The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 159

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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 159

What an obvious thing to say.

I listened to the Demon King’s words with a sour expression and retorted inwardly.

No matter how much of an intimate relationship we’d built, if I said that out loud, the Demon King would fire a destruction beam and truly turn me into an ascetic.

Especially since he knew that I wouldn’t even blink if one of my limbs disappeared.

“As much as we prepare against our enemies, our enemies prepare against us. That’s the most basic of basics in military strategy. Isn’t it also obvious that when the opponent is quiet, they’re plotting something?”

Even when I gave him a sarcastic response, the Demon King silently continued with what he had to say. Since most of our strategy meetings went like this, it was a very routine scene.

“It’s when you overlook the obvious that heads roll. In the Empire, Lumensia is an absolute existence. His gaze will always be watching you. Through insects, mice, and tiny creatures like dust.”

Right. The basics are indeed the most important.

“Look at the process of you recovering the holy relics. Was there any interference? No, rather it went smoothly. Even when recovering holy relics within the Empire, it went very smoothly.”

Well, that was true… Back then I didn’t know anything, so I just thought this was natural.

“The opponent is using the holy relics as bait. Something you have no choice but to bite… they’re using what we absolutely have to do as bait.”

“We have no choice but to take the bait and run.”

I made excuses as if defending my past complacent behavior.

“And you speak so carelessly about how this world will be finished if you get caught?”

Well, what am I supposed to do…

Though I felt wronged, he wasn’t wrong. I fell into thought again.

In the meantime, the Demon King suggested various things, but none were sharp solutions. They could be countermeasures at best…

However, they were helpful.

When Celestia regained consciousness, I raised my head.

“Then we need military strategy that can deceive even those trying to catch and kill me in a situation where I have to take the bait and run?”

“Right. Do you have any good ideas?”

“Yes, just now.”

“I hope it’s a good plan.”

“First, I need to return to the Empire.”

“To the Empire? Instead of the chicken destined for the dinner table running out to the yard, it’s going directly to the kitchen?”

“Yes. With this holy relic, I’ve gained a useful method. That is…”

*

Wait, here we go with another strategy time~!

Finally, I had a comrade with whom I could share secrets equally and plan operations with a common goal!

Of course, his temper was terrible, but as a duo whose abilities we mutually acknowledged, we came to devise a new plan to avoid ruining things with obvious mistakes before a big event.

Though it was closer to me rattling off my plan to persuade the Demon King.

“Right. That seems like a good approach.”

“Right? Then it seems like you could bring me the holy relic that’s in the Demon Realm, Demon King.”

“Understood.”

What else would a cult leader do? When physical strength is lacking, intelligence tends to develop.

Since the Demon King had incredibly strong physical power, he could roughly patch up even roughly made plans with force, while I would be completely ruined if my plans failed—I suppose that’s the resulting difference.

Damn it, having a good body really does save you from hardship!

“Let’s head back now.”

And so I concluded the ceasefire negotiations and returned to the Empire with warm hospitality.

*

The Wall of Wailing, where forces remained confronting each other on the front lines without withdrawing. News reached the soldiers at that frontmost position.

“Ceasefire! It’s a ceasefire!”

“Oh, Lumensia…!”

The end of a war that had lasted over 50 years. That news spread throughout the entire Empire like wildfire across dry fields.

Beyond Senta, the whole world came to know of the ‘miracle achieved by the Ascetic.’

On the surface, it was a great peace. But unlike the fervor at the front lines, the atmosphere in the rear—the Empire’s mainland—had grown cold.

“Ceasefire? Damn it, who decided on a ceasefire without permission?”

“The Ascetic? You mean that scholar who’s never suffered a day in his life? Don’t make me laugh! That guy is a complete heretic!”

The price for breaking old inertia was harsh. Even if it was peace for everyone, to those whose rice bowls were immediately threatened, it was nothing but calamity.

Moreover, the Empire was a country that had lived off glorious wars of conquest.

A ceasefire in such a country hit quite hard, despite the widow of the banquet hall having prepared diligently.

