Chapter 378: Chapter 378 Roman Orthodox Actions Chapter 378: Chapter 378 Roman Orthodox Actions As I approached the conference room door, I saw a man in a black suit suddenly burst through the door and embed himself deeply into the wall in a horrifying scene.
However, as my footsteps drew near, Sicaro, who a second ago had everyone worried he might be dead, contributing to society in the most final way, popped back to life. He “pfft” pulled his head out of the wall, took two seconds to straighten up his forever-unchanging Northface outfit, swapped his now skeletal sunglasses, and saluted sharply towards .
“Boss! Commander Sicaro, mission accomplished! Reporting in!”
Mission accomplished my foot! Fiddling with watches by the Vatican and getting deported, what kind of mission accomplishnt is that!? Did you really have to save on a plane ticket and dump everyone off at the Vatican, you jerk!
I imdiately rushed forward with a sweeping leg—didn’t sweep him off his feet, then a left hook—didn’t send him flying, this darn guy is too tough, real skills were required. Thereupon, I stepped forward, twisted my waist, energy sinking to my lower abdon, an inch fist—didn’t make it, Sicaro quickly bowed in apology.
“Boss, I admit my mistake and accept the punishnt!”
The inch fist not going through almost made gasp for air, but what really took my breath away was—this guy finally admitting his mistake?
“Boss, I shouldn’t have tinkered with watches in front of the Vatican—but that damned place is swarming with Roman Catholics, couldn’t sell anything! I’d feel too ashad to co back saying I’d dealt with foreign city managent… Eh, Boss! No ship weaponry indoors, Boss!”
I couldn’t take it anymore! You see what kind of people I deal with every day?! Commanders are either ssing with bootleg disks or selling kebabs, or running their own shop and so broke they mooch off my als till they’re tearfully grateful. Newly trained Scorpion Soldiers can’t tell the difference between a vending machine and a Ghost Energy replenishnt stand. Even keeping an Angel who can’t asure up to average intelligence; there’s a child up to my waist at ho for god’s sake!
There’s also soone in this room planning to conquer the world! Pandora, stop hiding! You were just studying the world map, weren’t you?
“Just verifying the geographical targets of the operation,” the small general, only about four feet tall, looked up at rigidly, “The situation around Italy and its surrounding islands and human nations is very complex…”
Complex? Why are you drawing blockade lines over Antarctica for Italy!
Uh, Italy?
In an instant, I seed to associate it with sothing, but the fleeting thought was like trying to grasp ti—it’s on the edge of my mory now, seeming like nothing was left.
However, it seed that fate didn’t want to keep puzzled for long. Before much ti had passed, I received an unexpected invitation.
From Old Fox Aresta inviting to et him in the Ancient Tomb—anyway, I felt that the closed, windowless hellish place was no different from an actual tomb.
Having experienced the ability that Lin Xue and I suddenly disappeared from the room, Aresta didn’t even bother to provide a small guide Loli this ti, just adopting an “I’ll wait for you here” attitude, utterly disrespectful—and I’ve been holding back a belly full of fire thanks to that Sicaro!
“Hey, Old Fox, we et again.”
Casually using the Transmission Device in my Personal Space to eliminate the chaotic spatial disturbances inside and outside this dead building, I stood in front of a certain pipe, greeting the other side nonchalantly.
“It seems your mood isn’t very good. Was my invitation ill-tid?”
Aresta kept his zombie-face unmoved, his voice low and calm coming from all around.
“Your invitation is never tily because I’m never used to being bossed around.” I waved nonchalantly at the man in the pipe, then pulled out my usual stool—damn it, I’m not so rich second generation like Lin Xue, and a boss has to be different from his employees, right?
“Then, I hope the news I bring can cheer you up a bit.”
Aresta seed to chuckle softly, then continued.
“Hmm?”
I frowned, unsure of what the Old Fox was plotting.
“This information should’ve been absolutely confidential to others in this city, but as a mysterious and powerful ‘Outsider,’ such secrecy seems aningless from the start…”
“Get to the point, or I’m flipping the page… uh, just get to the point.”
Aresta paused a mont, gathered his thoughts then said, “According to the information I just received, it seems you are looking for soone’s whereabouts?”
The atmosphere suddenly stiffened, then I stood up and stepped forward.
“You’re prying into things you shouldn’t know, human.”
Look at that line, so boss!
Aresta didn’t show any reaction to my icy deanor but slowly said, “It was just sothing I learned unintentionally. I always have a broad range of information channels; the intelligence that ends up here isn’t necessarily by my will. What I have to say is only that, irrespective of why you care so much about this particular human, I have good news—that person’s whereabouts have been located by my channels.”
