When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 181



Only Noblemtl

181. The One Who Gained Recognition from the Giants
2024.04.29.

Karox frowned as if he didn’t understand what I was saying.

There was no need for me to explain to him in detail how I caught the deer, but I did it as a last act of kindness.

“Before I landed here, I activated a skill first. A skill to summon soldiers named “God’s Legion.”

“Summon… skill… …?”

“It’s a skill to summon soldiers who will unconditionally obey my orders. And I gave the summoned soldiers three orders.”

I spread out three fingers and spoke in order.

“The first order is to find the white deer. The second order is to blow the flute made from the Revent stem near the deer. The third order is to capture the deer that freezes after hearing the sound of the flute.”

“Are you saying that the soldiers summoned by the skill caught the deer? That’s ridiculous… … . Beings summoned in this way usually have no sense of self and don’t understand complicated orders!”

“Yes, if I had given a more complicated order, the summoned soldiers might not have been able to carry it out. But capturing a deer isn’t such a difficult order, right?”

As Karox said, the soldiers summoned using the Legion of God skill didn’t understand complicated commands.

I thought they might, so I divided the order into three steps and gave them the simplest possible order, so they probably would have carried it out properly this time.

However, Karox didn’t seem to trust the abilities of the soldiers I had summoned.

“They must have failed.”

“Then what is that whistle sound I hear from far away? If it wasn’t my soldiers who found the deer.”

“… … .”

“We’ll have to go and check to see if we failed or not.”

After saying that, I spread my wings. I

didn’t want to waste any more time fiddling around, so I decided to go and check for myself whether or not I had captured the deer.

Just before I flew up, I said one last thing to Karox.

“I’ll catch the deer and take it, so you go back to the village first. You won’t be able to hunt anymore in your current state anyway.”

“Who can’t… …!”

“You can’t even get up properly.”

I saw the face of Kallox, distorted with anger.

It seemed that the defeat that he had never experienced in his life was quite painful.

I left him like that and flew up.

Then I flew in the direction of the sound of the flute.

* * *

After Nickelus left, Kallox, who was left alone in the forest, barely managed to get up.

Then he whistled loudly and called his tribesmen there.

The tribesmen, who confirmed that Kallox was not in good condition, were excited again.

“Did that dwarf attack the chief?”

“How dare a dwarf…!”

“Let’s capture him right now and tear his limbs apart!”

Kallox gestured to the tribesmen who were grabbing their weapons as if they were going to take care of Nickelus right away, telling them to calm down.

With that one gesture, the tribesmen quickly became quiet, and in that silence Kallox gave an order.

“It was a fair fight. He didn’t cheat.”

“But…!”

“We’ll return to the village like this. If he brings the white stag to the village, it’s his victory. If he doesn’t, it’s a draw.”

The tribesmen kept quiet without raising any more objections at Kalax’s firm voice.

After that, their group, Elodie, and Dionik all returned to the village.

Kalax, standing in the village square, quietly looked up at the sky that had already become dark.

The sun had already set, but Nickelus had not yet returned to the village.

‘We still haven’t caught him. How pathetic.’

If he had caught the stag, he would have returned to the village a long time ago.

However, Nickelus was still nowhere to be seen, and this meant simply that he had

lost the stag .

Kalax, deciding to stop waiting, said to his tribesmen and the Mongma siblings who had remained there.

“The match is a draw. As promised, I will support three regular warriors. I will also release the slaves I captured first. However, I, as the chieftain, will not personally participate in your battles.”

Upon hearing those words, Dionik refuted Kalax.

“You didn’t say when you had to hunt a deer. Then shouldn’t you just bring it back before midnight today?”

“The white guardian deity is not active at night. At night, it falls asleep in the deep forest where no one can find it. So if you haven’t hunted yet, it’s as good as failing to hunt.”

“… … .”

Kalax snorted as he watched Dionik grit his teeth, unable to refute.

“I’m the one who’s disappointed. I thought you’d show me something, but in the end, you failed too… Wait.”

As he continued to speak, Kallox suddenly spotted something in the sky.

Something was flying with its sparkling golden wings spread wide.

The golden something gradually approached the village, and finally, Dionik and Elodie, who recognized its identity, shouted one after another.

“Brother!”

“Nickelus!”

It was Nickelus flying from far away.

Nickelus landed in the village and put the white deer he was carrying on his back on the ground.

“I caught it properly. Check it out.”

There was no need to check, it was a white deer.

Instead of examining it, Kallox approached Nickelus.

“… … You really caught the deer.”

“That’s right, I told you earlier that I caught it properly. I was a little late because I got the direction of the village mixed up.”

Nickelus asked, rubbing his sore shoulders from carrying the deer.

