"I offer my sincere apologies. We did not expect the three of you to arrive so early, and we neglected to send someone to receive you. Please forgive us."
Not long after Jeanne and the others began their tour of the building, the internal staff discovered them. Subsequently, someone was sent to escort them to the meeting location.
However, Jeanne hadn't expected that an Emperor's Blade would be the one leading them. Moreover, judging by his distinct accent... it was clearly No. 17, the one Talulah and the others had thrashed.
Looking at him now, his recovery speed was truly impressive. It hadn't been that long since he was pinned to the ground and beaten into a pathetic state by Talulah's group. Now, he looked as if nothing had happened, not to mention he had taken two bullets from Executor point-blank. One could only praise the resilience of an Emperor's Blade.
When the Emperor's Blade caught Jeanne looking at him, he felt the Demons within his body stir once more. Subconsciously, he took a step back, distancing himself from her.
If they hadn't been unable to find anyone else suitable to handle certain matters, he truly wouldn't have participated in this. He felt that the further he stayed away from this group of eerie people, the better. It wasn't necessarily that he was afraid of Jeanne; it was primarily that the Demons inside him didn't even dare to approach her. He could faintly hear the Demons within his body screaming obscenities in terror.
Furthermore, according to what he knew, the Emperor's Blade that Jeanne had dragged back—No. 7—had been temporarily redeployed to the tundra to fight the Demons because he had learned something valuable during that battle.
"I didn't expect us to meet again so soon. By the way, how is your captain doing? I might have been a bit heavy-handed before. I believe his number was Seven?"
Seeing that the atmosphere along the way was somewhat awkward, Jeanne struck up a conversation with the Emperor's Blade. Although they were technically acquaintances, knowing what to say was still a challenge.
"He... is doing fine. However, he was recently sent on an emergency mission to the front lines to combat the Demons."
"Sent out so soon? Is the front line really so strained that you need to send back a veteran who was just stationed here?" Jeanne asked, a hint of doubt in her heart.
She knew how hard she had hit him; she had truly been playing for keeps. With that level of Holy Light left in his body, it shouldn't have disappeared for at least a month. Even if those three Emperor's Blades had suffered a defeat due to his command, the Emperor wouldn't just send a perfectly good subordinate to his death, would he? Based on what she knew of the Emperor from Kashchey, he wasn't that kind of person.
"That is not the case; you misunderstand. His situation with the Demons was already quite unique. Coupled with the influence of your residual power, he actually learned some of the Demons' language, which is why he was sent," No. 17 explained to the three of them.
However, he was putting a positive spin on it. If he told Jeanne the truth, the story would be far too ridiculous.
In reality, because of the Holy Light Jeanne had left in his body, the Demons inside No. 7 had been cursing him non-stop and hadn't stopped since. Since he had achieved a certain degree of fusion with the Demons, he gradually learned the "Demon's Dictionary of Profanity."
Now, he had replaced another Emperor's Blade as a linguistics expert. Day after day, he sat on a landship, broadcasting insults at the Demons over the radio. It was said that the Demons in the Northern Borderlands could no longer win an argument against him.
Essentially, No. 7 had single-handedly pioneered a brand-new branch of the military: the Demonic Psychological Warfare Corps. By utilizing his deep understanding of Demonic insults and his vast experience, he launched mental strikes against the somewhat simple-minded local Demons of the North. So far, five Demons had already become clinically depressed and withdrawn.
"So your No. 7 is actually quite impressive. To be able to endure that power and use his talent to learn a whole language... If I had that kind of talent, why would I ever worry about not learning math!"
Hearing that someone could learn a foreign language (Demonic should count as a foreign language, right?) in such a short time, Jeanne was filled with admiration for the Emperor's Blade she had once beaten to within an inch of his life.
No wonder they are the elite. It seems my failure at math isn't just a lack of talent; maybe I'm just not working hard enough. I'll have to trouble Talulah and Kashchey again when I get back...
"I'm telling you now, if you dare come to me about teaching you math after we get back, I would rather perish together with Kashchey than agree to it! Give up on that idea right now!" Talulah whispered into Jeanne's ear after observing her for a while. She knew exactly what Jeanne was thinking just by her expression, and she had to nip that idea in the bud.
While Talulah enjoyed using Advanced Mathematics problems to "persecute" Jeanne, she wasn't a masochist. Teaching Jeanne math was simply not a task meant for a human being...
Even Lemuen gave Jeanne a strange look, as if saying: If you don't have the talent, just give up; there's no shame in it.
The Emperor's Blade walking in front didn't pay attention to their chatter. He only hoped to finish this painful mission as quickly as possible; he felt like his brain was about to explode. In just this short time, the Demons inside him were practically throwing a rave. If they delayed any longer, there was no telling what his internal Demons might do.
Fortunately, because the image of the Emperor's Blades was always one of being taciturn and mission-focused, his behavior didn't raise any red flags for Jeanne or the others.
"We are here. Councilman Witte will arrive with the Laterano party after meeting the Bishops. Please wait here for a moment. You can observe the situation outside through the windows; they are one-way glass..."
The Emperor's Blade finally led the three of them into the secret room. After introducing the layout, he performed his duty and immediately vanished from their sight.
"Why do I feel like that Emperor's Blade was acting a bit strange today? When we first met him, he talked quite a lot—he could even ramble on in the middle of a fight..." Talulah keenly noticed that the warrior who had once fought her was acting oddly today. She just couldn't figure out why someone who wasn't even participating in the meeting would be nervous.
"Maybe you and Alina gave him psychological trauma. Seeing you probably brought back bitter memories of being pinned down and hammered."
"Then why don't you say it's because you scared them? Your power counters them perfectly..."
Hearing Jeanne teasing her again, Talulah shot back without hesitation. However, their attention was soon diverted to the scene outside the window.
A group of Sankta with halos above their heads entered the hall, surrounded by a swarm of reporters snapping photos frantically. The envoys from Laterano, the Board of Bishops, had officially arrived. This meant the meeting had formally begun.