The Baby Raising A Devil - Chapter 276

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 276

For a moment, Reginald’s pupils shook violently. I stared at him intently before turning my back.

It was the beginning of war.

* * *

Papal Court.

Cardinal Benedict and Reginald, along with several other Cardinals, hurried toward the Apostolic Palace (the building where the Pope’s office was located).

Massive ivory doors carved with angels from the scriptures. Brilliant multicolored sunlight streaming through stained glass bathed the floor, and the majestic melody of pipe organs extending from the ceiling descended along the stone pillars.

“Your Holiness!”

“Your Holiness.”

As the Cardinals placed their hands on their chests and knelt, The Man who had been silently fixing his gaze on the divine statue spoke.

“You are making a commotion.”

Reginald spoke in an urgent tone.

“Dubbled has demanded verification of Lady Mina, and the Emperor has accepted their demand. What shall we do? If the investigation proceeds like this, Lady Mina’s true identity will be exposed.”

“….”

“Your Holiness!”

When Reginald pressed him, Benedict shook his head toward him.

Reginald gritted his teeth.

‘Just how long does he intend to keep standing by with his hands behind his back?’

If Mina’s identity was exposed, all the preparations they had made so far would be ruined.

The other Cardinals would realize that the Pope and his closest associates had created the Child of Fate through dark magic, and the anti-papal Cardinals would desperately try to bring down Pope Christian together with the Central Temple.

It would be fortunate if things ended with just replacing the Pope. In the worst case, the Neriad faith would face threats to its very existence.

“This is no time to be complacent, Your Holiness! We have practiced dark magic. If that is discovered…!”

“What is the problem?”

“Pardon?”

“It is true that Lady Mina is a soul that God has bestowed upon our world. We merely created a vessel to contain this world’s savior.”

“But that was dark magic. And using the Duchess of Dubbled at that!”

“She was a body originally born to become the womb of the savior. There can be no problem in reclaiming what we raised.”

“B-but…”

The Pope placed his hand on Reginald’s shoulder.

“Reginald.”

Ugh…

A groan escaped through Reginald’s teeth. The shoulder the Pope grasped felt painfully as if it would crumble.

The Pope’s hand didn’t seem human at all. Due to the aftermath of subjugating demons decades ago, the skin had worn away, blood vessels and muscles protruded haphazardly, and even his fingernails had grotesquely transformed like those of a monster.

“Y-yes, Your Holiness…”

“Straighten your heart. Your faith is wavering.”

“Ugh… yes.”

He withdrew his hand from Reginald and took a step. Only the sound of footsteps echoed in the quiet room. The Pope, who had knelt before the statue, murmured in a monotone voice.

“It would have been perfect if we could have presented Lady Mina with a flawless body, but we lost the Saint’s daughter and had the Saint take her place instead.”

Reginald and Benedict, along with the two Cardinals, prostrated themselves low.

The Pope gazed intently at the statue and continued speaking.

“We have finally welcomed the Daughter of God, and now what served as her substitute has lost its purpose.”

Benedict, who was prostrated low, opened his mouth.

“Command us. Where does Your Holiness’s will lie?”

“She is a pitiful child. One who bloomed in the most lowly place and considered a life filled with falsehood to be everything.”

“…Shall we dispose of her?”

“Let her find peace in God’s embrace.”

He smiled gently and picked up the wine bottle placed on the altar. Barley wine fell toward the wooden cup, and the Pope opened his mouth.

“I will not tolerate failure twice.”

“Leave it to us. I will stake my life to carry out God’s will.”

The Pope holding the wine cup spoke.

“For God.”

The men who were prostrated low raised their heads.

“For God.”

“For God.”

The sun was swallowed by clouds, and darkness came to the world.

* * *

A few days later.

The family members gathered.

The family members, who had spent all day in meeting after meeting, playing tug-of-war with seasoned nobles, looked exhausted.

Henri was the first to speak.

“As soon as the shrine sets a date, we’ve decided to begin the investigation.”

“How did the shrine react?”

“They’ll struggle desperately to avoid it. They won’t want to have Mina’s body, which still contains traces of alchemy, investigated.”

Johan nodded.

“They’ll want to drag out time somehow to cover things up. Meanwhile, we’ll catch whoever commissioned the alchemy in the mock battle. The problem is how much that liaison Max knows…”

“Don’t worry about that.”

I pulled up the corner of my mouth in a smirk.

How could Max have confessed at the exact time when the Cardinals’ demonstration was taking place?

‘I manipulated it all.’

Max didn’t confess. To be precise, he lied.

Right after hearing that the Cardinals had survived, I sent Emeline and Tree to the underground prison where Max was confined.

“Listen carefully. I’m telling you this because there’s at least a cockroach tear’s worth of affection left from our Beggar Gang days.”

