Chapter 153
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 153
Bishop Marik stared intently at ‘Azazel.’ Since the bishop’s face was hidden by a veil, her expression was impossible to read, making Jeremia incredibly nervous.
Jeremia’s heart pounded in her chest, terrified that her answer had sounded strange or that her cover had been blown. Feigning composure, she added another sly remark.
“I heard Evangeline Rohanson is good at handling things like me, so I paid her a visit. I thought it would be fun, that she might entertain me.”
“So that is why you left my side, even without dying.”
“That’s right. Whether I stay by your side or wander off for a bit is my business.”
Jeremia flashed the kind of smile that Pudding utterly loathed, then watched Bishop Marik’s reaction. To her relief, the bishop pointed out nothing amiss, acting as if everything was perfectly normal.
It seemed she hadn’t realized the soul inside the body had changed. Jeremia felt as if her heart would leap right out of her throat.
Fortunately, Jeremia had gathered a fair amount of information about Azazel. Every time she did something, Jelly and Pudding would look at her like she was a piece of disgusting filth and complain, “Azazel would never do that.”
The things they had quoted Azazel as saying were so shocking they were impossible to forget.
“So, did you uncover the young lady’s true identity?”
Jeremia shrugged at Bishop Marik’s question. Evangeline was the benefactor who had given her a new chance at life.
She was the light, the very stars Jeremia had beheld before her death, now in physical form. She was an overwhelming presence who had subjugated a demon, a being far beyond what human senses could ever hope to measure.
“Just that she’s more than worthy of being your adversary?”
Unable to speak her true thoughts, Jeremia ended up echoing Bishop Marik’s own sentiments to describe Evangeline. An adversary who would make Bishop Marik even more perfect—that was Evangeline. Hena, who had been quietly observing, suddenly spoke up.
“Lord Azazel, your personality is very different from when you were at the Rohanson mansion.”
“…Is that so?”
Bishop Marik’s interest was piqued by Hena’s remark.
“That’s because I’m not an idiot like you. If I had acted like this there, do you really think they would have let me in?”
“That’s true. You did fight with Lord Pudding and Mr. Jelly quite a bit, after all.”
Hena, who had harbored a brief suspicion, accepted the explanation. Having never met the real Azazel, she saw nothing odd about it.
According to Jelly and Pudding, Azazel was an arrogant, insolent bastard who didn’t know his place. He was a self-loathing demon who spoke in half-honorifics, a sly and insidious pervert who bluffed about possessing some great hidden power.
Furthermore, based on Jeremia’s own experience, he also had a knack for swindling people.
Jeremia felt a deep sorrow that the body she had possessed, of all things, belonged to absolute trash. It was agonizing to know she had to keep pretending to be an arrogant, perverted bastard.
Having been raised as a sheltered princess, she had no tolerance for lowlifes like Azazel, which drained her mental fortitude even faster. Still, Jeremia comforted herself with the thought that this was all to repay her debt of gratitude and to exact her revenge.
Since she had decided to become a spy and stay by Bishop Marik’s side, she had to give it her all. If she were caught, she would end up like Jelly, pinned beneath her feet. The sight of his face melting at the mere touch of holy water was too horrific to even recall.
Once, she had a body where people would fuss over a tiny scratch and heal it with holy water. Now, her body would melt from it. It was a fresh reminder of how far she had fallen from the grace of humanity.
Jeremia had usurped everything from Azazel and was reborn as a demon. Upon testing her new form, she felt all the same anomalies that other demons experienced.
If she did a poor job of mimicking Azazel and Bishop Marik discovered her identity, she would be truly doomed. If her entire body were submerged in holy water, she would corrode away into nothing.
Get a grip.
Being able to stay close to Bishop Marik and monitor her movements would be a great help to Evangeline. Jeremia stole a glance at the bishop.
Because Bishop Marik’s face was covered by a veil, it was impossible to tell where she was looking. Fearing the bishop’s gaze was on her, Jeremia remained tense throughout the carriage ride, though she was careful not to let it show.
Meanwhile, the sun began to cast its light over the land. As she stared out the window, Bishop Marik called out to her.
“Lord Azazel.”
“Yeah?”
She couldn’t understand why a bishop of the Temple—one who believed heretics deserved to be massacred—would address a demon like Azazel with an honorific. Anyone who saw this would assume Bishop Marik was secretly summoning demons.
“You are unusually quiet today.”
Her tone was gentle, but it sent a shiver down Jeremia’s spine.
The bishop was definitely testing her, sensing that something was different. Growing anxious, Jeremia unconsciously tapped her foot. When Jelly, who was pinned beneath it, let out a groan, she finally remembered he was there.
She apologized to Jelly about ten times in her head but didn't move her foot. If it were Azazel, he would probably press down even harder in a moment like this.
How would Azazel normally act? Jeremia racked her brain for a response.
She missed Evangeline. She wanted to return to the comfortable Rohanson mansion, where she didn’t have to use a single brain cell—even if she had been tricked by Hena into helping set a fire while she was there.
Failing that, she wished Jelly would wake up and perform ventriloquism, like the actors in the palace plays. It would be so much easier if she only had to move her body in sync with his words.
“Quiet, you say…?”
After some deliberation, Jeremia took Bishop Marik’s hand. Of all the information Pudding and Jelly had given her, the label “perverted bastard” had been the most shocking, so she decided to lean into it. She chose to grab the bishop’s hand because she still had unpleasant memories of men slimily fondling her own when she was a princess.
“Why? Is the bishop planning to play with me?”
