Rise of the OtherGod Apostle: Not a Cult Leader, but a Serf?!

#073Reader Mode

#073

I tossed and turned all night, my mind racing with worries and concerns. The realization that the Church of Order was utterly useless had hit me hard and sleep eluded me.

The next morning, after my restless night, Elamin waltzed in through the invisible door as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Hey, Elamin,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Would it be okay if I had lunch with someone else today?”

“…Are you thinking of dining with that holy knight named Athanas?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Wait, how did you know?” I asked, surprised. But then it hit me—of course he knew. I mean, how many people did I even know in this place?

Plus, I had literally mentioned Athanas’s lunch invitation just yesterday.

“Never mind, you don’t have to answer that.” I mumbled, feeling like a complete moron. “Forget I asked.”

My face flushed bright red as I remembered my brilliant “Headbutt?” response in front of Elamin the day before.

Could I have possibly looked any dumber…?

“About what you told me yesterday…” I began, trying to change the subject. “I get it now. I realized I had misunderstood the situation. The Saint kindly explained everything.”

“That’s fortunate to hear,” Elamin said, nodding.

“And Commander Casimir? Is she…?”

“The Saint said not to worry. Apparently, the commander’s punishment was light compared to the crime of disobeying a chief Apostle’s order.”

“Oh, thank goodness! I was worried…”

Worried my a*s.

Because they give such slap-on-the-wrist punishments, no wonder the knight commander kept doing whatever she wanted.

The Order sure has its act together, doesn’t it?

The Saint doesn’t know anything, the Apostles sit around twiddling their thumbs, and the knight commander can’t even follow a simple order…

This place is doomed. Completely and utterly doomed.

“So, after hearing such information yesterday, you’ve had a change of heart?” Elamin asked, his mustache curving into a pleased smile. “Are you willing to give love a chance now?”

“…Pardon?” I blinked, caught off guard.

Love?

Where did that come from?

I mean, sure, the guy is obsessed with love, but come on.

I said I wanted to eat with Athanas, not declare my eternal love. Jeez.

…Wait a minute.

In the Dark Realm, a man asking another man to grab a bite could easily be interpreted as asking them out on a date.

Could it be that to someone with a charm stat of 30…

Nah, even that tartar sauce guy didn’t shoot down my accidental OK signal, and he seemed perfectly fine.

And just by looking at him, there was no indication that his taste would be like that.

But since Athanas’s preferences were never mentioned in the game…

Unexpectedly, he just might have his eyes on the ground.¹T/N: ‘Eyes on the ground’ is an idiom meaning someone has low standards.

But just the thought of Athanas possibly being into ‘Fabio’ like that made me feel like I was breaking out in hives from head to toe.

Even though I’m not a die-hard Athanas fan, how should I put this…I felt the urge to shout, “The Athanas I know isn’t like that!”

Awkwardly laughing, I replied, “Haha… No way. He probably didn’t mean it like that.”

“If not, then why would he propose having a meal together?”

“Well, that’s…”

…Because he’s got no one else to eat with?

But even that’s something ‘the Athanas I know’ probably wouldn’t do.

“Fabio. Don’t think so negatively. There must be people who find you attractive.”

I’m not thrilled about that possibility.

“It’s a bit unfortunate that you don’t have a beard, but being clean-shaven is also the current trend in the empire, so it’s not a significant flaw… For now, if you just groom that messy hair of yours a bit more, you’d look much better. In fact, I’ll go get a comb and scissors right now.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“I assure you, once you experience it, you’ll feel differently. You’ll gain confidence too.”

“…Really, really, it’s fine.”

“You don’t have to decline so much. I’m doing this because I want to. You can probably tell my skill just by looking at this mustache. Look at the sharp angles of this mustache!”

He’s completely ignoring what I’m saying.

Elamin really is good guy overall, but his fatal flaw? The man has the mindset of ‘life – romance = 0’.

No matter how much I vehemently refuse, in the eyes of a romance-obsessed Elamin, I must look like some shy country girl, batting my eyelashes and saying, “Oh my, there’s no way that would suit little old me!”

