Chapter 137 – Have I Really Achieved the Mad Dream of Every Demon Lord in History: Occupying the Holy See?

Translation by: Weebsread👹

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Time seemed to freeze, suspended in the space between heartbeats, as though the world itself had forgotten how to turn.

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Veya blinked, dazed, her mind sluggish to catch up with what her eyes were relaying—one step behind reality, lost in a moment of disbelief.

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“Good evening… huh?”

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But what greeted her wasn’t the warm, familiar chaos of her own chambers.

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Instead, she found herself surrounded by sober, austere decor—the solemn atmosphere unmistakable. It was the study. The room she spent nearly every waking hour inside, the first thing she saw at dawn and the last before midnight’s end. Towering stacks of documents loomed in every corner, each pile a silent testament to the mountain of unfinished work haunting her daily life.

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Now, without her indispensable Lady Secretary—banished to forced leave—the work had come to a miserable crawl. Each task felt heavier than ever, pressing down with smothering weight, drawing even the rhythm from her breaths.

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And yet, in this gray ocean of paperwork that threatened to swallow her whole… here was the one thing she could never do without. The reason she survived, the one who made it all bearable.

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Lin Wei.

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He was the reason she pressed on. And now, impossibly, he stood right before her.

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“Y-you—you—!” Her heart lurched so violently she feared it might stop then and there. Icy sweat prickled her skin, and her whole body trembled, bones nearly rattling.

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Before she realized it, Veya shot up from her chair, reaction wild and panicked, scrambling backward in desperate retreat. She collided with the bookshelf behind her—a sharp thud, pain sharp enough to jar her fully awake, erasing the last shreds of fantasy. This was real.

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There he was: Lin Wei.

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Sitting by her side, elbow propped casually on the table, gazing at her with that deeply unreadable expression.

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Veya stared back, eyes wide and unblinking, terror and bewilderment warring across her face. The look she gave him was the kind reserved for ghosts—something impossible, unwanted, unspeakable.

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This was wrong.

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Ridiculously, laughably wrong!

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This scene—No matter how she tried, there was just no way to make it feel right.

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The study itself wasn’t the issue.

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She was here nearly every day, after all—bathed in familiarity from floor to ceiling, this was where she toiled, where she kept the Holy See in motion.

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She’d grown sick of the sight of it more than once, but steeled herself, because the work mattered—someone had to shoulder the burden.

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And having Lin Wei—her Lin Wei—by her side? That shouldn’t be a problem either.

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He was her husband, after all, and his mere presence worked like a balm, soothing anxieties, undoing the knots tension left behind.

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So everything should have made perfect sense, shouldn’t it?

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It should have.

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But the moment you combined the two—her daily fortress and her gentle anchor—her heart skipped desperately, chaos rising. Suddenly it was enough to spark a full-blown existential crisis.

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“Y-y-you! Why are you here?!”

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Her voice, strangled by a futile attempt at restraint, still cut the air like thunder.

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If it hadn’t been for the soundproofing barrier she set up out of habit, that outburst would’ve summoned half the Holy See’s knights charging into the room.

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“I completed the task for Her Holiness, so I came to report in,” Lin Wei answered, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

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“Oh, and I wanted to check up on our ever-diligent Secretary Miss. Is something wrong, Your Holiness Selena? You don’t seem very happy to see me.”

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Selena’s heart gave a painful start. For just a moment, the great Pope herself found her composure shatter, leaving behind only fluster and panic.

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“W-what? What’s this about Pope Selena? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she stammered.

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“This is Her Holiness’s office. I’m just… helping out temporarily. Processing a handful of her documents, nothing more.

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"Tonight’s operation wasn’t supposed to be about bolstering the Pope’s authority, so why did you drag Duke Ous here, of all things? The Pope herself already finished tending to Miss Rennie and then left to handle other business—so how could you think—I mean, I’m just…"

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Her voice lost its strength as she stammered, a brittle edifice of excuses and half-truths.

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Guilt surrounded her, and she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes.

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Crash—memory and realization struck, wave after wave, each one pulling her more deeply into mental exhaustion.

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“Oh, I see how it is.”

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“You just wanted a seat in the Pope’s chair for a while, try on the power, help out with a little paperwork… Is that it?”

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His tone was sharpened by mockery, made painfully obvious—he didn’t believe a word.

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Yet even under such suffocating scrutiny—when almost anyone else would have collapsed—Lady Selena only clutched her skirt, lifted her chin, and replied with as much dignity as she could muster.

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“Yes! That’s exactly it!”

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“Then how about joining me and shouting, ‘Selena the Pope is a useless good-for-nothing!’ at the top of your lungs. Sound fair?”

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“…”

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Veya instinctively puffed out her cheeks, staring at him.

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Three seconds passed.

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Lin Wei’s lips crooked into a smile; he gestured to the vacated chair.

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Shoulders slumping in defeat, Selena the Pope shuffled over, head bowed, and sat without protest.

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Sitting there, eyes averted and hands in her lap, she looked for all the world like a child caught in the act, the air thick with guilt.

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Still—even now—she couldn’t resist a token protest.

