A Disgrace

The remnants of Light were forever a universal salve, applied wherever needed. It was just that in the past, whenever Karen used this excuse, he still had to stage the scene, rehearse his explanations, and handle inspections. Now, there was no need for that—he wasn't about to investigate himself with nothing better to do. Thousand Phantoms spread its wings, and Karen flew with Kangna on his back, touching down before the headquarters building. The building was protected by defensive arrays that restricted high-altitude flight. While Karen possessed the "key" to control the formations, as head of the department he wasn't about to put on a public demonstration of sneaking through the back door. His original clerical robes had been shredded to pieces, meaning Karen was currently naked. However, relying on the power of the ring on his finger, he "added" a set of clothes onto himself. This was a minor extra feature Mr. Lemar had forged into the ring. Karen rarely used it because it was practically useless, but right now it came in handy. Furthermore, no one here would dare use their consciousness to probe their minister and discover the fact that his lordship was naked. Little Kangna slowly woke up after Karen touched down. Sensing her movement, Karen asked, "How are your injuries?" "It hurts a lot. Many of my bones are cracked." Karen's "bear-hug crusher" had relied entirely on the little bone dragon's bodily hardness to carry out the physical strangulation. While it hadn't crushed the Daishan puppet to death outright, the blow had severely wounded it. However, little Kangna had also paid a price. Yet the greatest price came when Karen defeated the Daishan puppet by "detonating" his armor, during which little Kangna had proactively absorbed most of the damage on Karen's behalf. "You don't need to do that next time. You aren't a lifeless suit of armor, after all. Appropriate damage can be shared with me. You can calculate for yourself which balance is most suitable." Kangna shook her head. "I don't want to think that much." "Heh, all right." "Karen, did you ever consider that you might not be her match?" "I did." "Then why did you still go after her?" "Because chances like that don't come often, and I wanted to seize it. If I missed this opportunity, I might never have caught her trail again." "She said that wasn't your style." "It really isn't my style. But style is merely a habit. At certain specific moments, people do things that contradict or even overturn their own style." "For example?" "For example, when we were in the Head Bishop's office earlier. You didn't like our Head Bishop, yet you didn't strike him." "Because he wasn't trying to suppress and enslave me." "Yet she wanted to do that to me." "She was using honorifics with you the entire time." "You even understand honorifics now? Purr really has taught you a lot. She wasn't respecting me—she was treating me like a toy to admire and play with, before clapping her hands and saying, 'How interesting.' I don't like being someone else's plaything, and I don't like living a life where a pair of strange eyes peeks at me. So, I needed to give her a warning. I needed to make her afraid. Fortunately, she has things she cherishes too, so warnings and threats are effective. For a while at least, she shouldn't dare come near me." "Only for a while?" "Theoretically speaking, I don't have much time." "Is it because of Diss?" "Purr told you?" "Sister Purr said Diss shares a surname with me." "Heh, you should address him as Grandfather." "I don't like titles meant for elders." "Yet you call Purr 'Sister.'" "Because her name is Sister Purr Allen." "Then is Kevin's name Brother Kevin?" "Yes, exactly." "But you and I are equals, and Diss is my grandfather. Therefore, he is your grandfather too." Kangna frowned, thought it over for a moment, and said, "I'm only equal to you. It has nothing to do with anyone else." Karen fell silent. As they reached the main doors of the headquarters, Kangna spoke up again: "Still, I like Diss." "Hmm?" "I like that line of his: 'God of Order, raised by a whore.'" "Do you even understand what that means?" "Sister Purr explained it for a long time before I finally understood what a 'whore' is. I like what Diss said. Sister Purr told me that if I ever met Diss, I'd probably be willing to follow him too." "Oh? Really?" "That way, I'd be equal to Diss. And then you..." "Cough. I'm only equal to you; it has nothing to do with anyone else." Seeing Karen enter the building, everyone bowed in salute. Karen nodded in acknowledgment all the way to his office, set little Kangna down on a chair, and laid down on the bed. Vic stepped inside and reported, "Minister, the Regional Chief sent his secretary over to invite you to his office." Returning from leading a mission and failing to report directly to one's superior at headquarters was already a breach of etiquette. However, Karen had no choice but to continue being impolite. Right in front of Vic, he canceled the ring's illusion. Vic's eyes instantly widened. He truly could not fathom where their minister had gone to get covered in so many injuries immediately after returning home. "Minister, should I notify the church hospital to send over a medical team?" "Just have Blanche come over." "Shall I ask the Regional Chief to come here instead?" "Yes, and call Ashley as well." Vic left. Karen looked at Kangna sitting obediently in the chair. "In a moment, I'll have Ashley take you to the research institute. It isn't far from here. Go get your injuries treated, and make sure to cooperate with their examinations. They will establish your ration standards there. Even if you find it annoying, don't throw a temper." "Will they treat me like Augie?" "Theoretically, yes. But endure it for now." "Endure it for now?" "Eat well, grow well, and