Ugh…

But I’m not trying to start a fight either, so in times like these, it’s best to just play along and get it over with.

“Um, it’s just that I don’t want to seem too eager and that I care that much…” I mumbled, my voice getting quieter with each word. It was so embarrassing to say, but it probably came across as pretty convincing, with a nice ‘shy’ vibe.

Elamin seemed to get it, nodding in understanding. “I see, then let’s just comb your hair. I can’t concede any more than that.”

No wait, don’t I have 100% ownership of my own hair?

If you can’t compromise, then what are you gonna do?

Suddenly put me in an arm bar and surprise-comb my hair while I tap out?

“…Just that much is fine.” I said with a small nod.

Anyway, I need to raise Elamin’s favorability.

Isn’t he the one person who’s guaranteed not to trigger a romance route, even if his affection goes up?

And besides, aside from those damn rose-tinted glasses, he’s a kind person who genuinely wants to help me…

“Lunch alone wouldn’t be enough, right? I’ll take care of my own dinner, so don’t worry about me and have a good time,” Elamin said with a pleased smile.

“Hahaha…”

Seeing his grin, I felt like I was breaking out in hives all over my body again.

…Maybe I should just give up on raising his favorability?

Just thinking about Elamin asking me how my date with Athanas went tomorrow morning already made me feel like throwing up.

F*ck, it’s not like that at all!

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

When I actually arrived at the branch library, I couldn’t stop pacing back and forth. My stomach was doing backflips at the thought of climbing those stairs.

Is it really not the case? Can I say it with 100% certainty?

I don’t want to think about it, but it’s not that easy to shut your brain off, is it?

The more you don’t want to think about something, the more you need to think about it in advance. That way, if the thing you’re dreading comes true, you can calmly recall what you had planned and be ready instead of a total mess….

Ugh, I’m spiraling just thinking about it.

What is it about this that’s bothering me so much?

Let’s not beat around the bush and think this through logically.

Could Athanas have ulterior motives with Fabio?

…Just thinking about it makes me want to scream into a pillow.

There’s no way!

I screamed internally.

But I don’t have any proof that it’s not true, do I?

Didn’t I learn my lesson about making dangerous baseless judgments with that whole ‘attempted oral microbiome exchange’ fiasco?

As horrible as it is, I need to consider it.

Athanas…

Using his full name makes it too real, so initials it is.

What are the odds that Mr. A has developed feelings for Mr. P?

First, let’s exclude the information known from the game and construct the situation only with newly obtained information.

1. Homosexuality is completely normal in this world.

2. Mr. A asked the stranger Mr. P to wake him up again tomorrow too.

3. Mr. A invited Mr. P to grab a meal twice.

4. When Mr. A got a nosebleed, he asked Mr. P in a weak voice to stay like that a bit longer.

I forced myself to stay calm and think it through.

…Honestly speaking, if Mr. A was a guy and Mr. P was a girl, based on #2-4 you’d totally think A was making moves.

Asking to meet again the next day?

And it’s a request that doesn’t seem very difficult but subtly gets them invested in you?

This is really an obvious pick-up tactic.

It’s like asking a stranger to ‘hold this real quick’ and giving them your wallet or watch.

Then when you get it back, bam – automatic excuse to keep talking and maybe offer to buy them a drink as thanks.

But what if Mr. A is Athanas here?

There’s just no way!

Athanas absolutely would never pull moves like that!

I wanted to rip my hair out.

No, let’s calm down.

At the end of the day, whether the odds are high or low doesn’t really matter.

The second there’s even a tiny possibility, you’ve got to at least consider it, right?

What if, and I mean the slimmest of chances, but what if Athanas does have ulterior motives with me?

…Then what?

Date him?

Well, it would be useful in the current situation.

If we dated, all the hidden players will come out foaming at the mouth in rage and disbelief.

Major aggro potential.

But I’d be the first one losing my mind over it.

I’d rather just shout out all the known and unknown player nicknames right here and now than date Athanas to smoke out the others.

There’s no time to waste waiting for rumors to spread after dating anyway, especially when every second counts in this urgent situation.

