Chapter 400 (1): Like a God
April twenty-fifth.
Londan Port.
Wayne found himself standing at the port at night. He took a deep breath and said contentedly, “After all the air I’ve breathed, the smog here still hits the spot the most.”
Compared to Prussia, the land of loyalty, and Rus Federation, the land of stoicism, Windsor was positively mediocre in every way except for betrayal and inhuman deeds. However, Wayne knew Windsor as a good country, with the best Francan food and the best Francan jokes.
As illustrated by the common greeting, Are you from Franc?
It was eight o’clock at night, with faint fog permeating the air.
Since Wayne claimed the secret weapon of the royal family, the mist that had had Londan in a chokehold at night had become much thinner, allowing the Eastern District and the Southern District, where the economic foundation was relatively lacking, to grow more and more prosperous. On the streets, workers heading to factories for overtime could be seen in groups.
Such was the way capitalists operated. When thick mist made outings difficult at night and curfew was effectively in place, they couldn’t adjust working hours to have two shifts around the clock. Now that the mist was no more, and the curfew lifted, they naturally had to have their employees slave away—especially since it was wartime.
You’re not working for us capitalists, but the country. You’re working overtime for victory and yourselves.
Smelling the authentic smell of smog in Londan made Wayne feel at home.
He dropped his two secretaries at the library before driving Anastasia to her manor. Originally, the Holy Maiden should return to the headquarters of the Church of Darkness after visiting the Church of Nature to report to the Pope and other higher-ups. However, Anastasia enjoyed a high status at the Church of Darkness, giving her significant autonomy. Moreover, her father, Ivan, was the Pope, and Wayne was the Goddess of Darkness’s lover boy in the human world. She could go wherever she wanted to go, and no one would say anything.
She expected no questions, or the only answer she would give was, “It’s Her divine oracle.”
Wayne also had Knight Vichy stay at Anastasia’s manor. He had little goodwill for the servant serving two masters. He acknowledged her loyalty; she was a qualified guard who made stable, effective soundproof barriers. But because she was loyal, he didn’t trust her.
Vichy currently had two masters, Wayne and the Goddess of Darkness, Ines. Her loyalty was divided, so it wasn’t loyalty at all. He believed that if one day he and Ines went after each other, Vichy would take Ines’s side without hesitation. Thus, the knight had no place in his life.
Wayne’s residence was large, but there was no space for Vichy. He ordered her to stay at the Holy Maiden of Darkness’s manor to protect Anastasia.
He didn’t plan to meet Vichy ever again unless necessary. He was willing to take her to Londan for only one reason: card games! Card games with Darienne!
He remembered clearly how Darienne hated Vichy. She hadn’t said why, but judging by the catharsis on her face when she beat up Auston, she was likely to have suffered losses at Vichy’s hands when she was young. Putting them together, the card games would surely be entertaining.
They’ll most likely fight!
I wanna see it.
At nine at night, Wayne left the Holy Maiden’s manor. He checked his watch and then looked up at the misty night sky. Observing the stars, he held his fingers together pretentiously as he arranged his future schedule. To give his harem a surprise and to better manage his time, he hadn’t notified any of them about his return.
“As expected of me, I’m as clever as ever.”
Wayne looked around. Since he was closest to that neighborhood, he headed straight to the manor of the Church of Moonlight’s High Reverend. This was when the High Reverend usually applied night cream on herself.
Manual labor should be left to manual laborers. The High Reverend was too delicate for such physical work. He volunteered.
***
“Ha, now you come back!”
In the living room, Filomina was delighted to see Wayne walk in with his shameless mug, but she scoffed, “I thought you died outside and forgot about me. It turns out you’re still alive and still remember me.”
“Mina, I came straight to your place after returning. You wounded me.”
Under the twins’ derisive gaze, the scumbag put his arm around the High Reverend and went to the second floor. Filomina only pushed him away a couple of times half-heartedly before falling into his arms bonelessly.
They exchanged saccharine sweet nothings, calling each other ‘bastard’ and ‘darling’ in a manner that would make goose bumps break out.
“Tell me. How many days has it been? Am I the last to see you?” Filomina sat before her vanity, rolling her eyes at the bastard in the reflection.
“You’re the first.” Wayne felt unfairly judged. He pulled Filomina’s hand to his chest and said, “Listen. Every beat of my heart is yearning for you.”
“Really?” Filomina said skeptically, unmoved by the secondhand confession. “Do your fiancée, girlfriends, and secretaries not know that you’ve returned?”
“Mina, that hurts. My heart stops beating because it misses you so much.”
And his heart did stop then.
Filomina still didn’t believe him. She had naively thought that Wayne was an honest man, that she had chanced upon a one-in-a-million lover, so she did whatever he said and believed every word out of his mouth. It wasn’t until later that she found out she was the honest pushover in the relationship. The scumbag was only practicing his skills on her.
“I still don’t believe you. I can’t be the first.”
“Shall I go then?”
“Don’t you dare!”
Filomina huffed, shoving a bottle of night cream in Wayne’s hand. “You’ve been gone for two months. Tell me, did you bring another shameless woman back?”
...Actually, yeah!
“Bastard, speak!”
“She’s not a shameless woman, but the former Darkness Knight.”
“Huh?!” Filomina stared at Wayne’s reflection with wide eyes, shocked. “There’s already a Darkness Knight. Why would the predecessor be around?”
Usually, each goddess would only have one chosen knight in the Chosen Land. Wayne’s revelation contradicted the common knowledge that Filomina knew.
