Chapter 6 : The Saintess’s Invitation

All morning, Hall could feel that faint gaze, tinged with resentment and a hint of anger.

It was Himan.

He actually understood her temper to some extent, based on the game’s plot.

Himan was the type of female knight with a “righteous” attribute.

But her righteousness bordered on the abnormal.

Back when he played the game, people often lamented how corrupt the Papal State was, yet Himan believed everything she was told.
In most of Himan’s routes.

The game would end before she even learned the truth of the world.

She was a “short-route” heroine.

And many of her endings were chillingly terrifying upon closer inspection.

One ending that left a deep impression on Hall was from a completion screenshot he saw another player post online.
The caption read:

“Years later, Himan led her girls to the northern kingdom of Katrin. Atop a snow-capped mountain where dragon bones lay buried, they gazed up at a dreamlike, violet-red sky. Beneath this wondrous sight, they embraced and made their vows, as if the world would be frozen in that moment forever.”

It looked like a sweet, fluffy ending, but the exact same violet-red sky had appeared in the Bad End of the Saintess’s apocalypse route.

So, many people in that thread boldly speculated that this “Happy Ending” for Himan was actually a total party wipe, just not explicitly written.

The game was actually full of similar, cleverly designed hidden plots.

Otherwise, this unorthodox game disguised in yuri skin wouldn’t have generated so much buzz and sold so many copies.

This was another reason why he had to get out of Saint Louis.

Who the hell knew what kind of weird things he might trigger?
Yafman suspecting him of being a traitor to the West yesterday was already absurd enough.

“Young Master Hall, I heard the Judgment Bureau paid you a visit yesterday. Care to tell everyone what it was about?”

Lenny’s voice suddenly sounded beside him.

The gazes of everyone in the classroom, who were about to head to lunch, were drawn over.

The students here were either young masters and ladies of nobility, or hyper-competitive academic grinders who fought their way out of small towns and cities.

Even if some of them had esteemed statuses, had heard of the Judgment Bureau, and had bragged about its power.

They were all, at the end of the day, just eighteen or nineteen-year-old kids.
If the Judgment Bureau really came knocking, they would surely see those investigators as terrifying beasts, something to be avoided at all costs, their hearts filled with dread.

Hearing that Hall had been visited, they all felt there was a big story behind it.

Himan initially felt it was wrong to blow up such a private matter, but then she thought, maybe it was for the best.
This guy Hall, if he continued to be so nonchalant.

Soon there would be no place for him in all of Saint Louis.
It was time he learned his lesson.

So she said nothing, merely observing.

But Hall didn’t say anything either, mainly because he didn’t want to deal with Lenny.

He remembered this guy.
A suitor of Himan’s who would resort to petty tricks, and also a key “assist” for other heroines to win over Himan in their respective routes.

But he usually botched things, which ended up helping the other heroines gradually win Himan over.

If Himan wasn’t won over, Lenny’s schemes wouldn’t stop, until he got desperate and did something that threatened Himan’s life, at which point another heroine would kill Lenny, causing Himan to fall completely in love with that heroine.

Truly, a beacon of the unorthodox route.

But Lenny succeeding in targeting Himan wasn’t entirely his own doing.
It was because Himan’s family controlled the Papal State’s eastern military power and was being targeted by political enemies.

When the player, controlling a heroine, started to settle scores and checked Lenny’s info card after killing him, they would find his strength was at the level of an early-game elite mob.

His potential was also very low, with a level cap of only fifty-three.

The level cap was an important setting in this world.
Unless one used some extremely special rare items with incredibly low drop rates, it could never be raised.

The main heroines’ level caps were basically all above eighty-five, and even the secondary female characters were mostly above seventy.

As for him, Hall, he was rather special.

Besides some initial settings, no player had ever unlocked this character’s in-game info card.
All intelligence about him was pieced together from dedicated guide posts.

