- (Anna’s POV) –

I’m currently in a black alley, shocked by Lylith’s words… What the hell!! I think I just stepped in something troublesome… Lylith is feeling sad and guilty somehow:

“I’m really sorry… even though you saved me, I didn’t talk…” (Lylith)

“No, it’s fine don’t worry! You should even rely more on me if you have a problem!” (Anna)

Suddenly, a knight enters the black alley and shout:

“What happened?! Someone called me and told me that there was a kidnapping.” (knight)

Ah! Perfect timing! I was just starting to wonder what to do with the kidnapper.

“I already took care of the kidnapper, please bring him with you.” (Anna)

“W-What? What do you mean you took care of him? How?” (knight)

Another one that underestimate me… It will be easier if I show off a little bit, let’s do that. I lift my right foot and kick the ground extremely fast. There is a loud *boom* under me and there is even a small crater.

“Like this!” (Anna)

He looks at me with a wide opened mouth. Haha, serve you right~!

“Haha… I see, I see…” (knight)

He finally moves and brings the kidnapper out of the alley. Once we are alone, I turn toward Lylith:

“Don’t you want to see your father? He must be worried…” (Anna)

“I want to see him, but… it’s too dangerous!” (Lylith)

“What do you mean?” (Anna)

“My father is confined inside the temple! Even though he is the Pope, he lost most of his influence… The Holy faction attracted most of the priest and hired a lot of mercenaries… Now, my father can’t even go out and it’s also very dangerous to go in!” (Lylith)

I see… the situation is worse than I thought… Lylith continues with tear in her eyes:

“And also, I didn’t want to drag you in my problems… Even though you saved me and are so nice to me, I still dragged you… I don’t want you to be in danger because of me!” (Lylith)

Wow… seeing a cute girl worried about me with tears in her eyes, I can’t just let it go! I would like to see them try hurting me!

“Let’s go meet your father, don’t worry about me!” (Anna)

“But…” (Lylith)

“I also hate this Holy faction, they already messed with me in the past, so it’s also MY problem.” (Anna)

“…” (Lylith)

She is still hesitating, but that’s what I decided! I can’t help but do something when a loli cry in front of me!

“Guide me to your father, we will sneak inside!” (Anna)

“…Okay… he must be in the temple… it’s this direction!” (Lylith)

“Both of you clench your teeth!” (Anna)

I lift both of them and put them on each of my arms. Then, I jump with all my strength:

“”Woah!!”” (Lylith & Alice)

With one jump, we are several dozen above the roofs, we can see the whole city from here! But I can’t really tell if the girls are excited or afraid... I land on a roof, then I jump again. With each jump, we cover a distance of at least 3 houses, so we are moving extremely fast.

“Where is it now? Don’t talk but point the direction with your finger.” (Anna)

Lylith point in front, slightly to the right. I can see a large building there; it must be the temple! I dash toward this direction with my maximum speed and land in front of the building. We crossed half of the city in a minute or two. I put Alice and Lylith on the ground, then I ask them with an evil smile:

“How was the ride? Do you want to do it again?” (Anna)

“It was so cool! The view was amazing!” (Alice)

“…I-It was an interesting experience, I guess?” (Lylith)

I think Alice is already used to this speed, it’s the same speed as Shiro and I bring her with me often… However, Lylith looks like she is about to puke…

Well, whatever, we are now in front to the temple! From what I understood, it seems like the Pope is confined inside the temple along with his loyal priests. However, the archpriest from the Holy faction hired some mercenaries to guard the temple. I can confirm it with my ‘radar’, I can detect a lot of people splitted outside of the temple, it must be very hard to infiltrate. Well, not for me~!

“Where exactly is your father?” (Anna)

“His room must be on the east side! It’s here, the fifth windows at the third floor! There is also a balcony leading to the room!” (Lylith)

She points toward a certain direction. Following her finger, I can see a big window with a cross as a decoration. As expected of a Pope! There is also a balcony, so I think it will be my target. However, there are several obstacles between us and the balcony, but who care?~

“Alright, let’s go then!” (Anna)

I lift them again and jump as high as I can to make sure that the guards don’t see us. We directly land on the large balcony, so I put them down. However, the door leading to the room from the balcony is closed, and I don’t feel like destroying it… So, let’s try to knock first! If he is not here, I still can infiltrate inside using magic.

I knock on the door and wait. A few seconds later, someone open it slowly from inside, he must be surprised to have someone knocking from the balcony instead of the normal door. Once the door is fully open, I can see a middle-aged man with light blond hair but no beard. He is wearing luxurious clothes and a necklace with a cross. He is looking at us with a very surprised face. Suddenly, Lylith starts to run toward him.

