Chapter 2
[From now on you are the Saintess, Evanessa Halyn. You must target one of the five male leads and achieve a happy ending in order to complete the game.]
At first, she thought it was an auditory hallucination caused by her preoccupation with the game. Although the change in her surroundings was very concerning, she was sure that the white ceiling hanging over her just meant that she was in the hospital.
However, the place she woke up in was indeed the very same room that she had been forced to stare at on her smartphone’s screen until she was sick of it, Evanessa’s bedroom.
She tried all the usual methods of waking up from a dream, but they proved useless. Although it was hard for her to believe, she was now certain that this was reality.
‘So I’ve been inserted. Not into a novel, but a dating sim.’
Yewon, who was still staring at the unfamiliar face in the mirror with glazed-over eyes, heard a knock at the door.
*Knock Knock*
“Saintess Evanessa. The Pope has requested your presence.”
…is this for real?
Yewon’s voice cracked as she replied, “Does it really have to be today?”
The voice that poured from her lacked her usual husky tone; instead, it sounded so sweet and pure that it left her with goosebumps just hearing it. She also sensed that the apostle who had been sent to guide her was still awkwardly waiting by her door.
Yewon – no – Evanessa took a deep breath.
“So where should I be going?”
***
“You’re late,” the pope said as he closed the thick tome that he had been reading. The monocle he was wearing sliding down the bridge of his nose as he turned to her.
Evanessa looked at the pope with a strange expression on her face.
He was one of the main villains of the hodgepodge, European, Middle-Ages, fantasy world that the dating sim game had been set in.
He was also the root cause of why Evanessa’s naivete score was a full 10 out of 10 points.
“Your call just came too suddenly.”
“Well, first of all, take a seat.”
The pope gestured to the seat directly opposite him with a tilt of his chin. Although he was slightly over 60 years old, he appeared to be a young man in his twenties due to the high levels of magic that he had been born with.
In this world, the priests of the Creator God Lunium possessed ‘Magic Power’ instead of ‘Divine Power. This was because Lunium, who along with his role as the God who created the world, was also the god from whom all magical power was drawn from.
Therefore, all those who held large reserves of magical power, yet lacked the necessary talent to become a wizard, were instead recruited to serve as priests of Lunium.
“Let’s just get straight to the point of this meeting. I’m tired and I want to quickly go back to my room and get some rest.”
The pope’s eternally stoic expression faltered for the first time.
Only
If this game had now truly become her reality, with the only way to return to her original world was to reach a happy ending, then the one person who represented absolutely everything that Evanessa would need to avoid on her way to the perfect ending was the pope.
‘The first thing to do is to escape the church.’
However, the church would never willingly let go of Evanessa, who was the manifestation of their god Lunium.
“… so today marks the start of your rebellious period. Do you really hate the fact that you’re going to the imperial palace tomorrow that much?
She was going to the imperial palace tomorrow?
Could it be … because of the ‘Lunium’s Day Festival’?
It was out of character for Evanessa, who was basically the zashiki-warashi of the church, to go outdoors for any purpose other than charity work. On top of that, it was very rare for anyone to be allowed to directly enter the royal palace. So if this wasn’t for the Anniversary of the Empire’s Founding, then there was a high probability that this had something to do with the month-long regional holiday celebrated across the empire, the festival of ‘Lunium’s Day’.