The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 149

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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 149

 

I pressed down hard on my throbbing head. The veil fluttered. In front of me, Eon was restless.

 

“Is, is there some kind of serious problem…!?”

 

“No… I’m just feeling troubled because people are suffering.”

 

Damn it, the one suffering the most right now is me!

 

‘I should have realized something was up when Teacher said she’d quietly send me to the Demon Realm!’

 

This messenger bird was completely screwing me over.

 

First of all, I had said I would go to the Demon Realm as a peace delegation for a ceasefire to meet with the Demon King.

 

But this messenger bird was making it seem like I was completely at odds with the Demon Realm!

 

They even said, ‘Only your holy sacrifice and miracle can save them.’

 

‘Holy sacrifiiiiice?’

 

What’s with this nuance that sounds like they’re going to kill me here?

 

Without my consent, they were triple-screwing me over with [‘We have announced throughout the realm the joyous news that the Saint will personally depart to purify the Demon Realm.’]

 

Would it be complete if they just added “God bless you” at the end? Then I would have fed them a serving of Korean curses and said “thank you” to finish it off.

 

They probably worked together with the Anti-Saint Faction bastards. I should have realized they would disrespect the Saint’s position to this extent.

 

‘I could argue about it, but what I said was ultimately a quiet deal made at the previous banquet hall… Even if I told Teacher, she wouldn’t listen.’

 

Did Teacher set up this barrier to stop me because she didn’t want me going to the Demon Realm and causing more trouble?

 

I took out the pendant Teacher had given me from my pocket. When I opened the pendant, there was an old family photo inside…

 

‘If that was the case, you shouldn’t have given me this pendant, Teacher.’

 

But when I get screwed over, I don’t just take it lying down.

 

If I get screwed over, I naturally return it with double the payback… If it’s a first strike, I’ll return it tenfold.

 

What I learned in life was that while there’s no need to make enemies, if enemies are made, I should render them unable to recover so they can’t come at me again.

 

The idea that Saints can’t do bad things is a shallow prejudice, and Ascetics don’t always hold scriptures in their hands. When necessary, it’s human nature to grab an axe as well.

 

‘I didn’t want to bring this out!’

 

I began thinking about giving a huge payback to the Central Church Anti-Saint Faction bastards who had given me ammunition by trying to trap me…

 

So the stress headache that was painfully ringing in my skull gradually eased. As expected, I seem to be most healed when I’m planning to screw people over. It’s really unfortunate that Sernuan should have had this Saint position instead.

 

[It’s alriiiiight]

 

A completely distorted status window entered my vision.

 

‘What do you mean it’s alright? As expected from someone with such a pushover mentality…’

 

I let out a short sigh and spun the pen in one hand.

 

“First, I’ll send a letter and then go pick up the sword I left at the blacksmith shop.”

 

“But Ascetic.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Why is that pen spinning in the air?”

 

“…?”

 

“…?”

 

Huh?

 

I stared wide-eyed from beneath my veil at the pen spinning round and round in the air.

 

I was clearly holding the paper to send a letter with one hand, and with the other hand…

 

‘Wait, didn’t I get my arm cut off?’

 

I even cut it off myself!

 

Thud, roll roll.

 

As soon as I realized that, the quill pen that had been floating in the air dropped with a thud and spilled ink all over the table.

 

A chilling uneasiness rose from my spine and hit my chest. Innocent Eon tilted his head and asked.

 

“Isn’t that… what you’re doing, Ascetic?”

 

Since when could I use telekinesis?

 

‘I’ve never learned void manipulation, whether with sacred relics or anything else???’

 

Everything in my head seemed to stop, but I managed to open my mouth.

 

“Yes… Yes, th-that’s right.”

 

Uncharacteristically, I stammered as I answered, not as ‘Cult Leader Sernuan Lumiere’ but as my real self. Eon smiled brightly and nodded slightly.

 

“I see! Then I’ll bring some tea!”

 

“Yes…”

 

As soon as Eon closed the door and left, I called the system.

 

“C-Cel. Cel.”

 

[Yes, this is Cel, your loyal AI system. What can I help you with?]

 

“Why am I using telekinesis?”

 

[Ah, I thought you were aware of it, but apparently not. Would you like a detailed explanation? Or should I give you a time-saving summary version?]

 

I had my veil half off. And I pressed my forehead firmly.

 

Ugh, what kind of situation is this now… At least the hand pressing my forehead is attached to a perfectly fine arm.

 

“Detailed…”

 

[Yes, I’ll give you a detailed explanation.]

 

Perhaps because the system window received the command phrase “detailed,” cute drawings began to appear inside the large system window.

 

[People who have lost body parts experience phantom pain. It’s a sensation experienced in relation to that area even though it doesn’t physically exist. You are experiencing that phenomenon, Ascetic.]

 

An SD character wrapped in bandages appeared, clutching at the empty air where an arm should be and crying. The severed area was blinking with red dotted lines. The small person icon had an X_X~! expression drawn on its face.

