Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1419 - 205: Loophole

Luscia bent her head, bringing her enormous skull close to Pannis, with the twin Soul Fires flickering as if a living creature was staring intently at another. She watched him for a while and, finding that Pannis’s expression had not changed, she sighed and asked, "I really don’t understand how you knew there was another person here. I can understand that you know he’s a Ghost, because speaking proves a Ghost fixed a magic on me that’s designed for one target only, allowing me to speak. But, I am the king of the Undead, and there are so many Ghosts outside, can’t just any Ghost fix this magic on me? Why are you so sure there’s another Ghost hiding by my side?"

"Ha, not only am I sure of his existence, I even know who he is," Pannis lazily said, "because there are too many holes in what you guys say, so many that it’s hard for me not to find issues. You should know, lies aren’t that easy to believe, and hiding a person with lies is even harder. A slight slipup, and all efforts are wasted, not to mention your slipups are far from minor."

"Uh, are there really that many holes? Most of the other Undead have been deceived," Luscia anxiously said, "Almost no one knows about his existence, and it’s impossible for anyone to have told."

"He obviously doesn’t want to see me, or rather, he doesn’t want to see anyone, so he’s been hiding here for over twenty years," Pannis said as he scratched his head, sighing, "And he’s hidden so carefully that he even escaped my perception range. Hey, he hasn’t really hidden Between the rituals, has he?"

"Uh, haha." Luscia, unable to respond, could only give a dry laugh and play dumb. After she laughed foolishly for a while and realized Pannis was still watching her intently, she could only helplessly droop her head and say, "Alright, I’ve already notified him. He should be coming over soon. But before he arrives, could you tell me how exactly you discovered his existence? I just can’t figure it out."

"Alright, first problem," Pannis said, raising his index finger. "Most of the Undead we’ve encountered have mentioned that you are the king of the Undead, and also the Archbishop among them, in charge of communicating with the Deity, which is why you’re always guarding the temple, right?"

"That’s right, is there a problem?" Luscia asked, puzzled. "We’ve always announced it this way, and nobody thought it was strange."

"That’s because they’re brainless, and coincidentally, I happened to grow a bit of a brain," Pannis scoffed. "Are you joking? From beginning to end, you’ve never abandoned your role and responsibilities as a Guardian, even as an Undead, you’re still committed to protecting this world. That means you still regard Lord Yarra as your highest belief. I’m not wrong, right? It just happens that my belief is also Lord Yarra, so I know very well that once a belief is dedicated to Lord Yarra, it’s almost psychologically impossible to worship other Deities. Of course, this statement is for ordinary intelligent beings. As for your Guardians, the word ’almost’ can almost be discarded. As long as you still uphold your role and responsibilities and continue to believe in Lord Yarra, it’s impossible for you to worship a certain deity. So, you absolutely cannot believe in the Grimreaper, no way. So the contradiction appears. Explain to me, how could someone who doesn’t believe in this deity become their Archbishop and communicate with them through prayers? If you cannot pray and communicate with the deity, how could you listen to the Oracle? Are you suggesting a face-to-face chat? Oh, of course, that used to be possible, but recently, I’m afraid not. So even if you hold the position of Archbishop, you can’t fulfill the duties."

"Aoow." Luscia promptly lay down on the ground, her two front paws clutching her skull, woefully moaning, "I can’t believe it was exposed because of this issue. No wonder he said the chances of fooling you were very low."

"It’s not just this one issue, but this one is the most obvious," Pannis verbally pressed on. "The church’s establishment was too abrupt, which is not normal at all. It’s impossible that no one thought of establishing a church for decades, and then one day, someone slapped their head and said, ’Let’s establish a church,’ and then the church was built. That’s too foolish, so there must have been a catalyst that made the church’s successful establishment possible. Through our interactions with other Undead, we’ve long known that the church was commanded to be built by your royal authority, and all decisions were made by you. But you don’t worship Nellie, nor do you know how a church should operate, so there must be some reticent guy helping you from behind. Isn’t that right?"

"Aoow." Luscia sounded even more dismayed, covering where her eyes once were, mumbling like a wronged little girl, "Anyway, it’s because of my exposure, woohoo."

"Alright, alright, actually it’s not your fault," Luscia’s display made Pannis really frustrated. Just a moment ago, she was mature enough to face death with a smile, and now she’s put on a pathetic and pitiful display, leaving him no choice but to sigh and console, "It’s really not your fault, mainly because there’s no Undead around you to point out these flaws. Church personnel like Lina around me, devoted in their faith, wouldn’t become Undead after death, because their souls would have returned to the Deity’s world at the moment of death, leaving only soulless skeletons behind, without the basis to become Undead. Those who become Undead are ordinary believers or even Pan-believers, so these Undead don’t understand the internal workings of the church either, plus they also don’t understand the characteristics of the Guardians, so it’s quite normal that they couldn’t spot the lies in your story. Besides, this is also a flaw; how could a group of Undead, who don’t understand the internal operations of the church, have so smoothly established it over twenty years ago? The answer is clear now, twenty years ago, there was someone who slightly understood the internal affairs of the church, yet wasn’t qualified to enter a certain Deity’s Divine Kingdom, who ultimately became a revived Undead. Only such a person could explain all these questions. See, it’s not your fault, so I can’t blame you."

"Really, it’s not my fault?" Luscia seemed to be playing dumb to alleviate the previous embarrassment, "You’re not just comforting me, right?"

"Of course not, and I haven’t spoken about the most important issue yet," Pannis suddenly raised his voice, shouting, "Those bulky columns outside, how stupid and blind must I be not to notice the difference between Totem Columns and the statues used as temporary placeholders for deities?"