As a villain, he could do whatever he wanted.

Page 127

"Our sect is the true one! You are heretics, practically no different from cultists, what are you? We are the true ones..." And so, amidst the noisy, sneezing, and coughing atmosphere, time ticked by. By the time Roy came to his senses, half an hour had passed.

What brought her back to her senses from the dizzying argument was another sharp voice that broke through the crowd's debate. "Have you all had enough?!"

Like a sharp blade, it pierced directly into the chaotic atmosphere, causing the incessant arguing to abruptly cease. Everyone turned their heads and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

"Could this voice be...?"

"It's...it's Her Highness the Pope! Her Highness the Pope has arrived!"

Amidst gasps of shock, Roy snapped to attention, realizing what was happening around him. He quickly turned his gaze in the direction everyone had turned, and saw the silver-haired woman slowly emerging from the sunlight, her expression dignified…

Chapter 259: Two Female Leaders (Part 1)

"Your Holiness, the Pope, what brings you here!"

Upon seeing Rosalind, the nuns beside her all showed expressions of surprise, and asked slowly with trembling lips.

On Roy's side, she also showed a look of surprise when faced with the suddenly appearing young woman in white robes, and was taken aback by her arrival.

"Pope Rosalind... has really come here. Could it be... that she is the person Young Master Lius mentioned sending? Bringing the Pope here directly."

Before Roy could react, Rosalind took a step and slowly walked up to her.

"Ms. Roy, thank you for your hard work here." Faced with Rosalind's sudden response, Roy paused, momentarily stunned, before quickly replying:

"It's alright, Your Highness. Everything here is still under control. Although there was a little conflict earlier, nothing too bad has happened. You don't need to worry."

Although the two had not met many times before, Rosalind had a deep impression of this female mage from the south because of her understanding of the church and their frequent collaborations.

Now that she has arrived here, she maintains a friendly attitude, nodding slightly as she continues, "In any case, the chaos that occurred here earlier, especially under these circumstances of crisis, is due to our church's lack of consideration. Please forgive us."

After saying this, the white-robed pope turned back, her gaze hardening into a stern expression, and addressed the nuns who stood silently behind her, maintaining their composure:

Do you intend to continue to tarnish the reputation of the church? Do you still have the awareness of being servants of God after doing such things? You have disappointed me greatly.

"Your Holiness, we felt Rosalind's sharp tone. The girls who were trembling behind us now showed a panicked look. After swallowing, the leader mustered up the courage to take a step forward and took the responsibility upon herself."

"I'm sorry, Your Highness. I was too impulsive, which caused the situation to spiral out of control. I'm truly sorry. I was too concerned with my own emotions, which led to all of this. If there is to be punishment, punish me instead. Don't involve others. Do you think you can ignore what happened by taking the blame like this? Fortunately, I arrived in time. Otherwise, if anything had gone wrong during this mission, not only would I not be happy, but even Your Highness would not have a good look on my face. None of you could bear that responsibility."

Still with a cold expression, the white-robed woman sternly reprimanded the leader before reaching out and grabbing him by the collar, dragging him in front of Roy.

"Apologize to Ms. Roy and ask for her forgiveness."

"Yes... I'm sorry, Ms. Roy, I'm really sorry for what I did before... Please forgive me."

With a trembling voice, the leading girl spoke, her body shaking, while Roy waved his hands repeatedly and offered words of comfort to the girl in front of him.

It's alright, it's alright, everything is resolved now, you don't need to be so sad anymore... Haha, Your Highness, please calm down, I'm fine here, you don't need to be so harsh, please let these girls go.

As he said this, Roy stepped forward and separated Rosalind from the girls, easing the tense atmosphere slightly. He then reached out and embraced the girls behind her, leading them to a shady spot under a tree to rest.

"You all stay here and wait. I'll go and have a good talk with Her Majesty the High Priestess. Consider this a time for reflection. Don't do anything impulsive again, understand?"

"Yes, thank you." Faced with Roy's goodwill, the girls regained their composure and nodded slightly. Roy finally breathed a sigh of relief and slowly left from under the shade of the tree, preparing to continue her conversation with Rosalind.

"Your Holiness, the High Priestess, however, just as Roy turned around, he found that Rosalind had already left behind him, seemingly going to the carriage next to him to handle something."

Slightly narrowing his eyes, Luo Yi noticed that the white-robed lady seemed to have taken out something resembling a communication stone and was muttering something to her lips.

"Judging from her appearance, she must be on the phone with Prince Lius. It seems that the Pope was indeed the one he sought out... I didn't expect that he would actually bring her here. As expected of Prince Lius," she thought to herself. Before Roy could catch her breath, she suddenly realized something else.

"Wait a minute, Prince Lius said earlier that he would send more than one person. Now, apart from the Pope, those old Christians seem to have stopped making noise and disappeared from here. What happened?"

