The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 177

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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 177

 

After that, no further actions occurred. The Savior fell asleep like a stone statue again.

 

Professor Ellara clapped her hands. Erendor, perhaps hungry, was picking at and eating the stew.

 

“Anyway, everyone, this is good news! With this, we’ve discovered that those family games and acts of reminiscing about the past are quite effective. We can continue.”

 

“But why did he suddenly start eating while just sitting there?”

 

“However, we can’t rely solely on such coincidences. Combining the recent actions with our research results.”

 

Professor Ellara dragged over a blackboard. She placed it next to the Savior and began her explanation.

 

“The Savior’s actions are imitating the most impressive memories from his lifetime. However, that’s not simply recovering memories, but merely rewinding a clockwork… like an automaton.”

 

On the blackboard was drawn what appeared to be… a doll.

 

“Do you know how automatons move? Magic? No. They only run on clockwork. Clockwork and wood! Very basic and fundamental. There’s no thought involved. No self-awareness either. It’s the same as a knee jerking when tapped.”

 

Professor Ellara tapped her temple with two chalk-covered fingers.

 

“But why is he like that?”

 

Professor Ellara began lecturing as if she were standing before a podium teaching students for the first time in a long while.

 

Though an eccentric researcher, she was one of the four pillars of the Magic Tower.

 

“Fundamentally, there’s insufficient faith to maintain his body. Second, he achieved an incomplete resurrection from the start. It’s like a premature baby who can’t even properly drink his mother’s milk.”

 

Professor Ellara was an excellent professor who could conduct lessons that even Erendor and Yelena, who were ignorant of magic, could gradually understand.

 

“So what we need to do is treat a newborn premature baby… Well, as you can see, it’s sluggish progress. We’ll discover a method someday, but that would be in the very distant future. Moreover, we can’t even find clues about related spirits or anything, can we?”

 

Two fingers were extended.

 

“Then second. Let’s at least make him drink lots of milk. That milk would be faith. Is there anyone who would believe in the Savior more than this? Hmm, even I, who doesn’t know much about outside affairs and is stuck in the Magic Tower, can tell that those who would believe already believe. Increasing the number of believers beyond this isn’t easy either.”

 

Tap tap tap.

 

White chalk passed like poor handwriting across the dark green blackboard.

 

“Then what should we do? Here’s something else I’ve been thinking about.”

 

Professor Ellara raised one finger sharply.

 

“First. Artificially gather faith.”

 

“By artificially, you mean…?”

 

Yelena asked.

 

“The Inquisitor would know well. You know, building altars. Offering sacrifices and such. It’s not done for no reason. Haha. Well, taboos and prohibitions don’t exist for nothing either!”

 

“Hmm. I still don’t like it.”

 

Unlike Yelena who found it distasteful, Celestia’s expression was calm. Celestia spoke.

 

“Whatever it is. We’re not in a position to be picky about methods. Let’s do it. At most, some sacrifices. We can extract a few death row inmates in the name of the Tower Master.”

 

“Celestia. Still, this is…”

 

“In this situation, are we in a position to choose between clean water and dirty water? That sorcery Kalebrin used was also heresy and practically black magic branded by the Central Church. What’s acceptable and what isn’t?”

 

“…”

 

“Useless lives, the lives of criminals who take others’ lives – isn’t it fine to use them here? Compared to the great work the Ascetic will accomplish when he awakens, such lives should consider it an honor.”

 

Yelena knew something was wrong but could only move her lips without saying anything. Professor Ellara raised her eyebrows and continued her explanation.

 

“Right. I’ll respect your opinions. If other methods don’t work, we’ll have to try that.”

 

“Let’s do it right now. Professor Ellara.”

 

“Now, now, and second.”

 

Professor Ellara ignored Celestia’s words and made a V with her fingers. She took chalk and began drawing on the blackboard with scratching sounds.

 

“You said right after awakening, he was stopping fights. What if that wasn’t simply his condition deteriorating to reach the present state, but he was originally like that? What if his current state is normal?”

 

Professor Ellara wrote large letters on the blackboard.

 

[Fairness]

 

“Fairness… you say?”

 

Celestia asked with puzzlement. Ellara tapped the blackboard and spoke passionately.

 

“Think about it. Right after he awakened, what did he do in that chaos? Did he save allies and sweep away enemies? No.”

 

Ellara’s eyes flashed.

 

“He stopped the fighting. And healed those in the plaza.”

