Chapter 20: This is a Picture of Hell

At this moment, everyone from Class Five, Year One of the Sword Art Academy of Holy Light University who had come to attend the Theology Day lecture was extremely surprised.

Most of them had status and position.

They were not ordinary commoners.

They all recognized the holy young girl they had once seen from afar in Creation Square at the beginning of the new year.

Christine, the Saintess candidate under the third Cardinal Archbishop—Rohn.

That’s right, even though they also had a high status in Saint Louis, except for Himan, they basically had no chance to see Christine up close.

Let alone like Hall, who was chatting with Christine in a desultory manner.

After the initial surprise, many people showed strange expressions.

Jealousy made their faces unrecognizable.

Not to mention Lenny, who had previously thought that Hall might have made an enemy of Christine and the Church yesterday.

He couldn’t accept it!

He couldn’t accept the scene in front of him at all.

It was a picture of hell, it was Satan walking on earth!

“No, this is impossible. Why is Hall talking to Christine? Maybe it’s because of other things, just because of Hall’s father.”

Lenny was more willing to believe this.

Himan’s expression was complicated.
When Hall came out yesterday, he was vague.

So she thought Hall must have teased Christine.
But now?

The young girl maintained a decent smile, standing next to Hall.
Even Maria at this moment was not as close to Christine as Hall was.

Christine seemed to be talking to Hall.
Although this Saintess candidate was known to be without airs, as the woman who was supposed to be the purest in the world, Christine basically had no contact with men.

Maybe they were just talking about ordinary things, such as asking Hall to say hello to his father on her behalf, or that Lorraine’s grades in the seminary were also among the best, and she was also selected by the Church as a candidate for the Saintess candidate last month.

That was also the reason why Himan had specifically warned Hall earlier.

If Hall did something excessive to Lorraine, causing Lorraine’s path in theology to be blocked, it would be a huge loss for their Faxtius family.

However, back to the beginning.

So Hall wasn’t late, but was it possible that he had been invited by Christine yesterday?

Because…

Christine was now in the main auditorium.

Was all this arranged yesterday?

Himan only felt that for a moment, it was a little difficult to breathe.

She clutched the corner of her skirt, staring intently at the pair of men and women in the distance.

While everyone here was guessing wildly.

Hall himself was very uncomfortable.

He had originally intended to go directly to the classroom with his umbrella, but on the way, he happened to meet Christine and Maria.

Christine had Maria call him over.

Then they came all the way to the main auditorium.

After all, even if he went to the classroom, he would have to come to the main auditorium later, so it was not good to refuse.

But he also had a question, which was why Christine was paying attention to him.

Yesterday she even said she wanted to be in a relationship with him.

Could it be that she knew he could replenish mana?

He had to figure this out.
It concerned his future safety.

Maria, on the other hand, looked at him as if he was a fierce beast.

“Have you considered what happened yesterday, Baron Hall?”

“What happened yesterday?”

Hall glanced at Maria and pretended not to understand Christine’s words.

And Maria was also looking at him warily, her face saying, “What did Lady Christine say to you? Tell me the truth quickly.”

“Oh, so I can understand that Baron Hall has rejected me?”

Christine took a half step back.
The corner of her eye was always observing the entrance of the main auditorium and the clock.

It was about to start, so there was not much time for idle talk.

However, she had also noticed Himan’s gaze, which she found a little interesting.

“Obviously.”

Of course Hall had to refuse.
If he didn’t refuse, would he agree?

“Am I not as good as that one over there?”

He followed Christine’s finger and met Himan’s eyes in the crowd from a distance.

At this moment, the atmosphere was a bit strange.

Himan saw Christine pointing at her, and she also saw Hall looking at her in the direction Christine was pointing.

One man and two women, looking at each other.

But soon, another line of sight came in.

It was from the right door of the main auditorium.

Hall’s class was already late enough.

Could there be an even later class?

And, the right door was usually for high-ranking guests.

At that moment, the hundreds of other students from other academies who were already seated in the main auditorium all looked there.

And standing there was only one girl.

A petite, rose-colored girl.

Leticia.

For Leticia, this rich little woman who would bring a country’s wealth to whoever married her, was basically as well-known as Christine in the academy.

But Leticia’s attendance was pitifully low.
It was very difficult to even deliberately wait for this little princess of the Child family.

Not to mention Theology Day.

Leticia usually didn’t come to Theology Day.

As the head of the Child family, an object of wooing even for the seven Cardinal Archbishops, wouldn’t it be easy for her to listen to theology if she wanted to?

She only needed to build a new church in Saint Louis in the name of the Child family, and famous priests who had not yet obtained real power and property would flock to her door, indicating whether this church could be assigned to them.

The politicians who governed the twelve districts of Saint Louis would also express their willingness to provide land to the Child family at a low price.

Plus, everyone knew that Leticia disliked noise.
She would absolutely not attend this kind of gathering.

But today, why did she come here?

“Oh, my dear head of the Child family, if you were coming today, why didn’t you let your servants inform me in advance?”

The aftershock of Leticia’s arrival had not yet subsided.

Before Hall and Himan could react.

It was a white-haired old gentleman who had been talking to Maria who approached her.

That was the vice-principal of Holy Light University—Earl Lied.

This morning, when Hall was called over by Christine, Earl Lied was with Christine.

When Hall saw Earl Lied, his mood was not very good.

This character’s role in the game was a quest master.

When the player controlled a character to come to Holy Light University, finding this old man would trigger an early-stage quest.
Then, if the player was willing, they could also accept a series of quests from him.

The difficulty of the quests was generally not particularly high, but after completing three side quests from Lied, there was a probability of triggering Lied’s death plot.

Once Lied’s death plot was triggered, Holy Light University would be infiltrated by several new external forces, and the player’s party would be forced into a side quest.

They would be forced to fight some high-level enemies.

It was quite easy to get a Bad End.

So when he saw Christine and Lied together, he was thinking if this counted as accepting Lied’s first quest.

Now that Earl Lied was approaching Leticia, it was even more of a goner.

It didn’t matter to him whether the old man lived or died, but he didn’t want to trigger those forced plots.
He hadn’t gotten out of here yet.

But in the next second, Hall’s thoughts were interrupted.

Because Leticia answered.

“I came to find Hall. I want to sit next to him and listen to today’s special Theology Day lecture.”

Her words were so clear that he had no doubt that everyone in the main auditorium could hear them.