With these questions in mind, Roy slowly began to follow the trail of the old cultists, eventually arriving at a small sand dune not far from the camp, where he found a group of cultists gathered together.

"This is their gathering place. How did they suddenly come here? And it seems that one of them is from the National Government. Was he also someone invited by Prince Lius?"

With this thought in mind, Roy slowly squeezed into the crowd and kept moving forward until he finally squeezed to the very front of the crowd and saw the "person" in the very center of the crowd.

"Hmm? Seeing the current situation in the crowd, Luo Yi blinked, seemingly doubting her own eyesight for a moment. She then rubbed her eyes with her hand, and when she opened her eyes again, she stared at everything in front of her with a clearer eye, making herself more certain of what was happening. She saw that there was a 'person' standing in front of her."

More accurately, he was a person covered by bursts of transparent blue light.

This person's body outline is very obvious, and her figure is basically the same as Roy's. They are both mature women, but Roy's chest and long legs are more mature and have a more sophisticated and alluring feel. It is impossible to look away from this beautiful woman. Just looking at her is full of a unique kind of temptation.

But what shocked Luo Yi wasn't the beautiful woman's sexy figure, but her current state: "This is... a ghost, a possessed ghost!"

That's right, what's in front of Roy right now is a ghost, or more accurately, a "ghost" that appears in this reality through someone's body.

Roy knew that although the scene before him was astonishing, it was not unusual, because summoning souls was not uncommon in the kingdom. It was considered a high-level spell, and many high-ranking mages knew this technique.

To Roy's surprise, the state of the soul before him was not like the traditional way of summoning a dead person into someone's body to achieve temporary possession, but rather it appeared in this sand dune in a living state.

The soul before me now possesses a strong sense of activity, completely unrestrained or sluggish in the real world. There is only one possibility for this: the soul possessing this person is not a dead person, but a living person.

Or, to put it another way, at least her body was alive.

"This... could it be the Bishop of Notica that Prince Lius and I mentioned before?"

Such a thought flashed through Roy's mind, causing him to suddenly lower his eyes, momentarily startled. "Oh??? You are...?"

At the same time, the young woman in the light blue veil noticed Luo Yi's figure. After glancing down, she revealed a gentle smile, slowly approached Luo Yi, and gently touched him:

"Hello, Ms. Roy, is that right? I heard that Young Master Lius mentioned you before. It is a great honor to meet you today. My name is Nottica, and I am the bishop of this church. Today, I am here to meet everyone through possession. Please give me your guidance."

"Ah, Bishop Notica?" Upon hearing the veiled young woman's words, Roy glanced at her and revealed a slightly embarrassed smile, as if he felt that his initial state of shock had been a bit too much.

Faced with Nautica's gentle words, she was momentarily at a loss for words, and could only nod and smile in response with a greeting:

Hello Bishop Nottica, I am Luo Yi. I have heard a lot about you from Young Master Lisi before, but I never expected to meet you today... in this state. It is truly an amazing experience.

"Yes, life is so wonderful. I didn't plan to come here today, but I didn't expect such a sudden change to happen, which has caused Prince Rius a lot of headaches. I had no choice but to come here temporarily to ease the situation here a little."

"Is that so... As expected, Prince Leus is quite concerned about the situation here. Ha... I was a bit too worried earlier." She said this with a self-deprecating laugh, turning back to the ghostly bishop before her. Luo Yi felt a greater trust in her. "Bishop Notica, you were just about to continue your conversation with the veiled woman in front of you when another voice broke the atmosphere between the two of you:"

“Bishop Notica, may I also join your discussion?”

"Oh?" "Hmm?"

Upon hearing this, the two turned their heads simultaneously and saw Rosalind slowly approaching with a calm expression. "Hmm?" Faced with Rosalind's sudden words, Loy showed a hint of surprise, while Nottika, after a moment of stunned silence, maintained her standard smile, slightly bowing to the approaching white-robed woman and greeting her:

"Hello, Your Holiness, it's a pleasure to meet you. What brings you here? We have many things to ask about your church and about yourself."

"Really? But there might be many confidential matters involved that I can't fully disclose to you. Could you please allow me to keep some things from you..." No, whatever the questions, I must answer them; otherwise, this cooperation is off the table.

The pope's cold words instantly made the atmosphere tense again, and the believers around her turned their gazes to the white-robed woman, making no attempt to hide their hostility towards her.

"What?!" Meanwhile, facing this sudden change in the situation, Roy tensed up again, cold sweat trickling down her forehead as she stared at the two handsome men in front of her, inwardly screaming...

Chapter 260: Two Female Leaders (Part Two)

"Hmm? So, Your Holiness, you are unwilling to make any concessions?"

