Chapter 154: A Place to Hide |
The tension in Weiss only lasted for a moment before she quickly regained her composure.
Objectively speaking, Leon possessing Cursed Blood was undoubtedly a good thing. It could even be said that it solved their urgent crisis. Even if she had not drunk his blood earlier, after learning that Leon possessed Cursed Blood, she still would have chosen without hesitation to drink it.
Entrusting her life to Leon, who had risked danger to save her, was certainly better than leaving her life in the hands of the Witch trying to frame her!
“Then regarding the dosage you drank earlier, do you think it’s enough?” Leon asked Weiss for confirmation.
“About that, I think it should be more than enough…”
As the topic came up, memories of herself clinging to Leon and drinking his blood furiously resurfaced in Weiss’s mind, causing her gaze to drift aside involuntarily.
“Then let’s begin. We just need to trigger the curse and then remove it afterward, right?” Leon confirmed with Weiss.
Weiss nodded and sat down against the chimney in a relatively stable position to avoid accidentally falling off the roof if her body stiffened.
Leon immediately began activating the Blessing of Cursed Blood. Naturally, the sooner they could remove this state of being tracked, the better.
As fellow Second-Rank Transcendents, she still possessed a slight degree of resistance against Leon’s Cursed Blood, but the amount she had just drunk was simply too great. The poison’s effects erupted quickly.
In just a few seconds, symptoms of petrification gradually began appearing across the surface of her body, and instinctive fear born from the body’s natural reactions surged into her heart.
Fortunately, as the petrification spread, she began to sense the parasite lurking within her body finally reacting.
A sensation of foreign matter rapidly rose from her chest to her throat. Weiss suddenly coughed violently, and a clump of pitch-black blood was coughed out from her throat.
The black blood landed on the rooftop and immediately began writhing before gathering together into the shape of a spider that rapidly crawled toward Leon. This was the parasite created by Arachne. Due to the threat posed by the Cursed Blood, it had voluntarily escaped Weiss’s body, after which it instinctively sought a new host.
Leon reacted swiftly and immediately stomped down with his boot, crushing the spider formed from the black blood on the spot.
To be safe, he also pierced his finger and dripped several drops of Cursed Blood onto the writhing black blood. The black blood twitched violently a few times before finally becoming motionless.
“Does this work?” Leon asked Weiss for confirmation.
“Mm…” Weiss barely managed to squeeze out a response.
Leon dispelled the curse of the Cursed Blood. Weiss’s partially petrified body gradually returned to normal. She slumped where she sat, gasping heavily for breath as sweat continuously seeped from her body.
“Are you alright?” Leon reached out to support Weiss.
“I’m fine.” Weiss grabbed Leon’s hand and stood up. “We succeeded.”
As the parasite was expelled, that Magical Beast impulse also calmed down significantly. With the parasite gone, the effects of the Magic Potion that had infiltrated her body through it were greatly weakened as well.
Although a slight residue still remained, she could now fully suppress it. At last, she could voluntarily remove her Blood Kin form and return to her original appearance.
If that was the case, then theoretically Arachne should no longer be able to grasp her location.
“Hopefully.” Leon sensed Bishop Beckett’s location again, not daring to lower his guard. “Just to be safe, we still need to leave this place first!”
……
“Hm?”
Arachne, hidden within her hideout, sensed something and set down the wineglass in her hand.
“Madam, please trouble yourself to indicate the target’s location again.” Bishop Beckett’s voice once again transmitted from the emblem.
“……” This time Arachne did not respond immediately. She merely set down her wineglass.
Bishop Beckett assumed she was concentrating on sensing the location and patiently waited for a while, but no response came. Thus, he called out again: “Madam?”
“My apologies, but it seems I can no longer help you.” Arachne finally replied.
“What did you say?”
“I can no longer locate the Saintess. The parasite placed inside her body has completely vanished without a trace. Most likely it was dealt with. Or perhaps that Saintess has already died.” Arachne answered.
“How could this happen?” Bishop Beckett was caught completely off guard.
“The Saintess you people are dealing with is one of the Church’s top-tier Apothecaries. It’s not strange for her to come up with a solution.” Arachne replied.
Resolving it this quickly likely meant they used some sort of controllable poison. Arachne silently speculated.
She did not say this aloud. After all, it counted as one of the weaknesses of her Blessing ability. The fewer people who knew about it, the better.
“You truly have no other method to locate her again?” Bishop Beckett’s voice carried traces of irritation.
“No. My work is already complete. You people will have to solve this problem yourselves.” Arachne replied coldly.
“Please wait, madam…”
“I solved my part of the problem, you paid me my compensation, and our transaction is already complete. Don’t bargain with me. I don’t want to repeat myself a second time.” Arachne said.
“We can offer additional compensation!” Bishop Beckett still attempted to persuade her.
“And what exactly can I do for you now? I can’t move freely around here anyway. Besides, as far as I’m concerned, my objective of making the Imperial Church lose face has already been achieved. I honestly couldn’t care less what happens to that Saintess.” Arachne replied with clear disinterest. “Of course, if you want me to kill a few more important figures, I’m always happy to do so.”
