Chapter 15 – Lilith Of The Apostle Church (3)

The journey of about fifteen days had finally come to an end.
Beyond the checkpoint in front of us lay the Iruph Lowlands.
At the checkpoint set up on the wide road, we passed through a lax inspection by dozens of soldiers and entered ‘Kraon,’ the first city of the lowlands.

As befitting a free city, the city was surrounded by walls for defense.
Even with villages formed outside the walls, it was clear that despite being called a free city, there was a distinct class system here as well.

Those with power, wealth, or at least some special skill lived inside the city protected by the walls. The majority of those who didn’t lived outside the walls. If an enemy attacked, even if the people outside were allowed inside, they would lose all their possessions.

The city’s mayor and high-ranking family members, having received word from the checkpoint, came out to greet us, so exchanging greetings was a task in itself. Who was from which family, who held what position. Ugh, it was a headache.
A welcome party wasn’t just a place for hospitality; it was a place where important conversations were exchanged, so I had to stay sharp, which meant I couldn’t eat properly, and my head was throbbing.

Diana, Irian, and Karsilla were enjoying the banquet without a care, but if I did the same, it was obvious how the group would fare, so I couldn’t just laze around. I needed to find a heroine to act as the brains first. Who was there?

After showering and checking on Diana’s sleeping arrangements, I headed to the garden to clear my head. Let’s recall the list of heroines I remember. Hmm. Most of them were candidates for recruitment anyway, but there was a priority.
The illustration quality was so good that the unit price must have been high; surprisingly, there weren’t many heroines in the game. At most, about seven or eight.

If you included the named NPCs with ambiguous presences, the so-called ‘quasi-heroines,’ it would be around fifteen, so I wasn’t sure if that was considered few or if having fifteen meant there was a fun variety to choose from.
In fact, Karsilla couldn’t be considered a heroine in the game. She was a boss monster, after all.
She wasn’t the type to join the party midway through the story like a cliché, so judging by the game alone, she wouldn’t even be considered a quasi-heroine, let alone a heroine. …Well, I wasn’t really seeing that kid as a heroine, but still.

The point was that since a character who was supposed to be a boss had somehow joined the group, I didn’t need to think too much in terms of the game. Was I too fixated on the game settings?

‘Wait a minute. Does that mean… shit, every pretty woman is a potential heroine candidate? Holy shit!’

Then there was no need to look far for someone to play the role of a strategist.
She was right in front of me.
In the garden where I had come to clear my head, I encountered that woman from before. The woman who was so pretty that she was suspicious.

“Hello? You’re Priest Yurian… right?”
“That’s correct. And you are… from the Apostle Church…?”
“I’m Lilia, from the Apostle Church.”

A woman with a dazzling appearance smiled brightly. She looked to be in her late twenties, a very beautiful woman. Purple hair and purple eyes. Seriously. It was like she was advertising herself.
Looking at Lilia’s smiling face, I opened her status window.

【Lilith】 ● Succubus

▼ Status
[Clone] / [Curiosity] [Favor]

Hmm.
It was a bit of a shame that she wasn’t the main body. But since the clone had a physical form, it didn’t matter. The problem was that it was difficult to approach her easily because there was a risk that she might abandon the clone and run away if things went wrong.
If the connection with the main body was severed, the clone would disappear into smoke. …Of course, that was how it was in the game, but I didn’t know how it would be here.

“It’s late, and you’re not sleeping… What brings you here?”

As I approached Lilith, pretending not to know anything, a seductive smile appeared on her lips. As expected of a seductress, even her seductive expression was overflowing with sex appeal.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I was just wandering around… and to meet such a handsome priest. I’m lucky tonight.”
“I’m the lucky one to meet such a beautiful woman.”

Hmm. It reminded me of the web novels I used to enjoy in my younger days.
King is good.
Now that this destined line had been spoken, I was in a state where the luck of the entire universe was on my side! …Or so I fantasized. What a load of crap.

“Oh my~ That’s too much praise.”

We exchanged glances with deep gazes, but that was it.
There was nothing more.
The ‘Curiosity’ and ‘Favor’ plastered on Lilith’s status window, along with the strange atmosphere. It felt like she was seducing me. But it wouldn’t be fun if I fell for it right away.
There had to be some push and pull; if you gave in too easily, you’d quickly lose interest.

It was dangerous to rely solely on a handsome face. Even if this body, ‘Yurian,’ was a peerless beauty, the other party was not an ordinary person. Of course, a handsome face was a very important condition, but if you relied only on your face, you’d get a big surprise.

Especially against a succubus like Lilith, who had seduced all sorts of handsome men and beautiful women, if you easily fell for her seduction just because of your looks, there was a possibility that she would quickly lose interest. If that happened, it would greatly hinder my plan to recruit her as a heroine and a member of my party.

Of course, all of this was entirely my own speculation.
My credibility was rapidly dropping. …Was it just my wishful thinking that she was seducing me? Did I get too cocky just because I became handsome?

“Then, I’ll be going.”

So, I tested it.

“Huh? W-wait?”

I greeted her and immediately turned away, and she seemed flustered. I felt Lilith reaching out, but I pretended not to notice and walked away.
I had pushed her away enough, so now it was time to observe Lilith’s reaction. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of reaction she would show tomorrow. …She wouldn’t just ignore me, would she? Did I get too cocky just because of my face?

The most difficult thing about dealing with Lilith was that she was a clone.

