When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 170



Only Noblemtl

170. I Didn’t Give Birth to You
2024.04.18.

I couldn’t help but feel momentarily bewildered by the message that suddenly appeared before my eyes.

Of course, I had no idea that I would suddenly receive a message about Arom now that I had come to the missionary world.

[100 gold coins have been paid to the divine beast “Arom.” You can activate the divine beast “Arom’s” second ability. Would you like to activate it?]

―Yes

―No

I stared blankly at that message in front of me, lost in thought.

I’m not sure, but it seemed like Delsey or Bliss had given Arom the gold coins.

That’s why the condition for Arom’s second ability to be activated, ‘paying 100 gold coins’, had been met.

Since I had just finished talking to Yan and was left alone in my room, I pressed Yes without hesitation.

[You selected Yes. The second ability of the divine beast “Arom” begins to bloom!]

[The second ability “Spatial Movement Ability” has bloomed!]

[To bloom the third ability, pay 1000 gold coins!]

Thanks to the message that appeared, I finally learned of Arom’s second ability.

It was the ‘Spatial Movement Ability’.

A spatial movement ability, isn’t that amazing?

As expected, my son? My daughter? I was delighted at that moment.

[The divine beast “Arom” is moving to your side.]

Before I could be dumbfounded by the message that suddenly appeared, a crack began to appear in the air before my eyes.

It was the same crack that I had seen when Julian opened the subspace.

I was startled for a moment and reflexively moved away from the crack.

However, what jumped out from there was not the ghost of the already dead Julian or a monster.

“Dad!!”

“Arom… …?”

Surprisingly, what jumped out from the crack that had appeared in the air was Arom.

Arom, who was hugging me like a puppy, was bewildered as I hugged her.

‘Could it be… that she came all the way here with her newly acquired teleportation ability?’

Arom’s second ability, teleportation, had just been activated, and Arom appeared here right after.

I slowly asked Arom to confirm.

“Arom, how did you get here?”

“I used my ability to teleport. I missed my dad.”

“… … By yourself?”

“Yes, by myself. I can go anywhere by myself. It’s hard to move someone else with me, though.”

I was still shocked when I heard Arom’s answer.

‘You get the teleportation ability with 100 gold coins… … What kind of ability would I get if I gave her 1,000 gold coins?’

I wanted to confirm, but unfortunately I didn’t have any gold coins right now.

Gold coins weren’t items, so I couldn’t put them in my inventory, so I couldn’t bring a lot of gold coins here. I

was determined to go to the cathedral later and activate my third ability.

“Dad, where is this place? Please show Arom around!”

“Here?”

“I’ve always wondered where Dad lives. Please show me around too.”

“Hmm… … .”

This was the hideout of the fourth moon, so there was nothing dangerous.

Dian was a bit dangerous, but he should be lying in bed by now, shocked from the beating I gave him.

I nodded, thinking it would be okay.

“Okay, let’s explore the hideout together, Dad.”

* * *

After that, I roughly got dressed and left the dorm with Arom.

After that, I wondered where to go, so I went down to the first floor.

‘There are various facilities on the first floor, right?’

I heard it while chatting with Jan earlier.

There’s a store, a treatment room, a library, a training ground, and even an entertainment facility on the first floor.

Of all the places, I headed to the entertainment facility first.

I thought that’d be the place I’d have the most to show Arom.

With that in mind, I went down to the entertainment facility. There, I met a familiar guy.

“Dionique!”

“Hyung? And… Arom?”

Dionik, who was playing a board game with Karina, called out to me with a bewildered voice.

He looked at me and Arom alternately with blank eyes and said,

“What’s wrong with my eyes? Why does it look like Arom is on your shoulder, hyung?”

“Because Arom is there.”

I explained in more detail to Dionik, who was showing a bewildered expression.

“I think Delsi gave Arom a gold coin. Thanks to that, Arom’s second ability, teleportation, has been activated, and he’s been able to teleport all the way here by himself.”

“Oh, right, when I gave him one gold coin, he started talking right away, right? So that’s how he acquired other abilities.”

Dionysian nodded as if he understood.

I continued to ask him,

“But what are you doing here?”

“I came down here because I was bored, and since Karina was there, we played a board game—”

Before Dionysian could finish his sentence,

Karina suddenly barged in between us and hugged Arom.

“What is this cute little creature!!”

Karina hugged Arom and started rubbing her cheek against his.

I thought about what to say to her, then told her the truth.

“My child whom I raised.”

“Huh?! You have a child, you say?! They seem like different species to be called children!?”

“… … No, of course not my own child… … .”

Even though they were obviously different species, I couldn’t understand why I thought of Arom as my own child.

I felt a little embarrassed and explained to Karina.

“Arom is a divine being. I’ve been taking care of him like my own child since before he even hatched from the egg.”

“Oh, I see! Anyway, I didn’t know that the apostle had such a cute child!”

Karina seemed to really like Arom.

She held him tightly in her arms and spun him around, and she also rubbed her cheek against Arom’s head.

I was worried that Arom might suffocate, so I ended up taking Arom out of Karina’s arms.