“You, Emeline, having affection for me? Even a passing dog would laugh!”

“If you don’t want that passing dog to tear apart and eat your corpse, don’t act stupid. You, if you stay like this, you’ll die without anyone knowing.”

“I don’t know who the client is. Really!”

“Lebl— I mean, ‘that person’ said so. The truth isn’t important.”

“What?”

“What’s important is just that whoever comes out of your mouth is the culprit. So memorize this. The person you need to point out is the Cardinal. His appearance is….”

Whoever commissioned the alchemy, the person involved wouldn’t have gone to Max directly.

They wouldn’t have told Max, who was just a contact, why they commissioned the alchemy or revealed their identity.

Of course they would have sent a subordinate.

So it doesn’t matter who the culprit is. It would be something the shrine did anyway, and if it’s something the shrine did, I’ll implicate the highest-ranking person.

Isaac let out a hollow laugh after hearing my words.

“The biggest villain in Dubbled might be you, Little One.”

“Thank you so very much.”

“My goodness, who did you take after to be so clever.”

Then Henri, Johan, and Father all said “Me.” at the same time.

I lightly ignored their words.

“We need to implicate that Cardinal with alchemy and spread rumors about the shrine. Let’s expose all the evil deeds the shrine has committed and make them into an untrustworthy group!”

Henri, the genius of public opinion warfare, answered “I’ll handle it,” so I nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll pressure the shrine like that to prevent Mina from being investigated. Right now, that’s the only way we can beat the shrine.”

“Then you’ll have to be investigated too, Little One.”

“There’s some time while we wage the public opinion war. I’ll keep looking for the tears of the righteous, so Father and Brothers, please take care of things.”

When I bowed my head deeply, the four people chuckled and looked at me. Isaac ruffled my hair roughly and said.

“Make sure to keep guards with you. You can’t summon your familiars at all right now, can you?”

“Yeah….”

“Damn those tears. I wish I could go get them for you instead.”

To fill one vial with tears, wouldn’t my eyes have to be stabbed about a hundred times?

If the most righteous person is Duke Amitie, even Isaac wouldn’t be able to make him shed that many tears.

It’s better for me to go directly.

‘But is it really Duke Amitie?’

The most righteous person. It was too vague a condition to be certain.

In my personal opinion, he was just a hypocrite, but since most people called him the most righteous person, I put him as an option.

‘Just in case, let me try to get other people’s tears too.’

A tear-jerking play that Seria had planned was being performed in the shopping district.

I wandered around the crying people, hoping to get lucky.

“Then I’ll be going!”

“Alright. Be careful.”

“Be careful, and be careful again! You know?”

“You have to be careful.”

“Take care.”

I left the mansion with my family’s send-off. As I was about to board the carriage, Lea approached.

“Young Lady.”

“Nyea.”

“Are you going out with Zachary?”

“Yeah. Nyea, are you going to the territory?”

Just in case, I decided to bring the territorial army to the Imperial Capital. Lea, the Wolf Pack Leader, would be in charge of leading the troops.

“But why are you dressed so lightly? What about the overcoat I prepared for you? It gets chilly in the evening.”

“The cardigan is stuffy…”

A child’s body lacks patience. When I drooped my eyebrows, Lea said,

“If Young Lady gets sick, Lea’s heart will be torn apart.”

“I’ll come in early if it gets cold. Promise!”

Lea smiled helplessly and kissed my cheek.

“Have a good day today too.”

“Yeah!”

I answered brightly and got into the carriage.

* * *

A play was in full swing at the shopping district.

The street play about tragic lovers’ love brought tears to the spectators’ eyes before even the first act ended.

I walked around diligently, but the Devil’s Passage didn’t react at all.

‘As expected, it has to be Duke Amitie’s tears.’

When I sighed, Seria covered her cheek with one hand and groaned.

“Should we kidnap Duke Amitie?”

“The soldiers would probably get captured instead while trying to kidnap him.”

“That’s true…”

“I should have lived more righteously!”

If I had been righteous, this would have been easily resolved.

Why are all the Dubbled people villains, making it impossible to find righteous tears nearby?

I walked around until the sun completely set, but the passage didn’t react at all.

“Let’s go to Duke Amitie’s mansion…”

I’ll ask him to cry for me.

‘Ugh, I didn’t want to see him.’

I walked with a gloomy expression alongside Zachary and Seria. It was just as we were pushing through the crowd.

‘Huh?’

I felt something strange creeping up. Zachary and I simultaneously looked up at the sky.

BOOM─!!

Meteors started falling from somewhere.

‘It’s Meteor.’

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM─!!

“KYAAAHHH─!!!”

Screams filled the air. Small meteorites were falling, and a massive meteorite revealed itself in the sky. The place where that falling object was headed was.

‘Me…!’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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