“Huh? Why is the church still lit this late?”
Outside the Church of the Goddess of Life, Ariel, carrying two bags of new clothes and a pile of fresh ingredients, walked through the bustling market and passed by the church.
Normally, the church would close after dinner, but now the main door was still wide open.
Maybe the last priestling to leave forgot to shut it?
“Whatever, it’s not like anyone would break into the church to steal things. The most valuable item in there is probably the Sanctified Robe the Ninth Saintess wore. And why should I bother closing the door? I’m not part of the Church of the Goddess of Life.”
Choosing not to say anything, Ariel secretly made a funny face toward the church, then strode out of Deya City and back into the Mist…
Actually, if someone really did want to sneak in and steal something, aside from the Ninth Saintess’s Sanctified Robe, a thief would likely find a priceless Space Pendant on the wooden table at the back of the church.
That pendant was a small gift the Sun Family had given to Truth, but unfortunately, Truth didn’t like it much and just left it there.
The other priestlings hadn’t really noticed it either…
Instead of taking either of the two main paths through the Mist, Ariel cut straight across it and returned to the Mist Core.
Since she had the coordinates of the Core Region in her view, stepping into the Mist felt like coming home.
“This batch of ingredients should last two weeks. Too bad the market in Deya City doesn’t sell fresh edible mice—Little Mist would definitely love those.”
Ariel muttered to herself. After all, as a snake, it was only natural to enjoy eating mice. So, had Little Mist come back yet? It had been gone for a long time.
She gently pushed open the cottage door. Just as Ariel set the ingredients on the kitchen table and prepared to take the new clothes up to her room on the second floor, a familiar voice suddenly came from the master bedroom:
“Ahem, foolish lowly creature. I give you two choices: submit to me and become my servant, or wander lost in the Mist forever until it completely devours you!”
Truth?!
Startled by Truth’s voice, Ariel quickly covered her mouth to keep from making a sound. ‘When did she come back? And it sounds like she’s interrogating someone?’
Not daring to disturb Truth’s mood, Ariel immediately tiptoed away.
Then, a slightly disappointed voice from Truth came again through the crack in the master bedroom door:
“Sigh… still not right. I feel like something’s missing. What do I have to do to get that domineering feeling?”
“Huh? Not right?” Ariel froze again. ‘What does she mean?’
“Alright, one more try. First, the expression has to be cold. Cross my hands. Then relax my body naturally… Hoo…”
“One more try? What exactly is she doing? And her voice sounds so soft—completely lacking her usual aggressive tone. Could it be that the person in the room right now is Saintess Truth, not the Seeker Demon?”
Driven by curiosity, Ariel put down her things, tiptoed quietly toward Truth’s master bedroom.
The door wasn’t shut tightly, leaving just enough gap for Ariel to peek inside.
“Listen here, scum! My name is Truth, I am… hmm, is the word ‘scum’ too harsh?”
Inside the master bedroom, “Truth” in a priest’s robe stood before a full-length mirror twice her height, arms crossed, feet shoulder-width apart, chest puffed out, looking quite intimidating.
But this state lasted less than two seconds before it collapsed.
Under Ariel’s watchful gaze, “Truth” went limp, kneeling at the foot of the bed, then flopped her upper body onto the mattress:
“Ugh… if I have to keep up this state every day, it’s way too tiring. Pretending to be possessed by the Mistveil Exalted in front of others… why can’t we just get along peacefully? I was born to be a priest, you know…”
“Oh?!”
At the door, Ariel stared in shock at the soft, girly “Truth” in the room. Her heart began to race. ‘Could it be?! ’
Ariel checked carefully and found that this “Truth” lacked any of the usual aggressiveness.
Combined with the cozy layout of the bedroom and the words just spoken, Ariel felt she was simply a cute, innocent girl next door.
And Ariel herself was the gloomy, bespectacled, overweight otaku living next door, peeping at her…
‘So this is Truth’s true face? An innocent, kind little priest? If that’s the case, no wonder the Goddess of Life chose her as the Ninth Saintess!’
For the first time, Ariel saw the “real” Truth and was intensely curious.
After all, every other time she’d encountered Truth, the Seeker Demon had been possessing and controlling her to do bad things—like forcing Ariel to sign a contract…
“I am the Ninth Saintess Truth. I believe in the great Goddess of Life, and I also believe in the great Mist! But I cannot tell the great Goddess of Life that I believe in the great Mist!”
At that moment, Truth, still lying on the bed, suddenly raised her hands and shouted somewhat slurredly.
Little Mist was currently trying hard to adapt to the persona. Truth had said that if she pretended well, there would be great benefits in the future.
For example, Truth promised she would never use Haki Snake Great Whirlwind on her again.
