The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 146

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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 146

 

Tuba thought for a moment, then obediently followed me.

 

I could hear the distinctive heavy sound of Tuba’s boots behind me.

 

“…Why me? You must have other loyal dogs who would die at your word…”

 

“Brother Tuba is the right person for this because your face isn’t known yet and you can move quietly.”

 

I was about to end my words there, but added one more thing.

 

“And they’re not ‘loyal dogs’ but my neighbors and Brothers and Sisters, so please watch your words.”

 

Tuba listened to my words but didn’t seem angry or uncomfortable. He just snorted as if he’d heard something trivial and pulled his robe hood down further.

 

“It will be quite a long journey. The round trip will take about a day.”

 

Tuba didn’t respond and asked something else instead.

 

“So. What exactly are we going to find… and where are we going…?”

 

I kindly answered his question.

 

“The Heretics’ Catacomb… Have you heard of it?”

 

“The Heretics’ Catacomb…?”

 

“Yes. It was a catacomb built in the early days of the Empire. Back then, the Forgotten Gods were still in good condition. But the Empire only dealt with Lumensia as a single deity, so what do you think they did?”

 

“That’s the kind of question… you’d ask Academy students… cut it out…”

 

“Hehe.”

 

I gave a short laugh. Tuba followed behind me, keeping two steps back.

 

“The Empire set a ‘Great Purge’ day and killed all those who served heretics. In the process, their catacombs were all buried underground and disappeared. However, some fairly large-scale catacombs still exist. As special black market trading places.”

 

This was a place I had visited in the game and discovered through cross-referencing work with the Young Lady and Antonio.

 

I got into the carriage. The Coachman I’d seen several times greeted me.

 

“We’re going to a place called the Heretics’ Catacomb that has become a black market.”

 

*

 

It took a full half day by carriage.

 

When we arrived, the sun had already set, and since there were no villages or settlements nearby in this abandoned land, it was incredibly dark.

 

If this world had been Joseon, a tiger would have come out and snatched me up. Of course, here it would be monsters instead of tigers.

 

“I can hear… sounds from underground…”

 

Sound was Tuba’s domain, but I had the ability to see through biological reactions within roughly a 500-meter radius. Thanks to this, I could vaguely guess what was underground.

 

Underground, about 30 people were conducting black market trades in narrow tunnels.

 

“Wouldn’t having nothing around like this… actually draw suspicion…?”

 

“It’s fine since there aren’t any deals big enough to draw suspicion. When you put items in the coffins in the catacomb, they’re automatically sold and you receive payment, so this place is only visited by sellers and buyers.”

 

In other words, it’s like a vending machine-style automatic auction.

 

“The downside is that if items in those coffins don’t sell continuously, they gradually move toward the back of the catacomb’s coffins, making them hard to find.”

 

It’s similar to how products in a vending machine become invisible when pushed to the back.

 

“There won’t be any checkpoint inspections. The Administrator bought off the person in charge of this region.”

 

That’s right~ it’s the all-capable Young Lady who knows the ins and outs of black markets and dark routes!

 

The Young Lady offered to cooperate, but I feel a bit sorry for using her help in so many different ways.

 

But if I give her priority access to instantly heal relatives, loved ones, or herself when they get hurt or contract incurable diseases, it shouldn’t be a losing deal, so I hope she’ll forgive me!

 

“I see….”

 

Tuba seemed to lower his guard by one stack after hearing my explanation.

 

“But this is just an empty field…? Where is… the entrance?”

 

They said the catacombs were buried during the Great Purge, right? In that process, people were buried alive too, so this place is one that the villagers find ominous.

 

They even set fires here decades ago, so there’s no forest nearby either. This place is completely barren, just as Tuba said.

 

Even if I hadn’t bribed the Administrator, there probably wouldn’t have been any Administrator who would bother trudging all the way out here.

 

If there hadn’t been life signs below, Tuba probably would have thought this Ascetic had gone crazy from too much asceticism and given me a good smack. Because there was absolutely nothing! Really nothing here!

