The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Fire

Even after the meeting ended, the Saint couldn’t rest!

‘Don’t ordinary nobles or high-ranking people usually play around? Don’t they go out and have fun? Just because I’m an ascetic, does that mean I have to walk only on thorny paths like this? They say life lives up to your name, and games live up to your nickname, but I didn’t want to live up to my epithet like this. If it was going to be like this, I would have rather chosen something like King Yama!’

I don’t know if it was because Sernuan Lumiere’s life was turbulent, or because my own fate was rough, but work poured down on me without a moment’s rest.

This was probably also due to the fact that we were in the middle of organizing a big event called the Sunrise Festival. No, it definitely was.

A major religious festival was happening in a huge country called the Empire, so there was no way a religious authority could rest during events like Christmas or Foundation Day.

I busily traveled around various parts of the Empire where the festival was taking place.

I went back and forth through portals installed in any city that seemed to be doing well in the Empire, repeatedly getting on and off carriages.

In that process, no matter how much it was a carriage for VIPs, a carriage was still a carriage.

Since it couldn’t compare to modern passenger cars and paved roads, my buttocks seemed to have already split into a star shape.

“The festival is passing by so quickly!”

Eon seemed to want to enjoy the festival atmosphere and get pleasantly drunk by drinking lots of low-alcohol honey wine for children.

But since he was following me around, he couldn’t even see the night market, let alone the night scenery, which was truly pitiful.

But the most pitiful one was me, me!

This Sunrise Festival was the most impactful festival in the game.

As a true game otaku, not being able to enjoy this festival and only meeting old geezers in back rooms was making me feel extremely frustrated.

Just because I was attached to the Empire for once, just because I stirred up those old conservative bastards’ personalities in the meeting, they seemed to be working me to the point of death from overwork, but if they came at me like this, would I quit my job?

Welfare is just an easy means for capitalism to exploit the proletariat!

If they won’t give welfare, I have no choice but to seize it with my own hands!

“Eon, shall we go enjoy the festival?”

I tempted my surveillance—no, my watchman—to become my accomplice.

“Huh? Is, is that okay? But still, there are two noble houses we need to visit…”

“A festival is naturally an opportunity to see not only nobles but also the vivid lives of citizens up close. Wouldn’t it be good to see what citizens think about Lumensia while we’re at it?”

Clop, clop.

The sound of the carriage’s horseshoes could be heard. The carriage heading toward the Empire city’s portal was jolting.

“What about the backlash from the noble houses whose schedules got canceled…?”

“Wouldn’t I be forgiven for that much as a Saint? Moreover, since this is the Empire’s biggest festival, I think Lumensia would prefer meeting many people and spreading Lumensia’s words rather than meeting a small number of people.”

Eon looked a bit anxious at first, then made an expression like ‘Now that I hear it, that makes sense!’ and enthusiastically expressed his desire to go to the festival.

‘Plan successful… Hehehe.’

I desperately tried not to make a sinister smile under my veil.

“Honey wine! Honey wine!”

“Hehe, I’d like to try the honey wine that Eon likes so much too.”

The coachman skillfully drove the carriage and brought us to our destination. And I was able to see the true form of the festival that I could only glimpse at through the carriage window.

“It’s the parade of the night when the sun doesn’t set! Today must have been parade day!”

Eon, who had poked his head out of the carriage window, said.

“That worked out well.”

Since it was the second day, it was about time for the parade to be in full swing. The carriage stopped at a place where carriages could be parked.

“Thank you.”

When I greeted the coachman who opened the door for me, he held out a bundle of packages. What’s this, a bribe? How did he know I like this kind of thing…

When I was about to quietly accept it, the coachman said.

“This is a message from Lord Antonio to enjoy this festival well.”

This coachman was Antonio’s man.

I see, Antonio gave me spending money to enjoy the festival…!

Oh, as expected of Antonio.

My faithful, useful, best Zhuge Liang who takes care of all administrative and other miscellaneous tasks so I don’t have to deal with annoying matters!

I told him to convey my thanks to Antonio and gave him half the gold coins in my pocket. The coachman’s smile became as rich as gold coins.

While I was chatting with the coachman for a moment, I quickly retrieved Eon who had gone somewhere.

“Eon. You’ll get lost if you do that.”

Finding someone in this crowded and bustling place wasn’t easy, but finding them by looking at a person’s unique energy and the ‘thread’ connected to me was something even a blind person could do.

“Don’t worry, Ascetic! I come here often on business trips, so I know this main road area well. Of course, I don’t know the alleys well… Anyway, I think I’m sufficient to serve as a guide!”

Wow, how energetic. No matter how I think about it, Eon must have swallowed up all my positive energy.

“Then will Eon guide me? As you know, I’ve never been to a festival before.”

“Of course! First… when you come to a night market, you have to try holding street snacks in both hands! Ah, that… do you eat street snacks well? No, can you eat them…?”

I’ve even tried monster meat, so street food would be welcome.

“Of course.”

“Wow, that’s a relief!”

Eon was exactly twice as energetic as usual, perhaps excited about coming to the festival.

It seemed like sunlight was coming from around him… though the one actually glowing was probably me.

Eon is gentle, soft, trusts people easily to the point of being stupid, and is foolish but… he’s a good person.

I keep thinking that the kind of Saint the Central Church wanted might have been like this.

