Published: July 4, 2025
Due to adult circumstances, I intended to post at 10 PM, but it seems the live broadcast has ended, so here is the post at 9 PM (the following are the adult circumstances).
Today, on February 18th, the "Next Coming Light Novel Award 2021" hosted by KADOKAWA's Kimirano has been announced, and 'The Mage of Water Attribute' has secured the 10th position overall!
Thank you very much!
In the shared dormitory of the delegation from the Western Nations.
Former King Robert Pirlo and Captain of the Guard Grown are having a conversation.
"The papacy election starts tomorrow, right?"
"Yes. All cardinals and archbishops have been isolated in a place called Silent Hall, and they will elect the pope through voting. The chosen one will be among the cardinals, but the archbishops also have voting rights, and the cardinal who receives more than half of the votes will become the next pope. However, it seems it can take as long as a month in some cases."
"Certainly, the last election took over three weeks, didn't it? There must be some old folks like me among them... It's quite a challenge."
Robert Pirlo says with a wry smile.
Grown shakes his head silently, unable to say anything.
"Whether it’s the head of the delegation or the pope, choosing people is quite difficult."
The next day.
In the Silent Hall of the Holy See, all cardinals and archbishops have gathered.
They are here to elect the 101st pope through the papacy election.
Originally, twelve cardinals and twenty-four archbishops would gather.
However, even among the cardinals, two are already missing.
Cardinal Camilo had his head severed by an axe and was expelled from his position as a cleric.
Cardinal Sakarias was slain by a b-rank adventurer from the Central Nations after he became a non-human being.
Therefore, there are ten cardinals present.
Among them, three cardinals are recognized as strong candidates.
The front-runner is Cardinal Oskar, the opponent is Cardinal Adolfito, and there’s a possibility for Cardinal Graham.
These three.
Cardinal Graham has an overwhelmingly high reputation from his performance during the papal inauguration.
This is not only from the archbishops but also from the ordinary clerics.
However, he is quite young.
Graham’s age of forty-three is far younger than the average age of fifty among the archbishops...
The archbishops, originally twenty-four in number, have three vacancies.
The oldest of the remaining twenty-one archbishops, Archbishop Bordray, will act as the moderator and advance the papacy election.
The method is simple.
The thirty cardinals and archbishops, except for the moderator Archbishop Bordray, will anonymously write the name of the cardinal they consider suitable for the pope and place it in the ballot box.
Both cardinals and archbishops have one vote each.
Then, the cardinal who garners a majority of the votes will become the 101st pope.
If no one achieves a majority, the voting will be redone.
This will continue until someone secures a majority.
In that case, there will be one vote in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The time outside of voting will be used for discussions among each group... vying for votes... or rather, to increase supporters.
The results of the first round of voting were read out by the moderator, Archbishop Bordray.
"Cardinal Oskar: twelve votes, Cardinal Adolfito: eleven votes, Cardinal Graham: five votes, blank votes: two. No one has achieved a majority."
A slight murmur arises.
Before gathering here, both cardinals and archbishops had been calculating the votes among themselves.
And most acknowledged that no cardinal would secure a majority from the start.
And as expected, no conclusion was reached.
Moreover, the fact that the front-runner Cardinal Oskar and the opponent Cardinal Adolfito are almost tied is also what most had anticipated.
In this case, both sides, Cardinal Oskar and Cardinal Adolfito, have the same immediate objective.
To bring in the two blank votes to their side.
Also, to undermine Cardinal Graham's five votes and bring them into their own camp.