Pledge Allegiance

Seeing the teasing smile on Elisa's youthful-looking face, Chen Rui's eyes narrowed slightly. It seemed he had still underestimated this girl. That strangely familiar feeling had not come from Ailian, nor from Alice, but... Selin.

By now, he had brushed against the fringes of the Church of Light. This institution, which practically ruled the faith of all mankind, stood above royal authority. Vast and immensely complicated, its internal factional struggles were especially fierce. Thinking back, how could the niece of a cardinal and the disciple of a saintess possibly be some innocent young girl untouched by worldly affairs?

Not everyone was like a certain little princess, with an elder sister who shielded her from everything; nor was every elder sister like that Empress, willing to turn herself into an umbrella and block all the wind and rain for her younger sister—though whether that was truly the right thing to do remained debatable.

Chen Rui suddenly understood. Elisa had pointed out his various "origins" during the day and "curiously" asked about the story of Mind Speech. Her true purpose had been to sound him out.

Killing Elisa or Paul would not be difficult, but this was the human world—a mysterious, unfathomable world full of the unknown. Back then, even Emperor White Night had met defeat here with bitter hatred in his heart. More importantly, rescuing Isabella was the top priority now. Before he had gathered all the Faith Crystals and obtained the Xuedalai flower, he could not act rashly. Elisa was an important figure in the Church of Light, so a dark-element control technique such as the God-Devouring Mask would certainly not work on her. But to Chen Rui, Elisa was merely a passing minor character. The one with whom he truly needed to have dealings was Paul.

Paul walked all