Thinking about the Central Church that had suddenly dumped a bomb of work on me made me a little angry again.

Well, sorry that a viper-like person ended up playing the Saint role. But couldn’t they have let me enjoy the festival a bit personally?

I suppressed my aura more and pulled my robe down further. I also checked if my veil covered my face well.

Since being disturbed while enjoying the festival due to commotion was absolutely detestable. I would be very suspicious for a while.

‘More than that… the atmosphere is killer.’

What I saw through the flickering translucent veil was the scenery of a fantasy village where red and yellow lanterns were lit here and there, making the night streets brightly illuminated.

Those wandering around ran through the roads regardless of age—children, adults, and elderly—as if there were no class differences, and they also folded paper boats, put flames in them, and floated them in the sky.

You could see people praying to Lumensia statues erected throughout the village just by turning your head.

Red and gold garlands decorated various parts of the village, and doors were decorated with ribbons.

The street stalls were all decorated with red and gold, symbols of the sun god, and children who seemed to be well-off were painting symbols of the sun god on the roads with red dye.

A very different sight from modern holidays like Christmas.

As I was calmly enjoying that scene, a hand suddenly thrust forward.

“Ascetic, would you like to try this?”

What he was pointing to was something similar to modern skewers. I didn’t know what was stuck on it though.

“The honey wine is a bit further away. How about a bite of this mushroom skewer before that?”

So it was mushrooms…

I wasn’t very bold about eating medieval mushrooms, but I trust the performance of this body that has devoured the powers of gods.

‘I didn’t die even after eating a handful of poison at the Central Church!’

I quietly handed money to the shop owner and received two mushroom skewers.

It didn’t look like mushrooms, probably because various spices were applied and grilled until burnt.

“This is something like this city’s representative food.”

“That’s interesting. Usually people don’t eat mushrooms much because they’re hard to distinguish from poisonous mushrooms, right?”

“These mushrooms are okay because they look so unique that only these mushrooms look like this.”

Usually that’s when you eat the wrong one and die.

As expected of a barbaric medieval fantasy world, they didn’t seem to particularly feel the danger of food.

I slightly lifted my veil with the hand not holding the skewer and took a bite.

The skewer tasted salty, sweet, slightly spicy, and savory. When I chewed the mushroom, the mushroom juice mixed with the spices and was delicious, and the chewy texture of the mushroom was appealing.

It definitely felt different from modern mushrooms, and I felt good experiencing fantasy world food.

‘Should I try all the street stall food one by one?’

Now I have plenty of money, so there’s no risk in doing this kind of thing.

It wasn’t like unexpected expenses would mean eating rice mixed with gochujang the next day or starving altogether.

I am now in another world…

Thinking about that, I got excited and wanted to abandon the ‘ascetic’ character trait.

I lightly tugged at Eon’s loose priest robes. Then I pointed at a street stall.

“Eon, let’s try that, and that too.”

“I’m glad it seems to suit your taste! Then since we have time, let’s eat and experience various things!”

Eon was really a good person! I was truly satisfied that he was helping with my fantasy world experience life.

We tried all the street stall food one bite at a time, tried the honey wine that Eon said was so delicious, and watched the colorful and elaborately decorated festival parade.

And we also enjoyed mini-games that could only be done at festivals.

It was a shell game.

“Hmm…”

I pointed to the third cup with my hand.

“I’m not playing games with this guy anymore. Hey, if someone gets it right 8 times in a row, what are merchants like us supposed to live on!”

“Haha, but I’m not taking the money I won, am I?”

“Ugh, tsk.”

Now that I could sense the aura of objects, shell games were no longer difficult for me. I could probably get them right even with my eyes closed.

“Odd or even~?”

“…Even.”

The opened hand held two coins. The man protested to me about something.

“No way, you were so good at that shell game over there, and now you’re good at this too. At this rate, you’ll be conquering all the games here, Noble sir!”

That itself was fun too.

“Hahaha, this is so entertaining I can’t go home.”

Though I couldn’t go home anyway. Whatever, the house here is better than that house.

Only after Eon and I conquered all the festival games like we were breaking through dojos could I calm down a bit. I became a true game king at the gambling tables.

‘Hah… This is fun.’

When was the last time I played so enthusiastically without thinking about anything else?

Festivals really are great. Playing as a reward after just working makes it even more enjoyable! I guess being an idle rich person suits my constitution.

Eon, who had quietly disappeared when the games started, soon came walking over to me with two pieces of paper in his hands.

“Wish papers. Of course, Ascetic, you are a Saint, but… you might still want to make a wish, so I brought one.”

“Wish papers?”

“You write your wish on the wish paper and hang it over there, in a place clearly visible at dawn, and when it burns, your wish comes true.”

Where Eon pointed, I could see a wall already covered with papers like the locks on Namsan Tower.

“Usually they don’t burn, so during eclipses they burn them and scatter the ashes.”

So there was such detailed lore too.

I wrote a wish together with Eon.

[Please let me continue living in this world.]

Lumensia wouldn’t grant my wish anyway. And I didn’t even think to ask him to.

I tied the paper together with Eon to a partition wall that had holes like barbed wire so papers could be tied to it.

“Shall we head back now?”

“Yes, thanks to Eon I really enjoyed the festival…”

A strange aura.

I reflexively turned my head, but there was no one there.

Instead,

Drip.

The paper I had tied was slowly getting wet as if it had been hit by water.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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