Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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To the left of St. Paul’s Cathedral was St. Paul’s Square. After crossing the square was the Palazzo Sant’Angelo, which was the residence of the Pope and important members of the Vatican, including the Son of God.
Compared to the distinctive and magnificent Gothic style of the cathedral, the layout of the Palazzo Sant’Angelo was much simpler and more low-key. The place where Anos lived was just like him, mainly simple. Apart from the common decorations in the Vatican, there were only some oil paintings.
Luo Mi’s room was next to Anos’s, and there was a door connecting the two rooms.
This made Luo Mi curious: “Why are the two bedrooms connected?”
Reinhardt pressed a button on the wall, and the chandelier on the ceiling lit up. “The light switch is here. That’s the bathroom…ah, it was used by His Highness to change beds when he was a child.”
“Why do you want to change the bed?”
Reinhardt’s expression showed a hint of smile. “Your Highness has a slight obsession with cleanliness, so after wetting the bed, he would never sleep in the same bed even if the mattress was changed. So, Your Majesty ordered someone to connect the two rooms so that Your Highness can have a clean bed to sleep in immediately after cleaning himself.”
Luo Mi looked at Reinhardt in shock: “Anos? Wetting the bed?”
If you think about it, it’s common for children to wet the bed, but he could never associate the word bedwetting with the holy, merciful, and compassionate angel on earth.
Luo Mi looked at the bed which was simple in style but obviously expensive, and had the illusion that it smelled of urine.
Reinhardt seemed to know what he was thinking, and he suppressed his laughter and said, “The beds here have been changed several times. You’d better not mention it to His Majesty, otherwise he will have a mysophobic reaction and refuse to sleep in the bed at night.”
Luo Mi gave him an “understanding” look.
After bringing Luo Mi here, Reinhardt went out to do other things, leaving Luo Mi alone waiting in the room.
Luo Mi was bored and curiously looked through the room assigned to him.
There were several sets of exquisitely crafted priest robes and casual clothes in the closet, but they were all too big for Luo Mi and were obviously Anos’s clothes.
In the cabinet, Luo Mi found a photo frame.
The photo frame contained a photo of a boy, a girl and a child. The child’s face was quite similar to Anos’s, but completely different from the two adults.
Luo Mi tried to identify them for a while and said, “Is this Anos and his parents when he was a child? They don’t look alike.”
He remembered that when Reinhardt introduced the Principality of Terry, he mentioned that the Principality of Terry was the place where the Son of God was born. This meant that Anos did have parents, but he didn’t know why they looked so different from him.
“These are my adoptive parents.”
Anos’ voice suddenly came from behind.
Luo Mi turned around and quickly put the photo down: “Sorry.”
Anos had already taken off his priest robe and smiled slightly, “Nothing, this is nothing private. They are ordinary people from the Principality of Terry. They found me as a baby in a pile of firewood and couldn’t bear to abandon me, so they raised me for many years. When I was five years old, His Majesty found me through the Great Prophecy.”
“Where are they now?”
“Life in the Principality of Terry is pretty good.” Anos said, “The Church did not publicly commend them because they were worried that it would cause trouble for them.”
Luo Mi understood and didn’t take it to heart, and asked casually: “Have you finished talking to the Pope?”
“Your Majesty should be added.” Anos emphasized before continuing, “On the Empire’s side, after all, Balk Sheen was at fault first, and we have enough evidence to put pressure on the Empire and gain concessions from His Majesty Caroline II – even if Grand Duke Krenzo is dissatisfied, he will have to accept it with a pinch of his nose.”
It was indeed a good thing for the Church. But Luo Mi felt that Anos didn’t seem very happy: “Do you think this is bad?”
Anos shook his head slightly: “The result is good. But I don’t like using these things as bargaining chips to fight for power with the nobles, as if their death is what the Church wants to see.”
Who knows… but Luo Mi didn’t say this: “What does His Holiness the Pope say?”
“Your Majesty said that the Holy See is also saddened by the innocent civilians who died. That is why it is trying to gather all power in the hands of God’s servants to avoid more tragedies.” Anos was silent for a moment, “Your Majesty has a point, but…”
Luo Mi added: “But the struggle for power often leads to a deeper round of tragedy. In a tug-of-war between two evenly matched people, the believer who is used as the rope is always the one who gets hurt the most.”
This was a precedent that had been repeated countless times in the struggle between religious and secular power in the history of the earth.
Things like the Witch Trial were just the parts that were highlighted.
