"Pope Eugene..." I mumbled his name under my breath, terrified by the change in personality he had undergone since the last time I remembered him.
"Oh! It's good to know that Your Highness knows the name of this lowly priest." Pope Eugene said sarcastically in a humorous tone but then changed to the one of a hunter hunting prey, "...But It's useless; as from Now on, you are nothing but a mere puppet of mine."
As he said that, a dark, creepy yet eerie aura emanated from his right hand and flowed towards me, and as it did, an enormous amount of notifications started coming through in my mind.
*BEEP*
[An External Intervention has been confirmed in the Host's system.]
[Eugene, Disciple of the Abyssal Lord is trying to control the host's soul.]
'Disciple of the ...Abyssal Lor-' I thought trying to ask Char about what that meant but before I could do that, an excruciating pain struck me that left me unable to continue.
*BEEP*
[The Process to eliminate the abyssal energy is starting.]
[1% 2% 4% ...Error. Failed to Exterminate the Abyssal Energy.]
"...Arghhhhhhhhh!!!" I shrieked due to the intensity of pain that I was experiencing out of nowhere. I felt my mind blank, and someone telling me to follow their words. It was such a feeling that if I didn't do anything at this exact moment about this, my sense of self and consciousness would cease to exist.
"Don't worry, Your Highness. This Pain would only last a few more moments and then you won't be able to remember anything ...except my commands, that is."
As the words coming out of the Pope's mouth fell onto my ears, I faced up to look at him, my vision blurring with every passing second. I could hear Pope Eugene's words clearly and felt like every word coming out of his mouth was an ultimatum and correct even though I subconsciously knew they weren't.
[Accessing the Blessing of the Reincarnator.]
[Permission to "Unlock Locked functions of System (Char) Temporarily" is required.]
[Would you permit to "Unlock Locked function of Char Temporarily" to eradicate the abyssal energy?]
[If Denied, Your Soul would be captured by Eugene, Disciple of the Abyssal Lord.]
I couldn't process all the information that was coming through at an insane rate in my mind but still... 'Yes, I permit.', I decided to put my faith in Char.
[Locked System Functions have been unlocked temporarily.]
[The Process of "Nullifying the Abyssal Energy" Is Beginning.]
[1% 2% 3% 5% ...99% 100%. Success.]
[Process of Nullifying the Abyssal Energy has succeeded.]
"Soon Enough, I can fulfill my promise to the emperor- Hmm?" The words coming out of Pope's lips halted as the Char informed me that "the Abyssal Energy" had been nullified which supposedly was the cause of my out-of-nowhere pain and the state of losing self-identity that I was in as slowly, but surely, the gears in my mind started rotating again.
[Due to unlocking locked features of the System early, the Host has suffered internal injuries and been exhausted.]
[Averting the System back to the Original so as not to get the Host's body into a more devastating state.]
"Interesting... How did a child manage to resist the Abyssal energy?" Pope Eugene said in a monotonic voice. His eyes looked at me devoid of emotion even after knowing what he planned to do had failed as if he wasn't human anymore.
"Cough Cough..." I coughed blood while grabbing the sword nearby that the Knight dropped to try and defend myself from the seemingly Devil in front of me.
"Why ...Why are you Cough doing this? Why are you Killing the people of the Kingdom you loved?" I stood up with the help of the sword, which was extremely heavy to my comfort. I pointed it toward the Pope in determination even though my hands were trembling due to its weight and my vision becoming blurrier with every passing moment.
"Why, you ask?" Listening to my words, Pope looked at me in shock and amusement, "...Do you think, Your Highness, that you are in any condition to ask that?"
"..."
"..."
"Well, there's no point in telling someone about to die but still...." Pope side glanced at me and continued, "...Let me tell you for the determination and courage that you have shown even as a child for the sake of your Citizens."
**********
'Pope Eugene, I, Aziel von Everhart, as the king of Everhart kingdom asks you to be quiet about this matter and forbids you to even mention it going ahead in your life to anyone. It would be even better if you forget that you ever performed this ritual and whatever you saw.'
'Of course, We aren't telling you to keep quiet without offering anything, Pope Eugene. You and 'Your family' will get more than enough money and security for the rest of their lives to live as they like.'
After hearing the words of the Royal Couple, Eugene rode the carriage in which he had come and hurriedly went back to his home to see the face of the person he cherished. Yes, He may be the Pope of the Church of the Almighty Water Sovereign, but he had nowhere near the influence of the Royal Family.
After all, In a world that was at peace for a millennium, and everything seemed to be sailing smoothly for the Kingdom and its citizens, then what was the reason for these people to pray? What have these deities even done for them that deserved to be worshipped? Anything that was done for these poor and hopeless people in harsh times of their respective lives was done by the Royal Family, and Eugene knew that all very well too.
He was satisfied by just worshipping the Water Sovereign with the handful of bishops and followers who were also likeminded until... until he was summoned to the castle for the naming ritual of the prince and saw Prince Aiden glowing in a mesmerizing Blue Light upon getting named which symbolized getting the Blessing of the very Deity he worshipped.
To him, this was a golden once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that could maybe reignite the faith in Gods and Sovereigns among people, a wish of his that he had almost lost any kind of hope of fulfilling before, but now if he could just convince the royal couple to announce this to the public through the Church, it was very well possible to spread the religion and the deeds of the Gods that have helped humanity in many ways.
He even decided to use every single bit of money that the church had (which wasn't a lot) to celebrate this occasion throughout the entire Kingdom, but when he proposed the idea to the Royal Couple, the words they said were raging a storm inside his mind, not because of the disappointment that a flicker of hope that he saw in the seemingly never-ending darkness of his only wish being fulfilled was blown out, but due to the incomprehensible "threat" that the Queen gave him.
