CA - Chapter 200
Chapter 200
When Tang Qiu returned to the Holy See with Karen and saw the Saintess, she was on a swing in the garden with Kama. Although Kama was small, she was trying her best to push the Saintess high into the air. Their cheerful laughter made Tang Qiu’s own lips curve into a smile.
The Saintess was even more cautious on this visit to the Gosse Empire than the last. Not only had she changed out of the robes that signified her status, but she had also carefully hidden her eye-catching silver hair under a hood.
She sat on the swing, her gentle gaze fixed on Kama. The iciness around her seemed to have melted, and her entire demeanor had softened considerably.
Tang Qiu paused on her way to the garden. It was the first time she had seen Kama smile so happily, and for a moment, she had the urge to turn around and leave the two of them to their time together.
But the thought had barely formed when the Saintess on the swing keenly sensed her arrival. The Saintess raised a hand to grasp Kama’s wrist, signaling for her to stop, and the gentle aura around her slowly began to freeze over again.
Seeing that the Saintess had noticed her, Tang Qiu walked out and greeted her with a smile, “I didn’t expect we’d meet again so soon, Your Highness the Saintess.”
The Saintess stood up from the swing and nodded at Tang Qiu. “I came specifically to find you.”
“Oh?” Tang Qiu feigned surprise. “Are there any orders from His Holiness the Pope?”
“I want to see Reese.” The Saintess didn’t want to continue the useless probing and got straight to the point. “I know what she’s planning.”
Tang Qiu’s lips curled, showing no emotional fluctuation at the Saintess’s directness. She looked into the Saintess’s eyes and replied calmly, “I want to see Reese too. If you know her whereabouts, Your Highness, please tell me so I can rest easy.”
The Saintess frowned and fell silent for a moment. She slowly raised her hand, and a scroll appeared in it. She held the scroll up to Tang Qiu as a golden flame of light materialized out of thin air and landed on it. The scroll instantly ignited. Watching Tang Qiu’s stunned expression, she said faintly, “This is the scroll the Pope gave the Holy Son to save his life.”
“You should have seen it before, right? A teleportation scroll that ignores domains. Cambecus once used one.”
Tang Qiu dropped her casual attitude. Her gaze shifted from the scroll, now reduced to ashes, to the Saintess’s face, her eyes filled with scrutiny. “I do have some recollection.”
She narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by this?”
The Saintess flicked the ashes from her hand and then extended it to Tang Qiu, gesturing for her to take it.
Tang Qiu glanced down but didn’t move. Suddenly, her thigh was hugged and shaken. She turned her head to see Kama with her hands clasped together, looking at her imploringly. The words “Please help her” were all but written on her face.
Tang Qiu looked at Kama with a sense of helplessness. She sighed and finally took the Saintess’s hand.
Telepathic communication was a talent of the God Race. As soon as Tang Qiu took the Saintess’s hand, images began to flash through her mind. She focused, carefully discerning them, and her expression slowly shifted from initial surprise to gravity.
“...Gabriel betrayed the Pope?” Tang Qiu slowly withdrew her hand, her tone surprised. “At a time like this?”
Although the Pope’s prestige had waned with age, he was the only one who could use forbidden techniques. Where did Gabriel get the confidence… Just as she was feeling puzzled, Tang Qiu suddenly thought of something, lowering her eyes slightly to hide the dark glint that flashed within them.
The Saintess didn’t know what Tang Qiu was thinking. She had destroyed the scroll and revealed the Pope’s current situation in front of her solely to gain her trust. “Now, may I see Reese?”
Her thoughts, just beginning to clear, were interrupted by the Saintess’s voice. Tang Qiu looked up and met her gaze. After a moment of contemplation, she finally nodded. “You may.”
Although she had been declared missing, Reese was actually staying in a small manor in the main city of Gosse. Her public confidant, Mario, kept up the pretense by leading a tireless search for her, while she remained in the shadows, directing her other trusted subordinates to chip away at the Holy Son’s power base.
Vogt and the others were not in the same location as the Holy Son and were unaware of the situation. Gabriel, who was with the Holy Son, discovered Reese’s subtle maneuvers. Not only did he not suppress them, but he also secretly helped her out a few times.
The Holy Son, feeling his subordinates becoming increasingly difficult to command, wore a perpetually grim expression that never once lifted.
Tang Qiu left after bringing the Saintess to Reese’s manor. The Saintess looked up at the somewhat gloomy sky, took off her hood, and walked straight toward the garden.
As she stepped into the garden, a branch fell from the sky, blocking her path. She paused and looked up to see a brown-haired vampire leaning against a tree trunk, staring at her playfully. Her crimson eyes gave her a somewhat wicked air.
“Someone from the Holy See…” Lola sniffed the air, licked her lips, and said, “Another Cardinal?”
The Saintess’s hand, hidden in her cloak, rose to press the bracelet on her wrist. She said calmly, “I’m here to see Reese.”
Lola glanced toward the garden, shrugged, and casually tossed the branch aside.
The Saintess nodded at her, keeping her hand on the bracelet until she saw Reese’s figure, only then did she slowly release it.
Hearing footsteps, Reese didn’t even look up from the letter she was reading. Her tone was somewhat cold as she asked, “Why are you here?”
The Saintess stared at her for a moment before walking over and sitting down opposite her. Her lips moved as if to speak, but her peripheral vision caught the scars on the back of Reese’s hand. She froze, her expression changing slightly as she asked in a low voice, “Your hand…”
Reese ignored her, tossing aside the letter she had finished and picking up another, her eyes scanning it ten lines at a time.