“Why aren’t they executing the heretic, Mother? Heretics should have their heads cut off and be burned.”

“That’s right, dear. Right now those high-up people are taking the Saint’s side. But don’t worry.”

The mother smiled lovingly and stroked her daughter’s head.

“They say judgment of the Saint will begin soon.”

The people’s discontent spread like wildfire. The pride of “why bow down when we were winning,” and post-war economic anxiety all poured toward a single target called the ‘Saint.’ And those fanning the flames with this discontent as fuel were none other than the nobles.

“Hmm… With the ceasefire, it’s not easy to feed the soldiers.”

For nobles who had been making decent profits from Demon Realm subjugation and border battles, the ceasefire was tantamount to a bankruptcy notice.

“Knight maintenance costs are too high. What are we to do with these surplus troops?”

This was clearly the Ascetic’s mistake.

If it had been ‘Sernuan Lumiere,’ it might have been different, but the Ascetic from another world failed to understand the medieval economic structure’s deformities.

To him, who had never once tried hunting or farming, the contradiction that some would starve when war stopped was beyond his calculations.

“The Ascetic would certainly be good if he took our side, but opposing war…”

“Doesn’t it also grate on you how he only takes the commoners’ side? If those emboldened lowlifes start eyeing our positions too… Tsk.”

Though the Ascetic knew painfully well how cruel the world was to those without money and power, the malice of the privileged always exceeded his expectations.

“It would be best not to touch the Saint. Even without our interference, the Central Church will move on its own.”

“Right, that’s why we left the Anti-Ascetic Faction in place.”

“Come to think of it, that little brat stuck right next to the Saint… a Junior Priest, was it?” “There are rumors that the Banquet Master personally selected and assigned him. Tsk, what is the Banquet Master really plotting?”

Even amid the chaos of nobles weighing their options and people pointing fingers, a strange phenomenon was occurring.

“The Ascetic is truly God’s apostle who descended to this world! Those who curse him will all go to hell!”

“We believe! If you believe in the Ascetic, you can go to paradise in the afterlife!”

Those cast out by society, the weak, and foreigners from beyond the border in Senta. Those saved by the Ascetic were blindly following him and forming a massive force.

Widows, young ladies, even Princess Alderon. This was why he didn’t easily crumble despite being a mistake-prone foreigner.

And here, in a secretive and luxurious mansion far removed from the world’s commotion. In the spacious reception room, only two shadows were flickering.

Though they had human forms, they were beings that emanated an alien aura too strange to be called human.

“Hmm, quite a lot of people believe in the Ascetic. What should we do? This isn’t what Lumensia wants.”

“Still, this one uses his head quite a bit. Last time… what was it? The Demon King? That one was easy to deal with because he only had strength. What a shame.”

“Shouldn’t we find out who got time in this world?”

“Didn’t it disappear after being used last time?”

“Eris. Stop dawdling like that. I want to end this world quickly. I want to devour all these bundles of possibility. Do you know how many light-years I’ve wasted on this damn planet?”

“How scary. I’m working hard too. Uncharacteristically for me.”

“I looked into it, and there’s a place called Earth. It’s an undeveloped planet with lots of bundles of possibility and no one who seems capable of stopping us. If we keep dawdling like this on this shitty planet with few intelligent beings, once we finish our contract with Lumensia…”

“Once we finish the contract?”

“No, right. Just eating the bundles of possibility and ending it doesn’t balance the books.”

“Now that’s like my sister. You deceiver.”

“Who told us to make a contract with a demon? It’s Lumensia’s fault for thinking he wouldn’t get backstabbed after contracting with demons. Though we were also idiots for contracting to shorten by thousands of years a planet that would collapse on its own.”

“If we hadn’t contracted with Lumensia back then, we would have had our heads cut off along with that planetary god right there.”

“I know.”

“Then I’ll be going now. If I work hard, won’t Sister suffer less?”

Eris disappeared like that.

Left alone, the Sister of Deception couldn’t contain her rising irritation and smashed the innocent chairs to pieces.

Even that didn’t relieve her anger, so only after twisting the necks of five or six attendants to death did she leave the mansion.

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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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