Chapter 220
Last night, in a secret conference room in the Vatican, there was a constant buzz of voices, loud and soft.
"Corleones successor is entering Italy!"
"What is suddenly happening at this time?"
They were priests in the Vatican's intelligence service, which governs the entire Italian peninsula.
The reason for their late-night gathering was the latest news.
"Don't you think we should stop it now?"
"How can we stop them?! Do you have any idea how much the Corleone family has donated to our Catholic Church over the years?"
"What do you mean, let him get away with it, who knows what he might do?!"
"If this is Corleones son, he's the one who helped Bishop Augustus defeat Fafnir recently, and with all the talk of recognizing him as a saint, what will the other camp say if we don't let him come!"
A silence falls over the room as the priest speaks.
In other words, there was no way to stop it politically.
"From the rumors circulating right now, Corleones heir is nothing short of a troublemaker: at the forefront of the war against the Villainous Alliance, spearheading the defeat of the evil dragon known as Fafnir, and most recently, the Night of Walpurgis. He was even invited to that pagan festival!"
"How is that a pagan festival, it's just a simple social gathering!"
"What?! How do you know that, are you a pagan too?!"
Thump!
"Quiet."
Once again, there was someone who could freeze a room that had quickly become tumultuous in a single moment.
"Let's calm down a bit. What's the point of fighting amongst ourselves?"
A man with a crimson cap on his head, keeping a smile on his face, spoke.
In the Vatican, he was the head of intelligence and a cardinal.
"It is certain that wherever Eugene Han Corleone goes, there are incidents. However, it hasn't been proven that he's an evil man; he could just have gotten caught up in the incidents."
He had a point.
No matter how many rumors there were about him, there was nothing to suggest that the child had committed a sin or acted wickedly after all.
But still, he was the heir to Corleone.
If he gets involved in any trouble within mainland Italy, they don't know what will happen to the land, willingly or unwillingly.
A priest slowly looks at the Cardinal with concern.
"Cardinal, what do you think we should do?"
The Cardinal responds as if he's already decided. He stroked his ring and replied.
"I will send a child to watch over Corleone Junior."
"What? By child, you mean."
"Michaela, I'm sending her."
With those words, all the priests who had been sitting still up to this point jumped to their feet.
"Sending Michaela, isn't that an overreaction?"
"She's a major force in the intelligence service, and you're sending her away for a mere child!"
"Why don't you send a nun from another department instead, if it's just to keep an eye on him, arent other nuns enough?"
Bang!
And in response, the cardinal once again smashes the ground with the staff in his hand. But this time it was different from before.
"How ridiculous, you people."
His expression is not a smile.
"I hate this, I hate that. I hate this, I hate that."
It was cold and hard.
"You may as well be cardinals."
Once again, the room falls silent.
The Cardinal, gripping his cane tightly, exhaled heavily for a moment, cleared his throat, and then, returning to his usual mild expression, addressed them.
"As you all fear, Eugene Han Corleone could be a huge variable for our Holy Empire. If he were to get involved in any incidents or act strangely, wouldn't it be best for us to take the initiative and make the initial response, or."
He stands up and looks at the priests.
"It's too late after something happens, and when things go wrong, who the hell is going to cover for Corleone?"
None of them can answer his question.
Most of them had seen firsthand how Corleone had closed the Vatican's dungeons in the past.
"This is the child I raised for a time like this. This is the child I trained for a time like this. When else would I put her in charge of doing the right thing: protecting you, carrying the relics? No, it would be now."
Finally, seeing that the mood in the room has shifted to one of agreement, the Cardinal sits back down.
"Give Michaela a mission. The external objective is to guard the heir to the Corleone family, a noble family that has done great things for Catholicism. For intelligence purposes, she is to keep an eye on everything and report back."
With that, the Cardinal concluded his urgent agenda, raising both hands to indicate those inside the room.
"All for the good of the Lord's kingdom."
"All for the sake of the lambs of this world."
"The meeting is adjourned, prepare to go and preach the gospel."
