The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

I muttered while looking at the saint of the Earth Denomination who suddenly approached me.

“Evangelizing is too outdated, isn’t it?”

“Pardon?”

Sophia, who didn’t understand my words, blinked and looked at me.

“No, I was talking to myself. Judging by the high-quality fabric of your priestly robes, you seem to be a priest in a high position. What business do you have with me?”

Could it be because I robbed the Sea Denomination’s vault yesterday?

Didn’t we agree to pretend not to know each other?

No, before that, she shouldn’t know my face.

At my question, Sophia smiled with her unique playful grin like a mischievous child and answered,

“I told you, because you have a good impression, I wanted to share some good words with you.”

Good words, it sounded very cultish.

At that smile, I deduced her intentions.

Although it seemed playful at first glance, the words of Sophia, who possessed hyper-intuition, sometimes contained hidden meanings.

She herself often didn’t know the hidden meaning behind her words and just spoke, but still, I couldn’t ignore it.

“What if I don’t need it?”

“Hmm, you don’t have to be so wary.”

Isn’t it strange to tell me not to be wary when you’re approaching me like this?

Shrugging her shoulders, Sophia pondered for a moment, then smiled brightly and took out holy water filled with strong divine power from her pocket.

At a glance, it was top-grade holy water that couldn’t be bought with money.

“I’ll give you this just for listening to me for a bit.”

It’s getting more suspicious.

“Alright. I still have some time to spare.”

But it was too precious to refuse just because it was suspicious.

This girl knows how to make a deal.

When I checked the holy water from the Sea Denomination’s vault yesterday, 90% was mid-grade and 10% was high-grade.

For a cathedral, the proportion of high-grade was low, but considering the corruption of the archbishop, the leader of the cathedral, it could be considered a high percentage.

Even though I had scooped up a lot of holy water itself, in terms of rarity, the bottle of holy water in Sophia’s hand was slightly more valuable.

“But is the person hiding behind you a guardian?”

“Huh? Is someone hiding?”

At the innocent counter-question, I was genuinely impressed.

This woman is first-class.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a natural liar, from gestures, gaze handling, to even the atmosphere.

She was literally a born scammer.

“Then I guess it’s a stalker.”

As I smiled and gestured with my eyes, Precia calmly brought her hand to her sword.

Then, an old man with a sword at his waist came out from the street corner, sighing.

“Not a stalker. Sorry for hiding.”

Although it was a small breastplate that only protected the heart, the divine power shining from it was no ordinary armor.

The divine power was not blessed by someone else but bestowed upon the armor by himself.

If an old holy knight with a well-trained body was protecting the saint of the earth, could that old man be the famous One-Man Army Dailhorg?

“No! Uncle, what are you doing coming out from there!”

At Sophia’s rebuke, the old man paid no heed and glanced at Precia next to me.

“If there’s an obstacle, I can’t protect the young lady.”

Realizing the meaning behind the old holy knight’s words, Sophia looked at Precia in surprise.

“She’s that strong?”

“She’s that strong. No, actually, it still seems dangerous right now.”

Tension flowed between the old holy knight and Precia.

“Young master, please step back.”

As Precia said, I took a big step back and hid behind her.

“Ah! Hiding behind a lady!”

At Sophia’s teasing words, I snorted and brushed it off.

“I’m a gentleman who listens well to a lady. More importantly, didn’t you say you wanted to talk? Could it be that the conversation you mentioned involves swords clashing and blood flowing?”

At my point, Sophia tapped the old holy knight’s arm as if she had no choice.

I also tapped Precia’s shoulder, signaling her to step back.

At the signal from Sophia and me, Precia and the old holy knight looked at each other, then relaxed their stance that was prepared to draw their swords and distanced themselves.

They seemed to have tacitly agreed on a position where they could each protect their respective charges while making it awkward to attack the other’s charge.

“Uh… The original plan was to go to a nearby cafe and have a leisurely conversation over a cup of tea, but the atmosphere is a bit… Is there a way to ease this tense atmosphere?”

At Sophia’s question, I shrugged my shoulders.

“It was wrong to hide in the first place. To lighten the mood, one side has to yield.”

“Really? Then I’ll yield. Uncle! I’m sorry, but could you entrust your sword to me for a moment?”

The old holy knight, Sophia’s escort, was flustered by her straightforward response.

“Young lady!”

“It’s alright. Trust me and give me your sword.”

Even at Sophia’s firm words, Dailhorg remained silent in conflict.

His gaze was still mindful of Precia.

When we were in the north, I had noticed that she had to genuinely emit fighting spirit to be a transcendent, but now, seeing a transcendent tense up just by her taking a stance and slightly revealing her energy, I felt that Precia had grown.

It must be because she had become more mature and closer to being a transcendent.

By the way, if the atmosphere turned hostile, I was going to end the conversation briefly and just take the holy water, but if the saint comes out like this, it’s a different story.

I became curious about what she wanted to say to me, a stranger she was meeting for the first time without a mask, to go this far.

I smirked and reached out to Precia.

“You give me your sword too.”

At my request, Precia hesitated for a moment, then checked the end of my gaze and obediently approached me, handing over her cherished sword, the Seven Stars Sword.

“Here it is.”

Although Precia willingly gave up her sword, her subspace bracelet contained spare iron swords and a pale corruption.

If I gave the signal, she could draw her sword at any time.

Perhaps because we had been together for a long time, we now had a tacit understanding.

Precia also innocently raised her empty hands.

I thought Sophia wasn’t an enemy for now, but you never know.

Sophia had a close friendship with the saint of the sea denomination, a member of Arcana’s Numbers.

