Chapter 136
136: Not Giving Any Face at All
"Alright~ But before that, may I find someone first? Don't worry Harrison, it'll be quick~"
"Of course, Lady Saint. You don't need to concern yourself with my opinion on such matters."
"Who is Miss Jasmine looking for?"
"Hehe~ That's a secret for now~"
Jasmine playfully made a face. For some reason, her mood seemed much better than before. She even had the leisure to joke around with Evelia and the others.
But soon, Evelia and the others found out who that person Jasmine mentioned was.
"Little An An!?"
"Eh? Why is this child here? Shouldn't she have gone out to play with the other children under ten from the orphanage?"
That's right. The person Jasmine was looking for was precisely An An, the girl who admired Lina greatly. And the reason she appeared here, no need to think too hard. The child must have snuck away and hid in some room while the supervising teachers weren't paying attention.
"I'm sorry, Sister Evelia. An An is still scared to interact with other adults, so I hid in the closet when the adults weren't looking..."
An An looked shy and embarrassed, appearing quite adorable. But there was one thing Evelia wanted to complain about. Why did this child like hiding in cabinets so much? Was she a cat? She had hidden in a cabinet back in the Director's Office too, hadn't she?
"Wait, if An An was hiding in a cabinet, how did Miss Jasmine find her?"
Suddenly, our Miss Angel raised a question.
"It's simple. That's because... I was the one who helped little An An avoid her supervising teacher's sight and let her hide there~"
Goodness, so she was an accomplice too?
Evelia silently complained in her heart. Our dignified Demon Miss had somehow taken on the role of the straight man without realizing it!
"Um, Lady Saint, may I venture to ask a question? What exactly is your purpose in keeping this little girl here?"
Not everyone present knew about the dirty things Victor had done behind the scenes. For example, Harrison was completely in the dark about it.
"You'll know in a while, Harrison~ But before that, I need to confirm one more thing with you. That is, right now in the backyard, are there only Victor, Bishop Sauron, and the two from the Watchers? Are there any other unrelated people?"
"Eh? Of course. After all, the reason the Bishop and the others called you over is to discuss with you the possibility of further cooperation between the Watchers and the Church in the future. After all, you should already know about that Descent Faction business. The envoy sent by the elves was abducted in human territory. Not only did it make the elves very unhappy with us, it also caused both the Church and the Watchers to lose face completely."
"Therefore, both the Watchers and our people feel that continuing to be deadlocked like this isn't a solution. It's time to consider further cooperation. Wangyou City happens to be the crime scene, and you as the Saint happen to be here. So they plan to take advantage of this comfort activity to discuss the cooperation matters in advance and prepare for future formal negotiations."
"Hehe~ I understand~ In that case, since everyone will be family in the future, there's no need to ask those two gentlemen from the Watchers to step aside when we handle 'family matters' later. We might even need them to help out a little~"
"Family matters? What family matters? Does it have something to do with this little girl here?"
"Of course, it's some 'internal affairs' of our Church~ As for this little girl? Hehe, she's a very important 'witness'~"
"???"
……
In the backyard of the Christian Orphanage, Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze had been going back and forth with Bishop Sauron for quite a while.
This Bishop gentleman seemed to always wear a kind smile, but Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze both knew very well that this Archbishop of the Church was definitely not as kind as he appeared on the surface.
During just their casual chat earlier, this Bishop had set quite a few traps in his words. Everything he said seemed aimed at protecting the Church's interests. If Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze hadn't been on guard during their conversation, they might have already been led into a pit by this wily old fox.
"Ah... it really is the era of you young people now! We old folks have fallen a bit behind the times! If one day the existence of magic is made public, people would probably be more willing to join you Watchers than our Church, wouldn't they?"
"...Bishop, you flatter us. That situation would probably only happen in this country. After all, our atheist outlook is cultivated from childhood here. But abroad, as the world's largest religion, the Church would probably be much more popular than us."
"Is that so? Then this old man has a question he'd like to hear your thoughts on. I wonder if you two... would be willing to answer?"
"...Please ask, Bishop."
Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze glanced at each other. They both saw the hesitation in each other's eyes. Although they couldn't figure out what Sauron was really up to, proper etiquette still had to be maintained.
They just needed to be a bit more alert when answering.
"Alright then, I'll ask. What are your views on our Lord Yahweh? Or rather, deep in your hearts, do you two actually believe in our Lord's existence?"
When mentioning Yahweh, Sauron's eyes, which had become somewhat cloudy due to age, suddenly brightened. He stared intently at Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze, as if confirming something.
"This... Bishop, you should know that asking this question to the Watchers is meaningless. We are all firm atheists. We believe in humanity itself rather than ethereal deities."
After hesitating briefly, Mo Wuyou had expected Sauron to ask something more serious and formal. But he hadn't expected this. However, this saved him the time of thinking it over repeatedly. Because as he said, this question was meaningless to the Watchers. Their answer would always be one and only one.
"Is that so? What a pity. Even your Chief himself... never mind. That answer was expected anyway. Oh? It seems Lady Saint and the others have finally arrived? Gentlemen, the formal meeting begins now."
Hearing this, Mo Wuyou and the other subconsciously looked behind them. They saw Evelia and the others walking toward them, holding the hand of An An, who clearly looked out of place. And that little girl, who for some reason was here, was also staring intently at someone here.
