The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 114

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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

The paper was wet.

I wondered if it was raining or if someone had splashed water from a pool on the ceiling, but there was no ceiling around and the day was clear, so it was neither.

It seemed too deliberate for someone to have poured it with a cup, as only mine was cunningly soaked.

It was my wish paper, though I hadn’t even touched it….

“Then I’ll go call the coachman for a moment. Stay here!”

Suddenly, as I started looking around frantically and became low-pressure, Eon panicked for a moment then hurried off saying he’d call the coachman.

Running away like that despite being a surveillance agent. That bastard Eon….

“Hmm?”

I felt Ife emerging from my chest.

Ife, who was always lying weakly or sleeping, had awakened. Ife looked energetic for the first time in a while.

-{Ascetic, it seems your wish is about to come true!}

“What do you mean by that?”

-{Thanks to the noble person who visited, I’ve regained my energy! This is truly fortunate!}

So what I felt just now was indeed a ghost? This world has ghosts too?

Ife, now full of energy, lifted his head excitedly and swayed back and forth as if dancing.

Whether my wish comes true or not aside, it was fortunate that Ife had awakened after so long and was overflowing with energy like this. I had been too lonely alone.

“Who was that noble person?”

-{Hmm.}

Ife unusually hesitated.

‘I suppose since there’s an underworld, there might be ghosts…. Does this world’s underworld actually exist?’

-{My mother’s… mother? I suppose I should say. This is a difficult matter! I’ve only lived a few months, while you who’ve lived a full forty years should know better, shouldn’t you? I’m seriously worried you’ve lived your age in vain.}

Did his speech become more caustic after waking up?

But here, the greatest ally and supporter who could understand me was only Ife, so I decided to let it slide.

He probably wanted to exercise that tiny tongue of his since he was overflowing with energy after so long.

“Mother’s mother….”

Ife was something like a fragment of the great serpent that had been sleeping in the World Tree.

If that serpent was the mother, then that serpent’s mother…. would also be a god? But didn’t they say all the gods were dead? Why appear here?

“Why would such a person come here?”

“The carriage is ready, Ascetic!”

I immediately put on the mask of the Ascetic. A natural smile and refined voice emerged.

Even though my facial expression wouldn’t be visible due to the deeply pulled robe hood and veil. It was like a kind of switch.

“I’ll be right there.”

Step, step.

When a Sernuan, whose stride was about 1.5 times larger than ordinary people, walked with determination, I rapidly approached Eon.

I should tell him that today I’ll go into the lodging and rest without moving. Tomorrow is the day of execution…. I need to check on the kids’ condition too.

Ife finished answering.

-{Sometimes, when people earnestly wish and desire, gods come to visit them. And my mother’s mother is someone who cares quite a bit about humans, so she appears often!}

“Mother’s mother is called grandmother.”

-{Is that so! The human kinship system is truly difficult. I’ll remember it!}

I looked at the night scenery moving away from the rattling carriage and thought.

‘If you wish and desire, gods come to visit…?’

*

Kalebrin was alone, modifying the sorcery circle on the night before the day of execution, following the Ascetic’s orders.

The old defensive spell formations in the Empire were made with sorcery circles that could be used more primitively and simply than magic.

Since magic itself was created by humans, it only became widespread in modern times. And since barrier magic circles are complex and difficult, the spell formations on castles built in the old days were bound to be sorcery circles rather than magic circles.

The Ascetic who made such predictions had sent her here. How fortunate indeed. Kalebrin was confident in sorcery above all else.

Useless, cursed, dirty, and lowly as I am, the thing I do best and the only useful thing about me is this sorcery carved in blood….

“Phew….”

Kalebrin lifted her bangs, which had grown shaggy again after not cutting them for several months, and wiped away her sweat.

Having modified the spell formation to her liking, this defensive spell formation now belonged to Kalebrin. She could control it as she wished and could even make it explode if the situation became unfavorable.

Her head buzzed.

“Ascetic….”

‘Kalebrin, how is the situation? Is it going well?’