“Otou-san!” (Lylith)

((A/N: ‘Otou’ means ‘Father’ in Japanese))

Lylith hugs the middle-aged man with tears in her eyes. The man also starts to tear up, he pats her head and whispers:

“Lylith, I missed you so much…” (middle-aged man)

What a touching moment! Suddenly, the man links his hands, look toward the sky, and say:

“Thank you for bringing my daughter alive, Saria-sama!” (middle-aged man)

As expected of someone from the church, he has to thank his goddess first. By the way, I learnt from all the books I read that there is only one Goddess in this world, her name is Saria. Also, she really exists, she apparently descended several times in the last 1000 years and sometimes speaks to an oracle.

I personally believe that she exists. After all, I already met a God… But it doesn’t mean that I will pray everyday.

However, there are some cults worshipping other gods but there are no proof of their existence. I don’t want to anger a god, I’m quite strong but I’m not arrogant to the point of defying a god. However, I never heard of a god directly killing someone even with all the bastards living in this world; it means that they have some kinds of rules stating that they can’t directly kill a mortal. It’s maybe also why the god that reincarnated me was so guilty after he killed me, he might have been punished.

Well, whatever. I won’t anger a god on purpose, but I will judge someone based on their action and won’t hesitate to kill someone even if he has a god behind him. The god that reincarnated me only told me to live like I want, there are no special rules.

After his prayer, the middle-aged man turns toward me and Alice and speaks:

“I’m sorry for making you wait, please come inside!” (middle-aged man)

We enter the room and sit on a sofa. There is no tea, but it can’t be helped since he is inside a ‘golden prison’. Once we are installed, he speaks again:

“My name is William von Brown and I am the current Pope. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing Lylith to me! I was so worried! May I know what happened and why she is with you?” (William)

“My name is Anna, pleased to meet you! I was on my way to the capital when I suddenly found a suspicious carriage going out of the capital 2 days ago. Inside this carriage, there was a cage and Lylith was inside with a collar around her neck. After that, I decided to bring her with me to the capital, but I only learnt half an hour ago that she is your daughter. I don’t know anything else about the situation…” (Anna)

After my words, the Pope is red on his face and clench his teeth and fists, I think he is very angry.

“She was a slave and was being transported out of the capital?! Those bastards dared!” (William)

Wow, he is quite frightening when he is angry! He continues with a sad voice:

“I’m powerless… This self-proclaimed Holy faction threatened to kill Lylith if I make a single move… Even this morning this bastard Oscar told me that Lylith is locked up in his house, but he lied! She was with you!” (William)

He raises his head and speaks again:

“Lylith, what happened after they took you?” (William)

“…Well…” (Lylith)

She makes a sad face; she is probably recalling what happened… I’m also curious about how she became a slave, she still never told me!

“I-I was walking in this temple when suddenly some black-clothed men attacked me, so I lost consciousness. W-When I woke up, I was inside a cage and I saw Oscar outside! He opened the cage saying that I can leave, but when I was outside, they attacked me again and put a collar around my neck! A-After that, I stayed in the cage for 3 days with only a piece of bread and some water. One day, they suddenly put the cage in a carriage, and we left from the capital! I-I heard a conversation close to me and they were saying that they will sell me in another country to a noble. A few day later, when I was prepared to live the rest of my life as a slave, someone killed all the black-clothed men and destroyed the cage! It was Anna-oneesama! However, I didn’t know if I could trust her and didn’t want to drag her to our problem, so I stayed silent until they tried to kidnap me again but was saved a second time by Anna-oneesama!” (Lylith)

Wow… I’m speechless… How dare they treat a loli like this!

It looks like the Pope is thinking the same since he is clenching his teeth and his fists. He sure looks angry, but I feel like he feels a bit guilty and powerless aswell… It looks like he really cares for his daughter and he is purely believing in Goddess Saria, he must be a good father and a good Pope, but sadly not a good schemer… I truly want to help someone like him!

“May I ask what exactly your relationship with the Holy faction is and who is this Oscar?” (Anna)

“Ah… sorry. Let’s start with the context. 10 years ago, I was leading the church and was worshipping Saria-sama along with 2 archpriests and many priests. However, one of the archpriests, a fat man called Oscar suddenly broke the rule and created another faction called Holy. I didn’t object at this time because we had a different point of view of what the church should be, and I’m not a tyrant. However, he slowly brought more and more priest to his side and started to stop worshipping Saria-sama. Now, he only thinks about money, like everyone in his faction… They call themselves ‘Holy’ but they don’t care about Saria-sama!” (William)

He clenches his fists again, then he continues:

“They are using Saria-sama’s name to do illegal stuffs like slave trading, stealing, or assassination! Unfortunately, I can’t do anything anymore about them, they only keep me alive because they don’t want the king to move against them! However, I’m afraid that even the king can’t do anything anymore against them because they are backed by several powerful nobles and even the crown prince!” (William)

WHAT?! Even the crown prince is with them?! It might be more complicated than I thought… but I still won’t forgive them!

