I've Decided to Take My Talents to the Cathedral

The story of those “awful” things was actually quite simple.

Once upon a time, there was a Spirit Bead and a Demon Pill.

They were born on the same day, and their families had been close friends for generations. Thanks to this, they had known each other since they were toddlers.

He rode a bamboo horse, circling the bench to play with green plums—it should have been a beautiful childhood sweetheart story.

Unfortunately, on their tenth birthday, the Demon Pill secretly treated the Spirit Bead to a bowl of delicious pigeon soup.

It was savory and sweet, with an endless aftertaste, prompting the Spirit Bead to gulp down every last drop.

Then, the Demon Pill asked the Spirit Bead, “Was it good?”

“It was amazing!”

“Do you want to drink it again?”

“Yes, I do!”

“Great! Go raise another pigeon then!”

“...?”

“The pigeon you lovingly raised for eight years was delicious, wasn't it? Start raising another one now, and we can have pigeon soup again on our eighteenth birthday!”

...

“And there are countless other little stories about the Demon Pill like this. Let's skip the eighty-thousand-word epic of how the Spirit Bead couldn't take it anymore, leading to them going their separate ways and becoming bitter enemies.”

Lynn took a sip of his drink, concluding his long narrative.

Lilian slammed the table and shouted, “How dare you, Demon Pill Saintess! How dare you stew the pigeon our Young Master raised!”

“He was the one who stewed my pigeon!”

“Oh, so Young Master was the Demon Pill... Hmph! To break off relations with Young Master over a mere pigeon, you really are petty!”

“In short, Young Master must have had his reasons for doing so!”

“...?”

“You motherf—! Lynn, you uncouth barbarian! You absolute bastard!”

Lilian, the number one Lynn-guard, instantly flared up in anger.

How dare she insult Young Master Lynn! Was her family name bought wholesale?

“You're the one who's a rude, uncouth—” Lilian's gaze drifted to the heroic girl's flat chest, “—flat-chested old woman!”

With that, she proudly shook her own already well-developed chest and let out a disdainful chuckle.

To be fair, the Veronica in front of them had an incredibly delicate and beautiful face, but her figure... unfortunately, it perfectly illustrated the classic joke of Zhang Fei entering the military camp, unable to find Liu Bei and Guan Yu, grabbing a soldier and demanding, “Where are my two big brothers?”—a play on words for having no chest to speak of.

【Emotion Points +300】

Lynn, who was quietly eating popcorn on the side, was already grinning from ear to ear.

Play is play, trouble is trouble, but when it came to yielding coins, Sister Veronica was the real deal.

In just this short amount of time, Lynn's Emotion Points shot up like a rocket, soaring from 5,200 straight to 7,000.

After three months of exploration, Lynn had completely figured out the mechanics of obtaining Emotion Points.

Although they were generated by the emotional fluctuations of the game's main characters, the actual yield varied drastically from person to person.

For example, a nameless extra who only had a name in the game and possessed white or green traits—a common "white card"—would only yield a few Emotion Points even if squeezed dry.

A cheap, small-sized cup. Not worth much.

As for a "blue card" with a few blue traits, an emotional fluctuation would usually provide around a dozen points.

A medium-sized cup. Worth farming occasionally.

A "purple card" with purple traits, especially counter-strategy cards like Sena who were as strong as gold cards in specific fields, could yield over a hundred points under intense emotional fluctuations.

Classified as a large cup. A must-farm!

And a "gold card" with powerful gold traits like Lilian was an extra-large cup that could easily provide hundreds of points at a time!

As for Veronica—

As a major heroine of an entire chapter, she had much more screen time in the game, and her rate of yielding Emotion Points even surpassed the original top-ranker, Hajili.

At a glance, she was definitely the ultimate, super-sized cup!

What? You say there is an irreconcilable feud between Lynn and Veronica?

...

In the end, the “Demon Pill” still failed to snatch the trait he had been coveting from the “Spirit Bead.”

After their brief meeting, Veronica couldn't withstand Lynn's increasingly passionate gaze. She fled in a panic, taking Lisa with her.

According to their itinerary, she and Lisa were to rest at the Reinhardt manor for the night.

“That guy... when I left, he kept muttering something like, 'No way, I'm only three thousand points short'...”