Looking at the white-robed woman in front of her, through the physical form formed by wisps of souls, Nottica took a step forward, still maintaining a calm smile, and asked the somewhat imposing female pope in front of her this question.

As for Rosalind, facing Nottica's counter-question, she maintained a serious demeanor, showing no intention of backing down. Instead, she spoke her mind even more firmly:

“That’s right. I’ve already said it, and I don’t want to repeat myself, that it’s fine to cooperate with you other sects in order to fight those cultists. But if we consider the potential threats involved, we must also have complete information about our allies before we can feel at ease and deal with the next steps. Isn’t that what you think, Bishop Notica?”

"According to our church's standards, these are indeed not things that absolutely cannot be revealed. However, as you just said, we cannot judge whether you have some more secretive purposes. If you learn about our church's internal information, will you also use it to do things that are detrimental to our church? We cannot estimate the consequences of such a thing, and we ask Your Holiness for your understanding."

As they spoke, neither side seemed willing to back down, and they simply looked at each other silently. The increasingly oppressive atmosphere around them added a sense of tension to the air.

"Well, you two," Roy said, stepping forward to mediate between them, maintaining a forced smile as he addressed Nottica and Rosalind.

"Haha... You two shouldn't be arguing like this. Didn't we just say we should calm the believers down and reduce conflict? Why are you two leaders starting to argue about these things?"

“The donation may be a source of distress for you, Ms. Loy, but it is absolutely necessary for our church and there can be no possibility of any deviation from it,” Rosalind replied coldly.

"We share the same sentiment. Ms. Roy, I'm so sorry to have caused you such a big problem on our first meeting..."

Nottica said the same thing, and although her tone was very calm, Roy could feel the unwavering determination within it.

All of this caused the female mage considerable distress. Finally, she clenched her fist, frowned, and looked at both sides, proactively offering her thoughts:

"Oh dear... this argument will go on forever. It's just internal intelligence, isn't it? Here's an idea: if you each share your own inside information, so that both sides get equal information, then the customer won't suffer any losses, right?"

"Hmm? Let's exchange intelligence?" Rosalind narrowed her eyes and repeated what Roy had said.

“That’s right. Just now, Bishop Notica was worried that leaking information would be detrimental to their church, right? In that case, Your Holiness, you should also inform Bishop Notica of some internal church information, so that she can also put her mind at ease and not focus on this kind of internal struggle all the time. Otherwise, it would be bad if others saw it, wouldn’t you say?”

With a pleading yet opportunistic look in her eyes, Roy glanced at the two women beside her, awaiting their response. Meanwhile, Nottica and Rosalind, faced with the young woman's suggestion, each displayed a thoughtful expression, seemingly considering the feasibility of the plan.

"If we're going to provide intelligence... what kind of intelligence do they want to know, and what kind of intelligence, even if leaked, won't affect the church's interests? These are things that are quite troublesome to consider."

"The Pope and the others don't seem to be very sincere. How can we be sure that the information they provide is accurate? If they decide to deceive or mislead us, we won't be able to get confirmation and answers immediately. If this causes any problems, it will be very unfavorable for our church."

The two sides muttered amongst themselves, seemingly not having much intention of implementing the proposal. Their gazes towards each other still held an unquestionable firmness, as if they were about to verbally reject the proposal and continue their unfinished debate.

"Hey... Your Holiness and Bishop Nottica, don't be so childish! There's a huge crisis waiting for us to resolve. Do you want to wait until things are arranged internally so that those cultists can succeed?"

Sensing their hesitation, Roy felt a rare surge of annoyance. He stepped forward, giving them a stern look and speaking sternly to them:

"Let alone between churches, if those cultists really succeed, the entire kingdom will be destroyed. All the faith you uphold will be wiped out, and the responsibility will fall entirely on your shoulders. Moreover, Prince Lius said before that he wanted you to cooperate well, but now this is the result."

Hmm? Lius.

Upon hearing the name, Nottica's eyes narrowed slightly. She was the first to react, recalling the figure of the blond boy. The previously confrontational expression on her face gradually softened, replaced by calmness and clarity.

Chapter 260: Two Female Leaders (Part Two)

"Hmm? So, Your Holiness, you are unwilling to make any concessions?"

Looking at the white-robed woman in front of her, through the physical form formed by wisps of souls, Nottica took a step forward, still maintaining a calm smile, and asked the somewhat imposing female pope in front of her this question.

As for Rosalind, facing Nottica's counter-question, she maintained a serious demeanor, showing no intention of backing down. Instead, she spoke her mind even more firmly:

“That’s right. I’ve already said it, and I don’t want to repeat myself, that it’s fine to cooperate with you other sects in order to fight those cultists. But if we consider the potential threats involved, we must also have complete information about our allies before we can feel at ease and deal with the next steps. Isn’t that what you think, Bishop Notica?”

