When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 151



Only Noblemtl

151. A Fair 2:1 Showdown
2024.03.30.

After that, I returned from the palace to the cathedral.

Of course, I didn’t just say hello to Bliss and rush off.

Before leaving the palace, I left him with a favor.

-“Can I ask you one last favor? I want you to look for a skill or item that can turn back time.”

Since I had promised Nadia that I would return Dennis to his original state, I had been thinking a lot about how to do it.

That was the method I came up with. Turning Dennis’ time back to the past. Since

I couldn’t turn Dennis back to his original state even with the curse removal skill, I came up with a way to turn back his time itself.

Of course, I don’t know if this method actually exists… … .

Anyway, Bliss pretended to be solemn after hearing my favor, and answered me in an emperor-like tone.

-“Understood. I’ll look for it. You just think about returning safely from Chelos Island.”

Of course, even if he didn’t say that, I planned to return safely.

So, leaving a promise to meet again when I returned from the island, I returned to the cathedral.

After returning to the cathedral, I spent most of my time teaching Arom to speak in the garden.

There wasn’t much to do until preparations were complete to go to Celos Island.

The words I taught him were mostly ‘hello’, ‘nice to meet you’, and ‘I’m hungry’.

Was it thanks to my education? Arom was still learning to speak quite quickly.

“Dad! I’m hungry! Give me some gold!”

I patted Arom, who had finally become fluent in speaking, feeling pleased.

This cute guy. He ate gold coins all the time, but it didn’t matter.

Thanks to the elixir business, there were so many gold coins in the cathedral.

“Do you want me to give you some gold coins?”

“Give me some! Give me some!”

I looked at Arom’s charming eyes and handed him three gold coins.

Arom, with his excellent appetite, quickly devoured the gold coins.

Then, a message appeared.

[Gold coins have been paid to the divine beast “Arom”!]

– Number of gold coins paid so far: 53

I looked at the message window that appeared in front of me and quietly recalled my memories.

‘Come to think of it, there was a message window before. It said that if you give Arom 100 gold coins, you can unleash his second ability… … .’

Was it when I gave Arom his first gold coin?

A message window like that definitely appeared.

It said that if you give him 100 gold coins, he can unleash his ‘second ability.’

Since his first ability was language, his second ability… … .

‘His second ability is combat ability?’

That was all that came to mind right away.

As I thought about it, for some reason, I didn’t want to unleash Arom’s second ability.

‘I don’t know what his second ability is, but I hope Arom stays like this.’

It was certainly a rewarding experience to see my child grow.

However, it was also quite bitter to lose this cute appearance.

I wanted Arom to grow up as slowly as possible. I

wanted to preserve this cute appearance for a long time.

“Dad, what do you think?”

“I think Arom is cute.”

“Arom is always cute! So give me some gold coins!”

“No. You just ate it.”

Arom drooped his ears and showed a disappointed expression.

That was only for a moment, and he immediately burrowed into my arms again.

It was then that Toma approached and called me.

“Your Majesty, all preparations for heading to the missionary world are complete.”

“Really? Did you load the ship with everything you need?”

“Yes, we loaded enough food, and we packed everything else, such as scrolls, potions, etc. You can set sail tomorrow morning.”

After hearing that, I quietly nodded.

Then I gave Toma an order.

“Okay. “The departure is at 7 a.m. tomorrow. Let everyone know so they don’t get late.”

* * *

My mind was a little unsettled, perhaps because everything was ready to leave.

That night, I had another strange dream.

In the dream, I was meeting the original Nickelus guy.

I was drinking with him, and for some reason, I wanted to say,

“I’m sorry. I suddenly took your life away from you.”

After hearing my apology, the original guy fell silent.

In that silence, I opened my mouth again.

“I didn’t want to do this either. I just died while playing a game, and now I’m possessed by your body.”

“… … .”

“But it’s true that I lived my life imitating you, so I really wanted to apologize. I’m sorry.”

While I continued to apologize, the original guy didn’t say anything.

Then―

“What the hell is this kid talking about?”

the original guy started laughing loudly.

Not knowing what

was going on, I waited for the guy’s laughter to die down. When the laughter finally stopped, the guy said,

“□□ □□ □□□.”

“What?”

“□□ □□ □□□.”

I could hear the guy’s words garbled.

When I asked him what he was talking about, he just kept repeating the same thing.

I blankly stared at the original Nickelus guy laughing and repeating the same thing, and then I woke up.

* * *

My dreams were disturbed all night, but fortunately, I was able to wake up early.

I woke up and went outside after getting ready.

There were a lot of people there.

One side was those who had decided to leave with me, and the other side was those who had gathered to see off the departing people.

I looked at those who had gathered to see them off.

The ones who had come out to see them off were Argelio, Delsi, who were non-combatants, and Petros, who would take my place.

Since they had decided to stay at the cathedral, I had to say goodbye here.

I spoke to Argelio first.

“You know your role is important, right? If something happens in the church while I’m away, you have to decide and handle everything. Delsi is young, and Petros hasn’t been here long.”

