CHAPTER 105: THE GODDESS IS RATHER CARELESS

Facing Snow’s questioning, Valkyrie didn’t know where to begin. She couldn’t even remember who she was, so she remained silent.

Looking at the translucent knight, Snow could more or less guess the problem. It bird-walked up to her to examine the ancient magical patterns on the armor closely.

The patterns were faint. After careful examination, Snow observed, “Rough and simple—definitely not crafted in the Divine Realm, nor the work of the goddess or Her avatars. This has to be human-forged, later blessed by the goddess and imbued with divine power...”

“The craftsmanship dates it to at least a thousand years ago. That your consciousness managed to survive until now proves your devotion and your incredible power in life.”

Listening to Snow’s speculation, Valkyrie frowned and tried to recall her past. She slowly said, “I don’t remember anymore. I only know that the goddess issued an oracle for slaying a dragon. Our group arrived at the dragon’s kingdom. After a fierce battle, the realm was shattered, and I fell into slumber from getting gravely wounded.”

“Slaying a dragon?” Snow’s avian face showed a human expression of bemusement. After a long while, it said, “I’ve never heard of such an oracle, which means that you existed in an ancient era even before the goddess created me.”

“So you’re a magical creature created by the Goddess of Sun! Amazing!” Wayne went up to Snow and exclaimed in amazement.

Snow was still speculating about the era when Valkyrie fought that bloody battle, so it nodded reflexively and confirmed, “That’s right. I exist because of the goddess, tasked to convey her oracles as a guide of light.”

Then it realized that the question had come from Wayne.

(✧≖◡≖)(◉⌔◉;)

Silence lingered for a full ten seconds.

Snow let out a strangled cry and took flight. Startled, it miscalculated its trajectory and ended up crashing headfirst into a tree. Wayne conjured a vine under his feet to wrap around its chicken legs and hoisted it upside down in front of him.

“Haha, so you’re the goddess’s messenger. What an honor.”

His smile didn’t reach his eyes as he stared at Snow with icy eyes, as if it were already roasted poultry. Snow shrieked in fear, feeling a bone-chilling terror.

As the man and his bird confronted each other, the knight watched from the side. She found their relationship strange. The goddess’s chosen knight and Her messenger should be comrades in arms, but why... why did Wayne seem unaware of the messenger’s identity, while the messenger appeared to fear him? What was the story here?

Had the messenger been testing Wayne and thus never revealed its true identity? Why would it go through the trouble when the goddess had already made Her choice?

Valkyrie had been in slumber for too long. She marveled at how quickly times had changed. The process of having the Goddess’s messenger guide the next knight seemed to have become vastly different. Her experience was no longer useful.

Coo, coo, coo—

Hung upside down, Snow frantically flapped its wings and signaled Valkyrie for help.

Cluck cluck, cluck cluck, chirp!

“Stop cooing. I heard you loud and clear earlier. You can speak human.” Wayne grabbed Snow with his five fingers sinking into its fluffy feathers, saying menacingly, “You’ve been deceiving me all this time and learned my secret. Tell me, what dish would you like to become?”

Since there was no cooing its way out of this, Snow decided to stop pretending. “Knight, draw your sword! He’s a knight serving the Goddess of Death, our mortal enemy!”

Valkyrie was stunned. While the faiths of Sun and Death did have conflicts, wasn’t the Goddess of Death an ally? Since when had Death become a mortal enemy of Sun? Also, Wayne was a knight chosen by the goddess. What did he have to do with a Death Knight?

“Nonsense! Don’t think you can run your beak without taking responsibility just because you’re not human.” Wayne scoffed. “Valkyrie can testify for me. I, Wayne, am a devout follower of the Goddess of Sun through and through. I swear to fight for Her honor. I could never betray Her to become a Death Knight.”

“You’re the one talking nonsense! I saw you transform into the Death Knight with my own eyes, and you turned me into an undead bird! I’m not blind. How could I be mistaken?” Snow shot back. It was the truth: Wayne was the Death Knight.

“You are blind. Open your eyes and see for yourself who’s the goddess’s most devout follower!”

He grabbed Snow by the feet and strode up to Valkyrie, reaching out to grasp the knightly sword. Snow was stunned by how amicably the knight was treating him. It cursed her out as a traitor before its beak fell open in greater shock.

With the Book of Greed’s manipulation, Wayne instantly put on the armor of the ancient Sun Knight. Due to Valkyrie’s thoughts being melded with the armor, he was basically wearing Valkyrie herself. The knight embraced him from behind in an unusually intimate pose. In some sense, this could be considered fusion.

Coo!!

Surprised Owl.jpg

Impossible! He possessed the complete set of the Death Knight’s equipment and was a Death Knight from head to toes. How could he suddenly gain the recognition of the former Sun Knight...

