199-193 Determination

From the time we left the arena until we arrived at the Pope's room, we didn't see any of them.

I wish I could say whether that was good or bad, but I couldn't enter without feeling something contrived.

I arrived in the Pope's room and knocked on the door, and instead of an answer, the door opened.

It was Esther who emerged from it.

'Come in,'

I soon realized who the atmosphere was, but I decided to go into the Pope's room first.

There were no maidservants inside, but rather the Pope, Esther, Forenoire and another person, Rosa.

The room was in disarray, and I was surprised to see the Pope in front of me, who was usually hidden and out of sight.

I decided to finish the report of the return first to calm my unorganized head.

''Luciel, as well as Squire Nadia and Lydia, we have returned safely.

I get down on one knee and bow my head as usual.

I'm sure Nadia and Lydia will be following my lead.

Then the Pope's one voice began, surprisingly, with an apology.

'I'm sorry, Luciel, I'm sorry.'

...About what, sir?

I wasn't expecting him to apologize out of the blue, so I was at a loss for words for a moment, but I asked him what he was apologizing for.

'I don't know where the rumor leaked from, but I couldn't keep the Lord in line.

Pope-sama bowed his head, but he knew that there was probably a mastermind behind the rumors that had developed so much in the first place, so there was no need for him to bother apologizing.

I was rather interested in what the Pope thought about being surrounded by the Knights.

''........Did the Pope know that I would be surrounded by the Knights in the Grand Training Ground?''

Who would have imagined that he would be greeted with hostility?　I'm sure that if I hadn't been training in the labyrinth with my master and Lionel, I would have been scared and shaking.

'I knew we were going to transition to the Great Training Ground, but I didn't know we were going to be surrounded by Knights. It was only when the interior of the church became noisy that Rosa came to inform us.

When I looked at Rosa, I saw her not as her usual auntie, but something taut and tense.

And that Rosa-san gave me a worried voice.

''More importantly, Luciel-sama, are you all right?　I can always help you if you want to run away.

I could tell that she knew about the rumors and was worried about me too.

However, she hadn't yet heard from the Pope that she was able to use magic.

Considering that, it still felt strange that there were so many soldiers in the night time.

Normally, they wouldn't have known that they would be transitioning, much less going to Nerdal for the first time in decades, so there was a good chance that they hadn't even gotten the word out about where they were returning.

With that in mind, as long as Pope-sama doesn't speak, it's unlikely that this situation will come to pass.

Both Pope-sama and Catherine-san are suspicious, but the fact that they never felt any hostility confused me.

I couldn't show a weak attitude here, so I decided to change my impression by smiling wryly.

'Run away?　I won't run away. Rosa, what am I guilty of?

'I didn't commit it. Still, rumors about a person can make an impression on you, for better or worse. Especially if they are mixed in with malicious intent.

With a somewhat distant look in her eyes, Rosa told him so.

There was a strange persuasion there.

''Luciel, I know how you feel, but........come to think of it, what happened to Catherine?　I was asking you to bring him in so he wouldn't get suspicious, wasn't I?

Isn't the Pope's decision all about to backfire?　I don't blame you for suspecting that.

However, I can't keep quiet about the fact that I kicked him away, so I tell him honestly.

''........I came kicking away because he was standing in front of me and pulling out his sword. Thanks to that, the knights were looking at me with awe-inspiring eyes.

'What!　I can't believe you kicked that Catherine to the curb...

The Pope makes an expression of disbelief and then pretends to think about something.

Then a shadow appeared from the side and bit me on the head without reading the air.

''........Forenoire, I'm home. If you don't mind, can you bite my head later?

It was the forenoir that bit me.

I asked him to stop biting me, but he didn't try to stop the sweet bite.

He was apparently under a lot of stress.

I had no choice but to let him do what he wanted, but since he smelled a bit of animal, I thought it would be a good opportunity to show him how to use his holy attribute magic in front of everyone's eyes, so I used my purification magic.

Then, he stopped biting me, probably because he was happy that he hadn't received purification magic in a long time, but this time he rubbed his neck, so I decided to stand up and pet him.

I thought it was impolite in front of the Pope, but I decided it was okay.　

He obviously changed the subject, but I couldn't understand why he was suddenly asking about the mastermind.

