Published: July 4, 2025
"Recently, I've been saving pairs of men and women quite often."
Ryo said this while crossing his arms with a satisfied expression.
What came to his mind was the duo of Captain Bangaan and Vice-Captain Amaria from the Republic.
"That said, it's not all over yet."
"Right," Ryo replied, and Nils nodded.
"Patris and Guti, right? Will they be able to return to their comrades?"
"Don't worry... I can run... It's no problem," Guti answered.
Patris looked a bit worried, but his gaze was ignored.
"Alright. Then we'll head left, towards the Western countries of the dark continent."
"Yes!" Nils affirmed, and the other three responded in agreement.
The four of them from 'Room 10' started to run.
Meanwhile, the main venue for the papal inauguration, the arena, was in complete chaos.
"The Pope has been stabbed! Archbishop Goon did it!"
"Hurry! Use extra heal!"
The Pope lay on the podium, left there as he was stabbed.
Archbishop Goon was being restrained nearby, his head pressed down to the floor, showing a vacant expression, not resisting.
Most of those around were archbishops or higher...
Naturally, they could use [extra heal].
However...
"Why? [Extra heal] isn't working!"
"Is the Pope's body resistant to heal?"
"He's critically injured. For now, we need to keep applying [heal] to buy time."
Amidst this turmoil, did anyone notice the cardinal who stepped in among the archbishops surrounding the Pope?
The cardinal moved to the right side of the laid-out Pope, right next to his neck.
Then, he pulled something out from within his ritual robes.
It was an axe.
Not a large axe, but one of sufficient size.
Sufficient for what?
Sufficient to decapitate a lying person...
Swish.
"Eh..."
In that moment, no one fully understood what had happened.
The swung axe severed the Pope's head.
Blood gushed out.
The head rolled away.
Cardinal Camilo knelt beside the Pope, holding the bloodied axe in both hands, staring blankly at the ground.
A world of complete silence.
"Why..."
Whose voice was that tiny, tiny sound?
Perhaps it was from one of the archbishops who had been trying to heal the Pope...
But that small voice triggered the ensuing chaos.
Shouting erupted.
The shouts were uncharacteristic of high-ranking clergy, but seeing the head of their loyal figure—the Pope—severed before their eyes would surely unhinge anyone's sanity.
Clerics were running around.
Even they didn't understand why they were running.
It was like someone irritated was pacing around the room, only on a more intense scale.
And then, there were those who couldn't move.
When what one believes in is suddenly lost, many would act in such a manner...
The chaos wasn't limited to the arena.
The clergy of the Western Church seated in the front spectator area... they, too, were caught in the swirl of chaos.
In fact, one could say that amidst nearly two thousand people, they were in an even more unmanageable state than the archbishops.
They were screaming.
They were running around aimlessly.
They were crying.
Generally, they reacted similarly to the archbishops in the arena.
However, among the clergy of the Western Church, there were some who appeared to be calm.
They were the eleven cardinals present in the same arena.
That said, they weren't completely unfazed.
Except for one, they wore expressions of shock or bewilderment.
That one was Cardinal Sakarias.
Even he hadn't anticipated that the Pope would be killed in such a manner.
It wasn't a matter of having a replacement or being able to resurrect him.
In front of the public eye, he had been decapitated.
If such a person were to appear again... that would indeed be impossible.
In other words, that Pope was no longer usable.
Simultaneously, thoughts raced through Sakarias's mind.
(Why did Goon... Why did Camilo...)
Such thoughts repeated over and over in his head.
But then, suddenly, a flash of insight struck him.
In an instant, he saw the answer.
Cardinal Graham.
Yet, Cardinal Graham also looked surprised, his eyes wide open.
Seeing Graham's expression, Sakarias quickly turned his gaze back to the Pope.
(I thought it was Graham's scheme... but is it different?)