What exactly went wrong? Could it really be blind?

Snow refused to believe it. It shouted, “I figured it out! You must have used despicable tricks to deceive the knight, gaining her trust to put on her armor. Wake up, Knight! Don’t trust him. He’s a conspirator, a spy sent by Death!”

Wayne shot back. “What is true can’t be talked into being fake. I say you’re the spy, you traitor. You turned away from the goddess and are now trying to drive a wedge into the close comradeship between Valkyrie and me. Tonight, I’ll execute you on house rules and roast you!”

Wayne put on his new disguise. He tossed his head to shake the blond hair from his ear.

It was difficult to describe Valkyrie’s existence. She was visible yet intangible, but as soon as he put on the armor, he could feel her physical form. In this state, the outsiders couldn’t see her, while he felt like he’d entered a cockpit with the elegant knight pressed against him like a guardian spirit.

He wondered if she was clothed.

Valkyrie looked from him to Snow. The former was the knight successor chosen by the goddess, and the latter, Her messenger. Between them, she chose to trust her own eyes. She could sense the remarkably pure light within Wayne. Though weak, it was vigorous and full of possibilities. His absolute faith made her pale in comparison.

Seeing was believing. Wayne was right. Besides, the divine messenger seemed too weak, and its form differed significantly from what she vaguely remembered. Wrapping her hands around Wayne’s, she raised the sword slowly to hover at the owl’s neck.

Speak, what are you? If you don’t talk, I’ll slit your throat and bleed you dry!

Snow was terrified. It cursed at the knight for falling so far that she would dance to the Death Knight’s tune and even raise her blade against one of her own.

“Why use a knight’s sword to kill a chicken? The cleaver in the kitchen will work just fine.” Wayne stopped Valkyrie. A knight shouldn’t be so extreme. Then he scoffed at Snow, “As expected of the spy sent by the Goddess of Death, you don’t fear your end at all. Good. Keep it up. Let’s see how tough you can be after you’re cooked!”

He strode toward the kitchen in the back. When he had taken fifty steps, Snow started talking. It cooed and pleaded with Valkyrie, explaining the reason for its dramatic change in appearance.

Once, it had been a mighty lion walking the mortal realm to convey the goddess’s oracles. After committing a grave mistake, it was punished by the goddess’s avatar, who sealed its divine power and transformed it into an owl. Its sentence was one hundred years, and it had already served nearly fifty.

Valkyrie nodded. The explanation made sense, but it was still the messenger’s fault for wrongly accusing Wayne of being a blasphemer.

But he really is the Death Knight!

Snow was going crazy with frustration. It didn’t understand why the Death Knight could receive the Goddess of Sun’s favor, much less how he put on the sun armor during the day after taking off his death armor the previous night. However, faced with such compelling evidence, it could only admit its mistake.

Yes, it was blind!

Wayne wasn’t satisfied with the apology. Snow knew too much about him and wasn’t particularly useful to keep around, making it nothing but a hidden risk. Just to be safe, they had to have roasted owl tonight.

But Valkyrie disagreed. Both the goddess-chosen knight and the divine messenger were fighting for the goddess. Whatever conflicts there were between them, they could sit down and talk it out. There was no need to fight to the death. The messenger would just apologize for the misunderstanding, and the matter would be settled.

Both Snow and Wayne fell silent, staring at each other.

Snow didn’t want to apologize to the Death Knight, while Wayne felt like keeping it around would be a disaster. Unfortunately, the cowardly owl didn’t want to become roasted owl, and the pervert couldn’t say no to the knight’s pillow talk. Thus, one was forced to apologize, while the other accepted the apology reluctantly.

Valkyrie knew nothing but the fact that it was the goddess’s arrangement for Her messenger to appear beside Her chosen successor for the Sun Knight. She asked the messenger to quickly contact the nearby church and legitimize Wayne’s knight status.

You want me to be an accomplice? No way! Impossible!

Snow’s eyes widened. To personally lead the Death Knight into the church—if discovered, it would certainly lose its life. Yes, good news, it wouldn’t have to serve the remaining fifty years of its sentence, but bad news, it would be sentenced to death!

“Makes sense. What are you waiting for? Contact the church. The gym isn’t far from here. Remember to come back quickly.”

Wayne smirked. With Valkyrie watching and Snow being Sun’s messenger, killing it would also pose a risk. If sparing it and killing it were both risky, the best course of action was to make it his lapdog—lap owl.

We’re in the same boat. If I’m exposed, you’ll die, too. Keep your eyes bright and cover for me from now on. Glory and riches will await you.

Snow refused to. If it was going to die anyway, it would die staying loyal to the Goddess of Sun. It would not be a traitor, no matter what.

