ALL NOVEL chapter 34
34. The Suffering Protagonist is the Goddess’s Little Side Story
While ensuring that Clotilde despised him, Noah successfully got her to agree that he would handle things when the lewd patterns lit up.
Without Noah’s interference, in the original plot, Clotilde would have inevitably lost her virginity.
This was quite displeasing to some players who sought a virgin completion.
For someone like Noah, who had heavier tastes, it was not a big deal; he cared more about the mental aspect than the physical.
He believed that if the female protagonist, once taken, could become strong enough to not rely on the blonde-haired character, but instead take control of him, then such an ending could be acceptable.
However, he could also understand the dissatisfaction of those players with lighter tastes.
Unlike Princess Valentina, who had childhood ties and could pursue a romantic route, Nun Clotilde maintained a considerable distance from all men due to her clerical status before the story began.
Yet her faith was unwavering; even when her lower abdomen controlled her brain to attack men, she would feel guilty towards her goddess of faith.
Even knowing she had been deemed a fallen nun, she would still strive to rid the church of its malignancy for the sake of her goddess.
The blonde-haired characters that appeared in the original plot were all pursuing Nun Clotilde with thoughts of the green goddess in mind.
In other words, the true suffering protagonist of this game was the goddess.
Just like with Valentina, Noah took the initiative to act on Nun Clotilde before the other blonde-haired characters could make their move.
This way, aside from the main storyline, the other blonde-haired characters had little chance to interfere.
It was a pity that the goddess of this game was also just a background character; Noah was unsure if the goddess in Valentina’s game world was the same entity.
The only certainty was that the kingdom Valentina belonged to and the country Clotilde was currently in were two entirely different nations, both situated on the same continent.
Noah hadn’t paid much attention to this before while playing games, but now it seemed possible that two different game development teams had collaborated.
The territories of the two kingdoms did not directly touch but were separated by another country.
However, traveling to the other country didn’t take too long—about two to three days—hence Clotilde’s appearance in the capital of Valentina’s kingdom.
As the background ceiling villain of the game, Noah naturally wouldn’t need to take that long; he could easily return to the royal capital.
Since sticking too closely to the female protagonist would have the opposite effect, Noah decided to temporarily allow Clotilde to act freely; he needed to return to continue training Her Highness the Princess.
“Anyway, Miss Nun, just keep working to restore your strength at your own pace. I will also try to help you find a quicker way to regain your power.”
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After talking with Clotilde, who felt she had been deceived, for about twenty or thirty minutes, Noah stood up and walked towards the door, casually telling her not to take him so seriously.
“Hmph, it’s just talk, isn’t it? How could you genuinely help me? You’re just here to see me make a fool of myself.”
Clotilde, completely fooled by Noah, believed he was the kind of artist with a twisted mind.
At this moment, her cold gaze followed Noah’s movements, and it was clear from her words that her opinion of him was far from favorable.
It would be easy to improve their rapport; a few kind words could ease the tension between them. Noah knew that the nun was generally friendly towards beings other than evil.
But who could blame Noah for being the very embodiment of the evil she despised?
Thus, Noah merely tilted his chin with a mocking smile and said deliberately:
“That’s right, but you can only blame yourself for treating others’ advice as mere background noise. If you had listened to my advice back then, would we be in this situation now?”
“Th-that’s not true!”
Clotilde, reminded of her mistake once again, was eager to retort, but deep down, she knew she had no ground to stand on, so she couldn’t argue back.
“What’s that? Let me hear your excuses; I’m waiting.”
Knowing that Clotilde wouldn’t be able to come up with anything, Noah continued to provoke her, making her expression even more shameful and unpleasant.
However, Noah had no intention of pushing her to a breaking point, as having a low rapport would make it unwise to seek her out when the time for indulgence came.
So, seeing that the nun was at a loss for words, Noah casually tossed out one last remark before leaving the room.
“My time is precious, so save your excuses for our next meeting, dear nun who was backstabbed by the succubus.”
“?!”
As Noah left, leaving her feeling thoroughly irritated, Clotilde felt as if she had encountered something more troublesome than a succubus.
The succubus was undoubtedly recognized by the church as evil; it was simply a matter of finding a way to eliminate it.
But this man belonged to a category that, while annoying, was not something to be eradicated.
It was as if he were treading the very limits of what was tolerable within the rules.
If Noah were to covet her body, Clotilde would find a way to kill him, as that would clearly be a sin of lust.
But if he merely wanted to see her reactions while being tormented by the succubus, while it was bothersome, it wasn’t something she couldn’t accept.
After all, she hated the idea of becoming a shameless harlot like a succubus, freely engaging with any man, even more than collaborating with Noah.
Though theoretically, breaking her vows with a man would strip her of her status as a nun, Clotilde still felt it was better than being unable to act as a normal woman and becoming a slave to lust.
“But, but a novel is absolutely out of the question! I cannot let him write me as the prototype for a female lead! I can’t bring shame to the church and the goddess any further!”
By imagining the worst possible outcome, Clotilde gradually accepted the less dire reality of being Noah’s subject of observation.
Yet she resolved that while she could accept being an object of observation, being the prototype for a novel’s female lead was absolutely unacceptable.
If Noah insisted on writing about her, she would burn his manuscript and imprison him at the same time!
This was something that only the two of them needed to know!
Completely unaware that Noah had never intended to write a novel from the start, Clotilde, feeling anxious about the future, began to pray earnestly to the goddess in her heart, her hands clasped over her chest.
“Merciful and great goddess, please forgive my transgressions. As your servant, it was never my intention to overlap my body with a man. All of this is the fault of that wicked demon. I swear to launch a holy retribution against that demon. Please, forgive me, a sinner steeped in guilt…”
“…I do not know if the goddess can hear me, but the words of the evil god have indeed reached me. I will forgive you, on the condition that you can overcome the demon’s mark and become the demon queen who can freely wield the power of the mark.”
In truth, Noah, who had intentionally erased her form and returned to the room, quietly watched Clotilde as she prayed, unable to resist making a response that would elicit a strong reaction if Clotilde were to hear it.
Unlike her previous series of unreliable performances in front of Noah, Clotilde, with her eyes closed in prayer, truly exuded the aura of a nun.
That sacred and inviolable solemnity felt quite genuine.
If Noah hadn’t seen dozens of CGs of her in defeat and in victory, all of which required censorship, she might have genuinely believed that Clotilde could resist the effects of the demon’s mark solely through her devout prayers!
How laughable! It seems that praying to the goddess isn’t entirely useless after all!
She might as well convert to worshiping this evil god!
Although the outcome wouldn’t be the removal of the demon’s mark, but rather her becoming the demon queen to control the power of the mark, one could argue that she has indeed resisted it!
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