Chapter 102
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Who the Hell Is That Person?
‘Reincarnator, Sien Mirmod.’
Those words turned my face bright red with panic.
Up until now, not a single soul knew I was a reincarnator.
Yet the Pope had cast a spell called ‘Mind Bind’ on me and figured it out.
‘Is he reading my mind by looking into my eyes?’
Just in case, I quickly squeezed my eyes shut.
And with my eyes still closed, I asked him,
“Hey, you! What the hell are you? You’re reading my mind right now, aren’t you?”
I heard the Pope cackling and Axel clicking his tongue at the same time.
“Insolent brat.”
“She’s Mathias Mirmod’s daughter. She can’t help it.”
‘They’re even throwing shade at my dad? What a bunch of total assholes...!’
The thought bubbled up that I’d grind these evil bastards to dust the moment I got out of here. Then the Pope chuckled softly and said,
“The annoying one here is you, Sien.”
“You can read that far? Gross!”
“Of course. I can read your intense inner thoughts and your past. But Sien Mirmod, closing your eyes is a foolish move. I can read some of your thoughts without even looking at them.”
Furious at the Pope’s voice, which sounded like he was some all-knowing god, I snapped my eyes open again.
“Fine, then keep ‘em open. Listen up, Pope. You’re the one who kidnapped me? And you call yourself the Pope who embraces everyone? What a hypocrite!”
“Oh, what a pitiful little lamb. This lamb should be grateful even if I stoop to hypocrisy...”
The Pope’s faint smirk vanished in an instant, his face flushing red. He lifted my chin and whispered. This time, it wasn’t his fake polite tone—it was sly and informal.
“Do you know what’s engraved on your hand?”
“......”
In that moment, I understood everything.
The characters that read ‘Mind Domination’...
“Yeah, I can read your mind. Borrowed the power of the gods.”
They planned to read parts of my mind.
I hadn’t anticipated this. I bit my lip hard as I glared at Axel, who had sidled up next to the Pope.
“Cowards! Trash!”
“Cowardly or not, if I can use you as a hostage to take out Mathias Mirmod, that’s all that matters. Now, think about it. About the Mirmods’ weaknesses.”
I glared at them, my face drained of color.
There was something I’d always wondered about. Since they were right here, I figured I’d probe their thoughts.
“Why go this far? Can’t we just coexist? You keep treating the Mirmods like the root of all evil, like they need to be exterminated!”
“Quite amusing.”
Axel sneered, curling his lip.
“I like massive chaos and evil too. What happens in the process, whether a brat like you drops dead and vanishes—none of that matters to me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again.
Axel grinned.
“Stop? Why the hell should I?”
“......I warned you to stop.”
Axel tilted his head at my gaze. His eyes looking at me brimmed with all sorts of ecstasy.
In that instant, I felt more unease than when I’d been hit or strangled. The Axel Mirmod I’d known until now wasn’t the type to look so enraptured.
Then the barrage of questions began.
“Who in the Mirmod family can protect you? Tell me their weaknesses.”
They were clearly fishing for info on the vulnerabilities of the people around me. I shook my head vigorously while frantically thinking other thoughts in my mind.
‘No. I won’t think. I’ll think about something else.’
I barely managed to control my thoughts. But that was a mistake too.
Axel grabbed my chin and slapped my cheek. The sharp smack made it burn. Even after being dragged here and hit several times, the sensation never got familiar.
But then, the Pope seized my hand.
“Ah...”
My plan had been exposed.
I bit my lip and kept my gaze down, avoiding the Pope. But he burst into mocking laughter.
‘This wasn’t part of my plan...’
As I panicked and floundered, the Pope sighed dramatically and whispered,
“Ah. ‘This wasn’t part of my plan,’ you say. So you did have a plan to get in here?”
He was right. I had planned to enter this place. I bit my lip, desperately trying to halt my thoughts.
But thoughts are like that. The more you try to think of something else, the more they circle back. I emptied my mind and kept forcing random thoughts.
‘Didn’t expect them to read my mind. Think of something else. That Pope guy’s ugly. Octopus head. He’s gonna go bald soon. Bye-bye hair, turtle head.’
In that moment, the Pope’s eyes twisted in utter horror.
He gripped my chin straight and stared into my eyes. I tried to wriggle my body defiantly.
The ropes binding me tight enough to cut into my skin made my struggles quite violent.
