Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure Chapter 2148 2148: Coming together

"How did you find this place?"

When I asked that, Lupus stayed silent, so I added, "I'm not holding it against you, I just want to see if you can find a place that's similar."

At first, Lupus seemed puzzled, but she nodded soon after to confirm it could be done.

With her agreement, I watched her method closely. Yet despite observing her actions, I remained baffled by precisely what she was doing.

After all, her approach didn't logically explain how she located these spots.

Simply relying on her sense of smell alone shouldn't have enabled her to track down all these locations.

Beyond that, I burned with curiosity over what scent she was following to lead us here. Was it tied to divine energy, or something entirely different?

No matter the answer, Lupus exuded total confidence as she led the path forward.

"Did you already have an idea of where to go before we found this place?" I couldn't resist asking Lupus while trailing behind her.

Still, Lupus showed no sign of responding.

Her silence made me narrow my eyes at her.

But then a faint noise from Joan eased the tension on my face.

I understood Joan's meaning perfectly, so I let the issue go.

She had a point—this wasn't the moment for suspicion among allies, especially when we could only depend on each other in this forsaken place. Questioning Lupus now would soon fracture our fragile trust.

That said, a nagging thought struck me as I reflected deeper.

"I can always use the saddle if I want to know."

Yet I held back from that option, unwilling to treat her that way. Even harboring doubts didn't justify crossing certain boundaries—I knew right from wrong.

Activating the saddle like that would undeniably breach an ethical line.

No matter that she'd given me the saddle herself, this wasn't its intended purpose.

After some time, we reached the next church.

Trouble was, it mirrored the previous one exactly.

This church wasn't any larger; it appeared just another humble gathering spot for ordinary folk of that ancient civilization to worship. Thus, it lacked any deeper connection.

In truth, it resembled the prior church almost perfectly.

Upon closer inspection, subtle differences emerged.

The structure itself varied slightly from the last church.

However, the central statue occupied the identical position.

Even more oddly, approaching the statue stirred the same sensation as before. That prompted me to repeat my actions, circling behind it to check for secrets.

With prior experience, uncovering the hidden compartment proved swift—and inside lay…

"It's another piece of cloth?"

This cloth fragment matched the previous one in looks and divine energy levels. Injecting divine energy triggered the identical response too.

Lacking further hints here, nothing more remained to explore.

"Can you find another one?"

Lupus nodded right away in affirmation.

Three additional churches later, I grasped we weren't progressing this way. These sites truly concealed nothing special.

All I uncovered were three more identical cloth pieces like the earlier finds.

They offered no insights, though one discovery stood out.

"It seems like they can combine together."

Some mysterious force pulled these cloth pieces into unity, and once joined, they refused to separate. Examining the bigger cloth revealed nothing unusual.

The sole change was the increased divine energy within this expanded fragment.

"When they were destroyed by whatever it was that destroyed them, did they split this thing to hide it away?"

The catch: I couldn't guess its original size.

Meanwhile, the divine energy in this larger cloth still paled against a true relic.

Every clue suggested countless more pieces scattered out there.

The vastness of this place and the multitude of churches were beyond our grasp, so I had no notion of the time required to gather every one of those pieces.

"It might end up as a pointless wild goose chase, given there's no certainty that all the pieces even survived from the start…"

Ultimately, this didn't strike me as a dependable course of action.

"Can you check for anything more powerful?"

Lupus appeared startled by my words, but she nodded after a moment, fully grasping my meaning.

Her response gave me a sharper insight into the workings of her ability, though I held my tongue about it.

At this point, securing a means to commune with the gods was the only thing that truly counted.