Gabriel Imperial Capital, Gabriels City, Imperial Harem, the central area of the Star Dust Palace, Empress Deborah the Fifth’s sleeping quarters, on the third floor of Star Rain Palace…
Bella was secretly meeting with Empress Deborah the Fifth. The Darkness Church people on the second floor were already fighting with Kriss, and the battle was very fierce.
Empress Deborah the Fifth’s bedroom was big, much larger than those of Kriss and the other princesses. The bedroom’s furnishing was luxurious and elegant. One could see all kinds of pearls and jewels everywhere. Apparently, the Empress liked to collect pearls and jewels. Her taste was on display through the collections in her bedroom.
After Bella entered the palace, she saw Empress Deborah the Fifth sitting near a tea table. The two cups of tea seemed to have just been brewed; steam could be seen rising from the cups. Empress Deborah the Fifth was wearing black pajamas embroidered with phoenix and black roses.
The neckline of Empress Deborah the Fifth wasn’t buttoned, her enticing breasts laying completely bare before Bella’s eyes. However, she quickly glanced at Empress Deborah the Fifth and confirmed that her previous speculation was correct; she was indeed a fake Empress.
“Duchess Bellina, you’re here early, even before the tea is ready!”
“You better call me Bella. And remove this Duchess. Let alone, you are not the Empress!”
“Your Excellency Bella, what are you saying? I don’t understand you. I am the Empress…”
“Since you don’t wanna admit it, then forget it. My time is precious; I don’t have the time to play games with little girls. Also, can you find a married actor next time!? You haven’t experienced any personnel affairs yet; how can you be an Empress?”
“I am the real Empress. Don’t talk nonsense or…”
“Real Empress, I don’t believe it unless you can disrobe yourself. I can see that you are a girl who hasn’t experienced any personal affairs.”
The fake Empress Deborah the Fifth’s countenance became quite complicated. She was confident that she had reached the epitome of her disguise technique. Even Emperor Alfred the Third was deceived by her. Who knew that Bell would tear through her disguise as soon as they met? Although her method of verifying was quite perverted and evil, it was highly effective. She really didn’t dare to take her clothes off.
All those veterans of sex could easily see through the difference between a married woman and a girl. Although Bella was only a girl, according to the information secretly collected by the Darkness Church, Bella and the many beautiful girls had always maintained a relationship that had surpassed the boundaries of a normal friendship. The fake Empress Deborah the Fifth didn’t dare to take off her clothes. The only part she had disguised was her face. Her body was still that of a girl, so she would be seen through in one glance.
Bella ignored the dazed fake Empress Deborah the Fifth. She was giving her more latitude now to tighten the leash later. She found no signs of anyone in the Empress’s bedroom. The fake Empress Deborah the Fifth hadn’t hidden people to ambush her. Apparently, she still had basic sincerity to have secret talks with Bella. However, she just didn’t fancy calling a beautiful virgin girl Empress. So, she was solving the disguise in advance. She was too lazy to cooperate with her play.
“Alright, Your Excellency Bella, I will not act anymore. Can you stay and talk with me?”
“That’s better. Your voice is very nice, and you’re beautiful to boot. Why are you deliberately imitating a woman!? You are not that old yet!”
“Don’t try to lecture me; you are not my old man. Hurry and take a seat. It’s better to drink tea sitting down.”
The fake Empress Deborah the Fifth finally undid her disguise. She reached out to her face and removed something like a human skin mask. Her long golden hair was a wig as well. The original color of her hair was jet-black. This was completely different from traditional magical disguise techniques. This beautiful girl had only used disguising magic on her eyes, imitating the color of her pupil.
Apart from her eyes, the other part of this beautiful girl’s face was disguised using special masks. This kind of technique was much better than those that relied on magic. Relatively speaking, this person’s disguise was very professional. She had used fake hair and a fake mask. If she had just worked a little on her body, she might even have fooled Bella.
After the girl completely removed her disguise, Bella finally got to see the true face of the fake Empress Deborah the Fifth. She was a gorgeous girl with long, silky black hair and dark-blue pupils. She might look cold and detached, but surprisingly, her personality was the complete opposite of her appearance. She belonged to the type that looked quiet on the outside but was actually enthusiastic.
After the disguise was lifted, the expression of this beauty became more natural. She enthusiastically gestured to Bella to take a seat and then brought out a lot of delicious desserts. All the negative feelings due to the recent confrontation between the two were washed away at this moment. The two were talking face-to-face and drinking tea like two best friends who had reunited after many years.
“Your Excellency Bella, how did you see through my disguise? Even those oldies of the Hilikas family didn’t notice it. Are you better than them!?”
“This is my secret. I can’t tell it to outsiders. I hope Your Excellency Lisnell can understand it.”
“You actually know my name, Bella. Was it Liz or Livina? Really, how can they tell the secrets of the church to outsiders! That’s…”
The beautiful black-haired girl was the successor of Darkness Church Pope. She was similar to President Maria, who was the Radiant Church Pope’s successor. Both were designated as the successor of the Pope. Bella had learned the name of the Darkness Church successor from Liv and Livina, the two Dark Holy Maidens of the Darkness Church.
