When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 184



Only Noblemtl

184. First Encounter with Romun
2024.05.02.

When I asked if Karina and Dian were also in on it, Yan shook his head.

“No, that’s not it. They were just fooled by me.”

“… … .”

“When my child was kidnapped, I wanted revenge on Romun. That’s why I created the fourth moon. Until then, I thought my son was dead.”

Yan added with a bitter expression.

“Because Romun didn’t tell me anything about my son’s life or death in order to tame me.”

“But did Romun change their attitude?”

“Yes. A few days ago, Romun contacted me and said that the child was alive. And he said he would give me another chance. He would seal you and take you to him and get the child back.”

It seemed that he had planned revenge, thinking he would die, but when he heard that his son was alive, he changed his mind and decided to capture and hand me over.

However, there was something he still didn’t understand.

“… … If that’s the case, why did you contact the giants? If you were going to lure me into a trap like this anyway, there was no need to do such a troublesome thing.”

“Because if I didn’t pretend to try, you wouldn’t have trusted me.”

Yan continued.

“I expected the giants to reject our request for cooperation. Even though I expected it, I sent a delegation to show you my efforts. I didn’t expect you to actually accept their promise of cooperation… I didn’t expect that.”

After hearing that, I couldn’t help but admit that Yan was a damned meticulous person.

Everything had gone according to his plan up until now.

Even implanting the skill into me—

even assigning me the task of destroying the barrier—

even pretending to negotiate with the giants to gain my trust—

it was all Yan’s scheme to separate me from my comrades and throw me into this trap.

‘But something is still strange. Yan, and I, are missing something.’

There were still too many strange parts to believe that everything had gone according to Yan’s plan.

Especially the sense of discomfort I felt whenever I heard about Jan’s son… … .

I could vaguely sense that there was something that had not yet been revealed.

“Have all your questions been resolved?”

“… … .”

“Then, before I seal the Apostle in the item, one last—” After

talking up to that point, Jan opened the closed door of the tower and continued.

“Let me introduce you to ‘him’ for the last time. There is someone who wants to meet the Apostle.”

Just as Jan said, someone was waiting beyond the opened door.

Because it was dark beyond the door, I couldn’t see his face yet. It was only

after he walked into the tower step by step that I was able to figure out his identity.

“Romun.”

I didn’t know Romun’s real appearance. I had never actually seen him.

However, the moment I saw Romun, I could tell that he was Romun.

That was because his silver eyes were sparkling with greed for me.

‘He looks more ordinary than I thought, doesn’t he?’

He was a man with silver eyes and long silver hair. He

had a rather tall appearance, despite the dark and terrible greed he harbored inside him.

I quickly checked his information window before Romun introduced himself.

[Romun (??)]

[Skills]

– Sharp Thorns (S)

– Memory Creation (S)

– Subjugation (S)

– Gentle Incitement (L)

– New Birth (L)

– Infused Soul (L)

.
.

[Karma]

302 points

That bastard really was an out-of-spec Awoken.

Also, as expected from his high Awoken rank, he had a damn lot of skills.

‘One attack skill, one memory distortion skill, one brainwashing skill, and even a mass incitement skill. The Infused Soul seems to be a possession skill, and the New Birth… Could it be the reincarnation skill that Nethelon had?’

Looking at the guy’s fancy skill list, I could feel that

the guy’s very existence was dangerous, and that he needed to be eliminated immediately for the sake of this world.

In the meantime, I thought I knew why Romun didn’t use his brainwashing skill on Yan.

‘Fortunately, that brainwashing skill called ‘Subjugate’ was S-rank. That’s why I couldn’t make Yan submit with it.’

When I checked Yan’s information window before, there was an L-rank brainwashing defense skill on his skill list.

Romun’s S-rank brainwashing skill wouldn’t have worked on Yan either.

Even so, in the end, my son was kidnapped and I ended up submitting to Romun… … .

“You’ve been staring at my face. And for a very long time.”

While I was looking through Romun’s information window, Romun finally spoke to me first.

Since I had already looked through everything I could, I nodded.

“I thought he looked like some kind of monster, but he looked more normal than I thought, which surprised me.”

Since I had to buy time, I didn’t say anything that would provoke him.

In this situation where I was being captured by a monster and my divine power was being absorbed, the most important thing for me was time.

‘Let’s use Yan to get out of this situation.’

In order to buy time to bring Yan, who was Romun’s subordinate, back to my chess piece, I continued to act as if I wanted to talk.

“If you’re so half-assed, you should have shown your face a long time ago. Don’t just hide behind your subordinates and give orders.”

“You’re still good at talking. Even when you’re being held captive.”

“If you don’t like it, you can even cover my mouth.”