 

[However, you are no longer an ordinary human, Ascetic. You are a vessel that contains God, and divinity is already contained in this body. Part of the vessel is broken and gone, but divinity is not bound by flesh. It maintains its original form and fills that space.]

 

The screen changed to show a glass bottle that looked exactly like a ‘Saint.’ Inside the bottle was a shimmering blue liquid (divinity) filled to the brim without any gaps.

 

[Like a glass bottle filled with water and frozen solid. The bottle was broken by external impact and the glass pieces disappeared, but the contents inside are solid and dense enough to maintain the shape of the bottle even without it.]

 

In the picture, someone smashed the handle part of the glass bottle with a pixel hammer with a ‘crash!’ The glass shattered into pieces and fell to the floor.

 

[The reason you can heal yourself quickly when injured is also because your soul and divinity are already maintaining their original form.]

 

But surprisingly, where the glass had disappeared, blue ice was floating in the air, maintaining the exact shape of the glass bottle.

 

[In other words, this telekinetic phenomenon is your power made of invisible divinity, Ascetic. It can be seen as a kind of ethereal force exerting weak physical power.]

 

Finally, the ice arm in the screen moved up and down, then made a motion of picking up the pixel quill pen that had fallen to the floor and winked.

 

[Additionally, it was a similar situation when you died once after being attacked by NPC ‘Viola,’ Ascetic.]

 

“What?”

 

I really died?

 

[Yes. Your throat was completely pierced then. It was a wound that would have killed any ordinary human instantly.]

 

An SD character of Sernuan Lumiere without a veil appeared in the system window, showing an awkward expression with a bandage on his neck.

 

[But the moment your body faced death, the high-density divinity contained within explosively activated and forcibly held together the collapse of your flesh. To explain it ‘kindly’… it was ‘a situation where your soul grabbed your body by the collar and dragged it along.’]

 

I unconsciously touched my neck. It was smooth. Not a single scar remained.

 

[Of course, since it was such major unprepared damage, you suffered a great shock, and dummy data was overwritten onto the Ascetic’s temporary data file, plus the system went down as a penalty, but thanks to that experience, your divinity became one step freer from the constraints of the physical body.]

 

Sernuan Lumiere’s SD character went “Waah~” while clapping with small hands.

 

[This time when your arm was cut off, you were able to immediately assume an ether form without panic because you already had the ‘experience of transcending the physical body’ once before.]

 

The character in the system window crossed its arms smugly.

 

[In conclusion, Ascetic, you are gradually becoming less human and more… a ‘walking divine power’ itself. Congratulations!🎉 Now you don’t need to make a fuss just because your arm gets cut off!]

 

The system burst party icons. Sernuan Lumiere in the system also blew a horn that went “Toot toot~!” as it stretched and contracted.

 

“…”

 

Where do I even start with this… No, first, um.

 

“Right. Thank you so much for kindly informing me that I’m not human.”

 

[Don’t mention it, I’ve been your kind Cel all this time! Is there anything else you need?]

 

“No… there isn’t…”

 

[Please call me again if you need anything.]

 

The system window disappeared. Ife must have been watching too, as its round head was bobbing around curiously.

 

“Honestly, I can’t feel much difference even though I’ve apparently stopped being human, so I don’t even know what’s going on… I should be feeling a difference, though.”

 

-{From what I’ve observed all along, there’s nothing except a bit of ruthlessness in your actions!}

 

“Ruthlessness?”

 

-{And your acting, really getting into the Ascetic role… That RP (roleplay) was amazing! You could call it Method Acting!}

 

Is it because I struck someone’s neck with an axe? But that wasn’t a person.

 

No, but that was a person, wasn’t it? If a person is defined as a bipedal mammal that shares common traits with me, then that would be a person.

 

But wasn’t that something truly useless that shouldn’t exist in this world? Eliminating such things was necessary work for this world to last a little longer. Right! I did necessary work! The world has limited resources, and they should go to beneficial people, not be consumed by useless ones like cancer cells or burnt ash – that’s extreme waste on a global scale. Wait, just a few months ago, until before the possession, I was a modern person who felt very uncomfortable about hitting any living creature, whether pigeons or stray cats… Huh? Um? Hold on, does this topic have any meaning anymore? No. This world is approaching destruction anyway, and I must stop it from the front lines. Right. I like this world. If I want to save Sernuan, and Kalebrin, and Antonio… if I want to save everyone, I have no choice but to complete my mission. To see tomorrow’s sunrise with everyone I hold dear, I have no choice but to accomplish this, and I had the ability to do it sufficiently…

 

-{Shouldn’t you use the messenger bird? The ink is running out.}

 

“Ah.”

 

I lightly wiped the ink on the desk with my hand. The ink disappeared as if by magic.

 

Perhaps because I perceived it as dirty, even the ink stains that had soaked deep into the desk were completely washed away without a trace.

 

“Right. I should write. There’s no time… Thanks, Ife. I was getting lost in other thoughts…”

 

-{Hmm, I like the Ascetic. It’s nothing special!}

 

I could sense Eon approaching with tea. I lowered the veil I had raised and focused on my work.

 

As if nothing had happened.

 

Just like always.

—————
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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