The Pope Who Returned After Having Three Children
After the angel appeared and vanished, the chat exploded.
It had been a sudden intrusion, but everyone seemed to have pieced together what just happened. Then again, it was the textbook image that popped into your head when you heard the word angel — it would've been weirder if they hadn't recognized it. This was probably the first time any of them had seen one in the flesh. There'd never been a returnee close enough to the Goddess for that.
While the viewers were still buzzing with excitement, the star of the first donation dropped a message in chat.
IWantAJob's vivid testimony set the chat on fire all over again.
Everyone was either stunned or kicking themselves. They just kept going on and on about how amazing a remote blessing was. And I, staring at the chaotic chat, was breaking out in a cold sweat.
...She's really going all out.
I wasn't the one who'd blessed IWantAJob. Our Goddess had done it herself. She must have been watching the stream this whole time. I was so grateful I could cry that she wanted to help me even from so far away — but that just now had been far too much. Whether I liked the gesture or not, there was a problem.
My holy power...
It went without saying, but a god could not simply manifest on earth or exert influence whenever they pleased. They existed on a completely different plane from humans. To intervene in earthly affairs, they had to borrow the holy power of a priest or a paladin. Ordinarily they would draw from a great number of the faithful all at once...
Right now, the only followers of the Goddess in this world were me and Liam. A Pope and a former Hero. The quality was top-tier, but there was a hard limit on quantity. In other words, the holy power flowing through my body had just been drained almost to the bottom.
A heads-up would've been nice.
I grumbled inwardly and rolled up my sleeves a little. As a side effect of the holy power being siphoned away so suddenly, my whole body had grown hot. It was the heat of the sun. Rolling my sleeves up to my elbows made it a little more bearable. I wanted to take off more, but I held back. I couldn't do anything that would diminish the Pope's dignity.
"...This is rather taxing."
I muttered, wiping the sweat from my brow. Time to clean this up.
"A remote blessing is quite taxing even for me. So from this point on, I won't be granting one to those who donate. I ask for your understanding."
Put that way, it would look as though I'd been the one to grant the blessing. I still didn't know what kind of blessing IWantAJob had actually received, so I decided not to mention it at all. Letting them fill in the blanks themselves wasn't a bad thing.
Fanning myself against the heat, I checked the viewer count.
Still not that many. But the chat was flying by at an incredible speed.
The reactions were all pretty good. This was the perfect chance to lock in regular viewers — and new faithful.
"If you continue watching my stream, you'll have plenty of opportunities to witness scenes like the one just now."
I smoothly folded the Goddess's intervention into my own intentions and plans, as if it had been the idea all along. This much was nothing. Reason grew stronger the more you tempered it — as long as you kept it sharp, you could stay calm even when things went sideways.
"If you're enjoying the stream, please tap Follow and turn on notifications."
This was the kind of thing you had to say in a situation like this. A sales pitch I'd hastily picked up from watching other streamers. Then I followed up with another blow.
"For your information, from now on, those who donate will be given the opportunity to become lay members of our order."
Proselytizing. That had been the core of Seoyun's advice. Announcing it now, while the mood was hot, would mean less pushback. I put on a gentle, welcoming smile and continued.
"The standard amount is ten thousand won. But for those of you currently in the stream, I'll make it half price as a special offer."
People loved being treated as special. Even if you really thought about it, the perk wasn't much — but once you got better treatment than everyone else, you couldn't help feeling pleased, and that could cloud your judgment. This was a missionary tactic designed to exploit exactly that psychology.
Of course, I wasn't going to keep a system where you had to pay to join. Just at the start. Later, once our order had grown in this world, I would offer anyone the chance to become a believer.
This much is reasonable enough.
The Goddess's reaction had actually been the real concern, but I probably didn't need to worry about that. She'd sent down an angel herself to cheer me on.
"Well then, everyone. What do you say? Will you join the faith?"
Having finished my missionary pitch, I closed my mouth for a moment. I waited quietly, and before long the bam-bam of donation alerts started going off.
Donation after donation poured in, and just like that, we'd collected an amount in the hundred-thousand-won range. Seoyun's strategy had worked even better than I'd expected. I'd said it was half off, but every last one of them had generously thrown in ten thousand won or more. They all seemed to have money to spare.
Well, they are watching a stream at this hour.
It was three in the afternoon. Regular working people would be hard at it right now. Most of the people in my stream were probably well-off enough that they didn't need to work to get by.
"Thank you for the donations."
I thanked each of them individually, then announced that every donor had become a lay member of our order.