She then did her best to flash a sleazy smile. She had deliberately made the gesture as slimy as possible, certain it would be repulsive. Fortunately, she had guessed right again. The bishop had absolutely no reaction as she squeezed her hand; it seemed Azazel routinely hit on her like this.
However, since the bishop showed no sign of shaking her off, Jeremia pulled her hand back first, feigning boredom.
Bishop Marik stopped talking to her and shifted her attention to Hena. Jeremia leaned back against the seat as if she were bored, watching the two of them. In truth, she was just utterly exhausted and needed something to lean on.
Hena looked incredibly anxious and restless. Bishop Marik pulled a bottle from her robes and handed it to her. Jeremia wondered if it was holy water, but the bottle’s shape was different. It seemed to be regular water.
Indeed, even for a bishop, using holy water when there were no wounds to heal would be an absurd luxury, even now when the supply of holy water had increased to unprecedented levels. When Jeremia was a princess, she had never drunk holy water while riding in a carriage.
Still, drinking the water seemed to calm Hena down. She asked Bishop Marik, “Bishop… did I do the right thing?”
“That is not for me to judge. Only God knows.”
That was likely not the answer Hena wanted. Bishop Marik paused for a moment before adding, “But if I may offer my personal opinion… Lady Hena, you did the right thing.”
“The right thing…”
“Yes. Thanks to your testimony, Evangeline Rohanson’s existence was exposed, was it not? Evangeline Rohanson is a being that I, Marik, must destroy. There will be many more ways you can help in the future. Will you assist me?”
“Gladly. I will do anything if it helps you, Bishop.”
“Thank you, Lady Hena. Surely, the Sun will look down upon your devotion with favor.”
Jeremia pretended to be uninterested in their conversation, staring out the window while internally seething. Devotion, my ass.
The woman was a lunatic who had set fire to a mansion containing her own master, colleagues, and children. Her crime was heinous. It seemed that studying under a bishop who committed massacres for the “greater good” had corrupted Hena’s mind completely.
Hena seemed to believe that her younger sister, Canna, had undergone a soul-swap, just like Jeremia. She probably thought her sister was already dead and that one of Evangeline’s minions was using Canna’s body.
Since Jeremia herself was living proof that Evangeline could transplant souls, it wasn’t an entirely impossible theory. It was plausible, but because Jeremia blindly trusted Evangeline and detested Bishop Marik, she naturally concluded that the bishop was whispering lies to exploit Hena.
There’s no way Lady Evangeline would do anything wrong. Of course not.
Bishop Marik continued to brainwash Hena, feeding her twisted ideologies. Was this how Tenebrae had been deceived as well? As Jeremia quietly listened, stewing in her discontent, the carriage came to a sudden halt. They had arrived at the Temple.
“Shall we disembark?”
Jeremia followed Bishop Marik out of the carriage. Jelly, who looked like he didn't even have the strength to move, was immediately hauled away by the knights.
“Even Evangeline Rohanson wouldn’t dare come directly to the Temple, so you may rest easy, Lady Hena.”
“Thank you, Bishop.”
As Hena bowed gratefully, Bishop Marik returned the gesture with a cloying gentleness. Jeremia followed the bishop into the Temple.
Perhaps because her body had changed, the pure white Temple, bathed in sunlight, felt incredibly repulsive. Even the air was suffocating. The existence of the Sun Goddess, which she couldn’t even be sure of in her dying moments, was now a palpable force. The Temple was truly a place under the goddess’s protection.
She had no idea how Azazel, a demon, had managed to act as Bishop Marik’s bodyguard here. From what she had heard from Jelly and Pudding, he didn’t seem like the type to endure such humiliation.
Ashamed of having fallen from God’s favor, Jeremia wanted to flee from the sun’s light. Yet Bishop Marik, who had massacred dozens, walked with such shameless confidence.
Then again, if one could still receive God’s love despite committing such murders, perhaps one would never doubt their choices, even if those actions meant taking innocent lives.
Jeremia felt a pang of jealousy. For a moment, she thought she understood why demons loathed humans so much. No wonder creatures like Pudding and Jelly clung so desperately to Evangeline.
As if reading Jeremia’s impious thoughts, Bishop Marik suddenly spoke.
“What about you, Lord Azazel?”
Lost in thought, Jeremia realized she must have missed what the bishop had said. While she was still puzzling over the sudden question, Bishop Marik asked again.
“You stood me up to go to the Rohanson mansion, did you not? Lady Hena has chosen me. Who will you choose, Lord Azazel?”
Bishop Marik walked on with her back straight, never looking back, but Jeremia could somehow sense her smirk.
“Between Evangeline Rohanson and me, that is.”
Jeremia had to use all her willpower not to let her tension show.
“Well… what kind of answer are you looking for? Do you want me to choose you?”
Her voice trembled slightly. Jeremia answered slyly, praying that Bishop Marik wouldn’t notice.
“It’s not like my choice matters to the high and mighty bishop anyway. But if you win, I’ll gladly stay by your side.”
A laugh burst out from ahead of her. It was a girlish, innocent sound, utterly unfitting for a middle-aged woman.
She couldn’t understand why a priest who despised heretics and loathed demons would care about Azazel’s answer. Regardless, the response Jeremia gave seemed to satisfy Bishop Marik.
Jeremia stared at the bishop’s retreating back. Unlike the other priests, she wore a nun’s habit that covered her entire body, as if she were hiding from the eyes of the Sun.
Who will I choose?
If she could stand here as her true self, as Jeremia, the answer was painfully obvious.
She would do everything in her power to ensure that the young lady who saved her would punish evil and rise to even greater heights, so that everyone would finally realize she was right. And at the end of that path, Jeremia’s revenge would be complete.