The Ascetic asking this had a slightly harsher tone than usual.

I suppose this must be her real personality…. Even though we made a promise, I should work harder so I won’t be abandoned after all.

“Yes, it’s all done. Now I’ll re, return….”

‘Come back safely.’

“Mm-hmm.”

The subtle sense of connection disappeared. I could feel the gaze-like presence disappearing too. A sorceress’s intuition could sense even such things.

‘I must not seem reliable….’

Last time too, I was the first one to be subdued….

The Ascetic must surely see me as weak.

I need to become stronger.

More, more…. Otherwise, my family, my neighbors, the people of my village can’t return. If I just do what the Ascetic tells me like this, I won’t be able to return to the forest….

I’ll be alone again….

A sly voice came from somewhere.

“Why is that young lady over there looking so pitiful?”

Two people in the darkness. Judging by their presence, they were trained warriors.

“And why is she so suspiciously near the sacred flame for tomorrow’s, no wait. Since midnight has passed, today’s. Today’s sacred flame relay ceremony?”

“Suspicious~ suspicious. We need to conduct a checkpoint inspection!”

Inquisitors?

No, Yelena had a more refined and pure aura.

Not this sticky and unpleasant feeling!

“Is that staff a staff authorized by the Magic Tower, I wonder~”

“There’s no need to know that. She’ll be dead soon anyway.”

Step.

One person stepped forward. The sacred flame’s light illuminated his face.

He wore a dark purple robe with gold decorations here and there. I don’t have an eye for clothes, but I could tell it was high-quality.

Peculiarly, he wore sharp metal pieces like beast claws on his hands and wrists.

Blood-red bangs and bright yellow eyes. What was unusual were his completely black eyes with no whites or pupils.

Well-organized fighting spirit was caught by the sorceress’s heightened senses.

A martial artist specialized in close combat. If those weapons grazed you, skin and muscle would be torn apart like a beast’s claws.

‘While they’re talking is my chance.’

Kalebrin began muttering incantations, casting all sorts of buffs and defensive spells on herself.

2 against 1. Attackers and the attacked.

The gap was clear. Fortunately, both were ‘human’.

The curses wielded by sorceresses were most effective against humans, so that one point was fortunate, but….

The attackers must have made full preparations to kill her or render her in an equivalent state.

‘Two-person team activity? Then I must also consider the possibility of coordination…. If I meet the Ascetic, even fatal wounds can be healed, but will he really come in time? Can I reach him without dying?’

The one in front showed off his claw-like weapons, sparking flames.

However, perhaps already having grasped my capabilities, he wasn’t even stepping within range where I could blow off a limb or two with curses.

‘Indeed a considerable expert…. Could he be an assassin sent by an Imperial who wants to kill the Ascetic?’

The owner of the sly voice I heard first stepped forward into the sacred flame’s light.

“Since you’re going to die soon, I’m being kind enough to tell you this~”

“Smiling Face. Would you talk even to a corpse?”

“That has its own charm too~”

Smiling Face.

True to that alias, he had bizarre makeup on his pale white face. I’d heard of it before. A clown… something like that.

In his hands were… needles? A poison user? They were all unexpectedly strange weapons, so I really couldn’t tell what they were.

“You’re frustratingly silent~ Then… shall I kill you?”

“…!”

Needles flew from long range in an instant. If those things flying at that speed hit vital organs, it would be fatal.

She’d have to sacrifice an arm or leg to block them.

Kalebrin instantly finished her assessment and wove a defensive art.

Ting, tiding-

“Oh! You blocked it, you blocked it!”

“Don’t make a fuss.”

“Still, one got through! It would’ve been better if more hit… but you’re so small, I wonder if you’ll die in about an hour?”

A needle was embedded in one of the arms Kalebrin had used to guard.

‘Poison.’

Rippling paralysis symptoms. A fast-acting poison. She’d seen similar poisons in the forest where she lived. She had some resistance too. She could probably last a bit longer than the time he mentioned.