''No, since I just got back, I don't even know when this rumor started spreading so.......more importantly, I've been wondering about it since I entered the room, can you explain why this room is in such disarray?''

Then, the one who explained this was the dark spirit possessing Estia........

''An extremely small amount of magical power, so small that even I and my sister are not aware of it, has been leaking out of this room. It seems that because of that, all of the conversations in this room were being passed through to the outside world.

That would mean that the Pope's concern about the magic ball wasn't being bugged.

''Are you saying that this room was bugged?''

As soon as we got the report of the return, things got pretty noisy in the church, that's for sure. So I looked into it and I found a magical device.

As expected of a spirit, he must have felt something.

But still, didn't the Pope give him instructions?　Didn't the handmaids think it was strange to do this?

The Spirit of Darkness. He handed me a magic ball that was slightly smaller than a cracked baseball.

''It's ... broken.

Well it's a long story. I checked all the handmaids with dark magic and found no culprits.

I felt very unhappy with what the maidservants would think if they saw this room, but I proceeded to talk.

'Pope, who has access to this place?'

There are men of bishop's rank and above, and captains of knights, and later, men from other lands who come to see you.

Given the number of people coming in and out of the building we'll never find the person who did this.

That's right. We don't know when he's going to put the trick in.

The Pope looks down as he says that, but I thought that the reason why this happened was because of no small amount of problems with the Pope himself.

It was as if he didn't have a vision of what he would do to prevent something like this from happening and how to improve it, and what it would take.

That's when the past came back to me.

Until I became an S-level healer, the Healer's Guild, or rather the profession of a healer, wasn't thought of in a very good light.

That was probably because the Pope was probably being manipulated by someone else's agenda.

I'm sure the Pope has been making efforts, but I also wonder if he's able to grasp the moves of the executive branch this time.

I'm sure that if the Pope continues to be at the top, he will continue to get involved in this kind of thing in the future.

Normally, this is where I would have to choose between having my strong authority activated or really staying away from this Healer's Guild.......

''By the way, do you have any information about my martial arts master, Mr. Brod, the master of the Adventurer's Guild of Meratoni, and my followers?''

'I haven't heard anything about it, and I haven't heard anything about him moving the military around, so I'm sure it doesn't matter.

With those words from the Pope, I surely couldn't believe that they would come up to the Pope even if they had information.

It couldn't be helped, so I decided to ask about the knights who came to me with so much hostility.

''........It may have been inevitable that my rumors were circulated, but why did most of the Knights believe it?''

It was Rosa who gave me the answer.

'It's a bite. It was often said in the cafeteria that, at the age of twenty or so, he became the core of the church and joined forces with the dragon slayer, evil gods and demons to rebuild Yenis, which was thought to be impossible.

He still doesn't look at me and speaks with a distant look in his eyes, not making eye contact with me.

'But you don't know the truth and you suspect your people?

Then Rosa-san looks at me and tells me with a sad face.

''Luciel-sama has two kinds of enemies in this church headquarters as well. One is those who made the bill, and the other are those who had confidence in their own Holy Attribute Magic. Regardless of the facts, they set it up at the perfect time when Luciel-sama was gone.

Certainly someone who knows I'm going to Nerdal would have an easier time setting me up.

''........The person who thought of that plan is quite cunning.

'Yes, that's true. If you mix rumors with malice, people don't have to trust them right away, but if they have a chance, they'll suspect them, and once they do, it's very hard to believe them...

I didn't want to step into Rosa-san any further.........

''Including Catherine-san, who is in command of the executive branch that runs the army?

The only people in the executive branch that Luciel knows will be Brutus and Granhardt.

Mr. Brutus, who coordinated the various parts of the bill when it was made, and that stalwart Granhardt-san?

I'm sure Mr. Granhardt-san wouldn't do any eavesdropping or anything, and if something happened, he would come out on his own, but Mr. Brutus-san got injured and stepped down from his position as Priest Knight Captain, as I recall.

I don't know where their intentions lie.

We are overwhelmingly lacking in information.

In any case, I'm sure the Pope will continue to spend his time as a decorator.

After taking a deep breath once, I decided to tell the Pope that I was merciless.

''From today onwards, I will be relinquishing my status as an S-class healer.

Hopefully this is the right choice.