Chapter 13: A truth about Charm

To Nio’s surprise, after she played the part of a saint, the knights immediately began escorting her to the Theocracy using a joint teleportation spell.

Of course, it was a version Nio found inferior — it required all the knights, a gigantic magic circle, and so much mana that they had to burn through relics — but even so, they reached the Theocracy quickly.

Normally Nio would have been tense, but she was actually happy, because she’d put distance between herself and the psychopaths back at her base. She even had the excuse of exploring the world, which let her stay away from them and avoid the risk of being betrayed, while also reducing the chances of being found by her wife.

But that ran straight into another problem, because as soon as they arrived in the Theocracy, she was taken directly to the church. The teleportation hadn’t dropped them inside the church itself, to prevent invaders from appearing right in its heart.

However, the entire path to the church was filled with stares, because the guards were protecting her almost obsessively. Of course, she hadn’t been fully accepted as a saint — they were nervous she might be a fake who’d used a trick, so they were taking her to be tested.

And now Nio stood face to face with the saint of the Holy Theocracy Hilya. The saint stared at Nio with pure suspicion after having circled her for over two hours.

’She’s really pretty...’ Nio looked at the saint. Even if she felt no attraction, there was no denying it — she was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair accented by lengthy strands, her lovely black eyes bearing symbols of brilliant white stars.

Her face held a gentle expression, while her large chest and generous curves made her figure quite seductive, despite the sacred robes usually trying to hide her assets.

’And what a huge ass. Her character has stats the game would never let you equip...’ As Nio assessed Stelaria’s body like she was an avatar, Stelaria stared at the girl before her.

’How strange... this girl... really does possess sacred power at a very high level... it even seems higher than my own...’ Stelaria grew confused, finding the girl before her deeply unsettling, because she had not foreseen the emergence of another saint.

"So you are a saint?"

"Yes, older sister." Nio called Stelaria "older sister" as an attempt to sound respectful, since in the game saints addressed one another as sisters, and being older or younger in the class defined the speech pattern.

"Hold this for me. We’ll begin your evaluation." Stelaria handed Nio a sphere.

"This is a sacred object that will glow when you pour your power into it. If you are a saint, it will shine white and—"

"Older sister, this sphere is a fake..." Nio spoke in an extremely sharp tone, catching the deception in seconds. Stelaria gave a satisfied smile, though slightly frustrated at having been caught.

"Well, a true saint should notice it’s a fake... Let’s move on to a few more tests. This one here is the real one." She handed over the genuine sphere, hoping it wouldn’t work, because aside from not having foreseen this, she sensed bad things emanating from Nio.

"..." When Nio poured her magic into the sphere, the glow was so intense that Stelaria shut her eyes. Nio placed the sphere on the ground and the radiance dissipated. Stelaria immediately put a finger to her mouth and bit her nails aggressively.

’My position is being threatened because some random brat showed up...’ The truth was, to Stelaria, Nio was a rival — a troublesome political rival. As a saint, all of the kingdom’s power concentrated on Stelaria, and no one could question her. With another saint, that power would crumble and be diluted.

’She passed the test, so her magic really is saint-level... but... sorry, girl, I don’t hate you, but I can’t have competition. Even if you pass this, I’ll have to find a way to get rid of you...’

"Remove your clothes. All of them. Every piece." Stelaria bet on this final test. Having sacred power at a high level could activate the sphere, so she wanted to test Nio’s body. A saint’s body reacted differently from that of ordinary mortals.

But Nio, who had literally acquired the saint class through the alteration of magic on the exterior of her body, already guessed this would be the test, so she removed her clothes without batting an eye.

"Like this, older sister?" Stelaria observed Nio’s naked body and then pointed at it, releasing sacred magic that did nothing.

’...’ Stelaria did it more aggressively, possibly trying to wound Nio, but in the game every person could have six main types of resistance — four very high resistances and two elemental immunities.

Nio was completely immune to the sacred and darkness elements, so she didn’t even feel Stelaria’s attack. Stelaria bit her lip.

"I see... I see you are a saint... I need to confirm a few more things first, but you do have the saint class. I think—"

"..." Nio stared obsessively into Stelaria’s eyes, and Stelaria stared back into Nio’s, falling under the magic [Charm].

"Haaa... how irritating. It seems you really are a saint. I’ve been using Charm on you since you arrived. Saints have resistance to negative effects, so even a low-level saint like you could resist for a while. At least you’re stupid and didn’t notice my eyes."

