The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 137

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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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Chapter 137

 

Tuba spoke in a slow, dragging voice. Somehow the cigar in his mouth had gone out properly.

 

I didn’t know anything about cigars, so I couldn’t tell what the process was supposed to be.

 

“…Not yet… That’s… a story for after reporting to the Boss…”

 

Ah! So he won’t give immediate approval. Well, normally approval requests have to go up to superiors.

 

“I see. Then are you planning to go straight to Harmony, Brother Tuba?”

 

“Yeah… If I swagger around the City Center with this head box… I’ll get caught and killed by the Security Officer…”

 

As if he’d get caught that easily~ Tuba makes jokes in his own way too. Despite looking so stoic.

 

“Haha, you make jokes too, Brother.”

 

I let out a small laugh through my veil. Tuba’s expression wasn’t visible, hidden by the shadow of his robe, but the box he was holding… seemed to be trembling slightly for some reason.

 

Did he not like the joke?

 

“Then you’d better return to Harmony quickly, before you get caught by the ‘Security Officer.'”

 

I opened wide the door that had become clean without a single bloodstain, clearing a path for him to leave. Unlike the bloody-smelling room, fresh outside air and the lively noise of people rushed in.

 

“I’ll return to the Religious Order and prepare for the next ‘pruning.’ Please give my regards to the Commander.”

 

“… .”

 

Tuba didn’t answer.

 

He pulled the extinguished cigar from his mouth as if chewing it, then quickly escaped down the corridor, avoiding me… no, this entire room including me, as if even the air in this room was disgusting, as if it were some kind of plague.

 

‘Hmm~ For me it just felt like cutting a piece of wood, but I guess it’s different for Tuba. I thought he’d be fine since he’s killed many people too.’

 

Clatter, clatter.

 

The sound of the box containing the head grew distant down the stairs.

 

After confirming that Tuba had completely disappeared, I looked out the window.

 

The still-lively street was decorated here and there with the sun god’s emblem, as if the excitement from the Dawn Festival hadn’t yet faded.

 

‘Now then…’

 

I brought to mind the list of targets to ‘prune’ next.

 

‘Should I go see Antonio.’

 

Administration is Antonio, odd jobs are also Antonio. Our all-purpose Antonio will surely help me with building the orphanage!

 

“Hmm.”

 

Should I call someone to clean up and get things roughly organized? Having a headless body lying around like this doesn’t look very good either. Seeing how even Tuba fled like that, it must look quite gruesome.

 

‘Really, even seeing a headless corpse doesn’t bother me at all…’

 

Originally, I was someone who had never even hit a single pigeon or dog. For such a person to suddenly cut off another person’s head without any hesitation doesn’t make sense.

 

The reason I could do it was simply… I can’t just lump it together and explain it away as me having changed.

 

Hmm, yes. How should I put it.

 

Do you recoil in horror at seeing an ant’s head torn off?

 

Of course, those who hate insects would recoil, but I don’t recoil that much at insects.

 

If I did, I would have gone bankrupt calling pest control every time cockroaches appeared in the orphanage and my studio apartment.

 

To that extent, that bastard was… no longer human to me.

 

He was no different from ants, flies, or cockroaches. Rather, even comparing him to insects would be an insult to those insects.

 

‘What entered my sight wasn’t a ‘person.’ It was disgusting sin itself, given form by those horrific records of ‘821 indirect murders,’ ’42 human trafficking cases,’ and ‘complicity in over 1,000 sexual crimes.’

 

After I brought down punishment and made him into that state, he was no longer human, but merely ‘dregs of sin.’

 

Just as one feels no guilt when killing a cockroach, I felt no emotion while cutting off the neck of those ‘dregs.’

 

You don’t feel guilt when swatting a fly that annoyingly buzzes back and forth in your vision, do you? Rather, you feel good that the thing obstructing your view has disappeared.

 

That’s what it was.

 

However, what Tuba saw was ‘a Saint cutting the neck of a person who had been tortured to near death.’ I could tell from how he disappeared as if fleeing in horror.

 

But what I had done was merely ‘cleanup’ – like putting the corpse of an insect sprawled on the floor into a dustpan.

 

Normally I wouldn’t have even thought about this – had some corner of my mind become strange?

 

But that thought didn’t last long either.

 

I swept my gaze once over the blood-soaked floor.

 

The bloodstains had disappeared, purified by my power, but that disgusting smell still seemed to linger. And the headless torso sprawled on the floor too.

 

“Hmm. Should I at least air it out before calling people?”

 

It would be terrible to work in a smelly place.

 

I opened the window and left the building. Now the only signs of life I could sense in the building were a few rats gnawing at the ceiling and some insects.

 

Tuba had already disappeared somewhere long ago. I wanted to know how Harmony’s transportation device or teleportation worked, but I’d probably only be able to ask about that after receiving news of passing the test.

 

*

 

“It’s been a while, Brother Antonio.”

 

I warmly welcomed my first believer. Though we’d talked many times through voice transmission, it felt like it had been really long since we spoke face to face like this.

 

“It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve seen your face. Ascetic. Have you been well?”

 

Next to Antonio was a very small child. The child, who wouldn’t even reach Kalebrin’s chest, looked quite sickly.

 

“Thanks to Antonio, I have been well. You, have there been any troubles?”

 

“Thanks to your care, Ascetic, there have been no troubles. Come, say hello.”

