Chapter 41 The Trap "Field..."
As Catherine walked inside, she carefully observed her surroundings.
The outer room was empty, with dust reflecting the moonlight in many places, looking as if no one had taken care of it—of course, it's also possible that it was tidied up hastily when people first moved in, but the servants stopped paying attention to it because the master was not valued.
As she walked into the inner room, the first thing that caught her eye was the layered, gauze-like curtains that made Catherine momentarily think she had entered the spider's web.
The tiny source of candlelight that leaked out into the room was located further inside.
A few dim lights cast the shadows of the person sitting with their back to them at the table onto the curtains.
But Catherine squinted and noticed that the person seemed to be trembling; their body was shaking slightly, making the edges of their shadow appear blurry. They looked as if they were afraid.
A sense of absurdity suddenly arose in her mind at this conjecture.
Fear?
The people in the Vatican are mostly molded by the heavy, suffocating rules, becoming people who can't show their emotions, each looking like a god transformed into a human, devoid of joy or sorrow. Someone like her, who says one thing in front of others and another behind their back, seeking only her own pleasure, is a rare anomaly.
Unexpectedly, there's another oddball here. And a timid one at that, someone who wears their heart on their sleeve.
Catherine approached slowly, then suddenly flung aside the thin curtain, the potion bottle in her hand about to smash it...
The person opposite him hurriedly raised his hands, as if sensing the movement behind him, and repeatedly begged for mercy: "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I'm just an ordinary nobody! I'm really not worth killing!"
"...Eren?"
Luckily, Catherine managed to stop the potion bottle in her hand; otherwise, throwing it would have been a waste.
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Allen abruptly turned his head, comically opening one eye—yes, it was only then that Catherine realized he had actually kept his eyes tightly closed.
"It really is you! What are you doing here?" Allen's voice was filled with emotion at seeing a fellow human being.
“That’s what I was going to ask you,” Catherine said, putting the potion back in her hand. “Do you know where you are?”
"The Papacy..." he pursed his lips, his tone full of annoyance.
Catherine, recalling what he had told them before, raised an eyebrow: "The person you're looking for is in the Vatican?"
Allen nodded resignedly. His shoulders slumped, and he looked listless, completely devoid of the youthful vitality he had shown when they first met.
His appearance was very intriguing, but Catherine wasn't in the mood to hear any secrets.
She scanned the room, her gaze finally settling on Allen's listless face: "Can you take people out of the Vatican?"
-
Compared to Catherine, Lucas did not have it so easy.
Before coming, he and Catherine had drawn up Benson's possible locations on a map and planned a route that would connect all these places without having to backtrack.
However, these locations became key patrol areas after the knights discovered the intrusion. Lucas had to spend a lot of time dodging the patrolling knights.
By the time the red glow in the sky had completely disappeared, he had only found about half of the area, while the patrols outside were becoming increasingly frequent.
Lucas couldn't help but wonder—could he really search all these places as expected?
"What are you doing?! How dare you stop me, young master!"
Suddenly, a quarrel broke out in the air. The quiet, solemn Vatican was filled with the shouts and curses of a commoner, the kind only heard in slums. The patrol teams outside gradually moved in that direction, instantly easing the pressure of the patrols on Lucas.
At that moment, Lucas was in a courtroom when he felt the voice sounded familiar, so he looked up.
But then they saw a group of people standing in a circle in the distance, and in the center was a young face looking up, appearing very arrogant.
Allen?
Lucas gasped inwardly.
He raised his hand to rub his eyes, and looked over there again. He then realized that there was more than one person in the center of the encirclement. There was another person standing next to him, dressed in a black robe and wearing a wide hood that completely covered his body.
The person was hunched over, looking very humble. But their figure and posture... looked exactly like Catherine.
The commotion grew louder, and more and more people approached in fear. Even a man dressed in a white and gold robe, looking very noble, walked over. The surrounding knights bowed respectfully to him, clearly indicating that he was a very important person.
"What happened?" The man glanced around, his indifferent gaze making one wonder if he actually didn't care about anyone.
"My lord, someone has broken into the Vatican. We are looking for those two heretics, but this person wants to leave at this time."
