The second day of the Victory Day Celebration featured a parade by the various Knight Orders of the Havoc Empire and the Alliance Crusade Team.
The nuns of the Hidden Sea Church were also scheduled to participate.
However, the Saintess, who was supposed to lead the procession, had declined the responsibility following her speech on the first day of the celebration, citing that she was “feeling unwell.”
‘Is she really sick, or is she just faking it? Surely she isn’t trying to use the Victory Day Celebration as an opportunity to go on a date with a secret boyfriend?’
But as the Saintess of the Hidden Sea Church and a member of the rare Skywing Race, Anqi was like a precious butterfly within the organization. No one dared to question her decision.
It was currently noon.
High atop the roofs and cathedral eaves of the Hidden Sea Church headquarters, the Saintess sat perched on the edge.
Her wings were unfurled, and she stared blankly at the bustling parade of the Havoc Empire in the distance.
This was Anqi’s secret base. After all, not everyone could spread their wings and fly to these unreachable heights.
The girl came here whenever she had a lot on her mind, and today was no exception.
Of course she wanted to participate in the lively and interesting festivities; in the past, she would have intercepted her mother at the first opportunity.
She would have strolled through the streets while hugging her mother’s arm.
She would have used “Saintess’s Card” to buy all the desserts her mother usually wanted to eat but was too thrifty to buy.
Then, she would have leaned down to lick the cream off the corner of her mother’s mouth.
‘Mother is so cute. I really want to keep Mother in a cage.’
The moment that thought involuntarily surfaced in her mind, Anqi knew she had come to the right place.
Using the excuse of “feeling unwell” was precisely to avoid her mother, Finney, and the others. After the incident yesterday morning, she simply didn’t know how to face her “Mother.”
Ever since their “mother-daughter relationship” was established, the Demon King, Valo Lant II, had indeed treated her with the attitude of a good mother treating her daughter. She hadn’t even shown favoritism based on who had arrived first.
And yet, Anqi had developed unnecessary emotions and restless, wicked desires for her mother. she had schemed to control and train her mother into a pet and a doll called a “Saintess Candidate.”
That was wrong.
She knew this, and as the Saintess, she should have a firmer moral standing than anyone else.
Yet, even though her little schemes had been thwarted by her mother’s other two daughters, she still felt the urge!
Anqi still wanted to strictly control her mother! It was Mother’s fault for looking like she deserved to be ravished.
Guilt, self-reproach, shame… and yet, she couldn’t stop these thoughts.
Perhaps the Holy Relic, the Eye of the Goddess, which had originally accepted her, had sensed these dark, wicked desires and abandoned her to run toward her mother, the impeccable Demon King.
That was why the girl had decided to hide. She needed to reflect in solitude: Was she truly unfit to be the Saintess of the Hidden Sea Church?
Unfortunately, the supreme status of a Saintess also meant she was doomed to have no privacy.
Anqi hadn’t even been watching the parade for long when a sudden breeze blew through the sunlight, and a familiar figure appeared behind her.
Anqi let out a soft sigh. “Sigh, Sister Superior, I think I finally understand why the Church sent you to serve me.”
After all, the Sister Superior was one of the few people who could easily reach these rooftops.
The Sister Superior’s voice remained elegant and calm, as if she were reading a public notice. “Lady Saintess, I apologize for disturbing your solitude, but we have work to do.”
Anqi pouted with dissatisfaction. She had thought the Sister Superior was here to comfort her!
However, having “work” wasn’t a bad thing. The girl was planning to stay away from her mother for a few days to change her mood and reflect on the proper way to treat her mother moving forward.
Since the Sister Superior had come so abruptly to urge her, the “work” she mentioned could only be that one truly important matter.
“Where is the Holy Relic this time?”
Anqi slowly stood up and retracted her wings, her gaze turning serious. “What is the Inscription? Can you roughly confirm its effect and the conditions for recognition?”
“Recovering Holy Relics” — that was the work the Sister Superior spoke of, and it was one of Anqi’s duties as the Saintess of the Hidden Sea Church.
Recovered Holy Relics would be kept by the Church, and the recovery process followed a strict set of procedures.
The Hidden Sea Church side would be represented by two high-level personnel qualified to handle Holy Relics — usually Anqi and the Sister Superior.
Meanwhile, the Clock Tower would send one Professor and one student to accompany and protect them, as well as to serve a supervisory role.
Only when all four people from both parties were present as witnesses could the party that discovered the Holy Relic proceed with the recovery.
After briefly inquiring about the situation of the Holy Relic, Anqi, who was eager to avoid her mother, urged the Sister Superior.
“Since the location has been confirmed, let’s not delay. Tell the Clock Tower to arrange their personnel as soon as possible. We should ideally depart tomorrow.”
However, the Sister Superior, who was usually the paragon of efficiency, showed a rare expression of hesitation.
“I have already notified the Clock Tower this morning.”
“It is just… Lady Saintess, this Holy Relic recovery is not that critical. Why don’t I go with another Bishop instead? You could stay at headquarters to rest and adjust your mood?”
The girl immediately clenched her small fists. This mission was her way of adjusting her mood!
Seeing her determined stance, the Sister Superior finally nodded with a helpless expression. “Very well, if the Lady Saintess insists… we can depart tomorrow.”
At first, Anqi was quite satisfied. The sooner they left, the better. She was even slightly worried that her mother might take the initiative to come to the Church headquarters to find her!
She hadn’t even decided whether she wanted to see her mother or not.
However, a day passed.