……
Honestly, the moment she entered the backyard, Evelia noticed that An An, whom she was holding, kept staring at someone.
It was a skinny old man who looked about sixty-something. While Sauron talked with the two from the Watchers, he had been hiding in the back without saying a word, just eyeing the two Watchers furtively, heaven knows what he was calculating.
Needless to say, this had to be Victor.
Probably because she viewed him through colored glasses, Evelia thought this old man looked like a villain no matter how she looked at him. She felt an inexplicable disgust toward him rising in her heart.
Looking at An An beside her, her eyes looking at Victor were also full of complex emotions. There was fear and dread toward him, as well as disgust and alienation. Probably seeking security, Evelia felt this child kept pressing against her.
"Lady Saint, you've finally returned. Our meeting can officially begin... but who is this little girl beside Miss Evelia?"
Sauron walked over with a smile, and he also noticed An An being held by Evelia. He asked with some confusion.
At the same time, Victor's gaze swept over as well. Evelia noticed that when this wily old man saw An An, a trace of surprise and confusion flashed through his eyes too. But there was no sign of panic. It seemed this old fellow still didn't know what he was about to face!
"Bishop Sauron, this is An An, a child from the orphanage. The reason I brought her here today is because... before formally beginning the meeting with the two gentlemen from the Watchers, we still need to handle some internal affairs first~"
Jasmine smiled and gently patted An An's little head, while also casually glancing at Victor behind Sauron. Now that she had said this much, Victor, who had a guilty conscience, also felt a trace of unease. He subconsciously took a step back, but suddenly, as if sensing something, he whipped his head around.
Then he saw that Amya, who should have been stuck to Evelia's side, had somehow appeared behind him at some point. She was now casually playing with her hair as if nothing had happened.
A faint chill quietly rose in Victor's heart.
But for an old slicker like him who had climbed to this position, with so many years of experience, even knowing the atmosphere was somewhat off, he still maintained his composure.
He forced a smile and stepped forward two paces, pretending to be friendly as he said to Evelia:
"You must be that genius magician who recently joined our Church that Bishop Sauron mentioned? Please forgive me for being too busy earlier and not personally coming to greet you. I hope Lady Saint and Miss Evelia won't take offense."
"No need to apologize~ After all, I'm also a member of the Church now~ What's more... we still have a score to settle~"
"A score to settle?"
Seeing that Victor actually dared to take up the topic himself, the corner of Evelia's mouth curled slightly. She gave An An an encouraging hug and spoke to her in a gentle tone:
"Go ahead, An An. Say everything you want to say. Don't worry, sister is here. This wily old man can't do anything to you~"
Wily old man?
Victor's mouth twitched slightly. Evelia's words just now were not whispered at all. Everyone present heard them. This girl really had no intention of saving him any face at all!
More importantly, this child named An An... he had felt something was off about her a while back. He had planned to deal with her after the comfort activity passed. But looking at the situation now... she probably really had discovered something.
No, he couldn't let her speak!
Thinking of this, Victor's eyes narrowed slightly. He tried to slowly mobilize the magic power within his body. But the instant magic fluctuations appeared around him, a terrifying chill came from behind.
Victor hurriedly turned to look. He saw that Amya, who should have been playing with her hair behind him, had now drawn a cross-shaped longsword condensed from light-element magic power. She was casually slashing at the weeds beside her.
Victor: "..."
"I... I saw it! I saw the Director take Little Qiu and the others to a strange man wearing a black robe when no one was around at night! That strange man gave the Director a whole box of money!"
An An's words instantly caused an uproar. Mo Wuyou and Mo Ze immediately looked at Victor with shocked eyes mixed with some anger. Even Sauron beside them showed surprise in his eyes and turned to Victor with a serious expression.
"Victor, is what this child says true?"
"..."
Victor first fell silent, then quickly revealed a smile on his face. He coughed twice and said in an innocent tone, "Sigh, is that it! This child simply misunderstood me! At that time, I was just transferring those children who wanted to join the Church to an Executor who came to pick them up. As for that money, it was just subsidy funds sent by that Executor."
Damn! This old thing actually said that!
Evelia cursed inwardly at his cunning. But fortunately, they had anticipated this possibility when they came. Jasmine had also made full preparations for this. No matter what, this old thing wouldn't be able to escape today!
Sure enough, before Victor finished speaking, Jasmine spoke up slowly from the side.
"If they came to pick up children, why did it have to be in the middle of the night?"
"That's because Executors are busy with their duties, isn't it? That time just happened to be when that Executor had just finished a mission and stopped by to pick up the children on the way."
Victor answered Jasmine's question fluently. Clearly, he had long anticipated that this day might come and had prepared his wording in advance.
Under normal circumstances, even if Jasmine and the others still had doubts, investigating and gathering evidence would take several days. During this time, Victor, this former Bishop, could have slipped away many times.
After all, Victor was a former Bishop. Although his strength had declined greatly due to age, it wasn't like Jasmine and Sauron, who were stronger than him, could monitor him twenty-four hours a day. If they let their guard down even slightly during this period, Victor could seize the opportunity to flee.
This was probably why Victor was so confident.
But unfortunately, this time Victor was going to be disappointed.
Because he saw in horror that Jasmine was smiling as she pulled out a stack of documents from the small bag at her waist.
Even a fool knew what kind of documents would be produced in this situation.