TBR CH57

Chapter 57: Fortune and Misfortune are Interdependent

Half an hour later, the intricately carved rose gate of the Holy See slowly opened. The young Bishop walked out with a light and unhurried pace, followed by the Holy Knights who stood by his side in a guarding posture. The inside of the Church and the outside were like two different worlds. Within the Church of Light, massive and ancient buildings stood under the sunlight, silent and solemn. Even the wind was still.

This was Edwin’s world.

The man standing on the platform before the gate was momentarily speechless. The fear of the Church’s thousands of years of rule was deeply ingrained. And the new generation’s leader of this ancient, decaying machine stood before him, looking at him, his nominal biological father, as if he were not human. His gaze was cold, his inorganic eyes moving slightly, fixing on the man.

Edwin suddenly discovered that, seeing this man before him again, he felt no emotional stir at all.

The last collapse had been too devastating. Even when the demon saw him off, his bright pupils held a hint of concern. But it was this concern, thinking of it now, that even made him feel a kind of pleasantness that was hard to dispel.

He realized he already had the courage to face all this.

His biological father…

Was nothing more than that.

Edwin decided not to beg for the so-called unprovoked emotions brought by kinship. He had something better now. Decades of pain, resentment, and longing had completely melted away in a sweet embrace that asked for nothing in return. The things he had longed for in his memory had been completely replaced by the demon, with soft hair and beautiful eyes.

He needed Tar, possessed Tar, liked Tar.

It was a feeling of sudden enlightenment, as if a lifetime had passed.

And the man before him suddenly, truly became an insignificant stranger.

The Bishop walked out of the Holy See. The guards Prince Angelo had brought immediately stood in front of the man, seemingly wary that he would make a move on him in public.

But, this kind of powerless struggle was not Edwin’s style.

The man’s expression was laid bare in his deep gray pupils: guilt and unease, fear and disgust, self-deception. He stood on the high platform, his mission to expose everything, giving rise to a kind of self-proclaimed heroic determination.

“I… I’m very sorry…” he hissed, his voice terribly hoarse. “But, so that God’s will is not blasphemed, I can only speak the truth. My child, I cannot watch my sin grow greater.”

The last time he had seen Edwin, the pressure from the great archbishop of the Holy See had been immense. But, afterwards, the man recalled, he felt the Bishop had also been under great psychological pressure at the time. When he said certain things, beneath the Bishop’s seemingly indifferent gaze, there was something that could be stirred. And his mission today was to exploit that moment of vulnerability.

No matter what, he was the father of the person before him.

But…

The Bishop tilted his head slightly. He didn’t even look at him, but at the guard beside the man, who was Angelo’s confidant. Edwin smiled. The Bishop always smiled like that, compassionate and holy, as the believers would say, and as Tar would call it, fake.

“Is it someone sent by His Highness the Prince again… I hope that when he stops, God will still be willing to forgive his sins.”

The surrounding crowd began to murmur. Most of these people lived under the shelter of the Church and had heard about the recent disputes. Edwin had behaved impeccably in all aspects, and people were subconsciously biased towards him.

The man had not undergone professional training. Being whispered about and accused by so many people, he suddenly became flustered. “No, no, everything I said is true.” He pointed at Edwin. “Great Archbishop Edwin is actually… not an orphan. He is my child, with the blood of a succubus flowing in him. This is the absolute truth.”

The Bishop sighed softly. “An unrepentant man.”

His voice was pure indifference. Before Edwin, the man before him was, for a moment, like an ant. The gray-eyed man suppressed the urge to retreat, and in a daze, he suddenly realized that the Bishop seemed different from the last time he saw him.

Before, Edwin still had some human qualities. Words would leave scars in his gray eyes. But now, under the watchful eyes of the public, the Bishop before him should not be seen as anyone’s child. He was the most honored leader of the Church, with power and strength approaching the pinnacle of humanity.

He no longer changed his emotions because of him.

Realizing this, the man felt a deep sense of unease.

