It happened many years ago.
Leirela was initially similar to Mavis, except that instead of being sent to the Dark Church, Leirela’s original destination was to be sent to the Mercenary City.
The Church of Light’s original plan for her was that the stunningly beautiful Leirela would be targeted by a noble’s spoiled son in the Inner City, eventually forcing her to flee this prosperous city and head toward the relatively remote Mercenary City.
In the end, Leirela would also come to understand the meaning of freedom there.
This type of lady escaping from a terrible predicament would inevitably receive help from Euphia once she learned of the situation.
And if the two of them, both young at that time, had grown up together and naturally progressed to the present, Leirela would certainly have occupied an extremely important position in the Mercenary City.
Unfortunately, plans can’t keep up with changes.
The noble family’s spoiled son was discovered by the then-young king during his interaction with Leirela.
In this situation, a noble’s spoiled son couldn’t compare to a member of the royal family.
Therefore, Leirela, who had already prepared to go to Sadina City, had to remain in the Inner City under the king’s “kindness” and returned the merchant caravan ticket that had already been arranged for her journey to the Mercenary City.
When the Pope learned of this news, he also abandoned the original plan.
From then on, Leirela served as a subordinate, following the man who was not yet King Meredith Amikbi.
However, when she later learned that she needed to marry Meredith Amikbi, Leirela had an emotional outburst.
Unlike Mavis, who was defined as an undercover tool from the beginning, Leirela knew the Pope’s true purpose from the start.
She knew that beyond the current human structure, there existed even more powerful beings.
And the Pope was unwilling to accept the fact that humans were being farmed.
The Church of Light’s promotion process was very clear: from entering this power structure, improving one’s strength, competing among peers in the same batch, being sent to regional branches of different values, achieving results, and finally advancing step by step.
This was a process that everyone who reached a high position in the Church of Light had to go through.
In a world where strength is paramount, before becoming a true powerhouse, even a genius is just a slightly capable weakling.
What did the Pope experience during those years of becoming stronger and reaching a high position?
Nobody knows, and few want to try to understand.
After Leirela learned that there were more powerful beings above humans, her first feeling wasn’t the kind of terror that makes one’s body go cold, but rather an uncontrollable despair.
Thoughts, fate, space, development—the destiny of the human race was all in the hands of another race. Wouldn’t that make anyone feel terrified?
So terrified that Leirela at that time felt the entire world was endlessly dark, and she even wanted to die…
Although initially, it was just information she happened to overhear.
What began as chance became inevitable.
The character who was supposed to be brainwashed learned things she shouldn’t have known.
The previous Pope immediately wanted to put Leirela to death, but at that time, the current Pope stopped this order.
The man, who already had wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, knelt before the statue of the God of Light and said to the old Pope who was facing the statue and murmuring, “This child may still have other value.”
Leirela survived.
Having already survived and learned some things she shouldn’t have known, it seemed like knowing a bit more wouldn’t matter much.
Leirela looked up and asked the later Pope: “Why did you let me live?”
The Pope’s reason at that time was: “As long as you don’t say things you shouldn’t say, whether you live or die makes no difference to me.”
Leirela argued: “If living and dying make no difference, then you should eliminate any possibility of my continued existence.”
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The Pope laughed solemnly and told Leirela: “You’re right. But for me, the current me needs a weakness that was left behind out of ‘kindness.'”
Just like the later death of the Bishop, which involved countless calculations.
At that stage, for anyone sitting in the Pope’s position, the next highest person below the Church’s highest level would be a thorn in their side if they didn’t demonstrate their harmlessness.
Leirela survived.
Perhaps because her thinking was different from normal people’s, in Leirela’s view, her survival was merely due to the current Pope’s random thought.
If he wanted to display his weakness, that man should have had many more methods.
Dependency was born under these circumstances.
As time changed, this distorted emotion influenced by the pressure of death evolved into an indescribable taboo.
Leirela expressed anger that didn’t match her gentle appearance when she learned she had to marry Meredith Amikbi.
The Pope didn’t offer any comfort; he only said: “Leirela, you once said you would listen to me the most.”
Thus, compromise existed.
But when she learned she could bear a child for the Pope, Leirela was almost overjoyed to the point of flying.
Because she knew her child would become the Pope’s spare body.
The Pope was old and needed a new body.
A body that could hold his soul, which wanted to defy the existing rules.
And that body also needed to have sufficient talent.
But such a person couldn’t be found.
What to do when no one could be found? Create one with his own bloodline.
With distorted thinking and bizarre cognition, Leirela held endless hope for this matter.
But in the end, Leirela discovered she had given birth to a girl.
—Useless! Completely useless!
Yet she happened to have a 100% light element affinity.
The body and soul had an insurmountable gap; the gender difference made it impossible for the Pope to use Ophelia’s body.
But the 100% element affinity was the most basic requirement for entering that world.