I pretended to respond appropriately to Romun and slowly moved my hand.

Fortunately, Romun couldn’t see me even if I moved my hand because the monster had tied my two arms behind me.

I tried my best not to get caught and tightly grabbed the communication item I had hidden in my sleeve.

[Would you like to use the item “Necklace that Communicates with Souls”?]

―Yes

―No

It was originally an item I would wear around my neck, but today I had it wrapped around my wrist.

If I were to be captured by the soldiers here after destroying the barrier item, I planned to use this item to ask for help from my companions.

That’s why I wrapped it around my wrist so that I could use the item even with my hands tied behind my back, and it was a really good choice.

‘Yes.’

[You chose Yes. You can talk to whoever you want for 5 minutes.]

Fortunately, I was able to avoid getting caught until the end thanks to the careful use of the item.

I was soon able to transmit my voice into Yan’s head.

‘Yan, I’m transmitting my voice to you through the item. We talked once before, so we’re familiar? ‘

… … What are your intentions? Even if you contact me secretly like this, I have no intention of letting you go. No matter what happens, I’ll seal you and hand you over to Romun and get my child back.’

‘Just listen to me first and then decide what to do. Romun won’t know that I’m talking to you right now, so don’t show it and pretend like nothing happened and listen.’

Even though he said he was going to hand me over to Romun, Jan listened to me silently, perhaps because he was curious about what I was going to say.

During that time, I spoke to Jan. About something I’ve been thinking about since a while ago.

‘You, are you sure you had a son?’

‘… … Yes?’

‘Is it really true that you had a son? Think about it carefully.’

While Jan and I were using the item and having a conversation in our heads, Romun came up to me.

Not knowing that I was talking with the item, Romun stroked my cheek with a victor’s smile on his lips.

“Actually, I wanted you to submit to me on your own. I wanted you to find out who the real god is.”

“By the way, are you talking about Lucid Miller?”

“… … She has already disappeared. Your real, living, breathing god is

right before my eyes.” “All I see is some crazy guy. A delusional person who claims to be a god.”

“… … .” Romun

reached out his hand as if he was getting worked up by my words.

He grabbed my face with his vicious hands and glared at me.

It was a good thing he didn’t snarl any longer. If he kept talking so noisily, I wouldn’t be able to talk to Yan.

I pretended to glare at Romun while continuing to talk to Yan inwardly.

“Apostle… What do you mean? Think carefully about whether I really had a son.”

“Don’t you think that’s strange? ‘You loved and cared for your son so much that you offered me, a complete stranger, up for him, and yet there wasn’t a single picture of him in your office.’

‘That… that’s just because I didn’t have time to bring a picture… … .’

‘And one more thing. Why don’t you tell me your son’s name?’

Only then did Jan’s expression harden as if he realized something was wrong.

I didn’t stop there and dug into the conversation.

‘You kept talking to me about your son, but you never said his name once. You just kept calling him ‘son,’ ‘that kid,’ ‘that child.’’ ‘

… … .’

‘Why don’t you tell me his name? Do you even remember his name in the first place?’

In response to my question, Jan remained silent as if he was recalling his memories.

I waited, but in the end, he didn’t say that he remembered his son’s name.

『… … In conclusion… what are you trying to say?』

‘Your memories may have been manipulated.’

As I continued to remain silent while talking to Yan, Romun began to sense something was wrong.

I quickly tried to convince Yan.

‘There is a memory manipulation skill among Romun’s skills. It is a skill that implants fake memories that do not exist in others. It is possible that all the memories you have of your son are fake memories manipulated with that skill.’ 『

That… that cannot be… … .』

‘If that were not the case, there is no way you would not remember your child’s name. It is also strange that there is not even a single picture of him.’

『… … .』

‘Think about it again. Did you really have a son? If not, then draw your weapon and subdue that Romun brat—’

I was about to tell him to subdue Romun right away.

Romun, who had been staring at me until now, suddenly opened his mouth.

“What are you thinking? “With that quiet silence.”

* * *

Yan was shocked when he heard Nickelus’s subsequent words.

At first, he thought Nickelus was simply talking nonsense.

However, the more he thought about his memories, the more shocked Yan became.

‘… … I can’t remember at all. What was that child’s name? What did he look like?’

It was just as Nickelus had said.

Even though he had loved that child so much that he had betrayed Nickelus to save his son, he couldn’t remember his name or his face.

No matter how hard he tried to remember, it was in vain.

His son’s name, face, age—none of it came to mind properly.

It was as if someone had roughly created memories of a son who never existed and stuffed them into his head.

‘Really? Are you sure that all your memories of that child… are all lies… … ?’

He couldn’t continue his thoughts and grabbed his hair.