 

I swept my feet around. Then a tombstone embedded in the ground, buried under the sandy wind, was revealed.

 

The tombstone formed scales, and the scales had two circular grooves carved into them.

 

I rolled the two special tokens I had received as tickets between my fingers. Then I crouched down and inserted one into each groove in the tombstone.

 

The scales engraved in the tombstone wobbled and then tilted to the right. Then with a thud! the ground shook as if there had been an earthquake.

 

The ground made a grinding sound as it slowly revealed the underground catacombs below.

 

“I don’t know who built these catacombs like this, but it’s quite an ingenious system.”

 

It was probably made by some skilled person among the believers who worship the Forgotten God, trying to avoid detection by the Empire, but now it’s only used as a black market, which would be lamentable for whoever built it.

 

From the narrow entrance, I could feel the underground’s characteristic coolness and air flow. Below the veil that couldn’t quite cover everything, my long white hair fluttered like a virgin ghost.

 

I went down about two steps, turned around, and extended my hand to Tuba. Because Tuba wasn’t taking any steps.

 

“Shall we go?”

 

He kills people and looks like that, so surely he’s not afraid of dark, narrow, damp, humid places or anything like that, right?

 

I only brought him along because I need Tuba to get what I want from the catacombs!

 

“Go ahead yourself….”

 

Tuba coldly brushed away my hand and walked ahead of me.

 

The sound of Tuba’s shoes echoed through the underground stairs. The underground was about 4 meters below, so we didn’t have to go down very far.

 

When we came down into the catacombs, the walls were packed with coffins lying horizontally.

 

Product names were written on the wood at the foot of those coffins. And tombstones were placed accordingly next to each one. If you place something of equal value to what you want to buy here, the transaction will proceed automatically.

 

‘Wow! Amazing! This is really a place I’ve only seen in games!’

 

Of course, in the game I was a hero, so there was the difference that I had come to destroy this black market, but now I can even use it!

 

‘Wow, I’m really a true fan.’

 

People wearing robes and wandering around the alleys full of coffins showed interest in us, then soon looked away.

 

“Now what we need to find here is….”

 

The easter egg I discovered in the game.

 

‘Back then I didn’t even know what it was for, so I just thought it was some development behind-the-scenes thing and left it at that….’

 

Only after entering the game and learning the truth behind all the events did I understand what that bell was for.

 

That bell in this ‘Heretics’ Catacombs’ black market is a relic that someone arranged to stop Lumensia.

 

A palm-sized bronze bell. I have to find it among all these countless, varied coffins where it’s barely visible.

 

‘In the game, I just smashed all the coffins so it rolled out from somewhere, but here I can’t smash them.’

 

That’s why I brought Tuba. Since he’s sensitive to sounds, I thought he could find what I’m looking for.

 

“Brother Tuba, you can hear the sounds of stationary objects too, right?”

 

Tuba raised an eyebrow as if wondering how I knew that.

 

I can’t use it because it’s not in the system, but there’s something better because the system is gone.

 

Weakness Detection. It was a simple skill created by the system, but now I’m in a state where I’ve grown stronger, unlike in the early days. I’ve also collected Sacred Relics.

 

I’ve already seen through skills like Tuba’s!

 

“For a mere Saint… your intuition is far too sharp…”

 

However, vaguely knowing something and hearing it from the person themselves are different things.

 

That was also the reason why I kept thinking I should ask Tuba about his skills.

 

He might be able to use such abilities but can’t due to psychological issues, or there might be variations in his capabilities. I’m still a newbie when it comes to seeing through such details.

 

“Brother Tuba has the ability to sense objects through sound and move to places where sound is made, correct?”

 

“…Yes. Though moving has… limitations…”

 

Tuba confessed obediently. I nodded and took a step back. It seemed like I could hear the whooshing sound of wind in the long corridor.

 

“Please find the quietest one among these coffins. One that makes absolutely no sound.”

 

“Absolutely no sound…?”