 

Nod.

 

The child nodded once and quickly hid behind Antonio.

 

“Haha. The child went through harsh experiences, so is quite shy with strangers. Please understand.”

 

There’s no way Antonio would suddenly bring a young human for no reason. Did he suddenly develop a hobby of raising humans? I had heard that wealthy merchant guild leaders have one or two strange hobbies.

 

‘If it’s the strange hobby of raising young children, I should stop him.’

 

That’s a crime, a crime. Unless he’s an orphanage director…

 

My modern person’s ethics rang alarm bells.

 

“Of course. It troubles my heart to hear of harsh experiences – what happened to this small child?”

 

“This is a child I rescued from slave traders. As a demon race half-blood, the child was persecuted and in mortal danger, so I brought them.”

 

A demon race half-blood?

 

Because the child was short, I had to crouch down and lower my back even more to meet the child’s eyes.

 

The mixed-blood child was small in stature and young in age, making it impossible to tell from appearance whether it was a boy or girl.

 

I could see that Antonio had done his best to clean up the child’s disheveled state.

 

Between the bangs, the reverse pupils that could be called a symbol of the demon race and tiny horns protruded from the unkempt hair.

 

To avoid seeing worse treatment in this Empire, the child would need to wear a veil like me.

 

I made eye contact with the child for a moment, then stood up. Light burst forth from the child’s body. The child seemed fascinated and waved their hands trying to catch those specks of light.

 

“Thank you for your Divine Mercy, Ascetic.”

 

Antonio, who knew that I had healed the child, bowed his head slightly in greeting.

 

What’s with this formal gratitude between us. Antonio is really so old-fashioned.

 

“I merely did what was right. By the way, what is the child’s name?”

 

“We hoped the Ascetic would name the child, so we haven’t given one yet.”

 

Such a monumentally important task to me, who has no sense for naming? Before naming Ife, I called her something like “Squirmy” and nearly got beaten up by Ife.

 

-{I really think that was terrible, Ascetic.}

 

Ife, who had been quiet all along, poked her face out from the gap in my wrist and muttered.

 

Since I didn’t want to suddenly become someone who talks to thin air, I had no choice but to ignore Ife.

 

“Is this a child that Antonio has decided to raise?”

 

“The orphanage wouldn’t take the child, and unfortunately, even the Central Church Temple wouldn’t accept them. Your direct temple would take them, but since no one there has experience raising children… Yes. I decided to raise the child myself.”

 

“Then it would look better if Antonio, as the adoptive father, gave the child a name directly.”

 

Antonio didn’t add any other words and obediently followed my opinion.

 

I took out a neatly folded veil from the pouch inside my clothes and gave it to the child. It was a white veil I used to wear. Since I now wear the World’s Darkest Veil, I no longer need it.

 

“Though it’s unfortunate that you must live hiding your appearance, I will surely create an Empire where you can cast off your veil and walk freely before long.”

 

The hesitant child grabbed just the edge of the veil to avoid touching my hand and smoothly pulled it out. Then, looking at what I was wearing, the child clumsily put on the veil in imitation.

 

Antonio couldn’t bear to watch and helped adjust it. The veil that only reaches my lower jaw when I wear it came almost to the center of the child’s neck.

 

“Since Antonio has taken the child in, I trust you will raise them well.”

 

Just hearing the conversation, it sounds like I just entrusted him with a succulent plant. At my words, Antonio’s expression hardened as if feeling a weighty responsibility.

 

“You must listen well to Antonio.”

 

I casually offered the greeting like the closing comment of an animal segment on some morning TV program.

 

At those words, the child stiffened their body just like their adoptive father.

 

Still, you’re lucky to be taken in by Antonio. If you’d been sent to an orphanage, you would have died.

 

After that brief encounter ended, Antonio temporarily entrusted the child to a subordinate and had them taken to a room.

 

Now only Antonio and I remained alone in the room. He politely poured tea, and I lifted the teacup through my veil to smell the fragrance.

 

“Antonio.”

 

“Yes, Ascetic.”

 

“That child – you didn’t just take them in out of kindness.”

 

“As expected, I can’t hide anything from you, Ascetic. That’s correct.”

 

Antonio is a merchant.

 

He was someone who proposed deals to me even back when I couldn’t control my energy and was pressuring everything around me.

 

For a Merchant Guild Leader famous enough to have the nickname Golden Merchant to suddenly bring in a half-demon child out of pity.

 

That doesn’t make sense.

 

Antonio continued speaking.

 

“After you warned me, there have definitely been more people targeting me. With help from the Young Lady you introduced, I confirmed that there’s apparently a bounty on me in the underworld.”

 

That was probably put up by the widow.

 

“Ordinary bodyguard knights or those who claim to be skilled lack both trustworthiness and ability, so I was worried.”

 

“How did you manage until now?”

 

“I borrowed a relatively trustworthy bodyguard knight from an acquaintance for a few weeks. They’ve returned now.”

 

Antonio said this and put down his teacup.

 

“That child is a ‘gemstone’ that slave traders put up without knowing what they had.”

 

“Why?”

 

Antonio burst into hearty laughter. His appearance while drinking tea looked as leisurely as if he were savoring expensive cognac.

 

“When I first discovered that child in the slave trader’s cage… that child was biting at the ankle of another slave who was at least two heads taller. Those eyes… they weren’t those of a beast. They were the very embodiment of the will to survive.”

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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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