When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 141



Only Noblemtl

141. Let’s talk about someone you like.
2024.03.20.

When Elodie asked if she wanted her back to be soaped, Luciana was silent for a moment.

Then she nodded and answered.

“Yes, I can trust you with my back.”

“Is that how you say I can’t trust anyone else?”

Luciana nodded again.

“I only trust my back with people I can trust. When I’m out hunting monsters, and when I’m soaping them.”

“Oh… … .”

Luciana threw a bar of soap toward Elodie.

Elodie snatched the soap out of the air and soaked it in water. She

then rubbed it against Luciana’s back.

A fragrant floral scent rose up along with the bubbles.

Elodie suddenly asked while smelling the scent.

“You have a lot of scars on your body. Did you get them all from training?”

“Yeah. Some of them from hunting monsters.”

“You must have been fighting hard.”

“Because I wanted to prove it.”

Elodie fell silent at Luciana’s words that were blurted out.

In that silence, Luciana continued to speak calmly.

“I wanted to prove that I was useful as a knight. That’s why I worked hard until I was covered in wounds.”

“Ah… … .”

“But now that I think about it, it might have been pointless.”

“Why?”

“Strength isn’t determined by how hard you train. It’s ultimately determined by your innate rank and skills.”

Luciana said, caressing the wounds on her forearm as if to hide them.

“I’m only an A-class. If I try, I can become quite strong among A-classes, but I can’t surpass someone who was born as an S-class.”

“… … .”

“I’m realizing that fact anew these days. Well… That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying now, though.”

Elodie listened quietly until that point, then opened her lips slightly.

“Luciana.”

“Huh?”

Before she knew it, Elodie’s hand that had been soaping herself had stopped.

“Your efforts are definitely not something that can be called ‘useless’.”

Elodie, who had stopped soaping, whispered behind Luciana.

“Do you remember the dungeon we first entered together? You were able to clear the first floor safely because you chased away some of the fish with your sword.”

“That’s… …”

“That’s not all. You cleared the dungeon alone with Cheonggwang without Nickelus, and you were the one who dealt with most of the monsters in the palace.”

Elodie’s voice had gotten a little louder.

It wasn’t a lie made up to comfort her, but something she had said with sincerity.

Finally, Elodie spoke in a firm tone.

“Your efforts have borne fruit, and they are still bearing fruit. Because you’ve worked this hard—” “

Effort.” Elodie said, caressing Luciana’s wounds.

The proof of all the painful efforts Luciana had made so far.

“Because you’ve been trying, we’re all here safely.”

After hearing those last words, Luciana kept her mouth shut.

Luciana had been doubting her own efforts.

Elodie assured her. She assured her

that Luciana’s efforts had not been in vain.

Luciana kept her mouth shut for a while to suppress her surging emotions.

Then, when her mind finally calmed down, she was barely able to utter a single word.

“… … Thank you, Elodie.”

* * *

The next morning.

We hurried to prepare to depart at dawn as planned.

When everyone had finished preparing and gathered in the ghost ship’s cabin, I spoke briefly to the group.

“I don’t think it will be difficult to defeat the chimera. The problem is that guy Michelin. He has the skill to turn humans into animals, so he’s too dangerous for you.”

Tension spread across the group’s faces as I said that much.

The skill to turn humans into animals… Besides, once you get caught, you become Micheln’s puppet, so it was quite uncomfortable.

I continued to speak to the nervous group.

“So, if you happen to run into Micheln while we’re apart, call me without fail. Never face him alone.”

At that moment, Luciana opened her mouth.

“What should I do if I run into Julian?”

“Hmm, you mean the guy who attacked the palace? He probably won’t be here. It seems to me that Micheln and Julian aren’t in a cooperative relationship.”

“Yes? But aren’t they both erased?”

I nodded at Luciana’s question.

“Yes, but when Julian attacked the palace, Micheln wasn’t even there. If they had worked together to attack the palace, it would have been much easier to capture me.”

This time, Bliss, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, spoke.

“That’s worrying in its own way. If they were acting separately, Julian wouldn’t be here… and he might be targeting the palace or the cathedral again.”

“Since I left Petros behind, I should trust him.”

I had left a message for Petros and Delsi to keep an eye on the palace.

Petros was quite good at combat, and Delsi had a skill level of fraud, so I could leave the palace and the cathedral in their care.

I added.

“Besides, we’ve taken measures to prevent Julian from using his spatial distortion ability to invade the palace again.”

In the first place, Julian was able to invade the palace because he used his spatial distortion ability. He

distorted space inside the palace to create a passage, and brought monsters through that passage.

To prevent that from happening again, he had installed L-grade or higher barrier items in the palace and the cathedral to reinforce the security.

‘It’ll be okay. Julian probably can’t just open a passage anywhere at any time.’

There had to be some conditions for using that skill.

For example, the passage could only be opened in places where there was a certain mark, or where a certain totem was placed.

