As Aizen in Naruto and Joined a Chat Group Chapter 598: The Lord Is Watching Over Us

Why?

Ashley’s face was dumbfounded, her comprehension failing entirely. Why would the “conversion crystal” contain images of the great cathedral and the Pope? What on earth was going on?

Wait. Surveillance bacteria?

The term flashed through Ashley’s mind all at once, and she went still. So that was what “surveillance bacteria” meant? Bacteria used for surveillance?

Her gaze moved to the two clergymen standing opposite the Pope in the image, and at last everything fell into place.

“So running off earlier was for this?” Ashley’s eyes turned back to Eriri. When the girl had said she needed to step out and take care of something important, Ashley had been curious. Now she finally understood.

“Mm-hm. What else?” Eriri winked at her. “Did you truly believe I went all that way to hand-deliver gold to them?”

“As expected of Mr. Shinigami!” Ashley’s face overflowed with admiration and awe.

She had assumed this Mr. Shinigami was merely a powerful warrior of immense strength and unshakable conviction. She had never imagined the man was equally adept at schemes and stratagems.

She had underestimated her. Or rather, she still hadn’t fathomed the true depths of this Mr. Shinigami.

“Stay calm. Basic operations.” Eriri turned her face away, feeling a touch embarrassed, for the truth was, she hadn’t thought of it herself. The surveillance bacteria gambit had only come to her after someone else’s reminder.

“Mr. Shinigami seems… a little different somehow.” Ashley said it abruptly, watching the shy-faced Eriri.

It was as if the girl had set down her disguises and protective coloring, letting her true temperament show through.

“Does it?” Eriri, inside the fishbowl, had no awareness of her own transformation. She waved a hand. “You’re imagining things. Less talking, watch closely.”

Inside the great cathedral.

Domi and Kira, the two clergymen who had administered Eriri’s test, now stood solemn-faced, gazing with devout eyes at Pope Lalder before them.

The latter’s eyes were gently closed, his expression neither sorrowful nor joyful. “Is the matter of the Lord complete?”

“Yes, Your Holiness.” Domi, the taller and thinner of the two, answered aloud. “We delivered the Cantor’s medal into her hands without arousing the least suspicion.”

“The people of the world are fools, calamities from beyond the realm no exception.” Lalder gave a slight nod. “Since she wishes to infiltrate our church, then let her enter. Our Lord is merciful; He will not treat her differently merely for being a calamity from beyond the realm.”

“Praise be to the Lord.” Domi and Kira bowed their heads and murmured.

Calamity from beyond the realm?

Hearing this, Eriri couldn’t help narrowing her eyes. Was this her designation now? A title? Because she wasn’t of this world, she was to be called a “calamity from beyond the realm”?

Damn it all. Dressing up such a discriminatory slur in all that pompous piety? What kind of god is “merciful” while talking like that?

Still, how had these people discovered her identity? Could there be a traitor on the Southeastern Province side? Unlikely. Jessica had given her assurances, after all.

As for Jessica herself being the church’s lapdog, of that, Eriri had no suspicion at all. She wasn’t a fool; back in the Southeastern Province she had already probed the woman in secret, many times over.

That Jessica hated both the War Church and the empire was beyond doubt.

So how had her identity been exposed?

Eriri kept her face perfectly still even as these thoughts raced, her eyes never leaving the image before her.

“And yet, merciful though our Lord is, He cannot permit a calamity from beyond the realm to defile the sacred hall.” At these words, Lalder’s eyes snapped open, his whole body radiating an air of majesty. “As the Lord’s shepherds, it falls to us to cleanse this contamination, thoroughly!”

“We await Your Holiness’s command.” Domi and Kira hurriedly bowed as one.

“During the calamity’s baptism, place her in the Fourth Corridor.” Lalder’s eyes narrowed as he said mildly, “Bishop Ylder will preside. Administer the Grand Logos Rite.”

Hsss.

Domi and Kira exchanged a look, drawing in a sharp breath as one.

A baptism of the Grand Logos Rite was the very highest grade the church administered, pouring the God of War’s will directly into the baptizee’s mind and remaking them, root and branch, into the church’s faithful shepherd.

But the rite’s success rate was vanishingly small. Under ordinary circumstances, hardly anyone could withstand so brutal an infusion, a permanent vegetative state was the kindest possible outcome.

Such measures were reserved for heretics and the vilest blasphemers. Never had they imagined the Pope would turn it upon a calamity from beyond the realm.

As if he could already foresee the blonde girl he’d met turning into an idiot, a thread of unwilling pity crossed Kira’s face. Even if she was a calamity from beyond the realm, he felt she ought not suffer such a fate.

But he voiced no objection, he dared not contradict the Pope’s command. He was, after all, a mere messenger priest, lowly of rank and lighter than air in speech.

“Your Holiness, and if she survives the Grand Logos Rite? What then?” Domi asked with a bow, clearly genuinely curious. Compared with Kira beside him, he, as the chief celebrant, held the right to question.

“Then she is proven to be the Lord’s lamb indeed.” Lalder’s gaze softened, and he smiled. “And to a lamb, we owe love and solicitude. Send her directly to the Gorge Chamber. The Lord will bless our works.”

Kira’s face shifted yet again, while Domi nodded as if enlightened. “Your Holiness is merciful. It is only right.”

“A lamb of the Saint, I am quite sure our gentlemen friends will find her fascinating.” Lalder smiled with narrowed eyes, as though beholding some wonderful scene to come. “As for the blasphemers following in her wake, they, too, shall all face judgment.”

“Our Lord is merciful.” Domi and Kira bowed their heads once more, praise on their lips.

“Go and prepare, my children.” Lalder waved a hand. “And do not forget: our all-knowing, all-powerful Lord watches the world of men, always.”

Kira, turning to go, shuddered from head to toe, then hurried after Domi out of the great cathedral.

Eriri shut off the image, lost in thought. The all-knowing, all-powerful Lord watches the world of men, in other words, her exposed identity was the result of that so-called God of War laying eyes on her?

The gods of this world, were they really watching humanity twenty-four hours a day? Did they have nothing better to do?

She shook her head helplessly and turned her gaze to Ashley at her side, only to find the woman rigid as a board, her face full of horror. “Damn it, damn it! We can’t stay here any longer. We have to get back to the Southeastern Province, fast!”