The basement of a store on Soul Academy Street.
At first, I thought the process of identifying the Evil God’s followers was still underway.
Since a heresy purge couldn’t happen overnight, I figured it was normal for it to take some time.
However, even though three of the shops where the Void’s followers had been hiding were destroyed and a full day had passed, the quest still showed no signs of completion.
It’s true that the lousy Evil God often plays tricks, but I’ve never encountered a situation like this where he would drag things out unnecessarily. So, I thought there must be something I was missing, and I moved around, searching for the anomaly.
But I couldn’t find any trace of the Evil God in the streets.
While my aesthetic sense pointed out parts of the street that didn’t feel right, it didn’t reveal any sinister presence of the Evil God.
My divine sense, while it might have detected Phoebe's warmth, failed to sense anything ominous.
Even my grandfather had told me that there was nothing wrong with the street.
With all my means telling me that the street was perfectly fine, it seemed impossible to find anything on my own.
Others didn’t offer any more promising answers.
Jakal and Chester both said there seemed to be no strange parts of the street, and Phoebe also said she couldn’t find anything unusual.
With the situation as it was, the only thing growing was my frustration.
No! If there’s a problem, I want to know exactly what that problem is!
I want to know what’s preventing the quest from being completed!
You gave me the quest, so even from your point of view, this is troublesome, right? Why is it so vague!? Huh!?
Are you an old fool who doesn’t know how games work these days?
Modern RPGs don’t work like this, you know?!
If you act like this, all the players will quit!
Why are you forcing these outdated feelings on me, like they’d still work after 20 years?! You old perverted bastard!
You’re not trying to make me pray while wearing makeup just to screw with me, are you?
If that’s the case, I’ll do it the next time, but please just give me a clue already!
Quest rewards, penalties for failure—whatever! I’m pissed off because I feel uneasy!
I vented my irritation toward the lazy Evil God, but he didn’t respond at all.
The silence reminded me of a time when my superior asked if I had tried to find things out for myself before asking questions, and it made me even more furious. So, I resolved not to pray to the lazy, incompetent old bastard until the quest was cleared.
Stat losses? I couldn’t care less! My pride is more important right now!
So, after three days of a silent standoff with the lazy Evil God, the day many students returned to Soul Academy arrived.
When I woke up and immediately faced the quest screen, I muttered curses at the Evil God and prepared to leave.
I still hadn’t figured out why the quest wasn’t completed.
No matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t see any problems on Academy Street.
I even hired a suitable mage to survey from the air, but I couldn’t find anything. My frustration was building up.
If only I had my fuzzy fox friend here, I could have comforted myself by tormenting it, but without that soft fur to snuggle with, I didn’t know how to calm down.
“Uh... Lady?”
“What is it? Lazy Saint.”
“Uh, how long do we have to stay like this?”
Instead, I chose the lazy Saint.
She had a soft, pleasant body that earned her the nickname "perverted saint" in the community. She was warm and cozy, just the right kind of person to use as a chair.
While sitting on Phoebe, I tried to soothe my irritation by eating something sweet, but when I heard Phoebe’s question, I tilted my chin up.
Phoebe, whose cheeks were flushed bright red, hastily looked away when our eyes met.
“What? Is it heavy? Wow, how much did you laze around for you to not even be able to handle my weight?”
I mocked her, and the heat rose on Phoebe's face.
“It’s... It’s not like that! I just... well, it’s just...”
“Aha, so the adorable me is too much for you, huh?”
“Yes, yes...”
“So now you want me to leave? You always said you wanted to be by my side, but now you just want to leave me?”
“I didn’t say that at all!?”
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“Right. I get it. I’m the bad one. You don’t like me, huh? Huh, sob...”
“Aah! Okay! You can stay! Just please don’t cry! Please!”
“...I can stay?”
“Yes!”
“Then be quiet. Lazy Saint. If you move, you’ll mess up the posture I worked so hard for.”
Phoebe nodded quickly, and as soon as I saw her do that, I changed my expression and cheerfully took a spoonful of parfait.
“Lady Allen, could you stop treating the Church’s Saint as a toy?”