But...
“Causing pointless trouble, Sien Mirmod.”
To everyone here, my writhing was nothing more than pathetic. And right then, the Pope placed his hand on my forehead and chanted something.
“Rebelling won’t help.”
“......”
“So there’s no need to rebel.”
I glared at the Pope with bloodshot eyes and spat,
“......Damn it, shut up!”
Just as he said, my resistance fizzled out uselessly. The Pope smirked as he read my memories.
“Ah, so you do know the future. You’ve been up to some interesting mischief.”
Writhing in pain, I hissed at him,
“You too? What does that mean?”
But the Pope had no intention of answering. His hand gracefully trailed over my forehead and the back of my hand. I didn’t even have a chance to thrash.
The Pope frowned as he placed his hand on the throbbing carotid artery in my neck.
“Oh, my. Hold on.”
“......What?”
His hand began to tremble spasmodically. I raised my eyebrows at the Pope’s sudden shift in demeanor.
I wasn’t the only one who sensed something off. Even Axel Mirmod—who’d been cackling at my suffering—let out a puzzled snort and asked,
“What’s wrong all of a sudden? If it’s a hassle, just kill her.”
But the Pope ignored Axel’s ‘just kill her if it’s a hassle’ remark. He gripped my hand tightly, grumbling in a way that was completely different from before.
In that moment, it felt like my hand was on fire.
“A holy ability user of noble blood who wields a sword. And one who awakened out of ‘true sincerity’ to protect a precious one...”
The Pope looked at me with a trembling voice. His eyes began to shake wildly. This wasn’t the calm facade, the hypocritical act, or the gentle voice he’d been faking until now.
I stared at the Pope in bewilderment. His mustache quivered pathetically, which was seriously off-putting.
But the Pope seemed too overwhelmed even to read my thoughts. Clutching at his heart, he whispered hoarsely,
“To think such a thing could happen in this world. The gods truly blessed this temple. They’ve finally given us the chance to purge all the filth.”
“......What? Why’re you making that creepy face?”
I glared at him, chewing my lips repeatedly.
But he didn’t show even a hint of annoyance at my insolence. If anything, he...
‘Looks like he’s forgotten I’m even here.’
He gazed down at his own hand, smiling in ecstasy.
“Finally, a hint about the one the gods prophesied.”
I could feel his voice trembling.
‘This is weird. That expression... it’s even more ominous...’
It wasn’t joy from torturing me. Seeing the Pope so happy sent a wave of dread crashing over me.
This was a whole different level of foreboding from when he’d read my thoughts earlier.
‘Why...’
As I bit my trembling lips, the Pope smiled.
“Yes, I should’ve kidnapped that one instead of you...”
“What?”
His mutter sent a strange chill down my spine.
I’d already thought he was unhinged, but hearing his voice now made my skin crawl.
“To think that the one who fulfills all these conditions has come.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
But he didn’t answer me.
Trapped in his own world, he paced frantically around the room. Right, then left...
He seemed half-mad, barely aware of his own movements.
I narrowed my eyes faintly as I listened to his insane mutterings.
“Finally, when that one arrives... the world ordained by the gods shall open. The gates of heaven will part, and all who hate the gods shall perish. That one is the great being sent down for us. Oh, in my lifetime, such perfection...”
His rambling made him look like a total lunatic.
I blurted out my exact thoughts.
“What the hell? Shut up. You’re losing it.”
“Ah... I see. Once the altar is complete, I’ll tell you. You’ve been an excellent, splendid hostage, Sien Mirmod. You’ll die by that one’s hand anyway.”
I sneered sharply at the Pope.
“Oh yeah? Melodia won’t like the altar being completed so soon, will she? You sure about that?”
I said it knowing the Pope felt inferior to Melodia.
But he didn’t react to my taunt, laced with the premise that he was Melodia’s puppet.
Instead, he laughed.
“Ah, anyway...”
Smiling, he tilted his head mockingly at me, bound as I was.
A thin thread of pure white light flowed from his fingertips, soon summoning a blazing flame right beside me.
It looked just like the pyre at a witch hunt execution.
“This... it’s a burning stake, isn’t it?”
The Pope licked his lips and replied in rapture.
“Yes, I will burn that great one at the stake. So that one can be refined and appear before us.”
He kept going on about ‘that one’...
I finally voiced the question that had bugged me all along.
“Who the hell is that person?”