After speaking, Arachne tossed the emblem aside and raised her wineglass for another sip.
Standing alone at a street corner, Bishop Beckett no longer heard any response from Arachne through the sigil. He only felt his body gradually turning cold from head to toe.
This mission, which was of utmost importance to the Earl, had encountered one unexpected complication after another. Even a battle-hardened veteran like him could not help but lose his composure.
“My lord.” Seeing that Bishop Beckett was no longer conversing with anyone, one knight cautiously stepped forward to report, “This district has also been searched. No target was found.”
“Expand into the surrounding districts and continue searching. Don’t overlook a single corner.” Bishop Beckett replied with a rigid expression.
……
Half an hour later, inside Leon’s hotel room.
While remaining alert toward the corridor, Leon opened the door and brought Weiss into his room.
Weiss had changed into a nun’s robe and was also wearing a veil. Dressed like this, she had followed Leon all the way here while avoiding attention.
After remove the Parasitic Infection, they had continued hiding and moving around for some time. Once they confirmed that Bishop Beckett could no longer track their exact area as promptly as before, Leon first hid Weiss in a concealed location while he went to prepare a set of clothing for her to change into. Then he carefully brought her to his room while avoiding notice.
After resolving the crisis of being tracked, their journey became much easier. Although patrolling knights filled the streets, the entire diocese had already fallen into chaos. There were also large numbers of civilians crowding the streets, gathering into waves of people moving toward the city gates, hoping to leave the major diocese as quickly as possible.
The Creator Church’s public sermon had resulted in many deaths, causing ordinary people who had come to participate in the Holy Spirit Festival to begin worrying about their own safety.
But the Church currently could not casually allow people to leave the city. The entire city had entered lockdown. Church knights guarded the city gates while strictly forbidding anyone from leaving, waiting for further instructions from above. This only intensified the chaos throughout the streets.
“This hotel is…” Weiss looked around the somewhat luxurious single room before her. This was the finest hotel in the Southeastern Major Diocese, an asset owned by the Church itself. The prices were exorbitant, and those who stayed here were generally wealthy merchants, nobles, or certain Church personnel who had come to attend the Holy Spirit Festival.
However, she herself had not stayed here. She had directly lodged within the Creator Church’s monastery.
“My room. For now, you can hide here temporarily.” Leon answered.
“Is this… really alright?” Weiss looked at Leon somewhat uneasily.
Using his own room to hide her was undoubtedly risky. If she were discovered, then Leon’s involvement in helping her would also be exposed.
“There’s some risk, but after careful thought, there really isn’t any place more suitable than this. On the way here, I noticed members of the Secret God Church inspecting carriages along the road. Their foundational Blessing ability can probe the inside of carriages. If someone stayed hidden inside a parked carriage without getting out, they would definitely investigate it. So you can’t hide inside my carriage.
If I casually rented another hotel room for you, that hotel might also be searched, especially if someone suddenly checked in today. This hotel houses quite a few Church-related people, as well as nobles and wealthy individuals. The likelihood of this place being searched is comparatively low.
“Also, look at the runes in these corners. Supposedly, they’re measures used to prevent outsiders from spying through Secret God abilities, meant to guarantee privacy. Under normal circumstances, with the entire Church searching for you, nobody would imagine you’d hide in a place where other Church personnel are staying. The most dangerous place is precisely the safest place.”
Leon explained his reasoning.
“But if you suddenly bring a woman back into your room like this, won’t it arouse suspicion?” Weiss still felt uneasy. After all, it wasn’t as though nobody had seen them along the way.
“What’s the problem? From what I’ve seen, other Church people staying here also casually bring women back. That knight staying across from me—I personally saw him bring two Tavern Dancers back to his room yesterday.” Leon replied calmly.
“……” Weiss was left speechless. She had actually heard before that the Church’s internal moral restrictions on its personnel were nowhere near as strict as they claimed publicly. Many people’s daily conduct could completely be described as corrupt.
“In any case, stay here. Absolutely do not go out or make any noise. Don’t answer the door no matter who comes. I’m going out for a while, and after I return, we’ll discuss a way to leave the diocese.” Leon instructed her.
According to what Bishop Beckett had previously arranged with him, he was supposed to be waiting at that Club right now. He still needed to show his face there to avoid arousing suspicion. Furthermore, he wanted to make contact with Bishop Beckett or the Earl as soon as possible to investigate their reasons for setting this trap against Weiss.
He had already tried questioning Weiss, but Weiss herself knew absolutely nothing about why Arachne and Bishop Beckett were targeting her. Even after Leon hinted that it might involve her father, Archbishop Rogers, she still had no idea. In that case, he could only investigate the information himself.
“You’ll come back soon, right?” Weiss looked at Leon nervously. In a situation like this, she had already begun unconsciously developing a sense of dependence on him.
“I’ll do my best.” Leon nodded while looking into Weiss’s eyes.