Ch.148Cleanup (2)

# Chapter 148: Aftermath (2)

It’s been a week since I eliminated those damned loyalists of the Pope.

I was about to start my daily routine, once again appreciating the importance of peaceful and ordinary work hours that I hadn’t experienced for quite some time.

Since I had chosen reward option 1 from the quest, my body and mind were in good shape thanks to the fatigue recovery.

However, during this past week, I had been assigned some additional duties that differed from my previous work…

“Minister, here’s today’s morning tasks!”

“…”

“And here’s the report compiled from the Papal Office!”

The reason being that I had been appointed as the administrator of the Papal Office after the major incident.

Which meant I was now overseeing the Papal Office’s affairs as well.

“…Aaaaaaaahhhhh.”

————————————

From a system perspective, the cause was simple.

The quest reward wasn’t actually a choice-based system, but rather awarded everything at once.

And I stupidly just tapped it, thinking I was making a selection?

Of course, I had my own grounds for complaint.

‘I’ve been looking at quests for nearly seven years now, how am I supposed to remember every detail?’

Besides, even if I hadn’t selected anything and just skipped it, the rewards would have been forced on me anyway.

‘They say there’s no paradise in the place you run to… but shouldn’t they at least give me somewhere to run to in the first place?’

———————————-

Fortunately, managing the Papal Office wasn’t as difficult as I had anticipated.

Considering that the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry I was in charge of already boasted one of the heaviest workloads within the imperial government.

I was handling the Papal affairs by delegating most of the work to Emilia Hart—former assistant to the previous Pope, former acting Pope, and current administrator of the Papal Office.

I only dealt with matters that required approval from a superior. That’s why it was manageable.

Of course, that’s not to say the absolute volume of work was small.

I did whine and complain earlier about how much work the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry had.

But the Papal Office’s work involved dealing with tens of billions of fanatics and hundreds of billions of ordinary believers spread throughout the empire.

So even after implementing extreme work diet measures with Administrator Emilia’s help.

The workload was only slightly less than my main job at the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry, which says a lot.

But what mattered wasn’t the quantity, but the difficulty of the work.

“By the way, this is really neatly organized. They even highlighted the parts you need to check.”

“…”

Unlike the documents from the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry, or more precisely, from enforcement officials who wrote without adhering to any particular format.

And unlike the overly technical documents submitted by professional diplomats from the Diplomatic Ministry that were too complex to read easily.

These were easy to read, and they even highlighted the parts I needed to check with a fluorescent marker, like the documents you get at a bank or service center in my previous life.

“…Riel.”

“Yes?”

“This feeling, could it be love?”

“It’s not love, it’s arrhythmia. Stop talking nonsense and get back to work.”

As expected of a humanoid.

While feeling inwardly saddened by Riel’s inability to understand human emotions—that damn robot, or rather, female robot—I began my official duties in earnest.

Reviewing operations to track down and annihilate the Pope’s loyalists who had escaped the encirclement and were conducting guerrilla warfare.

Suppressing the independence movement of the Rixi separatists who somehow managed to survive against all odds.

Operations to capture foreign spy organizations disguised as “illegal” slave markets run by space pirates and smugglers who exist everywhere and anywhere.

And rebuilding our overseas spy networks that had fallen into critical condition while I was distracted with other matters.

‘Ah… so much crap to deal with.’

I diligently carried out the tasks we needed to handle, while conveniently tossing those we didn’t need to other departments.

And so continued the peaceful and routine work that differed from before…

————————————-

…Or so I thought, until a month had passed.

Today, as I was reviewing and approving Papal Office work brought by Emilia.

I came to realize one very solemn and significant fact.

And that was…

*BANG!*

“Why am I naturally managing all this?!”

Questions about why I was receiving, approving, and handling even the basic duties of the Papal Office began to spring up in my mind.

“Why are you bringing this up now? You said you found the Papal Office work comfortable, Minister.”

“That’s only because compared to the extreme work of the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry, the paperwork itself is incredibly easy!”

