FVN Chapter 355: Apprentice
Chapter 355: Apprentice
chapter 355: apprentice
"why do i have to go through this though?"
"well, it's the same as the robes you were wearing already."
"hey, allen. you sure you ain't doing this just cuz it's annoying for me?"
"not at all."
"at least look me in the eyes when you say that!"
kiel glared angrily at allen, who was evading his gaze while trying to keep from laughing.
"u-umm, master kiel, could you please hold still if possible?"
there were multiple nuns helping kiel put on his robes, so they did not want him moving around a lot.
"o-okay."
kiel frowned and sighed, holding back from complaining any further.
allen's party was currently inside the largest building in the city of niel.
they had arrived in the holy land three days ago.
there they reported to the priest nicolai everything that had happened so far.
they also informed him of the death of gushara serbilor, the founder of the evil cult.
though when it came to the primordial demon general kyubel's secret plans and the lives gathered by turning people into pagan worshippers, allen spoke on rather ambiguous terms.
nicolai then decided to pass on that information to priests higher in the church's hierarchy.
allen's party was told to wait in the building while that happened.
but they did not want to waste time like that, so allen left a [nest] inside the building, and went to northern rosenheim to help with the war there.
he planned a strategy that would not let the demon king's army escape, and successfully killed a demon general.
thanks to that, he reached level 92.
he no longer had to worry when facing a demon general.
according to rosenheim, the demon king's army there numbered around half a million entities, and he believed he had already killed most of them.
once rosenheim was largely clear, he joined the ten heroic beasts with prince zew, and fought the demon king's army advance into the central continent.
the demon king's army forces there numbered nearly a million, but most of them had been killed as well.
there were way more beelings birthed from insect a summons, outnumbering the monsters.
allen's motivation was always focused on not leaving a single enemy alive, so his plan involved a portion of his forces circling around the battlefield to cut off anyone who tried escaping.
not even a handful of days were needed to kill the demon general leading the demon king's army there.
while all that was going on, princess shea had not seen prince zew yet.
the war in rosenheim and the central continent were important, but she decided to focus her efforts on the side of clebeur.
most of the priests from theomenia had escaped to niel, so the city now housed an immense number of priests that served elmea's church.
allen's party had left in secret to help fight the demon king's army elsewhere, and while they were still away, the priests had finished talking and reached conclusions.
there were two conclusions. first, if everything allen's party had told nicolai was true, then they had to celebrate with a special ceremony in niel.
they wanted as many people as possible to know about their deeds.
that would also instill hope into the many people who had lost their loved ones and families during the incident.
the second decision was to make kiel their next pope, since they had lost their current one.
"i refuse!!" was kiel's immediate response.
giving him the position of pope had already been in talks before they split into three groups when leaving niel.
those in elmea's church believed anyone born with a talent that allowed them to heal others, like saints, was gifted by the god of creation elmea.
and the priest who stood above all of them, the pope, had the duty to find those born with such talents, regardless of their social standing or family.
though there were no saints amongst beastmen.
the healing talents granted by the beast god garm were different to those of saints or holy maidens.
kiel had the venerable talent, which stood a level above that of a saint.
now he had defeated gushara and saved humanity from his evil.
but his talent was not reason enough to turn him into the pope.
what made the priests so insistent that kiel had to be the next pope was something that happened later.
kiel had used his purification magic on the pope's bones, robes, cane, and cape, before returning them all to elmea's church.
he did that simply as a small and kind gesture, so 'the old man gets a proper burial', but the church accepted that in tears and deeply moved.
many nearly revered kiel for carrying out the heavy duty of relieving the pope from the suffering he had been subjected to.
when kiel brought the pope's remains to them, many knelt onto the ground and thanked him profusely.
the titles and positions of elmea's church were as follows:
popes and cardinals are elected inside the church.
originally kiel would also have to give a speech to the holy land after being crowned, but he vehemently refused to do so, ultimately managing to convince a cardinal to do it for him.
everyone in the party watched excitedly as kiel was taken out.
usually such a coronation would be conducted on the stairs leading to theomenia's temple.
the citizens would look up the stairs and celebrate their new pope, but now they would have to make do with a wooden platform.
apparently the square in niel and most other big cities had some sort of connection with the stairs of theomenia's temple.
that was likely also a reason why the special ceremony afterwards could be conducted there.
allen's party was also allowed to step up onto the platform to watch kiel's coronation from a corner of it.
"there's so many people here!"
merle's eyes glistened as she watched the crowd of more than a hundred thousand people.
the platform had twenty simple steps leading up, and allen's party with nina were standing in a corner of the platform atop those stairs.
even shea, lud, and rath, had come to watch him.
(hm? merle?)
no one else stood in the center of the platform yet.
allen's party was in a corner, waiting for kiel to arrive.
somehow merle seemed to be pulled in by the crowd however, slowly inching forward and coming into view.
"hey, shouldn't someone stop her?"
dogora felt unsure if it was alright to let merle there, even though it was such an important ceremony.
"hum!"
merle began striking her cool poses.
there was a crowd there.
somehow that made her think that was the perfect situation to show off her poses.
she began letting the crowd see all the poses she had thought of so far.
the crowd had been waiting to see their new pope apprentice, looking at the platform excitedly, but for some reason only a small dwarf appeared there.
there were twenty steps between the platform and the crowd, making her look even smaller.
but there she was, little merle trying her hardest to see the effect her cool poses had on the crowd.
(i kinda want to see more of this.)
it did not seem like it would take much longer for kiel to come out and the ceremony to begin.
"say dogora, why don't you go show yourself to the crowd too?"
"huh?! are you crazy?"
"just think about it, if you really want to become a hero, you need to show your face in public every so often too."
(not to mention that apparently you managed to form a pact with the goddess of fire freya.)
now that dogora was freya's apostle, allen had been thinking about various things.
he felt like if he showed himself in public, it could have rather good effects on his career.
'ohhh, that's genius!! this truly is a magnificent crowd. you have to go! step forward dogora!!'
the goddess of fire freya answered vigorously as well, her voice transmitted through the divine artifact kagutsuchi.
everyone was trying to push dogora to step forward and strike a cool pose as well.
"wait, no. that's not really the kind of hero i'm trying to be."
he did not know what type of hero he wanted to be, but he knew this was not it.
'what are you saying? you're my apostle. go and fulfill your duty!'
"woah that's hot?! what did you do that for?!"
kagutsuchi looked like a regular iron battleaxe, but then it quickly began glowing red hot.
the goddess of fire freya had regained a little of her power.
and even though dogora was supposed to have [fire resistance], his rear began to smoke and burn.
apparently freya's fire was different.
the pain and heat made dogora hop forward onto the platform.
"u-umm, if possible we'd like to start the ceremony soon."
the priest nicolai spoke awkwardly to allen's party, who were starting to make a lot of noise in their corner of the platform.
merle was also surrounded by multiple priests who dragged her back to a corner.
(oh, there's kiel.)
kiel came, accompanied by the cardinals, and he was taken to the platform atop all the steps.
it was finally time for kiel's coronation ceremony to begin.