"You know, you’ve been asking too many questions, Stelaria. If you keep this pace up, you’ll discover what you shouldn’t... but I can’t just make you disappear..." Nio began to monologue to herself, a reflex from her days as a player when she’d do the same in front of stationary bosses.

"You must hate me, right? The moment I arrived and you heard I might be a saint, your look of disgust became obvious. Two hours... two hours of you circling me, trying to test me... that’s really frustrating."

"No matter what I do, you’ll try to find excuses to delegitimize me and cause me trouble, won’t you? I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t allow that... though it’s a waste... I guess I’ll spend an item on you." Nio pulled the [Cornea of the Apocalypse] from her inventory to use it.

[Cornea of the Apocalypse] was a chaos-level item that allowed non-lethal or damage effects to become permanent, working on both players and NPCs, though it didn’t work on bosses.

"With this, the Charm effect on you will be permanent and unbreakable... of course, if you look like a zombie, everyone would notice, so it’s easier to give you specific orders and then pull you out of Charm... while keeping the orders permanent." Nio stared at Stelaria’s chest, thinking about the past.

"Hehehe, did you know I used to love tricking ’older sisters’ like you? When I was around 22, I loved acting like a cute girl in need of help. There were so many women who gave me cool items."

"Did you know that, ironically, women donate more items than men if you act like an adorable little sister? Perfect for a bitch who wants me to disappear, right? You know, Stelaria, the Charm effect comes from succubi and has very good sub-statuses."

"Stelaria, from now on, when you wake up, you’ll see me as a target of protection, your adorable ’little sister,’ a novice saint you need to help at any cost."

"A saint you desire, the girl you love, the girl you’d humiliate yourself for like a dog for scraps of affection." Nio chose degrading words to secure the sub-statuses of Charm.

’I think that’s enough. Charm itself is magic that works based on love and lust. As long as she desires me, the Charm will always be active...’ Nio snapped her fingers in front of Stelaria, breaking the spell’s effect, while the item’s power turned the Charm effect into a permanent status condition.

’Everything should be in order. The Cornea of the Apocalypse is annoying as hell — in the game, you needed items bought with real money to remove the permanent effect. I doubt those items came to this world, since they were bought outside the game and added directly to VR as a data chip.’ Nio took a deep breath, looking at the dazed Stelaria.

As soon as Stelaria regained consciousness, her face, which had previously shown only contempt, blushed with embarrassment and she averted her gaze from Nio’s naked body.

"So, older sister, I am a saint, right? My body demonstrated its natural magical absorption capacity, the sphere showed my sacred power, and you’ve already verified my sanctity. Unless... you want to check my purity?" Nio made a cute expression, moving her hands ’shyly’ between her legs, testing the Charm effect.

"N-No... that won’t be necessary." Nio’s insinuation caught Stelaria off guard, making her swallow hard as her head throbbed a little.

"Let’s finish this here. Get dressed... I... I’ll need to arrange some things... a new saint is a historic milestone."

"Sometimes a divine gift like a saint is delivered out of nowhere, and considering the chaotic situation among the kingdoms, perhaps you are just what we needed..." Stelaria hurried to the door. Even falling under the Charm effect, her mind tried to fight it.

Disgust doesn’t vanish just because forced feelings were implanted. Her rivalry struggled against the coerced love, and as soon as she shut the door, she collapsed to the floor.

"I-It hurts... w-was I... attacked?!" She tried to use sacred magic on herself, but nothing healed. After all, the new status was permanent. Despite Nio’s words sounding somewhat "naughty," the physical reality was different.

Stelaria’s eyes bled, high-level magic literally destroying her brain and rebuilding it to produce the hormonal and biological responses Nio had requested.

It made Stelaria slam her hand against the floor, vomiting in pain, as if her brain were melting while she was still alive and feeling everything.

"Ghmmm." She put her hand over her mouth, seeing the dark mass of blood that had dripped out. Fortunately for her, the effect lasted only a short time. Her brain had lost the war against Nio’s magic, which was too chaotic for sacred magic to fight.

The saint class had even helped her resist initially, but merely being a saint wasn’t enough. Stelaria soon stood up. Visually, nothing had changed, obviously. At most, her attitude toward Nio had shifted. Otherwise, Stelaria remained normal.

"...No... it must be nothing. It was stress. I should rest after this." Intuitively, Stelaria fought against the act of blaming Nio, so instead of blaming Nio, she attributed the bleeding to stress, even though she knew it wasn’t that.

Meanwhile, Nio was putting her clothes back on, oblivious to the literal cerebral destruction she had caused, since in the game the magic combined with the item only displayed a status icon and nothing more.