"Let us praise the Lord."
Thump-thump-thump
The sound of the Cardinal's gavel rang out, signaling the end of the meeting, and the priests began to file out.
* * *
~A hotel suite in Palermo, the center city of the island of Sicily~
I stared at the message that had arrived a moment ago with as much impatience as I could muster.
[Latte: The Vatican's intelligence service is on its way to where you are right now!]
[Latte: So you better be ready!]
"It's already too late."
I glanced over at the woman lying on the bed, my face grim.
It's been 20 minutes since she passed out.
About the same amount of time as it took me to tell Latte to find out why the Vatican was looking for me.
-Bing!
The long-awaited message arrived.
[Latte: Master, an official letter just arrived. Escorting a guest of honor of the Vatican, thats the reason the Vatican was looking for you.]
"Huh?"
I'm puzzled by the sheer absurdity of the reason.
No, the Vatican would send an escort? Not to another family, but to the heir of the Corleone family? To the son of a mobster?
"How does this make sense?"
And the woman over there, the one who was beaten and knocked out by the door, is my escort?
"This is ridiculous."
Why did they sent me an escort?
No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't help but think that they actually had someone to keep an eye on me.
Otherwise, there's absolutely no reason for the Vatican to have someone attached to me.
An honored guest? My family pays a hefty monthly tribute to the Catholic Church, but we're certainly not one of the Vatican's favorite families to be assigned an escort.
So who is this woman right in front of me?
I'm sure I've seen her somewhere before, but I can't quite remember. Did I see her in the game?
"I'm pretty sure I saw her."
As I'm thinking about this, I look over at her lying there in silence.
"You're quite the one, Corleone Junior."
"Hmm?"
She opened her eyes, which had been closed all this time, and pushed herself up.
"I didn't think you'd see that and realize I was awake. Indeed, you do fit the description of the greatest troublemaker of our time."
Yes?
Saying that, she rose from the bed and turned to me, clasping her hands together politely and bowing her head as she began to introduce herself.
"Commander of the Zero Order of the Holy Knights of the Holy Vatican Empire, my name is Michaela. Firstborn of the House of Corleone, honored guest of the Vatican as of today, I am officially in charge of escorting Mr. Eugene Han Corleone, so please take good care of me."
Ah. I recognized her.
Commander of the Zero Order, a character who appeared in the later stages of the game, and despite her appearance, she's definitely one of the Vatican's top brass.
Although she's a bit different from the person I know, the Commander of the Zero Order must be a powerful woman.
I don't know how such a woman managed to get hit by a door and knocked out, but I do know that she looks very untidy.
"But that's weird, why is my forehead so hot."
"I think you might want to take a look in themirror."
"You mean the mirror?"
After hearing my words, she grabs her tingling, swollen forehead and heads to a nearby mirror.
A moment later
"Huh?"
Michaela catches sight of her reflection, a bump sticking out in the middle of her forehead.
After a moment of confusion, she lifts one hand and places it on her forehead.
A moment later, a greenish glow engulfed her hand.
The wound, bathed in light, slowly begins to regain its original skin color, and the swelling quickly subsides, returning to its original appearance.
Come to think of it, most of the humans in the Vatican were able to use Heal, weren't they?
"She doesn't seem to think it's a big deal, so we'll just bury it quietly.
I thought to myself as I watched her self-medicate.
On this side of the world, a healer is quite a rare resource. Shes even Knight Templar-level.
"Hoooo."
"Hmm? What is it, do you have something to say?"
"No, no, just keep healing."
"?"
Wow, this is a lot more potent than I thought.
I'm already starting to visualize how I'm going to use it.
The corners of my mouth twitch upward. It was a day that made me want to say a prayer of thanks to the Lord.
* * *
Before Michaela arrived at the hotel she pulled out her cell phone, checked her last orders from the Vatican, and clenched her fists to steel her resolve.
The target of this mission: a powerful mafia family known to control much of the underworld. Eugene Han Corleone, heir to the Corleone family.
