Chapter 383: Chapter 383: Taking out the Cardinal?
"Can we talk about it later? Soon, this place will be filled with the Priests." He changed the topic for now, telling Xiu Ying to return to the Palace with him.
Multiple buildings had come crashing down with Xiu Ying\'s attack. It was only a matter of time before someone from the Holy Church came to investigate.
"There are a lot of things that I have to tell you, but this is not the right place for that," he added, noticing a few commoners also sneakily observing this place from a distance.
Even if they couldn\'t hear their conversation, it was still better to not engage with a guest from the east as the Holy Emperor in front of everyone else.
Having released Xiu Ying, Eren walked past her. Xiu Ying was still confused about his actions but from his words, she felt that he had a plan which made him do it.
Moreover, why was he even in the Western Continent in the first place? She wanted to know that. If there was anything she could do to help him, she wanted to do that now that her anger had calmed down.
She followed Eren back to the Royal Palace. Last time, she was accompanying a Cardinal so the Guards didn\'t stop her. But this time, she came with the Holy Emperor. The Royal Guards were more respectful towards her than before.
As soon as Eren reached the banquet hall, he froze in place just like Xiu Ying had frozen before. Inside the hall, he saw a strange scene take place.
Cardinal Treniel was lying on the ground, unconscious. His clone was sitting on the Cardinal\'s back as if the Cardinal was nothing but a couch for him to use.
There were no signs of battle which confused Eren even more. Just how did his clone take the Cardinal out when he was so weak? However, it didn\'t take him long to find an answer.
Not far from them, there was a gold bar that was stained with some blood while the back of Cardinal\'s head appeared to be visibly swollen.
Eren scratched the back of his head, still in disbelief. He could already guess what happened. He also retrieved the clone\'s memories which he had stopped as he chased Xiu Ying.
As he had told his clone to stop the Cardinal from following him, that\'s exactly what he did. It was only the method that was different.
First, Zia tried to engage him in a conversation about the disappearance of the envoy. That worked only for a little as the Cardinal was still trying to leave. Without fighting, they couldn\'t stop him.
In the end, it was Eren\'s clone who came up with this place. While Treniel was distracted by Zia, he picked up a gold bar and smacked the head of the Cardinal hard.
The Cardinal, who had never expected something like this, was not ready to be attacked. All his defenses were down as well. Being struck by a gold bar, the Cardinal passed out.
Normally, his clone would have been attacked by the Royal Guards or the nobles for attacking a Cardinal. However, the Royal Guards present in the hall didn\'t do anything.
They had noticed that the Holy Emperor was close to the guests, so he left it for the Holy Emperor to decide. The Royal Family Members were also carefree as they didn\'t like the cardinal either.
Instead of helping the Cardinal, Uriel simply laughed heartily. He had even forgotten how long it had been since he laughed like that.
It was especially amusing for him as Eren, known as the Demon, had used such a simplistic method to deal with the Cardinal. He was surprised that it even worked on someone of the Cardinal\'s Caliber.
"This is...." Eren rubbed his forehead as he came to learn everything, his expressions incomprehensible.
He wondered if this counted as waging a war on the Holy Church. Even though it was an innocent mistake, he had to take care of it.
He approached the Cardinal who was lying on the floor and placed his hand on the Cardinal\'s forehead. He made it look like he was checking the Cardinal\'s temperature to see if he was fine.
On the contrary, he was using his mind manipulation on the Cardinal.
Normally, even if his stats were high, it was hard to manipulate the consciousness of a cardinal level existence. He had a lot of protection on his consciousness which was even harder to manipulate when he was awake and aware.
Now that he was passed out, it became a little easier for him. Even now, it was hard to manipulate him on a large scale but he could at least make him forget a few small things like him chasing after Xiu Ying or his clone attacking him.
After erasing those two insignificant but important memories that hadn\'t taken a deep root in his mind yet, he picked up the Cardinal and helped him sit on one of the nearby seats.
He assigned a Guard to keep an eye on the cardinal and make up a story when he woke up.
After arranging for the Cardinal, Eren told his clone, Zia and Yu Lin to follow him.
"Brother, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Eren was leaving with everyone when Uriel called out to him. However, he didn\'t have time to deal with it yet. He had to get Xiu Ying up to the plan before anything else could go wrong.