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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
A group of more than ten people had gathered at the location Kousuke had indicated in his drawings yesterday.
Kousuke and the others, as well as the temple head and other priests, had gathered.
The priests were apparently the temple head’s bodyguards who were capable of fighting.
They were equipped with swords and other weapons at their waists, so they probably had no intention of hiding.
Kousuke had a vague idea of the purpose of their presence, but did not say anything about it.
The temple director came up to Kousuke and asked.
“Is this the place? It looks like nothing to me.”
“Yes, I suppose. But try to feel the divine power.”
Kousuke said, knowing that the temple director was someone who could sense divine power.
After a moment, the temple director tilted his head.
“It is true that this area seems to have lost its divinity, but it doesn’t seem that unnatural, does it?”
“That is because you are not used to this kind of investigation. If you do it enough times, you will be able to recognize these tricks.”
As the two were talking calmly, one of the priests joined them.
“Hey! Open the door!”
The man must be a high-ranking priest, since he was in charge of organizing the priests.
Kousuke and the others felt some discomfort at the fact that he would say such a thing without the temple director, but since the temple director himself did not say anything, Kousuke and the others decided not to pay attention to him.
Kousuke glanced at the temple director, not letting such thoughts show on his face.
Since it was the temple director who gave Kousuke permission to open this entrance, he decided to listen to the director’s opinion.
The temple director nodded in response to Kousuke’s gaze.
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Kousuke had already found the mechanism to open the door yesterday.
He placed the palm of his hand on the “mechanism” and emitted a slight divine power.
He knew that the mechanism here could only be moved by divine power.
Of course, he was very careful not to let the temple directors notice.
If Kousuke was discovered to be a God at this point, everything could go up in smoke.
Following Kousuke’s manipulations, an entrance just barely large enough for a person to enter opened in a place that seemed to be empty, without a hitch.
Seeing this, the priest who had just urged him to open the door quickly grinned.
“All right. You’re done here. We’ll investigate from here on out!”
As soon as he said that, the priests entered through the entrance.
“Huh.”
Kousuke responded to the expected turn of events in a way.
Shrein stopped Peach, who was about to say something back.
“Let them do what they want. It’s no use if we get in first.”
Hearing Shrein say this with a sullen look on her face, Peach immediately thought better of it.
She could see by looking at Kousuke that he was convinced of something.
Seeing Kousuke and the others, the temple chief came over to look at them with a curious look on his face.
“Aren’t you going to stop them? You are the one who discovered this door first, aren’t you?”
From the look on his face, it seemed that he did not know that Kousuke had emitted divine authority.
To the temple director, Kousuke showed a shrug of his shoulders.
“No matter how much you go in first, it will be useless.”
“What do you mean…?”
Just as the temple director was about to ask what he meant, the priest who had gone inside before him returned.
The expression on their faces was clearly annoyed.
“There is another door ahead! You go in and open it. From there, we will investigate this time!”
Kousuke shrugged at the priest who came to him saying that.
“I think it’s useless, you know?”
“What!”
“Maybe, but the next door leading to that place could only be passed through by those who have permission.”
“What?”
At Kousuke’s words, the priest looked surprised.
The temple head, who was watching the situation, interrupted.
“Who is this authorized person?”
“In this case, it would be me who opened the door.”
To Kousuke’s immediate answer, the temple chief continued.
“…From what I saw earlier, it seems that you knew from the very beginning what kind of trick this place has.”
Kousuke nodded without concealment in response to these words, which sounded like a question and were already determined.
“Yes. To some extent, I knew that.”
“What the…?”
Kousuke’s answer was voiced not by the temple head, but by a priest.
Kousuke explained to the priest to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t know how this temple works itself, okay? I just know that there is a similar mechanism based on another Divine Treasure.”
At Kousuke’s words, the temple director looked intrigued.
“Huh? Where is it?”
“I can’t tell you where it is. I’m sure that you have asked outsiders to investigate divine treasures and have imposed a duty of confidentiality on them, right?”
Both the temple director and the priest were silent, as it was rather natural for them to be obliged to maintain confidentiality.
This was because if they were the kind of people who would speak flippantly here, it would mean that this matter would be spoken of as well.
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“Well, what do we do now? Do we just pretend we didn’t see it and block the entrance, or do you let us in?”
When Kousuke asked this, the priest looked as if he was biting a bitter bug.
The temple director let out a sigh as he looked at him.
“We have no choice. Could you please open the door ahead?”
“Is it okay if I just open it?”
“What do you mean?”
“As I said before. According to the mechanism of this temple, only those who have been given permission can pass through. In other words, at this stage, only those who have my permission can pass through.”
Kousuke broke off and continued.
“Are you sure you want to allow only us to pass?”
At his words, the priest turned his piercing gaze on him.
If a gaze alone could hurt a person, he would have been mortally wounded.
“Of course, I’m going to make sure that everyone here can get through!”
“Which mouth says that? Do you really think anyone would do such a risky action when there is a possibility of having a weapon pointed at them if they are not careful?”
Kousuke’s expression turned to one of dismay as the priest, who was still looking at him with a threatening gaze.
“…I understand. Then, would it be possible to have five of us be allowed in as well as you guys?”, the temple director suggested.
“Temple director…!!!”
The priest shouted next to him, but the director intentionally ignored him and looked at Kousuke.
Nana’s presence was also counted in the number of people, but that was not a problem at all.
It would have been fine if all of them had followed, but there was no way Kousuke was not going to bother to tell them that.
“I won’t know until I touch the door at the end here, but it will probably be fine.”
“Then may I ask you to proceed with it? If that doesn’t work, I’ll give up further investigation.”
This was the maximum concession, even for the temple head.
Kousuke did not intend to completely eliminate the priests, so he agreed to the temple head’s proposal.
If Kousuke and the others had intended to go in alone, they would have sneaked in without opening the door in their presence from the beginning.
Shrein and the others knew this, so they decided to proceed further with a limited number of people without interrupting this exchange.
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