When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 121



Only Noblemtl

121. Longing Heart
2024.02.29.

Even though she was talking about her own demise, Grandmother Heukwol’s voice was quite calm.

She was just going to meet Baekmae and Seon-gwan-nim, the people she missed who had left first.

As if nothing more or less.

The thought suddenly occurred to me that perhaps she had been waiting for the moment of demise after teaching her disciple the swordsmanship.

“Anyway, I don’t have much time left in this world, so I’ll teach you quickly. Starting with the third form, ‘Swirling Crescent Moon.’”

Grandmother said, lifting her hazy finger.

And then she pointed. At the flower tree near us.

“Stand under that flower tree.”

I did as she said and stood under that flower tree.

The flowers had already withered, so as I stood under it, the petals swept down like snowflakes.

As I was quietly being hit by the falling petals, Grandmother Heukwol instructed me.

“Cut off all the falling petals.”

“… … These?”

There were too many petals falling to cut them one by one.

I thought it was an unrealistic order, like cutting down swirling snowflakes.

Nevertheless, Grandma Heukwol just nodded her head quietly, and I had no choice but to swing my Baekhwamyeongwoldo.

Swish—

The sound of the blade cutting through the wind was loud.

However, only two or three petals were actually cut.

Grandma Heukwol nodded her head as if she had expected it and said,

“This time, I will demonstrate, so look closely at the difference between your movements and mine just now.”

Soon, Grandma Heukwol possessed my body like last time, and demonstrated the swordsmanship directly with my body.

Immediately afterwards, I was startled.

Swish! Swish!

The blade swung quickly at an invisible speed.

In an instant, dozens of petals that had been falling were all cut down.

The blade, which swung quickly like a blender blade, had chopped up all the petals.

‘… … How did you move so quickly? Even though I cut with my body, the movements are completely different.’

Even though I used the same body to cut it, it was different from when I had barely cut two or three petals the first time.

As soon as the demonstration was over, I asked Grandma Heukwol,

“How did you do it?”

“The advice I will give you this time is the same. Put your heart into it. A heart that yearns.”

“A heart that yearns?”

“When I made this dish, I looked at the petals and missed them. The white petals that were fluttering in the place I had run away from.”

Grandma’s voice, filled with longing, continued softly.

“After missing them so much and missing them again, I swung my knife for a long time under the flower tree to relieve the pain. That’s how the dish was completed. So you should also try to put your longing into it.”

Longing… …

I tried to think about what I was missing.

Was there something I was missing?

Nothing came to mind.

The only place I missed was the cathedral, which was just like my home, but I could take a boat to get there right away.

That’s why I didn’t feel particularly eager.

“Can’t you just pass on to me your memories from when you practiced last time?”

“No. You won’t be able to learn

this style that way.” Grandma Heukwol said firmly and explained.

“The Penetrating Full Moon that I taught you before was a relatively easy style to learn. The heart that you had to put into that style was ‘the heart of wanting to protect someone precious,’ and since you also had someone precious you wanted to protect, it would have been easy to put your heart into the technique.”

“Yes, that’s definitely true.” “

So back then, you simply had to learn the posture of performing the style by receiving the memories, but this style is different. You can’t simply learn it that way.”

After explaining up to that point, Grandma suddenly asked me.

“Can you truly miss someone right now?”

I couldn’t answer.

I think I missed my mother and father a long time ago, but now… I don’t know.

It’s been so long since I lost them.

Grandma continued to tell me.

“Even now, when I close my eyes, I miss them. “As many memories as the number of fluttering flower petals, even now when I close my eyes, they come to mind vividly.”

“Then I… … ” ”

You must first learn to yearn like me. Since you will soon learn the posture for performing the ceremony, for now, just practice holding the yearning in your heart.”

After saying that, my grandmother moved my body and demonstrated the third ceremony a few more times.

As she said, I was able to get used to the pose quickly.

However, my sword, which could not contain my longing, was still slow.

So, I decided to meditate according to her suggestion.

Since I had already learned the pose, I decided to practice embracing my longing through meditation.

This was something that Grandma Heukwol could not help me with, something I had to do on my own.

So she said she would leave it to me and fell asleep again.

After that, I brought a chair to a corner of the training ground, sat down quietly, and closed my eyes.

In the silence, my own lonely meditation began.

‘A heart that yearns so desperately… … . Who does it miss… … ? More importantly, are the kids doing well?’

As I meditated, I felt myself naturally falling into other thoughts.

‘For now, the Mongma siblings and the Bliss team seem to be doing surprisingly well. They seemed to have played quite well last time.’

I remembered Dionik pouring alcohol into Bliss’ mouth and teasing her.

Since neither of them were the type to be concerned about others, they surprisingly got used to each other quickly.

