The Fake Paladin smiled. In her expression, there is a dreamy haze in her eyes.
The first ti she heard that the Pope wanted her to be wedded to the Third Prince, she actually did not care much until she had seen his portrait and heard of his exploits.
Indeed for a revered person like her, no one is better to stand beside her than the Third Prince of the Seirende Empire, Leon Andrae the Seirende.
As for the mysterious fiance whom the Third Prince was infatuated with, she believes that it will be easy to deal with her once they get to the Seirende Capital.
In conclusion, she did not see Eli as a threat but rather as a weak excuse for the Emperor and the Third Prince to reject the Pope's proposal.
It did not matter if the heavens agreed to the Third Prince's plea, it would not an anything if the woman perished anyways.
However, the real threat to her was the appearance of the real paladin. The thought of the real paladin casting a doubt on her identity irks her a lot.
"I am confident I will finish her before we go to the Empire…" She declared straight to the Pope's face.
"We better do, or else, we will lose our leverage upon entering the Empire…" The Pope raised his head as he said in a matter-of-factly tone.
"If you can't defeat the Paladin, then what's the use of you being in that position?" He continued.
The fake paladin chucked as if she had just heard a ridiculous thing. But she did not go against the Pope's words.
"Alright… save all your strength. If you could, gather strength as much as possible. You might have to fight with her while we go there." The Pope waved his hand.
"I have also told the priest to coordinate the change of our course.
We might be delayed for at least a month longer than the original ti of arrival. But this will all be worth it if we manage to catch the paladin and take her artifacts."
As soon as the Pope finished his sentence, the silhouette of the fake paladin disappeared. It was as if the Pope had been talking with himself all this ti.
–
Three days after the departure of the Pope and his party in the Croix City to head to llenberg, High Priest Enoch contacted the city Priest under the guise of 'checking' the whereabouts of the Pope.
When High Priest Enoch heard that the Pope chose to head to llenburg rather than their original route, he was deeply elated and relieved
"Is that the case?" The High Priest feigned surprise and exclaid in a tone that was filled with shock.
"It really is. His Holiness the Pope also says to extend his apologies to Your Eminence and His Majesty for their delayed arrival.
The matter of the Paladin is very important and the Pope found it valuable to protect the Temple's reputation and integrity by ensuring that the real Paladin is recognized." Understanding High Priest Enoch's 'surprised' reaction, the Priest of Croix City went out of his way to comfort him.
"Alright. It can't be helped if it is about the paladin. I share the sa thought as his holiness. We have to support him in his decision." High Priest Enoch replied as if he was a loyal and understanding servant.
It was only after he cut the call that his gentle and kind expression faded into one of disappointnt.
Then he lifted the curtain and it revealed several people behind.
Among them was of course the core mber of the Anti Curse Committee, the Emperor, and the Three Princes.
"The target willingly took the bait." Leon finally announced.
The air of relief washed the initially heavy atmosphere during the call. Now all of them had a look of determination and focus on their faces.
"Then, now is the ti for us to carry our work. We have to use this ti to settle all the matters in the Capital and quietly prepare for a confrontation…" Mishael said.
"We will not prepare for confrontation, for it would surely be not enough. We are to prepare for war." Emperor Valentin declared with a rather cold voice.
Upon hearing the Emperor's words, everyone in the room seed to have tacitly agreed to him using the word 'War' instead of 'Confrontation'.
Because they knew very well that the mont the Pope knew that the 'Paladin' they were chasing was not even the real one, it would also directly say to the Pope's face that the Seirende Empire viewed him and the Holy Island as an enemy.
"But we might not only face the Holy Island, the Vanderford might also take this chance to ally with them and press us down to ruins." General Farauld said with a dark expression.
"That's why I and the Grandmasters will try to use the remaining duration of the tournant to negotiate with the Green Wave Continent." Emperor Valentin announced.
"The Green Wave Continent? Didn't they explicitly announce their neutrality towards the matter?" Anderson politely voiced his opinion. This also reflected Antoine and Kazimir's doubts.
"Indeed they were known as neutral. However, we have sothing that might convince them to join the war." Leon announced and then presented to the rest of the group the matter of the hell wolves.
"According to the research, the hell wolves were an experint to create a mutant breed of human mages and werewolves. These were no ordinary werewolves, but a particular tribe in the Eastern coast of the Green Wave territory which faces the Holy Island."
"We will have them see the hell wolves for themselves and decide on their own. We will also have Great Elder Eirllon of the Silver Dew Elves participate in the negotiation."
Hearing the plan, everyone nodded and prayed that this would be enough to convince the Green Wave Unified Governnt to participate.
"Alright… we will have to discuss the matter in depth later on. The priority right now is to ensure that the tournant will end successfully and that we will have enough ti to send the majority of the people…"
Just as the Emperor was about to conclude the short eting, High Priest Enoch's communication stone lit up once again, leading the people in the room to look at each other in silence.
With the Emperor's permission, the curtains were let down once more and hid it in a way that only the High Priest appeared in the room.
"Your Eminence… apologies for disturbing you once again…" The Priest of the Croix City called back once again.
"No problem, is there sothing wrong for you to hurriedly call back?" High Priest Enoch replied patiently.
"It's like this... I have ntioned that included in his holiness' party was a woman that was said to be the paladin right?"
"Yes, indeed." High Priest Enoch answered.
"Well… we were able to see her bare face and her appearance surprised and my entire team greatly…." The Priest said in a tone ridden with disbelief and confusion.
"Your Eminence… the one that we saw actually bears the features of an Asani! Midnight black hair and Obsidian eyes! There is no doubt that she was of Asani descent!"
"Ridiculous… the Asani's have long been wiped out during the battle of the blood valley… So how co? And why are you only telling this now?" High Priest Enoch stood from his seat, he was actually quite affected by the information relayed by the priest.
"I apologize to your Eminence for my lack of discernnt. Truthfully at first, I only dismissed the case with the possibility of the Paladin dyeing her hair black like most won. However, it had only dawned on that there would be no other explanation for her black eyes…
For we all know that the inner palace prohibits appearance concealnt magic! And according to the servant's report, there has been no change in her eye color.
We can explain the change of hair color, but no one in the temple can be deceived when it cos to the color of the eyes!
Thus… there might only be one explanation for this… That the rumored paladin on the Pope's side is actually an Asani!" The priest explained.
"Impossible…" High Priest Enoch stopped himself from pulling the curtains up and looked at Eli. However, he exercised all his self-control and managed to keep his calm until he ended the call.
Lifting the curtains up, he t the shocked expressions of the people behind.
"That was supposed to be a trick right?" Nathan was the one who first opened his mouth. He then looked at Eli who had an extrely confused expression.
But the most drastic expression of them all was not actually Eli, nor the Emperor, not even the Grandmasters…
It was actually Governor Fidel whose entire body was trembling in fear as if he was reliving a horrible sin in his past…
"There must be sothing wrong… I personally saw the corpses of the entire Asani country…. That ti… I was not able to do anything…." Governor Fidel mumbled as his eyes reddened in agitation.
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