Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure-Chapter 986: Private discussions (2)

"Are you an idiot?"

The priest who asked that question was shocked to hear the pope's response.

He didn't think that he was wrong in asking that, but the pope looked like he was a complete idiot for asking something like this.

Even though he felt a bit aggrieved, he didn't say anything in response.

But the other priests couldn't hold back as they said, "Your grace, we feel that this is a good idea. With the power that our Holy Empire holds, we should be able to easily take back this 'saint' of ours."

Though they called him saint, the tone of their voice made it clear that there were some misgivings towards him.

The pope narrowed his eyes to look at them before saying, "Are you trying to betray our holy lord?"

All of the priests were shocked when they heard this, but they also quickly recovered from their shock when they saw the way that the pope looked at them and quickly shook their heads to deny this.

The pope narrowed his eyes even more to look at them before saying, "Using force against the saint, didn't you already see what happened to those fools from the Zeno Religion? If we were to do the same thing, we would receive the same divine retribution from our holy lord. How is this any different from betraying our faith?"

All of the priests had awkward looks on their faces after hearing this.

They had been a bit too consumed by their rage that they had forgotten about what they had seen earlier.

However, once the pope reminded them of this, they had no way of denying that he was right. If they were to move against the saint with force, there was no doubt that they would be struck with the same divine intervention.

When that time came, it would be hard to say if their Solista Religion would still have any face left.

Being hit by the divine retribution of the holy lord they worshipped?

That was no different to being slapped.

So they knew that they wouldn't be able to use force on the saint with the Mark of God.

"But what should we do?" One of the priests said in a voice that made it seem like he was reluctant to give up.

The pope's expression became more gentle when he heard this.

It was as if he was happy to see that his fellow priests were finally willing to see the light and change the way that they thought.

The pope gave a nod as he said, "Of course we're not giving up, but the one thing that we must never use is force." His expression turned stern again as he looked at the priests in front of him.

It was only when they nodded in agreement that he continued by saying, "For now, we can only move behind the scenes to use some other methods to convince the saint to follow us. I'm certain that we will be able to convince the saint of the greater good in time."

The pope didn't even seem to care that he had been given the cold shoulder earlier.

This really was a case of sticking a warm face to a cold butt.

After hearing him say this, the priests around him looked at him with strange looks, but there was one consistency between them. All of them had traces of doubt on their faces as they looked at the pope.

It was clear that none of them believed that his plans would work...but they just didn't say it out loud.

The pope didn't care about the reaction of the priests as he had a look of thought on his face. It was as if he was already thinking of different things that they could do.

But then all of a sudden, he turned to look at one of the priests that was in the carriage and said, "I'm sorry for putting you in this situation. I didn't want to do things like this, but there's nothing that can be done."

The one that he talked to was the priest from Zwein's former territory, the one that had gotten them the meeting in the first place.

The priest gave a sigh when he heard this before saying, "I'm afraid that it will be harder for me to help you in the future. This has already created a rift in my relationship with his

majesty."

The pope gave an understanding nod before saying, "We will not put you on the spot in the future. I hope that you will be able to rebuild your relationship with his majesty in time."

The priest gave a nod, but he didn't say anything.

"What about the other religions?" One of the other priests couldn't help suddenly asking this.

The pope gave a shrug before saying, "It's inevitable that they will find out about this."

"Shouldn't we stop them?" The same priest asked.

The pope shook his head as he said, "Can we even stop them? Even if we tried, there's no way that we could seal everyone's mouth."

There was a trace of regret that appeared on his face as he said this.

He had revealed the Mark of God to put pressure on Zwein to get him to come back with them, but he never thought that it would bite him in the butt. Now that everyone knew and their saint had refused to come with them, there was no doubt that the other religions would make

their move.

For these religions, the Mark of God was the most enticing thing.

After a moment of silence, the pope said, "Send out some people to ensure the safety of the saint, but don't do anything else. Put the word out to the surrounding churches to help the saint with anything that he needs and try to leave a good impression on him."

After saying this, he fell silent as if he was thinking about something.

Then in a soft voice, he said, "I really regret my actions..."