Anos looked at Luo Mi steadily, seeming a little surprised that he could say such words.
After a long time, he sighed softly and said, “Perhaps only God can resolve these disputes.”
Luo Mi curled his lips and did not express his distrust of the god.
Anos talked about another matter, “As for the Pietist Faction, His Majesty has agreed that I can go to the Principality of Perd to meet with Archbishop Valentine, which can be held together with this year’s North-South Dialogue.”
During the Witch Trial, Anos gave two pious missionaries holy punishment. He would discuss the secular punishment with the leader of the Pietists in detail. Of course, Anos’s intention was to persuade the Pietists to give up the Witch Trial. After all, the victims were all innocent civilian women.
Luo Mi asked curiously: “What is the North-South Dialogue?”
After the Omega Empire separated into large and small principalities, they were both hostile to each other and helped each other, causing the situation in the south to appear somewhat chaotic. As an anti-secular sect, the Pietists did not interfere in secular politics and were able to stabilize the principalities.
Although the Pietists still nominally belonged to the Vatican, their taxation, administration, ideas, and thoughts were very different from those of the secular faction in the Empire, and they even had differences in the interpretation of the Bible.
In order to prove that they were right, the Pietists and the secularists had had many frictions in history. Until the current Pope took office, he formulated a strategy of “North-South Dialogue”: every year, each sect sent a team of priests to conduct doctrinal debates on fixed propositions, and other than that, try to avoid conflicts so as not to spoil the reputation of the church.
Finally, Anos said, “In the first few years, the scale was not large. Now, the North-South Dialogue has become a very important program in the Vatican. Often, when the dialogue of the previous year ends, preparations for the next year’s dialogue have already begun.”
Luo Mi nodded in understanding: “After you have a quarrel, you also can’t sleep and keep thinking about how you can perform better. I can’t wait to see it again. Do you also participate in the quarrel, no, debate?”
He couldn’t imagine someone as beautiful as Anos arguing with others until his face turned red.
Anos was amused and curled his lips: “Of course not. If you are interested in the North-South dialogue, you can go and watch it. I will visit Archbishop Valentine directly then.”
Luo Mi only wanted religious topics to help him fall asleep when he couldn’t sleep. So, he wagged his tail and said, “Of course I’ll go with you.”
The curve of Anos’ lips became more obvious, but he still said: “If you want to go out and play, don’t consider me…”
Luo Mi’s attention had turned to the Pope again: “So His Holiness is trying to reconcile the conflict between the two factions?”
Anos pursed his lips and said, “Your Majesty may hope to regain control of the Pietists Faction. This can be seen from the name Your Majesty chose.”
“Name? Saint Gregory III?”
Anos nodded: “Most popes in history would choose a name from the previous popes as their own. In a sense, this is to promote their own ideas and show that the person they are emulating is that person. Your Majesty emulates the previous pope, St. Gregory II, who was a typical monarchical pope. When he was at the peak of his power, he even controlled the power to appoint and dismiss most emperors of the empire and principalities.”
Luo Mi said “Oh wow” and had a deeper understanding of the kind-looking old man: “Your Holiness the Pope is very ambitious.”
Anos pulled the corners of his lips without a smile, and there was some worry in his blue eyes: “But even St. Gregory II encountered a lot of opposition in his later years because he was too radical and strong. Even the Vatican was divided. The Pietists were even born and became independent during that period.”
Luo Mi blinked: “If nothing unexpected happens, the next Pope will be you, right? What title do you plan to choose?”
When this was mentioned, Anos’ expression suddenly became a little shy. He gently made a cross on his chest and then hesitated and said, “To be honest… I haven’t thought about it yet. I don’t know how I should be a good son of God, let alone a pope.”
According to the original novel, he should be a “Pope” who destroyed the entire Vatican and completely destroyed this religious belief… Luo Mi complained in his heart and was about to prepare Anos mentally in advance when he heard the doorbell ring.
Anos looked towards the door: “Come in.”
Outside the door stood a middle-aged priest wearing a wrinkled robe, carrying two glasses of different sizes, and two bags.
He reluctantly raised his hand holding the bag and made the sign of the cross before asking, “I heard that there is a believer who is both God’s Chosen One and a sinless person, and who also has the characteristics of a succubus and a phantom and needs to be examined?”
Anos was stunned for a moment: “It’s Lian. You came so quickly?”
The priest hummed a few times in response, took out needles, syringes, stethoscopes, and even a set of knives from his bag, and came over expectantly: “Let me check it, don’t worry, it won’t hurt…”
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