“No,” he managed to find his voice again. He had to obey Prince Angelo’s request; there could be no other thought. “I demand… I demand the use of blood magic to confirm this matter.”

“Fine.”

The Bishop simply agreed, as if the matter itself were insignificant, and he graciously accepted the offense of the person before him. Edwin turned his head. For a moment, he hoped to see Tar’s pomegranate-red eyes, but on such an occasion, it was clearly not appropriate for the demon to appear.

Tar was a treasure and must be properly protected.

Before truly standing here to face this man for the second time, he hadn’t thought he would be so calm.

But at this moment, he was detached, deadly calm. All his hopeless desires and anxieties had already found their answers in the demon. Tar, the Bishop thought with a little regret that he had been disturbed the first time he tied the demon’s hair. The demon’s soft, black long hair, gathered by the ruby ribbon, looked extremely beautiful.

Edwin’s fingers curled impatiently at the thought of his name. He didn’t care about his so-called biological father before him now, along with the natural affection of kinship, because he already had something better.

He turned and requested the Holy Knight behind him, “There is a blood sample of mine in the Holy See’s archives. Please go and get it now.”

The man seemed to want to say something, but looked at his eyes and said nothing. The confidant of Angelo beside him gave him a look of condemnation and contempt and stepped forward first. “Your Excellency the Bishop, I think those blood samples, after so many years, are somewhat unreliable. If you are truly innocent, why not use the blood from your body directly for the examination?”

In fact, the blood sample had been taken not long ago at the prince’s request and was not outdated at all. But as long as Edwin wanted, he could indeed tamper with it at any time—Edwin sighed, once again showing noble forgiveness. “Alright, then we’ll do as you say.”

Continuing to waste time with these people was tantamount to wasting time. The Bishop proactively cut his own finger. A drop of blood fell, still the crimson of a human. The succubus bloodline had of course already taken effect, but Edwin had the conditions to learn how to use it bit by bit, so he also quickly mastered the method of suppression.

It could be said that Tar had taught him, and there was also Tar’s disguise effect. Otherwise, the color would be a little deeper, but not to the extent of being discovered. This red was very beautiful. Edwin thought of a new piece of carnelian the Holy See had obtained two days ago, which had not yet been processed. If he were to choose a gift again, what should he give the demon?

Angelo clearly held no hope of exposing him directly through the color of his blood. But the faces of the people opposite him were already extremely ugly. Anyone could see that Edwin was completely fearless.

Edwin was, of course, prepared.

At that time, he had wavered, so… he had spared the other’s life. But how could he have allowed himself to be slaughtered to this extent? In these days, he had laid out countless possibilities in his mind. In these possibilities, the other had never appeared as a father, nor had he shown any mercy.

He had done everything he could. Even at the most unbearable moment of collapse, he had not completely shown his hand to the other.

So, the Bishop hid the mockery in his eyes and saw the test result under the watchful eyes of the public: No blood relationship.

Extreme panic and disbelief spread across the man’s face. He stumbled down from the platform, shouting that it was impossible. Beside him, the guards retreated one after another, no longer intending to fulfill their duty of protection.

He tried to rush to Edwin, but was stopped by the might of the Holy Knights just a few steps away. He knelt heavily before the Bishop, knowing there was no turning back. “I was forced,” the man sobbed, large tears rolling from his eyes. “The prince held my wife and children hostage, demanding I testify for him. I… I beg you… help them. Only you can save me now…”

Is it as I thought? Edwin wondered.

This couldn’t be considered the truth, but he was not surprised to find that the man before him had not betrayed him for profit or money. His biological father was a thoroughly cowardly ordinary person who loved his wife and children and felt guilty towards him, and that was all.

An ordinary person would not be willing to get involved with a succubus, with danger and trouble.

He knelt wretchedly in the dirt, while Edwin’s robe was spotless, the buttons fastened up to his collar. He was a great figure who could easily decide his life or death. He buried his head on the hard stone slabs, that emotion earnest. “Spare my wife and children. I am willing to die for them.”

