When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 134



Only Noblemtl

134. Brainwashing Skill
2024.03.13.

Luciana, who was watching the situation right behind Bliss, screamed.

“Sir Bliss!!”

She immediately stepped forward and pulled Ernen away from Bliss.

Then she said.

“Your Majesty, it seems you have been affected by the brainwashing skill, so I will excuse you for a moment.”

Luciana, who had asked for understanding in advance, quickly raised her hand and struck Ernen on the back of the neck with it.

Ernen fainted from the sudden blow and fell into Luciana’s arms.

Luciana left the fallen Ernen with Cheongwang for the time being and immediately checked on Bliss’ condition.

“Sir, are you okay?”

“It’s nothing… nothing. He was just stabbed.”

“… … That is a very special case. Let’s pour a potion first.”

Luciana quickly took out an upper-level potion from her inventory and poured it on Bliss’ wound.

Elixirs are always in short supply, so I didn’t bring any, but even so, the high-level potion was a potion that worked well.

When I poured it on Bliss’s stabbed area, the wound healed a little.

“Your Majesty seems to have been affected by the brainwashing skill. If my prediction is correct, the one who planned all this must have been here too… You showed up just in time.” Luciana

stopped stopping the bleeding from her wound and got up from her seat.

A strange man appeared behind the curtain of the audience room… The one who probably planned all this. Luciana drew her sword and aimed it at him. “Are you one of the erased ones? Reveal your identity.” Julian, who faced Luciana, nodded with a quiet smile . Luciana then asked, “Is all this your doing?” This time, Julian nodded obediently. It was he who released the monsters into the palace and brainwashed Ernen into stabbing Bliss. He had heard the answer. Luciana had nothing left to do. She immediately activated her persistent thorny vine skill. She planned to capture and interrogate Julian with it. However, Julian did not stay still either. He immediately took out a thin, short whip from his bosom. And when he swung it― bang―! A blue light like a sword shot out and struck Luciana’s body. The name of the skill he activated was “Battered Child (S)”. It was a skill that temporarily sealed the opponent’s movements and forced them to be hit by the skill caster’s attacks. * * * Fortunately, my clothes dried somewhat overnight. Thanks to that, Dionique and I were able to get out of our naked blankets and put on our clothes properly. After that, we started wandering through the forest again, relying on our magic detection items. We walked and walked for a long time. Then, at one moment. “It’s here.” Elodie said and stopped in front of a cave. The pendulum-shaped magic detection item she was holding was spinning around as if it was reacting to magic. Elodie spoke again as she looked at the reacting magic detection item. “There is a strong detection of magic in this cave.” Dionique nodded after hearing Elodie’s words. “Then shall we go in?” I blocked Dionique’s path with one arm. Then I spoke to Dionique, who was looking at me in bewilderment. “Before that, let me nag you a little.” After saying that, I spoke to them with the most serious face I could muster. “Usually, monsters gather near places where strong magic is concentrated. You know?” A strong magic source tends to attract monsters. Just like the magic source that was created in the Nerebloka Temple and the monsters gathered there. After explaining that part, I continued. “In other words, there could be a few monsters in there too.” Dionique and Elodie nodded with quite determined faces at my advice. I continued speaking to them. “I have the Moonlight Sword Technique, but you two are both powerless because you can’t use your skills, so stick close behind me and follow me. Never act alone.” “Okay, hyung. Actually, even if you told me not to, I planned on sticking close to you.” “… … .” I didn’t want you to stick too close. Since I didn’t have time to point that out again, I just walked into the cave without saying anything.

Then, the group followed me closely behind.

We walked carefully into the narrow cave.

‘It’s not as dark as I thought.’

There were many glowing stones embedded in the cave walls.

Should I call them luminous stones since they glow in the dark?

Anyway, thanks to the luminous stones, the path wasn’t dark.

I was thinking about picking off a few of them, but I gave up. They might be made of ingredients harmful to the human body.

That’s when.

“Whoa!!”

I heard Elodie’s shrill scream from behind me and hurriedly turned around.

Did a monster come out? I was tense.

However, there was no monster anywhere.

Elodie just said this with a slightly red face.

“… … It’s nothing. I slipped.”

She must have felt a little embarrassed about having stumbled and screamed, because she cleared her throat.

I felt relieved and started walking forward again.

Then, at some point.

“Whoa!!”

This time, Dionik screamed from behind.

I thought he must have been joking because he was amused by my surprise at Elodie’s scream.

If he was joking, I turned around to give him a sharp warning.

“Dionik, if you were joking just now—”

“I wasn’t joking! I think I just saw a monster!”

