When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 88



Only Noblemtl

◈88. The shadow cast over the founding of the nation

Maybe Nickelus bribed Bliss.

Petros nodded repeatedly, thinking that his guess was quite plausible.

‘Well, he was a deposed prince, so it would have been easy to roast him if you bribed him a little… … And that bastard Nickelus, he pretended to be chosen by God and deceived the entire empire. He must be quite good at wagging his tongue.’

At the time when Nickelus was chosen as God’s apostle, there were many who accused Nickelus of being a liar, and Petros was one of them.

And even as time passed, my belief that Nickelus was a liar remained unchanged.

‘The empire is in chaos, so he can’t keep fooling the people anyway.’

When the moment came to demonstrate strength, incompetence would eventually be revealed to the world.

Petros had been expecting that moment to come soon.

That’s why I returned to the church I had left.

To show up at the moment when Nickelus is revealed to be a fraud and to show that Petros himself is the true Chosen One.

However, for that to happen, he first needed something to prove his abilities, and he was waiting to get that something.

‘It’s out. Reward item.’

I opened the golden box that appeared nearby.

Inside was an egg-shaped dungeon core.

In addition, a reward item was also included.

Since I was planning to prove my abilities by showing off the dungeon rewards to the people during this founding, I carefully inspected it in case it broke.

‘mirror?’

The reward item was a garden-shaped mirror with a silver frame.

A mirror that looks like nothing special at first glance.

Seeing that, Petros activated his skill.

One of the sacred skills that made him a saint, “Dictionary of God (L)”.

[An encyclopedia written by God appears before your eyes.]

As always, an unidentified voice rang in my head.

It was a voice that he had believed until then to be the voice of the ‘Lion of God’.

That’s why he wasn’t surprised by the voice in his head and silently waited for the skill to activate.

Then, with the power of the skill ‘Dictionary of God’, a translucent book appeared and opened before his eyes.

In that open dictionary―

[Mirror of Exploration (L)]

-Find the item that the person reflected in the mirror is wearing.

It contained information about the item I had just obtained.

The “Dictionary of God (L)” he used was literally a skill that provided information on items and monsters, just like it is now.

This allowed him to see into the true nature of the items he had acquired.

‘An item that lets you know what item your opponent is wearing?’

The moment he saw that explanation, a thought flashed through his mind.

‘This is it! If I have this, I can uncover that conman’s activities… …!’

Nickelus, the great conman who called himself an apostle and deceived people.

I will use this item to reveal his true face during the upcoming founding ceremony.

A deep smile of excitement appeared on Petros’ lips.

* * *

From the morning of the event, I was quite busy, and the first thing I did was, of course, ‘decorating.’

Since I had to stand in front of many people all day, I had to wake up early in the morning and look my best.

This was the first time I learned that there was such a thing as a ‘potion that makes hair shine’.

Anyway, I drank it and made my hair shiny, and I also wore clean, white clothes that weren’t stained with dust.

After that, I headed to the palace while hearing Thomas, who had seen my fully decorated appearance, flatter me with madness, saying, “It’s sacred! It’s sacred, Your Holiness… …!!”

Upon arriving at the palace, I attended a banquet that began in the first banquet hall.

Ernen gave a long speech first, talking about the peace of the empire and the glory of it.

Next it was my turn.

I recited the speech I had memorized the day before in front of the crowd.

-“…So Lucid Miller will brighten the future of the Empire with glory!”

Fortunately, there were no mistakes because I had memorized it so thoroughly, and afterward, I ate while hearing the customary cheers of “Wow!”

Up until this point, it had already been a tiring schedule, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the end.

As soon as the banquet was over, Ernen and I went out of the palace and boarded a magnificently decorated carriage.

The next event was a ‘parade’.

I mean, riding a fancy carriage through people while colorful paper and flower petals are scattered around.

And through those processes to the present.

I was waving at people while riding on the parade float.

His face was smiling, but of course his heart was not like that at all.

‘I’m dying… … . The event was like this… … ?’

I shook it so hard that I thought my arm would fall off.

The face was the same.

I tried to force a smile on my face so much that my facial muscles became paralyzed.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re having a hard time smiling.”

Ernen, who was standing next to me as the emperor and waving his hand together, suddenly showed his concern.

This guy was laughing just like me, but somehow he didn’t look tired at all.

Unlike me, he kept on smiling very naturally and without getting tired.

What about me…? Suddenly, a worry came over me.

If Ernen had asked if things were okay, his face might have been creaking like an unoiled robot.

“Does it show that you’re having a hard time?”

“If you look from afar, it might look natural… but if you look closely, you can see a twitch in the corner of the mouth.”

“haha.”

Maybe it was because I don’t usually smile much, but the muscles around my mouth were definitely screaming.

He was trembling as if he was protesting to stop doing something he wasn’t doing.

Ernen seemed to feel sorry for me and gave me a little advice.

“If it’s too hard, pretend to drink some water and relax your expression. It’s a technique I often use.”

“Thank you. Then just a moment… … .”

I relaxed my expression for a moment, pretending to pick up the water on the table as Ernen had advised.

I finally felt like I could live a little. I never knew that smiling all the time would be this hard.

While I was drinking water, Ernen whispered to me with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, it’s better to save your energy. You know, there are important schedules left.”

Aww, I took a sip of water and my shoulders shook for a moment.

It was just as Ernen said.