The man’s remorse and guilt were too conspicuous. Even the passersby who had just been pointing at his chest and scolding him, many of them began to soften their hearts. Although they didn’t know the exact situation, they had already determined this was a failed scam. The gray-eyed man was merely a pawn of the powerful. The crime he had committed seemed to be something he himself could not understand.

A person who cannot control their own destiny, even if they have made mistakes, can be forgiven.

And Edwin smiled gently and took a step back.

No. Let it be a kind of arrogance on his part. He would not forgive.

And, things were clearly not over. Prince Angelo’s attack this time was not very vicious. It was probably because the other had also noticed that he had already visited his biological father in advance, so he didn’t hold much hope for the outcome. If it could cause harm to Edwin, that would of course be for the best. If not, he couldn’t afford to lose his own reputation, so…

The man’s peripheral vision seemed to catch something. He was suddenly dumbfounded, unsure if it was elation or terror.

It was a magnificent carriage that had suddenly appeared in his line of sight.

And getting out of the carriage were Prince Angelo himself, and the man’s wife and two children. They were all pale-faced. They had never stood before such powerful figures in their lives. Even the smiles on their faces were weak.

But, they were whole, safe and sound.

That was enough, the man thought, but he suddenly saw his wife’s expression, an expression that plunged him into an icy abyss in an instant.

The prince seemed to have only just discovered the stalemate here. His face showed a smile that made one uncomfortable, the innocent blue in his eyes appearing somewhat abrupt here, but he smiled very happily. “Ah, Your Excellency the Bishop, my sincere apologies,” Angelo tried to walk towards Edwin. The Bishop only had to slightly avert his gaze, and the Holy Knight beside him would block him. The prince spread his hands and smiled helplessly. “I am also a victim in this matter, my beloved Bishop. It is my mistake that your reputation has suffered. However, why not listen to the views of this lowly man’s wife and children, in order to understand the full picture of this scam.”

Hurry up, Edwin thought. He was tired of this boring trick.

Had Tar messed up his hair? The demon might not be used to having his hair tied up, since he always wore it down, but it looked very good that way too. When alone in the room, Tar would read. Although Edwin could never understand the demon’s taste in books, the Bishop regretted a little that he hadn’t gone to the library to get a new batch of books before leaving.

Recently, Tar liked to lean against his bed to read. A bit lazy, but it certainly wasn’t the demon’s fault.

By the time he came back to his senses, the man’s wife had already come forward and, with a grim and solemn expression, had finished telling another version of the story.

In this version, the man was a scoundrel blinded by profit. He had hidden from her his youthful affair with a succubus, and then forced his wife and children to cooperate with him, trying to gain the prince’s trust and money with this lie. Now he was still pretending to be kind, deceiving the onlookers. Fortunately, His Highness the Prince was kind and merciful, and had treated their family well.

And the child with succubus blood he spoke of, of course, His Highness the Prince had now found out everything. He had died in the monastery more than ten years ago.

“How about that?”

As the smile on Angelo’s face grew more dazzling, the man’s face grew more ashen, but he gritted his teeth and did not refute a single word. His wife was doing it for the lives of their children. He was of course well aware of this, and he had indeed wronged her in their youth. But, even so…

The feeling of being abandoned was too despairing.

I did it for them. This thought scraped at the man’s heart with a dull pain.

The woman’s words were too earnest, and the two children clinging to her undoubtedly added a lot of credibility to her testimony. In contrast, the man’s powerlessness at this moment was tantamount to a silent admission of everything.

In a situation where one could not be put to death, the confrontations of the great figures were merely a touch and go. Excessive difficulty was meaningless. Edwin smiled indifferently, not responding to the prince’s enthusiasm, only lightly proposing, “According to what Your Highness the Prince says, he is indeed guilty. However, to believe in slanderous words is also a grave sin before God. I think you should be careful.”

