Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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Luo Mi stood in the square in front of the Palace of Saints Angels, looking up at the hornless Red Horn Lord lying in front of him.
A collar formed of holy light appeared around the crimson dragon’s neck, and a pure white seal seeped from the collar, wrapping around the dragon’s body in the form of illusory chains.
Luo Mi glanced curiously at the Red Horn Lord’s bald head: “Where are your horns?”
When Anos fought against the Rose Lord and the Red Horn Lord, he cut off one of the Red Horn Lord’s dragon horns. What about the other one?
The dragon replied in a muffled voice, “It was cut off by a black winged creature.”
Luo Mi raised an eyebrow and looked at it with surprise: “You fought with Anos?”
On the morning before leaving the Demon Realm, the two Anos roughly explained the upcoming plan to him: the demon Anos would enter the Light Realm to find the Rose Lord, while the holy son Anos would deal with the Red Horn Lord.
Once Luo Mi had gathered the physiques of the three high-level lords, he could achieve a balance of power within his body and truly attempt to control the Scepter of Glory. From now on, whether he used the Great Prophecy or tried to contact the Eternal Fence located in the sun, the prerequisite was that Luo Mi himself remained safe enough.
The difficulty in finding the Rose Lord was that he was slippery and hard to catch. In contrast, dealing with the Red Horn Lord was much simpler, requiring only brute force.
Luo Mi thought that there would only be two outcomes if the Holy Son Anos went to see the Lord Red Horn: the Lord Red Horn would quickly submit to save his life, or the Lord Red Horn would be furious and be killed by the Holy Son.
The result was that they only cut off one horn?
The red dragon spat out a mouthful of sulfur into the sky before angrily saying, “I didn’t fight him! But he still cut off my horn!”
Luo Mi asked curiously, “Why?”
“He said it was for the safety of the Light Domain,” Lord Red Horn said aggrievedly. “He also said that my missing horn made me look asymmetrical and unattractive.”
“Pfft!” Luo Mi couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
So much time had passed that he had almost forgotten that the Holy Son had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
However, if it were the Holy Son of the past, he wouldn’t have cut off the dragon horns of the Red Horn Lord, whom he worshipped, just because of his obsessive-compulsive disorder. It was probably because after merging with the demon twice, his personality began to resonate with it.
Luo Mi recalled the incredibly synchronized rhythm and movements of the two people on the night before he left the Demon Realm, and couldn’t help but rub his temples.
He didn’t know if it was good or bad… He seemed to have forgotten to ask the system if it knew how to make Anos merge back into one… Luo Mi thought back for a moment and suddenly had a guess: Could it be that the secret that the God’s Heart was hiding was how to merge back into one?
He looked at Lord Redhorn: “Where did Anos go?”
The red dragon replied, “He asked me to tell you that he wants to forge something from my dragon horn and will come back to you later.”
Luo Mi stroked his chin and couldn’t help but ask again, “Your temper doesn’t seem to be that bad?”
“It used to be terrible.” Lord Red Horn raised his fingernail and nodded. “Because my horn was always in pain. Later, Rose helped me use vampire magic to isolate the pain from my horn, and it got much better. Now that the horn is gone, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Luo Mi pondered: It seems that Lord Red Horn’s horn must be something special, otherwise Anos wouldn’t have taken it away to do something.
He conjured a chair with his magic and sat down: “Do you have a name? How should I address you?”
The red dragon lay down, resting its chin on its two front paws: “Rose and the others have always called me Red Horn. I had a name when I was a baby dragon, but I’ve forgotten it. You… you can call me whatever you want.”
“Then let’s call you Red Horn.” Luo Mi didn’t seem to have any obsessive-compulsive tendencies. “I need a bit of your primordial power.”
“Blackwing told me.” Red Horn’s claw reached under its belly and pulled out a crimson scale, handing it to Luo Mi. “I sealed a portion of my primal power inside. Just grind it up and eat it when you need it.”
Luo Mi took the dragon scale, which was about the size of a pot lid, stared at it for a while, and asked hesitantly, “Is this scale afraid of water?”
Red Horn shook his head: “I’m not afraid of water, so of course my scales aren’t afraid either.”
Luo Mi breathed a sigh of relief and planned to wash the scales properly when he got back.
His gaze returned to Red Horn: “Since you acknowledge me as your master, I will give you your first task.”
Red Horn nervously propped up his neck.
Looking at the dragon that had been roaming in the Demon Realm for who knows how many years, Luo Mi slowly said, “Take a bath and clean yourself up— I’ll have a knight help you.”
….
After making arrangements for Red Horn, Luo Mi returned to the Papal Palace, where someone reported, “Your Majesty, an envoy from the Empire requests an audience.”
The envoy of the Empire… Luo Mi hesitated for a moment: “Please invite them to the Palace of Holy Angels.”
The empire had sent Prince Pearl to observe the ceremony, who was an old acquaintance of Luo Mi.
This time, Prince Pearl was not as casual and friendly as before. Instead, he stood properly in place, bowed, and then said, “Your Holiness, it’s been a long time.”
Seeing Pearl’s impeccable manners, Luo Mi sighed softly and pointed to the sofa in front of him: “Sit.”
After Prince Pearl sat down, Luo Mi asked, “What do you want with me?”
Pearl raised his lake-green eyes and looked at him quietly for a while before giving a wry smile: “Before coming to the Holy City, we wondered if Saint Anos I was the Holy Prince we knew. Now that we have met you, we are certain.”
Luo Mi did not speak.
Pearl’s gaze lingered on Luo Mi for a long time. “You… are Lian?”