Besides, is this really the time to obsess over that kind of stuff when the Order is screwed right now?

Right, getting closer to Athanas is what matters now.

Whether he’s got secret motives with me or not is irrelevant!

Even if he does, I’ll just pretend he doesn’t and make sure it never goes there!

That’s why I wore the blue fascia again today.

Elamin offered to lend me a different color, but I shut it down. “I really don’t want to raise expectations too much,” I told him.

Wearing a different color would be insane, right?

Anyway, over our meal I’ll bring up how someone hit on me despite wearing blue and how uncomfortable it was.

Then even if Athanas is clueless about fascias, he’ll get the general hint.

After that, I’ll mention how ‘Fabio’ has someone very important and important – ‘the Countess’…

Good, perfect.

After sorting out my thoughts like that, I could finally climb those stairs.

But when I got up there, Athanas was out cold sleeping.

Thank god. I was stressing over how to even greet the guy…

…Wait, didn’t the thought I just had sound like a dating sim heroine there?

Wow, f*ck, while a disposable unit like me is worrying over the world’s fate, Mr. Important can nap without a care.

Right. As it should be.

I pulled out the book I’d been reading and plopped down in front of the snoozing Athanas.

Is this the fourth time I’ve caught him sleeping like this?

Yesterday his face drained of all color after that nosebleed too.

…Is it okay for the guy meant to save the world to have crazy high blood pressure as an ongoing issue?

At least he was looking healthier now.

As I watched him sleep, a thought popped into my head unbidden.

He really is handsome though.

Hmm…

Hmmm….

Ummm….

Nope, it’s still no good after all.

I tried to push past my biases in a quick mental simulation, but all I could think was ‘Hmm…impossible.‘

Even if he looked like Pell instead of Athanas, a guy is just too much for me to handle.

But what if Athanas was a pretty girl?

Hmm…

Wait, since the player’s gender shifts depending on each unit and Athanas’s gender is fixed, if one of us has to be a girl, shouldn’t I change my gender instead?

If I possessed my usual setting that I played with, I would’ve been Perpetua – the genius girl abused by her family.

If I was a pretty girl…

…Let’s quit that idiocy right there.

I refocused on my book.

Soon, the noon bell rang out.

“Athanas, time to wake up.”

Even with just a gentle shake, Athanas’s eyes flew open instantly.

“…Thank you for waking me up.”

“Are you feeling a bit better? You had a terrible nosebleed yesterday.”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t something to worry about.”

Okay, time to ask him to eat together now…

But before I could,

“…You probably have a meal appointment today too. Enjoy your meal.”

“Ah, yes.”

I ended up nodding my head absentmindedly.

No, abort, that’s not what I wanted!

“Um…”

“Do you have something to say?”

Why aren’t you asking to eat together today?

But verbalizing that felt…incredibly embarrassing to say.

Should I mention how self-conscious I’m feeling after that whole inner monologue earlier?

Made worse by how cold I was to him until yesterday.

“…No. It’s nothing.”

I turned on my heel like I had places to be and started down the stairs. But I stopped halfway.

F*ck, now I’m embarrassed?

Leaving like this is even more mortifying though.

Elamin will ask what happened, so what am I going to say then?

Will I say, “I was too embarrassed to say I don’t have an appointmentㅠ”?

I spun right back up those stairs.

Get it together.

It’s just asking to grab food.

No hidden agenda! I’m just asking to eat together!

It’s not like Athanas is into me! Or I’m into Athanas!

“…Athanas.”

“Did you forget something?”

“Forget…? No, it’s not that…”

I chanced a glance at his face.

“Um…I don’t actually have lunch plans today…”

I’ve got this awful habit of my voice shaking when I’m flustered, so trying to play it cool made me stutter instead.

“…I see.”

Unable to meet his eyes, I plowed on.

“So…aren’t you going to invite me this time?”

“Ah.”

T/N: I triple checked and Fabio did use ‘Mr. P’ for himself instead of ‘Mr. F’. It could be a hint towards his real name? Or maybe he’s just thinking of the unit ‘Perpetua’ he usually plays with. I dunno! ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