PMEVBO 142

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the quest completion notification. I found it hard to tear my gaze away from the status window. Only after I turned my head toward the Pope did my eyes follow.

I understood that the Pope cared about me a bit. But that was a different matter from actually pleasing him.

…So this guy does feel joy after all.

And over something as trivial as this…

‘But you’re making things too difficult for yourself when it comes to His Holiness.’

Iser was right. And that wasn’t the only thing Iser had gotten right.

‘You wanted to be that person’s joy, am I right?’

How did that guy know something that even I’ve only just come to admit to myself…?

The Pope and my brother. To be honest, I wasn’t not sure which of the two I cared for more. But if I had to choose one, I’d always thought I’d have to choose my brother.

Unlike the Pope, my brother would look for me.

That was also the reason I wanted to return to my original world…

I thought the Pope wouldn’t look for me even if I disappeared. Just like how he never came to find me when I hid during games of hide-and-seek as a child.

But does that mean he’d be fine if I disappeared?

What if that’s not the case…?

I didn’t even realize when my legs started trembling. I bent over and pressed my elbows against my knees, and only then did the trembling stop. I clasped my hands together and said,

“A thousand years ago… you said you don’t remember anything from before you were proclaimed Pope by the people. Is that true?”

When I was a child, I had read the holy book for the first time and asked the Pope about it.

‘Are you really a warrior sent by God? Did you fight and defeat a demon? What does the demon look like?’

‘Well… it was so long ago, I don’t remember.’

‘What? Is that it? …Are you an idiot?’

I had asked similar questions a few more times after that, but the answer was always the same. And it was no different this time.

“Yes.”

The Pope answered curtly, his gaze fixed on the teacup in his hand. If that was true, then perhaps the Pope didn’t know much about demons either. And yet, the fact that he suspected me of being a demon…

I bit my lip, then turned my head to look at the Pope. A flood of questions I’d been curious about all along but had never dared to ask poured out.

“Why did you suspect I was a demon? …Because I look like Riel, the queen of Chepony?”

“You saw that portrait in the Tower of Serpents. ”

The Pope gazed at my face with an impassive expression.

“Riel’s portrait was discovered after I had already named you. Until then, I didn’t even know what Riel looked like.”

It was different from what I had heard from Bechard.

‘This is the portrait of the queen who surrendered her body to a demon.’

‘Now you understand why Your Holiness named you Lucariel, don’t you?’

……I couldn’t even begin to guess where I’d first fallen for that bastard’s tricks. But that wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Then why did you suspect me?”

“The thousands of snakes you saw during the Hayut Massacre.”

The Pope set down the teacup he was holding and leaned his back against the sofa. Then he continued in that same calm voice.

“I saw something similar myself. On the day you were born.”

“Something similar…?”

“Yes. To be precise, I saw your mother, Hadelin, transformed into snakes.”

“……What?”

…My mother turned into snakes?

I froze in an awkward posture, unable to bend my waist forward or straighten it. The Pope watched me for a moment, then rested his chin on his hand and asked.

“You know you were born in the imperial city, don’t you?”

“……I know. They said I was born while my parents were carrying out their duties as Apostles. Both of them passed away not long after I was born.”

Neither the Pope nor Bechard had told me anything beyond ​unauthorized copy​that. I had never been told how exactly they had lost their lives.

“Your parents were murdered.”

It took me a beat to realize that the dull thudding pounding against my eardrums was actually my own heartbeat. Feeling as if my heart were about to leap up into my throat, I covered my mouth with one hand.

…Murdered?

My mother and father…?

Those who manifested divine power were not easily injured by ordinary means. Moreover, they were high-ranking clergy. In fact, until the emergence of ecosystem disruptors like Bechard, they possessed the greatest amount of divine power of their generation. If there was a being capable of murdering both of them on the very same day…

“…Could they have been killed by a demon?”

“It’s highly likely. I sensed divine power of unknown origin at the scene where your parents were murdered.”

As far as I knew, the Pope was a man who never forgot the name of anyone he had met even once. Would such a man fail to recognize divine power? That meant it was a divine power he had never sensed even once in his thousand years of life.

My mouth went dry. I swallowed and asked.

“……Then what do you mean when you say my mother turned into snakes?”

After a moment of silence, the Pope fixed his gaze straight ahead and continued calmly.

“Maacheva and Hadelin’s bodies were embalmed and placed in coffins. We planned to move them to the Holy City after the Season of Salvation ended to hold the funeral.”

“……”

“Then, a month after their deaths, we had to open Hadelin’s coffin. Bechard reported hearing strange noises coming from it.”

No way.

“Were there… snakes inside that coffin?”

“Yes.”

Before I had a chance to process the shock, his flat, emotionless voice continued.

“Hadelin’s body wasn’t in the coffin. Instead, it was swarming with black snakes. They turned to ash and vanished shortly after.”

“…….”

“And you were inside that coffin after the snakes had disappeared.”

His tone was so matter-of-fact that it took me a moment to understand what he meant.

“What do you mean…….”

Only then did the Pope turn his gaze toward me.

“Your parents were murdered before you were born.”

“…….”

“Hadelin died before giving birth, and you were found in the coffin that held her body. Looking just like any other newborn baby.”

My breath caught in my throat.

The corpse of my biological mother, transformed into snakes. And a baby found in the very spot where those snakes had turned to ash and vanished. …There couldn’t be a more perfect origin story for a demon.

Wait, you took me in and raised me even after seeing that?

…Does that even make sense? Even I was starting to doubt whether I was a demon or not.

I buried my face in my hands, damp with cold sweat, and opened my mouth. After a brief moment, I asked,

“……Why didn’t you kill me right then?”

In a situation like that, it wouldn’t have been strange if he’d killed me on the spot.

The Pope gave no reply.

“You didn’t spare me from the start.”

“That’s true.”

I was baffled by his firm answer. As I raised my head, my gaze met his dry, red eyes.

“I thought you’d die soon.”

I get that that was why he didn’t kill me and raised me instead. But other than that, I really couldn’t understand a thing.

What was this? It wasn’t even like he was saying he was sorry my life turned out to be longer than he expected…

In the past, I would have just left it at that misunderstanding. But now I knew. This old man had always been terrible with words.

…Is this what happens when a person lives for a thousand years?

It was a way of speaking that was difficult for a mere mortal to understand. If ​unauthorized copy​I tried to parse every single word, there would be no end to it. I had no choice but to give up on understanding. Even so, I no longer felt anxious.

He said that even if I were a demon, he would still care for me. I felt the same way. Even if, by some chance, the Pope’s true identity were that of a demon, I would still cherish him as family.

But I could never grant him an indulgence.

‘They would have died someday, even if it weren’t because of you. So what difference does it make that you happened to be the reason?’

…No matter how many times I died and came back to life, I could never speak like the Pope. That was the difference between him and me.

“You survived after meeting a being presumed to be a demon twice. That’s the extent of what you’ve been through.”

With his gaze lowered, the Pope continued in a flat tone.

“Figuring out what you really are is my problem, not yours.”

“……”

“So don’t worry about anything and just do what you want.”

“……What if what I want is to leave the Holy City?”

The Pope might not be the flawless, transcendent being I thought he was. With a Pope like this, I was not sure if I should even go back to my original [stolen content]world. But I couldn’t just leave my brother behind.

…For now, let’s leave the Holy City and go to Galdion Academy.

It wouldn’t be too late to worry about it after I get the wish ticket……

The Pope had strictly restricted clergy from leaving the Holy City. Yet he answered so easily that it felt absurd.

“If that’s what you want, then do it.”