"We have arrived."
With Selene's inorganic and emotionless voice, I set my feet on the ground again. The dizziness subsided quickly. My head was only slightly spinning, but there were no other symptoms.
"...."
But the Knight Commanders were different.
Iris, Claudia, Lize, and Erica. They were all lying on the floor, desperately trying not to vomit out what was inside them.
The first time he teleported, he was so dizzy that he stumbled and spoke, but from the second time on, he seemed to have a hard time just standing up, and from the third time on, he completely shut his mouth.
It had been a long time since I had taken off my armor. When I wear it, my head starts to buzz and the dizziness lasts several times longer. I put the armor I had taken off aside.
With the knight commanders acting like that, the rest time between teleportations was bound to get longer. Now I finally understood why Selene had come to pick us up under the pretext of escorting us.
How could it be possible to fight the enemy in that state? I can't even stand up, and I'm using all my strength not to vomit out what's inside me.
If they had just taken the carriage and headed to the Holy Land as originally planned, there would have been no need for an escort, but it would have probably taken months to get to the Holy Land's cathedral.
Thanks to Selene's teleportation, we arrived in just one day, even taking into account the breaks in between.
"Are you okay, Lize?"
"...."
Lize looked up at me with her trembling body. Her blue eyes were asking if this looked okay to you. Well, it didn't look okay, so it was a pointless question.
Because of the posture, her chest was pressed between her upper body and the floor and spread out gently to the side. The spread side chest stuck out far under her armpit. Even in that state, she maintained her elasticity.
It seemed like he himself didn't even realize that he looked like that because his eyes were spinning. If he had known, he would have definitely been flirting with me.
"My work is done."
Selene ignored the knight commanders who were clutching their heads and groaning in pain, and poured power into the sacred catalyst in her hand. The gray and silver glow surrounding her began to gradually fade.
"I look forward to the day we can meet again."
The divine catalyst in his hand glowed. Selene's figure disappeared, and the traces of the moon disappeared. Warm sunlight filled the void. White light mixed with yellow spread across the sky.
The knight commanders still hadn't come to their senses. It seemed like it would take quite some time for them to recover, so I decided to wait quietly on the sidelines and looked around.
'That's amazing.'
Everything was white. Every building and roof on the street, everything you could see, even the tiles along the street, were all shining white.
The tiles along the street were clearly white, yet they were so pure that not a single speck of dust was left. Numerous people were walking around with devout demeanor, yet there were no footprints or even dirt on them.
According to the NPC's explanation, the entire Vatican is protected by divine power. I just passed it over in the game, but seeing it in person was nothing short of a miracle.
Since this is a worldview that directly demonstrates the existence of God, the thought briefly crossed my mind that it was only natural for people to become immersed in religion.
However, there was something else that really caught my eye.
'... ...Why are the women's clothes so wholesome? Did the mod creator skip it because it was annoying?'
The clothing worn by the women of the Holy Land was 180 degrees different from that of the Empire.
Unlike the imperial women's clothing, which was not even close to revealing, such as crop tops and miniskirts, the women of the Holy Land mostly wore clothes that were modern but even more revealing.
It was not uncommon to see fashions where the only skin exposed was the face above the neck, and even when there was any exposure, it was at most a slight exposure of one thigh or wearing a sleeveless black top.
I couldn't find a woman wearing something like hot pants that were just underwear and covered her chest with a string like in the Empire, no matter how hard I looked.
I felt at ease seeing such wholesome scenery after such a long time.
'The heretic judge may have been a special type.'
Stella wore a habit that was objectively and subjectively extremely revealing, and the combat nuns under her command also wore such revealing clothing that a single gust of wind would reveal their undergarments.
But, since the women on the streets of Seongguk were wrapped up tightly, it naturally occurred to me that they were strange.
"Ugh...."
While I was calming my mind and body, looking at the neat and careful appearance of the women of the Holy Nation, the knight commanders began to rise, staggering as if they had come to their senses.
"How's your head? Is it better?"
"...I can stand up. I can't walk properly yet though."
Iris, who was the first to stand up, was supported and leaned against a nearby tree. Iris leaned back against the tree, holding her forehead and breathing heavily.
I supported Erica and Claudia one by one, and finally reached out to Lize. Lize obediently placed herself in my hands.
I put my left arm around her shoulder and put my hand under her right armpit to help her up. My hand was waving in the air. If I had gone any further, my hand would have touched the bottom of Lize's chest.
No, just this alone was enough to rub the side of my chest against my right arm. I kept repeating to myself that it was inevitable given the structure of the human body when it came to supporting myself, and I continued walking.
"...I don't want to do this twice. Let's take the carriage when we go, even if it takes a long time."
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Lize turned her body slightly and buried her face in my arms as she muttered. The other knight commanders nodded in agreement.
It really must have been quite difficult.
"Are you coming to your senses?"
A cheerful voice came from behind us. It was a voice I had heard before. I turned my head and saw Stella and her combat nuns approaching us.
I was a little nervous for a moment, wondering if they were going to say something about heresy again, but I was relieved when I saw that no one was holding a weapon.
"Now that you look like you have the presence of mind to drink something, drink this first."
At Stella's gesture, the battle nuns approached and took the twenty-two bottles of potion they were holding in their hands. Then, they approached the commander of the knights one by one and put the spouts of the bottles into his mouth.
The knight commanders obediently drank the potions fed to them by the battle nuns. They seemed to lack the strength to protest against such behavior.
