Ariadne and Cardinal de Mare looked at each other, blinking repeatedly.
It was quite funny to see two people who looked the same making the same facial expressions.
The quick-witted Pope Ludovico asked.
“Why are your expressions like that? Did you know?”
“...Yes.”
"Yes."
Ludovico cried out with a face full of sorrow, like a child whose toy had been taken away.
“No, how do you know that?”
Was that Philip waving love letters around? Do guys who live in the same house write love letters to each other? It was a top secret to me too...
The guy who brought this is saying that he brought something that is so widely known and kept it a secret!
Cardinal de Mare watched his daughter's eyes. When he told him how he had come to know him, he inevitably had to tell him about the dead Prince Louis of Gallico and the young Prince Louis.
It was quite funny to see two people who looked the same making the same facial expressions.
The quick-witted Pope Ludovico asked.
“Why are your expressions like that? Did you know?”
“...Yes.”
"Yes."
Ludovico cried out with a face full of sorrow, like a child whose toy had been taken away.
“No, how do you know that?”
Was that Philip waving love letters around? Do guys who live in the same house write love letters to each other? It was a top secret to me too...
The guy who brought this is saying that he brought something that is so widely known and kept it a secret!
Cardinal de Mare watched his daughter's eyes. When he told him how he had come to know him, he inevitably had to tell him about the dead Prince Louis of Gallico and the young Prince Louis.
This was a deal between the Cardinal and Ariadne, and it was entirely Ariadne who initiated and created it.
Cardinal de Mare thought that it would be right to leave it up to his daughter to decide whether or not to open it to the Pope.
A normal San Carlo patriarch would never have handed the helm to his child in this situation, but this was the de Mare way.
Anyway, isn't it being run very successfully?
When it appeared that the de Mares would not open their mouths obediently, Pope Louis began to curse inwardly and tore up his own party.
Today is a day when everything is compromised anyway.
“I found out from the Archbishop of Montpellier. He’s a piece of trash, by the way.”
The Archbishop of Montpellier surrendered to Louis as soon as Philip's illness began to worsen.
In addition to judging that the King would not last long, it was also because he wanted to quickly get rid of Philip's evil deeds in Trevero.
However, Pope Louis, like an old lion, remained silent and collected only the gossip and trivial evidence brought to him by the Archbishop of Montpellier.
For him, there was no reason to move, whether the Archbishop of Montpellier would be questioned by Philip IV or not.
While the Pope was lost in thought, Ariadne asked.
“Did you know that you two had an illegitimate child?”
Pope Ludovico's face distorted once more.
There were two reasons: one was that he was annoyed at the Archbishop of Montpellier for not having fully reported the case, and the other was that what he had heard was far more scandalous than he had imagined.
“I guessed it from the rumor that he wanted a pardon under the Alemand Law, but is it true?”
“Yes, that’s for sure.”
The Pope swore and made the sign of the cross.
“Please wash my ears, which have become heavier with sin and have moved further away from heaven. Amen.”
Pope Louis soon explained why he did not excommunicate Philip as soon as he learned of the facts.
“If I had only known about it during the Crusade, I would have made this fact public and demanded that they stop pressuring me financially right away. But that bat-like man, the Archbishop of Montpellier, brought it up too late. When I found out, there was nothing new to receive from Philip...”
Ariadne answered.
“You’re telling me to use it when you receive the port.”
"Yes."
The Pope cursed quietly.
“If I had known that already, I wouldn’t have made such a desperate declaration.”
Ariadne kicked and laughed, but Cardinal de Mare looked at Pope Ludovico with a serious expression, as if he had foreseen something.
Pope Louis nodded at Cardinal de Mare's expression.
“I decided on today.”
In an instant, a heavy silence filled the space.
***
“de Mare. Is that balcony behind the small prayer room still there?”
The Pope asked, walking with the support of Cardinal de Mare. They were alone.
“You mean the one next to the Cardinal’s office?”
“Yeah. I want to see the sunset.”
Fortunately, Cardinal de Mare was a pragmatist. Undertakings such as completely redecorating the interior to erase the colors of his predecessor were not to his taste.
The balcony where Ludovico had spent his afternoons every day with a slice of preserved orange when he was Cardinal of the diocese of San Carlo, except for its old age, looked exactly as it had before.
“You're a natural manager.”
The Pope, seeing that the unused space was managed without a speck of dust, exclaimed in praise. Cardinal de Mare grimaced.
“Is that an insult?”
“You’re quick-witted.”
Pope Ludovico sat down with difficulty on a large, twisted rattan chair in the center of the balcony.
Before his eyes appeared the familiar scenery in which he had spent most of his life.
It was a touching sunset.
The great sun was setting.
Between the cypress spires of the endless hills, beyond the arborvitae, to the solid Mother Earth, and beyond that. It was a heavy, irresistible descent.
“I didn’t know when or how I would die.”
The Pope lifted his ringed hand and opened the ring lid.
“It’s here today.”
The thick gold ring was not thick enough to be a store of value. The inside of the ring was filled with a thick black liquid.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to finish it in my hometown, where I was born and raised.”
Cardinal de Mare bowed his head to the side and shrugged his shoulders in silence.
“Are you crying? Why are you crying, you stupid friend?”
The Pope struck Cardinal de Mare, who was standing beside him, with a listless hand. Only then did Cardinal de Mare respond in a voice that was holding back tears.
“...Who is saying that someone is stupid when they are so bad at studying?”
The Pope, who had never once defeated de Mare in theological school, spoke proudly.