grow up fast. Once you're fully grown, if that Head Bishop ever dares look at you like cargo again, you can beat him up." "Okay." Kangna nodded, specifically adding, "You aren't allowed to stop me." "I won't stop you." Ashley rushed in first. The moment she caught sight of Karen's state, she let out an involuntary gasp: "Ah, Minister!" "Take Kangna to your parents. Convey my apologies to them—if not for my injuries, I would have paid a visit with Kangna in person." "No, no, no, Minister, there's no need to be so formal! With your current identity and standing, even putting aside our past connections, my parents will fall over themselves to flatter you." "Don't say things like that to your parents." "Hehe, of course not. But my parents seem to have abandoned the idea of transferring me back to the research institute anyway. They think staying by your side offers a brighter future." "Take Purr along with you. Also, mobilize two Whip of Order squads for escort and protection." Karen felt it was safer to have Purr keep an eye on the little bone dragon, because Kangna's temper was... anything but mild. "Understood, Minister." Ashley walked up to Kangna and squatted down. Kangna glanced at Karen, then climbed onto Ashley's back. Not long after Ashley stepped out, Sus entered. He hopped onto the chair Kangna had just vacated. "You really gave me a fright. How did you end up like this?" "Ran into a bit of trouble, but it's resolved." Karen clearly had no desire to elaborate, so Sus didn't press the matter. "I didn't have anything urgent; I originally just intended to drop by for a routine greeting." "Thank you, Lord Regional Chief." "Oh, there is one thing. An application was forwarded to my desk—a contingent of one hundred Dark Moon warriors requested for deployment to our region. This is your doing, isn't it? After all, I've heard rumors about you and the princess from Dark Moon Island." "It was my request." "To be specific, what is the purpose of arranging this unit here?" "I want a bit more strength of my own." Sus paused, momentarily caught between tears and laughter. "You're so frank it almost moves me. Fine, no problem. As for funding, I'll scrape some together from other budget allocations for you. You understand." "Thank you, Regional Chief." "Don't mention it. I rather enjoy this way of working together. Oh, right—you handled your assignment remarkably well this time. You've set a precedent for our region. In the future, good opportunities like that won't belong exclusively to the Dinge Region anymore. Rest well and recover. Keep it up—whether I get promoted or not hinges entirely on your achievements." "Please rest assured, Lord Regional Chief." Sus hopped down from the chair. Just as he was about to leave, he stopped in his tracks and slapped his forehead. "Oh my, how could I forget that?" Lying on the bed, Karen knew that this matter he "almost forgot" was the true purpose of his visit. Even the discussion about the Dark Moon warriors had merely been a preamble. "Lord Regional Chief, whatever mission you have, please instruct me." "A group from the Church of the Desert will be arriving in our Yorktown Region soon to attend a secret conference. If your injuries..." "They aren't a hindrance." "Then organizing the security this time falls to you. However, there is something I must caution you about: this matter isn't straightforward." "Not straightforward?" "I'll tell you in confidence." Sus leaned in toward Karen's bedside. The bed had been designed by Neo, who favored high platforms. Thus, Karen lying on folded quilts and Sus standing beside the bed could converse on "equal" footing. "This was a hint relayed to me from above. Don't misunderstand—it wasn't through personal connections, but an official hint. For this security assignment, you need to handle things flexibly." "Flexibly?" This was the first time Karen had ever heard such a requirement for a security detail. "That's all the hint gave. I'll be keeping a close eye on this assignment as well, but you are the one in direct charge, so we must stay aligned..." "My lord, could you speak a bit more plainly?" "It means that when the time comes, we will have to follow instructions from above. But what those above are actually thinking doesn't seem to be settled yet. It's like how you operated when you first arrived at the Church of the Crypt—we handle our own duties first, and remain ready at any moment to receive orders from above." "Is there a chance they want an accident to happen to them?" "My guess—purely my personal guess—is that headquarters has uncovered leads regarding the assassination at the former Head Bishop's residence. I'll leave it at that; as long as we both understand in our hearts." "My lord, it isn't quite that simple. A flexible security mission, no matter how it's executed, will leave me facing severe punishment if anything goes wrong." "I didn't have to warn you at all; I could have simply let you treat it as an ordinary security task. But I chose to warn you. That's the difference between me and your former superiors. Don't you think?" "Yes." Karen nodded. "I understand." "Keep up the good work." Sus braced one hand on the edge of the bed and patted Karen's shoulder with the other. After he departed, Karen sank into thought. Following the fall of the God of the Desert, the God of the Wilderness, originally a subsidiary deity, had ascended, and the Church of the Desert subsequently transitioned into the Desert Church. Now, fundamentalists from the original Church of the Desert were orchestrating schismatic activities, seeking to sever themselves from the Desert Church and looking to Order for assistance. Furthermore, as revealed at the burial grounds of Compasini, the Church of Order had long been preparing to swallow the Desert Church whole. Backing the Church of the Desert