Chapter 18

“No, I’m not covering… Ardal was just calming me down by taking the aphrodisiac.”

“To calm you down? What happened overnight?”

After hearing my words, the Pope muttered incredulously.

“If you have such a problem, you can come to me straight away. Ardal, why…”

“No, Haniel. It’s because I was insensitive. I should have checked Haniel’s condition properly…”

Ardal interrupted my conversation with the Pope. The Pope narrowed his eyes as we kept blaming ourselves. The Pope stared at him calmly as he listened to Ardal say he was at fault without making excuses.

“Hmm.”

The Pope crossed his arms and let out a small nasal sound.

“Okay, I won’t give Ardal any more punishments.”

“Oh, that’s a relief…”

“Oh…!”

I was relieved by the Pope’s words. I was truly fortunate to be able to continue seeing Ardal’s white uniform. Ardal seemed to be relieved. He looked at me and sighed with joy.

The Pope continued, before the joy faded from Ardal’s face.

“Instead, I will observe Ardal’s classes from now on.

“…Huh?”

“I’ll have to see what happened with my own eyes, so you’ll have to continue with the class from before.”

The Pope spoke, his eyes shining eerily. His eyes headed toward Ardal.

Oh, maybe this is turning into a love-triangle!

At the thought of the love-triangle path, a path I hadn’t even seen in the first run, I clutched my pounding heart and thought stupidly. Alright, feel free to do it!

I completely forgot that I fainted last night because I was overwhelmed with just one Ardal.

***

“Come to think of it, you said you had to go home last night. Do you have everything you need?”

“I’m not bringing anything, but I need to check something. I want to go right now…”

“I will prepare the carriage right away. Please wait a moment.”

After the Pope made a significant declaration and left, I took a stamina potion. This time, I checked and drank it properly so I didn’t make the same mistake. I should have properly checked it. It was obvious that it was one of the developer’s tricks. Grinding my teeth at the color of the drug, I swallowed the health potion at once.

Ardal, who watched me drink a potion from thin air, listened to me and asked. As if he was worried about something happening like last night, he stood up without hesitation. Ardal, who went outside and ordered something, came back inside.

“You’re not feeling well yet. Are you okay?”

“I just took a health potion.”

“…Haniel.”

My throbbing body regained strength as I swallowed the potion. It’s good to be in the body of a video game character because it recovers quickly. When I answered by shaking the empty bottle to Ardal, he examined the bottle and spoke cautiously.

“I saw you do the same thing last night… Can Haniel really use magic?”

It wasn’t magic. It’s just taking items out of my inventory window. Magic was not common here, so it couldn’t be helped that it looked like magic.

In this game, the only people who could use magic or something similar were the Pope and the target characters in the Empire.

Excluding the Pope, who manifests holy power like magic, one of the target characters in the Empire was the last remaining wizard. If I wanted to start down that path, I need to first mention the stolen material from the Holy Land by the Empire, but it was too long of a story… so I didn’t read that part.

‘No one starts by reading the entire history about the Empire and the Holy Land.’

It was a game with a lot of story, but there was no need to read about the history just to give yourself a headache. Players usually discard the stolen material, bring it back to the Holy Land or be instructed by the Pope. If anything, I didn’t expect a 19+ game to have an actual plot.

Even if you looked at the reviews, no one mentioned the story but only talked about how passionate they got over their target characters. That’s why I was interested in this game too.

So I nodded my head, not thinking much about the meaning of the last remaining wizard and the only person who could manifest holy power. It wasn’t a world without any magicians at all, and since there was only one left, it shouldn’t be that strange.

“Yes, well, it’s nothing grand, but I can do it if it’s just summoning things.”

“Haniel.”

Ardal approached me with a serious face when I answered lightly. He spoke quietly, kneeling before me in bed.

“Does his Holiness know you can use such an ability?”

I tried to recall my memory… I don’t think I’ve ever taken anything out in front of the Pope.

“No, he probably doesn’t.”

When I shook my head and answered, Ardal slightly loosened his stiff expression. But his face still looked serious.

“Then Haniel, please never use your abilities in front of His Holiness, no matter what.”

“Why?”

Did the Pope hate wizards? I don’t think there was any mention of that. First of all, I wasn’t a wizard. What I used was similar to the holy power used by the Pope.

As I tilted my head, Ardal started talking in a low voice.

“This is a story only few people in the temple know.”

“Is that something I should know about?”

“…”

“That’s not right.”

I interrupted Ardal and asked. I wondered if it was okay to hear a story that only few know, especially since I’d just entered the temple. Hearing this story may drastically change the direction of the game. The difficulty may suddenly rise, or there may be more quests I need to complete.

When I finished thinking, a system window popped up as if it had been waiting.

[Hidden Quest – The Pope’s Secret]

[You can hear the Pope’s secret from Ardal.]

[If you listen to Ardal, you can start the ‘The Pope’s Truth’ route.]

As expected, this was the key to entering a new route.