Raphaella Holy Kingdom – 3

Golden hair, the color of which would not be inferior even if called the sun itself, stretched downwards, and beyond that, was flaunting a richness abundant enough to wrap around the entire body and still have some left over.

The ends of the hair hung long, almost touching the floor, and on both sides, well-arranged bangs fully revealed the forehead.

Between the eyelids, refreshing green eyes, as if they contained the fresh greenery entirely, sparkled. Around the neck, an ornament with a green gem, identical to the eyes, was hung.

Her appearance was one thing, but more than anything, what left me speechless was the woman’s attire.

Clothes that were almost see-through, revealing her skin entirely. It was clothing where it was harder to find parts that were covered from shoulder to toe. Even the nun’s habit Stella wore had considerable exposure, but the woman before my eyes was even more so.

Collarbone, arms, cleavage, chest, abdomen, flanks, navel, pelvis, lower abdomen, thighs. Everywhere my eyes reached was practically no different from being naked.

No, rather, even if she had taken off all her clothes and stood naked, it would have seemed less lewd than that outfit.

Her chest, practically put on display, was as large as Rije’s. Hidden by her side-boob, the area above her elbow was barely visible.

The only clothing covering her vital parts was a single, extremely thin piece of fabric. It came down from behind her neck, lightly covered her chest, and then joined into one in front of her lower abdomen, a single piece of fabric covering her intimate area.

Moreover, the thickness of the fabric itself was severely thin. To the extent that the flesh of her lower buttocks was slightly exposed between her thighs, that said it all.

Given such an outfit, there was no way she was wearing underwear.

Even in the cleavage, exposed almost to the point of revealing her nipples, nothing that seemed like underwear was visible, and between the garter belt that wrapped around her pelvis and iliac bones, there was no sign of underwear.

In other words, the only clothing that woman wore on her body was a nearly transparent see-through fabric, a single opaque piece of fabric narrower than her own forearm, and a garter belt and stockings.

Even I, who thought I had seen almost every kind of outfit, was left speechless by this attire.

At the very least, even the see-through dresses the Knight Captains wore at the banquet didn’t expose all vital parts like that, and Aurora’s dress was the same.

“I have longed to see you very much.”

The Pope smiled and offered a greeting.

In addition to the unique grace and aura emanating from the woman, and due to the presence of the holy vestment, which was embarrassing to even call clothing, I could only stammer, unable to say anything.

Her appearance didn’t really matter. If you just went out onto the street, you’d trip over pretty women. Moreover, important NPCs were beings beyond standard, for whom even the descriptor “beauty” was far from enough to express their looks.

However, such an absurd outfit was something I couldn’t even dare to imagine.

If I recall that this too was an outfit custom-made by mod creators, then indeed, human talent always surpassed people’s imagination.

“Delta? We’ll enter-“

The Knight Captains also had a similar reaction to mine.

Iris came in, then glanced at the Pope, and froze solid on the spot, and Claudia, Rije, and Erica, who followed in, met a similar fate.

Since they weren’t wearing armor, their current expressions were fully visible. According to Stella, wearing weapons or armor in front of the Pope was considered an impious act.

However, the type of emotion they felt seemed completely different from what I felt.

If I was shocked by the Pope’s absurdly revealing holy vestment, the Knight Captains were closer to being shocked by the overflowing grace and holiness emanating from the Pope.

“Welcome. Knight Captains of the Silver Dawn Knights. You too, I welcome you in the name of the Sun.”

The Pope took a light step. In sync with that, the hem of the holy vestment fluttered, and her chest greatly swayed. The fabric covering her vital parts, crossing the center of her body, fluttered wildly.

Seeing it sway like that, the fabric surely wasn’t fixed anywhere, yet the Pope’s private parts were never exposed.

“First, I should introduce myself, shouldn’t I?”

The Pope, who stopped about 10 steps away from us, brought her arms, which had been spread wide to her sides, together in front of her lower abdomen, and smiled brightly. It was a contradictory smile that felt both cute and mature.

“My name is, Floretta Evangelina.”

The halo bursting forth from behind her back grew even stronger. It was such an intense light that I instinctively had to raise my hand to shield my eyes. Squinting my eyes, I peered through my fingers at the woman called Floretta.

“In the Raphaella Holy Kingdom, I am the being called the Pope of the Sun.”

The very heart of the Holy Kingdom, the Pope of the Sun, called the Divine Proxy, stood right before us.

“Has your mind calmed down a bit now?”

Floretta wore a benevolent smile and looked at us. The Knight Captains, merely by seeing that smile, wore expressions of deep emotion. They didn’t seem to care about her attire at all.

I wanted to ask what they thought of that outfit, but with the Pope in front of us, having a trivial conversation among ourselves was clearly a breach of etiquette, so I firmly held back.

“You are the person Stella spoke of, aren’t you?”

Her green eyes turned towards me.

“……Did you know?”

“There’s no way I wouldn’t know.”

The Pope let out a short, soft laugh. Even in each of her movements, grace overflowed. If it weren’t for that crazy outfit, she would have suited the title of Pope of the Sun perfectly.

