Chapter 22
Chapter 22 – Saint? Witch?Cadina
In a certain room of the cathedral, a group of people wearing white ornate robes surrounded a round wooden table. They were holding a thick notebook and whispering about the internal affairs of the church. This was a routine weekly round table conference, attended by a number of great sages and the Pope himself, mainly to discuss the recent events within the church.
There was a plump old man sitting upright at the round table. I don’t know if it was because his eyes were too small and he was too fat, the excess fat was pressed against his eyelids so that he could only squint, he listened to the conversation in a dream-like state.
This bloated old man was the current pope of the Holy Light Church, St. George Washington.
“The meeting is over, you can leave, I will report this year’s specific data to the Pope.” A well-trained, lean middle-aged man stood up and made the concluding remarks.
“Then, Bellco great sage, we’ll leave the rest to you.”
“May the blessing of the G.o.ddess of light be with you, Bellco great sage.”
Everyone got up and politely said goodbye to him and then left the room in an orderly manner.
Soon, there were only two people in the room, Pope St. George and Great Sage Bellco.
“Pope, please listen carefully.” Bellco spread out a thick notepad and began to read from it.
The emphasis of his speech was as rigid as his looks, his face and chin were somewhat long. Based on Earth standards, it would be a qualified shoehorn face. His body was thin, even two Bellco added together won’t be as big as the Pope.
And so, the boring report began.
“This year, the number of nuns we recruited increased by 5.3%, up 2.8% from last year. The number of believers increased by 1.5%, down 0.2% from the same period last year. This phenomenon was somewhat abnormal, the number of recruits has never decreased in the past five years. We preliminarily speculated that the reason for the decline was because…”
This data was painstakingly counted by the nuns and believers. Although it was boring work, it was extremely important. It was
crucial to the future development of the church. However, Pope St. George did not seem to be interested. He was resting his chin in one hand and looked like he fell asleep.
“Pope St. George? Pope, are you listening?”
Hearing his questioning, St. George with his round face and double chin, suddenly woke up. He incoherently shouted: “Ah… ah? I’m listening, I’m listening, increased, decreased, oh… decreased is not good…not good.”
Bellco had a helpless look.
“Pope, please be serious!”
Although he should not say that with his status, but their Pope was just too lazy – it was not only during the routine Great Sage round table conference, he even slept during the 11 Saints meeting. He did not have any self-awareness as the highest leader of the Holy Light Church.
Just now, as Bellco was reporting important work to him, not only did he not listen, he actually fell asleep right in front of Bellco!
“Sigh, even if you say that, I can’t help it. You guys are enough to handle those trifling matters. I’m already old and I can’t think as well anymore.” St. George smiled and didn’t care about the other’s criticism.
“Sigh, if the Pope says so…” Bellco sighed again.
As for this Pope who doesn’t do anything, they are actually already used to it. During his ten-year tenure, Pope St. George rarely interfered with the affairs of the church. All the daily affairs were handed over to the great sages. The decision-making powers for major issues were also handed over to the 11 Saint Congregation, he delegated to the maximum. He didn’t do anything himself and doesn’t look at anything. He took a laissez-faire att.i.tude and he was someone who told others to do stuff but didn’t do anything himself.
His style has always been denounced. Many of the great sages think that he does not deserve to continue to serve as the pope. Unexpectedly, he has never caused any problems all this time, time elapsed serenely, and in a blink of an eye, his position as pope became more steady and he even got a cute t.i.tle.
The only official mascot of the Holy Light Church —— Pope St. George Washington.
Since the
the Pope was too lazy to listen, Bellco simply closed the thick notebook and ended the tedious report.
“But Pope, there’s still one important thing that I have to report.”
“Un…what?” the Pope rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked dazedly.
“Regarding the recent serial killings in the southern part of Lombard Kingdom.” Bellco said sternly, “The latest news was that the murderer sneaked into West Wind Town last night and killed two local soldiers in an inn!”
“Oh…wasn’t it just a few people who died, you don’t have to report such a trivial matter to me, right?” Even if Pope St. George heard news regarding human deaths, he was still drowsy and unfazed.
“Pope, this isn’t a normal murder case! According to our preliminary investigation, the murderer in this incident isn’t human!”
“Oh?” Hearing this, the Pope finally lifted his eyelids and put up some enthusiasm. “Not human, so is it high-level demons?”
“We’re still not sure. There were two victims in West Wind Town, one suffered a huge impact and died, the head was flattened, and the other was dismembered, the body was cut into multiple pieces with a sharp weapon. In addition, I don’t know why but the ceiling of the room was deformed and there was a huge paw print on the wall. It seemed to be left by some kind of animal. Some witnesses said that there was a huge black monster on the scene, which was very similar in appearance to a cat. According to the testimony of the inn owner, the two soldiers brought a strange girl before the incident happened.”