Apparently, not too long ago, he was referred to by the general public as the bastard son of Corleone, but that was an old saying.
If anyone made such a remark in a gathering these days, they would be laughed at for he had recently intervened in a number of events and accomplished extraordinary feats.
Feats that could not be ignored, even if they were rumors fueled by Corleones power.
I must be careful, careful, careful. I need to stay as close to him as possible, to make sure he's not up to no good, and to know how he normally lives.
Recalling once again the advice of the Cardinal who had taken her in and raised her, Michaela stepped inside the hotel.
"Welcome Sister. What brings you to our hotel?"
In Italy, which is now the Holy Vatican Empire, a religious is a person who is respected by all.
Of course, in the villages and other towns of Sicily, away from mainland Italy, they were sometimes viewed with wariness, but in this predominantly Catholic land, they were a force to be reckoned with.
"I'm on official business for the Vatican, sir, and I'm here on business for the gentleman in your suite."
At the agent's words, Michaela flashed her identifying necklace and explained her mission.
Normally, she wasn't supposed to say anything about her client's identity, but this was Vatican business.
Not being cooperative was out of the question, so after a moment of confusion, the staffer handed her the elevator key to the suite.
"God bless you, sister."
"God bless you."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Michaela stepped into the elevator.
Her game plan was this
First, knock on the door, then greet each other face-to-face.
During her training at the Vatican, Michaela had already made an objective assessment of herself.
She is beautiful and cute, therefore, it's better to greet him face-to-face than to catch him off guard before meeting him.Identify the gaps in Corleone Jr.'s defenses by doing things that would catch him off guard. Get the information and send it to the Vatican.
A deliberate loophole can actually make her look bad and encourage her opponent to spill the beans.
Michaela planned to take advantage of this and send as much information as possible to the Vatican.
She had practiced and the plan was perfect.
When she finally arrived in front of the suite, she said a quick prayer to calm her nerves before embarking on her mission and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" she heard from inside, but she didn't answer.
She didn't answer, knowing that in this neighborhood, saying, "I'm from the church," usually sets off alarm bells.
But the door didn't open.
What could it be? She could definitely hear voices inside.
-Ding!
She knocked again and waited quietly.
It almost broke her rhythm, but she's a pro so she quickly regained her composure.
However the door still wasnt opened.
Shaking her head, she picks up the rhythm and starts knocking again.
Tick, tick, tick, tick!
Bang!
The impact on her head caused her vision to shake violently, and her body began to lose strength.
"Ugh!"
Surelydidn't feel any signs of.'
It was so sudden that she couldn't even summon her divine power to protect herself, and she was caught by surprise.
I never thought I'd be attacked from the start.'
She blacked out, and when she opened her eyes again.
Successful infiltration.
She smiled faintly inwardly as she realized she was lying in the target's room.
Right now, he doesn't know she's awake.
If she pretended to pass out like this, she might be able to get some meaningful information out of him
"This is ridiculous."
"?!
As if he knew she was awake.
Feeling the stare directed at her, Michaela angrily raised her holy power, but quickly lowered it.
It was odd for a fainted person to use holy power.
1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11.'
So she calmed her chaotic mind by counting to the prime numbers, just as she had in training.
Yes, her breathing control and acting were perfect. It would be impossible for anyone to notice
"I saw it clearly."
You saw it?
The divine power she had cultivated was very weak, probably impossible to even grasp if you weren't concentrating on it.
But how could he possibly have seen it.
Deciding that her opponent's powers of observation were so overwhelming that any further acting was unnecessary, she gave up and opened her eyes.
You're not a pushover.
As if her earlier demeanor was nothing, Michael felt a chill run down her spine at the way he suddenly looked worried and concerned for her.
Meanwhile, her forehead was swollen.
She quickly rushed to the mirror to treat it, but.
Are you laughing?
Eugene Corleone.
Seeing him grinning behind her, she mentally raised her alert level to the highest.
Eugene Han Corleone. You are truly terrifying.'
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter