When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 177



Only Noblemtl

177. Doria’s Last Role
2024.04.25.

As Elodie said, the giants might have resorted to cowardly tactics in the fight. They

were greedy, cunning, and undisciplined.

But—

“Even so, we don’t have much of a choice. We absolutely need the giants’ cooperation.”

“… … .”

Elodie closed her mouth with a gloomy expression. Dionik

was the same. He let out a deep sigh with a face full of thoughts.

Was I too unprepared for the possibility that the other party might resort to cowardly tactics?

I decided to say something that would give them hope,

even if it was late. “It doesn’t matter if they resort to cowardly tactics.”

I smiled faintly at the sleepwalkers who looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Then why don’t we respond by resorting to cowardly tactics? If I were to become cowardly, I could become endlessly cowardly.”

Dionik burst into laughter at my words.

“Well, you’re really good at coming up with tricks.”

Following Dionik, Elodie also chimed in.

“Then I’ll believe you. No matter what cowardly tricks the giants use, you’ll win.”

“Of course. You can believe me.”

When I said that, relief finally appeared on the siblings’ faces.

It seemed that they had been worried that I would fall for the cowardly tricks of the giants.

After eating a quick meal in that state, the siblings quickly fell into a deep sleep.

However, I couldn’t fall asleep easily, so I went out of the hut alone and activated my Deification skill. I

had something to ask Doria.

“Doria, I called you because I wanted to ask you about the final oracle… For some reason, you seem smaller than before?”

I rubbed my eyes thinking I was seeing something wrong, and looked again, but it was the same.

Doria had definitely shrunk in size compared to before.

Before, it was a sphere of light the size of a basketball, but now it’s the size of a baseball, you could say?

Doria simply explained.

【The final main oracle has been passed down to you, so that’s why. Now that my role is over, I will disappear as planned soon.】

“What?!”

【The final main table. My final role was to give it to you. Since that final role is over―】

“It’s too sudden! Even if my final role is over, it’s disappearance!”

Because I was flustered, my voice raised slightly without me

realizing it. Unlike me who was raising my voice, Doria answered me in a calm voice.

【It can’t be helped. The fact that I’ve been able to give you an oracle until now, the fact that I’ve been able to lend you strength whenever I used the Deification skill, and the fact that I’ve been able to exist… it was all thanks to the strength that Lucid Miller left behind.】

“… … .”

【But that person has already disappeared, and there’s not much strength left. 【That’s why I couldn’t maintain my existence.】

I kept my mouth shut, not knowing what to say, as the guy continued.

【Still, it was fortunate. In fact, Lucid Miller was always worried that you might not be able to fulfill your role as an apostle. That’s why you received the penalty for becoming a demon when you first came to this world.】

“You became a demon because your karma points were low? That was a penalty that Lucid Miller had prepared?”

【Yes, most people don’t become a demon just because their karma points are low.】

The one who set up that penalty was none other than my god, Lucid Miller.

As I kept my mouth shut, feeling a strange sense of betrayal, Doria began making excuses.

【I thought that if I hadn’t given you that penalty, you wouldn’t have followed the oracle obediently. He had set up a device of his own to motivate you to follow the oracle.】

“… … .”

【Don’t be too upset. Anyway, because of that penalty, you were able to carry out the oracle step by step, and now you are only awaiting the final oracle.】

That was true. The

reason I first decided to collect karma was to avoid becoming a demon.

If there had been no such penalty, I would not have tried to carry out the oracle in the first place.

“Did Lucid Miller anticipate everything… …”

My mood suddenly became negative.

If Lucid Miller had anticipated and planned everything, then I would have been playing around in the palm of her hand all this time.

No matter how much Lucid Miller was my god, I did not like being played around in the palm of someone’s hand.

As I was chewing over that strange unpleasant feeling, I blurted out something sharp before I knew it.

“If you’re so omnipotent, it would’ve been nice if you had preserved some of my memories from my past life. Thanks to that, I only found out much later that I was the real Nickelus in my past life.”

【Um… As I said before, the gods of this world are neither omniscient nor omnipotent. It was beyond Lucid Miller’s control that you lost your memories of your past life.】

“… … .”

【He couldn’t restore your memories from your past life either. That’s why he had no choice but to arrange for you to obtain ‘lost memory fragments’ as a reward every time you completed an oracle, so that you could gradually regain your memories.】

When I didn’t say anything, Doria continued to make excuses.

【He did his best for you. He helped you as much as he could without breaking the law of causality. There were times when you were given incomplete lost memory fragments as compensation, and even those were all unavoidable in order to prevent the collapse of causality.】

There was only one time when incomplete memory fragments were given as compensation.