It was only when Reese reached for the new letter that the Saintess noticed the scars on her face were just as numerous as those on her hands.
The atmosphere grew stagnant. After reading through all the intelligence reports from her subordinates, Reese finally turned her attention to the person across from her. She leaned back in her chair, looked the Saintess up and down, and sneered, “What exactly did you come here for?”
The Saintess gently placed a bottle of ointment on the table. “I’ll find a better scar-removing ointment.”
Reese let out a cold laugh, looking exasperated. “I won’t thank you for giving me these useless things.”
“You should know what I want.”
The Saintess was silent for a moment before taking out a prepared piece of parchment and placing it in front of Reese. She said in a low voice, “I know. That’s why I came to you.”
Reese was taken aback for a second. She looked down, and the impatience on her face slowly faded. She picked up the parchment and glanced up at the Saintess, a half-smile on her face. “You’re not trying to trick me, are you?”
“I have never lied to you. You know that.”
Reese folded and unfolded the parchment several times before asking faintly, “You won’t regret this?”
The Saintess sighed silently. “He should never have been born.”
The atmosphere fell silent again. The Saintess stared at the withered tree behind Reese, her gaze somewhat distant. “Gabriel has injured the Pope. Although the Pope is worried about the Holy Son’s safety, he is powerless to help. After Cambecus’s death, Gabriel has almost completely isolated the Pope.”
“Gabriel is a deep schemer. He didn’t kill the Pope directly to prevent the Holy Son from legitimately succeeding him. But if the Holy Son dies, he will immediately move against anyone who poses a threat to him.”
“You or me.”
Seeing Reese’s indifferent expression, the Saintess sighed softly. “I’m not trying to get you to spare the Holy Son, just… telling you to be careful.”
Seeing Reese’s lack of interest in the topic of the Holy See, she wisely fell silent. The Saintess took the bracelet from her wrist and handed it to Reese. “Wear this for protection.”
With that, she stood up, put on her hood, and prepared to leave. But just as she turned, she stopped again and said hesitantly, “...Reese, I’m sorry.”
“And tell Monica I’m sorry on my behalf.”
Reese’s hand, reaching for the bracelet, froze mid-air. Her face darkened as she said with displeasure, “I hate hearing those words the most.”
The hood concealed half of the Saintess’s face, hiding her expression. She stood there for a moment before leaving with her head lowered, saying nothing more.
The Saintess had stirred up some bad memories for Reese. She pushed the bracelet away, lowered her head, and flipped through a few more intelligence reports, but she couldn’t focus and impatiently tossed them aside.
She stored the parchment and bracelet left by the Saintess in her Space Gem, then stood up and draped a cloak over her shoulders. Reese walked to the entrance of the garden, stood under the tree, and looked up at Lola. “Come down, little dog,” she said flatly.
“I’m taking you to eat.”
Lola, who had been bored, narrowed her eyes and jumped down from the tree. Licking her lips, she said, “Let’s be clear. Don’t try to fob me off with priests this time.”
“Weren’t you perfectly happy drinking the priests’ blood?” Reese adjusted her hood and teased nonchalantly, “A picky dog won’t be favored by its master.”
Lola rolled her eyes and snorted coldly. “Why does Grace have a friend like you?”
“Stop describing me with that lowly animal.” Lola’s gaze lingered around Reese’s neck as she licked her sharp fangs and threatened, “Or I’ll bite your throat out.”
Reese looked as if she’d heard a joke. She glanced back at Lola and said with a low laugh, “We can talk about that when you can actually get close to me.”
Lola’s face darkened, but in the end, she didn’t say something like “let’s try.” After all, the feeling of being burned by the Power of Light was quite painful.
When Reese said she was taking Lola to eat, she actually meant she was taking her to deal with the Holy Son’s captured minions.
Within the Holy See, Reese was arguably the person who best understood the forces under the Holy Son’s command. The Holy Son had two factions under him: one was a group of die-hard loyalists prepared for him by the Pope, the kind who would never betray him. The other was the faction she, Reese, had cultivated herself.
Together, these two forces were not to be underestimated. But if they were separated, the Holy Son would be at a complete disadvantage.
Otherwise, Gabriel wouldn’t have chosen to move against Reese’s side first. Reese’s rebellion was equivalent to severing one of the Holy Son’s arms.
While Lola was feeding, Reese leaned against the doorframe, listening to the screams from inside the room and staring blankly at her feet.
“How many people did the Holy Son send out to find you?” Tang Qiu walked up beside Reese and glanced inside, shaking her head slightly. “He really doesn’t give up.”
His own situation was a tangled mess, yet he still sent people out to search for Reese. It was said that upon learning of Reese’s disappearance, the Holy Son’s first thought was to send for Monica, but he gave up after learning she was also missing.
“He’s stubborn,” Reese said calmly. “As long as he’s alive, he’ll haunt Monica like a lingering ghost.”
After she had secured her position in the Holy See, it wasn’t that she hadn’t tried to get rid of the Holy Son. But the result was predictable: not only did she fail, but he also set his sights on Monica.
Reese took the parchment the Saintess had given her from her Space Gem and handed it to Tang Qiu. Tang Qiu took it and saw an address written on it.
“The Holy Son has a teleportation scroll that can ignore domains.” Reese gestured with her chin at the parchment in Tang Qiu’s hand. “The destination is the address recorded on that.”
Tang Qiu raised an eyebrow. “Is it credible?”
Reese was silent for a moment before nodding. “It should be. She’s never lied to me.”
Comments
Post a Comment