On the kingdom's central plaza, many people can be seen with disbelievable faces.
— No way!? Is the pope really retiring?
— Who'll protect us from the demon?
— I would rather be led by the pope than that King!
A young boy holding a spear in his hands is also looking at the news with a weird face and cannot believe what happened.
"No, it's really different from last time. First a cardinal defected and now the pope retired! Did last time was only a trial period!?"
'Well, it doesn't matter, what matters is that I really go back to the past. I don't know what happened, but from now on I need to get stronger no matter what.'
'First is to activate my runic crest. It needs the help of runic formation from the Federation scientist to increase the succession rate. But, it will take a while later after I'm ten.'
'This is my 6 year old self, what my priority until that time is to hone my spearmanship, footworks, and runic force.'
'This time I'll definitely protect you.'
===
In one of the nobility households in the principality, a young man is doing some morning stretching exercise in his own room.
He just got into this world yesterday. After organizing his memories from his new self, he now understands what happens.
"Xenolith Principality huh.." hearing this name he obviously knows where he is."
"I'm actually transmigrated into my own novel. Then what happened to my old self, am I already dead when taking a nap ? Probably that's really what happened after I had that terrible headache, maybe a brain tumor."
Sighing a little, the young noble continued talking to himself.
"Now, I am the oldest son of a Duke household in Xenolith Principality. I have a father, mother, and sister."
"The most important part is that I know who I am. A villain in this story. It's not just me. The most worrying part is that Xenolith Principality is rotten to the core. It's actually a den of villains. As long as those nobles get some benefits, they will open one eye and close the other one which means that they won't care as long as their safety is guaranteed."
"The Grand Duke didn't hold that much power in this place. The real power holder is the 12 founding households of Xenolith Principality. The Grand Duke is only one of them. Luckily, my household is also one of them."
"If this continues on, then sooner or later I will stand on the opposite side of the hero. Eventually it comes to power, if I will eventually cross paths with the hero, then I need to get stronger."
Then again, it's weird when he knows that a cardinal from the church defected. Then, in today's mindblowing morning news is the pope's retirement.
"It shouldn't happen that way. I didn't recall writing about the pope's retirement in those 99 turns of the hero regression. Am I really in my novel or is this a different world? Maybe this is the 100th turn that I didn't have the chance to continue writing? I'm not sure.."
When he's deep in thought he hears footsteps come near his room, a while later someone knocks on his door.
"Son, breakfast ready"
"Okay, mom."
===
In the white palace, Zeon's room. Zeon covered his face with his hand like a depressed person was when they get rejected from their job interview.
"No.. no.. nooo. This is happening again."
"There's definitely no such event happening in the novel that I read."
"Am I getting scammed by the death god, they didn't send me to the correct location and dump me into this impossible world. If the novel world difficulty that I read is normal, then this must have been rigged somehow and absolutely impossible to live in."
"Okay, Zeon, calm down and think positively from another perspective."
"Cardinal Miguel defected somehow, maybe or not because I interacted with him a lot when I'm at the cathedral. The pope.. Oh shoot, he's my grandpa of course in one way or another it's absolutely impossible if he doesn't get affected by me."
"Did grandpa already too old and really want to retire just to play together and accompany his little cute grandsons at home when their parents are away!?"
"Yeah, that's probably the most ordinary grandparent feeling when they see their grandchild being left alone at home by their parents."
"But.. Isn't the pope supposed to be a special case, he's the pillar of humanity."
"Did my interaction cause such harm to the original storyline?"
"Did I put the wrong ingredients in the tea when we're having afternoon tea time everyday?!"
"I don't know!! I don't care anymore!! I'll just be my salted fish self."
The morning sun started shining on the faraway horizon, looking at the window, Zeon felt an enlightenment suddenly struck his mind!
"It's actually not that bad, if grandpa retired, then I can have him to train me."
"Trained by one of the strongest people in the humanities domain?"
"Ha.. ha.. ha.. Finally! Is it my time to shine?"
"Even all the main characters didn't have that high privilege!"
"Well.. They are the main characters anyway.".
"Learning from infamous hidden experts."
"Finding treasures everywhere, maybe even the stone in front of their house is some kind of artifact!"
"Toppling problems that came in their way with a bang!"
"Jumping ranks and fighting with higher level opponents is their everyday breakfast."
"Even if they didn't get trained personally by some expert, they'll definitely have their own way to increase their strength tremendously in a short time."
"Let's just focus on the resources that I have, the ordinary brain dead system that only gives me strength buff, a slightly old grandpa in retirement, a lot of money, and many church members."
"I think this will be enough, even if I cannot become as strong as the main character, but with the system and family resources I can still keep up a bit!"
"Don't underestimate the power of religion! Even the demon fanatics should tremble before the power of real faith! Ha.. ha.. ha.."
With a slightly evil laugh, Zeon found that his current condition is not that bad.
"Grandma Jiu will also replace grandpa, maybe she will come soon to manage the cathedral and many other family businesses."
"But our family really needs to find a young successor to manage the business, well it's like finding a CEO in training to lead the corporate later. Are there any good candidates in the humanities domain? Think Zeon!!"
"There's those heroines but they didn't awaken the holy element runic crest later on."
"I can't seem to find anyone.. This shouldn't happen in the first place. Why it's me that's worried right now, it should be the main character problem to solve."
Feeling the warm morning sun, Zeon decided to bask in their warm light in the garden after his morning routine.
"Even if the world is falling apart there are still many capable people in our human domain, it's not my turn yet to think about this problem, the pope's retirement doesn't matter.. Absolutely.. Right?!"
Zeon tries to be more confident with the main characters and decides to leave all the difficult problems that he cannot solve to them.
Today is a little different than usual, because there's also Li and Toast who live in the white palace staff area.
Zeon decided to go into the kitchen and make some coffee caramel toast for his new friends.
They already made arrangements and promised to train together every morning.
After that, he met them at the training facility as scheduled. There are already Li and Toast stretching their muscles on the outer area of the training facility.
We promised to get inside together and introduce Li and Toast to my other family members, yes.. My brothers and sisters.
Li: "Good morning Zeon, you are a bit late. Being around together with this weird kid is not very good for my mental health."
Toast: "Of course he was a little late edgy meatball, you need to be a little more sensitive with what is happening around your surrounding, Li. Didn't you already know about what happened with the pope this morning?"
Li: "Huh? What happened to the pope, I only know that he is going to the Federation this morning before sunrise. There's that loud helicopter sound that can be heard through the empire when the pope went away to another place."
Toast looks at Li with weird eyes like seeing a countryman who doesn't know the latest news.
Toast: "He's retired."
Li: "Huh?!"
Blinking his eyes, Li can't seem to believe what he heard.
Zeon: "Alright guys! It's okay, everythings fine, grandpa is already too old and needs some vacation. Maybe he wants to accompany his little cute grandson home. I will try to ask him to train all of us, if we're lucky we will be trained by one of the strongest humans in the empire. There's also my sisters and brothers who will be a good sparring partner. If we can get instructed and grow together, then the church's younger generation power will increase more rapidly. Let's go guys, let's get in, I'll introduce you guys to my brothers and sisters."
They walked in the training facility and started their daily training activity from this day on.