“Regarding the disrespect committed by the Inquisitor, I, Floretta Evangelina, will apologize on her behalf.”

Her head bowed slightly forward. Before we, startled, could frantically try to stop Floretta, the head that offered the apology had already returned to its original position.

Erica, with a stammering voice, opened her mouth.

“Your, Your Holiness, there’s no need for you to bow your head to us….”

“The height or depth of status is not what’s important, Knight Captains of the Silver Dawn Knights. What’s important is who committed the wrong. Since I too committed a wrong against you, it is natural for me to seek forgiveness.”

“If you say “wrong”…?”

“Do you recall the actions committed by Inquisitor Stella?”

Claudia, Rije, and Erica simultaneously flinched. I did too. Of course, I remembered. It was a memory I would never forget in my lifetime, unless something truly extraordinary happened.

Under the pretext of discerning heretics, the battle nuns collectively stripped in front of me, and if that wasn’t enough, I even had to fondle their breasts with my own hands, so how could I possibly forget?

“To the Inquisitor, I was the one who hinted that you had released a demon. And even after realizing that the demon’s existence had vanished, I was also the one who requested a holy war from the Inquisitor. Do you understand my sin now?”

I had roughly expected it would be like that.

Even in the game, the Inquisitor was a person who only obeyed orders given by the Pope of the Sun. Conversely, the Interrogator was a person who only obeyed orders given by the Pope of the Moon.

The Inquisitor not only left the Papal Palace, but even invaded imperial territory? The only person who could order such an action was just one individual in the entire continent.

“I will not deny my fault. However, would you please understand that it was an unavoidable choice?”

“……An unavoidable choice, you say?”

“To completely dispel the Inquisitor’s suspicion towards you, it was an indispensable matter.”

The smile that appeared on Floretta’s lips faded slightly.

“She is a pitiful child. Her parents were sacrificed before her eyes by demon worshippers, and she alone was barely rescued, and since then, she has been following the will of God. How great the hatred and resentment that child harbors for demons must be, how could someone like me dare to even imagine it?”

It was a story I had vaguely heard before. In that regard, the game’s setting was identical.

The Inquisitor’s enjoyment of torturing demon worshippers is partly due to personal preference, but the memories she experienced as a child became a trauma, and it’s said to be half-vengeance for her parents.

Of course, if one’s Faith or Divine Power stats were below a certain level, she was an NPC who treated players quite obnoxiously, so regardless of her pitiful past, the number of users who disliked her was also considerable.

“A while ago, all of you must have been involved with a demon.”

Since I had no intention of denying that, I quietly nodded. The Knight Captains, perhaps embarrassed to affirm their involvement with a demon in front of the Pope, blushed and nodded even more timidly.

“Although its scent is very faint, the smell of the demon still remains on you. Ordinary believers might not notice it, but our Grand Cathedral’s battle nuns or the Inquisitor would certainly have noticed it.”

“And now, it must have been purified and disappeared. Because we met Your Holiness.”

“Did you know? That is truly surprising.”

Floretta looked at me and gave a smile overflowing with benevolence. When you defeated a demon-type boss and spoke to the Pope, it was a matter mentioned so tediously often, so there was no way I wouldn’t know.

Actually, I was just planning to keep my mouth shut until the Pope spoke, but the Knight Captains’ expressions darkened so rapidly, so I preempted them.

Although it had no effect on them, the fact that the smell of a demon permeated their bodies would certainly not be a good sign. They must have felt very uneasy.

“If you had first met the Inquisitor inside the Holy Kingdom, the repercussions would certainly have been much greater. Instead of first carrying out heresy discernment, with the thought that demon worshippers had entered the Holy Kingdom, without regard for anything, she would have rushed to purify you.”

That was certainly true. The reason she tried to discern heresy was because we met outside the Holy Kingdom; if we had encountered her inside the Holy Kingdom, there would have been no discernment or anything.

Either the Holy Kingdom’s side would be annihilated, or all of us would die. We would have had to fight until one of those two outcomes occurred.

“Therefore, before you visited the Holy Kingdom, there was a need to clear up the misunderstanding, and I ordered a holy war to make you meet directly. It was also possible for me to tell you directly that you were not heretics, but to meet me, you would eventually have to meet that child, so it would have been a bad move.”

‘……Huh?’

Just a moment. Something’s strange.

“Your Holiness. May I ask just one question?”

“Please do so as much as you wish. What are you curious about?”

“Why is it presupposed that we would come to the Holy Kingdom?”

She said it so naturally that I almost let it pass. The Pope was speaking under the premise that we would come to the Holy Kingdom.

I would visit, eventually. I would visit, but it was planned to happen only after the main story had progressed to the latter half.

The only things to obtain in the Holy Kingdom were enchantment-type divine spells obtainable from quests related to the Popes of the Sun and Moon. Everything else was meaningless.

It’s not like I was going to allocate my stats like a cleric.

“Did you notice?”

The smile that appeared on Floretta’s face became even brighter. The Pope began to walk towards us. The click-clack sound of her high heels echoed through the space. In sync with her steps, her chest gently swayed.

Floretta, who walked right up to me, smiled softly and gently clasped my hand.

“That is precisely because I wanted to meet you.”