When I completed the fifth main oracle and received the first lost memory fragment.

Thanks to that memory fragment, I was able to recall the memory of the time I met the old prophets… the Mongma siblings in my dream.

However, in that recovered memory, part of Elodie’s voice was heard as □□□□□ □□□ □□.

Now that I think about it, it seems that Lucid Miller gave me such incomplete memory fragments as compensation in order to minimize the collapse of causality.

【He really did his best. He loved and cherished you, his apostle, more than anyone else. Please believe that and do not doubt it.】

I couldn’t readily say yes.

Considering how much he loved me, Lucid Miller had done to me.

Lucid Miller had given me a penalty for becoming a demon. He

didn’t even give me the memories of my previous life.

He also designed his own clone, Doria, that he had prepared for me to eventually disappear.

He must have fully expected that I would feel sad because of Doria’s disappearance.

That’s why I hesitated a bit when Doria asked me to believe in Lucid Miller’s love―

“… … Yes, I will believe it.”

But I eventually said that I would believe it.

I couldn’t ask a god who had already disappeared if he really cared for me.

Suspecting Lucid Miller and Doria, who had already disappeared, would only make my heart heavier.

“Then after completing the final main oracle, no other oracles will come down? And you will disappear after that?”

[Yes, that’s right.]

“… … .”

[Is there anything else you want to ask? Since I don’t have much time left to answer, ask everything that comes to mind. I will answer everything without causality collapsing.】

Originally, I had called Doria to briefly ask if there would be any other oracles after the final main oracle.

However, I was a bit shocked when I suddenly heard that he would disappear, so I couldn’t think of anything else to ask.

After thinking about it, I asked Doria one last question.

“What was I like from what you saw? Was I a good apostle?”

【Are you really okay with that question?】

“No other questions come to mind. I just want to hear what you thought of me.”

Doria nodded at my answer and shook his body up and down.

Then he quickly gave me the answer to my question.

【You were a perfect apostle, beyond compare.”

After giving me that final answer, Doria was de-summoned and disappeared.

I was left alone to ponder Doria’s last words.

“Perfect… you said?”

I don’t know if those words were a lie or the truth.

Maybe he made up a lie so as not to disappoint me. After all,

I was too bad and deviant to be called an apostle.

But that didn’t mean I had any way to confirm whether what he said was true or false.

To successfully complete the final oracle given to me, and to make sure that he remembered me as the greatest apostle until the very end… …

That was the only thing I could do.

* * *

The next morning, the giants came to the hut where we were sleeping.

They soon began to guide us somewhere.

The place where we would compete was outside the village, right?

That’s what they said, so we obediently followed them. For some reason,

there was a steep cliff at the place we arrived at.

As we stood in front of the cliff, other giants soon gathered and surrounded us.

They either came to watch the competition or to attack us, each holding a weapon.

‘What? Why did you bring us to a place like this? Are you trying to corner us into a dead end and capture us all at once? …?’

While I was thinking about such things and tensing up my body,

Kalocks, who had arrived before I knew it, looked at us and said,

“I’ll tell you the event we’ll compete in.”

He said that and pointed to the cliff with his fingertips.

There was a flower blooming on the top of the cliff he was pointing to.

Kalocks continued, pointing to it.

“The event we’ll compete in is ‘cliff climbing.’ The winner is whoever climbs the cliff and picks the flower at the top first.”

Upon hearing Kalocks’ words, Dionix shouted angrily from the side.

“Wait a minute, isn’t it advantageous for tall people to climb cliffs!”

Kalocks nodded surprisingly obediently to Dionix’s words.

“That’s right. But what do you want me to do about it?”

“… … What?” ”

Are you trying to say it’s unfair?”

“Of course! “Shouldn’t the match be fair if it’s not heavily influenced by height?”

Kalax snickered at Dionik’s protest.

“It’s your fault for being born small, so it’s not something you can blame me for. There’s nothing perfectly fair in this world. If you’re going to whine like a child about that, just go back.” He

didn’t seem like he was going to listen to our protest at all.

I had no choice but to let out a deep sigh and ask Kalax.

“Is it okay if I just pick flowers?”

“Yes. However, you can’t use items or skills. You have to win without the help of those things like a warrior.”

It’s a shame that you can’t use skills or items, but there was no time to argue about every little thing with the rules.

I asked something else instead of nitpicking the rules.

“Okay. So who’s my opponent? Are you going to go out yourself?”