The Villain Saint is my secondary account

Ye Xiao turned his head and saw that the young woman was pointing the tip of her staff at him and began chanting incantations. Several points of holy light began to gather, which was obviously a prelude to the launch of some kind of offensive holy light spell.

He quickly grabbed the end of the staff and dodged to the side. The holy light bullet formed by the staff tip shot out in the next second, one of them grazing Ye Xiao's hair on the side of his face and hitting the wall behind him, making a dark hole.

"Are you crazy?"

Ye Xiao couldn't help but curse out loud. Arguing is one thing, but why did she have to resort to attacking spells over a mere disagreement? Was this woman crazy?

"Damn it! You dare to curse at me?!"

Agnes was about to cast another spell, but Ye Xiao wouldn't give her that chance to mess around again, and quickly tried to snatch the staff from her hand.

Agnes could not possibly match Ye Xiao's calf-like strength, but she held onto the end of the cane with both hands and refused to let go. When Ye Xiao pulled her, she was immediately pulled over, lost her balance, and fell half of her body off the bed onto the floor in a very unseemly manner.

"Thump," the girl hit the floor face down with a dull thud.

Ye Xiao felt a pang of pain from the deep, resonant voice. He hadn't expected the guy to be so gentle; he had just casually tugged at his staff and ended up having the guy wish him a Happy New Year.

This silence fell over the room once more. Agnes lay sprawled on the floor, looking just like a frog.

This startled Ye Xiao. Could the collision have caused some kind of problem?

He bent down and took the girl's arm. "Um, Lady Agnes... are you alright? I didn't mean to."

"Gu..."

Agnes, who was lying on the floor, trembled and uttered a barely audible sound.

"Goo?"

Ye Xiao was confused.

"roll!!!"

The girl abruptly turned her head, shaking off Ye Xiao's hand, her face flushed and tears streaming down her cheeks. "Get out of here!!!"

Goodness, they actually cried after falling. It must have really hurt.

Ye Xiao was speechless, but that was exactly what he was waiting for.

"Yes, Lady Agnes!"

Without saying a word, Ye Xiao got up, brushed the dust off her knees, and ran out of the bedroom in a flash.

Regardless of whether he gets fired or not, he's afraid that if he stays any longer, this woman will explode at him. If all else fails, he'll switch back to Orfindor tomorrow and find another Templar substitute.

I thought that Orfindo's higher status would make it easier to gather intelligence, but I didn't expect this guy to have so many troubles. What a nuisance.

Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Stolen Holy Box

To Ye Xiao's surprise, nothing else happened that night after he ran away.

He ran into the Templar Knight who had knocked on the door of the room earlier in the corridor, and made up some excuses to get the Knight to lead him to Orphnoch's bedroom.

As the vice-captain, Orfindo still had his own room in the mansion, instead of having to squeeze into a large dormitory with the other knights.

After that, the night passed unexpectedly peacefully.

Agnes didn't cause him any more trouble. When Ye Xiao woke up the next day, he didn't see her or her men come to announce his dismissal or to surround and kill him.

The sudden calm afterward was actually quite unsettling.

Ye Xiao wondered if the other party was planning to kill him. He decided to arrange a deadly mission to kill him later.

But while I'm thinking about it, since the trouble hasn't come yet, I'll just take it one step at a time. Anyway, Orphnoch will be the one who suffers when the time comes.

He tucked Greta, who was curled up beside the pillow, into his collar, put on his coat, and left the room.

Upon descending into the hall, the Templar Knights of the Inquisition greeted him with the same respectful demeanor as always.

Dekari came out from the adjacent corridor and patted him on the shoulder. "How was your rest?"

"fine……"

Ye Xiao remained calm and asked, "By the way, didn't Lady Agnes say anything to you?"

"Ok?"

Deka looked slightly confused. "What did you say?"

"nothing."

Seeing that Dekali was indeed acting normally, Ye Xiao casually brushed it off.

That's strange. Given that woman's personality, wouldn't she have killed me right away?

Ye Xiao was surprised. Could it be that the current team leader had limited manpower and planned to complete the mission first and then settle accounts with me when they got back?

Could that woman be surprisingly good at considering the big picture?

As Ye Xiao was pondering, Decali looked over his shoulder and suddenly gave a knightly salute, saying, "Good morning, Lady Agnes."

Ye Xiao's body trembled instantly, and he turned to look behind him.

A blonde girl in a white dress walked down the steps, looking down at them with a cold gaze.