Liz and Livina didn’t elaborate on what Lisnell, the Dark Pope successor, was like. They only informed Bella of her name. She just guessed the rest through the process of elimination. The conflict between the Goddess of Darkness Faction and Demon King Faction of the Darkness Faction was becoming increasingly fierce.
The remaining Darkness Church Holy Maidens belonged to the Goddess of Darkness Faction. They were busy confronting the other two Darkness Church Holy Maidens of the Demon King Faction. Since Liz and Livina couldn’t make an appearance in this Star Rain Palace, Bella had only two options to guess from, the Darkness Church Pope’s successor or the Demonic Swordsman of the Darkness Church.
Bella happened to have seen the Demonic Swordsman’s silhouette in the underground space of the Kerklav Academy. Judging by the height of the beautiful girl standing before Bella, the possibility of her being the Demonic Swordsman was ruled out. And for the purpose of bluffing, Bella was deliberately pretending that everything was clear to her.
The most crucial piece of evidence that settled her identity was the inverted cross necklace by Lisnell’s neck. She forgot to button her collar when she was pretending to be Empress Deborah the Fifth, and Bella saw it hanging on the chest.
The shape of the cross was exactly the same as that worn by President Maria, the Radiant Church’s successor, except that it was upside down.
After all, the Darkness Church had split from the Radiant Church a long time ago. As they were too lazy to innovate their own stuff, many things of the Darkness Church were copied from the Radiant Church, such as dying the cross from gold to black and placing it upside down. Furthermore, the cross dedicated to the successor of the pope was an exact replica of the Radiant Church’s. The only difference was that the direction of the cross was reversed.
Lisnell didn’t know that Bella had just guessed correctly. She mistakenly thought that the two Darkness Church Holy Maidens of the Demon King Faction, Liz and Livina, had sold her out. But in fact, Bella didn’t have a clear idea. She was only making a bluff. Lisnell automatically withdrew her psychological defenses against Bella when she came to believe that she knew everything; Linell didn’t hide anything.
Bella, after confirming that Lisnell was deceived by her, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Lisnell, the successor of the Dark Pope, was said to be as powerful as the successor of the Radiant Pope, Sister Maria, one of the student council presidents. Bella was afraid of resulting trouble if they fought. She could feel the dark attribute god race aura on Lisnell. God knew how Lisnell did it.
Bella speculated that the source of dark god energy came from the legendary Goddess of Darkness. Even President Maria, the successor of Radiant Church Pope, had failed to gain the power of the Goddess of Light. Much to Bella’s surprise, Lisnell came to possess the power of the Goddess of Darkness.
In order to exploit this information in the future, Bella didn’t point out the Goddess of Darkness to Lisnell. She didn’t take the initiative to ask questions either, giving the impression that she knew everything. She had found something unexpected on Lisnell, though. The ring worn on Lisnell’s right index finger was the status symbol of the Kristoff Empire’s royal family.
Bella had seen a similar ring on Princess Annie’s finger, who had already been pushed down by her. The relationship between Lisnell and the Kristoff Empire wasn’t good for the time being, but Bella confirmed that the headquarters of the Darkness Church was located in the west of the Human Continent.
Because Lisnell just pretended to be the Gabriel Empire’s Empress Deborah the Fifth, Bella didn’t rule out that she might also be pretending to be a member of the Kristoff Empire. However, she didn’t delve on this clue for the moment, just making a note of it for now.
The real Empress Deborah the Fifth had been imprisoned by the Darkness Church. As for where, Lisnell didn’t reveal it. As it turned out, the Darkness Church was cooperating with Prince Cruz, who was in exile, intending to help him seize the throne. Prince Cruz was the illegitimate son of Emperor Alfred the Third born out of a romantic fling when he traveled outside incognito in his younger days.
After the fling was over, Emperor Alfred the Third gave the woman a hefty sum and left. Who knew that the woman would choose to give birth in order to obtain better benefits. When the Emperor came to know about this, the child was already a few years old.
The Emperor asked someone to hire assassins to deal with the matter. However, the assassins failed; they were only able to kill the woman. They couldn’t find the illegitimate prince who was sent away in advance. In the end, they just bought a kid and killed him in-exchange.
Later, Cruz wanted to take revenge and seize the throne, so he chose to cooperate with the Darkness Church. According to the original plan, the Darkness Church would kill Emperor Alfred the Third, which would then trigger a war between the princes and three major families for the throne. Once the four forces mutually injured each other, the Darkness Church would use the fake Empress Deborah the Fifth to announce a forged emperor’s edict and hand over the throne to the exiled Prince Cruz.
However, many times, the plan could never keep up with the changing variables. By chance, Lisnell recently discovered that Prince Cruz was tricking the Darkness Church and had cooperations with other unknown forces in secret. This information made the Darkness Church a little suspicious of Prince Cruz, who most likely didn’t want to be a puppet under the Darkness Church’s control.
Emperor!
Ever since the Darkness Church learned of this, they had been looking for new partners. Bella, the Southern Alliance leader, was outrageously strong, far more powerful than the four major forces stationed near the capital.