Fighting against long-range and close combat would be difficult. But showing her back now would be even more dangerous.

Poison was nothing to the Ascetic, the Ascetic was nearby, the Ascetic was…

‘No… If I lose to these two, the Ascetic might, might think I’m useless. I have to make up for it. I have to make up for it…!’

Kalebrin widened her red eyes and pulled out the needle. The curse she’d been quietly chanting finally took effect.

With her agitated heart, Kalebrin’s specialty was amplified exponentially.

The needle Kalebrin held burned away like melting, and the one called ‘Smiling Face’ arched his upper body in pain.

“Kugh…!”

The carelessness of easily throwing away a medium. He knew about sorceresses but had never faced one.

She could do it. She could win. She could prove her worth.

“I guess I shouldn’t have used such things against a curse mage. Something felt off about it.”

Screech, screech.

The one who had been scraping claw-like objects against each other reached Kalebrin in a single leap.

Instead of trusting her defensive art, Kalebrin decided to roll on the ground with her pathetic reflexes.

Thud!

A curse that could tear off a grown man’s limbs like plucking insect legs if they crossed the line she’d drawn in her mind.

It didn’t work on that person.

No, rather, ‘he deliberately avoided it’ would be more accurate.

Using claws meant his instincts were as sharp as a beast’s. He could easily avoid or counter curses that emanated such sinister energy from long range.

Sharp metal claws were swung at Kalebrin.

A second follow-up barrage. It was natural law that whoever hit the ground first in close combat would lose.

‘The poison user will recover soon and start throwing needles again.’

Kalebrin trusted her maximally enhanced defensive art and prepared to cast a curse.

The advantage of a sorceress’s curse over magic was that its form and changes were completely flexible. Of course, the power was also flexible, making it high-risk…

A skilled and accomplished sorceress could minimize that risk with her own know-how.

She modified the curse that could have blown off a limb earlier, adding a new curse to create something entirely different.

‘I have to win. I have to win. I have to kill them! I have to prove my worth before the Ascetic abandons me!’

And the second advantage of a sorceress’s curse over magic was that it responded well to the user’s emotions.

With a sound like clear crystal shattering, the defensive art crumbled.

The defensive art was broken.

Just before his sharp metal claws pierced Kalebrin’s heart, threads in the air bound his arm like a puppet’s strings, and he stopped.

Drip.

Then blood flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

It was the price for trying to break a curse mage’s defensive art.

“Kgh, aaaah!”

He swung his claws in all directions, trying to forcibly break free from the binding.

The formless threads that bound him were released, but sorcery was equivalent exchange.

There was no liberation without a price.

In the end, everything came with its due cost.

The Wolf-like One clutched his head in agony.

It was a persistent curse that used the resentment of those he’d killed to curse him to the end. It would make his sleep restless, causing him to waste away and die.

However, on the battlefield, it was merely enough to disrupt his focus.

Once he got used to it, the same offensive from before would come quickly. She needed to prepare a follow-up-

Thunk.

“Ugh.”

Needles flying from somewhere hit her twice in the leg and once more in the arm. She had to pull out the needles and unleash another curse.

Slash.

“Kyaaaah…!”

A large wound appeared on Kalebrin’s shoulder blade.

The Beast-like Man had quickly overcome the curse and swung his claws at her.

Kalebrin tried to create as much distance as possible and wove a defensive art.

But needles that flew in an instant shattered the defensive art and fell to the ground.

The one who caught up to the distance she’d created with another single leap swung his arm.

Another hand with gleaming claws swung from the side. The target was Kalebrin’s temple. A hit from that hand would mean instant death.

The other arm was trying to pierce her heart.

A way to deal with this…

A way to deal with this.

Her life flashed before her eyes.

‘There isn’t one.’

Thud.

Drip…

*

I said I was resting and holed up in my room, using something like telepathy to contact my precious believers who were slacking off on the day of the decisive battle.

“…?”

The thick cord connected to me. Kalebrin’s cord was trembling.

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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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