When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 142



Only Noblemtl

142. I can’t allow a relationship between the two!
2024.03.21.

Let’s talk about the person I like.

I glared at Dionik, who was talking nonsense, and scolded him.

“Do you think we’re on a picnic right now? What about the person I like…?”

Dionik, who heard my scolding, replied, rambling uselessly.

“But you’re curious. About the fiancé that Nadia is so passionately searching for.”

“… ….”

To be honest, I was curious.

What kind of person is the fiancé that Nadia, a member of the Crelin Grand Duchy, is so passionately searching for?

I couldn’t argue with Dionik, so I glanced at Nadia.

Nadia opened her mouth with an elegant smile, as befitting a noblewoman.

“Shall I tell you the story? How we fell in love?”

I nodded after thinking about

it. Nadia calmly and slowly told me her story.

“My fiancé… ‘Dennis’ was originally our family’s butler. “A butler of commoner origin.”

Judging from the fact that the Grand Duke was against the marriage, I had expected the man to be a non-nobleman, and it was as expected.

Anyway, the love between a butler and a young lady.

It seemed like a rather interesting love story, so I listened to Nadia’s next words.

“One day, I caught a cold and had a high fever, and unfortunately, all the fever-reducing medicines were gone. That day, a blizzard was coming down hard, so the servants couldn’t go get the medicines.”

“Ah… I understand.”

Dionik said he understood, and then continued.

“So Denis braved the blizzard to get the medicines? You fell in love because of that?”

“No.”

“… … .”

Nadia firmly denied Dionik’s words.

I was a little bewildered, as I had naturally expected that Denis had come to find the medicines and fallen in love with them.

Nadia smiled and said,

“Denis didn’t go out to find the medicines that day. Instead, he fidgeted and watched over me all night.”

When Dionik and I nodded, saying, “Ahh… … ,” Nadia smiled.

“That’s when Dennis put his hand on my forehead to take my temperature, and his touch felt so cool and good… That’s when we fell in love.”

After hearing that, I couldn’t help but mutter.

“I thought you went through a blizzard to find medicine, but the reason you fell in love was more ordinary than I thought?”

“That’s just how it is. The word love sounds so grand, but most people fall in love for reasons that aren’t as extraordinary as you might think.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I fell in love because of your pretty smile, because of your big, sturdy hands, because of your kind eyes… … . That’s how Dennis and I fell in love.”

After hearing that, I nodded and said,

“That’s a great story.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. But… … .”

Nadia, who hesitated and trailed off, soon spoke again.

“But Dennis always regretted not finding the medicine that day. If he had braved the blizzard to find the medicine, his fever would have gone down faster. He always regretted not doing that. That’s why Dennis went missing this time.”

“Wait, that means… … .”

“Yes, that’s right. A few days ago, I had another bad cold. This time, I said I would find some fever-reducing herbs and headed into the forest.”

“… … So he went into the forest and disappeared right away.”

It seemed that Dennis had been feeling guilty.

About not being able to find fever-reducing herbs that day for Nadia.

He felt so guilty, and when Nadia got a fever again, he ended up going into the rugged forest alone to find the medicine.

Nadia muttered in a low voice as if recalling that day.

“In the end, Dennis went missing because of me.”

Now he thought he understood why Nadia was searching for Dennis so diligently.

It wasn’t just love, but guilt added to it.

I wondered what I could do to comfort her, then said,

“Dennis wouldn’t want you to blame yourself like that.”

“Wouldn’t he…?”

“Of course. Where can we usually get that fever-reducing medicine? I heard Dennis went looking for it. Then maybe he went in the direction where it was in full bloom?”

Nadia answered right away after hearing my question.

“I heard it grows a lot in the forest north of where we’re heading now. But I couldn’t find it when I went there before….”

“We’ll find you this time. Dionik and I can fly, so if we can’t find you, we’ll look for you in the sky.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. I repeat this, but I truly appreciate it.”

Feeling a little embarrassed by Nadia’s repeated thanks, I awkwardly replied, “What do you mean thank you?”

As I was about to hurry up again, Dionik spoke strangely again.

“Okay, should we listen to your story now?”

“… … ? What?”

“Since you’ve heard about Nadia’s love life, tell me about someone you like.”

“… … .”

What on earth should I do with this guy?

He kept babbling on and on as if he was born to do this.

I thought about it for a while, then asked him.

“Hmm, you really want to hear it? There is someone I have in mind.”

“You have someone in mind?! Who is it?! Is it your sister Luciana?!”

“No, Elodie.”

“What?!”

Upon hearing my answer, Dionik suddenly stopped. He

then quickly ran ahead of me and blocked me.

“I can’t allow that relationship!!”

It was the kind of line a father would say when he saw a scoundrel targeting his precious daughter.

Dionik didn’t stop there and continued to show me his fighting stance.

“If you want to see Elodie, you’ll have to fight me first and win. As my older brother, I can never hand Elodie over to a weak man.”