Argelio nodded with a determined face, as if he was asking me to leave it to him.

I patted his shoulder a couple of times, and then spoke to Delsi this time.

“Delsi, depending on how you use your skill, you can multiply the power of the Holy Knights. So if Julian attacks again, your role will be important.”

“Yes, Your Majesty… … . I would like to follow His Holiness, but―”

Delsi bit her lips and continued her interrupted words.

“For now, I will stay in the cathedral and guard this place. That is my way of serving His Holiness.”

“Thank you, Delsi. Take good care of Arom while I am gone.”

I patted Delsi’s head, then turned to face Petros.

“Of the three who remain here, you are the only one who can hold a weapon and fight. On top of that, you are also the one who will take my place as ‘the Apostle.’ If anything happens to me… you will have to take over my role.”

“… … ?”

“You may not know what I mean right now. You will know when the time comes.”

Doria had said. Petros was a reserve apostle in case something happened to me.

So if I were to die in the missionary world, he would become the apostle and learn the truth. Just

like I did.

“Please take care of me.”

After saying those words to everyone who would remain here for the last time, I boarded the ghost ship.

The other party members who had promised to go with me also followed me and boarded the ship.

Thus, we finally set off on our journey to the missionary world.

* * *

The island of Chelos was far to the east of the empire.

So even if we traveled quickly on the ghost ship, it would take quite some time to get there.

For that reason, we naturally looked for ways to kill time on the ship, and one of them was sparring. We

had plenty of time to spare, and we had to train while we were there, so we decided to spar with each other and test our strength.

‘Is Cheong-gwang a secret master?’

I thought as I watched Cheong-gwang and Luciana, who were currently sparring with their practice wooden swords.

Luciana had been using the sword for a long time, so her movements were almost artistic, and Cheong-gwang was no different. I

thought that perhaps because he had lived a long life as a divine beast, he had many opportunities to practice his swordsmanship.

Crack! Crack!

The sound of the two clashing wooden swords echoed ominously.

It was mostly Luciana who would catch the gaps and attack, and Cheonggwang would block them with movements as fluid as water. It was

quite an interesting duel, so I couldn’t take my eyes off them and watched their movements.

Then at one moment―

bang!

Luciana’s wooden sword struck Cheonggwang’s wooden sword with all its might.

Cheong-gwang’s posture collapsed for a moment, and Luciana immediately thrust her sword under Cheong-gwang’s neck.

It was Luciana’s victory.

Clap, clap, clap.

As the group watching the duel applauded, Cheong-gwang smiled and said to Luciana.

“You’re amazing. I thought I’ve been training my sword without being lazy for a long time, but I guess I was overconfident.”

“It was a great duel. I’ve never had a duel like this in the Knights, so I learned a lot thanks to it.”

Luciana also responded politely, just like Cheong-gwang.

After the game ended, Dionik called me.

“Do you want to spar with me, hyung?”

“No. I’ll just watch.”

“Hey, everyone else is doing it, but it’s trivial… … You’re not avoiding it because you’re afraid of getting hurt, are you?”

The guy said that as if he was provoking me.

It seemed like he wanted to spar with me somehow.

I let out a chuckle and responded.

“You’re afraid of getting hurt. “I’m afraid you’ll get hurt instead of me.” It

wasn’t a bluff, it was the truth.

I had an S-class body and had even learned the Moonlight Sword Technique.

If I had sparred seriously with the other party members, I could have hurt them.

When Dionys heard what I said, he chuckled and asked,

“Then how about arm wrestling?”

“Arm wrestling?”

“You won’t get hurt in that, right?”

I thought about it and answered.

“Well, arm wrestling seems okay. So you’re going to face me?”

“Yeah, but after thinking about it, I think it would be a bit disadvantageous for me to fight hyung 1:1—”

Dionys said that and then suddenly called Elodie. He

then started whispering something to Elodie.

While I was feeling ominous, the two of them suddenly used a skill.

Skill, “Soul Combination.”

It was a skill where two nightmares merged to become a giant bull like the Minotaur.

Dionys, who had transformed into a huge form, looked down at me and said.

【【Let’s arm wrestle in this state.】】

“… … .”

Dionik and Elodie, who had become giant bulls, extended their arms towards me.

The muscles of the guys who were extended were clearly bulging, and they looked like they could crush a frying pan like a piece of paper.

They had no conscience and kept urging me by showing off their muscles like that.

【【Let’s get started. You’re not trying to avoid it, are you?】】

“You want to fight me in this state? Then it’s a 2-on-1 arm wrestling match.”

【【Even if it’s 2-on-1, you’ve beaten us once before. I’m just curious to see if you can win with brute force alone.】】

I took a deep breath and brought a wooden box. I

put my elbows on it and extended my arms.

“Let’s arm wrestle. Come and sit down.”

The sleepwalkers who heard me sat across from me with excited expressions and held my hands.

Then they said.

【【I lost in the past because I let my guard down, but I’m confident that I won’t lose with brute force. This time, we’re going to fight fairly.】】