Somebody Stop the Pope – 102



Episode 102

5.

Archbishop Laparte’s nagging continued for a full three hours.

From running the church in a haphazard manner to opening the holy land without any countermeasures.

Leo continued to relentlessly scold others based on the reports he had diligently compiled.

It was a hellish three hours.

Archbishop Lapart who had been pounding on me for a long time moistened his lips with the cold tea and spoke in the same voice as before.

“The most urgent thing is to reorganize the organization. It is too much of a burden for His Majesty to solve everything alone. That is why a strong organization is needed to support His Majesty.”

Archbishop Laparte was a realist.

A religious group is ultimately a group of people who come together. Leading them with faith alone is nothing more than an idealistic idea and is not realistic at all.

In the first place it was a story that could never be established unless everyone was brainwashed into becoming fanatics.

“That’s why I brought our Archbishop Lapart here isn’t it?”

“It seems that a different form of organization is needed than Eden. The level of civilization of Eden and Earth is vastly different. We should not transplant Eden’s things to Earth as is.”

People tend to become more conservative as they get older. They tend to prefer to stay in the present rather than change.

But we couldn’t find anything like that in Archbishop Laparte.

He is open to any radical ideas for the sake of the church. He is ready to accept even the opinions of those who have just become priests if they are helpful to the church.

“Before His Holiness arrived in Eden the mission given to me was to continuously learn and prosper the religious order. That must be why Limen gave me a prophet the grace to learn.”

The grace of learning.

A grace that literally allows him to constantly learn. For him ‘learning’ was something that accompanied him throughout his life.

That is why Archbishop Lapart will adapt easily on Earth because he will continue to learn even after coming to Earth.

And these are the very reasons why I brought Archbishop Lapart to Earth.

“I am able to learn something new so my heart beats shamelessly at the end of my life. I am grateful for the grace of Limen who sent me here.”

I nodded slowly as I listened to the old man’s story with great seriousness.

“I was introduced to a person by an acquaintance of mine. He is said to be a competent person in running a company… a huge upper organization. I plan to meet him and if he is good bring him on board.”

If CEO Choi who is very picky about people can make a guarantee then he must be a person of outstanding ability.

I’ll have to meet him in person to know for sure but I personally had high expectations.

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Archbishop Laparte who guessed what I meant answered in a soft voice.

“It is always a pleasure for this old man to work with a young person. Since His Majesty is personally bringing him in I think his abilities will naturally be outstanding. So there is no need to worry.”

“Haha… I wasn’t worried.”

“So don’t worry about me and just bring the talents you need.”

Archbishop Lapart smiled kindly and nodded.

“My heart is heavy because I have invited someone who should be resting comfortably into this world.”

“I always feel this way but Your Majesty is really good at saying things that are not in your heart. I am really happy to have this old man at my service. You can be honest and say it.”

He’s like a sharp grandfather.

I try not to show it as much as possible but can you read my expression that well?

“I will go and take a look around the temple Your Majesty. Shouldn’t you also talk to Tobi?”

“That’s right.”

“Then I’ll see you again later.”

Archbishop Laparte who had risen from his seat bowed his head toward me.

And then he walked out of the office with leisurely steps.

I let out a small breath as I looked at the magnificent frame of Archbishop Lapart who was well over 180cm tall.

Thinking back I’m glad I brought you here.

Archbishop Lapart will be an excellent control tower for our diocese in the future.

If you choose a good partner who can supplement the management knowledge you lack you can greatly reduce the burden of managing the church.

“Phew.”

Now that our interview with Archbishop Lapart was over it was time to go meet the dwarf Toby who would be in charge of our equipment.

I got up from my seat and headed to the sacred stone mine at the back of the temple.

6.

The sacred stone mine located behind the temple.

This is where players belonging to the <Anarchy> Master Guild who signed a contract through Mr. Minsu are in charge of the work.

It was also a place where the highest grade sacred stones were mined but this place was very noisy at the moment.

“I told you not to mine like that! If you mine like that you might damage the sacred stone! How precious is this! You have to dig like this with a pickaxe!”

A dwarf who demonstrates himself by shouting among the players of the <Anarchy> guild.

Despite his thick armor his pickaxe swings were precise and beautiful.

I don’t know when they became friends but the other players there were watching the dwarf’s pickaxe work with shining eyes.

I quietly approached the dwarf who was diligently mining the sacred stone.

“So the pickaxe is like this… Oh my! Your Majesty! What should I do when you come like a ghost? I almost lost my liver!”

“Your voice is still good.”

“Please wait a moment! I need to teach these guys how to use a pickaxe properly. It’ll be over in no time!”

It was a thorough craftsmanship ritual worthy of a dwarf.

Toby who had taken me aside for a moment nodded his head as if satisfied after giving a 15-minute lecture on ‘What is a pickaxe?’

The Anarchy players immediately dispersed and began working to master the know-how they had just learned while Toby stroked his brown beard with satisfaction.

“You can’t just sit back and watch them dig up the highest grade sacred stones can you?”

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“Aren’t those people surprised to see Toby?”

“At first they were surprised but after I told them about this and that they quickly became friends. They said that the mining level increases quickly or something like that? Haha! I also took a sip of the alcohol that they had secretly brought earlier. It was called soju….”

For production line players especially those with mining skills dwarves are bound to be a no-brainer.

There’s a world of difference between receiving guidance and not receiving it.

By the way people are much more open-minded than I thought. It’s obvious that they’re different races so isn’t it normal for them to make a fuss?

“It seems like His Holiness has been very active since coming to Earth.”

“hmm?”

“It seemed like they accepted that anything could happen in the land of the Limen Church. It wouldn’t be that strange since there are also people from other worlds right?”