However, given his feat of slaying a demon king’s subordinate in some late-game routes where he survived.

His level cap was definitely over ninety.

“Himan was there at the time. Why don’t you ask her?”

Hall packed up his textbook and the notes for his “get out of Saint Louis” plan that he had made that morning, and prepared to leave.

At his words, everyone’s attention collectively turned to Himan.

Lenny was a bit embarrassed.
Of course, he knew Himan was there, but he had observed the atmosphere between Himan and Hall that morning and knew that Hall must have upset Himan.

That’s why he had decided to make a show of it.

But this guy…

Faced with everyone’s probing gazes, Himan had no intention of revealing the details, because this matter really shouldn’t be blown out of proportion.

But how could she teach Hall a lesson if she didn’t blow it up?

“Can’t you speak for yourself? The things you’ve done, do you have no sense of responsibility for them?”

Himan said coldly.

Lenny was extremely pleased to hear this.

Yes, he knew that Himan had aspired since childhood to join the Judgment Bureau or the Order of Holy Knights to serve the Papal State.

Himan would absolutely not be lenient with anyone who broke the law, even if Hall was her cousin.

He had disliked Hall since they were children.

The young Hall was very popular with girls.
He was also the only son of the Faxtius family.
At all sorts of parties, he was the most dazzling little boy.
Adults would come to greet him, and girls would come to play and talk with him.

As for him, Lenny, he could basically only be a sidekick, having to suppress his emotions just to squeeze into the conversation.

From that time on, he had been very jealous of Hall, wishing he could stomp this guy under his foot.

He and Hall went to the same primary and middle school.
He had seen countless girls walking with Hall on the path in the school’s back garden, until one day, Hall’s reputation exploded.

An anonymous girl came forward and wrote a letter to the school’s news club, calling him a scumbag.
She claimed he had promised to be her boyfriend, did some “indescribable things,” and then dumped her.

At first, people didn’t quite believe it, but then more and more girls came forward with similar stories about Hall.

When a man is down, everyone will give him a push.
Lenny had also pretended to be a girl during that time and written an anonymous letter to add fuel to the fire.

From then on, Hall fell from his pedestal.
His reputation grew worse and worse, and all sorts of previously ignored details were infinitely magnified and interpreted.

Lenny had thought Hall was done for life.

But on the first day of entering Holy Light University, he found he was in the same class as Hall again.

This guy’s admission essay was even titled “My Admiral Father,” which had really provoked Lenny, who was merely the son of an Earl.
It made him so angry.

This time, he heard that the Judgment Bureau had dispatched a newly famous investigator like Yafman.
It must mean Hall had committed a major crime.
He was determined to make sure Hall could never recover.

Hall, however, had no mind to care about Lenny’s emotional fluctuations.
He only felt that Himan’s imagination was going too far.
Was she really going to announce in public that the second son of Faxtius was a spy?

Family matters should be discussed within the family.

Once it started spreading, one would tell ten, and ten would tell a hundred.
Among the common people, even a false rumor could become truth.

Even with the risk of being affected by the heroine’s “buff,” he had to put this cousin of his in her place.

But just as he was about to speak.

He suddenly saw a pure-looking young girl appear at the classroom door, dressed in a black and white nun’s habit with a wimple, looking extremely ascetic.

‘Maria?’

He remembered this girl.
She was an extremely important secondary female character.

Because she…

“Is Baron Hall here? Lady Christine has sent me to invite you to share tea with her this afternoon.”

“?”

“?”

“??????”

The entire classroom instantly filled with gasps of astonishment and envious stares.

Because Maria’s mistress—Christine.

Was the most promising candidate to be elected Saintess in next year’s election.

The only women qualified to be invited to share tea with her were daughters of admirals and dukes, like Himan.

And the number of men she had actively invited was, until now, zero.

But Hall, surrounded by these gazes, had only one thought in his mind right now.

‘Something is very wrong.’