"Hey, hey, hey! What do you mean by 'this person'? I am..."
The man glanced at Allen, causing the words he was about to utter to instantly turn into saliva, which he swallowed in a moment of nervousness.
He felt a surge of resentment. Logically speaking, their status and position should be about the same! But why was Field so respected by the knights, while he... not only lived in a remote corner, but also frequently received disdain from other people in the Papacy?
Allen glanced to one side subconsciously, unsure if his embarrassment was too obvious.
He gritted his teeth inwardly. No matter what, he had to complete the task Catherine had entrusted to him!
It's just taking someone out of the Vatican! If he can't even do something this simple, he'll be looked down upon by Catherine.
Field noticed Allen's gaze, his eyes flickered, and he looked up at the place Allen had just been looking at.
...
In a nearby unused room, Catherine stood quietly, gazing wistfully at the place outside that had caused such a commotion.
Her position was clever; from the outside, it was difficult to notice that there was someone else in the room, while from the inside, she could easily observe everything around the room.
She wasn't that foolish to follow Allen out right under the noses of so many patrolling knights.
Her appearance and Lucas's must have spread among the knights the moment they barged in. Following Allen through the door openly would undoubtedly be too risky. Therefore, she had Allen find a maid of similar stature to herself, preparing to use a diversionary tactic.
But unexpectedly, this clichéd approach actually managed to lure out an unsuspecting person.
“Field…” Catherine looked at his face, her eyebrows twitching.
Two months had passed, but he hadn't changed at all—he just looked colder. She still preferred the way he looked when he was aroused.
Her thoughts drifted a little further, and when she came to her senses, Catherine noticed that Allen had subconsciously glanced in her direction. She immediately moved slightly, completely disappearing into the darkness.
Field's observation skills are always sharp! Allen's little movements certainly didn't escape his notice.
Sure enough, almost the instant she moved, Field looked over. But the distance was too great, and it was nighttime, so he didn't notice anything amiss.
Beneath the wide sleeves of his robe, Field unconsciously fiddled with the plain ring on his hand.
Beside him, the Knight Commander, his patience worn thin by Allen's repeated lack of cooperation, snapped, "If you want to go out, that's fine! But the person next to you has to take off his hood! Let us check him."
Allen rolled his eyes rather rudely: "Why can't you understand me! I already said, she's just a maid, you know? What's wrong with her not wanting to show her face? Why are you being so aggressive!"
"You!" The Knight Commander angrily pointed at him. It was clear that if there weren't so many people present, he might have beaten Allen up.
Allen naturally noticed it too. He instinctively flinched... The difference in combat strength between the Knight Commander and himself was obvious, needless to say. If the Knight Commander lost control and attacked, he wouldn't be able to stop him.
He gritted his teeth, thinking that maybe he should have the maid take off her hood so that people could see her?
After seeing it, I should be able to lead the person out, right? That would probably count as completing the mission.
Field remained silent.
Aside from asking a question when he first arrived, he remained quiet, as if he had handed over all authority to the knight commander.
However, his mere presence was enough to draw attention. This placed immense pressure on the knights, not to mention the knight commander who had to handle the matter.
Finally, after repeated stern warnings from the knight, Ellen pouted and pretended to be unwilling, allowing the people around her to remove her hood.
At this moment, everyone's eyes were fixed on this "maid".
The woman raised her hand, and her wide sleeves slid down, revealing a pair of slightly rough hands. The knight commander standing at the head of the group felt a strange unease upon seeing this, but before he could figure out where this feeling came from, she had already taken off her hood.
An ordinary face, the kind that would disappear into a crowd in a second, was thus exposed to the air.
I've been tricked...
This was a thought that popped into the knight commander's head instinctively.
When he realized the outcome, he didn't even dare to turn his head to look at Field's expression.
Just then, a knight came running from a distance and whispered in the knight commander's ear, "Knight commander, we just saw someone climb over the wall in the southeast corner."
When he saw it, he only caught a fleeting glimpse of a dark shadow, and there was no time to stop it.
Realizing he might have let the heretics escape, the knight, fearing punishment, hurriedly ordered his men to give chase and then ran to report to the knight commander.
The knight commander felt utterly overwhelmed!
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