place.

I grabbed the fur-like material covering its surface. I didn’t know what it was exactly, but it was incredibly soft, just as it appeared. As I pulled it off with force, the torso of the statue was revealed.

And then I doubted my eyes.

“This is a mod too…… no, what is this?”

It was because the statue’s attire was unusual.