“… … Where!!”

“It was hiding in the crevice of the rock over there, staring at us!!” I

didn’t have time to think any further.

I immediately used the first form of the Moonlight Sword Technique and swung my sword in the direction Dionik pointed.

Boom!

The rocks in the cave shattered as I swung my sword, sending debris flying everywhere.

If there had been a monster hiding in there, it would have been shattered along with the broken rocks.

However—

“There’s nothing… …?”

As I said, there was no monster corpse or anything like that in the cracked rock.

It was as if there had been nothing in the first place.

When I showed the sight to Dionik, he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“That’s strange… … . I thought I saw eyes spying on us… Did I see something wrong… … ?”

“It must have been because it was dark. Let’s keep going.”

I reassured the group for a while and continued walking ahead.

However, I was feeling a little uneasy inside.

‘Was it really a monster? Did it quickly dodge the moment I attacked?’

I couldn’t rule that out.

No matter how playful and rough Dionik was usually, he was a high-ranking demon and had better eyesight than humans.

The possibility of seeing something wrong was low.

Even so, there was no need to scare the group with something that wasn’t certain yet, so I just quietly hurried my steps for the time being.

After walking for a while like that, I suddenly stopped.

“A lake… is it?”

There was a small lake inside the cave.

And in the middle of the lake, a stalagmite stood tall, and on top of that stalagmite was something in the shape of an egg.

Something in the shape of an egg… Since it was something I had seen often, it wasn’t hard to recognize its identity.

“That must be the magic source that supports this space, right?”

Dionique and Elodie responded to my question one after another.

“Let’s destroy it right now and get rid of this place. I want to return to reality quickly.”

“Me too. One campfire is enough.”

Of course, I also agreed with them.

Therefore, I immediately spread my golden wings.

“I’ll fly over and destroy it in an instant. You guys, wait here.”

After saying that, I flapped my wings and flew toward the center of the lake where the magic source was.

‘It’s all over now. If I just destroy this, this damn space will disappear, and I’ll be able to find Ernen.’

I raised my sword in a slightly relieved state.

And just as I was about to cut the magic source in two with the sword I had raised,

“Nickelus!!”

Hearing Elodie’s scream, I quickly looked towards the group I had left behind at the lakeside.

Then I shouted in shock.

“Elodie! Dionych!”

I saw that they were surrounded by pitch-black monsters in human form.

While I was away from the group for a moment, a monster that had been hiding under the lake rose to the water’s edge and was about to attack the group.

‘Damn, is that the monster that Dionych saw earlier?!’

Perhaps the monster that Dionik had seen a moment ago was one of those groups.

Whatever the case, I had to go save them right away.

They were currently helpless and unable to use their skills at all.

However, before I could fly back to them, Elodie shouted.

“No! Don’t come this way! Instead, destroy the magic source!”

“What?!”

“If I destroy the magic source anyway, the entire space will disappear! There’s no need to fight for nothing!”

Thinking about it, Elodie was right.

If I destroy that egg-shaped magic source anyway, this space and those strange monsters will disappear.

I followed Elodie’s words and turned back toward the magic source.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the monsters weren’t only on the lakeside.

“… …!!”

The moment I approached it to destroy the magic source, a hand shot out from under the lake and grabbed my ankle.

Startled, I looked at what was grabbing my ankle.

Then, the moment I realized what it was, I was surprised again and held my breath.

‘This isn’t a monster, this is—’

I looked at the creature still holding my ankle tightly.

I thought it was just a pitch-black human-shaped monster. It was only

after looking closely that I could tell it wasn’t a monster.

‘This is a human…? …?!’

Surprisingly, the pitch-black human-shaped monsters attacking us weren’t monsters.

The one who grabbed my ankle wasn’t a monster either.

They were people.

People who seemed to have been trapped in this cave for a long time… in this space formed by the Erased One.

And one of them muttered while holding my ankle.

“That magical source… can’t be destroyed anyway… … .”

“What?”

“No matter how much you try to destroy it… it won’t be destroyed… … .”

He continued while holding my ankle, looking almost like a zombie.

“No one can leave here… … . You… or us… … .”

“Stop talking nonsense and let go!”

I thought I knew what was going on.

They were probably victims who were trapped here like us.

Another victim, trapped by the Erased One using their powers.

However, they seemed to be mentally unstable, having been trapped for much longer than us.

‘You can’t destroy the magic source? What are you talking about? It’s right in front of us, so why can’t you destroy it?’

I decided to ignore their nonsense, and forcibly shook off the hand attached to my ankle.

Then I raised my sword to destroy the magic source again.