While William was busy in the Underworld earning Hell Credits, a week has passed in Hestia.
On the surface, everything looked peaceful, but underneath this calm facade was a storm brewing somewhere in the Central Continent.
“Are you sure that the Dark Prince is not in the Ainsworth Empire or the Demon Continent?” the Pope asked her agents, whom she had asked to gather information on William’s whereabouts.
She and the high-ranking archbishops of the Holy Order of Light were painstakingly planning a Blitzkrieg attack on the Ainsworth Empire once they had gathered sufficient manpower to capture or kill the Prince of Darkness, whose whereabouts were currently uncertain.
“Yes,” the Pope’s informant replied, whose projection could be seen in the round mirror floating in front of the Pope. “Only his High-Ranking officers, including the Pseudo-Gods, have been seen patrolling the Ainsworth Empire. No trace of the Dark Prince has been seen or heard since he stopped us from entering the Demon Continent.”
The Pope nodded her head as she pondered her next move.
‘Was he perhaps more injured than he looked?’ the Pope thought as she lightly tapped her finger on top of the table. ‘This is certainly a possibility. Fighting Ahriman’s Avatar is no easy feat so getting seriously, or fatally, injured is normal.’
Even the Pope knew that facing off against Ahriman’s Avatar was something she couldn’t do, even with all the Pseudo-Gods under her command.
“Very well, monitor them for two more days then update me,” the Pope ordered. “If the Dark Prince doesn’t show up, inform me right away.”
“Understood.” the informant nodded.
After talking to her informant, the Pope left the room to look for Belle, who was currently being accompanied by Cherry.
The little girl had taken a liking to Belle, and the latter also liked the little girl who treated her as an older sister.
The Pope had been feeding Belle half-truths about the Half-Elf’s history, and made sure to tell her how much of a womanizer he was. Surprisingly, whenever the Pope mentioned that the Dark Prince had many women, a hint of irritation could be seen on Belle’s face.
Because of this, the Pope assumed that Belle hated those who treated women like playthings, so she made sure to feed her with lies that the Half-Elf was treating the women from the territories he ruled like they were disposable toys.
However, instead of getting the reaction she wanted, Belle only looked at her with contempt. Which made the Pope wonder if the latter had seen through her lies. Since then, she no longer mentioned anything about women in front of the black-haired beauty.
What she didn’t know was that Belle knew how William treated his women. He would not casually toss anyone whom he recognized as his lover away.
Naturally, the Pope didn’t know this, so she ended up kicking herself on the foot after she’d made the Half-Elf look like some kind of sex fiend who would stick his member into every woman he saw.
‘If in two days time, if the Half-Elf still doesn’t make his appearance, I will make a preemptive strike on the border of the Ainsworth Empire,’ the Pope mused. ‘This will allow me to know for certain if the Half-Elf is present or not.’
Ever since the Alliance disbanded, the Pope had been feeling restless. She felt as if everything she had done had all been for naught. Even though she had acquired an Empire that had lost its ruler, she was still discontent since she had been forced to surrender the territories of the Zabia and Slovell Kingdoms to the alliance.
‘Bunch of ingrates,’ the Pope seethed in anger. ‘After I deal with the Prince of Darkness, I’ll deal with you fools next.’
After a few minutes of searching, the Pope found Belle in the garden reading several books about the World of Hestia.
This had been her favorite pastime since she had been summoned by the Pope to fight against the Prince of Darkness, whom she couldn’t beat due to William’s strong army that outclassed the armies of the Alliance as well as the Holy Order of Light.
Although they hadn’t fully seen how the battle in the former Elun Empire had unfolded, they had experienced firsthand how powerful Felix’s army was. They had seen for themselves that William had the power to fight them head-on.
“Belle, in two days time, prepare to set out,” the Pope said. “We will make a preemptive strike on the Ainsworth Empire.”
“Okay,” Belle replied. “However, I will only make my move once the Prince of Darkness makes his appearance. If he doesn’t appear, I will not fight.”