“…Ah, of course, of course.”

As if Edwin were not the one who had slandered. He was clearly the one who had deceived the most before God, who had stolen all fame and fortune. But at this point, to mock him with words was too powerless.

This all became a complete farce.

In the end, only the man was left standing there in a daze. Everyone walked around him. The older people were even more contemptuous of his involvement with a succubus and expressed deep sympathy for his wife.

Before leaving, Great Archbishop Edwin said a sentence to him that no one else heard: “Angelo deceived you, but did you really not realize it?” he said. “The silence spell was not lifted, only temporarily suppressed. You actually made a choice before everything began.”

Walking up the white tower, the knights beside Edwin bowed and left, leaving the Bishop alone in his space. Without realizing it, Edwin had already silently curled his lips, looking forward to meeting someone. This emotion had never existed before, and then at this moment, it swept through the Bishop’s gray eyes, like a flame lit in a thick fog.

Until he stood before the door, an unspeakable fear for the first time gripped Edwin’s throat with such intensity, making him feel for the first time the immense anxiety of possibly losing something.

—The formation was broken.

Taking advantage of his being lured away, while he had to deal with matters outside, someone had come to his room door and taken measures to try to open it. Edwin had set up two formations at the door, and at this moment, the outer formation was completely exhausted, leaving only remnants, indicating a tragic end.

This was theoretically impossible. Edwin was very certain that at this moment, the Holy See was purely composed of people belonging to the Holy See. Any nails Prince Angelo had planted should, by rights, have had no chance of being spared.

Edwin felt his hands were as stiff as ice. He tried hard to maintain his composure, but at this moment, the extreme unease and panic in his heart were a hundred times greater than what he had felt when he was slandered. When he placed his hand on the doorknob, he dared not turn it for a long time.

Click.

The lock made a light sound and then slid open silently.

The Bishop first saw the half of the formation that was still running. It was the inner one, more delicate. The intruder had clearly spared no effort; the edges of the formation were covered with black scorch marks. But fortunately, the formation was originally an updated product of Edwin’s. The Bishop had spent a lot of effort on it, so the other party had not succeeded in overcoming it.

But even if there was only a slight possibility, Edwin could not bear it.

He was even a little afraid to raise his eyes to look for the demon in the room. The Bishop first heard Tar’s voice, not the demon speaking, but just the sound of small movements. And the scent of roses, bit by bit, soaked into him, causing his heart, which had been hanging by a thread, to finally land properly.

But he still pursed his lips, standing at the door of the room like a child who had done something wrong.

The being that had tried to destroy the formation of his room, his strength, although far from being comparable to Edwin’s, was enough to pose a considerable risk to a low-level demon.

He had been too confident in his own abilities, too arrogant and conceited, like a fool thinking he was prepared for everything, when in fact he was walking blindfolded on the edge of a cliff.

He absolutely couldn’t imagine—

“Edwin?”

He had been frozen for too long. The demon was a little confused by his performance. Tar jumped lightly and quickly from the bed, walked to the Bishop’s side, touched his hand, and only then was startled to find Edwin’s hand was this cold.

Edwin received the touch as if he had received permission, and only then did he finally raise his eyes again to greedily look at the demon that belonged to him.

His hair was still tied with a ribbon. As the demon moved, the rose-shaped carnelian gem swayed behind his neck, bright to an unbelievable degree. Tar leaned over and whispered softly in his ear, “Do you need me to hug you? Because you look…”

Before he could finish his words, the Bishop before him could no longer bear it and hugged him, burying his head in the side of Tar’s neck. The demon thought, he was also very cold, just like the time he had almost shattered before. Without asking any questions, the demon chose to hug him back gently, because Edwin was trembling, and he had warmth.

Was it because he had seen that man again?

The God’s deep red pupils, hidden from Edwin’s view, flashed with thought. But he had actually witnessed the whole process today. After all, he was not some little demon that could be truly locked up by the Bishop.