Luo Mi did not deny it: “It is me.”
A flicker of shock crossed Pearl’s green eyes, which he quickly concealed. He then exhaled and asked, “Your Holiness, how do you view the Empire during your future reign as head of the Papacy?”
Asking about the new pope’s political leanings… Luo Mi pondered for a moment, then suddenly brought up another seemingly unrelated question: “Princess Charlotte didn’t come with you this time?”
Pearl’s eyelids twitched: “Charlotte is busy with political affairs and has no time to visit Your Majesty.”
Luo Mi deliberately said, “It seems that Charlotte is the heir favored by Her Majesty Caroline II.”
Pearl’s green eyes remained unmoved: “Indeed. Charlotte is more suited for that position than either Charlie or I.”
Pearl’s tone contained no resentment or jealousy, which made Luo Mi realize the underlying meaning: Caroline II had arranged the development of her children long ago, and the children had no objections whatsoever.
If that’s the case, why not just make Charlotte the crown princess? Why use Pearl as a smokescreen?
Luo Mi thought for a while and suddenly realized that he wasn’t seriously planning to do a good job as the pope, so why was he so concerned about the pope’s image? He immediately asked directly.
Pearl was clearly not used to such a direct style of conversation, and after a pause, he said tactfully, “There are many factions within the Empire, and His Majesty Saint Gregory III had secretly interfered in the past. Your Majesty needed some legitimate means to eliminate some of these factions.”
Betting on the heir to the throne to fail is a good way to go— provided that Pearl himself was willing to be the pawn.
Luo Mi couldn’t help but glance at him again.
Pearl seemed to relax a bit and laughed: “Her Majesty promised me that after announcing Charlotte as Crown Prince, she would allocate funds to build the largest mechanical research institute, and I would be in charge of it.”
Luo Mi pondered, “Is that why Prince Charlie is being prevented from going to the military?”
Pearl nodded: “After Her Majesty designates an heir, Charlie can join the army.”
After pondering for a moment, Luo Mi felt that Prince Pearl’s candid words indicated that his faction within the empire was already under Caroline II’s control and would likely be brought to an end soon— the Papacy had been in a state of leaderlessness recently, with the old pope being punished by God, then attacked by the Blackwing Lord, and the new pope disappearing for several days.
If Caroline II didn’t seize this time to do something, she won’t be the empress who single-handedly turned the empire around.
After a long pause, Luo Mi asked, “Do you all know Anos’s identity?”
Pearl’s smile faded, and he tapped his knee lightly with his fingers: “I know.”
Luo Mi stared into his green eyes: “If Anos had become Pope, was the Empire confident that it could keep Anos under its control?”
Pearl and Luo Mi looked at each other for a while before breaking into smiles: “Is Your Majesty speaking out for Anos?”
Luo Mi readily admitted, “Yes.”
Pearl smiled and leaned back on the sofa: “Your Majesty has met Charlotte and me. Do you think the relationships within the Pelant family are so cold?”
“Anos didn’t grow up with you,” Luo Mi shook her head. “Besides…”
“If Her Majesty intended to control His Highness the Holy Son, she wouldn’t have avoided contact with him all these years. It’s true that Her Majesty wants to use her relationship with the Holy Son to free the Empire from the Papacy’s control, but she has absolutely no intention of coercing or forcibly controlling him.” Pearl put away his smile and said frankly, “Although we didn’t grow up together, the fact that His Highness the Holy Son is our family remains unchanged— Bishop Thomas mentioned many things about the Holy Son in his letters to Her Majesty, and Her Majesty would occasionally share them with us and would also write back from a mother’s perspective, telling Bishop Thomas how to take care of young children… Of course, you might think I’m making excuses, after all, Her Majesty’s correspondence was burned immediately afterward.”
No, as long as Bishop Thomas wrote and read letters in the Holy City, he could find the historical scene with the Scepter of Glory. Luo Mi retorted inwardly.
Of course, he was inclined to believe that Pearl was telling the truth.
Seeing Luo Mi’s expression soften, Pearl also relaxed. He thought for a moment and asked, “Your Majesty, where is His Highness the Holy Son now? We wish to meet with him.”
Luo Mi hesitated for a moment before saying, “I will tell him.”
Pearl smiled with relief: “It seems he’s safe.”
Luo Mi continued, “As for your question, I can answer it right now: For a long time to come, the Holy See will be busy dealing with the apocalypse and has no intention of being in opposition to any principality— including the Empire. If the Empire is willing to assist the Holy See in working together to overcome the apocalypse, the Holy See can concede some benefits.”
Since it was the interests of the Papacy that were being ceded, Luo Mi made the promise without any psychological pressure.
This time, Pearl was genuinely surprised: “Is the end of the world coming?”
He frowned slightly as he looked at Luo Mi.
Luo Mi knew what he was doubting— in the past, whenever the apocalypse came, the Vatican didn’t need to do anything; they only needed to wait quietly. After all, God would descend at the end of the world, and nothing was safer than being God’s servants.
“This apocalypse is different from the last,” Luo Mi revealed slightly. “You can go back and discuss it with Queen Caroline II.”
Pearl nodded solemnly.
Before he left, Luo Mi suddenly added, “To demonstrate the sincerity of the Papacy, Bishop Thomas can leave the Papacy and return to his original identity.”
Pearl paused for a moment, not with surprise, but with an even more solemn expression— the Papacy was willing to give up so much, what would the Empire offer in exchange?
After pondering for a long time, he could only say, “On behalf of Her Majesty, I thank Your Majesty.”
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