The Templars in the hall immediately followed Decali in bowing, and Ye Xiao consciously stepped aside to make way, then followed suit and bowed as well.

The relaxed atmosphere of the morning froze slightly, but Agnes ignored Ye Xiao as if he were air, walking straight past him to the table in the center of the hall.

This guy didn't lose his temper in court? Ye Xiao was somewhat surprised.

To be honest, it's not something that can be discussed in public last night, so it's understandable that the other party didn't want to bring it up.

But to say that this woman no longer harbors any resentment... Ye Xiao felt that unless the other party had broken her head from that fall, she would definitely find a chance to take revenge on him.

With the most important person present, Decali began his morning task report.

"Lady Agnes, according to the survey yesterday afternoon, there are indeed traces of heretics hiding in the uninhabited, desolate mountain areas of the island."

“I found some remaining traces of ritual in a cave on the mountain, including an extinguished campfire, animal and human bones used in the ritual, and fragments of rune tablets that were not completely destroyed.”

“These traces are still very new. The infidels may have only moved away two or three days ago. The time interval is not long, and it overlaps with the time when we arrived on the island.”

"It seems these filthy rats received a message when we landed on the island."

Agnes narrowed her eyes slightly. "Is this the same group we're tracking who stole the Holy Casket?"

The Holy Box...? Hearing this term, Ye Xiao, who was standing to the side, was reminded of some memories from his previous life.

There are a total of three cardinals in the Holy City, whose power and status in the church are second only to the highest-ranking church master.

These three individuals almost always come from the three major families in the Holy City.

Only in this current term is there a cardinal who is a foreigner who was not born in the Holy City and was promoted by the main force of the current church against all odds.

Of course, that's another story. What's really related to these three cardinals, or rather, the three great families of the Holy City, is the three sacred artifacts that these families are each guarding.

These three sacred artifacts are the Sacred Casket, the Lance, and the Ring, which are also known as the cornerstones of the Sanctuary of Light. Legend has it that the God of Light wielded these three artifacts to slay the gods of the Old Age who wreaked havoc on the world, thus ushering in the Golden Age of the present world.

Ye Xiao wasn't qualified to come into contact with these three things in his previous life, but he speculated that they might be similar to the Tree of Life, a manifestation of divine authority.

He only knew that, doctrinalally speaking, the three great families had the obligation to protect the sacred artifacts, but only the Lord of the Holy Temple, who had received the grace of light, was qualified to use them.

However, it is said that the Temple Masters selected through the Temple Trials can only wield one sacred artifact at a time, while only the Chosen of Light possess the ability to use all three sacred artifacts.

Interestingly, Ella, who was also the chosen one in her previous life and the witch of destruction, was unable to use the holy artifacts; otherwise, the resistance would probably have been wiped out long ago.

It was precisely because of this that Ella was known in the previous world as a "deceitful saintess" and a "treacherous chosen one of the gods," which caused her to corrupt and destroy the sacred artifact in a fit of anger, resulting in the strange phenomenon of hell invading the present world.

Returning to the present, Agnes's words surprised Ye Xiao somewhat. How could one of the three sacred artifacts of the Holy Temple have been stolen?

But this is a bit strange. If the other party has the strength to steal the sacred artifact from Morning Star Ridge, then the strength of this Tribunal team responsible for recovering the sacred artifact seems a bit lacking.

The paladins and priests in the hall were basically the entirety of this squad, with an average strength at the skilled and proficient level, plus Agnes, who was estimated to be a proficient arcane mage.

With this level of skill, hunting down someone who can steal sacred artifacts from a holy city teeming with masters and grandmasters... isn't that just suicide?

Ye Xiao was full of doubts. Although Agnes's identity was still uncertain, the fact that she could lead a small team of the Inquisition at such a young age, and had Decali and Orfindo, whose strength seemed to be quite good among the younger generation, as her assistants, meant that she must come from one of the major families, and was not some abandoned pawn.

In this situation, she doesn't even have a Grandmaster-level bodyguard by her side?

Ye Xiao rubbed his chin. Although it hadn't progressed to the later stages yet, based on his understanding, the major families in the Holy City should still have some resources.

Although the princes and princesses of the Loren royal family are abstract figures, their subordinates are all quite capable, such as the extraordinary knight commander and chief mage, as well as Lilia's grandmaster swordsman butler.

"Based on current inferences, it is possible."

Decari continued, picking up where Agnes left off, and placed a recording crystal on the table. “Those runes are very similar to the words in the ritual recorded by the Loren Sanctuary. They should come from the same language family.”

