Ch.16957. At the Vatican (1)

The group was surrounded by soldiers from this base. They shouted.

At first, I couldn’t understand the unfamiliar foreign language. Soon, my earpiece began translating their words.

“Disarm yourselves and identify your affiliation! I am Major Marino of the Vatican Crusaders’ 1st Division!”

This was Rome, the capital of Italy, near an air force base. Naturally, they were speaking Italian.

Their voices were filled with suspicion. Yuri responded.

“7th Regiment of the Tri-Nation Allied Forces. I am Yuri Tarkovskaya, the regimental commander, along with my unit members. You should have received communication from the Vatican?”

They fell silent at her words.

The initial hostility had disappeared, but they couldn’t rush to answer Yuri’s statement.

The urgent radio chatter continued. After a moment, a gray-haired man who seemed to be the unit commander, Marino, spoke while maintaining his vigilance.

“Yuri Tarkovskaya? Could it be… Yes. You must be Grand Duke Andrei’s daughter. However, I cannot welcome you unconditionally at this moment. I cannot be certain that you are truly from the 7th Regiment of the Tri-Nation Allied Forces.”

“Then here is our Allied Forces license, you can verify—”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to doubt you, but the Vatican Crusaders’ communication network has been partially hacked. So we cannot properly verify the authenticity of that license. I have no choice but to detain you for now.”

Their reaction made sense.

We had contacted the Vatican Papal Office in advance. But if the Crusaders’ communication network had been hacked, that contact might not have gone through properly.

So it was natural for them to be wary of us.

And above all, the atmosphere here was unsettling.

The Vatican Crusaders were an elite hunter force representing not only Italy but all of Europe.

All European countries not occupied by the Red Lake had formed official military alliances with the Crusaders. Along with Asia’s Tri-Nation Alliance, they represented humanity’s international coalition.

‘They said the Tri-Nation Alliance and European Allied Forces would soon form an official alliance.’

So regardless of past conflicts or friction between Earth’s nations, a new international coalition of humanity against the Red Lake was about to be born.

In other words, they and we were essentially part of the same alliance.

That’s why they didn’t shoot down our transport aircraft from the Tri-Nation Alliance and allowed us to land at this base.

But seeing how cautious they were being, I could guess the situation here. I whispered to Yuri.

“If the Crusaders’ communication network has been hacked, there’s a high possibility that Rome has already been invaded by villains.”

“Rome? This is where the Vatican is located, surely not…”

This was where the Vatican Crusaders’ elite were gathered.

Rome was home to the Templar Order, which rivaled Grand Duke Andrei’s Snow Knights and Korea’s Manseong.

Yet their communication network had been hacked, and they were extremely wary of us. The situation here might be worse than we thought.

Yuri seemed to realize this from my expression.

“Could something have happened to the Crusaders and the Templar Order? No, if the Vatican is in danger…”

The Vatican is in the heart of Rome. If Rome was in danger, our group’s plans would be disrupted.

“Yes. At this rate, it might be difficult to enter the Vatican.”

As the two of us briefly conversed, the eyes of the soldiers surrounding us grew sharper.

Looking at them, I said to Yuri:

“But first, we need to resolve the current situation.”

Of course, we had no intention of being detained by them.

The Sacred Power had already manifested in the Vatican. Our group needed to hurry there.

But the soldiers carefully drew their hunter swords from their scabbards. They seemed to have guessed that we wouldn’t quietly submit to detention.

‘About thirty of them. Judging by Major Marino’s aura, they’re all skilled hunters at minimum.’

Of course, the four of us could easily subdue them, but these soldiers weren’t our enemies.

If the Red Lake was invading Rome, we couldn’t waste time on unnecessary conflicts.

At that moment, Arin, reading my thoughts, stepped forward in front of our group. She addressed the soldiers:

“Hello, everyone of the Crusaders.”

Arin smiled sweetly, and immediately, Sacred Power spread around her.

***

The group left the airfield and headed toward the base headquarters.

“I sincerely apologize for our rudeness!”

A commander with a star-shaped insignia bowed very respectfully to our group.

He was Lieutenant General Caruso of the Crusaders. Simultaneously, all the Crusader soldiers who had escorted us apologized in unison.

“We deeply apologize for our disrespect!”

Everyone in our group except Arin was a bit taken aback.

Both Yuri and Soso held positions equivalent to princesses in their home countries, so they were accustomed to respectful greetings.

But it was extremely rare for a Crusader lieutenant general to bow so deeply in apology.

Arin smiled at the soldiers.

“It’s understandable. More importantly, won’t you offer us seats?”

At Arin’s words, Commander Caruso angrily shouted at his soldiers. They hurriedly prepared seats for our group.

“Um… what kind of beverage would you prefer? Italy is the homeland of coffee! We can serve you excellent coffee!”

Since that wasn’t important right now, our group quickly sat down. They watched our every movement with extremely tense expressions.

“If Your Excellency has any discomfort, please let us know!”

They said, looking at Arin.

‘Your Excellency…’

That title was used in the Holy See to address cardinals who were confidants of the Pope.

It was quite awkward for an aged commander like Caruso to use such a title for the young Arin.

But Arin smiled as if their reaction was perfectly normal.

“I’ll let you know if there’s anything.”

“Ah, understood!”

Caruso responded, standing at attention. I held back my laughter and whispered quietly to Arin.