“I know,” I said, shaking my shoulders as I sat back down again on the stool. I’d been pining for Girl Lin’s dragon chair since last ti; maybe I’ll have Bubbles make a fully hardened Krypton Gold one. “Silvia should be near Italy. Roman Orthodox people are moving her, although the purpose is unclear, but I never concern myself with their motives.”
“It appears that despite being Outsiders, your information gathering is quite strong. However, I have sothing else that might interest you—the exact current location of the person you care about. I’m quite confident about it.”
“The renowned Aresta now sounds like a second-hand information dealer, but you’ve succeeded—now you may speak.”
“Venice. The Roman Orthodox is preparing an attack on Academy City there—I can provide only this much information, but it should be quite useful.”
So that’s it, I understood the chain of events in an instant.
“It looks like the Roman Orthodox are considering destroying the entire Magic Side,” I said with a light, breeze-like smile, the earlier fleeting thought resurfacing, “Old Fox, you’ve played your gas with us again. Indeed, if that’s the case, we’ll have to act, to snatch the girl back from the hands of the Roman Orthodox.”
At this point, everything seed clear. Ever since his last encounter with Silvia, Aresta had treated her as his pawn. Of course, before that, the strange girl had apparently been one of his cards, and her abduction this ti was just an opportunity for him to implent his plan. Perhaps our search for sothing in Academy City had already alerted this cunning old man. At least, after she was abducted, the Old Fox felt that he could finally let us stretch our muscles.
This only made despise him more.
The tragic fate of the Sisters Misaka, the various disasters involving Touma Kamijou, everything Kiyama Haruaki had been through, and even the recent outbreak of Fantasy Master were probably all attributable to him. He manipulated everyone, treating them as tools he could control, and this ti, not only did he manipulate us, he even used the innocent Silvia as a disposable sacrifice!
Perhaps it was ti to give him a wake-up call.
But for now, the pressing matter was resolving Silvia’s issue.
Aresta smiled gently, his tone as calm as ever, “Please don’t be so hasty. This is rely part of our initial deal, isn’t it? You were to ensure the safety of Academy City, allowing you to live here securely, while this incident was an unexpected situation. That girl being involved was beyond my expectation as well. Because of the delicate situation between factions, I couldn’t directly use Academy City’s power to stop the Roman Orthodox. Thus, I had to resort to seeking help from you, as external support.”
I approached the man with a warm smile, “Indeed, we will ensure the safety of Academy City. Even if the Roman Orthodox plan to use the Adriatic Sea Queen to destroy Academy City, we will handle that ancient relic. However, since everything was part of your plan and Silvia was rely bait, I’d appreciate it if you’d drop this insincere attitude when speaking to , how about that?”
He was silent for a mont, then calmly said, “Indeed, ‘Outsiders,’ you are not simple. But our interaction is just a transaction, based on not infringing on each other’s interests. Needless confrontation will only weaken both of us…”
“Of course, I won’t deal with you now,” I said amiably, snapping my fingers. “I’m just informing you of sothing—the initiative has never been in your hands.”
After saying this, I didn’t wait for his response and disappeared from the room in an instant.
After a full ten minutes, the room’s equipnt lights gradually ca back on, and then a low, gentle voice with a slight vibration spoke, “Aresta, I didn’t suggest you to ask the Outsiders for help in this way.”
“Does it make you wary?” Aresta asked in a deep voice, and then fell silent.
Combining the original storyline, it was fairly clear what the Roman Orthodox were planning now.
The operations near Venice, the subtle magic fluctuations, and the abnormal gathering of Roman Catholics—they only needed sothing from that location that caused such a grand movent, the fleet of the Adriatic Sea Queen.
What should have been the tragic fate of the Kamijou Youth had now beco our problem. Could it really be as Girl Lin said, that the world’s fairness lies in the fact that if you’re unlucky, sowhere else in the world soone else is enjoying happiness?
The question is, why does my bad luck have to be even more outrageous than Kamijou’s skirt-chasing?
After returning to the research institute, we first sent away the few little girls who had almost made this place their entertainnt center, decided not to involve Zuotian Tsuruya even though she was nominally the Commander. It was an unexpected situation, and we couldn’t really allow her to get drawn into it. After confirming that Kiyama Haruaki had begun to familiarize herself with the existence of the Xyrin Host and was staying put in the underground information center, I gathered Qianqian and the others for a discussion.