 

Tuba pulled his robe down tighter for a moment, then stood still. He was probably complying with my request because it was an item for killing Lumensia.

 

After a brief silence, he walked deeper into the catacombs, further and further, through winding alleys until the people in this burial ground were no longer visible.

 

Soon he stopped in front of a coffin. Inside the alley, there were also corpses that had become skeletons. Tuba moved aside the coffin that was placed in front.

 

The coffin placed inside came into view.

 

[-…’s…Bronze]

 

Looking at the foot of that coffin, there was a panel with most of the text erased and worn away, with only a few readable letters remaining.

 

Even the nails holding the panel were heavily rusted, and touching them carelessly would probably guarantee tetanus.

 

“Enhancing hearing is tiring… I hope you won’t ask me to do this again…”

 

Tuba’s voice as he said this was much more subdued than before. His cave-like bass had dropped almost to deep sea levels, so I could only nod in understanding.

 

[Please give flowers to the dead.]

 

To retrieve the coffin, I had to place an object of appropriate value on the stone monument.

 

‘I don’t know how much this bell will be worth.’

 

To others it might look like a worn-out bronze bell, but to me it was an object of great value.

 

During the full-scale battle with Lumensia, it would control his abilities… a kind of debuff artifact specifically for Lumensia.

 

‘I didn’t know because the easter egg description was unhelpful. The description was probably…’

 

–

 

【Name: Discord Bell】

 

Only a place for the heaviest and coldest silence remains.

 

An old bell found inside a coffin. It seems to be a burial good interred for the peace of the dead. It can no longer hold hymns or screams.

 

This bell cannot make sound and disrupts ‘perfect’ tuning.

 

No matter how great a performer like a god, hearing this sound would make them lose their rhythm and press the wrong keys.

 

Perhaps… it might be meant to eternally put something great to sleep?

 

–

 

That’s what the description would have been.

 

It was an unfortunate easter egg that I researched diligently to deduce the game’s behind-the-scenes lore, but never reached a conclusion…

 

After learning the full story in the game, there was no explanation that spoon-fed me this much. Damn it! Why did they speak so indirectly back then? If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have cut off the Demon King’s head, hero or whatever!

 

I crouched down and placed a bundle full of Empire gold coins in front of yet another identical stone monument with scales.

 

“….”

 

It was quiet. This didn’t seem right.

 

“Hmm.”

 

“Is the money insufficient… Saint?”

 

“It doesn’t seem to be a matter of money.”

 

That bundle of money I put up earlier is worth roughly 50 million won.

 

I tucked the bundle of money back into my chest and rummaged through my belongings to see if there was anything useful. If not money, then I’d have to barter, I thought.

 

Then Tuba also crouched down beside me and brought out an item.

 

What he took from his chest and placed on the stone monument was not a bundle of money.

 

Thunk.

 

It was a small, blackened piece of silver.

 

I could recognize what it was.

 

Worn and tarnished, but unmistakably the sacred symbol of the Lumensia Religious Order. It was the crest of ‘Lumensia’.

 

“Brother Tuba, this is…?”

 

“…It belonged to the first ‘believer’ I killed…”

 

Tuba answered numbly.

 

He had murdered a Central Church figure. He had offered the ‘loot’ from his first murder instead of ‘flowers’.

 

Though discomfort rose within me as an ‘Ascetic’, there could be no greater insult, and no more fitting sacrifice for the grave of heretics.

 

…Creak.

 

Perhaps the system recognized this, as the scales moved very slightly, by the width of a single hair.

 

But that was all.

 

‘When I offered money, it didn’t move at all…’

 

[Give flowers to the dead.]

 

It’s neither money nor anything else. Do I need to offer something related to God? Or do I need to give something related to Lumensia? Since what was offered earlier was silver, do I need to offer silver…

 

Then, Tuba turned to look at me. His gaze seemed to pierce through the inside of my robe, into my chest.

 

“Saint.”

 

“…Yes?”

 

“The sacred relics you possess. Offer one of them.”

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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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