“Hmm… black monster, cats, scratches, strange girl… could it be a red-eyes black cat?” Leaning on his cheeks for too long, St. George ma.s.saged his chubby face and asked perplexedly, “In demon society, aren’t the red-eyes black cat in the aristocratic cla.s.s? Why would they leave the Forest of the End and go to West Wind Town to kill people?”
“I’m not sure, we’re still investigating the specifics.”
“Then in this case, Great Sage Bellco, I’m counting on you for this.” St. George squinted and smiled, he then leaned his head against the back of the chair without regard to his posture.
In
his posture.
In such an important case, the Pope did not even ponder or ask any more questions, he just directly pa.s.sed the investigation authority right to him —— Bellco was extremely uncomfortable, he did not know whether this was because the Pope trusted him, or because the Pope was simply too lazy to take care of this matter.
Looking at St. George’s saliva flowing from the corner of his mouth because he was asleep for too long, the Great Sage Bellco, who rarely got angry, had the urge to go and beat up the lazy old man.
Why couldn’t he have more vigor?
“Okay Pope, I’ll investigate thoroughly.”
Bellco couldn’t actually hit someone, so he could only turn and leave. Just as he got to the door, he was stopped.
“Oh, right. Is the ‘Saint Selection’ already over?” St. George asked casually.
It’s already over, Pope.”
“How about it, did she pa.s.s the Saint Selection?”
“She?” Bellco hesitated for a moment and replied. “Pope, when you say ‘she’, are you referring to the ‘Snow Witch’?”
“Hehe, even you know her nickname, she really hates being addressed like that, though.”
“I think that this nickname suits her very well.” Bellco replied seriously. “Several days ago, she captured a demon spy near West Wind Town, did a great service, and with that successfully pa.s.sed the “Saint Selection”. She became the youngest “Saint” of the church in the last hundred years. Although I don’t want to admit it, the G.o.ddess of light favors her a lot. ”
She is clearly a pure and innocent “saint”, yet she had a nickname of “Snow Witch”. What is even stranger is that neither of these two people felt it was abnormal.
“I also like that child a lot. If she can get the approval of the G.o.ddess, it’s definitely a good thing for the church.”
“Pope, I think your praise for her is too high. Whether she’s good or bad, I still think it’s too early to decide.”
“Is that so? Heh heh.”
With all this in mind, St. George ended the conversation with a chuckle and Bellco discreetly retreated.
However, after repeatedly thinking about St. George’s question, Bellco suddenly hesitated. The Pope would not ask him such a trivial question fortrivial question for no reason, even if he really wanted to know about what’s happening with that woman, he would not have needed to specifically mention her?
The youngest saint in a hundred years… Could it be that the Pope mentioned her to hint about something?
Bellco had a conjecture.
“Pope, do you think that we should hand the current West Wind Town murder case to that woman?”
“Handing it over to her is rather appropriate, after all, she is already a ‘Saint’…Pope?”
Bellco originally thought that the Pope was interested in a.s.signing that woman to investigate, but he did not expect St. George to ignore him and doze off in his seat.
Huuuu…Huuuu…
Did he actually fall asleep in that amount of time!?
“Pope!” Bellco slightly raised his voice, “According to you, should she be in charge of this investigation?”
“Ah?” he was awakened from his dreams and turned his body, he mumbled discontentedly, “Mmm…investigate…go investigate…you go investigate…do whatever you like.”
Huuuu, huuu.
His snoring got louder.
“That…” Bellco had a headache.
Do whatever he wants —— what does that mean? Does the Pope want that woman to go or not?
He couldn’t come to an answer no matter how much he thought about it, there was only a snoring sound getting louder and louder next to Bellco.
“Alright then, I’m going!” the Great Sage Bellco left in a fit.
“Ah, you’re going? Take care Great Sage…May the blessing of the G.o.ddess…be with you!” St. George sleepily said the conventional farewells.
The round table conference was completely over, all the Great Sages left and St. George lost the reason to continue to sleep. He couldn’t even sleep properly wearing the uncomfortable slim-fitting robes, so he decided to go back to his bedroom and happily lie down.
“The red-eyes black cat who infiltrated into West Wind Town…” When Bellco asked him, he deliberately pretended to fall asleep.
He did intend to send the new saint to investigate the matter, but this order should never come directly from him, he has to let Bellco comprehend it by himself.
This was St. George’s doctrine —— no instructions, no orders.
Be a good mascot of the church.
“Sigh, but it seems like something big is going to happen this year… please don’t let it become chaotic.”