Humans never failed to live up to his expectations. He had already realized how foolish kinship was, so today he also showed no emotional fluctuation. The human the God had his eye on was not distracted by irrelevant personnel, which pleased the God. But, Edwin’s current state was very bad, and it was not a pretense.

Or was it because of the triggered formation at the door? When the God returned, it was already like this. Tarksius didn’t think this could pose any threat. Obviously, this was another attempt by the Holy Son, and the power within the Holy See was not enough to shake the defense Edwin had laid down.

Before he had arrived here, the Bishop’s room was practically a headquarters for assassins. If Edwin was worrying about this, he was being somewhat overly sensitive.

Considering this problem only took Tar a few seconds, because he soon felt it was better to concentrate on dealing with the current Bishop.

“Soon” meant, under the circumstances where the other had kissed his neck and then reached out to pull open the buttons of his shirt.

Tar’s buttons were far fewer than Edwin’s.

The Bishop was like someone urgently pleading for something. His state was a bit off now, Tar thought. He was almost touching and kissing him as if he desperately wanted to be stopped. Thin mist fell from his gray eyes into condensed droplets. This continued until the demon pressed him against the wall by his waist, pulling at his collar to stop him from going any further.

“Wait,” he said helplessly. “Edwin, you have to explain to me first.”

“I’m sorry.”

The Bishop spoke before he could finish his words. “I’m sorry, I… I didn’t expect it. It won’t happen again, absolutely not. Tar, I will set up three Light formations with forbidden spells and steel seals at the door of the room. No one will be able to get in and hurt you.”

“For this…?” Tar looked at him with some incomprehension. Had the demon’s pomegranate-red pupil color darkened slightly? Edwin couldn’t be sure, but he was completely motionless at this moment. Tar had signed the contract with him to seek protection. He should have done this part well. Now he had been derelict in his duty.

All things not done perfectly will be punished.

And he was willing to accept the accountability, as long as it wasn’t too much. The thought of leaving the demon alone in the room where he could have been harmed made the Bishop feel an unbearable panic. Unbearable, thinking of this word made him let out a short, mocking laugh.

He had always had nothing, and now he was suddenly afraid of losing something.

“And,” Tar asked with a somewhat reproachful tone, “is this your way of apologizing?”

As he spoke, he raised his hand to touch Edwin’s forehead, surprised to find he had no fever. In the God’s view, the human’s words were clearly a bit delirious. If the other were sick now, it would be more understandable.

Edwin was obviously stunned by this question. For a moment, he couldn’t control himself, only wanting to touch the demon as physically as possible. But, he was right. No matter what, this didn’t look like an apology, more like a reward.

“If you have something you want…” The Bishop felt such words were also powerless, but he stood before Tar like someone who had done wrong, completely at his mercy. Or rather, the other was still pressing against him, with his knee, making him unable to move, while his head had to be raised under Tar’s touch, his fragile neck bent into a soft arc.

Then, the demon leaned over and kissed him.

The kiss came very suddenly, but it was still a proper kiss. Tar licked Edwin’s lips at the end. The Bishop often said he carried the scent of roses, but Edwin didn’t realize that a mature demon also had their own scent. Tar had tasted it on the night of the transformation, and now, only when their lips and teeth were sufficiently blended could the trace of the scent be captured.

Tar couldn’t say what that scent was, but for some strange reason, he felt he liked it.

“I still don’t think it’s that serious.” He finally commented, looking at Edwin’s dazed eyes from the kiss. “See, your formation ultimately blocked the intruder, didn’t it? You can protect me. There’s no need to apologize for this matter.”

Are there mistakes that can be forgiven without paying a price?

Edwin felt everything was light and airy, but Tar was just that good. The demon didn’t realize his movements had finally messed up the hair that had been maintained for a whole night, and the Bishop reached out to stroke the satin-soft long hair.

He still felt uneasy, but it was mixed with honey.

Sweet, forgetting sorrows.

From the demon he truly possessed and needed to protect.

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