The current parade is just the beginning.

As night fell, an even bigger challenge arose.

‘That’s right. I have to show off my abilities in front of people during the closing ceremony. Nickelus couldn’t do that, so he kept skipping the foundation ceremony… … .’

It would probably be decided based on what skills were showcased at the closing ceremony.

Will he continue to be remembered by the people of the empire as an incompetent scoundrel, or will he be remembered as something completely different?

Then Ernen continued in a somewhat subdued voice.

“I trust you. You’ve performed miracles many times so far. But… this time, you’d better be careful. I’ve heard rumors.”

“Rumor?”

“I’m talking about Saint Petros.”

I was a little surprised. It was a matter of the church, but it seemed like it had already been relayed to the palace.

As Ernen said, I heard from Bliss that this time a saint named Petros returned to the cathedral.

After a bit of a scuffle with Bliss, you went off to raid another dungeon?

When I actually opened the trust window and checked it―

Sub-Trust (1) – Eliminate the “Elcapists” who have begun to take root throughout the Empire! (3/10)

It came out like this.

The number of dungeons conquered has increased to three.

Originally, Bliss and I each conquered one, so it was two, but it seems that Petros’s conquer was also counted.

I’ve never even seen Petros, but I never thought the dungeons he conquered would count.

It seemed that no matter who cleared the dungeon, there would be no problem in completing the main oracle.

Thanks to this, completing the eighth main trust has become much easier.

But apart from that, Ernen seemed worried about Petros’ appearance.

“He might be resenting you.”

“That’s right. You said that because I was chosen, the position of the saint became unstable… … .”

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s God’s decision. I’m just telling you to be careful.”

Well, I feel sorry for Ernen who was worried, but I never really blamed myself.

As he said, I… Nickelus became an apostle because Lucid Miller chose Nickelus.

It was not Nickelus who pushed out Petros and became Pope because he wanted to.

So I answered Ernen with a confident face.

“Don’t worry. I’m the kind of person who hits someone twice before they even think about hitting me.”

“Two hits before you can even think about hitting him…? Then, doesn’t that mean you just hit an innocent person first? Anyway, I understand. I feel relieved when you say it like that.”

Ernen smiled at me again, just like he had done before.

I was the first to let out a sigh, “Whew-”

Then, barely, barely, she moved her stiff facial muscles and smiled at him.

* * *

The parade has finally come to an end.

Just going around once means that quite a bit of time has already passed.

I wanted to drag my tired body to my bedroom… but of course it was impossible.

There was still a lot of time left on the schedule.

‘Is the next scheduled activity to be a martial arts performance by the Holy Knights?’

A martial arts performance by the Holy Knights led by Luciana.

That was the next step, as far as I know.

I followed the directions and sat down in a place with a good view of the performance.

Of course, Ernen too.

The Emperor and the Pope are almost treated as a set, so Ernen was scheduled to be by my side all day today.

As he sat down, he started chatting to me.

“Aren’t you looking forward to it? Your knight… Luciana, right? Your knight is very loyal, so I’m sure he prepared thoroughly for this performance. He didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“Well, if it’s Luciana, it’s probably for the honor of the Holy Knights rather than for me… Hmm?”

I paused for a moment, startled by the eerie feeling I felt for a moment.

As soon as I started speaking, Ernen showed a puzzled look on his face.

“But why?”

“… … No, I just had a little chill.”

“Really? I guess I should have worn a little thicker clothes.”

“… … Yes, I think I have a cold.”

Even as I said that, I still couldn’t shake off the feeling of being puzzled.

There was something strange about the chills being simply a cold.

It was closer to that eerie chill that you feel instinctively just before an accident happens.

‘what?’

I looked around absentmindedly, looking for danger.

Then, at one moment, my eyes met with a red-haired man who was among the civilians.

“… … .”

An exchange of glances that lasted a very short time.

Soon he disappeared into the crowd and we couldn’t see him anymore.

Still, one thing I could be sure of was this.

‘That guy just now… was looking straight at me.’

I felt a slightly more ominous sensation than before.

Meanwhile, a solemn and heavy trumpet sound rang out.

It was the sound that announced the start of the Holy Knights’ martial arts performance.

‘Oh, it’s Luciana.’

Luciana was dressed in a much more extravagant ceremonial outfit than usual.

I hate to say this to my article, but it was pretty cool.

The sight of a knight appearing in magnificent attire, with a well-defined gait, leading the knights.

She appeared amidst the cheers of the audience and immediately drew her sword.

At the same time, the knights standing in line behind also drew their swords at the same time.

After that―

‘Threw it… … ?’

He threw his sword into the air.

It formed a black, graceful curve and spun around in the air before falling.

And Luciana reached out and snatched it back up without the slightest hesitation.

‘It’s dangerous.’

It was cool, but I felt uneasy, like I was watching a circus act.

It is a skill that can result in you being cut by a sword if you make even the slightest mistake.

However, the audience who likes provocative performances cheered enthusiastically.

Ernen was also happy to applaud from the side.

“That’s really cool. That’s such a difficult feat.”

“Hmm, that looks a little dangerous.”

“Don’t worry. If you’re a knight, you’re definitely a class A or higher knight. That should be easy.”

“That’s true, but… … .”

Ernen suddenly looked at me and stroked my chin.

“Come to think of it, you seem to be particularly worried about that article.”

“yes?”