“How does it feel to be treated like a queen?”

“Don’t tease me like that. I only want that treatment from you, senior.”

If any Crusader here understood Korean, they would be horrified by those words.

Anyway, I briefly recalled what had happened earlier.

‘As expected of the Crusaders. Arin’s influence is impressive.’

Arin had boldly stepped forward to face the soldiers surrounding us. When the young nun suddenly approached these fierce soldiers, their expressions turned hostile.

But when Sacred Power began to shine from Arin, the situation changed.

They were Crusaders. As such, even if they were ordinary awakened ones rather than clergy, they had all received baptism from the Holy See.

And through her Sacred Power, Arin momentarily let those soldiers hear Ayel’s voice.

– You must not hinder my daughter’s wishes in any way. My daughter’s will is my will.

To the Crusaders, it was truly the voice of God descending.

They couldn’t possibly think it was a trick by villains or demons.

The Crusaders gathered in Rome wore sacred implements against demons more thoroughly than anyone else.

‘Though there was Chae Min-ah’s case…’

Even Chae Min-ah couldn’t hide her demonic energy when we met her after she had fully become a demon.

Anyway, once Arin stepped forward, the soldiers could no longer stand in our way. Fortunately, a knight from the Templar Order was also present at the base.

That knight, who already knew about the identity of the Saint, directly confirmed that Arin was indeed the Saint.

Afterward, Lieutenant General Caruso himself rushed over and treated us with utmost respect.

This wasn’t bad for us. In fact, it was a very good situation.

‘We’d be in quite a predicament without their cooperation right now.’

I had already heard the gist of the situation on our way to this meeting room. The Vatican was currently occupied by the Red Lake. My prediction was correct.

Shortly after, we were able to hear more details through a briefing given by Commander Caruso himself.

“Currently, the elite forces of the Crusaders and the main force of the Templar Order are mostly concentrated in Milan, northern Italy. The same goes for the European Allied Forces!”

The situation in Europe was not good. Most of Western Europe, including Britain and France, had fallen under the Red Lake’s sphere of influence.

The European Allied Forces were barely holding on in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe. Naturally, Italy, where the Vatican was located, was the center of this alliance.

“Taking advantage of this gap, a special unit from the Red Lake launched a surprise attack on Rome. As a result, the Vatican…”

Originally, the Vatican, home to the Papal See, was a fortress-like protected area.

But now, even those elite forces had been deployed from Rome to Milan, showing how dire the situation was on the European front. The villains had expertly exploited this vulnerability in Rome.

‘This is problematic.’

Our group needed to enter the Vatican’s Papal Office by any means necessary.

“So for now, the reserve forces remaining in southern Italy are converging on Rome. But as we’ve already mentioned, due to the hacked communication lines, operations aren’t proceeding smoothly… We haven’t been able to quickly recover the Pope and the Vatican.”

But Caruso’s gaze suddenly changed. The eyes of all the commanders gathered in the command office also shifted.

They were all looking at our group with reverent expressions.

And this time, their gaze had moved from Arin to the other members of our group.

“Come to think of it, we heard news just a day ago. Given the situation, we couldn’t confirm its veracity yet…”

At that moment, Commander Caruso’s eyes met mine.

“The 7th Regiment of the Tri-Nation Allied Forces. We heard that the elite of the guild known as ‘Flame’ in Korea defeated Seo Mun-yeom.”

The people in the office exclaimed in surprise at those words.

“Seo Mun-yeom… that core executive of the Red Lake?”

And they all looked at our group at once.

The unit our group had identified as was the 7th Regiment of the Tri-Nation Allied Forces. And naturally, if we were talking about the elite of the 7th Regiment, it would be the members gathered here.

After confirming our faces again, they all made the sign of the cross.

“Ayel be praised!”

And a moment later, the commander’s aide who brought espresso coffee looked at the scene with bewildered eyes.

***

We were assigned temporary quarters at the air force base.

I had quite a lengthy discussion with Commander Caruso.

Although the communication lines were a mess due to hacking, Crusaders were gathering at a nearby army base through the few lines that remained operational.

– We plan to quickly reclaim the Vatican with them.

Fortunately, the villain unit that had launched the surprise attack on Rome wasn’t very large. It was probably an operation designed to disrupt the Crusaders’ rear.

By quickly reclaiming the Vatican, we could thwart the villains’ plans.

‘The question is… whether the Red Lake has obtained information about the prophecy book and the Sacred Power manifestation.’

The timing of their surprise attack was very suspicious.

While information about the prophecy book and Sacred Power manifestation wouldn’t have leaked easily given that they were Vatican secrets, we still needed to hurry.

So I formulated a plan with Commander Caruso. The plan was a feint operation.

The remaining Crusaders in Rome would directly approach the Vatican. And when the villains’ attention was focused there,

My group would ambush them. The operation was set to begin at 5 AM. It was already deep into the night.

‘About three hours left.’

After the meeting, there was time to get a little rest.

Perhaps due to jet lag, I couldn’t sleep anymore, so I was memorizing the map of the Vatican area that Commander Caruso had provided.

That’s when it happened. Suddenly, I heard the door to my room opening.

‘Who is it? Could it be an attacker…’

A villain spy might have already infiltrated the base. With heightened senses, I quickly drew my Wind Cutter.

“Ah, no! It’s me… me… Soso…”

But the person who entered was actually Soso.