It did have a backbone, but fate had other plans. Someone else led the musclemen of the gym to Wayne’s residence.

***

At the front gate leading to Wayne’s mansion, Vera rang the doorbell. Led by Dick, over ten trainers stood in a line, each wearing white tank tops and shorts, their muscles bulging through their clothes. They were quite the sight, and a couple passing by couldn’t keep their legs close, slowing their pace deliberately with quickened breathing.

Vera was one curse away from fitting in.

The gate opened, and the men entered.

After returning home, Vera had immediately told Dick about the knight on Dragon Heart Island. Dick was shocked and, without hesitation, closed the gym, gathering a group of followers to visit Wayne.

It served two purposes: one, to show off their muscles and warn the pretty boy to think twice before acting impulsively. While Vera had lost her parents, she had no shortage of uncles. Second, to bring back the knight.

Dick was confident about completing the first task, but uncertain about the second. The divine messenger had left with Wayne, and then the knight encountered him by chance. Coincidences were no longer coincidences when the same pattern repeated, and a series of chance happenings had to be the goddess’s arrangement.

However, Wayne wasn’t a follower of the Sun. He had already joined the Church of Nature and was so talented that the High Reverend took him in as her student. Dick didn’t understand by what criteria the goddess was picking Her knight. Why would she forgo the devout followers of Sun and insist on stealing from another church... It was too... too...

As expected of the Goddess of Sun. She was assertive.

Dick would never question his faith. In principle, whoever the goddess favored would be the next Sun Knight. How the Church of Nature would react didn’t matter. Besides, both churches were members of the Life Alliance, and when the Darkness Knight attacked the Church of Nature, the Church of Sun offered plenty of help. It wasn’t too much to ask for a mage apprentice from them, was it?

What if it crossed a line? It was Sun’s arrangement. Were they going to question the goddess?

Dick simply didn’t like Wayne as a person, believing him to have a flawed character. The goddess was rather careless. There was no shortage of bipedal humans in the world. She could’ve chosen someone better.

***

Back garden.

The group from the Church of Sun saw the armored Wayne, and Dick also saw the divine messenger beside him, confirming that everything was going according to the goddess’s plan.

Snow disagreed. It would like to urge the followers to think again, but before it could say anything, Wayne grabbed it by the neck and pulled it behind him, shoving a spore into its beak and cementing its accomplice status. It was the one who led the Death Knight into the Church of Sun!

He exchanged pleasantries with the musclemen. Under Vera’s happy gaze, their second meeting went amicably. To prove that he wasn’t pulling any tricks, Wayne took off the armor. The golden light reassembled into Valkyrie, and she personally acknowledged him as her successor.

Yes, there was no doubt that this was what the goddess wanted. The messenger was present as well, serving as further proof.

Actually, no explanation was needed. The fact that Wayne could put on the armor was the most convincing evidence. The goddess wouldn’t make a mistake, and no one, not even Valkyrie, would question Her.

Dick thought that Wayne should join as soon as possible. Though he was only a successor at the moment, he was destined to become the knight as the goddess’s chosen candidate. It was only a matter of time. It wasn’t appropriate for him to stay in the Church of Nature.

Wayne hesitantly responded, establishing his character as a loyal man who couldn’t turn back on those who had helped him. Vera bought it. Valkyrie bought it, too.

Dick, on the other hand, was only half-convinced. He didn’t believe Wayne would have such a high moral standard, but then the goddess wouldn’t have picked a rotten character as a knight, no matter how Her judgment had lapsed. Perhaps he was the one who had misjudged.

Afterward, Dick asked Valkyrie if she was willing to return to the church and settle down. Valkyrie declined. She had lost almost all her memories, and her remaining thoughts would be used to teach her successor. Returning to the church wouldn’t serve much purpose.

Of course, she would be more than happy to offer her power if the church ever needed her. Moreover, she would also be teaching Vera. She was talented and might one day become a knight.

The musclemen were overjoyed, more so than when they found the knight.

That night, Vera stayed at Wayne’s place. Kristen came for the tutoring session. Because her student was too slow and struggled to grasp several key points, she spent a long time explaining everything to help him understand. By the time the lesson ended, it was too late for her to leave. She also stayed the night.

***

Late at night, Wayne drove out of the mansion for two kilometers before parking by the roadside. He picked a sewer and dove right in. In the pitch darkness, Julia, the undead horse, leaped out of a portal, lowering her head to nuzzle her master’s cheek. Looking at the sword on the horse’s back, Wayne took a deep breath and slowly drew Shadow Nightmare.

The blade reflected a skull face. He muttered, “The power remains. I can still transform...”

“Strange. If the previous knight can lock onto Shadow Nightmare, why didn’t they come to reclaim the horse and the sword?”

“Could it be...”

“They have a cuckolding fetish?”