A clone.
A technique close to a unique trait that only a few special demons could use. These clones had no magic power, so they couldn’t use the demon’s inherent power, but because they had no magic power, no one suspected them of being demons.
The crazy thing about this technique was that if things went wrong, they could just sever the connection with the clone and return to their main body. In other words, no matter what kind of crazy things the clone did, the main body wouldn’t be harmed at all. It was a truly broken skill.

‘Is she a player or something?’

I couldn’t help but complain. She wasn’t a game character.
There was a quest related to this later on.

An incident where Lilith, as a clone of a beautiful woman, seduced a king and brought ruin to the kingdom. In the end, the protagonist exposed the clone’s identity, but Lilith just laughed and severed the connection with the clone and ran away. Ah, thinking about it made me angry. It was a quest that made people mad.
After being subjected to all sorts of misunderstandings and slanders, I barely managed to reveal her identity and corner her, but she just laughed, abandoned the clone, and disappeared.

Fortunately, there was also an advantage to Lilith being a clone.
As a succubus, she must have enjoyed sex with all sorts of handsome men, and even though I had the ‘large member’ and ‘prolific’ traits, I didn’t think I was so skilled in sex that I could completely overwhelm Lilith, who had overwhelming experience.

But the clone was a newly created body. And it had no magic power.
No matter how much experience Lilith had, her body itself didn’t, so what if I took advantage of that gap and pushed her without giving her a chance to think?
To put it simply, Lilith’s current state was like this: she had a lot of theoretical knowledge from watching all sorts of porn, novels, and manga, but she had never actually had sex, so she might freeze up in a real situation. Lilith’s clone’s body wouldn’t be able to keep up with her mental experience, so it was possible.

This was the most important reason why I had to make Lilith anxious.
I had to provoke the clone, who could run away at any time, as much as possible to make her anxious so that she wouldn’t run away.
Lilith had to be anxious and cling to me; if I fell for her instead, she could abandon the clone and run away at any time. The point was that I needed to make her anxious so that she wouldn’t run away even if she was frustrated.

‘Thinking about it, it’s really tricky. I definitely need to recruit Lilith.’

I vowed to make sure to get her on my side this time, because if I missed her, I might get played by Lilith, who was an expert at making people angry. I entered my room.
Seeing our cute Karsilla peeking out from the bed, my bad thoughts were purified.

“You’re late.”
“I’ll be faster next time. Let’s go to sleep.”
“Sleep.”
“Yeah, sleep~”
“Sleep.”

* * *

The next day, the group left the city again.
Now that we had entered the lowlands, our destination wasn’t far away. The place where the demon’s minion was discovered was Grampo City, located at the northernmost part of the lowlands.

It would take another four or five days to get to Grampo. Ugh, how boring.
The boring march continued. I was staring blankly into the distance on horseback when I suddenly made eye contact with Lilith.

She was walking silently among the people of the Apostle Church, and she seemed quite bored. When our eyes met, she winked with a welcoming expression. She must be bored. Walking all day among those with strong religious beliefs, what could be fun?

I responded to her wink.
A light smile.
How much time had I spent in front of the mirror to perfect this natural and charming smile? It had to be soft, but not so excessive that my eyes became crescents. It shouldn’t give off a vulgar, seductive vibe either.

At my charming smile, Lilith’s lips parted slightly, and her cute little tongue peeked out, playfully licked her lips, and then disappeared. It was a small action, but why was it so sexy? I unconsciously swallowed and subtly turned my gaze away. As expected, I couldn’t compete with the vibe that came from overwhelming experience. I’d see her tonight.

And that evening, we arrived at another city.
Again, we were welcomed, and after checking on Diana’s sleeping arrangements, I headed to the garden.
Contrary to my expectations, it was desolate, with no one there, not even Lilith.

‘Oh. Did I read too many novels? I thought she would be waiting in the garden.’

I strolled leisurely through the garden, pretending to be taking a walk, and subtly scanned my surroundings. Hmm… Was she really not here? I was about to turn around and go back to my room.
As if she had just come out, or was pretending to have just come out, Lilith was standing at the entrance of the garden.

It seemed that my feeling that she was seducing me wasn’t just my imagination. The only question was how much interest she had, but she definitely had some interest. Her status window still showed ‘Favor’ and ‘Curiosity.’
We hadn’t made any promises, but like we had tacitly agreed to meet in the garden at night, we exchanged natural greetings.

“We meet again, Priest Yurian.”
“Indeed, Priestess Lilia.”

Lilith approached with light, weightless steps, and a fragrance that made a man’s mind dizzy wafted from her body. Had she put on perfume? She had chosen a perfume that was exactly my type.

“You just took a shower, didn’t you? Your hair is still damp.”

My mind was dizzy from the rich fragrance, but I didn’t lose my composed smile as I reached out and gently touched the tips of Lilith’s damp hair. Lilith’s lips, which had been curved in a subtle smile, turned up slightly at my touch.

“Yes, I sweated a lot while walking, so I took a cold shower. For some reason… it’s hot today.”

Did she think I would just pounce on her?
Contrary to her expectations, Lilith became more proactive at my light touch on the tips of her hair. She said it was hot and put her fingers inside her loose priest’s robe, shaking them, and her bare skin was briefly revealed inside the robe.

Her deer-like, pale, and slender neck, and the collarbones that were slightly revealed beneath it. The dizzying fragrance became even more intense.