“Calm down. I’m lying.”

“… … .”

“Even if I said no, I was just kidding because you kept asking. I don’t have anyone in mind yet.”

When I said that, Dionik finally released his fighting stance.

Then he asked me subtly.

“… … Is that really true? You’re really not interested in Elodie, are you?”

“I told you so.”

“… … Tsk. What’s wrong with Elodie? Your tastes are really strange.”

“… … .”

When I said I was keeping it in mind, he got angry, but when I said it was a joke, he was disappointed.

It was while we were talking nonsense like that that

Nadia, who was walking in front of us, suddenly stopped.

“Oh… …!”

Nadia stopped as if she had found something, and soon ran towards the bushes far ahead.

Then she picked a red berry from the bushes and waved it at us.

“This is the berry! It’s the fever-reducing medicine that Dennis went to find!”

I quickly went over to Nadia and examined the berry in her hand.

It was a transparent red berry like a raspberry.

When I turned my head and looked around, I saw a bunch of the same berries.

“Let’s search around here. Dennis might be nearby.”

* * *

In the dark cave, Dennis slowly opened his eyes.

Then, for some reason, he lifted his upper body by placing his furry hands on the ground.

‘Why am I here?’

He thought back to the past.

A few days ago, his fiancée Nadia had been sick with a fever.

So Dennis had gone into the forest that night to get some fever-reducing medicine.

He felt sorry for Nadia, who was sick, and he felt bad for not picking the berries before.

It was dark, so it wasn’t easy to find the berries in the forest.

So he wandered around the forest for a long time—

‘… … I met someone.’

He had accidentally encountered someone in the middle of the night.

It was a man wearing a strangely colorful hat.

He reached out to Dennis while saying something, and Dennis had lost consciousness since then.

And when he woke up again, he was now in this place, a cave.

‘I have to find the berries. I have to find them and return to Nadia.’

Dennis slowly got up his body, which had strangely become heavy.

Thump— thump—

a heavy sound echoed with every step.

So he reached the entrance of the cave, and stopped again.

Then he asked the question he had asked earlier.

‘But why am I here?’

He tried to recall his memories again like before.

But this time, nothing came to mind.

Because he had been transformed and mixed with various animals by the power of the skill activated by Micheln, he was slowly losing his identity as Dennis.

Now, Dennis, who had become a chimera, looked down at his furry body and recalled his memories again and again.

Red berries. And his fiancée.

Those two words were the only ones that could barely come to his mind.

Then.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

Someone approached Dennis, leaving footprints in the snow.

Dennis could barely remember him.

It was the man with the strange hat he had encountered before he lost consciousness.

* * *

Luciana, Elodie, and Bliss just walked without saying a word.

Their role as Team B was to head south of the forest and search for it.

That’s why they didn’t even talk much to each other, and just walked diligently.

However, Elodie, who had grown accustomed to the noisy atmosphere because she had always been with Dionik, felt the silence was somewhat boring.

Eventually, Elodie took the initiative and asked a question that could break the silence.

“Come to think of it, what did you talk about at the men’s bathhouse yesterday?”

Elodie asked Bliss, while looking at Luciana.

“Luciana and I had a pretty deep conversation. “I wonder what you talked about in the men’s bath.”

Luciana, hearing that, also opened her mouth.

“Now that I think about it, I’m curious. Did His Majesty say anything special? Like fighting being hard…?”

Bliss shook her head as she recalled the conversation they had in the men’s bath yesterday.

“There was no mention of it being hard. It’s just—”

“Just?”

Bliss thought about it again as she heard Luciana ask again.

About the conversation they had yesterday.

The first thing that came to mind was what Cheong-gwang had said.

-“As expected, your benefactor is as generous as your heart….”

As Cheong-gwang’s words came to mind, Bliss’ own words soon came to mind as well.

-“That place is impressive. It can’t compare to mine, though.”

That’s right. They had talked about the size of each other’s private parts while soaking in the hot spring yesterday.

Bliss hesitated for a moment over whether she could honestly say this in front of Luciana and Elodie.

Of course, the answer came quickly without much thought.

“A little discussion about the future of the empire… …”

Luciana opened her eyes wide in surprise at Bliss’ answer.

“You mean you had such a deep conversation? I thought His Majesty was mature, but you were so worried about the empire… …”

Elodie nodded and continued.

“Really? I thought you were just having some useless chit-chat, but I was wrong. It seems that you all always think about not only your own future but also the well-being of your country.”

Bliss, who had no choice but to lie for the sake of the men’s bathhouse members’ social status, just nodded quietly.

“Kwakwang!” That was when a loud noise was heard.

All three quickly looked at the place where the noise came from, and soon they saw it.

A tall ice pillar standing there.

“… … That direction!”

“That’s the direction Nickelus was headed!”

As Elodie shouted, the strange ice pillar was rising up to the north, where the Nickelus team was headed.

A strange ice pillar that seemed to have been created by the power of a skill.

Without thinking, they started running straight towards it.