When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 48



Only Noblemtl

◈48. Things I can do for you right now

Unlike his cute body illuminated by the moonlight, Rubin’s face was covered in dark shadows.

Rubin also studied Nickelus with deeply shadowed eyes, then extended his forelegs.

A foot with five fluffy, furry toes.

It went towards Nickelus’ nape.

Stealthily and discreetly, like an assassin taking the life of a victim in the dark.

And at last, the moment his front paws touched the nape of Nickelus’ neck―

Softly.

Rubin tickled Nickelus’s nape with the long hairs on his forelegs.

Gentle, gentle.

Rubin knew better.

How ticklish it makes people feel when you rub them like this using your own round fur.

“How is it, is it painful? Is it ticklish? If you don’t want to keep getting hit, you’d better get up. Now, hurry—”

“Rubin!”

Rubin hurriedly hid his feet when he heard Luciana’s voice while she was tickling him.

Soon, Luciana came over with brisk strides and crossed her arms in discontent.

“Have you been harassing His Majesty again?”

“Oh, no! I didn’t do anything!”

Even though he answered like that, Rubin couldn’t meet his gaze at all.

Luciana lifted Rubin up as she watched him hide his front paws that had been doing bad things behind him.

Then he hugged Rubin from behind.

Very tight, using strong arm strength.

“Ugh, my body… my body is going to break, Lucy… …!!”

“I’ve said this many times, but His Majesty is just asleep. You just have to wait patiently.”

As soon as Luciana realized that Nickelus and Bliss had collapsed side by side, she had the therapist check on them both.

The therapist used his diagnostic skills to examine the two of them in silence for a while, then said:

-“… … is asleep.”

He said he wasn’t hurt or passed out, he was just sleeping.

-‘I’m surprised. I thought you collapsed because you were sick. But how can you sleep like this, sprawled out on the floor?’

… As Luciana was wondering, the therapist added:

-“It seems like you are trapped in a dream created by a dream machine while you are asleep.”

-“Wait a minute, you’re saying this is a nightmare? Isn’t that dangerous?”

-“Normally it would have been dangerous… but judging from the fact that your stamina hasn’t diminished at all, it doesn’t seem like you’re having your energy absorbed by Mongma.”

The therapist said that there was no need to worry too much, just looking at the condition.

Nickelus and Bliss’ stamina is actually replenishing faster than usual, so they should be fine if we just leave them lying down for a few days.

After that, Nickelus said, “I’m having a long dream. I’ll wake up when I’m done here. Don’t worry.”

… a note was even found that said that, so for now, they were just waiting silently for him to wake up.

‘A dream? What on earth am I doing…?’

While Luciana was looking at Nickelus with concern, Rubin, who was struggling in her arms, screamed.

“I know I should just wait, but it just won’t happen!!”

“Let’s wait a little longer. He’s not lying.”

Rubin just wags his tail in displeasure.

Luciana tightened her grip on Rubin’s arms and urged him to answer.

“Okay? Stop sneaking in and tickling me.”

“……huh…….”

If you don’t answer yes, you’ll be crushed by Luciana’s arm strength.

In order to survive, Rubin ended up spitting out the answer Luciana wanted.

After squeezing out the answer with such force, Luciana stared silently at Nickelus’ sleeping face.

‘Okay, you said you’d believe me, so I have to believe you.’

The words she had said earlier—“Let’s just wait a little longer. She’s not lying”—were not spoken only to Rubin.

These were also words Luciana spoke to herself.

She wanted to believe until the end that Nickelus had changed from the old days when he was a loser.

‘You have to trust and help. To do that, first of all-‘

Luciana raised her hand.

Then he slapped Rubin’s front paw, which was reaching out as if to secretly tickle Nickelus again.

“Tsk! Bad hand!”

Rubin quickly withdrew his front paw like a cat that was frightened while trying to sneak a peek at a fish.

Thanks to this, Nickelus was able to avoid the humiliation of being tickled.

‘Let’s protect you until you open your eyes.’

For now, that was the best help Luciana could give Nickelus.

* * *

‘Ha… … I guess I’ll live a little.’

For some reason, I’ve been itching like I’ve been bitten by a mosquito for a while now, but I’m finally feeling a little better.

I stopped scratching the back of my neck and went through the main gate of the temple.

Then I walked all the way to the inner building where the officer was waiting.

“You’re here. Sit down.”

As soon as I entered the small, simple room where the seon-gwan resided, she immediately offered me a seat.

Since I had been there once in the morning, I sat down on the cushion feeling familiar.

“Why did you call me? I heard you had something to say about ‘dreams’… What kind of dream are you talking about?”

I had a rough idea, but I pretended not to know and asked.

The officer stared at me intently with his clear silver eyes.

It felt like time had stopped.

“Black Moon.”

She suddenly called out to me, then threw the teacup in front of her toward me.

“… … !”

I could barely catch the glass flying straight at my face.

Why are you suddenly throwing things at me?

I faced the officer, trying hard to suppress my embarrassment and anger.

“What the—”

“Other believers think that Heukwol is right-handed, but in fact, he is left-handed. Sometimes, when he goes out of town in secret, he is easily identified by his left hand, so he has developed the habit of using his right hand.”