The most deceptive point was Bella’s gender. So far, there had not been a woman rebelling and overthrowing the Emperor on the human continent. Many people knew that Bella’s forces were massive, but they never believed that she would rebel.
The cooperative remuneration offered by the Darkness Church was to abolish the political marriage arranged by Emperor Alfred the Third for Princess Kriss in the name of fake Empress Deborah the Fifth. At the same time, they were also willing to pay a huge sum to Bella.
This was mainly to prevent Prince Cruz from abandoning the Darkness Church in the middle. The Darkness Church could ask Bella’s forces to intervene and suppress Prince Cruz. When they worked with Prince Cruz before, they had deliberately concealed their plan to replace Empress Deborah the Fifth. They only revealed their scheme of killing Emperor Alfred the Third.
Prince Cruz had no idea about the imprisonment of Empress Deborah the Fifth. When the time came, the Darkness Church would announce that Prince Cruz was rebellious by using the name of Empress Deborah the Fifth and invite Bella’s forces to intervene; it wouldn’t be hard to get rid of Prince Cruz then.
“Your Excellency Bella, do you have any request. We can negotiate again.”
“No, the conditions you gave me are very good, but I refuse. Let’s end our chat here. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your impersonation of Empress Deborah the Fifth.”
Bella declined Lisnell’s invitation to cooperate as the payment was too low. If Lisnell added herself to the remuneration, Bella would probably consider working with her. Moreover, the Darkness Church wasn’t being completely honest with her. They didn’t even want to tell her why they wanted to control the Gabriel Empire.
Seeing Bella about to leave, Lisnell had no choice but to resort to the worst, pressing the button under the table in front of her seat. She wanted to notify the Demonic Swordsman, who was lying in ambush with her team downstairs, to come up and capture Bella. They could make her agree to their request later.
But even when Bella had walked out of the palace gates, the Demonic Swordsman and her team of Darkness Church elites didn’t come. This embarrassed Lisnell very much. The Demonic Swordsman had always done things with force, and she never dawdled. God knew what she was doing this time. The Demonic Swordsman and the group of Darkness Church elites had long entered the second floor, locked in a fierce fight with Kriss and her men. She had no time to pay attention to the signal sent by Lisnell, who was on the third floor.
When Bella came to the reception hall on the second floor, she saw Kriss waving her long sword like she was dancing. The Demonic Swordsman of the Darkness Church could no longer be seen. The ground was littered with ripped pieces of black cloth, belonging to the large number of Darkness Church’s Dark Warriors and Assassins, who had been defeated by the Demon Sword Shadows conjured by Kriss.
These Dark Warriors and Dark Assassins of the Darkness Church were all beautiful girls. Because of the scent of Paradise Bird Poisonous Flower proliferating the Star Dust Palace, the Darkness Church could not send their male disciples here. They could only make do with their female disciples.
The beautiful maidens of the Darkness Church weren’t injured. Only their black outfits were ripped apart, laying patches of white tender skin bare. Since their clothes had been torn, they were sitting on the ground, not daring to move.
They could no longer partake in this fight for the moment. The Demon Sword Shadows summoned by Kriss would steal their physical energy after defeating the human race. It would take a period of time for them to recover.
The Darkness Church should have been controlling the Star Dust Palace for a long time; otherwise, how could so many people come in? Considering that they still had many hostages in their control, such as Empress Deborah the Fifth, and the fact that Bella wasn’t sure about where they were being held, Bella gestured for Kriss to retreat.
Bella and Kriss quickly escaped the Star Rain Palace with a tacit understanding. Those Sword Shadows and demons lurking in the dark covered their retreat. Because of their backup, almost all the elites of the Darkness Church were knocked back. They were left with no choice but to give up their pursuit of Bella and Kriss.
“Kriss, you aren’t hurt, are you!?”
“I’m not. The Demonic Swordsman Sister insisted on discussing swordsmanship with me, but she ran away when she couldn’t hit me after a few moves. It was really boring.”
Kriss briefly talked about what happened just now. The Demonic Swordsman, who was on standby on the second floor, couldn’t bear the idea of competing with strength in her heart. Without getting the order from Lisnell, she led her team to besiege Kriss first, trying to prove her strength after defeating Kriss.
Without any surprise, Kriss cut off the four demonic swords in the hands of Demonic Swordsman in less than ten rounds with her overbearing strength and unscrupulous swordsmanship. After her weapons were lost, the Demonic Swordsman was forced to retreat. As Kriss was worried that Bella would not be able to take care of her, she did not pursue the Demonic Swordsman. She remained on the second floor, dealing with the elite disciples of the Darkness Church.
Bella’s feelings were in a mess when she came to know about it. If she had known that Kriss had blown up all the cards of the Darkness Church downstairs, she would have gone forward with her plan to control Lisnell forcibly. She didn’t dare to make a move because she was afraid that Lisnell might have some assistance lying in waiting. She had missed the perfect opportunity to capture Lisnell.
Not many people knew about this episode as the Hundred Flowers Festival began the next day, attracting everyone’s attention.
