"Haaaa! KILL HIM!"
"Felix! What happened?!" Isabella jumped awake from her sleep and looked at her side. Felix was awake, sitting on the bed, his body sweating and steaming, his eyes bloodshot red, and his body shivering. "Nightmare? Again?"
Quickly, Isabella slid over to him and pulled his head closer in her embrace. She stroked Felix's short hair and caressed his chest to calm him down. Thankfully, he had regrown his skin because of Sylvester, but some side effects were yet to fade away.
Felix relaxed in Isabella's arms, holding her body tightly. She was truly the only family member he had left, "M-More than a nightmare."
"Why don't we speak with Sylvester? Maybe he will know something to help you." Isabella suggested him. "You've been having these nightmares every week."
"You think he does not know? Sylvester knows it all too well… he always knows." Felix said, rejecting the idea of seeing Sylvester. "He has enough on his plate. I don't want to be another burden for him."
"Then… Let's go to Healer Hendrix. He will surely know something," Isabella said, hoping he would agree this time. "Please, Felix… I want to spend the rest of my life with you… Let's try to settle anything that can ever stand between us and our happiness."
It was something he had heard many times before. But hearing Isabella's worried voice, he nodded his head in agreement before closing his eyes.
"Forgive me, Isabella… I'm ruining your best years. If they hadn't… I'd have married you by now." Felix embraced her waist tighter while resting his head on her lap. "I really want to start a family with you."
Almost on the verge of tears, she lowered her face and pecked his lips. "Without setbacks, we wouldn't appreciate triumph. We will cross these dark nights into a future full of light… I have faith."
Felix smiled and tried to sleep again. He hated himself for making things hard for Isabella. He desperately wanted the nightmares to stop.
…
In the Bright Mother's housing, Sylvester woke up before anyone else that morning. Sadly, he wasn't the best when it came to cooking and made a lot of noise. It eventually woke Xavia up, but Sylvester forced her to sit in the living room, exercise, bathe, and read a book.
Meanwhile, he cooked for his little family. He used to cook by himself for years in his past life, but the memories had gotten a little rusty, so he failed a few times. After all, he was trying to cook things from pasta, hamburgers, pancakes, and even normal cakes. He had also found beans that were similar to coffee, so he attempted to make that as well.
"You don't have to do this, dear," Xavia shouted from the living room, unable to stop herself from sneaking a few glances. "At this rate, we'll be late for work."
"Haha!" Sylvester laughed out loud. "Mum, I'm the Pope, the boss of everything—Who's going to complain?"
Xavia raised her brows, unable to reply to that. It was true. There was nobody who could criticize him.
Soon enough, even Miraj came back from his morning stroll outside and climbed onto Sylvester's shoulder to take a look, "Smells yummy… Is there a banana in it?"
"Not everything needs to have banana and honey, Chonky. But I did make a banana smoothie for you," Sylvester couldn't afford to make Miraj sad. "Go and scare Mum."
"Hehe… Aye, aye." Miraj jumped away and tiptoed to Xavia. Since Xavia couldn't see him, she never knew when he was about to jump on her. It always startled her out of breath.
Looking at everything, Sylvester felt much more relaxed. This wasn't the true peace he desired, but this was at least a strong start. He was now the Pope, and no matter what, he knew he would give his best in the fight to preserve this.
Soon enough, Sylvester was done cooking. Zeke, his adopted brother, came to help set the table. Afterward, they ate together while discussing various matters—especially Sylvester, who had something for Xavia.
"Mum, I'll be changing your designation. I want you to focus more on the Bright Mother Association. They are my greatest spy assets, and I want them to be taken care of." Sylvester announced. It didn't need to be discussed since Xavia's current position placed too much workload on her.
"Where will I work from?" Xavia inquired. "Too many Bright Mothers entering the Pope's Palace will raise questions and doubt on you as well."
Sylvester understood what she meant. After all, many of the Bright Mothers were otherworldly beautiful; the prime example was sitting right before him. "I've commissioned a new building. It will become the Bright Mothers' official administration office building. You will work from there."
"Me?" Asked Zeke. "Zeke protect Mother more?"
Sylvester smiled and placed more food on the simple man's plate. "You will become an assistant instructor for the knights in training at School of Dawn. Headmaster Geralt will take care of everything."
"Zeke will teach?" Zeke stopped eating and looked at his food in a daze. "Can Zeke do it?"
"Zeke can do anything and everything." Sylvester patted the man's shoulder. "People doubted you could be a good knight, and you proved them wrong. So, always believe in yourself."
With that, Sylvester scooped up the last of his food and stood up. "Now, I have to head to the workshops and oversee the development of a few things. I'll meet you at lunch later."
"Lunch?" Xavia exclaimed in surprise.
Sylvester picked up his bag, and Miraj said, "From now on, whenever I'm in the Holy Land, I'll never miss breakfast, lunch, and dinner with you all."
Xavia felt sheer happiness, "Then… I should meet with a few of Grandma Bright Mothers and learn to make new things."
Sylvester headed out, grabbed his bicycle, and rushed off toward the weapon's manufacturing division. But it wasn't just manufacturing weapons now, as the inventions he wanted demanded expert minds to work on them. It wasn't easy to find people who could understand and grasp the modern physics and engineering techniques that he tried to teach. Even dwarves found it challenging.