to break away and weaken the Desert Church served Order's strategic interests. Looking back, the assassin who struck at the former Head Bishop's manor had used sand—virtually handing Order a pretext, a dagger on a silver platter, to act against the Desert Church. Objectively, it also heightened the likelihood of the Church of the Desert leveraging Order's might to break away. Therefore, if that was the assassin's objective, or rather, if the assassin had been dispatched by those very fundamentalists of the Church of the Desert... Now that Order had uncovered leads, what choice would it make? Would it maintain deliberate ignorance for the grand scheme of the church, nurturing the desert faction to split the Desert Church and ultimately swallow it whole? Or... would it seek vengeance? The consequence of vengeance was that the desert faction would suffer Order's wrath, prompting the near-fractured Desert Church to achieve a new wave of cohesion, unraveling decades of Order's meticulous schemes. Thus, he had once again received a dirty-work assignment. Fortunately, Karen felt no inner conflict for now. A consensus had yet to form among the higher-ups; only if the final decision handed down failed to match what he wanted would it be his turn to grapple with the dilemma. "Minister, *pfft*..." Blanche entered. The moment she caught sight of the extensive burns across Karen's body, sheer delight caught her off guard, and she burst into laughter. With burns covering such a vast area, she could finally play with the minister's body to her heart's content! "You'll have to trouble yourself again, Blanche." "No, no, no, it's no trouble at all! I'm more than happy to... Oh no, Minister, how did you get hurt like this? It breaks my heart!" *** "Greetings, Lord Bishop." "Greetings, Lord Bishop." Clad in a red bishop's robe, Delon nodded reservedly in return. He was not a vain man; even upon becoming the bishop in charge of array affairs for this region, he hadn't displayed excessive excitement. Yet, whenever he appeared in public holding his wife's hand, receiving bows and salutes from the crowd, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but tug slightly upward. Back when she had chosen him, he had always known she was marrying beneath her station, while he was punching above his weight. For the sake of their household, his wife had laid down her blade and picked up a ladle. A sense of debt had always remained buried deep within his heart, driving his continuous desire to prove himself before her. He wasn't as extraordinary or dazzling as that man had been. Just like Karen today, he had merely been a Richard beside a Karen. Yet he still wished to make her proud through his own efforts. As they reached the corridor of the ward where the crowd thinned out, Madame Tangli cautioned him, "Rein it in. You could hang laundry on that grin of yours." "Haha..." Delon chuckled aloud. "Our family's Lord Bishop really has his head in the clouds now, doesn't he?" Madame Tangli teased. "Well, of course." Delon gently patted the back of his wife's hand. "My Bishop's Lady." "Hehehe." Madame Tangli shook her head with a smile. She still remembered the day he was formally appointed bishop; the old man had brought the bishop's robe before her and proclaimed: *From now on, when you wash clothes, they won't all be black!* He remembered every single word she had ever spoken, even her passing complaints. Arriving at the door of the ward, they found Philomena lying inside alone. Delon muttered in displeasure, "Where is that boy Richard?" The young lady was hospitalized with severe injuries, yet instead of staying by her side to attend to her, where had he run off to? Did he honestly think she would need him often! Madame Tangli said, "Working in the Church Affairs Building, most likely. Karen had quite a few injured people around him this time, so they're short-handed." "He's just running errands, nothing vital." "You're his grandfather—who talks about their own grandson like that?" Delon froze. *Wasn't I just following your tone from these past days to criticize Richard?* The old man naturally didn't realize that compared to Karen, Richard truly didn't amount to much; but compared to outsiders, Richard was Madame Tangli's precious biological grandson. "Go on, speak to the hospital director yourself. Use your privileges to arrange a specially allocated premium room for the Felscher girl." "All right, I'll go right away." Delon turned around to chat with the director. He didn't consider this an abuse of power, as his family was fully entitled to this tier of treatment. Madame Tangli entered the room and approached Philomena's bed. Under Philomena's gaze, she directly pulled open the girl's patient gown, fully exposing the wound on her chest. A single look told Madame Tangli a great deal. Sighing, she sneered: "Useless." Philomena didn't take offense, admitting frankly, "Yes, I am." "Completely overturned in one strike, while in an assassination state?" "Yes, exactly." "Hmph. In the future, don't tell anyone you used to take walks with me." "Is that something to brag about?" "Heh." Madame Tangli sat down beside the bed. "And they deliberately spared your life?" "Yes." "Was the gap in power immense?" If she had challenged an opponent far beyond her level, being knocked flat and spared would be normal. Philomena shook her head and answered, "Barely within the same tier." Because Molindi had already been severely wounded at the time, the undead creature she summoned, purely in terms of power rating, wasn't a generational gap above her. The opponent had achieved an absolute kill purely through overwhelming superiority in technique, ability, and combat experience. "You've lost every shred of face. Sigh, I feel embarrassed on your behalf. Who was it?" "The High Priest." Madame Tangli: "..."