When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 118
Only Noblemtl
118. The One Who Stole the Golden Lily
2024.02.26.
The beasts who received Micheln’s order rushed toward the dungeon at once.
Boom! Boom!
Instead of entering the dungeon from the entrance, they broke the dungeon from the outside.
That’s why the dungeon immediately created a barrier to block the beasts’ charge.
Some beasts bounced away, and some died instantly after colliding with the barrier.
However, the barrier still held firm without breaking.
Micheln gave another order to the beasts who hadn’t died yet.
“One more time.”
Following that order, the beasts with huge bodies rushed toward the barrier again.
A strange sound began to come out of the barrier that had been holding firm until just a moment ago.
Boom!
With the sound of glass breaking, a crack began to form in the barrier.
Once the crack had formed, it soon spread throughout the entire barrier.
Then, at some point.
Boom!
The barrier was completely destroyed with a loud noise.
As the curtain surrounding the dungeon disappeared, the howling of monsters began to flow out from within the dungeon.
It was the moment when the dungeon break occurred.
* * *
Immediately after waking up from my dream, I called a meeting.
After that, as I had promised Luciana, I told the high priests, Cheonggwang, and Petros everything about the erased ones.
The group remained silent until I finished my story.
It seemed that it took a while for everyone to accept it because the story was so large-scale.
The first to break the silence was Argelio.
“You’ve finally decided to tell me everything? I’ve been telling you not to tell anyone, so my mouth is about to itch.”
Argelio had heard the entire conversation between Netelon and me before, so he knew about the erased ones.
That’s why I had told him to keep his mouth shut so that he wouldn’t reveal it to anyone else, but he seemed to be feeling frustrated inside.
He immediately started to babble out everything he knew.
“The one who kidnapped me was also one of the erased ones. He called people weeds in front of me, and I almost threw a punch because I was so angry. But before that could happen, Your Majesty stepped in and crushed him to dust.”
Well, even if Argel had thrown a punch, Nethelon would have easily dodged it… I didn’t bother to point out his bluff.
Instead, I said this.
“I’m worried that we lost Micheln before. Since he’s also one of the erased ones, he must be up to something by now. We have to prepare for that.”
Bliss said, as if she had finished organizing her thoughts.
“I’ll report this to the palace and discuss it with Ernen.”
“Your Majesty?”
“This isn’t something we can discuss between ourselves. If those Priscillians really plan to purge the current human race.”
When Bliss said that, Argelio also opened his mouth.
“I’ll also go down to my hometown and talk to Elina about them. “ If those erased ones do something crazy, we can always get support from the dukedom.”
If the royal family and dukedom stepped forward, it would definitely give me peace of mind no matter what attack I was subjected to next.
Luciana followed Argelio.
“We, Marquis Lazar, are always prepared for monster invasions. So there’s no need for me to go down to my hometown to warn them separately… Instead, I’ll put more effort into training the Holy Knights than I am currently doing. I’ll also train myself.”
I felt a little worried after hearing Luciana’s words, so I shook my head.
“You’re going to train more there? I already know that you’re practically living in the training grounds.”
“I’m not saying that I’m going to train more physically. I’m going to use this opportunity to find a way to utilize my skills 100%.”
“Skill?”
Luciana nodded.
“You may know, but among my skills, there’s one that has an ‘unknown identity’.”
That was true.
When I opened Luciana’s information window before, there was definitely one unidentified skill.
What was her name… … .
Since I couldn’t quite remember, I opened her information window once more.
[Luciana Van Lazar (A)]
[Owned Skills]
―The North Wind that Blew Through the Garden (A)
―The Persistent Thorns (S)
―Elementalization (L)
―The Quiet Forest of the Beginning (L)
―The One Who Stole the Golden Lilies (???)
.
.
[Owned Karma]
111 points
The name of the unidentified skill that Luciana had mentioned was ‘The One Who Stealed Golden Lilies’.
For some reason, the skill rank was unknown.
If it had two question marks like Delsey’s skill, I would have thought it was a non-ranked skill, but that wasn’t the case.
‘It’s definitely an unidentified skill. The rank is also unclear, and the skill description doesn’t show up either.’
Everything was unclear, but I thought it was probably an amazing skill, at least L-rank.
That’s because the ‘Stealer of Golden Lilies’ had a very important symbolism in the Bible.
‘The story of the thief who stole golden lilies… I’ve definitely seen it in the Bible.’
Long ago, there lived a greedy king in a certain kingdom.
He usually enjoyed collecting gold, but one day, while drunk, he declared to those gathered at his birthday party:
– “They say that in the garden of God, lilies made of gold grow. “I will give a great amount of gold and silver treasures to the brave young man who offers me the golden lily.”
Most of those who heard the king’s declaration retreated, saying that they could not steal the god’s lily, but one clever thief was different.
He coveted the gold and silver treasures, so he hid in the god’s garden and approached the fairy guarding the garden, constantly whispering sweet nothings to her.
The innocent fairy was completely fooled by the thief’s whispered love, and the thief said to the fairy,
“If you love me too, please give me one golden lily.”
The fairy was troubled. Whether to cut the golden lily growing in the god’s garden for love or not.