"According to our church's standards, these are indeed not things that absolutely cannot be revealed. However, as you just said, we cannot judge whether you have some more secretive purposes. If you learn about our church's internal information, will you also use it to do things that are detrimental to our church? We cannot estimate the consequences of such a thing, and we ask Your Holiness for your understanding."

As they spoke, neither side seemed willing to back down, and they simply looked at each other silently. The increasingly oppressive atmosphere around them added a sense of tension to the air.

"Um, you two..." Faced with this situation, Roy quickly stepped forward, once again acting as a peacemaker, sandwiched between the two, maintaining a forced smile, and spoke to Nottica and Rosalind:

"Haha... You two shouldn't be arguing like this. Didn't we just say we should calm the believers down and reduce conflict? Why are you two leaders starting to argue about these things?"

“The donation may be a source of distress for you, Ms. Loy, but it is absolutely necessary for our church and there can be no possibility of any deviation from it,” Rosalind replied coldly.

“We share the same sentiment. I’m sorry, Ms. Roy, it’s our first meeting and we’ve already caused you such a big problem. Nottica said the same thing. Although her tone was very calm, Roy could feel the unwavering determination in her voice.”

All of this caused the female mage considerable distress. Finally, she clenched her fist, frowned, and looked at both sides, proactively offering her thoughts:

"Oh dear... this argument will go on forever. It's just internal intelligence, isn't it? Here's an idea: if you each share your own inside information, so that both sides get equal information, then the customer won't suffer any losses, right?"

"Hmm? Let's exchange intelligence?" Rosalind narrowed her eyes and repeated what Roy had said.

“That’s right. Just now, Bishop Notica was worried that leaking information would be detrimental to their church, right? In that case, Your Holiness, you should also inform Bishop Notica of some internal church information, so that she can also put her mind at ease and not focus on this kind of internal struggle all the time. Otherwise, it would be bad if others saw it, wouldn’t you say?”

With a pleading yet opportunistic look in her eyes, Roy glanced at the two women beside her, awaiting their response. Meanwhile, Nottica and Rosalind, faced with the young woman's suggestion, each displayed a thoughtful expression, seemingly considering the feasibility of the plan.

"If we're going to provide intelligence... what kind of intelligence do they want to know, and what kind of intelligence, even if leaked, won't affect the church's interests? These are things that are quite troublesome to consider."

"The Pope and the others don't seem to be very sincere. How can we be sure that the information they provide is accurate? If they decide to deceive or mislead us, we won't be able to get confirmation and answers immediately. If this causes any problems, it will be very unfavorable for our church."

The two sides muttered amongst themselves, seemingly not having much intention of implementing the proposal. Their gazes towards each other still held an unquestionable firmness, as if they were about to verbally reject the proposal and continue their unfinished debate.

"Hey... Your Holiness and Bishop Nottica, don't be so childish! There's a huge crisis waiting for us to resolve. Do you want to wait until things are arranged internally so that those cultists can succeed?"

Sensing their hesitation, Roy felt a rare surge of annoyance. He stepped forward, giving them a stern look and speaking sternly to them:

"Let alone between churches, if those cultists really succeed, the entire kingdom will be destroyed. All the faith you uphold will be wiped out, and the responsibility will fall entirely on your shoulders. Moreover, Prince Lius said before that he wanted you to cooperate well, but now this is the result."

Hmm? Lius.

Upon hearing the name, Nottica's eyes narrowed slightly. She was the first to react, recalling the figure of the blond boy. The previously confrontational expression on her face gradually softened, replaced by calmness and clarity.

“Ah. Yes, Prince Saint...Lius wanted us to cooperate, and he's made so many efforts outside to achieve this situation. If I were to let his efforts go to waste for the sake of the Church, it would be extremely disrespectful; I absolutely cannot do that.”

Muttering to herself, when she looked up again, Nautica's expression had returned to calm. She nodded slightly to Rosalind in front of her and stepped aside.

"If that's the case, then we are willing to reveal the information we have gathered within our church to you to the extent that we are able. However, please allow us to continue to conceal the core secrets of our church, as these are fundamental to our church's survival and should not be revealed in any way."

Faced with Roy's sudden change of heart, Roy, who was still speaking indignantly, was stunned and looked at Nautica with some surprise, seemingly astonished by her sudden change of heart.

As for Rosalind, sensing the words from Nottica, she gradually toned down her previously aggressive attitude. She thoughtfully surveyed the ghostly young woman with her gaze, finally nodding slowly. She then addressed her, "If Bishop Nottica is willing to step back, we are willing not to delve too deeply into the matter. As long as you can share with us the information you currently possess, the whereabouts of the cultists, and your understanding of the array's core, we are willing to share our church's internal intelligence. In this way, we can achieve mutual cooperation. Are you willing?"