*THUD!*

I slammed my fist on the table again and pointed at the pile of Papal Office-related work, exclaiming:

“But that was supposed to be about handling only the essential parts while continuing my Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry duties!”

“…Hmm.”

“Even the hundreds of thousands of fanatics I have now are too much for me, Riel.”

In response to my lament, Riel tilted her head slightly and said:

“I don’t really understand what you mean, Minister.”

Looking at Riel staring at me with innocent eyes as if she truly didn’t understand, I sighed deeply and continued:

“Think about it, Riel. Although the Pope’s fanatics within the Papal Office were completely uprooted in the last purge operation, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But that was only the faction loyal to Alexander, the former Pope. The fanatics loyal to ‘the Pope’ as a position haven’t decreased at all.”

As I said this, I shuddered, recalling an encounter with a group of fanatics a few days ago while moving around for work.

*Shudder*

Seeing me like this, Riel spoke in a softer voice as if trying to reassure me:

“Umm… isn’t it fine? Besides, Emilia said she would take responsibility for handling the internal fanatics devoted to the Pope.”

“That’s not the important part, Riel.”

Seeing her somewhat vague response, I shook my head and made a firm statement to Riel:

“Looking at the Papal Office-related work reported over the past week, if this continues, I’ll end up doing all the work that the Pope should be doing.”

“…That sounds rough.”

“It’s not just about how tough it is… if this continues, I might naturally ascend to the position of Pope.”

Such madness had to be avoided.

Of course, becoming Pope would increase my “power” and my official rank in the imperial hierarchy, which could potentially help with running the empire in the future.

But the disadvantages outweighed such benefits.

Among the many issues that came to mind, the biggest problem was…

‘The Pope must not be involved in politics, specifically in running the empire.’

I was possessing a character in a strategic simulation management game.

But I wouldn’t be able to control the empire’s operations?

Before long, the empire would likely end up in all sorts of bizarre situations, just like when I first possessed this body and as I had observed a few years ago, including issues with technological development.

Of course, with Artraia and experts in various fields by her side, it might be better than I expected…

But it was clear that things would be a mess compared to how I could control things now by being directly involved.

And the second problem… was the fanatics I mentioned earlier.

“Riel, I still vividly remember those self-proclaimed fanatics of mine trying to infiltrate my quarters in the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry—which is guarded by purge unit members—to steal my underwear and socks.”

“…”

“If it had been a woman, I might not have developed trauma.”

“…”

“But the one taking them was a middle-aged man with a pot belly. I still don’t understand how someone with that physique managed to get past the purge unit members.”

Perhaps because Riel knew that my trauma-induced whining represented only a tiny fraction of my experiences with fanatics.

She remained silent, unable to respond to my behavior.

“It’s hard enough to handle hundreds of thousands of fanatics, but am I supposed to lead hundreds of millions of fanatics like that idiot Alexander?”

It was out of the question, so I muttered about ways to naturally escape this terrible situation.

“Then hundreds of thousands of fanatics would call me a saint and Pope and perform strange rituals.”

“…”

“I’m not going to work with crazy fanatics, Riel. I’m sorry to Artraia, but I need to either dump the Papal duties on her… or distribute them among other ministers to reduce attention on me…”

“Ah, wait a moment, Minister.”

But Riel, who had been quietly listening to me, suddenly interrupted.

“What is it, Riel?”

I expressed my confusion at her behavior, and…

“…You only just noticed?”

“What?”

The moment Riel operated her terminal and turned on the screen in the office…

“Arto! Arto! Arto! Arto!”

“He is a saint! He is a saint!”

“Become our Pope for us!!!”

“The chosen one, Arto!”

What I had just mentioned—”hundreds of thousands of fanatics performing collective rituals exalting me”—was being broadcast in real-time.

“It’s already too late. Just accept it.”

“Ah, ah, ah… AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”

Upon witnessing this scene, as if I’d seen something from a foreign news report, my SAN points skyrocketed and the back of my neck stiffened.

[Event: Negative Trait Manifested!]

[Arto Virtorius Sebel gains the ‘Nervous’ trait!]

With that damn ridiculous event message as the finale, my eyes simply closed.