When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 125



Only Noblemtl

125. What’s your relationship with Elodie?
2024.03.04.

The wise man who peeped his head through the crack in the door was… young.

He must have been seven years old at most?

His eyes were round and his cheeks were chubby, his face reminding me of a hamster.

That’s why Luciana didn’t immediately notice his identity and asked.

“Who are you?”

The wise man, Andrei, finally opened the door wide and revealed himself after hearing Luciana’s question.

Then he introduced himself with his green eyes sparkling.

“Andrei van Balten. I am the head of the Balten Counts and am called the wise man by the people.”

“You… No, you are the wise man? You look young.”

“There is a reason for that. Contrary to my appearance, I am older than you. And did you just say ‘the one who stole the golden lily’?”

Only then did Luciana nod, remembering her original purpose.

“Yes. “I came here to learn about one of my skills, the one called the Golden Lily Stealer.”

“Ahh… … .”

“I heard you know everything. So I came here to ask you about this unidentified skill.”

At Luciana’s words, Andrei nodded so much that his orange hair shook slightly.

“You came to the right place. Please come in.”

Luciana and Cheonggwang exchanged glances and followed the sage into the room.

Luciana and Cheonggwang stopped in their tracks when they saw the room they entered.

The room was filled with books that were dizzying to look at.

There were also some unknown medicines scattered on the desk.

“I didn’t know a guest would come here, so I couldn’t clean the lab. For now, sit on the sofa. Put the clothes that are strewn about.”

Following Andrei’s words, Luciana and Cheonggwang sat on the sofa.

After coming to their senses a little, Luciana asked Andrei.

“The lab… What are you studying?”

“I study curses. The curse that changed my appearance into this child.”

“A curse? You turned me into a child because of a curse?”

Luciana asked, startled by the word curse.

Andrei jumped up and sat down across from them,

answering. “It’s complicated, but I was cursed to become younger as time passed. That’s why I look so shameful.”

“A curse… Who cursed me?”

“That is… …”

Andrei hesitated for a moment, then spread out his index finger.

Then he pointed upward.

“A curse from the stern one who looks down on us from on high.”

“… …”

Luciana’s eyes widened in surprise.

There was only one person who looked down on us from on high.

Luciana asked cautiously to confirm her guess.

“So… you were ‘punished by the gods’?”

Punishment. It meant punishment from a god who was angry.

The divine punishment was usually given to those with extremely low karma points or those who had done something harmful to humanity.

If he had received that divine punishment, then this person in front of him must have been someone he should not have approached.

However, since Luciana was in a position where she needed help, she could not just run away, so she asked cautiously.

“How did it come about?”

“For the crime of trying to know something that I shouldn’t know… … . However, I don’t blame him. It was also because he showed me how to escape this punishment.”

Andrei continued with a gentle smile on his lips.

“He told me that if I helped the ‘one who stole the golden lily,’ I could be freed from this curse.”

“… …!”

“At first, I didn’t know what he meant. The one with the golden lily was just a thief in the Bible. However, after much research, I found out that there was a skill with the exact same name.”

While their story continued, the attendant brought out tea.

Andrei continued, sipping his tea.

“That’s why I studied that skill for a long time, and also searched for someone who possessed that skill.”

“… … .”

“It was because of that curse that I started helping people. The goddess told me to ‘help’ the one who stole the golden lily, so I thought that if I helped anyone, my curse would be lifted.”

After hearing that, Luciana finally understood his circumstances.

While she nodded, Andrei smiled again with his small lips.

“Now that I think about it, that choice didn’t seem wrong. He who stole the golden lily heard of my reputation came to me on his own.”

Andrei’s eyes lit up.

His green eyes, filled with the years of experience, sparkled as he asked.

“Now, tell me. What kind of help do you need?”

“I want to know what this skill is. And how to use it.”

“That should be easy. I’ve spent my entire life studying that skill. It shouldn’t be hard to explain it to you.”

Andrei continued speaking, crunching the large cookie the attendant had handed him with both hands.

“That skill… is a kind of sacrificial skill.”

“Sacrifice…?”

“Yes. It’s a skill where you sacrifice yourself to seal others… and then turn into a monster.”

Thump. Luciana dropped the cookie she was holding.

* * *

She successfully defeated the Siren.

After that, Petros and I were able to rescue the people who had been taken by Siren, and we were able to return to the Baron’s Mansion together.

Even though we caught Siren, the dungeon clear reward item… aka ‘gold and silver box’ didn’t come out.

I thought it was probably because the reward item only appears inside the dungeon.

Monsters that had been out for a long time due to the dungeon break wouldn’t give us any rewards even if we caught them.

Anyway, after solving all the cases like that, we stayed for a while in the Deloche Baron’s Mansion, and soon after, Bliss and Mongmas came here.

