When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 56



Only Noblemtl

◈56. Sister Sparrow

I simply thought that he had covered his eyes because there was no need to reveal them.

That wasn’t the only reason Baekmae covered her eyes.

‘Scars from fire and earthquake… ‘

A dark earthquake scar remained over her right eye.

It seems he wore a blindfold to hide it.

‘Were you blinded by torture?’

But even though the skin on his left eye was fine, it seemed like he couldn’t see out of that eye either.

So originally you couldn’t see both sides, and then accidentally burned one eye?

As questions filled his head, Baekmae opened his mouth.

“Surprised? I don’t remember ever taking off my blindfold in front of you, so this is probably the first time you’ve seen this scar.”

“… … .”

“I’m speechless. Is it really that ugly? Actually, I’ve never seen it myself, so I don’t really know what it looks like.”

Baekmae laughed.

“Since both my eyes are blind, I shouldn’t be able to see even if I want to.” … he said, as if making a light joke.

I couldn’t laugh like her, so I barely managed to ask in a suppressed voice.

“Did you become like that because you were tortured? They say the world is full of poison… … . You wanted revenge on those who made your eyes like that… … ?”

Baekmae seemed to think for a moment, then gave a completely unexpected answer.

“They say that in an unknown forest, there lived a sparrow who could not see in both eyes.”

“Sparrow… what?”

While we were talking about revenge, why are you suddenly talking about sparrows?

Even though I looked at him with a look of absurdity on my face, Baek-mae just laughed.

Then he continued talking in a soft voice, as if telling me to listen quietly.

“He was a very intelligent and curious sparrow. He longed for the day when he could soar high in the sky and observe the world.”

A curious sparrow longed to fly in the sky… … .

Only after hearing that did I start to understand what Baekmae was talking about.

I listened to her story in silence.

“His sister, who felt sorry for the sparrow, prayed to the spirits again and again. She had already seen enough of the world, so she prayed that she could share just this one eye with her younger brother. And then, didn’t she really gain a mysterious power? And so―”

Baekmae paused for a moment, then used the skill “Noble Sacrifice” on me.

It seemed to be a skill that freely absorbed not only vitality and disease, but also ‘wounds’.

The wound on my wrist from the tightly tied rope ‘slithered’ over to her.

“So, in this way that I just showed you, Sister Sparrow transferred the sight of one of her eyes to her younger brother. But she regretted it not even a day later. Before Sister Sparrow could fly high and fulfill her purpose, the evil magpies swooped down on her.”

“… … .”

“Breaking the child’s small but powerful wings, gouging out the child’s sparkling eyes… … He must have been jealous of the child’s wisdom and potential.”

If I had my way, the sparrow would have been referring to Baekmae and her younger sister.

And the magpie would speak of children from powerful families.

He gave one eye to his younger brother, who was smart but had impaired vision, but the younger brother would have fallen before he could make it to the top.

A small sparrow trying to sneak into a flock of magpies with the power of the family on their backs… … .

It was easy to predict what would happen to that sparrow.

No, maybe it was worse than I expected?

The voice of Baekmae that followed was filled with hatred whose depth was difficult to discern.

“They deserve to be punished. I went to the magpie that killed my brother and protested to it, but it didn’t show any remorse. Instead, it threatened me, asking if I wanted to lose the other eye I gave to my brother.”

“… … .”

“What’s one eye for? Compared to the pain of losing a family, losing an eye is nothing… … So, as if to show off to them, I burned my only remaining eye with my own fire.”

The direct earthquake eye had already healed, but she was probably still in pain.

That’s why I was very careful about what I said.

“… … Are you thinking of revenge?”

“Yes. Even though you have a weapon that can change the world, you just stay in this village and watch everything…? I am not as cruel as you. I will take the holy relics on a ship stolen from foreigners and go there to hunt the magpies and save the sparrows myself.”

“… … But will the other believers besides Baekmaedang agree with you?”

“Should I agree? Because most of the people who don’t seem to agree have already died of an ‘unknown disease.’”

I was surprised again when I saw Baekmae’s mad smile.

‘I thought they just picked someone and killed them to raise awareness of outsiders… … .’

Now that I look at it, it seems she killed mostly moderates who might oppose my plans.

They killed the moderates who got in their way, blamed it on outsiders, and made the believers hate outsiders.

The believers who are probably raiding the guild right now probably think that the guild members killed their friends and family.

Without knowing anything about the truth of the incident, he would have been fighting for his life, just to get revenge on his enemy.

It was while I was amazed by the eerie density of the white plum blossoms.

She suddenly grabbed my hand.

“Come and go magpie hunting with me.”

Baekmae was recommending it to me.

Let’s go magpie hunting together.

Magpie… So let’s hunt down and kill the corrupt officials who killed Baekmae’s own younger brother.

When I responded with silence, she continued her advice in a much softer voice.

“I know you abandoned the sick village and tried to leave with the children of Heukwoldang. I also know that you became close to foreigners. But still… I still don’t want to kill you and Seon-gwan.”

Baekmae’s hand was holding onto more strength than before.

“Just say that you will follow my will. It’s not hard. Think about what happened to your family because of the conspiracy of the traitors.”

Baekmae spoke of her past… no, the past of the Black Moon.

Because of that, the past of Heukwol that had been buried in my mind gradually rose to the surface.

Baekmae continued to speak without stopping, as if trying to make the memory even clearer.

“Think about the misery of having to run away alone, leaving your family to be purged… Think about the sadness of returning from hiding and seeing the corpses of your family.”

“… … .”

“They would have put the bodies of your family members on skewers and placed them in front of the castle walls instead of burying them. They would have incited people to throw stones at them as much as they wanted because they were a family that had plotted a rebellion.”