'That's quite expensive.'
Except for Inspiration, each status abnormality had a consumable item assigned to it that could remove it. Inspiration was out of the question because the only way to destroy it was to greatly increase your Divinity and Faith.
Of course, there were ways to remove all status abnormalities, one with magic, one with divine spells, and one with consumables.
Among these, consumables were items that could only be purchased at a fair price in the Holy Land. It wasn't that they were cheap in the Empire, but the middlemen were ripping them off, so they were almost ten times more expensive than in the Holy Land.
The last battle nun came over to me. The nun was about to feed a potion to Lize, who was practically in my arms, but when she saw our positions, she paused for a moment and instead thrust it at me.
"You want me to feed you?"
Nod. The combat nun who had forced the potion bottle into my hand returned to her original position. I held the potion bottle in my left hand and tapped Lize.
Lize, who had been burying her face in his chest and taking a deep breath, peeked her head out.
"...why?"
"He told me to feed this to you."
He shook the potion bottle in his left hand. Lize glanced at it and changed her posture.
He released the arm around my shoulder and gathered it slightly in front of his lower abdomen, leaned his back against my right arm, and put his full weight on it. Finally, he tilted his face back slightly, looked up at the sky, and opened his mouth.
Through her parted lips, I could clearly see her sparkling white teeth, her uvula wriggling with every swallow, her bright red tongue, and the clear saliva slightly pooling between them.
I had a feeling that some strange thoughts were going to keep coming to my mind, so I quickly put the spout of the potion bottle in my mouth and tilted it.
Lize gulped down the potion. I should correct myself. It wasn't that I thought something strange, but rather that something strange had occurred to me. Looking at Lize's expression, it was even more so.
I drank the potion down to the last drop, then hurriedly opened the bottle before such thoughts could take over my mind.
Phew, Lize met my gaze with her tongue half-sticking out. A very thin silver thread stretched between the tip of the bottle and her tongue, then snapped in midair.
"Delta, you just handed me a long stick and fed me the liquid inside?"
"...Looking at you talking nonsense, you seem fine. Stop talking nonsense and just stand up."
Lize stood up quietly, holding my hand, and then she came up next to me and gently rubbed my chest. I thought I didn't have to worry.
The other knight commanders also stood up as if they had never been squirming on the floor.
"It's a pretty expensive potion. Is it worth the price?"
"That's true. Thank you for your kindness."
"Thank you, that's enough. We were the ones who misunderstood you first, weren't we? We accused a sane person of being a heretic, and we still have a long way to go to repay that sin."
Stella then glanced at the spot where Selene had last remained.
"It's amazing that we arrived at the Vatican so quickly, and that the divine power of the moon still remains. It seems like the Inquisitor has been here. Is that right?"
"Yes. Thanks to the help of the Inquisitor, we were able to arrive in one day. It was a bit… difficult, though."
"Anyway, be kind and follow me. I'll take you to where His Holiness the Pope is."
'what?'
Just now, Stella's face darkened slightly. Something closer to sadness or depression than annoyance came to mind. It was so brief that I can't be sure.
Is it because I'm feeling down?
"This is the cathedral. This is where His Holiness the Pope resides."
The cathedral was enormous. I had to bend my head up a long way to see the top. It was a huge building even in the game, but in real life it was much bigger.
The entire building was ornately decorated with yellow and white bricks and golden decorations. The spire rising in the center was literally so tall that it seemed to pierce the sky.
The appearance was also incredibly complex. It was difficult for me to even figure out what the actual structure was.
Stella bowed briefly to the cathedral building and then turned to the side. There were many people around her, kneeling on the floor in prayer.
Stella, who had been walking around the cathedral for quite some time and headed to the back of the building, pointed to a door that was decorated ornately and had a different appearance from the main entrance. Warm light like the sun was streaming out from the half-open door.
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"If you pass through here, you will be connected directly to the place where His Holiness the Pope is. Since the Pope has granted you an audience in person, all the little formalities have been omitted."
Chuck, that slender finger was pointed at me.
"Instead, you go first. The rest of you go in when I tell you to."
"I'm a new knight in name only. Shouldn't I go in first with the knight commanders in order of seniority?"
"Why do you think you came here?"
I was convinced right away by that one sentence. It was because of me that we came here in the first place.
Stella stepped aside from the door, and the combat nuns surrounded us as if they were guarding us. We had been in similar situations before, but unlike that time, the atmosphere was not so tense and there were no weapons in hand.
I walked into the light, feeling the stinging gazes on my back. I unconsciously closed my eyes as the light pricked my eyelids, and when the light seemed to have died down a bit, I carefully opened them.
"You finally came to me."
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the sun.
No, it was the stained glass with such a gorgeous pattern that it almost felt like the sun, and the blonde hair was even more gorgeous and lush than the stained glass. Behind the blonde woman, a halo was shining.
When I saw the woman's appearance, I froze in place without saying anything. My mind was completely cleared, and all the thoughts that had come to mind melted away.
It was not because I was overwhelmed by the warm and cozy atmosphere, nor because I was captivated by the splendor of the stained glass and the beauty of the women, nor because I was moved by the compassionate and kind voice of the woman.
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"In the name of the sun, I welcome you, you who were once called heretics."
'What is that...?'
Women's attire.
'Is it clothes?'
It was because of the extremely revealing clothes worn by the woman in front of me.