The image-recording crystal projects the image into the air, revealing tadpole-shaped runes on a gray stone slab.

"Ah, it really was them,"

Agnes scoffed, "The Dark Shepherd."

Chapter 80 Psychological Defense Line

The Dark Shepherds... Isn't this the same cult that initially summoned Lydia to possess Ella?

This sect originally had remnants outside the Loren Empire... well, not exactly "outside," since the Mansa Islands are also Loren territory.

In other words, the "ritual recorded in the Loren Sanctuary" that Decali mentioned should refer to Lydia's birth ceremony.

Ye Xiao pursed his lips. He had many questions he wanted to ask, but he was now in the identity of Orphnoch, and it was definitely not okay for him to ask questions he shouldn't.

However, since he couldn't ask Agnes and Decali here, he could have asked Orphund, who was imprisoned in the Sanctuary dungeon.

However, some unexpected situations arose over there.

……

At this moment, in the prison beneath the Loren Sanctuary in the royal city of Valond, the real Orfindo sat weakly in a corner, head down, staring blankly at the floor, muttering something to himself.

In front of him was a plate of bread with only one slice touched and a glass of milk.

Ella glanced at Orfindo from outside the railing, then turned to Elder Brandon beside her. "Elder, is he still not going to say anything?"

"I apologize, Your Majesty, it is my incompetence."

Elder Brandon sighed.

"Don't say that, Elder. After all, the methods that can be used are restricted."

Ella comforted her.

After capturing Orfindo last night, Ella interrogated him herself for the entire night, but the guy seemed to have gone mad, keeping his head down and talking to himself incessantly, refusing to answer any of Ella's questions.

Considering that this guy might be released later, and legally speaking, Ella didn't actually have a reason to interrogate him; this was a private detention for her own personal purposes. Besides, everyone was a fellow member of the Holy Church and there was no hostility between them. Using overly cruel methods just didn't seem appropriate.

But the usual methods just wouldn't get him to talk. Whether it was gentle persuasion, coercion, intimidation, the moon goddess's illusion, or even secretly stuffing tentacles into bread to feed him... Orfindo just kept his head down and eyes closed, treating Ella's words as whispers of an ancient god, muttering to himself, "Don't even think about shaking me, I am forever loyal to Lady Agnes."

Ella doesn't actually have any brainwashing magic that can truly manipulate human minds. Those who are slightly corrupted by her divine power will only develop a natural affinity for her, but they won't completely obey her. Those with stronger wills can still defy her.

Otherwise, Dean, her former butler who had been fed tentacles by her in Storm Harbor, wouldn't have chosen to part ways with her in the end because he didn't trust her.

Those heavily corrupted by her divine power... will directly lose their "mind" and become corrupted puppets covered in tentacles, like the Raven Familiar.

As for the Moon Goddess Illusion Technique, its main effect is to transmit divine power to create an illusion that indirectly affects the target's mind, but it cannot be directly manipulated.

So Ella kept trying until the morning, but finally ran out of ideas and chose to give up.

How to put it... it wasn't that she had a strong will or great courage, but rather that she had a strange loyalty that seemed to have been brainwashed.

Previously, Ye Xiao's domineering aura in the tavern had intimidated this guy, so I thought he was the weak type who could be easily interrogated. I never expected him to have such a strange side.

Ella then had Elder Brandon from the Loren Sanctuary, who was in charge of the interrogation, take over and try it out, but unfortunately, it didn't work either.

"Speaking of which, Your Grace, this appears to be a knight from the Inquisition. I mean no offense, but I would like to ask what crimes he has committed to warrant your imprisonment here?"

Elder Brandon suddenly asked.

"Well, it's actually quite complicated... To be precise, he hasn't committed any crimes... That's why I'm asking you not to use torture..."

Ella felt slightly embarrassed and was wondering how to explain, but Elder Brandon nodded to himself and said, "I see. It seems that he has been bewitched by evil... Praise be to the kind saintess who still insists on helping believers who have fallen into the abyss."

Sigh... If only everyone else in the church were like the believers in the Loren Church.

Ella smiled wryly, but the people of the Loren Sanctuary had been saved by her several times, which was why they firmly believed in her. In fact, they all had some doubts in their hearts at the beginning.

"Elder Brandon, please go and rest first. I'll study how to get the answer I want from this gentleman."

"As you command, Saint Lady."

Elder Brandon withdrew.