"Those of you who have newly joined the faith need only remember one thing."
As I recalled, people in this world tended to be openly uncomfortable with missionary work. The reasons varied. Some were non-religious, some believed in a different god, some just couldn't stand fanatics. They all differed, but they shared one thing in common: they despised people who openly shoved their god down everyone else's throat. So I took a different approach.
All of that was true, so I wasn't deceiving anyone. Just laying out the truth would take the edge off any resistance to being preached at. Sure enough, the viewers' reactions were pretty favorable.
At the same time, more donations started rolling in. They must have been on the fence, then made up their minds after hearing what I said.
I just ran my mouth a few times and the money's piling up...?
I hadn't even been streaming for a full hour and I was already making money. For someone who'd been an unpaid Pope, this was nothing short of a culture shock. Was I about to get rich overnight? It still didn't feel real. Honestly, even a hundred thousand won was a lot of money to me right now.
But with so few viewers, the donation parade didn't last all that long.
Just right.
I was more than satisfied. Wanting more than this would just be greed. Time to get the stream back on track.
That was what I thought, and I was just about to open my mouth when—
Bam-bam-bam!
Another donation dropped. But there were a lot more zeroes than any of the ones so far. At first I thought it was a hundred thousand. It wasn't. It was ten times that.
...A million won?
My brain locked up for a second. My thoughts went stiff. I hadn't been hoping for an amount this big. For my first stream, I'd just wanted to earn a little snack money for the kids. Had they hit an extra zero by mistake? That had to be it. There was no way someone would donate that kind of money to a complete stranger of a streamer.
"Havant... I believe you may have sent more than you intended by mistake. I'll return it, so please give me your account number."
I said it with a carefully arranged deadpan. Of course, there wouldn't be any legal issue if I didn't return it. But I couldn't do that in good conscience. The integrity I'd cultivated as a former Saintess and as Pope was insisting I refund every last won.
But then some of the viewers stopped me. Wondering why, I focused on the chat, and they quickly filled me in.
A whale. Meaning a viewer who went around making huge donations. I scanned through the rest of the chat and confirmed my guess was right. Though it seemed this was a bit out of character for havan't usual behavior.
While the viewers were puzzled, I got a suspicious feeling. For some reason, the words game streamer snagged in my mind. I hadn't played any games on stream yet, but when you really thought about it, wasn't I someone connected to games?
"In that case, you have my thanks."
I set the question aside and bowed at the waist. Then I rested both hands on my knees and continued.
"I can hardly just let this pass. I'll grant havant one additional privilege."
But what was I supposed to offer? I'd already said it, and nothing decent was coming to mind. Of all things, an angel had descended for the first donation, which made every idea I had feel cheap by comparison. I was in an awkward spot. No matter how I expressed my gratitude, it was bound to look a little thin.
If the Goddess manifested on earth in person, that would be a different story.
...Don't even say it out loud.
If I so much as suggested a descent, she would come crashing down onto this earth without a second thought. That much was obvious. She was a bold Goddess who'd drawn people in precisely because of that fiery personality. If she appeared on stream, it would be a massive sensation — but I'd be the one laid up in bed for days afterward. The price of a descent would fall entirely on me.
The longer I deliberated, the more my head started to hurt. I cut the thoughts off before they could stretch any further and tugged the corners of my mouth up.
"There's so much I could offer that it's taking me a moment to choose. Please wait just a little."
It was an excuse to buy time, but I could see people's expectations climbing in real time.
"......"
Thanks to our impossible Goddess, I was backed into a corner from my very first stream. Sweating buckets, I searched for a way out. I had to use the crisis-management skills I'd built as Pope and somehow wriggle free.
And that was the moment I was so deeply lost in thought.
The door burst open. Suddenly the bedroom door swung wide and uninvited guests came tumbling in. The twins.
"Mommy, what are you doing all by yourself?"
"Play with us."
"Erina, Evaila. Wait—"
Before I could even tell them not to come in, the twins came toddling straight at me.
"Daddy's just sleeping and he won't play with us!"
"I'm bored."
I scooped up my approaching daughters on reflex. Then my eyes darted around frantically.
...What do I do?
I was thoroughly rattled. Worse than when the angel had suddenly appeared. I'd clearly told Liam to watch the girls, but he must have sprawled out and fallen asleep, leaving a gap. That scoundrel had gone and done it again.
Meanwhile, the chat was split half-and-half between laughter and questions. Everyone looked too busy laughing and talking to think straight. I seized the opening and quickly spoke up.
"That's all for today's stream!"
Just run for it. I'd figure out the rest later.