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“W-well… I’m still the Pope’s subordinate, aren’t I? I can’t just insult my superior like that…”

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Yes, yes—how could the Pope slander herself?

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Lin Wei gave a deliberately cold laugh, rapping his knuckles against the desk for effect.

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There was a brief silence before he spoke again, voice quietly pressing, “Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

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Veya let out a full, resigned sigh. She surrendered.

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“Veya Selena. Former Saintess of the Holy See… now current Pope. I haven’t chosen my regnal name yet.”

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She drew herself up, took a deep breath, and lifted her head to meet his eyes. She tried to put on a mask of papal authority, but guilt and uncertainty gnawed away at her poise.

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“So… how did you find out?”

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There was no point in denial now.

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If Lin Wei could sit across from her and discuss this so calmly, he had likely unraveled everything already.

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Confusion mounted—she still couldn’t fathom where her disguise had failed.

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“I was so thorough with my disguise. Even the messages I sent you were all passed along by my secretary.”

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“How did you find out I was the Pope? And you just walked in here to confront me! What if you’d guessed wrong?”

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“Please. You go by ‘Pope Selena’ but married as ‘Veya Selena.’ Anyone halfway clever would get suspicious. If not for the empire’s citizenship requirements and their lengthy reviews, you might’ve actually gotten away with it.”

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As Lin Wei spoke, he shot her a look, irritation flickering in his eyes—and then, in his thoughts:

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If those country bumpkins out there ever bothered to learn your surname instead of just calling you a ‘useless Pope,’ you think I’d have waited until today? I’d have tracked you down at the Holy See ages ago, making your life hell. Hiding this well… what a woman.

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When they’d wed, she’d sworn it was just job stress and family pressure for a political marriage—he was just doing her a favor.

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But what family? What arrangement? Lies, all of it.

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The only true thing was the suffocating pressure of her job. But it wasn’t the agony of some overworked office worker with a tyrant boss.

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It was simpler: she just couldn’t bear up beneath it all.

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Lin Wei blurted out, “Did you never wonder if I might’ve been the Pope’s cousin or something?”

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Veya’s lips twitched. “You can’t just jump to thinking I’m the Pope— Wait, hold on. Did Saintess Yalis bring you here?”

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Suddenly, realization dawned.

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If news of the Selena surname ever got out, she could just claim to be a distant relative and explain her access to the Pope’s inner circle that way.

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It’d certainly make it easier to recruit Lin Wei into Church work later.

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Except for the Saintess Yalis problem. That girl had studied the Church’s ancient records; she knew Veya was an orphan, parents lost to the Demon Wars a decade ago.

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No distant relatives—the last Selena in all the world was Veya herself.

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Lin Wei shrugged. “At first, I really did think maybe you were related to the Pope—so I went to ask Yalis.”

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“Her answer caught me off guard. She said, plain as day, the Pope has no living kin in this world. No family at all. But…” he frowned, “the way she said it seemed off, somehow.”

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Veya frowned, irritation flickering. “How so?”

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I’ll have to bury Yalis in paperwork—so deep she won’t have time to gossip with anyone ever again!

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She shot Lin Wei a look that betrayed her dismay, only to see him sigh, gesturing helplessly at himself.

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“Am I not the only actual ‘family’ Pope Selena has now?”

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Come to think of it—if Veya was the Pope all along, how did we even get our marriage certificate processed?

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He turned to her, her face locked halfway between being genuinely touched and trying—unsuccessfully—to stifle a foolish smile.

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Lin Wei couldn’t stop himself from laughing softly at the sight.

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“Just think: the infamous good-for-nothing Pope Selena, derided by the rabble, stomped by nobles, opposed by most of the clergy—and she’s my wife.”

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“All those times you rushed home—so it wasn’t because work had finally eased up, or you’d earned a rare break. It was just the pressure—you couldn’t bear it, so you ran to me for comfort?”

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With a grin, Lin Wei reached out and pinched her cheeks.

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“You little fox! If I hadn’t uncovered the truth on my own, how many years did you plan to keep me in the dark?”

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“If you’d just told me you were the Pope, I’d have happily retired, lounged around at home, and waited for my sugar-mama wife the Pope to take care of me!”

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“Mmm! Mmmph… N-now that you know I’m the Pope, show some respect! Insulting the Pope is a grave offense—I should execute you on the spot…”

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Her cheeks squished, her protest only came out as a muffled, adorable grumble.

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She had never imagined a day—much less a scene—like this. Once or twice, she’d fantasized about confessing her true identity to Lin Wei.

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But in those daydreams, he was always stunned, maybe even fainting on the spot. She would cradle him, reassuring him softly, helping him accept reality. Afterward, he’d become hers and hers alone.

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So why, even now that he knew, did he dare tease her so shamelessly?

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Sacrilege! To treat the Holy See—and its Pope—with such disrespect!

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If the Goddess Alicia took offense, divine wrath would surely descend!

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Veya snorted. “Honestly—isn’t it mercy that I haven’t punished you on the spot as a sign of gratitude?”