If I stayed any longer, Arom would be stuck in Karina’s arms all day, so I quickly greeted Dionik and Karina.

“Then you two have fun. I have to show Arom the rest of the facility.”

After hearing my greeting, Dionik and Karina answered one after another.

“Yes, hyung. If you haven’t decided where to go, let’s go to the training grounds first. I heard that Sister Luciana and Elodie are there.”

“Have a nice day, Arom! And Apostle!”

After that, I walked with Arom.

Our next destination was the training grounds, just as Dionic had told me.

I had been there once before when I fought Dian, and it was right next to the amusement facility, so it wasn’t hard to find.

“Luciana! Elodie!”

“Your Majesty… …?”

Luciana, who was practicing her swordsmanship in the training grounds, noticed me and made a bewildered expression.

Then she said something similar to what Dionic had said earlier.

“Am I seeing things wrong? It looks like Arom is on Your Majesty’s shoulder.”

“Yes, it really is Arom. Arom came all the way here on his own. Isn’t that amazing?”

After that, I briefly explained to Luciana and Elodie how Arom came to be here.

The two listened to my story with amazement as if it was amazing.

After I finished explaining, Luciana asked,

“So you were showing Arom around here?”

“Yeah, what are you guys doing here? It looks like you’re not the only ones here.”

I turned my gaze to the twins behind Luciana and Elodie.

Their names were Peter and Arthur, I think?

They, the twins Peter and Arthur, eventually approached Arom and asked,

“What is this?”

“This is a no-pets zone.”

I briefly introduced Arom to Peter and Arthur, who kept saying the same thing in the same voice.

“Arom is not a pet. He’s my child.”

“… … !!”

“… … !!”

Peter and Arthur showed the same expressions of surprise this time as well.

They looked at me with trembling eyes and asked,

“An animal… … .”

“You gave birth to him… … ?”

I couldn’t understand why everyone thought Arom was their own child.

I explained it to them, who had no prejudices.

“First of all, Arom isn’t an animal, he’s a ‘divine beast.’ I’ve been taking care of him since before he even hatched from the egg, so he’s my child. Of course, I didn’t give birth to him in the way you’re thinking.”

“Ahh… … .”

“Ahh… … .”

The twins nodded with the same look.

I asked them next.

“So you were training here?”

The twins nodded and answered one by one.

“So you don’t want to be interrupted on the day the operation begins… … .”

“You have to work hard to build up your strength… … .”

The twins were right.

It seemed like Yan had prepared a rather grand plan to kill Romun, so I had to build up my strength enough for that day.

Luciana and Elodie seemed to have come down here for the same reason.

I nodded to them, feeling proud.

“Yeah, yeah, good determination. Then, everyone, do your best. I’ll just show Arom the tour and then come down to the training grounds.”

After leaving those words of encouragement, I continued walking.

There were still many places left to show Arom.

‘Let’s see, we’ve been to the entertainment facility and the training grounds, so what’s left is… the library?’

The library was a bit far from here where the entertainment facility was, so we had to walk quite a bit.

As I walked there with Arom, I memorized the geography of the hideout in more detail.

Then we finally arrived at the library.

I stepped inside and looked around carefully.

‘I have a feeling that Cheonggwang and Rubin will be here?’

Since the other members were all downstairs, it wouldn’t have been strange if Rubin and Cheong-gwang were here.

However, the person I ended up meeting was a completely different person.

‘Dian…? Why is that guy here?’

Of course, the other members of the Fourth Moon were also walking around the first floor, but I thought Dian was still in bed.

She had been beaten up pretty badly by me.

However, since she was already out and about, she must have been quite healthy.

Anyway, I ignored her and was going to look around the library, when Dian’s gaze suddenly turned to

me. It wasn’t just a gaze. The guy strode towards me and glared at me.

Arom, who saw Dian like that, ran into my arms.

“Dad… That guy has scary eyes….”

“It’s okay. Daddy has already scolded him.”

Dian’s brow furrowed even more fiercely after hearing me say that.

I glared at him, thinking he was going to do it again, but he didn’t clench his fist like I expected.

Instead, he pointed to the no pets sign next to the bookshelf in the library and said,

“Isn’t this a no pets zone?”

“Arom is not a pet. He’s my family. And there’s no one else here besides you and me, right?”

As I said, this guy and I were the only ones in the library.

The others were all at the entertainment facility or training center.

Dian shook her head and replied,

“Your child? They don’t look alike at all.”

“… … Of course I didn’t give birth to him… Oh, stop. Just think of it as me giving birth to him.”

Tired of explaining to people who kept mistaking Arom for my biological child, I just stopped explaining.

Thanks to that, Dian looked quite shocked, but that didn’t matter.

“Anyway, he’s not a pet, so it’s okay for him to be here, right?”

“No. By the way, children are not allowed in this library.”

It seemed like this guy would only be satisfied if he chased me and Arom out of the library. Anyway,

I had to follow the rules, so I was just about to leave when Dian called me out in a rude voice.

“Or take me to the children’s library.”