Thus, experiments began.
Researchers told Leirela: “Only when people are blood-related can the success rate of transferring talent be raised to the current maximum.”
Leirela needed to give birth to a second blood-related child with the Pope, and it had to be a boy.
But this didn’t succeed.
Meredith Amikbi, the current king, had already united with Leirela by that time.
The new child, who is now thrown to Sadina City and mutually suppressing Diz, is Xiao Zuo.
Can a soul be transferred without blood relation?
The answer is yes.
As long as Xiao Zuo was confirmed as the Pope’s prepared body, from the very beginning, they would feed him something wrapped with fragments of the Pope’s soul.
.....
The heavy rain continued to pour, and the noisy thunder changed from visible to hidden within the dark clouds.
Su Li couldn’t see clearly what expression Leirela had when she held the gradually cooling body of the Pope in the rain.
He only knew that this development was very abnormal.
Why did Leirela kill the Pope?
Or rather, what does Leirela plan to do?
The question Mavis asked was also Su Li’s question, and then everyone could see that in this downpour, Leirela, holding the completely cold corpse of the Pope, began to laugh “hehe.”
The Pope was dead.
Su Li didn’t need to observe this; others with substantial power could give an accurate conclusion.
But Su Li still asked again. “Why did you do this?”
“Why?” Leirela asked back, holding the Pope’s body, which was becoming increasingly pale as the rain washed over it. She looked up, her pupils filled with what could be tears or rainwater, and said to Su Li, “Of course, there is no reason.”
Su Li looked at her, appearing very calm, and said, “I’m not asking why you killed him, but why you chose to do it with your own hands.”
The Pope wouldn’t die so simply; Su Li certainly knew that. What exactly would happen with Xiao Zuo, Su Li couldn’t accurately judge.
It was only clear that something unexpected would definitely happen in Sadina City.
“But it seems you don’t want to give me this answer.” Su Li could feel Leirela’s distortion; he wouldn’t question the terrifying changes emotions can bring to people, he would only ask about new things he wanted to know.
“You should know what the Pope knew about the higher level above humans.”
“Why are humans being farmed?”
“What does God represent to humans?”
“Tell me everything you know.”
Su Li could see that Leirela didn’t want to live anymore.
Undoubtedly, this was an extremely distorted woman.
Under normal circumstances, with Leirela’s thought process, she should easily accept the Pope’s soul residing in Xiao Zuo’s body.
Because it didn’t matter; for Leirela, the most important thing was the Pope.
So compared to the body and soul, the former should be nothing.
Therefore, her current appearance of not wanting to live suggests the possibility that even if the Pope is revived through Xiao Zuo’s body, the one who survives will no longer be the pure Pope.
For someone distorted to purity in a certain sense, letting their faith die by their own hands and sacrificing everything with it would be the outcome that an obsessive person would want most.
Su Li wouldn’t choose to stop her.
In this situation, he would instead be cruelly detached, questioning Leirela who harbored thoughts of death.
The dead and the dying can never compare to those still struggling with all their might to survive.
“Why would you know these things?” Leirela asked in return. “You shouldn’t know these things.”
“Just like he wouldn’t have failed originally…”
“I don’t want to know these things either,” Su Li calmly told Leirela.
Then Su Li’s view darkened slightly. Looking up, he realized that Roy had raised an ice umbrella, nominally shielding him from the rain that had already soaked Su Li through.
Su Li continued. “People all have goals; having no goal is, in a sense, also a goal. Like me, my life goal is just to live in a normal world, raise a pet I like, and let each day pass meaninglessly.”
“And if such days could continue as expected for a lifetime, for me, that would be the meaning of my existence.”
Su Li had no need to tell Leirela these things; he only wanted to say one thing.
One cruelly gentle sentence.
“A normal person living in an abnormal world is what’s abnormal.”
Su Li murmured. “It’s not this world that is sick, it’s me trying to make this world become my ideal.”
Su Li’s thoughts returned; he looked down at Leirela who was slumped on the ground and said, “I only have three choices.”
“Accept, ignore, or change.”
“I cannot accept this world, cannot ignore the people existing in this world, and the only remaining option therefore has no premise for choice.”
Su Li looked at those completely extinguished buildings with a distant gaze.
But Leirela laughed and said, “If only you had appeared not in this era, but when he was young.”
She lowered her head and gently pulled the dagger from the back of the Pope’s heart.
When she raised her head again, Leirela gave Su Li an ambiguous answer.
“In books, stories, the past passed down by wandering poets… everything you want to know already has an answer.”
She lowered her head, caressing the cheek of the already cold corpse, and finally, softly said something only she could hear.
The bloodstained dagger, bit by bit, penetrated the heart of a second person.
The heavy rain gradually lightened. Su Li looked at Leirela, who was uncontrollably convulsing from the pain of her pierced heart, and said softly, “Good night, madam.”