“So does that mean I definitely won the match? No objections, right?”

“… … .”

Kallox stared at the deer as if lost in thought.

In that silence, feeling uneasy, Nickelus was about to say something when Kallox’s hand moved.

Slowly moving his hand, he finally took off the necklace he was wearing.

It was a necklace made by drilling out the fangs of a tiger he had hunted in the past.

“Take this.”

“This is…?”

Nickelus asked in bewilderment as he received the necklace from Kallox, to which Kallox briefly explained.

“Let’s call it a token of friendship. My token is not something that just anyone can have, so consider it an honor.”

“Wait, what do you mean by giving me this…?”

“Yes, that means I will personally help you.”

Kallox nodded and answered, then smiled at Nickelox.

“You clearly won the fight against me. You are a stranger who has never been to the Guardian Forest, and yet you hunted the Guardian faster than I.”

Kallox nodded at the white stag and continued.

“So, as promised, I will lend you my strength. If you need my help at any time, whether it’s attacking the palace or anything else, call me. I’ll help you with all my might.”

Nickelus, who was momentarily dazed by the unexpected treatment, soon came to his senses and nodded.

Seeing Nickelus’ nod, Kallox smiled once like before and shouted out to his tribesmen.

“Cheers for the winner of this match and our newfound friendship!”

“Waaaah!” A loud cheer erupted from the giants.

* * *

We had received a promise of cooperation from the giants.

And since Kallox himself had stepped forward to help, we could say that the situation was perfectly resolved.

There was no need for us to stay in the giant village any longer.

We returned to the fourth moon hideout with the fourth moon members who had been captured as slaves. We

didn’t bring the giants to the hideout in advance.

Their large stature was too noticeable, so it would have been difficult to keep them in the fourth moon hideout until the operation began.

So they stayed in their village for a while, and decided to come here via the warp gate on the day of the operation.

For that reason, when we returned to the hideout with only the fourth moon members, everyone greeted us excitedly.

“Oh my! You managed to negotiate and rescued all the envoys who had been captured earlier?! You’re amazing!!”

Karina was the first to shout out loud.

It seemed like she was quite worried about the other members who had been captured as slaves.

Well, it was understandable that the giants had cut off their arms and sent them away. Anyway,

after Karina made such a fuss, Dian also said something to me.

“I see your arm is still intact. Did you do it?”

“Yeah, I used a skill to turn back time.”

“Time… … . Was there a skill like that… … ?”

I responded to Dian, who was surprised, with a moderate amount of humility, “Well, that’s true.”

Then Rubin asked me this time.

“Nike, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I cut my arm a little, but it’s okay. I healed it with a potion.”

After that, Luciana, Cheong-gwang, and even me added words of concern.

Luciana asked if my arm was badly injured, and Cheong-gwang said he was glad I came back safely.

I accepted their worried questions and relieved greetings.

When everyone had said something to me, Yan, who had been keeping his mouth shut until then, finally called me.

“I have something to tell you quietly. Would you like to come to my office with me?”

“Well, okay. Let’s talk about it there.”

I gladly complied with Jan’s request and followed him to his office.

As always, it was a quiet place.

Jan let me in first and then came in himself, closing the door and saying,

“I’d like to thank you first.”

“For bringing back the captured members?”

“Yes. And for guiding the cooperation of the giants. Thanks to you, I think the operation will go much more smoothly.”

After saying that, Jan suddenly went to the display case in his office and took out a bottle of alcohol.

“In that spirit, would you like a drink?”

“Of course not.”

After hearing my answer, Jan brought out a bottle and two glasses and placed them in front of me.

I sat comfortably on the sofa and watched the glasses being filled.

The clear glass filled with alcohol with a slurp.

It was when I took a sip of the alcohol that had been poured. Jan suddenly spoke.

“By the way, I was going to tell you more about my son when I got back.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

When I spoke to Jan on the phone in the giant village, Jan had said

that he would tell me more about his son if I returned here safely.

‘I thought you’d keep it a secret… … .’ He

seemed to want to tell me more than I expected.

I took a sip of the sweet and fragrant wine and told Jan.

“I heard that he was an only child with special abilities, and that he was kidnapped by Romun.”

Jan nodded and answered.

“That’s right. Romun took him under the pretext that he needed my child’s strength. He said that he would let him go if he cooperated.”

“Cooperation? Did he ask me to cooperate with the Priscillians’ mass migration plan?”

“Yes, to be more precise—”

Was it because of the wine? Jan’s voice sounded hoarse.

Jan’s words, which had been hoarse and hoarse, finally slowly reached my ears.

“Apostle, I asked you to cooperate in capturing me.”