They had also come here after completely defeating the monsters in the Baron’s Mansion.

I heard that the A-class dungeon had been destroyed, so it seemed that they had a hard time, but they had somehow managed to defeat the boss monster.

So I told them the general situation here.

Luciana and Cheonggwang hadn’t come yet, and we hadn’t caught the boss monster here yet.

Bliss asked,

“Then we have to catch the boss monster.”

“I have to, but the problem is that it doesn’t show where it is.”

“Isn’t it possible that the Siren you caught before was a boss monster?”

“That can’t be. That monster was too weak to be a boss monster.”

I thought of the Siren that had died instantly just by being pinned to a tree.

If it had been a boss monster, it probably wouldn’t have died that easily.

Thinking that way, I continued talking to Bliss.

“The Siren was probably a monster on the second floor of the dungeon, and there must be another real boss monster.”

“This is a headache. I’ll have to defeat the boss monster before I can go back with peace of mind.”

“We’ll have to hope she shows up before Luciana comes.”

At that moment, Dionik, who had been listening to our conversation, interjected and asked,

“So should I just sit around and wait until then?”

“Oh, that’s right. I was thinking about what I could do while I wait. And I just happened to

come across a good job.” I motioned for the group that had gathered in the guest room to follow me.

Then I led them to the Baron’s training ground.

There was a tattered ship anchored there.

The Dawn Star’s Footsteps, originally in a tattered state, had been completely tattered after being attacked by a flock of birds.

The group looked at the wooden planks scattered around it and the workers busily going back and forth, their faces blank.

I said to them,

“Let’s fix the ship together with the workers.”

The group still looked blank after hearing my suggestion.

I explained to them in more detail.

“If we leave it to the workers of the Baron’s territory, it’ll take a long time. That’s why we should step forward and help. It’s better than being bored.”

We had to wait for Luciana, and we had to find and defeat the boss monster.

However, Luciana and the boss monster had not appeared yet.

We needed something to kill time until they appeared.

At that moment, Elodie stepped forward and said,

“I’m fine. Since we have nothing to do anyway. Instead, we won’t do any work that requires sweating like sawing or hammering.”

As Elodie stepped forward, Dionik also spoke.

“Well, since Elodie says so, I’ll do it too.”

Bliss and Petros also agreed.

“I made a lot of model ships when I was young, but repairing a real ship… sounds fun.”

“I agree, too. It’s been a while since I’ve done it.”

With that, everyone in the group agreed with my idea.

Without further hesitation, we each took on a task.

First, Elodie said she didn’t want to saw or hammer, so she was in charge of moving materials.

It was a job that was perfect for Elodie, who could fly and move materials quickly.

Petros was in charge of cutting the trees to size.

Since he had a skill that increased cutting power, he could easily cut the trees to the right size using that.

Bliss… somewhat unsuitable, was in charge of ‘rope twisting.’

I don’t know why he volunteered to twist ropes. It seemed fun, didn’t it?

Then Dionic and I were assigned to climb up to the top of the mast together and add wooden planks to the broken parts.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Every time I struck the hammer, a clear and regular sound rang out.

For a while, I and Dionic were just hammering away.

Thump. Thump.

Dionic, who had been hammering on the other side of me, suddenly stopped.

Then he suddenly looked at me.

I wondered if he had run out of nails, so I held out a few, and he shook his head.

Then he opened his mouth.

“Bro, I have something to ask you. It’s very important.”

“What is it? “About the erased ones?”

Dionik shook his head at my question.

After watching his pink hair swing back and forth, I met his eyes again.

He was looking at me with eyes that were unexpectedly devoid of any smile.

“You and Elodie—”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not related, right?”

Thump. I dropped the hammer I was holding without realizing it.

It was because I understood the deep meaning contained in those words, “You’re not related, are you?”

Still, I asked him just in case.

“… … What do you mean by ‘not related?’? What are you trying to ask?”

“So, do you think of each other as the opposite sex? For example—”

“Enough. I understand what you mean, so you can stop talking.”

In short, he was asking if Elodie and I were ‘lovers. ’

While I thought it was an absurd question, I also understood why he had such a question.

I thought it was because of the secret meeting and conversation between Elodie and I in my dream last time.

The reason we secretly met in my dream that day was to evade Luciana’s pursuit, but Dionique probably didn’t know that yet. He

must have been suspicious of why we had a secret meeting ‘alone’ in a dream.

I opened my mouth to refute him right away.

“Listen carefully. Elodie and I—”

I said that far, then suddenly stopped.

‘Come to think of it, what is our relationship?’

I couldn’t think of a word to properly describe our relationship.

I thought and thought again before finally finding a suitable word.

“Elodie and I… We’re not friends, but we’re not strangers either, that kind of relationship.”