“Seriously...” She squatted on the soft bed, hugging her fair legs and burying her face in her knees.

“Why now... of all times, do I feel reluctant to leave?”

“Hmph! What were you doing before this!” She pulled a teddy bear out of her bag.

The teddy bear was missing an ear, tattered and covered in patches, with the words “Lynn” written crookedly in ink across its face.

The fabric, washed so many times it had faded to white, showed how much its owner cherished it.

She pinned the teddy bear beneath her and, without another word, began a tempestuous beating.

“Jerk, barbarian, muscle-brain...”

“Die, die, die...”

The curtain of the guest room window was pulled back with a rustle.

“Miss, are you alright?”

The green-haired knightess, Lisa, poked her head in, only to see Veronica frantically tidying up her things.

Her face flushed red, Veronica coughed twice. “Oh, Lisa. Why didn't you knock?”

“Miss, you didn't close the door.”

“Ahem... I was careless.”

Lisa stared at the messy bed, choosing her words carefully. “Miss... are you in a bad mood?”

“...”

“If you don't mind, you can tell me.” Lisa raised a hand and solemnly swore, “In the name of the Holy Light, I will surely...”

“Stop, stop, stop! Lisa, you're just too serious~”

Veronica interrupted Lisa's endless oath with a sigh.

She grabbed a pillow from the bed and buried half of her face in it.

“...First of all, this is about a... friend of mine.”

I understand, I understand. Lisa, whose emotional intelligence had rarely spiked, nodded repeatedly.

“My... friend always wanted to catch up to someone.”

“Lisa, do you understand that feeling?”

Without waiting for a reply, Veronica continued on her own.

“Wanting to catch up to him, wanting to stand by his side, wanting to be recognized...”

“Even when you clearly know there is an insurmountable chasm of talent between you and him. But like a moth drawn to a flame, you can never learn to give up.”

“You put in a thousand times more effort, yet you still don't dare to hope to keep pace with him. After all—no matter how hard a shadow tries, how can it ever catch up to the sun?”

“You avoided all news about him, terrified that he had already left you far behind.”

She suddenly let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“Just like that, day after day, year after year, until one day, you finally hear news of him. Only to find out—”

“How could he have fallen to such a state!?”

“Neglecting his martial arts, notorious, lazy, tyrannical...”

“How could this happen!?”

She spoke in a very light tone, as if narrating a story that had nothing to do with her.

“Perhaps the shining figure in my memory was nothing more than an illusion, continuously beautified by time.”

“So I gave up~ Catching up... is no longer necessary~”

The standing knightess listened in silence, watching Veronica's face flicker under the candlelight.

The atmosphere fell into a heavy silence. After a long while, Veronica patted her cheeks, cheered herself up, and spoke with a smile.

“Alright, alright, no need to worry about my... friend's business. By the way... Lisa, what did you do this afternoon?”

“I had a discussion with Lady Sena regarding etiquette and tea arts.”

She paused. “Also... while catching up with Lady Sena, I heard an interesting piece of news.”

“Oh?”

Seeing Veronica's curious gaze, Lisa did not keep her in suspense.

“Lady Sena said: Master Lynn has been practicing very diligently lately, and his progress is rapid.”

“She also said: within a few years, Master Lynn will be able to inherit her title of Sword Fiend.”

“...Is this some new joke in the Bauhinia Empire?”

Although her face was full of disbelief, Lisa, who knew Veronica well, saw right through her. Her expression clearly said: I love to hear this, tell me more.

Didn't you see the golden ahoge on her head starting to spin?

Lisa cleared her throat and began a lengthy explanation.

“In my humble opinion, Master Lynn's reputation as a 'playboy' is likely undeserved.

The webbing between his thumb and index finger has thick calluses, and his overflowing magic power is abundant, even bordering on violent...”

“That is by no means the work of a dilettante playing house. If even a powerhouse like him is labeled a 'playboy'—”

“I suppose among the nobility of the Bauhinia Empire, there would hardly be any...”

“Alright, Lisa, whatever that jerk does has nothing to do with me~”

Veronica waved her hand "impatiently" and skipped lightly off the bed.

“I'm going out for a walk to clear my head~”

With that, she hummed a little tune and bounced away.

“...” Lisa lowered her head, looking at her nose and then her heart, letting out a long sigh.