Was my idea really that upsetting to their Majesty that they had to silence me with the lives of my loved ones? Throughout the journey to his home, Eugene constantly racked his brain cells together just so he could understand what he had said which triggered that extreme response from "the citizen-serving" Royal Couple, but to no avail. He just couldn't wrap his head around Queen's extreme response, no matter how much he thought about it.
"Sigh~ I guess there is no use dwelling on that, maybe it was something that Normal People like me can't understand." He gave up.
Even though, Eugene was the pope of the Church, he was an extremely normal guy outside his profession. Whenever he wasn't required in Church, he preferred spending time with his family at home, farming with his wife on their small land on the outskirts of the Royal District.
"Ah, we are almost there." Eugene poked his head out the window to see how far he had come, only to look at the familiar surroundings some distance from his home.
"...Do horse breeds affect this much in travel?" He wondered, as the journey that would have taken 2 to 3 days by a normal carriage, the carriage arranged by the Royal Family, covered it in under a day, while making sure whether the things he brought with him were still in his bag or not.
CREEK
A little later after Eugene finished checking his belongings, the carriage came to Halt and the coachmen opened the door for him to get down.
"Thank You for dropping me, Mr...?"
"..."
The coachman turned the carriage back to the castle after Eugene and his bag had been unloaded, leaving him looking at the carriage with a confused yet disappointed look.
"Today is just a bad day, I suppose." With a disappointed sigh, Eugene picked up his bag and headed home. The anxiousness and fear stirred up inside his mind by the queen's words were overshadowed by his eagerness to see his children, as he was returning home after a month-long trip to the capital.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Who's there?" As Eugene knocked, a sweet voice replied from the other side of the door.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Stop Knocking! Who is..." An ordinary-looking woman opened the door,
"I'm back, Natalie!" As soon as the door opened, Eugene hugged his wife with a wide smile.
"...this?" "...You came back early, Eugene?"
"I missed you so much that I decided to come a week early." Eugene tightened his grip on Natalie seemingly reassured that the Royals haven't done anything to his family yet, "Aren't I a great husband?"
"C'mon, stop behaving like a Child- ...Why are you crying, Dear? Did something bad happen?" Natalie tried to release herself from her husband's embrace but stopped when she heard him sniffling slightly so.
When Eugene heard his wife's worried words, he released her from his grip, "N-Nothing ...Nothing Happened that you need to know, Dear. I am just so delighted to see you that I couldn't help myself." He stated a half-truth as he was relieved to see her unhurt that his emotions got the better of him, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her the complete truth about why he was worried about her safety.
"...Are you sure?"
"Yeah... Yeah, I am." He picked up his bag from the ground, entered the house, looked around a bit, and asked, "...Where's Rio and Rhea? I am not seeing those little devils running around."
"Oh, those two? They both have been taking daily study lessons from the Priestess Mary since you went to the capital, they wanted to surprise you when you came back from Irin," Natalie went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea for his husband, "...They should be coming back soon."
As soon as Natalie finished her words, a door knock was heard combined with the two adorable voices shouting, "Mom, we are back~"
Hearing the voice of her kids from the other side of the door, Natalie went to open the door, but Eugene stopped her by giving a playful eye signal and went ahead himself.
"Mom, we are baccckkkk!"
"Yes, Yes, I am coming. Give me a second." Natalie replied, standing far from the door, playing by her husband's intention to surprise the kids.
After a moment or so, Eugene opened the door and waited to see the kid's reaction, "Mom, you know, ...Dad!!!!!!"
Before the 5-year-old Rio could have come back to his senses from the surprise, His twin sister Rhea had already been running towards her dad in delight.
Eugene picked up his daughter in his arms as she dived towards him with a hearty laugh, "...So, I heard that my little angel is studying daily to surprise me?"
"Not only her, but I am also studying, Dad!" Rio replied, with an angry pout.
"Hahaha... Of course, Of course, this little prince was also studying hard, I see!" Eugene picked up Rio with his other hand, making the little pout of the young boy bloom into a smile.
"But you are dumb, so you didn't learn anything from Master Mary!" Rhea teased her brother.
"I'm not dumb!"
"Oh, then why does Master Mary have to explain the Addition of One-Digit numbers multiple times to you?"
"It was because... because... Yes! Because I wanted to learn more so I could help you with your work!"
"You... Dad, He's lying. I always understood everything in the first lesson, He was the one whom Master Mary had to pay extra attention to."
"No, It's not like that, Dad!"
"Alright, Alright, Stop it. It doesn't matter if Rhea is smart or Rio is dumb, all that matters is you two were studying to make me happy, doesn't it, Natalie?"
"Of course, Dear. And it matters that you two were helping each other too, weren't you?"
"Hmm..." "Hmm..."
At Natalie's words, Rhea and Rio shyly nodded as their parents patted their heads.
"...So, Both of your efforts deserve a reward, right?"
"Reward?!"
"Yes, Reward! Tonight, Let's go to Uncle Chris's Restaurant and have a Family Party, shall we?"
"Yes!!!!"
"Yes!!!!"
"...Gosh, you three and your energy." Natalie sighed in exasperation but continued with a soft smile, "...Let me go and tell Grandpa Chris to have a Room available for us, then."
That Night, Eugene felt the most happiness he ever had throughout his life as he saw his family, happily together, after almost a month but, most importantly, he finally realized that for him his family's safety was far, far, far and far more important than accomplishing his only dream and so, he decided to abide by the "condition" that the Queen had told him.
But... as they say, Fate is a Cruel thing.
**********