ε=(′д`*)))
Life was hard. Wayne sighed, explaining the difficulties he had undergone.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve become the Goddess of Darkness’s target, and life’s been hard. I’ve not only headed to the headquarters of the Church of Nature, but also the headquarters of the Church of Darkness, fighting a formidable entity that was likely to become a subordinate god.”
Wayne winced. “It’s all because of the Goddess of Darkness’s machination. You don’t know about Her penchant for manipulating Her subordinates and how She enjoyed Her subordinates’ plight. Take the Darkness Knight as an example: the greater his pain, the greater his power...”
“The goddess covets me for my talent. She wants to turn me into Her subordinate god. Because I refused, She arranged a formidable enemy for me to force me into submitting.”
Filomina’s eyes widened. She realized how dangerous things had been for Wayne and how he had almost died on several occasions, so she immediately put aside her jealousy and sat him down to massage him, hoping to soothe his exhaustion.
She would make a good wife, but she still lacked the dignity of the rightful spouse compared to Kristen.
Wayne hoped that Filomina would learn more from her student. A teacher was whoever was more competent. There was no shame in seeing one’s student as a teacher.
“You’ve worked hard. I was wrong...” Filomina smoothed a hand over Wayne’s face, pulling him into the cushion of her chest. “Look at you,” she said, feeling a pang in her heart. “You must have suffered much. You’ve lost weight.”
Wayne nodded. He had suffered. Anastasia and Senna were too competitive and always tried to one-up each other when they went two-on-one, refusing to lose to their old rival. They hadn’t been treating him like a human.
He couldn’t explain his difficulty, though. He was a people pleaser who always tried to make others happy, and even voicing his rejection would feel like a grave mistake. It was an illness that he had contracted when he was little, and it might continue to haunt him in this lifetime.
Seeing his expression turn bitter, like he was remembering something difficult, Filomina tried to cheer him up, her heart aching for him.
“It’s okay. I’m fine after seeing you. What you said was really hurtful, though.”
“That’s my mistake...” Filomina apologized profusely and agreed to a few unfair clauses before Wayne finally broke into a smile.
“While things were difficult, dangers always come with opportunities. I’ve survived the crisis and reached Legendary rank.”
When he glossed over the danger and highlighted only the positives so that she wouldn’t worry, Filomina held him tightly, her heart aching harder. “You’ve ranked up so quickly. It must have been a tremendous danger that you went through.”
“I managed to overcome it by thinking about you.”
Filomina’s eyes reddened, hurting and aching for him. She cupped the pervert’s face and kissed him.
Things escalated quickly. There was no stopping the momentum.
Later in the bathroom, Wayne sat in the bathtub with a pale moonlight elf in his arms. His fingertips smoothed over the silky, fair skin, rubbing colors into it.
Filomina reverted to her human form with narrowed eyes, nuzzling him lovingly.
“Oh, has Darienne returned?”
“...”
Filomin rolled her eyes at him. “Why, are you going after Darienne now?”
“I resent that. I won’t even take a card addict like her for free. The thing is...”
Wayne told her about the history between Vichy and Darienne.
“Oh, I didn’t know that!” Filomina’s eyes lit up. She was curious about how a card game between the two knights would go. She said regretfully, “She’s returned to the Frozen Land for her shift and won’t be back any time soon. It’s the Sun Knight’s turn to be active. I heard that he came to Londan some time ago and hasn’t been seen since then.”
Sun Knight Leo was in Londan? Wayne raised an eyebrow, guessing that Leo was here to meet his squires, Cushing and Carter, as well as... Vera.
In the inner world, William had become the new Sun Knight, which would mean that Vera could become Leo’s successor. He wondered whether Vera had gained the recognition of Dawn Doctrine. If so, tsk.
Vera had been dreaming about defeating the evil dragon to take back the ‘princess’ that the dragon had stolen. Before, she hadn’t been strong enough. She kept getting defeated by the evil dragon’s hand chops and only managed to survive to this day by acting cute. If she gained the ability to fight back, the Wayne residence would become quite lively.
***
“Oh, you still remember your way back, Boss?”
In the detective agency, Mona sat at the office desk. Seeing Wayne, she adjusted her glasses.
When she lowered her hands, a soundproof barrier was already in place.
“I came to see you immediately after I arrived. I’ve missed you so much.”
Mona chuckled.
“You’ve become even prettier, Mona.”
Wayne went up to hold her and looked at her lovingly. After a thorough kiss, he ended up sitting in the chair, with his secretary sitting in his lap.
Mona didn’t buy Wayne’s nonsense, of course, but she didn’t say anything about it. She simply asked if his trip had gone well.
Wayne customized his story depending on his listener. When he was with different members of his harem, he said the same opening line, but focused on different aspects of the story.
Mona, for example, hated demons, so Wayne went into great detail about his battle with them.
“During my trip to Berlo, the capital of Prussia, I banished two demon lords, Gluttony and Wrath... I destroyed the demon vessels in the projected Abyss and erased the hidden threats to the Gate of Hell... They’re so strong.”
Wayne went on and on about how much torment he had undergone. He buried his face in her chest. “I’ve worked so hard. You have to reward me.”
Knowing that two demon lords had descended, Hesione was in a great hurry to take over, and she believed herself entitled to it as a Śār. She asked Mona to step aside. There were many things Wayne hadn’t gone into detail about, so she had to ask for clarification.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t.
It had been two months since Mona last saw Wayne. Why would she share with Hesione when she had little time to spend with him?
Just wait. Once I finish getting Boss up to speed about work, it won’t be too late for you to ask about the demons.
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