Volume 6, Chapter 16 – His Holiness the Pope

After comforting Andrea, Yisi sat back down on the sofa.

“Didn’t you say you only had one purpose for calling me here?”

“That’s right, but that was my initial thought. After Andrea arrived, I changed my mind.”

Yisi didn’t ask, quietly waiting for Evelyn to continue.

Evelyn’s gaze was fixed on Andrea. The white and gold-trimmed long dress she wore stood in stark contrast to the night-colored formal dress Andrea wore, as if a person in the light was confronting a person representing the darkness.

“Alvier VII, I think we should have a lot to talk about. But before that, we have a common problem. Do you still have the soul-linking necklace?”

“Eh? The necklace?”

Andrea paused. Yisi’s heart involuntarily tightened. She wasn’t ready to show her hand to Evelyn yet; unlike Andrea, she was a cunning woman.

But just as Yisi thought Andrea would subconsciously look at her, Andrea simply answered Evelyn with the proper posture of a queen.

“It was stolen several months ago by an unidentified person. His identity has not been found to this day.”

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During the conversation, Andrea deliberately used the masculine ‘he’.

Evelyn’s brows furrowed together. She pinched her lower lip, a thoughtful look flashing in her long, narrow eyes.

“Yours was stolen too? The people I sent out really didn’t lie to me… What was that person’s purpose in stealing the necklaces? Besides allowing us to communicate with each other’s souls, the necklaces have no other function. I originally thought he stole the necklace to control the Blood Clan through you. After all, after he stole the necklace, the Blood Clan Queen suddenly became assertive. The timing was too coincidental. But now that I see you in person, this speculation falls apart. Although I have never spoken to you face-to-face, I can more or less guess your personality and style from how those around you treat you.”

Phew.

As if a great weight had been lifted, Yisi quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Although she knew Andrea would not betray her, the pressure of the environment made one’s nerves tense up involuntarily.

Andrea has also grown into an adult who can lie without batting an eye.

I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Yisi couldn’t help but smile wryly in her heart. Whether good or bad, this was all her own doing.

“Perhaps for research? Those necklaces might have a function we don’t know about, which can only be triggered under specific conditions.”

“If you don’t know, then it’s even more impossible for me to know. That person’s strength is almost godlike. The church spent a great deal of effort to seal off the news. The outside world still doesn’t know about this matter. Well, for the church, this matter is considered settled, but the impact on me has not been eliminated to this day, and probably won’t be in the future.”

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“What do you mean by that?”

“What else could it mean.” Evelyn shrugged. “Without the necklace, I can no longer use your appearance to do what I like. This was a rare and interesting experience in my life. I could freely give orders to my subordinates, and no one dared to say anything against me. Not only that, but I could also wrestle with nobles who were just as sharp-witted at the council table. What’s more interesting than fully displaying one’s talents? Since the necklace disappeared, I have been bored for several months, doing the same repetitive things every day, only being able to deal with the blind—only being able to deal with those believers. Nothing is more demotivating than this.”

Hey, you were about to say believers who blindly worship you, weren’t you!

Yisi couldn’t help but complain in her heart. Evelyn was nothing like a devout believer.

Tilting her head slightly, her pink shoulder-length pigtails swayed. Andrea’s expression revealed a hint of nostalgia, but more of a wry smile.

“You and I should have switched places. Our respective gods must have mistaken our birthplaces. The time I spent guiding believers for you was my happiest.”

“I can’t understand that. But it’s also because of this that we were able to openly swap souls, right? If the Blood Clan knew that they were once ruled by the next Pope of the Ymir Church, it would definitely be in chaos.”

With great emotion, Evelyn leaned back on the sofa and laughed. A look of relaxation appeared on the face of someone who was seemingly always calculating others. To her, Andrea must be a one-of-a-kind conversation partner, perhaps even the most intimate person. Yisi could glimpse her inner thoughts from Evelyn’s expression. With Andrea as her conversation partner, she neither had to worry about exposing her past nor did she need to second-guess the other’s motives, because what needed to be known was already known through swapping identities. They each buried the other’s secrets in their hearts, not revealing them to the world.

Andrea also smiled. Compared to Evelyn’s uninhibited relaxation, Andrea’s was a bit more reserved and demure.

“It would be the same for the church. The next Pope who guides the believers is actually the queen of their nemesis, the Blood Clan. If this were to be made public, the foundation of the church in the human world would be shaken.”

“Well, that’s how it is. I swear, if I can find the guy who stole our necklaces, I’ll definitely go and beat him up. That guy ruined my plans for the future. I had originally planned to live my whole life using the identity of the Blood Clan Queen.”

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A jolt went through her heart. Yisi inconspicuously rubbed her hands together and took out some dessert from her inventory, having Mary place it on the table.

Andrea shook her head.

“Even if that person hadn’t stolen the necklace, I would not have let the soul-swapping continue. As you can see, I am no longer that weak queen. To be honest, I only recently understood that your appearance hindered my original growth.”

“Do you hate me? I’ve long thought that I would hinder your growth, but as long as we kept swapping identities, we wouldn’t have any problems, so I never mentioned it to you.”

“Even if you had told me, I wouldn’t have listened back then. In fact, I’m very grateful to you, Evelyn.”

“Because it allowed you to meet this pervert?”

Evelyn gestured towards Yisi with her chin.

Andrea smiled sweetly, neither confirming nor denying.

“You guess.”

Unknowingly, Yisi felt as if the two of them had finally let go of something. It was an existence that could only be understood intuitively, not expressed in words.

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Letting out a soft breath, Evelyn stood up and straightened her clothes.

“I’ve said what I wanted to say. If we continue, we’ll just be chatting about embarrassing things that happened when we swapped identities. I don’t know when those old fossils will be back. Although I don’t know how you snuck in here, I think it must have taken a lot of effort. If you don’t leave soon and are discovered by others, even I won’t be able to protect you.”

Andrea was still wearing the traditional attire of the Blood Clan, her vampire wings directly exposed.

“Mm, goodbye,” Andrea nodded and looked up at Yisi with her lovely golden eyes, full of expectation, “Lady Yisi, can I go and see the place you’re staying at now? The l-laundry and cleaning… I think… should be done by me.”

“Of course.”

Finally able to leave, Yisi agreed to Andrea without hesitation. But just then, a rhythmic knock suddenly came from outside the room.

“Lady Evelyn, His Holiness Julius has returned.”

Julius?

Yisi called up the Omniscient Map, which she had been ignoring while listening to the conversation. Outside the door, besides a person who was presumably a nun, stood a person named Julius Fafnir Ymir Harry. Yisi remembered that this was the ‘old fossil’ Evelyn had mentioned, the 23rd Pope of the Ymir Church.

Now, the white-haired old man had already set one foot into the room.