Chapter 7 : Eighteen Mana Replenishments in One Night

‘I’m screwed. I’m so utterly screwed.’

Hall’s mind was racing.

Anyone else receiving this invitation would probably be jumping for joy.

As for the young men, they would definitely be rubbing their hands together, eager to go.

There were only seven Saintess candidates in the Holy Church, each belonging to one of the seven Cardinal Archbishops of the Church.

And because the position of the Pope was currently vacant, the position of the Saintess was also vacant.

Four of the seven Cardinal Archbishops each governed all the branch churches in their respective jurisdictions in the other four countries of the Western Continent.

Three resided in the Papal State.
Two of them divided the Papal State into northern and southern jurisdictions, while the other managed the capital, Saint Louis, and the scattered churches to the east.

Not to mention the Cardinal Archbishops within the Papal State, just the other four in the other four countries had power second only to the monarchs of their respective nations.

The Saintess candidates were among the most important individuals nurtured by the Cardinal Archbishops.

Their status was almost equivalent to that of the princesses of various countries.

Being invited to a tea party by a princess was the dream of every noble young man.

It was also definitely a topic of conversation to show off to friends.

Christine was the most promising of the seven Saintess candidates to win the Saintess election.

Discussions about her, whether among the young ladies or gentlemen of the noble circles, or even their elders, were always lively.

But, Hall was not willing.

Christine was one of the most important heroines in the entire game.

Unlike Himan, she was a heroine who could not be unlocked for use at the beginning of a first playthrough, but could be unlocked after completing three endings of other heroines.

In Hall’s impression, many of her endings were close to the truth of the world.

However, because this game had so many endings.

The debate over which was the true ending often led to flame wars and trolling, with people exchanging insults for hundreds of floors if not careful.

But no matter what, Christine was very dangerous.

She was a Saintess of the Church, but also not a Saintess of the Church.

In the most easily triggered Christine route, it was this girl who began to investigate the truth after noticing some of the Church’s actions were abnormal.

Then, it would most likely lead to a Bad End.

The Church was a trigger point for late-game plots in some heroine routes.

But Christine’s route triggered it early.
The key was that the enemies in this game didn’t scale with the story; they were fixed.

For example, in Himan’s late-game route, you might encounter Church enemy A, and this enemy A would be level eighty.

In Christine’s early-game route, triggering the relevant plot might lead to an encounter with this same enemy A, but their level would not change.

Therefore, the difficulty of Christine’s route was extremely high.
Players basically had to grind levels daily, take on side quests, and even travel to other countries to recruit all the heroines before returning to push Christine’s main story.

It was a true case of completing all the side quests before going back to fight the first main story boss.

But for various reasons, if too much time was spent on grinding and recruiting other heroines, Christine could also be forced into a plot event or a plot-induced death, leading to a direct Bad End.

Like the Demon God Princess, she was the type of character that if you didn’t recruit her early and take her away from the Church when playing as other heroines, you would most likely not be able to recruit her later.

A high-risk character.

Furthermore, in Christine’s route, he had many strange and varied ways of dying.

For example, when Christine faced an unsolvable dead end, in order to save everyone, she would directly say to him, “Let’s do it, Hall.”

The result would be eighteen mana replenishments in one night, and then she would carry the whole team to victory, while he would be squeezed dry and die.

A true embodiment of the saying, “There are no barren fields, only exhausted oxen.”

And at this moment, compared to Hall’s racing thoughts, the others were watching him stand there in silence.

‘Is this guy trying to act cool?’ they thought.

The Saintess candidate—Christine’s—attendant personally came to call him, and he didn’t immediately nod in agreement?

He even pretended to be silent.

Himan’s mood was even more complicated.

She had met Christine and had a very good impression of the beautiful and holy young woman.

Despite her high position, she never put on airs.
Her smile was appropriate, and she was kind and considerate in her dealings with others.
She had even seen Christine give candy to a little girl in ragged clothes one afternoon, playing with the child.

She didn’t care in the slightest that her flawless Saintess dress was stained, like the morning glow at dawn.

But why would Christine invite Hall today?

Was it because of the spy incident yesterday?
But that should clearly be the Judgment Bureau’s job…

“Hall, what are you spacing out for? Hurry up and answer Sister Maria.”

“May I ask what Lady Christine wants with me?”

Hall didn’t look at Himan.
He stared at Maria and found that her face also showed a hint of confusion.

“This… I do not know. Lady Christine only gave this order. She has decided to meet in the second-floor attic behind the Rohn Cathedral. Lady Christine emphasized that it is a private meeting and hopes you will not bring any servants or other people.”

Maria was actually quite confused herself.

She had heard Hall’s name from some of the noble young ladies who came to be novice nuns.

He was the type of playboy she disliked very much.

To Maria, someone like Hall who played with girls’ feelings should be in the Church’s confessional, praying to God for forgiveness.

Yet Lady Christine wanted to meet this kind of young master alone.
As Christine’s number one fan, she couldn’t accept it.

But she would not disobey or question Christine’s decision.

So she still told Hall all the details.

‘A private meeting?’

Hall felt a bit numb.

‘No way, right?’

He had played Christine’s route quite a few times, but the side quest in the game to invite Hall usually only triggered automatically after the player was first judged by the system to be likely to have difficulty clearing the game.

After completing this side quest, the option to “make love” with Hall to improve one’s abilities and experience would become available.

Although making love with a beautiful Saintess candidate was great, not to mention that he would be squeezed dry by Christine in critical situations, the key was that she also had a very ridiculous buff.

That was Christine’s Will.

Christine’s Will was Christine’s inherent talent in the game.

The general meaning was that Christine pitied the world.
If Hall had a relationship with Christine.

Christine would demand that Hall only have a relationship with her, and not mess with other girls.
She would bear this pain alone, so that after she became stronger in this way, she could save everyone.

This setting moved a portion of the players, and Christine’s character in the story’s development basically never broke character.
Her combat passives as a Saintess also included sharing damage for other teammates and healing abilities, and she could freely use single-handed swords, magic devices, scepters, and other weapons besides large ones.

She could fight, tank, and heal.

This was worthy of the high-difficulty enemies that appeared early in her route.

But behind this high reward was that “Christine’s Pity” passive.
If you used Hall to level up Christine, you could only level up Christine.
If you leveled up other female characters with mana replenishment in the middle, Hall would be killed the next day.

It was equivalent to using a public bus for private use.

So, many times, if Christine’s route progressed too quickly, it would cause other characters’ levels to fall behind.
When forming a party for battle, other characters could easily be one-shotted.
Even with the damage-sharing passive, it wouldn’t be long before only Christine was left standing on the field.

In short, although Hall had once considered Christine his “waifu” in the game.

Now, he still wanted to refuse.

Living was the most important thing.

But Maria’s next sentence shocked everyone in the classroom again.

“If you refuse, Lady Christine will come to see you in person. Please judge for yourself.”

She saw his indecision and was very angry.
How could someone hesitate at Christine’s invitation?