“… … !”

“So even though I usually live with my right hand, when I catch something that flies at me by surprise like just now, I unconsciously use my left hand to catch it. But you―”

The officer pointed to my hand with his eyes.

To be exact, my ‘right hand’ that held the teacup.

“You received it with your right hand.”

“… … .”

“Besides, I had my fortune told today, and the spirit said something strange. He said that everything was a dream and an illusion. But only you… Only you got a different fortune.”

As if she had just thrown the teacup away, she placed another one on the table with an elegant touch.

The only sound there was the sound of tea pouring from the teapot.

She politely held out her full teacup towards me.

“The spirit says that only you really exist.”

“… … .”

“You said that even the white plum blossoms are an illusion, that I am an illusion, and that in the midst of everything being a dream and an illusion, only you are real and wandering in the dream… … So I ask.”

After a fleeting moment that felt like an eternity―

“Who are you?”

I was forced to ask ‘that question’.

“… … .”

“… … .”

In fact, I’ve often imagined a situation like this before.

So, to the dream character, “You are not real. This is a dream and you are a character in the dream.”

…a situation where I have to say that.

If I say something like that, will the character in my dream really accept it?

Or will you get angry like fire?

Or else he would look at me with a creepy gaze and say, “You know something you shouldn’t know, don’t you? I can’t let you go alive.”

… and create a horror movie atmosphere?

I decided to hide the truth from the seon-gwan since I didn’t think anything good would happen.

“I am-.”

“I am already certain that you are not the Black Moon. Don’t try to pass it off as a ridiculous lie.”

The sage told me that straight out before I could even make up a lie. How brave of me.

Thanks to that, my worries deepened again.

‘If I reveal the truth here, wouldn’t it be a failure to comfort the souls and everything? … But it doesn’t seem like a situation where I can just fool them … … . Besides, if I think about it, it’s a bit strange to lie to the person I’m trying to comfort, when I’m here to comfort Han.’

Of course, the interest that was visible before his eyes was the real Seon-Gwan’s dream… that is, it was an existence in his memories.

It could be said that it was not real, but just a shadow of the past.

But even so, he was still a shadow of the person I had to comfort, an incarnation of the person I had to comfort.

“… … Let me be honest with you, everything.”

Finally, I decided to be honest and gave the officer a warning.

“However, you will be very surprised. You may even regret not listening.”

“You won’t regret it. Depending on what you say, you might be a little surprised, but don’t worry about that. I was so shocked when you stood among the corpses, dressed in shabby clothes, but you’re still alive and well.”

I laughed briefly after hearing the seon-gwan’s joke.

After that, he returned to his serious face and slowly poured out the secrets of this world.

“Actually, this place is not real.”

“……then?”

“It’s a dream.”

“… … .”

“This space, this temple, this village… … this entire world is a dream. Therefore, we are in a dream now.”

She seemed quite calm, perhaps because I had warned her in advance that she might be surprised by what she heard.

I just asked indifferently.

“… …Whose dream is it?”

“Your Majesty, this is your dream. To be more precise, it is a dream world that has been created by gathering your dreams and those of many others and recreating them as closely as possible to the actual past.”

“It was recreated just like the actual past…? Are you saying that it was a re-creation of the ‘past’ rather than the present? If so, then how are the believers living in the real world?”

In the end, I ended up getting asked the question I wanted to avoid the most.

But since I said that this was a dream, I couldn’t avoid talking about reality.

“The village disappeared. The believers also died and returned to the earth. I don’t know more about it. Because… so much time has passed since the village disappeared that the mountains and rivers have changed dozens of times.”

“… … .”

“This dream is a dream from the past that is quite old by reality standards. I am someone who has come back from the present to the past to meet you.”

The officer faced me with eyes that were a little more trembling than before.

“So what you’re saying is… all of us, except you, are shadows of the distant past, hundreds of years ago?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“In reality, we died a long time ago?”

“you’re right.”

I added a little more explanation there.

“Among the foreign devils, there are those called ‘Mongma.’ They have a special ability to collect and paste dreams, and they sent me into the dreams they created. They did so in the form of ‘Heukwol.’”

“Huh, how could this be… … . So the thoughts and feelings that are coming to my mind right now… Are they all just illusions in a dream… … ? What on earth, what on earth is this… … .”

At first, she was quite calm, but as my story continued, she became more and more confused.

He shook his head, saying it was nonsense, but he also seemed to agree that it made sense.

Then, after calming down a bit, she spoke to me.

“If I had heard this story yesterday, I would have given you medicine. I would have thought you were suffering from madness. But today I had my fortune told five times. And all five of them—”

She paused for a moment, then took grains of rice out of her silk pouch and scattered them.

As if using a skill, rice grains imbued with blue power rolled around on the table.

She connected the words with her fingertips, and put the last part of the words that had been cut off.

“All five divinations… no, including the one just now, there are six in total. All six divinations tell me exactly the same story as you said. Judging from the fact that I have never been wrong in my entire life, what you said must also be completely true. However… there is one thing I don’t understand.”

“What is it?”

I was willing to answer anything you wanted.

Since he had already said, ‘You are dead,’ there was no way another difficult question could be asked.

…because I thought it wouldn’t happen.