“Why is the crown prince with them? Isn’t it a problem for the future of the country?” (Anna)

“Well, only a few people know about it for now. I think that the crown prince believe that the Holy faction’s point of view is good and can bring prosperity to the country… I hate to say it, but it’s not totally wrong, money is power, and it might make the country grow financially. However, it wouldn’t make the population happier, they would be threatened and not free, it would be a dictatorship. Of course, the king and the queen are totally against his opinion, and many nobles supporting them don’t know about their illegal activities.” (William)

I understand what he means. A dictatorship sounds good on the paper because the ruler is free to make his project a reality and can ignore the public’s opinion. However, do you know any dictatorship where the population is happy? The only thing I know from Earth is that a dictatorship brings war, genocide, and despair. It’s not something that I would support.

However, this Oscar is obviously an evil man, but it doesn’t mean that the crown prince and the noble supporting him have a bad intention; they don’t know about Earth history.

The situation is way more complicated than I thought. Even killing everyone in the Holy faction would be useless. What I need to do is to make every good people supporting them understand that the Holy faction is evil. Those that are supporting them and are evil, they can die, I don’t care.

I think I have a good idea to calm the Holy faction and make them understand their place. Hehe~ *smirk*

“I see… By the way, where does the Holy faction live?” (Anna)

“They built another temple beside this temple; they are living there. But why do you want to know that?” (William)

“Oh, for nothing, don’t worry! Haha~” (Anna)

It looks like priests live and sleep in a temple close to the church. They don’t sleep inside the church, but they go there for the prayer. Well, I don’t think the Holy faction is praying though…

I lower my head to think about what I can do. Wait, what is this injury on the Pope’s leg? It must hurt… Let’s ask him!

“Are you injured on the leg?” (Anna)

“Ah! Yes. I tried to sneak out to look for Lylith, but I got caught by a mercenary and he injured me on the leg.” (William)

Ah… I see… let’s treat him while I’m here. I put my hand in my pocket and take out a red potion from my inventory, then I show it to him.

“Drink this, it will heal your injury!” (Anna)

He looks at the potion with a surprised face.

“I-Is it… t-the miracle potion?!” (William)

Oh? He knows about it? Well, the Holy faction know aswell so it’s not surprising.

“Well, I didn’t call them ‘miracle potion’, but I’m selling them in my shop in Marina.” (Anna)

After my words, he instantly stands up and takes my hands.

“Y-YOU ARE THE ONE MAKING THOSE POTIONS?!” (William)

“Y-Yes?” (Anna)

He put his hands in front of his mouth and start laughing.

“Hahaha! I saw Oscar’s reaction with my own eyes when someone brought him this potion, he was extremely angry and helpless! It was so satisfying to see! However, you must be careful, he probably plans to attack you… It’s because he has several mage working for him that are able to heal people with their magic, and he makes the peoples pay a lot of money for that… However, your potions are way more effective and less expensive!” (William)

“He already sent someone to attack me, but I took care of them. But thank you for the warning!” (Anna)

The Holy faction doesn’t like my potions? Then, I will sell more of them purposely!~

The Pope takes my potion and drinks it. His legs instantly heal without leaving a scare.

“Thank you! It’s as amazing as I heard!” (William)

Then, we sit up again but there is a long silence. Suddenly, the Pope speaks again:

“Anna… I know that I’m shameless, but I have a request. I’m too powerless right now, I can’t protect Lylith properly. Can you bring Lylith with you and protect her against the Holy church? If I know that Lylith is safe, they won’t be able to threaten me like before so I will be able to start moving. However, if Lylith stay here, she will simply be captured again…” (William)

Oh! I understand what he means, I don’t mind protecting her and the Holy faction hate me already anyway.

“I don’t mind bringing her with me if she agrees! I promise to protect her properly!” (Anna)

He bows is head, then he says:

“Thank you very much… I’m really sorry to ask that of you after everything you did…” (William)

“Don’t worry! You can consider me your ally; I also hate this Holy faction.” (Anna)

I turn toward Lylith:

“Do you want to stay with me for a while?” (Anna)

She instantly nods her head excitedly.

“Um!” (Lylith)

“Alright! We are leaving then!” (Anna)

The Pope’s expression turns serious again and he says:

“By the way, how did you come here? And how do you plan to leave? Even I failed to sneak out with the help of my subordinates…” (William)

“How? I jumped.” (Anna)

“Y-you… what?” (William)

Then Lylith point outside with her finger and says:

“She jumped from this road and landed on the balcony! It was amazing!” (Lylith)

The Pope looks surprised again…

“W-What? But there it’s a distance of at least 100 meters in length and 20 meters in height!!” (William)

“Well, I just did it… Look, I will show you.” (Anna)

I lift Lylith and Alice with my two hands, then I turn toward the Pope.

“We are leaving, we will visit you sometimes!” (Anna)

Then I run toward the balcony and directly jump toward a nearby roof. While I’m still in the air, I can hear the Pope muttering something thanks to my enhanced hearing:

“Thank you Saria-sama for bringing an Angel-sama to help us!” (William)

WHAT?!