“The Adriatic Sea Queen Fleet, or simply the Queen’s Fleet, that’s an old relic from centuries ago,” Qianqian, who joined in watching ani when idle, was quite familiar with this storyline, “It was created by the Roman Orthodox during a ti when Venice was not yet annexed by them and even opposed them. It was a strategic weapon built to combat Venice, known as the powerful ‘City of Waters.’ The entire fleet’s purpose was not only to counter Venice’s strong mariti forces but also to protect their mother ship, the ‘Adriatic Sea Queen.’ It carried the Roman Orthodox’s most powerful deterrent magic, designed specifically for the mass eradication of the tropolitan area of Venice. Along with the St. Peter’s Cross, it was known as one of the proud ‘Holy Spirit Ten Forms’ of Roman urban warfare. It would activate in two stages, the first turning the entire city to ashes, and the second destroying all people, objects, and culture that had developed in this city…Originally to prevent such weapons from falling into enemy hands and being used against themselves, the Roman Orthodox installed a targeting lock, making it only capable of attacking Venice. However, in the original story…”
Lin Xue took up the thread, “In the original story, the Roman Orthodox used a limited cross to unlock this targeting, allowing it to strike any city, such as…Academy City.”
I shrugged, “We all know the plot has vanished, Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect hasn’t shown up yet, and that Sister Yanis who’s used as a sacrifice, nobody knows where she is goofing off.”
“That’s the bad part,” Lin Xue rubbed her forehead, looking very tired, “I just looked into the future and found sothing— I can’t even see the target of the Roman Orthodox’s attack.”
Then, we all looked at her with horror.
“You’re not going to tell … Silvia has been turned into a target scope, are you?”
It was a dire situation, Lin Xue’s predictions apparently never went wrong.
Heaven knows why the plot had spiraled to this extent, but right now, our priority was to stop the Roman Orthodox’s actions, whether their intended destruction of Academy City or the fact that Silvia might be sacrificed due to such a senseless fight for power, we couldn’t tolerate either.
Imdiately, I contacted soone from the British Puritan side, Fox Woman Lola, who, although as cunning as Aresta, at least was loyal and dependable to us. To handle matters on the Magic Side, it’s best to consult an expert, and to be honest, I didn’t think our own angel was quite trustworthy.
Upon learning about Roman Orthodox’s plans, even Lola, a usually composed mber of the Cross Sect, couldn’t help but blurt out, “Those guys are truly madn”—even in opposition to the Science Side, British Puritan had never entertained such crazy ideas, yet the people from Roman Orthodox actually dared to do it!
“Though it’s top-secret info from Roman Orthodox, I still have so understanding of that thing.”
Just as I suspected, that fox woman wasn’t completely ignorant about the Adriatic Sea Queen Fleet.
In the original story, even Glutton, that girl who indulged in food, could delve into the knowledge of the Adriatic Sea Queen Fleet. So Lola, as the actual supre ruler of British Puritan, definitely knew more secrets, and she certainly wouldn’t hide them in front of “Lord’s Envoy.”
On the video, Lola seed busy arranging her super-long hair that could be used to hang oneself and still have enough left over for a butterfly knot. She was playing with a delicate silver comb, slowly explaining to , while not far behind , Alaya, acting as the light source and background girl, salivated over the comb that looked very comfortable to use.
“About its basic conditions, you seem to have understood already. So now, let’s discuss its flagship. To prevent it from being destroyed in a single strike, the structure of that flagship is particularly modular; every part is a separate module, with its own magic structure. That ans to destroy it, unless you blow the whole thing to smithereens, it’s going to be rather troubleso. Of course, I think that’s not a problem for you. A possible difficulty lies elsewhere—the entire Adriatic Sea Queen is equipped with various alert magic techniques, though it’s a genuine antique practically, magic stuff often doesn’t decrease in value as ti passes, and those things are still quite effective today. The person in charge of commanding this Queen’s Fleet from the Roman Orthodox side is Archbishop Pyagio, who appears devout and honorable, but in reality is ruthless and will do anything to exterminate heretics, even confront an angel—as long as it’s not an angel registered with the Roman Orthodox.”
“That ans he might launch a major attack as soon as he realizes we’ve infiltrated, and might even use Silvia as leverage, it seems like you can’t help with this after all.”
“Sorry, Lord Angel,” Fox Woman showed an awkward expression, fidgeting with the little silver comb in her hand, “although the excessive growth of Roman Orthodox might threaten the safety of British Puritan in the future, from the standpoint of the Cross Sect, I can’t openly act against the Lord’s followers.”
“Oh, then let the Lord handle it himself, by the way,” I stroked my chin, then my eyebrows twitched slightly, “Lola, could you stop torturing that comb?”
Are you torturing that comb so Alaya would twist my arm from behind, you bastard! Has this girl been planning to molt these days, always fussing over her wings like that?!
Lola: “…I’ll inform you if there are any new updates…”
After she said that, the face of the chief bishop, almost unable to contain her agitation, hurriedly turned off the video— I bet she’s going back to study the Bible to rebuild her reverence for the Lord.
anwhile, we began planning the trip to Italy—to replace a certain god of swooning who had retired from his tragic dictator position and address the major trouble encountered by the Science Side. (To be continued. For future updates, please visit qidian, more chapters, support the author, and support authentic reading!)
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