But in the end, he decided to let things go naturally. After all, this world had magic, and many things could be solved with a few special runes. For example, he had envisioned an Internal Combustion Engine that didn't require any fossil fuel. In theory, it was possible, but he left the true creation to the expert. All he knew was that if they were able to make the engine, the world would change a lot.
"Halt! Show your credentials."
"..."
Sylvester hit the brakes on his bicycle. To his shock, the guards at the entry gate of the production region stopped him, "I'm the Pope—Blonde hair, golden eyes, otherworldly handsome…?"
The two guards stared at Sylvester carefully.
"Why would the Pope use such lowly means of travel when he has a magnificent stagecoach? Are you an imposter?"
Sylvester sighed and made a ball of light on his hand and a halo behind his head, "See?"
THUD!
The two guards laid down on their bellies, hands clasped together above their shoulders, and immediately pleaded.
"Forgive us two blind fools, Your Holiness. We couldn't recognize your holy presence—Please enter this land of your rule—Forgive us lowly servants."
"..."
Sylvester scratched his head and dragged his bicycle in. It felt too bizarre since everyone knew what he looked like. So he thought about it deeply and finally came to a conclusion.
"You two!" He paused and looked back. "Look at my hand and tell me how many fingers I'm holding."
The two men instantly started sweating.
"Two."
"One."
'Sweet holy Solis!' Sylvester nearly cursed. 'Their eyesight is worse than a mole's. Wait a second, I don't remember there ever being a mandatory medical examination of any Clergymen. That means…'
The possibility horrified him. Considering what kinds of diseases many Clergymen might be carrying, it was an answer he didn't really want to know in detail. However, one thing was clear: problems such as bad vision were treatable, and for that, it had to be documented first.
'I guess I've found work for Healer Hendrix then.'
Sylvester didn't bother with the two guards and headed into the warehouse. He then went to the Cardinal's office. He found Cardinal Maxim and Prince Jinn working on a few blueprints, bickering with each other passionately.
"Report!" He stormed in as the Pope. "What's the progress of the machines? I also handed you the telegraph machine. Were you able to replicate it through magic? I need a better way of communication for better management over the law and order of the continent."
The two men silently nodded and quickly took papers from various cabinets behind them. It appeared that the two men shared this workspace. But one thing Sylvester liked was the fire in their eyes, especially in the case of Prince Jinn Hu'ul Mirmasan. The man was the last of his bloodline, after all.
"We have conceptualized something." Prince Jinn said. "The machine you suggested produced a strange wave in the air to travel a distance and be received by someone in the distance. It required towers as well."
Sylvester felt proud of them already. "It's called Radio waves. There is a thing called the electromagnetic spectrum—it is like a range of different kinds of light waves, some of which we can see and some we cannot. These light waves are all around us and can have different energies, lengths, and frequencies. What you just noticed were the Radio waves, which use the lowest energy and are invisible. Similarly, visible light is part of this spectrum, encompassing all the colors of a rainbow."
"Hmm…" Cardinal Maxim mumbled, stroking his thin beard. "The higher the energy, the shorter the wave will go?"
Sylvester felt shocked and looked at the man, "How did you figure that out?"
"A few years ago, some men found glowing rocks in the Pentapeak mountain range. Surprisingly, everyone but the wizards died when mining it. I was interested and investigated the reason—I found that the rocks were emitting an invisible energy that was penetrating everything in its path, destroying things on the tiniest scale imaginable."
'It's always great to converse with intelligent people,' Sylvester truly appreciated it. 'I hope this one doesn't turn out to be my Oppenheimer.'
"Yes, that's Gamma rays—the heaviest one in the spectrum. It's dangerous and destructive, as it can destroy a normal human's body on a cellular level. I'm impressed, Cardinal Maxim. So, what's the plan for long-distance communication?" Sylvester asked them, waiting to be surprised.
Prince Jinn placed a small sheet of paper the size of a palm. It had a new rune scheme on it, one based on light magic. "I made this with Cardinal Maxim. The only hurdle in wireless communication I found was the towers and their reach.
"So I wondered if we could replace towers with something magical, and in search of answers, we spoke with Saint Wazir. He informed us that the Pope can utilize solarium to communicate with others. So we created this Connector Rune, a rune design that can be placed inside a modified telegraph machine so the machine can use the solarium all around us as a means of communication."
Sylvester stared at the rune scheme, studying it. He could see it wasn't something too complex, certainly something smaller than his ability, but it was still amazing. "Does this mean there are no limits?"
"Yes and no." Cardinal Maxim started. "For this invention to be used by the masses, it needs to be affordable. No matter what, the machine will require solarium crystals to operate. If we are to keep this affordable, we can't exceed the range of a thousand kilometers. But of course, in case of emergencies, additional crystals can be added, though the requirements become exponential at that point."
"This is genius!" Sylvester only had praise for them. "I'm sure with a few more tweaks, we can make it more efficient. Come to me when you have a working prototype available. We'll use this across the monasteries fir—"
"YOUR HOLINESS!"
Sylvester abruptly stopped and turned around. Gabriel had arrived, panting and sweating profusely. This was precisely why he wanted wireless communication. "What happened?"
"Elephants!" Gabriel barked. "Five thousand elephants!"
"What? Where?!"
Thank you for reading. Gifts and GT votes are highly appreciated.