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She turned to study Lin Wei more closely. “You were furious when you found out I’d been hiding things from you. But in the end, weren’t your own secrets deeper than mine?”

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He let go her cheek, leaning his chin on his palm, watching her in tranquil silence. The storm inside him, at last, subsided, giving way to a quiet contentment.

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Knowing Veya’s true identity changed nothing about their daily life.

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Sitting side by side as always, cherishing these small pockets of peace—the ordinary days had become something precious.

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All the hidden anxieties that had once clawed at his mind seemed to vanish into thin air.

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After all, he no longer had to fear his Demon Lord identity being discovered. The only one with power to bring him to justice now… was his own wife.

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Veya huffed, voice a grumble. “I kept it secret, just because I was afraid you’d be frightened if I told you everything at the start.”

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“And as for letting you laze about at home while I cared for you—I was! You’re the restless one.”

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Regret traced faint lines across her expression. In hindsight, that anxiousness had led to all this trouble.

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“If I’d known it would turn out like this, I’d never have let you come to the capital. Would’ve been far less of a headache if you’d stayed quietly in Orens Town.”

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“At the very least, I could have stationed extra people to protect you! Every time a hero squad set out, I made sure their path took them through Orens—just to give you some backup… They weren’t half bad, either.”

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“…???”

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Lin Wei could only gape—question marks practically leaping from his head.

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So that’s why that parade of ‘Crusader Squads’ never left me alone!

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I should have known it was you who sent them!

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“Only… every single one of those crusader teams wound up vanishing. Not a trace left.”

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When Veya saw Lin Wei’s shock, she grew suddenly serious, leaning in to whisper.

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“What’s really odd is, some of those teams never even set out. All they did was notify the Holy See they were leaving the Border Wall for field training, and then—poof, they vanished.”

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“I worried there was some hidden threat near Orens Town. Some of those crusaders hadn’t even left the Wall before someone got to them. And with both the demon resurgence and the goblin outbreak, that’s why I insisted you come to the capital. It was for your safety.”

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“See how much I look out for you? And after all that, you still hold a grudge?”

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It was true—not a single team made it past the Border Wall before disaster struck.

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Because he’d taken care of every last one himself—knocked out, frozen, and dragged into the depths below, left to slumber until he deemed them harmless.

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Unless someone deliberately awakened them, those would-be heroes would sleep undisturbed, hidden from the world, as long as he saw fit.

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Of course, he could never tell Veya the truth. If someone revived those crusaders, his identity as Demon Lord would be exposed at once.

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Should he find a way to erase their memories entirely, just in case?

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Suddenly, Lin Wei understood the strange tension that sometimes hung about his wife’s face.

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Still, it couldn’t have been Veya stirring up all those odd rumors, or the increasingly brazen suspicions and confrontations about his identity lately.

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No—these so-called heroes, handpicked by the Holy See, all bore the Goddess Alicia’s mark.

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Thinking back, his careful choice not to kill them outright, but rather to incapacitate and seal them away—turns out, that truly was the wisest decision.

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There was always something uncanny about Heroes.

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However weak they seemed, each one could survive at least a few real exchanges. Corner them, force their backs to the wall—and suddenly they’d shout about “the bonds that unite us!” or “the power of friendship!” and burst forth with impossible strength.

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Now, without the authority of a Demon God, Lin Wei wouldn’t dare gamble his life against a true Hero. It was far safer to end things before they could mount a comeback.

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“I wasn’t angry with you—well, maybe shocked.”

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“Ahem… You hid your identity once, so now we’re even.”

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“No more secrets, all right? If I’d known you were Pope Selena from the start, I’d have come running to help. Maybe the Holy See wouldn’t have ended up in so much trouble.”

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He took a deep breath as she leaned closer, her face only inches from his.

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A subtle fragrance drifted across the space—cool, enchanting, touched with the sweetness of fruit and flowers.

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It soothed her, promised rest and peace with every breath.

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“I never realized you’d spent so long at the royal courts up north,” she murmured softly. “When I first took up the mantle of Pope, danger was everywhere. Not just outside enemies—every shadow within the Holy See hid someone waiting to seize the papal throne. How could I let my Lin Wei face that kind of risk?”

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It was as though the same secret knot sat in both their hearts—a shared determination to keep the other from harm, no matter what else happened.

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Lin Wei sighed, shaking his head gently. By now, there was nothing left to argue.

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“All right. If it were you in danger, I’d never let you risk yourself either.”

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“So? What now—do you want me to help you run the Holy See, for real?”

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“Yes, yes, yes! Of course I need you, Lin Wei! Please, help me! Help me clean up this mess, won’t you, Mr. Lin Wei?”

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At those words, Veya’s eyes lit up, all earlier composure forgotten as she clung to Lin Wei’s sleeve, her charms in full effect—a perfect picture of a woman relying on her man when trouble came knocking.

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“As long as you’ll help me, I’ll do anything you ask,” she pleaded, voice soft, sweetly cajoling.

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“Will you come work for me? The weight is just too much—I can’t hold out alone!”

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“Just use those ideas you mentioned before, all right? Give me some advice—help me become the Pope I’m meant to be!”