A Letter from Home, Arriving Late

Benjamin was a little surprised.

"You... lifted that curse?"

Miles looked fairly spirited now, nothing like the dispirited, dejected state he had been in back in the Hori Kingdom. So Benjamin asked without thinking.

At that, Miles snorted and shook his head. "Don't mention it."

...All right.

Benjamin could only swallow his doubts and change the subject. "What are you doing here all of a sudden? Did the Assassination Council assign you a mission?"

"No... I got some news in the Hori Kingdom. You should be interested." Miles flipped over the balcony railing and jumped inside. "The Church just finished an internal upheaval. Some nobles had their homes confiscated, and quite a few priests died because of it. Now everyone in the Hori Kingdom is living in fear."

Benjamin raised his brows in surprise.

He had not expected that his intelligence agents had barely entered the Hori Kingdom before Miles brought him exactly what he wanted. Should he have Miles train the people in the academy's covert division?

"How much do you know? Tell me."

Miles replied, "The Church has temporarily split into two factions. The faction led by Grant Riser spread word that the Pope is dead, and that the bishop of St. Peter's Cathedral hid the news for his own selfish desires, thus offending divine wrath. So they killed that bishop and planned to install Grant as the new Pope."

Holy shit... so soon?

Benjamin could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

He knew a power struggle had broken out within the Church, and he knew Grant showed signs of rising to the top. But he had never imagined Grant would move so quickly.

That guy was even a year younger than Benjamin!

If he had waited a few more years, then given Grant's identity and status,