Chapter 250 (2): Dragon Blood Ritual
Looking at her student’s pale face and the sad eyes under the glasses, Flora felt her heart clench. She had raised this girl to adulthood. Although she saw Ottilia as a tool and always disciplined her harshly, she was human, and humans could never avoid developing feelings.
She said hoarsely, “The Pope has been in trouble the past two days. To avoid giving the investigation team any leverage against him, you have to disappear for a while. You will no longer be a disciple of the church, and you alone must shoulder the blame for your deed.”
Deductions could be bold, but evidence was a must when giving a guilty verdict. Deduction without evidence to back it up would not be considered in court.
The Pope didn’t want to admit that he had arranged for Ottilia and Regina to attack Wayne, so he told Flora to take care of the mess, having the two shoulder the blame and disappear.
By disappear, he didn’t mean for them to leave Ostarrichi. That would be naive. He meant that they should leave the Chosen Land—to vanish physically. Moreover, the phoenix bloodline should be retrieved to cultivate the next Holy Maiden.
The Pope gave Flora a chance to prove her loyalty and work diligently rather than biting more than she could chew. She could only have what she was given; if something wasn’t given to her, there had to be a reason for that, and she shouldn’t grab for it.
The Pope appreciated Flora’s ambition. It was a good thing for people to have desires. He believed that Flora would realize how difficult it was to start a business after being independent for a while, learning to hide her ambition.
The higher-ups of the church monopolized power, so power could only be inherited rather than taken by any independent agent. As long as Flora worked hard, she would become an Oracle High Reverend one day; she might even become the Pope going forward.
Doesn’t the cake look nice and big? Why don’t you have a taste?
Flora did. It was dry, hard, and bitter, a difficult lie to swallow. Watching vitality gradually leak out of her student, her eyes burned with resentment.
She hated the church!
She hated the aloof and indifferent goddess, she hated the Pope for making her kill her student, she hated Silvia for working against her, and she hated Wayne for coming out of nowhere.