As I was smiling with a sweet treat in my mouth, I heard a reproach from the side.
Joy, the noblewoman of the Partlan family, looked at me and Phoebe with a subtle expression, sighed heavily, and sat down opposite me.
“Phoebe is a Saint of the Divine Church. In terms of status, she’s far above us.”
“What does that matter? Even a fool is technically above me by rank, but it’s still my toy.”
“I’m! Not! Your! Toy!”
“Yep, she’s a toy. Joy. At least that’s how I see it.”
“Why are you saying that to me, Your Highness!”
Arthur, who had appeared after Joy, looked as exhausted as when he had first seen Jakal.
Judging by the surge of magic circulating around Arthur, it was clear that he had been grinding in the dungeon, forgoing sleep to absorb the growth he gained from the recent experience.
I could tell right away that my friends were all geniuses.
If I weren’t stuck in the same place, I’d probably be lagging behind them by now.
“Where’s Freya? I thought she’d always be by your side.”
“She’s training with the lazy dog.”
Usually, I’d have indulged Freya's obsession with me, but today was different.
If I kept clashing weapons with her, I felt like I might do something rash.
So, I threw the lazy dog at her instead.
The lazy dog had been hesitant, saying there was a lot to do before the semester started, but I ignored him.
If he chose me as his master, he had to suck it up!
“I’ll go meet him later. I think we can break him now.”
“Poor Prince, you’re going to break Freya?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Hmm. So, the poor Prince likes to show off and get broken. If that’s the case, how about you take me on? I can stomp on you real good.”
I considered rolling him around for stress relief, but Arthur just murmured and didn’t take the bait.
“You’re unusually sharp today, Lucy Allen. What’s going on?”
“You’re right. ...Ah, could it be? Lady, is today the day?”
Hearing Joy blabber on, I suddenly jumped up from my seat and grabbed her face with both hands.
“Aah! For real, aahhh!”
“You fool. Do you think I’m asking you to scream just for fun?”
“Gwahhh!”
Joy tried to resist, but as a mage, she was no match for my knightly strength.
After tormenting Joy for a while, I let her go, ignoring her red face, and explained the situation on Academy Street.
The infiltration and extermination of the Void’s followers. I was certain everything had been dealt with, yet there was still an uneasy feeling lingering.
Without mentioning the lazy Evil God’s quest, I explained everything to Arthur, and his expression grew serious.
“I’ve heard about the Evil God’s followers. They say the Saint received a divine revelation and spread the good works, and now the capital is in an uproar.”
“...I really didn’t do anything.”
“Who cares, Phoebe? Just let them talk. Whatever you say, the nobles in the capital will twist it into whatever they want to hear.”
Grabbing her flushed cheeks, Joy complained about the nobles in the capital before sighing heavily and leaning back in her chair.
“There’s definitely something still left, but are you saying it can’t be found on Academy Street?”
“Yeah. Those filthy cockroaches are hiding somewhere, but I can’t see them.”
“If even Lady Allen can’t find it, and Phoebe can’t see it, maybe there’s nothing to worry about?”
Joy’s opinion was logical. If it weren’t for the creepy quest from the perverted old bastard, I might’ve thought the same.
But reality was different.
Something was definitely still there.
There was something lurking on Academy Street that we hadn’t discovered yet.
As I fumed over this, Arthur, who had been furrowing his brow, carefully spoke up.
“Have you checked inside the Academy?”
“...The lazy Academy?”
“Yeah. You might not know, but the Academy is pretty chaotic right now. The first and second queens are fighting over who gets to place their people, and it’s a mess. If it were any other time, it wouldn’t be worth doubting, but now, we should start questioning things.”
I’d already heard from Karia that the first queen was placing her people in the Academy.
After the last incident, the second queen had agreed to cooperate with me, so it made perfect sense that her people would be coming here as well. With Soul Academy caught in the power struggle between the first and second queens, it must be a pretty chaotic situation.
With so many people coming and going, it seemed like a good time to start suspecting internal issues within the Academy.
When I thought about it, I jumped up from my seat and headed toward where the lazy dog was.
To get the list of people currently at Soul Academy, it would be quickest to go through the Academy’s professor.