“You’re all old now, but you’re still obsessed with things like school rankings? Tsk tsk.”
The earth swallowed up the light. The sun had mostly sunk, leaving only the tip of a dazzling halo.
The sun was setting surprisingly quickly, even without the feeling that he was holding on to the end of his life.
As the last light was absorbed into the earth, Ludovico drank all the liquid in the ring.
“...It was nice meeting you even though it was just the beginning... It was nice.”
Cardinal de Mare tried to hide his tears, but failed. He sobbed and muttered.
“Let’s stay together a little longer...”
“No, that’s a bit.”
Cardinal de Mare, who was about to burst into tears at the Pope's firm refusal, looked at the Pope with his mouth open. The Pope was smiling.
“You are...”
The Pope was about to say, “You are climbing up,” but he grabbed his chest before he could finish his words.
"Oh!"
The Pope took a deep breath through his nose, but he could not breathe. His pulse was racing.
He let out something that was a mixture of a scream of pain and a gasp for air through his wide-open mouth, but neither was relieved.
Cardinal de Mare took hold of the dying Ludovico's other hand and stroked the back of it.
“...The days of our lives are seventy years; or, if because of strength, eighty... Their boast is but toil and sorrow... They quickly pass, and we fly away.”
Under the touch of Cardinal de Mare, who silently recited the last prayers, the body of Pope Louis convulsed.
“...Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, Lord, look with compassion on your chosen servant.”
However, Ludovico's seizures were becoming more and more frequent.
“When he joins the circle of reincarnation by faith, guide him most warmly. Do not cast him out from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from him...”
Finally, all movement stopped, and silence came.
Cardinal de Mare closed Pope Louis's eyes with his wrinkled fingers.
The tallest man in the world lay as if asleep, watching the sunset from the small balcony of the Basilica of Saint Ercole.
Although it was no longer useful, the Cardinal pulled the thin woolen quilt up to the Pope's chest, still having room to cover his face.
And Cardinal de Mare went out into the hallway and shouted at the top of his voice:
“The Pope has passed away!”
There was a noise in the marble hallway that had been quiet and unwavering.
The sounds of these movements seemed to have turned into a nursery rhyme, awakening each and every stone and piece of wood in the Basilica of Sant'Ercole.
The Cardinal shouted again.
“His Holiness Pope Louis the Great has died!”
***
The rest was a breeze. As had been agreed upon in advance with Pope Louis, Cardinal de Mare immediately announced the opening of the conclave.
“The very place where the Pope passed away will be the place where the next conclave will be held.”
Cardinal de Mare, a camellia, brought forward an old article that had become a dead letter. It was a task that was done quickly and precisely, like a machine.
“The conclave will be held three days after the death of His Holiness the Pope, at the very place where he died, according to the precepts of the bull issued under Hadrian V in the year 748.”
It's been a thorn in his side for the year.
The dusty decree, more than three hundred years old, said, "The conclave can be opened three days after the death," but the previous custom was 15 days after the death. Those involved, he was so flustered, he didn't know what to do.
“I don’t think even half of those who are eligible to attend will come.”
“Even 15 days is tight. 3 days is just impossible.”
When the Edicts were first created, the believers in Yesak lived together in a small landmass on one side of the central continent.
Now the world of Yesak has crossed mountain ranges and seas and reached other continents.
And all clergy from all over the world who held the office of Cardinal were eligible to attend the conclave.
The College of Cardinals was a group of people who had the right to vote and to be elected. The case of those who had come to San Carlo to attend the Council and had not yet left was simple.
After staying for a few more days, he could enter the conclave. However, those who did not attend the council at all were in a difficult situation.
“With only three days to go, there must be some places where the news of His Holiness the Pope’s passing will not even reach them.”
Even 15 days can be a long time from hearing the news to arriving.
So, when Cardinals from each region heard rumors that the Pope was in poor health, they would immediately go to Trevero and wait there.
They make up lame excuses like a pilgrimage or something like that.
This time, there was no mention of the Pope's poor health, and the location was not Trevero.
No one expected that the Pope, who was so well-off that he could even travel, would pass away, so they were caught completely off guard.
Those who were harmed wanted to turn the tables.
“Can you really ignore convention like that, Cardinal de Mare?”
“An edict is an edict, and there is a way we actually do things!”
“Let’s be flexible. Be flexible. If we continue like this, won’t no one be able to attend the conclave?”
Despite the fierce protests of those with conflicting interests, no one could stop Cardinal de Mare from seeking the protection of his own Protestant party and the Catholic forces led by the Pope.
Several prominent Cardinals came forward to defend Cardinal de Mare.
“A custom that does not reach the level of an imperial decree must yield its place.”
“Since the number of Cardinals who actually attended the council exceeded half, there should be no procedural problems, right?”
“Do not shake the camellia that the previous Pope had appointed.”
In addition, there were concerns about the need to transport the body to Trevero after a quick election, since the previous Pope had died somewhere other than Trevero; the clergy's duty to follow the bulls; and the condemnation of Cardinals who had neglected their duties and not attended the council.
The opposition party became silent without even being able to find a bone to fight with in the face of firepower far superior to expectations.
It was all as Cardinal de Mare had arranged in advance, with the full support of Pope Louis XIV.
“...Yes. I’ll be back.”
Cardinal de Mare stood in the foyer of the de Mare mansion and spoke to his daughter.
Behind him, in his Cardinal's white robes and red hat, the intense sun of San Carlo shone.
Backlit, Cardinal de Mare looked like he was wearing the golden robes of a Pope.
“You know, Father.”
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