The Pope nodded. “That’s fine. You are our secret weapon, so we need to keep your identity a secret until the big fish arrives.”
Belle smiled, but didn’t say anything else. She wasn’t a gullible child who would believe everything she heard from the old woman who wanted her to fight the Dark Prince.
What she wanted to do was to see for herself if the man she loved had really changed so much after being corrupted by darkness. If he really had taken the wrong path then she would give him a good beating until he realized his mistake.
As the Pope left with a satisfied look on her face, Shana appeared in the Garden and sat beside Belle. She had been forced by Melody, Lira, and Ephemera, to talk to the black-haired beauty, and casually tell her about the Half-Elf who had made her three sisters fall in love with him.
Shana wanted to know if Belle was really brainwashed by the Pope or not. If she was, then the Virtuous Lady of Prudence would do her best to inform her of the truth, without letting her become suspicious of her.
However, before she could even say anything, Belle looked at her with a smile and said.
“Your name is Shana, right?” Belle asked. “Cherry told me all of your names when we were chatting with each other.”
Shana nodded. “Yes. I am Shana. Your name is Belle, right? How are you adapting to our world? Is it really very different from the one you came from?”
“Oh, yes. The world I came from is very different from this one. By the way, I heard from Cherry that you, and your sister, Melody, had been captured by the Dark Prince, right?” Belle inquired. “Can you tell me more about him? What is he like?”
Shana who had been suddenly bombarded with questions about William smiled.
“Well, this is going to be a long story,” Shana replied. “Do you want to come to my room, or should we go to yours?”
“Let’s go to your room to talk,” Belle stated. “Tell me everything you know about the Dark Prince.”
Shana nodded her head. This was the real reason she’d come to see Belle, and she was glad that everything seemed to be moving smoothly.
As the two walked away, the faint sound of footsteps followed behind them.
Unseen by the two of them, a certain Virtuous Lady followed them from behind while she was invisible.
The Pope had ordered her to guard Belle for the entire day, and see if someone among her sisters would approach her. Now that Shana had made her move, Cherry followed behind them.
Cherry liked to stalk her sisters during her free time, and treated it as a game. She had been very good at hiding her presence over the years. Unfortunately for her, William had Optimus and was therefore able to see past her ability.
Because of this, she was captured and her memory was erased.
As Shana led Belle to her room, the sneaky little girl followed very closely.
When the blue-haired beauty was about to close the door of her room after Belle had entered, she felt a gentle breeze pass by her.
Thinking it was just her imagination, she closed the door and led Belle to the living room, where the two of them would have a nice long talk, about the Half-Elf that was currently doing his best to reunite with his wives in the Underworld.
—–
Ainsworth Empire…
The Six-Eared Macaque scratched one of his ears before glancing to the East.
He was one of the four Celestial Monkeys that defied the laws of the world. If Sun Wukong was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Six-Eared Macaque was the Great Sage of Informing Wind.
Among many things, he had a unique ability to eavesdrop on secrets that were being told thousands of miles away from him.
William had given him a specific role and that was to Eavesdrop on whatever the Pope of the Holy Order of Light was doing and inform his allies about it.
“Oh? So they are looking for William to make an appearance?” the Six-Eared Macaque smirked as he cleaned out one of his ears with his finger.
A moment later, his appearance changed.
Instead of one of the Four Celestial Monkeys, a black-haired teenager with golden pupils stood on top of the Temple of the Gods with a smug look on his face.
Twirling a golden cudgel in his hand, the Half-Elf somersaulted in the air and summoned a flying cloud.
A moment later, it flew towards the warp gate that connected the Demon Capital and the Capital City of the Ainsworth Empire.
Although the Half-Elf wasn’t around, he could make sure that a convenient body double could masquerade with his appearance in the territories he ruled.
Right now, he and the Holy Order of Light were in a Cold War.
William wasn’t stupid enough to leave his territories behind without some kind of plan.
The only thing that he didn’t foresee was that the Pope would summon an individual who had a very special connection to him.
One who had the power to put him in his place, the moment they met on the battlefield.
