Although the Goddess of Fate and her Fate Church were notoriously lazy, they still maintained a token presence in a massive city like the Royal Capital by establishing a single church.
This so-called “token presence” meant that the entire Rose Kingdom had just one Fate Church, staffed by a mere fifteen people: one Archbishop (Dessni), one Bishop, three Priestesses, and ten Nuns.
But having so few people had its perks—communication was a breeze.
When the little Nun shouted, everyone in the church came running to see what was happening.
“Where’s the Archbishop?” the Nun who had closed the door called out urgently.
“Come quick! The Goddess of Fate’s statue is glowing!”
“No need to shout, I see it,” came a calm female voice from inside the chapel.
The Nun poked her head in, shocked.
“When… when did you get here?”
A woman wearing a straw hat and an off-shoulder cloth dress stood inside the chapel, one foot propped on a pew, a blade of foxtail grass dangling from her mouth.
At first glance, she looked like a farmer.
But she was none other than the Archbishop of Fate, Dessni.
Unfazed by the astonished stares, Dessni tilted her head back.
“I just took a stroll around the World Tree. Saw the Goddess of Fate’s altar up on the branches and came back through the teleportation gate.”
“You’re bragging again,” the others groaned in unison.
In their eyes, their Archbishop was an oddball. While other churches’ archbishops were diligent and perpetually busy, Dessni was the opposite—always slacking off.
One day she’d be running a fortune-telling stall for little girls, the next she’d be helping old ladies in the fields with a hoe, and the day after that, she might be leading a group of elderly tourists to the beach.
In short, she never did anything befitting an Archbishop.
“You’re saying the Goddess’s statue was already glowing before I arrived?” Dessni asked, her tone turning serious.
“Yes,” the Nun who opened the door nodded eagerly.
“And the door was left open, so someone clearly walked out of here.”
Dessni fell silent for a moment, gazing into the distance.
“It seems the person who just left is the Chosen of Fate selected by the Goddess.”
“The Chosen?!” the crowd gasped in unison. “Really?”
While other goddess churches typically had seven chosen ones, the Fate Church was unique.
Since the God War, no Chosen of Fate had emerged.
Now, after a thousand years, the Goddess of Fate had chosen a new Chosen.
Did this mean something monumental was about to happen?
“The Goddess of Fate’s duty is to govern the unseen threads of destiny. Only someone chosen by her could find her altar and arrive here through its teleportation gate,” Dessni explained patiently.
“I can’t think of any other reason.”
The group stood stunned for a moment before exclaiming, “Quick, chase after them! Find the person who left the church!”
“No need,” Dessni stopped them.
“Trust in the Goddess’s choice. Fate will arrange for us to meet one day, especially when she needs our help.”
***
Meanwhile, a certain white-haired, busty girl—unwittingly saddled with the title of Chosen of Fate—was wandering the streets near the Fate Church, muttering to herself like a lunatic.
“Jelly, can you not crawl into the gaps of my armor?”
“No way. I sense several powerful presences in this city. Until I regain my strength, I’m not meeting them.”
“But this is really uncomfortable! It’s all sticky when I walk, and my black stockings can’t even breathe!”
“I’m gracing you by residing under your armor. It’s an honor no one else has ever had.”
Bai Yue Ling wove through the crowd, her cheeks flushed, enduring the discomfort with every step.
She had no idea what Jelly was so afraid of.
This was the mighty Slime Queen, yet she insisted on hiding in her armor, refusing to come out no matter how much Bai Yue Ling pleaded.
Thankfully, there was at least a layer of black stockings between them, so Jelly couldn’t do much.
If she were under the stockings, Jelly wouldn’t need to be a pet—she could just be renamed “Slime Bodysuit” and classified as equipment.
“Speaking of which, I can’t believe we teleported straight back to the Royal Capital. The Goddess of Fate is way too reliable,” Bai Yue Ling marveled.
“Going from the Underground Ocean to the Royal Capital feels like a dream.”
Just then, she heard two familiar voices from a nearby shop. Looking closer, she saw Silver Fang and Princess.
“Little White!” Princess spotted her, waving her fan excitedly. “You actually defeated the Slime Queen! How did you do it?”
“Got lucky. There was a terrain trap in the ruins, and I lured her into falling off a cliff,” Bai Yue Ling lied smoothly, her expression unchanging.
She glanced inside the shop. “What’s going on here?”
Silver Fang sat in a large chair, with mechanical arms on either side removing damaged metal from her body, replacing it with new parts.
A woman in a white lab coat stood nearby, sighing at the battered armor.
“I don’t know how you managed this, but the damage is pretty severe this time.”
“The enemy was too strong,” Silver Fang’s steady voice came from the cracked armor.
“Sorry for the trouble, Shopkeeper.”
“It’s not about trouble…” the Shopkeeper adjusted her glasses.
“Fixing this kind of damage isn’t cheap. It’ll cost about 50,000 gold coins.”
“Only 50,000? I’ll cover it,” Princess said with a laugh, fanning herself. “This adventure was so much fun~”
“Oh?”
The Shopkeeper’s eyes lit up. “How about another 50,000 gold coins? I can upgrade her armor with top-tier parts for a full overhaul!”
“Deal.”
Princess pulled out a large sack without hesitation.
“Here’s 100,000 gold coins. Please make Silver Fang’s armor as cool as possible.”
“Wait!” Silver Fang protested. “You’re spending your own money. That’s not right.”
“Oh, come on~ It’s just 100,000 gold coins. Pocket change. I just bought a 200,000-gold ring earlier,” Princess said nonchalantly.
…Fine, whatever makes you happy.
Clearly, Silver Fang couldn’t keep up with Princess’s extravagant spending.
Since Silver Fang’s armor repair and upgrade would take several hours, Bai Yue Ling and Princess didn’t wait around and left the shop.
“Little White, you didn’t disappoint me. This adventure got me to level 9!” Princess tapped Bai Yue Ling’s stocking-clad thigh with her fan, grinning.
“Keep up this pace, and this Princess will reward you handsomely~”
With that, she slipped a note into Bai Yue Ling’s hand.
“This is a Diamond VIP Black Card from the Blue Star Federation Bank. You only need the card number and password to use it—they’re written on the note. There’s 1,000,000 in deposits as a special reward for this adventure~”
“1… 1,000,000?” Bai Yue Ling’s eyes widened, momentarily overwhelmed. “Is this for real?”
Though she wasn’t short on cash, a sudden windfall of a million left her breathless with excitement.
“What, too little for you?”
Princess stepped closer, using her fan to tilt Bai Yue Ling’s chin, her eyes teasing. “Or… do you want a more adult reward?”
“I-I-I didn’t mean…” Bai Yue Ling’s face turned beet red, flustered.
“Sorry, I’m starving. Gotta log off!”
With that, she vanished in a flash of white light.
Princess stood there, her fan lightly covering her lips as she smiled.
“No matter how cocky and smug she acts, deep down, she’s just a shy little weakling~”