After much agonizing, the fairy ended up cutting one of the many lilies in the garden.
Afterwards, he gave the one flower to the thief.
Then he warned him,
“Never smell the scent of this lily. If you do, you will be cursed by the god.”
The thief who got his hands on the golden lily did not listen to the story. He
only thought of offering it to the king and gaining gold and silver treasures.
So he left the fairy behind and secretly returned to the finite world. On his way back, he was captivated by the strong scent of the lily and took a deep breath of its scent. He
completely forgot the fairy’s warning that he should never smell the scent of the golden lily.
After that, the thief… … .
‘It was a story about someone who was cursed by God and turned into a devil, right? The fairy who plucked the lily was also punished by God and was imprisoned in the underworld forever… … .’
Yes, that was definitely the story.
In other words, the golden lily was a symbol of the lesson that ‘those who challenge the authority of God will receive terrible punishment.’
In any case, the fact that Luciana’s skill name was ‘The One Who Stole the Golden Lily’ must have had something to do with that story.
Just then, Luciana said,
“The One Who Stole the Golden Lily… This skill is one that I have, but I don’t really know much about it. So I’m going to research it. If I learn how to use it, it could be a great help in subduing monsters.”
“Good idea. Then, Luciana, learn how to use the skill.”
As I said that, the other party members also spoke up one after another.
The Mongma siblings and Cheonggwang said that they would help us clear the dungeon like before, and Petros did the same.
He said that he would help us clear the dungeon and study the usefulness of his skill like Luciana.
It was just as the meeting was about to end.
Suddenly, a priest came rushing into the conference room, looking anxious.
“Your Majesty! We’re in trouble! This is an emergency!”
The priest shouted before his breathing could even calm down.
“They say that the Balton County Territory has suddenly been invaded by monsters!”
“Balton County Territory?! There… …!”
I couldn’t bring myself to continue.
The Balton County Territory was the territory located right below the cathedral.
Monsters suddenly swarmed there.
If the defenses of the countship were breached, the cathedral would be the next to suffer damage.
That wasn’t the end of it.
Following the priest who had first entered, two other priests simultaneously ran into the conference room.
“Your Majesty, we have a message from Viscount Jereb! They say a horde of monsters has begun to attack! Viscount Jereb is asking for help!”
“The same goes for the Baronial Estate of Deloch! It seems they are struggling against the monsters!”
Viscount Jereb and Baronial Estate of Deloch. Both were territories that were quite close to the cathedral.
Those three territories were suddenly attacked by monsters… … .
‘That bastard Michelin must have done something.’
I asked while looking at Luciana.
“Were there any dungeons near the three territories I just heard about?”
“Yes, I remember there being dungeons near all three territories. Could this be… … .”
“Yeah. It seems like someone intentionally broke the dungeon barrier and caused a dungeon break. A horde of monsters are pouring out of the dungeon and attacking the territory.”
If that weren’t the case, there would be no reason for monsters to suddenly appear in droves.
I clenched my teeth once and continued.
“I can tell who did it without even looking… Anyway, now is not the time to be like this. Judging from the fact that each lord has urgently reported a monster invasion, the situation seems to be bad.”
“Should we dispatch them?”
I nodded at Luciana’s question.
“We should. If those three territories can’t stop the monsters, the cathedral will be attacked at once.” We
had decided what to do, and there was no time to waste.
We split into teams: Team 1 to guard the cathedral, and Team 3 to be dispatched to the territory.
After that, we headed straight to the territory where the problem occurred.
* * *
On the way down to the Baronial Domain of Delorce, one of the areas where the dungeon break occurred, with Petros on the ghost ship.
In order to learn the 3rd and 4th forms here and there, I woke up Grandma Black Moon in the ship’s cabin.
Grandma Black Moon, who had just woken up, looked around and said abruptly.
“Another cabin. Where are you going on the ship this time?”
“A monster… I mean, a demon appeared. I’m going to defeat it.”
“You’re really busy. Can’t you leave the task of defeating the demon to someone else?”
“There aren’t many people who can defeat the demon if it’s not me. In fact, defeating the demon isn’t the Pope’s job, but there’s nothing I can do.”
Grandma Black Moon clicked her tongue as if she felt sorry.
“So you have no choice but to fight in place of others. It must be hard.”
“That’s right. So—”
I took a deep breath and asked her.
“I want to learn as quickly as possible. “The following formulas of the Moonlight Sword Technique.”
Grandmother Heukwol nodded and began to speak again.
“I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again more clearly. Learning the following formulas may put some strain on your body.”
“I’m prepared.” “
If you accept demonic energy into your body filled with divine power… there will probably be a clash of the two forces. You have to endure that and stabilize your power.”
“You can do it.”
Grandmother Heukwol didn’t deny my confident answer.
“Yes, you probably can. You have great talent. But what’s really important is what happens if you ‘fail’ despite that small probability.”
“If you fail… …?” “
That’s right. If you fail to suppress the two forces swirling within you, you—”
Grandmother Heukwol paused for a moment as if trying to make me nervous.
Then she slowly spoke one word at a time.
“You’ll literally fall to pieces. Your body won’t be able to withstand the power swirling inside you and bang! It’s going to explode.’