“Pfft…” Ariel couldn’t help but snicker from the doorway. ‘Her speech is a bit lispy—kind of like Little Mist when she first learned to talk.’
So why was Truth striking arrogant poses in front of the mirror and talking to herself? After a few seconds of thought, Ariel came up with a bold and plausible guess:
Truth was now learning the Seeker Demon’s habits when it possessed her, so that even when it wasn’t possessing her, she could bluff others to protect herself!
After all, the Seeker Demon couldn’t possess her twenty-four hours a day, right?
If she mimicked it well enough, Truth could merely move her lips and make Ariel, Little Mist, and others who feared the Seeker Demon tremble and obey…
‘Maybe I’ve been fooled by Truth before…’ Ariel suddenly realized that ever since the Seeker Demon separated her soul, she hadn’t been punished for a while—just threatened.
Perhaps because Ariel was very obedient, the Seeker Demon couldn’t find an excuse to punish her.
Or maybe after separating the soul, the Demon had never paid her any attention, and it was always Truth bluffing…
‘Damn, if that’s true, how humiliating!’ Ariel gritted her teeth.
“Huh? Who’s there?!”
Just as Ariel was recalling how many times she’d been fooled, “Truth” lying at the foot of the bed seemed to sense something. She slowly sat up and looked toward the door:
“Ariel?!”
‘When did she get here? Did she just come back, or has she been spying for a while?! ’
Little Mist was so startled by Ariel’s sudden appearance that she lost her composure. This was the first time she had shown herself as Truth to anyone other than Truth herself. Her heart nearly stopped. She completely forgot to switch into the “domineering” mode. Her face gradually turned pale as she didn’t know what to do.
‘Damn it! Truth said just before she left that I must never let anyone find out I’m her stand-in. And not even a moment later, I got caught. I’m doomed!’
Ariel, however, reacted quickly. She pushed the door open and immediately knelt, speaking solemnly:
“Please forgive me, Honored Hidden One. I just came back. I was going upstairs and noticed the master bedroom door wasn’t shut tightly, so I intended to close it. But you spotted me the moment I got close!”
Saying “just came back” was obviously very fake—even Little Mist didn’t believe it. But the key point of Ariel’s words wasn’t that; it was the phrase “Honored Hidden One” at the beginning.
Ariel thought that as long as she pretended not to know that the current Truth was the real person rather than the Hidden One, Truth herself probably wouldn’t pursue the matter. After all, Truth was essentially a very gentle person!
And by doing this, she could attribute all of Truth’s embarrassing mirror antics to the Seeker Demon rather than to Truth herself, saving face completely!
“Eh… Honored Hidden One?”
Upon hearing those four words, Little Mist paused again, as if thinking about something.
Ariel’s little trick had worked, but not completely.
‘Wait, you just watched me talking to myself, and you still think I’m the Hidden One? Who are you trying to fool?’ Little Mist thought. ‘At the very least, you should think I’m Truth, right? Or maybe…’
Suddenly, a guess popped into Little Mist’s mind. Was it possible that Ariel mistakenly thought the current her was Truth, but to cover up the fact that she had been peeping at her talking to herself, she called her the Hidden One instead?
After all, Ariel knew how terrifying the real Hidden One was. And according to the Hidden One’s persona, it would never do something childish like talking to itself in the mirror…
If that were the case, Little Mist was relieved. Because no matter what, as long as Ariel didn’t realize she was actually Little Mist, it didn’t matter whether she thought she was Truth or the Hidden One. Either way, the embarrassment belonged to Truth.
‘The one talking to herself in the mirror just now was Truth, not Little Mist!’
“Ahem!”
Little Mist immediately adjusted her mindset, sat down at the foot of the bed, and crossed her legs. She looked very calm and composed, though her slightly reddened ears betrayed her feelings:
“If there’s nothing else… withdraw.”
“Understood!” Ariel knelt as she backed away and gently closed the door. Only when she heard the door click shut did she silently giggle in the hallway:
“Hehe…”
‘She even crossed her legs—how amusing!’
Thinking about how Truth had been pretending to be the Hidden One while talking to her, Ariel found it hilarious. Even though she had clearly been exposed, Truth still played along to save face. How adorable.
‘So, how can I tell in the future whether Truth is possessed by the Seeker Demon or not?’ Ariel wondered.
‘If I can figure that out, life in the Mist will be much easier! Hmph! I may not be able to control the Seeker Demon, but I can certainly handle a little Saintess!’
Back in Wangdu, Ariel had bullied several Life Saintesses before, so she was quite experienced.
Right now, the most important thing was to come up with a way to distinguish Truth from the Seeker Demon…
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