“… … .”

“How did you feel when you saw your family being stoned and not able to rest peacefully even after death…? When you gritted your teeth and gathered strength, and finally found all the people who had framed your family, and killed all of those bloodlines, not even the newborns…?”

“… … .”

“If you haven’t forgotten how you felt back then, you can fully understand my desire for revenge.”

Baekmae’s words were right.

I don’t understand her, but the ‘Black Moon’ sleeping inside me understands her.

The memories and emotions of the Black Moon planted in me pity the White Plum.

I was thinking of helping my old friend Baekmae get revenge.

So maybe I would have just answered that I would help her. If I were the real Black Moon.

“I’m sorry. Actually… I’m not Black Moon. I don’t fully understand the sorrow Black Moon has experienced, nor the sorrow you’re experiencing right now.”

“……what?”

“So, rather than wiping away the tears you shed in the past, I want to wipe away the tears of my people who are crying right now.”

Currently, the only things that are sealed are my skills and inventory.

Baekmae probably thought that just sealing these would render me powerless.

But I knew a way to do it without using skills, but only with pure life force.

‘It’s possible with the Black Moon’s body. Just do the same thing you did back then.’

When emotions run high, it becomes easier to summon strength.

I remembered Ernen’s face as he asked me to take care of his brother.

As I recalled that sadness, I was able to immediately draw out the vitality that the Black Moon possessed.

Most of my life was taken away by the Life Drain skill and I didn’t have much life left, but this was enough for now.

Thud, thud!

As I moved my wrists and ankles, strengthened with the life force I had gathered, the rope snapped and the chair broke.

I stood up straight in front of Baekmae, who was too embarrassed to say a word.

However, I too was at a loss for words.

I just swallowed the silence in front of her.

‘What on earth should I say to the person in my dream? … .’

All of this is an illusion right now, and in the real past, your revenge plan has already failed… Should I tell you such a painful truth?

Or should I just tell you a sweet lie that I understand your feelings and will help you get revenge?

I hated them both. True or false, they are both cruel tricks.

That’s why I just turned around without saying anything.

“Where are you going! Stop!”

Before I could even turn around, Baekmae shouted and took something out of her bosom.

A thin, shining silver needle… It was a ‘medical needle’ that was inserted into the body to treat patients.

She activated her skill and thrust the tip of her needle into the base of my neck.

“If I use one of my special abilities, the ‘Flow-Piercing Needle,’ I can see every weak point in a person’s body. If I just gently insert this needle here—”

She gently touched the tip of the needle somewhere on the base of my neck and continued speaking.

“You will lose your life. So don’t move.”

“… … I told you. I can’t help you with your revenge. Just let me go.”

“Why? You too, like me―”

“Because I’m not the real Black Moon.”

Even though it had already been revealed that it was not Heukwol, Baekmae looked like she did not believe it.

Given the circumstances, I had no choice but to choose between the cruel truth and the sweet lies.

What would be the least taunting way for her? After much thought, I chose the former.

“I am from the future.”

“… … I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you suddenly saying such strange things?”

“It’s not a strange sound, it’s true. This is a dream of the past. The real Black Moon is dead. You are dead too. And that was a long time ago.”

Baekmae looked at me with a subtle expression for a while before opening her mouth.

“Heukwol, you… You seem to be in a lot of pain. I was just thinking of using my power to relieve some of your strength… I didn’t know you would become mentally unstable.”

She seemed to think that I was going crazy because she had drained my life force with her “Noble Sacrifice” skill.

‘Well, this would be a normal reaction.’

The fortune teller already knew through the horoscope that this was a dream.

And because he trusted the horoscope so much, he quickly believed and accepted my words that this was a dream.

But that was a special case for the emissary.

Baekmae was showing an average reaction, neither too much nor too little.

“Poor thing… … . I’ll heal you right away, Black Moon.”

As soon as those words were finished, a needle was stabbed into the side of my neck.

I blocked her attack by instantly concentrating my life force on my neck.

Thud!

The needle of the white plum broke without being able to penetrate the skin that had become as hard as steel.

Although he seemed surprised for a moment, Baekmae didn’t freeze for long, perhaps because he had already seen the technique before.

Whoosh!

She immediately took out the needle again and threw it.

However, it wasn’t thrown towards me.

‘The lantern… …!’

A sharp needle flew out and snapped the wick of the lamp.

It was only in an instant that all directions were enveloped in darkness.

“Moving in the dark is probably a very strange thing for you. Not for me.”

From somewhere in the dark space, Baekmae’s voice was heard―

“… … Ugh!”

Sharp needles dug into my arms.

I recalled the structure of the basement that I had remembered from when I first saw it.

Then he rolled over to where the table was and hid behind it.

Thud thud!

As soon as I hid my body, needles started sticking into the table one after another.

The sound of the needle hitting the tree was quite eerie.

“Come here quickly. If you keep avoiding me like that, I won’t be able to properly throw my spit. If I’m not careful, I might hit you in the eye.”

I took advantage of the gap in time when an eerie sound was coming out of Baekmae’s mouth to open my inventory.

The rope that had tied me up earlier seemed to have been an inventory seal item, so now that it was broken, I could easily open my inventory.

I was quickly thinking about what items to take out of it.

‘Should I make a protective shield with Nerebloka’s shield? …? No, that won’t work.’

If only Nerebloka’s shield could properly form a protective barrier, it would be easy to block the needles, but the material used to form the barrier is the problem.

The material used to form the protective barrier is the user’s ‘life energy’, such as divine power or magical power.

If I squeezed more out of the life force in this situation where it’s running low, I could really end up in trouble.

That’s why I took out another object.