‘What I’m really worried about is Luciana and Cheonggwang’s team. Cheonggwang seems to have secretly found Luciana difficult… … ?’ Cheonggwang

seemed to have found Luciana difficult, and he thought he knew why.

It seemed to be because of Luciana’s cold and fierce gaze.

Because of that gaze, most people who met Luciana for the first time found her difficult.

However, Luciana’s actual personality, despite her appearance, was… um… her actual personality was also fierce and cold.

It seemed inevitable that Cheonggwang would find Luciana difficult.

‘Should I have teamed Luciana up with the Mongma siblings instead?’

Dionik seemed to follow Luciana around well, calling her “older sister” unexpectedly.

At least on the surface.

Elodie remembered that Luciana and Elodie weren’t friends, but they were close enough to be strangers.

‘I thought hard about putting together this team, but after thinking about it again, we don’t really fit together… ‘

I should put Luciana and the Mongma siblings together as a team next time – that’s when I was thinking that.

Drumroll.

I heard someone’s footsteps near my ears.

Along with a strange singing voice.

‘Why is there singing in the middle of the night… … . And I think I heard footsteps too?’

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my meditation again, but the sound didn’t stop.

Drumroll. Drumroll. Drumroll.

The sound of footsteps coming from the Baron’s front gate gradually got farther away.

As a result, the faint singing grew louder.

Unable to overcome my curiosity, I slowly opened my eyes

. Then I looked in the direction where the footsteps came from.

“… … !”

As soon as I opened my eyes, I closed them again and rubbed them.

I saw someone I couldn’t believe.

However, no matter how much I rubbed my eyes, the sight I was seeing didn’t change.

Which meant that I hadn’t seen anything wrong.

After confirming that I was not hallucinating, I opened my mouth and called out to the person who had made the footsteps.

“Luciana… …? Is that Luciana? Why are you here?”

The one who had made the footsteps was Luciana.

She came out of the Baron’s main gate with a slow gait and was walking across the garden.

She didn’t even hear my call.

The strange thing was that Luciana should have been in the Balton County with Cheong-gwang by now.

The two had left together to defeat monsters in the Balton County, one of the places where the dungeon break had occurred.

Why was she here, wandering alone in the Deloche Baron’s mansion?

Feeling possessed, I called out to her again loudly.

“Luciana! Where did you put Cheong-gwang?”

There was still no answer from Luciana.

I stopped calling her with my mouth and jumped up from my seat.

Then I quickly followed after Luciana.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

As I started to chase after Luciana, her pace suddenly quickened.

As if she was running away from me.

I also tried to chase after her by increasing my pace, but―

“Your Majesty!”

Petros called out to me from behind and grabbed my shoulder to stop me.

He glanced at me and asked,

“Do you exercise alone on a moonlit night…?”

“No, I was meditating when Luciana suddenly passed by and I was chasing her.”

“Yes…?”

Petros asked me in bewilderment, and then continued.

“There’s no way Lazar could be here… … Lazar was headed to Balton County with Cheonggwang.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Luciana, who should be in Balton County right now, was here? You just came out, so you didn’t see her.”

“… … .”

Petros was silent for a short while, then said something strange.

“I didn’t just come out… … .”

“What?”

“I couldn’t sleep either, so I was wandering around nearby. While I was wandering around, I saw His Majesty going somewhere by himself, as if in a trance, so I came and caught him.”

“… … .”

“So you’re saying that you didn’t even see Lazar’s shadow even though you were wandering around nearby.”

Petros thought that he just came out of the mansion and didn’t see Luciana.

But he was still nearby?

And he only saw me, not Luciana?

Something felt strange.

“So you’re saying that I was hallucinating by myself… … ?”

“Yes, isn’t that so?”

Petros nodded and continued,

“You caught almost all of those birds by yourself. Maybe you misunderstood because you were so tired from that. You should go inside and rest.”

“… … Yes. I should do that today.”

Petros was right.

I’ve been overdoing it lately, and I came out tonight to train, even though I should have been getting some rest.

Even though I have S-class stamina, I must have been exhausted from pushing my body like this.

That must be why I was hallucinating.

‘Tsk, I should just go to sleep.’

Since I was already hallucinating, I couldn’t continue meditating, so I went into the baron’s residence with Petros.

After washing up briefly, I fell into a deep sleep.

I slept soundly without even dreaming.

However, I couldn’t stay asleep until late morning.

Baron Delorche had come to see me in person early in the morning and had been knocking on the door with a loud voice.

“Your Majesty! We’re in trouble!”

The baron continued to shout as I woke up half-asleep.

“They say that 13 Yeongjimin suddenly went missing in the middle of the night!!”