“This is trust.”

At my teasing words, Sophia turned around, looking slightly resentful.

“…Uncle.”

At her earnest gaze, the old holy knight flinched and handed his sword to the saint while clearing his throat.

Even without swords, both Precia and Dailhorg remained transcendent weapons transcending humans, but if they were barehanded, Sophia and I could sufficiently oppose them.

To be precise, it was possible to run away.

As the two escorts were disarmed, the brutal tension slowly dissipated.

“Then shall we have a brief conversation at a nearby tea house?”

Sophia took the lead and guided us to a tea house with few people.

The tea house was not only devoid of people but also the owner.

“Ah, the owner of the tea house happens to be a believer of the Earth Denomination, so I borrowed it for a bit.”

Sophia naturally brewed the tea leaves the tea house owner had prepared and poured it into tea cups according to the number of people.

Leisurely savoring the aroma of the tea, she placed the sword she was holding on the table, took off her gloves, and made the sign of the cross.

“May the blessings of the earth be upon you. I am Sophia, a daughter who has received the excessive love of the bountiful earth.”

Excessive love, it was a modifier used by clergy who had received the stigmata to humble themselves.

On the back of her hand was engraved the symbol of the Earth Denomination, seven roots and one tree trunk.

There were at most three priests with stigmata in a denomination.

It was literally a first-class seal recognized by God.

If it was a street where the churches of the seven denominations were gathered, the divine power flowing from the stigmata could be concealed, so she must have taken off her gloves without hesitation.

“May the blessings of the earth be upon you. So what business does the saint of the Earth Denomination have with a country bumpkin like me?”

Even though Sophia had revealed herself as a saint, I continued to speak informally, and the old holy knight’s brows furrowed.

However, she herself didn’t seem to mind, or rather, she laughed cheerfully as if she liked it.

“A country bumpkin, you say. You’re being too humble. According to my intuition, you seem to be no ordinary strong person.”

“Your intuition doesn’t seem that trustworthy.”

Who are you calling strong? Can’t you see this frail body trembling?

At my sincere words, Sophia chuckled as if it was amusing.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that. Well, you don’t seem to like beating around the bush, so I’ll get straight to the point. Some time ago, the bountiful earth bestowed an oracle upon me.”

An oracle? It was extremely rare for a god to bestow an oracle.

According to mythology, the “God of Shepherds and Struggle,” who claimed to be the son of the Sun God, brought an end to the mythical era by completing the seven tasks bestowed by the seven gods.

Since “mythology” was the story of the gods, the end of mythology meant that the gods could no longer create stories on this land.

And that was no different from saying that they could no longer have a direct influence on the world.

However, no matter how much they could no longer directly exercise influence on the earth, as is the case with worldly affairs, there were loopholes.

As the mythical era was real, remnants of that era remained in this land, and those remnants were imbued with the vestiges of mythology.

The gods created a thin thread of communication with the present world through those vestiges, and that was the “oracle.”

Naturally, as it consumed the dwindling vestiges, in the present era long after the end of mythology, oracles directly conveyed by gods also carried considerable risk.

Therefore, oracles were usually used to convey extremely short messages, like using a pager before the popularization of cell phones, or to minimize the impact on the present world by using ambiguous expressions.

As a side note, the ruins of Vahanad, the Labyrinth of Constellations, were also ruins from the mythical era.

No matter how big the city was, the reason the seven denominations built cathedrals in this remote corner was because they could better feel the power of the gods near the ruins of the mythical era.

“The content of the oracle was ‘In the near future, go to the southwest where abundance dwells and ask the one who walks outside of fate to keep a promise.'”

It was very ambiguous, befitting an oracle.

The location must have been based on the point when the oracle was received, so let’s overlook that, but the one who walks outside of fate? Promise?

What nonsense is this?

“Are you saying that I’m the ‘one who walks outside of fate’ since you spoke to me after receiving that oracle? How do you know that?”

At my question, Sophia shrugged her shoulders.

“I used the traditional method for that.”

“Traditional method?”

“Yes, the time-honored tradition used since ancient times of roughly guessing based on intuition. It’s always been like that. Of course, sometimes they got it wrong and got screwed, but still.”

I liked the bold expression.

However, at Sophia’s somewhat sacrilegious words, Dailhorg held his forehead.

Sophia looked at the old holy knight and grumbled.

“Why are you like that? It’s true that we guess based on intuition, right?”

“No, although that may be true in essence, there are interpretation methods, aren’t there?”

“Interpretation? Like how a land imbued with abundance is usually a place with vestiges of the mythical era? That’s still guessing, you know. According to the records, it could be a cathedral, the birthplace of a saint, or sometimes an artifact, not ruins.”

The old holy knight remained silent at her words.

“Ah, of course, not just anyone guesses based on intuition for generations. There was a position dedicated to professional guessing. They were called interpretation priests, and I was forced into that role this generation.”

“Ahem! There’s a nice phrase called ‘succeeded,’ isn’t there?”

“Succeeding or being forced, it’s all the same.”

I asked Sophia, who was grumbling.

“So you thought I was the subject of the oracle purely based on your intuition?”

At my question, she nodded.

“It’s not like there’s no way to verify it. So, have you ever made a promise to the goddess of the earth?”

A promise to a god? For an atheist like me…

“…Ah.”

Suddenly, a fleeting memory came to mind.

“Do you have something in mind?”

At the saint’s question, I frowned.

“No way! For a god, that’s too much like a thug!”

At my sacrilegious outcry, Dailhorg became furious, and Sophia laughed brightly.