“…It’s strangely convincing.”

There’s nothing particularly strange about adding a dwarf to the mix since beings from another world like Leo and Luna are already actively working.

Moreover the existence of returnees was acknowledged and the existence of other worlds was widely known.

Especially in the case of South Korea the hypothesis that ‘all aliens coming from the Gate are hostile’ was discarded through Leo and Luna so it may have been easier to accept Toby.

“Let’s talk about the details as we go.”

“Understood Your Majesty.”

The Shinsungseok mine was currently a place that was treated as a secret by our church. Naturally since there was a secret passage connecting it to the underground of the temple it was possible to quietly escape using that.

After walking along the passage for about 20 minutes I was able to reach the basement of the temple and headed straight to the office.

So I returned to the office with Toby and sat down on the chair and said to Toby.

“Would you like some tea?”

“Is there anything else? The tea is too bland and I don’t like it. It’s a temple so beer would be difficult….”

“I bought it to drink so try it.”

I took a red label cola out of the mini fridge under my desk and handed it to Toby.

“It opens by turning the lid on top.”

“It’s a bottle made of a strange material. Is this how you open it?”

Cheeeeee-

As Toby turned the cap with his thick hands the bottle and cap separated with a sound of carbonation escaping.

Toby observed the sight with curiosity. Then he immediately gulped down the cola.

It only takes 2 seconds for a 500ml bottle of cola to disappear.

“Eww.”

Toby who had downed the cola in an instant spoke in an even more excited voice.

“Of all the drinks I’ve had in my life this is next to beer. What is it?”

“It’s a drink called cola. It’s one of the carbonated drinks and it’s popular on Earth.”

“Cola! Do you have any more?”

“Here’s one more.”

“thank you!”

Toby started finishing off all the colas that were crammed into my mini fridge and I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched him do that.

“Toby. Are you still brewing beer using holy water?”

“Gulp. Ugh yes. I taught my fellows how to brew before I came to Earth. Beer brewed with holy water is the best! But this cola drink is also excellent… Ugh. Oh good.”

I don’t know why it’s so funny to see a dwarf wearing armor slurping cola with his stubby arms.

“Whew. My thirst has subsided somewhat. Thank you Your Majesty.”

Toby patted his stomach in satisfaction only after downing 13 bottles of cola in a row.

“Let’s talk about work Toby.”

“Do you have any questions? Don’t worry. I will make whatever Your Majesty asks.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“You only need a blacksmith to craft equipment and a holy fire to melt sacred stones. As Your Majesty knows in order to create equipment that maximizes divine power you must mix sacred stones in during the smelting process.”

In the case of the blacksmith shop it was possible to build it through the DLC shop. This time I brought Archbishop Lapart and Toby and although I used up a lot of sacred points I still had enough left to build the blacksmith shop.

The problem was the Holy Spirit.

“The Vatican used a holy fire that was blessed by Limen himself. Holy fire is needed to melt the sacred stone.”

“If Limen gave the blessing himself….”

“It is a holy relic. There were seven holy relics in the Vatican’s forge. There were seven holy relics placed there. I was worried about that part so I prayed to Limen and Limen said that His Holiness would have the answer.”

“Write it.”

This time I was told to use the relic option I received while completing the quest.

I tried to save as many options as possible for the new temple.

“Can’t it be made separately with a holy fire?”

“Of course it can be made! You just need to personally bless the finished product!”

“oh.”

“Instead! You definitely need a holy fire to make it! This is because the holy stone is the most important material for the holy fire.”

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

It seems like a similar type of problem to this legendary conundrum but in this case it seems like the chicken came first.

In the end it seemed like a problem that could only be solved by summoning one of the Holy Spirits.

But since I was in a situation where I had little choice I asked in a quiet voice.

“I can light a fire too so how can this not work?”

“If His Holiness can maintain the super-heated holy fire to melt the sacred stone for a month it might be possible. This is quite a challenge. If His Holiness is willing to do it this dwarf will gladly join….”

“Let’s summon the Holy Spirit.”

Since the Holy Fire is the power to create fire using divine power as a medium it consumes divine power in an absurd way.

It is suitable for burning things contaminated with magic but it is a bit too much to abuse indiscriminately even on a regular basis.

Even for me it would be difficult to maintain the holy fire to the point of melting the sacred stone for a month.

“It’s not that it’s impossible it’s just that I have too much work to do. Toby. Don’t misunderstand do you?”

“Yes yes. How could I doubt Your Majesty?”

I think it would be better to invest the option in this area for the safety of our new recruits as we will add the temple after collecting the relic points.

After letting out a few sighs I opened the DLC store and purchased <Blacksmith Lv. 1> from the <Facility> category.

The price is 10000 Divine Points.

After purchasing the blacksmith shop I immediately used the relic selection option.

[Currently the relics that can be selected are limited based on the causality allowed to the <Limen Sect>.]

Unlike last time when it was randomly selected this was a <choice> so I was able to choose the relic I wanted.

However the relics to be chosen have already been decided.

<The Seventh Flame>

●Item Type: Holy Relic – Limen Church

●Original dimension: Eden

●Description: The seventh sacred fire created from the primordial flame. Blessed by Limen himself.

*When summoning this relic with <Relic Selection> 3000 sacred points will be consumed.

[Use <Relic Selection> to place <Seventh Flame> in <Blacksmith Lv. 1>.]

[3000 sacred points are consumed.]

[Current remaining divine points: 500 points]

“Just scrape away all the divine points scrape them away.”

I looked at my divine score which had dropped from 47000 to 500 and smiled bitterly.

This completes a bold investment portfolio for the future of the church.

…will it be a hit?