Chapter 223: A stupid custom…
What Mirishu started talking about was the contents of being Pope. I looked back into Mirishu’s eyes, which had begun to give off a fleeting atmosphere, with a serious face and focused on the talk.
“Did you know that to become Pope there is a skill you must inherit from the previous Pope?”
“…No. I didn’t know.”
“Kusu. We’ll leave it as that. To return to the talk, I cannot go into detail, but… in the process of inheriting it the previous generation’s lifespan disappears at a tremendous speed.”
“…”
I did know. That there was a room under the great cathedral where the skill was inherited by the next Pope. The Pope and the next Pope entered that room together, filled it with magic power, and one ritual was completed. If you did that a total of “100 times” the skill could be inherited by the next Pope. But…
“From generation to generation a Pope’s lifespan is said to be thirty or forty… I will likely follow the same path as the Popes before me. But I want to experience happiness not as Pope, but as a woman.”
“And that is making a child?”
“Yes. If I am going to bear and raise one, I want to give birth to a child who inherits excellent blood… a child with power that will not lose in this world.”
“When Lady Mirishu reaches the end of her life I intend to accompany her. But I still want to know a woman’s happiness.”
“And that’s why you’re seducing me…”
Kuna smiled a little fleetingly as well and pushed my right hand further between her breasts. I listened to the two of them and, sorry, let out a big sigh. Every country has a dark part. Sadly there are not few of them. Neighboring Sajilis had started wars again and again. The past of the rich country Yulral had been a crime city. The Kingdom of Libertonia had a past of human supremacy, and the Holy Kingdom of Kail had a past of treating the Pope as a thing… no, a darkness still in progress.
The history of the Holy Kingdom of Kail was older than the Kingdom of Libertonia. If you thought simply it seemed to have continued three thousand years from its founding. But if the history that Popes had led the Holy Kingdom of Kail was true, with a lifespan of thirty or forty there should not be three thousand years of history by ordinary thinking. Then what did they do… until a next-Pope candidate appeared they locked the Pope in the ritual room and forced her to live on. That darkness existed in the Holy Kingdom of Kail. The age they locked her in was thirty or forty, so you could also call it her effective lifespan.
In the ritual room the flow of time was strange and it was hard to age. You could not unlock it from inside. It could only be locked from outside. The darkest part was that they locked her in as if ignoring the Pope’s will, and the door opened from outside only when performing the ritual with the next Pope. The next Pope could go outside and recover magic power, but the Pope locked in the room subjectively had to use magic power again almost immediately. It was nothing special. Once they passed on Holy Divine Power they were just killing the inconvenient previous Pope. The Pope faction believed that was the correct thing, and the opposing faction also got two birds with one stone by having the inconvenient Pope gone. On top of that they did it with the arrogant thought that the guilt was for the Goddess, so they could not be saved.
“There’s no way Lady Riera would allow something like that…”
“Eh…?”
“Raide-sama… ahn.”
Mirishu’s position was not a problem, but Kuna’s situation was not good, so I pulled my right hand out of her chest a little forcibly. The momentum made her chest sway alluringly. I looked away, skillfully took the hand that was gripping me, and set it on my knee. Kuna looked surprised that I had acted forcibly. Mirishu seemed the same. Sorry, but I refuse that kind of thrown-away childmaking. I let out a small breath, told the two of them to calm down, confirmed they nodded, then started talking.
“First let’s talk about the skill.”
“Talk… about the skill?”
“Why now?”
The two of them made dubious faces at my words. I turned my face left and right, matched eyes with them seriously. Especially with Kuna I matched eyes for a long time, as if appealing. If she had truly understood the talk about the dark side earlier, she should not have taken this kind of action. They no longer needed to do this ritual. They had become able to shut up the ones forcing it.
“It’s for the two of you. Listen. I don’t know what kind of ’ritual’ is performed to make it be inherited, and I don’t know what kind of ’room’ it is done in.”
“”…!?”””
“But listen. Skills…”
The same way I had once explained to Erika, I explained that if you did “100” one-on-one mock battles you obtained the other person’s skill. Coincidentally feeling malice in the same number “100” as in the ritual room, but that did not matter now. I understood the two of them did not take childmaking, the act, lightly. But no matter what it sounded like they were making light of themselves…
They opened their eyes wide as if they had forgotten to blink at my talk. Mirishu tightened the arms around my left arm. Kuna gripped the joined right hand hard.
“If you want proof, come to the Rude Tavern I run. The adventurers there have the proof. With this method Mirishu can pass the skill to someone else. And that means there is no need to do the ’ritual.’ The world will change… stupid old customs should be gotten rid of. If the Holy Kingdom of Kail truly worships Lady Riera, right?”
“Raide-sama… why…”
“…Do you know everything?”
“I was asked for an opinion so I only answered.”
At my words the two of them blinked adorably several times, then pressed their faces into both my shoulders and started shaking. I heard quiet voices like they were sobbing and focused on not moving my body as much as possible. I did not know what those tears meant, but I could only pray they were not sad tears. I noticed Ruu and Mimine looking this way with serious faces and nodded faintly with the meaning that they could report. Seeing the two of them nod firmly, I turned my eyes to the ceiling. I felt both shoulders getting wet, but for now I would stay still without saying anything tactless. Thanks to the serious talk, among other things my lower half had settled, which I was glad for… if it had stayed like that it would have been fully lively. Well, since it seemed like they had been seducing me, for Mirishu and Kuna the plan would have been a complete success…
How much time had passed? The two who had stopped crying pulled their bodies a little away from me, dyed their cheeks red, and bowed with embarrassed faces. Being bowed to put me in a spot. It was a situation any man would envy. Being clung to by the Pope and her close escort was not something that normally happened, so I decided to think of it as a good experience. I told the two of them to raise their heads, smiled in a troubled way, and looked left and right.
“I said it earlier, I only gave an opinion. I want you to stop.”
“No. Thanks to you I… we were saved.”
“We will be busy, but we will work for the future.”
“…Next time you seduce me, I want you to come after you truly want it yourselves. At that time I will answer properly.”
“”…””
When I said that with a smile they turned their still-red faces away. I tilted my head curiously. I should not have said anything strange… why were Ruu and Mimine giving me dead-eyed looks too? You don’t need to sigh that much. If they convey their feelings for real I have no intention of running or letting go.
…First I would have to talk with Relia and Tia, though. I smiled wryly, rubbed the back of my neck with one hand, and wet my throat with the tea that had gone cold.
[Chancellor]
Finally finished with miscellaneous work, he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling with a tired face. Sleep in two days: three hours. He was already nearing his limit, and his thinking was a little dull too. He wanted to praise yesterday’s self for judging ahead of that and leaving only the document work for last. He understood in his bones that the chancellor’s job was not easy.
He understood, but work related to Raide was far too much! It had started with the two princesses’ matter, accelerated with Elysia’s matter, and now it was Pope-related? It was the same situation as a side character struggling after entering the world of a book his wife owned! It was true that thanks to Raide the Kingdom of Libertonia’s sources of unease were disappearing and it was growing richer. Friendship with other countries was advancing too. Looking at the whole there were nothing but good things. But this busyness was wrong! How old did Raide think he was!
Galt checked the time, confirmed it was past seventeen hundred, grinned fearlessly, and stood from his chair. The work was done, so there should be no problem resting. Raide ran a tavern, if he recalled…
Kukku, he laughed happily, packed up to go home, and left the office. The current Galt, perhaps from fatigue, was unusually flying off in various ways…