Once Anqi had completed her travel preparations with the utmost speed and followed the Sister Superior outside the Church headquarters the next morning to meet the Professor and student from the Clock Tower…
The sight of the familiar figures before her finally made the girl realize why the Sister Superior had been so hesitant and evasive yesterday — she had looked conflicted because she didn’t want Anqi to go on this recovery mission.
One of them was an Apprentice Nun from the Church currently at the Clock Tower; Anqi vaguely remembered her name was Emma.
As for the other one…
“Mother?”
Looking at the white-haired loli Demon King wearing a Clock Tower Professor’s uniform, Anqi didn’t know for a moment whether the fact that she had blurted out the word “Mother” so smoothly was a good or bad thing.
At that moment…
Glancing at Saintess Anqi, who had looked awkward and fidgety from the moment they met, Valo felt that she was truly a mastermind, a genius strategist of the highest order.
‘Surprised to see Mother here, dear daughter?’
Valo was feeling incredibly impressed with herself.
It all started yesterday morning when she left Finney and Kaika behind to pay a visit to the top floor of the Clock Tower.
She went to thank the Great Sage — after all, the Subjugation Team led by the Knight Princess Ain that the Magic Old Man had sent out had indeed helped her two daughters.
Then came her real purpose: to ask the Great Sage about Saintess Anqi’s recent situation. After all, Anqi had failed to appear for the parade where she was supposed to lead the nuns!
This made Valo immediately suspicious. ‘Is Anqi avoiding her Mother!?’
When the Great Sage mentioned that Saintess Anqi was about to head out for a “Holy Relic recovery mission,” Valo’s suspicion turned into a certainty!
So, she volunteered on the spot to accompany Anqi as the representative of the Clock Tower.
Initially, the Great Sage was a bit reluctant.
To quote him directly: “You? Lady Valo, recovering a Holy Relic is important work. The Clock Tower must send a team of a teacher and a student.”
Valo immediately objected. ‘That is incorrect!’
Was a Health Teacher from the Clock Tower not a teacher!?
‘Old man, why do you talk so much? Do you want me, the Hero’s mother, to put in a good word for you in front of Finney so I can help thaw that icy foster-mother-daughter relationship between you two?’
And so, the Great Sage had agreed to Valo’s request with a look of pure annoyance.
Damn, she was simply too broken when it came to battles of wits.
Coming back to the present, the reaction of her Saintess daughter was exactly as she had expected.
“Uh… Mother? Why are you here?”
Anqi, who was clutching a handbag, let her voice tremble slightly before immediately returning to normal, as if their relationship had always been harmonious and perfect.
But that instinctive half-step backward the girl took was caught by Valo’s sharp maternal eyes — Anqi definitely wanted to hide from her after the previous incident!
“Why can’t Mother be here?”
Valo followed the girl’s wandering gaze with a confident look and added, “Mother is here as a Professor of the Clock Tower to accompany you and complete this Holy Relic recovery mission, Anqi.”
“Since this is Mother’s first time performing this kind of work, please give Mother lots of guidance over the next few days, okay?”
“Ugh… Ahaha, I… I will, Mother.”
Seeing the girl’s forced smile, Valo felt incredibly smug. ‘Humph, trying to run? Not so tough now, are you, daughter?’
Previously, when Anqi wanted to train her into a Saintess Candidate, she had clung so tightly that she wanted to wrap her up in her wings even while sleeping.
Now that her plot was crushed, she wanted to draw a line between them?
It wouldn’t be that easy!
‘You were willing during the first half of the night, but the second half is up to me.’
Smugness aside, Valo hadn’t volunteered solely to turn the tables. She was also doing it because of Anqi’s current state!
She glanced at her: In the Nurturing Panel, Anqi’s Justice Value had dropped to 85% in just one day!
For Anqi, the Saintess of the Hidden Sea Church, to have her Justice Value drop three times in a row meant there was no room for error.
Valo could conclude that Anqi was currently feeling wavering doubts about her identity as a Saintess!
Therefore, to maintain Anqi’s status as the Church’s Saintess — which was a prerequisite for entering the Magneto Ending — Valo planned to use this recovery mission to properly soothe Anqi’s emotions and stabilize the Saintess’s Justice Value!
As for the Holy Relic recovery itself, it was one of the special events in the game. Just like a gacha pull, Valo didn’t know what the Holy Relic actually was yet.
She would treat it as a secondary goal. It would be best if she could trigger a walkthrough sequence while she was at it.
Thinking this, Valo exchanged a few more distracted pleasantries with Anqi before they boarded two separate carriages prepared by the Hidden Sea Church and quietly departed.
Valo didn’t share a carriage with Anqi, but she wasn’t in a hurry.
Without the interference of Kaika and Finney, this recovery mission would take at least three to five days.
She would have plenty of opportunities to interact with her Saintess daughter later, and she was confident she could fix Anqi’s mindset and stabilize the girl’s Justice Value.
Did anyone even understand the weight of a dating sim veteran’s experience?
However, there was one uncertainty on this trip…
That was the student representing the Clock Tower, the girl traveling with her — Emma, the Blood Tribe girl who was currently undercover in the Clock Tower as an Apprentice Nun.
See? They had only been in the carriage for a short while, and the pink-haired puppy sitting across from her was already “wagging her tail” with a mysterious and excited expression!
“Demon King, you’re so amazing… Mmph! Mmph!”
Valo lunged forward and covered Emma’s big, blabbering mouth!
‘You talk too much! Keep your voice down!’
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