Those conditions must have been met because he couldn’t open the passage in my bedroom and kidnap me.

If he could open the passage anywhere without any conditions, he would have opened the passage in my bedroom and kidnapped me long ago.

‘Julian must have bribed one of the court ladies to open the passage into the palace. He must have installed a totem or talisman that could open the passage with the bribed court lady.’

This time, I had already told the palace to check if there were any totems or signs in the palace to prevent that from happening.

Thinking that far ahead, I spoke to Bliss in a confident tone.

“The possibility of Julian invading the palace or cathedral again is extremely low. Don’t worry.”

When I spoke firmly, Bliss seemed a little relieved. I

could see her expression softening.

That’s when.

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the cabin door.

Were there any other party members who hadn’t gathered yet?

We looked at each other with bewildered faces.

Me, Luciana, Bliss, Elodie, Dionique, Cheong-gwang, and Rubin… …

All of our party members were gathered here without exception.

‘Everyone is here, but who just knocked?’

I, too, walked toward the door, unable to shake off my bewildered expression like the others.

Then I opened the door wide and looked at the person who knocked.

“Nadia?”

It was Nadia who knocked on the cabin door.

Why was she here, knocking on the door?

While I was bewildered, Nadia spoke up.

“Your Majesty, fortunately you haven’t left yet.”

“What’s going on? Up to here.”

“I thought about it a lot last night. I was wondering whether I should just wait at the mansion like Your Majesty and my brother said. So I thought about it and—”

Nadia smiled softly and continued.

“I came to the conclusion that I should come with you.”

“… … Are you going to find your fiancé with us?”

“Yes, please take me with you. Please.”

I agonized

over how I should refuse so that Nadia wouldn’t get hurt.

“That’s a bit… … . We’re not just going to find people. It’s dangerous.”

“Your Majesty, you’re so kind. You always worry about me. But you don’t have to worry.”

Nadia smiled at me with a rather confident face.

“My younger brother Leo and everyone else say it’s dangerous for me to go into the forest, but I’m also an A-class Awakened.”

An A-class Awakened?

I was a little surprised and opened Nadia’s information window.

[Nadia Van Crellin (A)]

[Owned Skills]

– Sharp Blizzard (A)

– Ice Chain (S)

– Frozen Rain (L)

– Ice Spirit Contractor (L)

.
.

[Karma in possession]

110 points

When I checked the information window, it was indeed an A-class Awakened.

And a pretty powerful Awakened.

I finally understood why she had been wandering around the forest alone without fear.

Even so, taking Nadia with me was something I had to think about a little.

“Hmm… … . You know that powerful monsters can appear in the forest? And you might encounter a very dangerous Awakened.”

I added my explanation.

“We don’t think that monster was created naturally. We expect that it might be a ‘chimera’ created by an Awakened with the relevant ability.”

“In that case, I guess I’ll have to follow you even more.”

As she said that, Nadia activated a skill.

The skill she activated was Sharp Blizzard.

She activated the skill slightly on her hand as if to show me the skill.

Sharp winds that looked like they would cut me if I touched them swept over her hand.

After showing off her ability, Nadia spoke.

“If such a dangerous Awakened is wandering around the forest, then as someone named Krellin, I must also fight against it with all my might.”

Thinking about it, she was a member of the Krellin family.

As someone named Krellin, she was more than qualified to get involved in what was happening in the Northern Grand Duchy.

“Hmm… … . Okay. Then let’s go together. In return, you have to stick close to us and move together.”

“Of course, Your Majesty!”

After much deliberation, I finally agreed to let her go.

* * *

The ghost ship arrived at the forest shortly after.

After we settled the ship in the middle of the forest, we landed on the snowfield.

I looked back at my companions as I felt the snow crunching under my feet.

“It’s inefficient to search this vast forest together. Let’s split into three teams.”

After that, I divided the group into Team A, Team B, and Team C.

Team A, which I was in, was joined by Dionysius and Nadia.

Luciana and Elodie were added to Team B, which Bliss was a part of.

Lastly, Cheong-gwang and Rubin were grouped into Team C.

Originally, I was going to group the Mongma siblings into one team like I always did, but I changed my mind after hearing Elodie’s words.

– “Group Luciana and I into one team. We promised to go together this time.”

So I grouped Luciana and Elodie into one team as they requested.

Since it would be dangerous to group just the two of them, I added Bliss, who was an S-class, to the team.

Then, if I added Dionik to Team B, the number of members in Team B would be too much, so I put him in my team.

After dividing the teams like that, we each went our separate ways to find Chimera, Micheln, and Nadia’s fiancé.

Among them, our Team A headed north.

Slowly. Slowly.

We continued to walk north, making the sound of our feet crunching in the snow.

The cold wind blew continuously, so neither I, Nadia, nor Dionik said a word to each other.

Then, as if he couldn’t stand the silence anymore, Dionik finally opened his mouth.

“I’m bored on the way here, so why don’t we talk about people we both like?”