"My four esteemed guests, the pope would like to have a chat with you. Could you please follow me?" The middle-aged missionary was gentle and he spoke respectfully.
Mag sized up that middle-aged missionary. He was a 10th-tier great magic caster. Mag wondered which Holy See's bishop he was.
Mag had always maintained a respectful distance with that mysterious pope. He didn't want Amy to have too much interaction with him.
The Holy See had once led the human race out of the dark ages and built the Roth Empire.
However, the Holy See had always been stuck in the mud. They had plenty of rules internally. Everything would become involuntary once they entered the Holy See.
However, the pope seemed to care greatly for Amy. He not only wanted her to become the Holy See's holy maiden and gave her the wings of light, he even came looking for her again and again.
If it was in the past, Mag would make an excuse not to meet that old man.
However, it was different now. He no longer had to be too respectful of the pope with his current power. Hence, he intended to meet that old man and see what he was up to.
"Let's go. Bring us there," Mag said to the bishop.
"Please follow me." The bishop nodded smilingly and led them into a deserted alley.
A light flashed as soon as they stepped into the alley. Then, they appeared in a splendid palace.
Mag secretly marveled at this teleportation portal's cleverness, but his gaze was attracted by the pope wearing white opulent clothes and a crown.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe bishop who brought Mag and his family to the hall, bowed to the pope before exiting the great hall.
"Father, isn't that the grandpa who gave me the wings?" Amy asked softly.
"Yes." Mag nodded slightly.
"You guys come, my young friends," the pope turned around and said to Mag smilingly. His eyes even glowed when his gaze landed on Amy.
"May I know why you invite us here, Lord Pope?" Mag asked the pope directly.
The pope looked at Mag and answered with a gentle smile, "Don't be restless, my young friend. We met once many years ago. I just didn't expect you could come back after going through so many defeats and save the Norland Continent from devastation."
"You know who I am?"
"There's nobody else like you in this world."
Mag laughed. "But only a few people in this world could guess who I am."
"If it isn't for the fact that you didn't care about being found out, I wouldn't have guessed it either." The pope smiled and turned to say to Irina, "Princess Irina, how have you been?"
"Old fellow, I didn't expect you to still be the same after all these years," Irina said to the pope smilingly.
When she used to travel between the Wind Forest and Rodu, this pope had tried to get her to join the Holy See too. He even said he would let her be the holy maiden.
However, she was careful back then. After hearing that the Holy See had a lot of rules and even the daily wake up time was fixed, she escaped.
She heard Mag mention that the pope wanted to invite Amy to be the Holy See's holy maiden, but she didn't expect that they would be shameless to stop them in the middle of their way.
"I have been like this for the past few decades and it's not easy to change." The pope shook his head as his gaze landed on Annie. His smile got increasingly gentle as he waved at her. "Child, come here."
Annie looked at the pope. She felt that he seemed rather friendly, but she still looked at Mag for permission.
"I'm here to tell you to stop targeting Amy and don't even try to target Annie." Mag stopped smiling and looked at the pope with a wary gaze.
"I feel this child has an affinity with me, so I want to give her a blessing. I don't mean any harm." The pope explained with a smile.
"No thanks. We don't believe in the Holy See's ideology." Mag rejected it on Annie's behalf.
Annie's identity was special. Although she didn't have the Great Old Ones' presence on her and was a pure and kind soul, the pope's identity was special and his power was unknown. What if he said he wanted to bless her, but was, in fact, trying to target Annie. He wasn't 100% confident that he could protect Annie and Amy at the same time.
"You have a good daughter. Since you didn't want me to bless her, then I can only give her a small present. It can ward off evil for the wearer." The pope took out a small simple-looking black jade with many runes on it and tossed it gently. It flew towards Annie and hovered in front of her.
Annie didn't take the jade, instead she looked at Mag.
"Take it. It's the pope's kind wishes." Mag nodded slightly.
Annie grabbed the jade and thanked the pope with sign language.
"This child's voice?" The pope was looking at Annie with surprise.
"She's born this way, but she can already use sign language to communicate." Mag explained.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"How can such an outstanding person have such a defective voice? She should be using her throat to sing about beautiful things." The pope shook his head. After pondering for a moment, the pope passed a small bottle to Mag.
"What's this?" Mag was befuddled.
"This is a bottle of advanced lozenges. Even though I don't know how much it can improve her condition, it should help a little," the pope said.
"Thank you," Annie replied with sign language.
"Don't mention it." The pope nodded slightly. Then, he turned to Amy and smiled brightly. "My young friend Amy, are you willing to be our Holy See's holy maiden? If you are, you'll be the master of this great hall."
"No way!"
"Dream on!"
"Not willing!"
Three voices spoke up at the same time.
The smile on the pope's face looked ridiculous. There was actually a family in this world that was so against becoming the Holy See's pope.
This was completely unimaginable 100 years ago.
"Grandpa Big Beard, although I appreciate the wings that you gave me, I still cannot be your holy maiden. I want to stay in the restaurant with my parents."
"You can still stay in the restaurant with your parents even if you become the holy maiden. You can return to the Holy See after you come of age," the pope said smilingly.
"Do you think we will hand the child that we painstakingly raised to the Holy See to make use of?" Mag smiled. "Even if we agree to it, you still have to ask if Krassu and Urien would agree to it."
"It doesn't matter if they agree or not. Most importantly is whether Amy agrees to it," the pope said to Mag calmly.