 

“That was… because we were in mortal danger…”

 

“No, no. He didn’t save them simply because they were allies. It was a situation where those with overwhelming power were about to unilaterally ravage powerless humans. He intervened to balance that ’tilted scale.'”

 

Ellara added shading to one side of the scale drawing on the blackboard to make it heavier.

 

“The only ‘absolute precept’ engraved in his soul after becoming a god is likely not ‘mercy’ or ‘love’ but ‘fairness.’ He’s now become an ‘absolutely neutral judge’ who isn’t on anyone’s side, just balancing the world. When he drove out Lumensia, what appeared was also a scale, wasn’t it?”

 

“Then…”

 

Erendor muttered while resting his chin on his hand.

 

“You’re saying he’s sitting there blankly because it’s too peaceful here?”

 

“Correct!”

 

Ellara snapped her fingers.

 

“This ‘Cradle of Stars’ is far too peaceful, equal, and without any problems. There’s absolutely no justification for the precept of ‘fairness’ to operate. So he’s not broken. He’s very normally maintaining fairness by ‘doing nothing.'”

 

The audience stirred.

 

They thought the Ascetic had lost his memory and become a fool, but he was simply perfectly maintaining ‘neutrality’ as his divinity demanded.

 

Celestia’s head began to throb at Ellara’s explanation.

 

“Then what are you suggesting? To make the Savior move… do we have to fight each other?”

 

“Simple fighting isn’t enough. Equals beating each other up is just ‘fair competition’ to him.”

 

Ellara erased the scale drawing on the blackboard and instead drew an extreme picture. A large evil spirit trampling a very small, powerless being.

 

“To break his ‘fairness,’ we need to stage extreme ‘unfairness.'”

 

“Unfairness…”

 

“Right. Absurdity that’s impossible to overlook. Situations where the strong unilaterally ravage the weak, justice is trampled, and causality is twisted! Show him that ’tilted scale,’ and he, as the guardian of balance, will instinctively jump out and intervene.”

 

Clap!

 

“Of course, this is just my hypothesis! But it makes quite a bit of sense, doesn’t it? Haha. If his consciousness awakens in that unfair situation, we might be able to ask what arrangements that Ascetic made in life for this situation.”

 

“…! That’s right.”

 

“The Ascetic isn’t someone who wouldn’t prepare for such things. Though I don’t know why he didn’t tell us about it.”

 

“He said telling us would twist the future.”

 

Just as Celestia was about to probe further at Yelena’s words, Professor Ellara clapped a few more times to wrap up the situation.

 

“Now, now, anyway.”

 

Professor Ellara concluded her lecture.

 

“We all know we don’t have time, don’t we? We need to prepare to use strong measures soon. So Celestia, do you have a plan? Nothing will be resolved if you just keep treasuring and hoarding.”

 

“Right. Though I wasn’t particularly treasuring and hoarding. Since there’s no reason to choose just one method, let’s try both.”

 

“Wait… I don’t think we need to use those methods.”

 

Yelena stopped Celestia.

 

“I don’t know why, but I just remembered. Gretchin. We need to find Gretchin. The Ascetic in life said we should find Gretchin in times like this…!”

 

“Why are you only remembering this now?”

 

“Uh, I don’t know either. Why…?”

 

“Fine. It’s fortunate you remembered now. We’ll scold you later. So who is Gretchin?”

 

“Gretchin. That’s quite an unusual name.”

 

“…? You all know him too. Gretchin.”

 

Yelena raised her eyebrows as if she couldn’t understand their confusion.

 

“Gretchin! The one with pink hair who always stuck close to the Ascetic. The low-ranking priest who served as an advisor, then briefly went to Kalebrin before returning.”

 

“Ah~ that person? But was the name really Gretchin…?”

 

Erendor pretended to know then hesitated. Celestia and Cardil also frowned.

 

“I don’t know Gretchin well, but I think I’ve seen him a few times. However… the name definitely wasn’t Gretchin, was it?”

 

“The face is vague to me too.”

 

“Not Gretchin… I think it was a different name.”

 

Professor Ellara had never seen Gretchin. She tilted her head back and forth with interest and smiled.

 

“Perhaps the Ascetic personally changed his name. When a god changes someone’s name, it carries quite significant meaning. It means becoming an entirely new being.”

 

“So our forgetting Gretchin’s memories is all because of that?”

 

“The person involved probably didn’t know the name was changed. The one who changed it probably didn’t know he changed it either. That’s how this situation came about, isn’t it?”

 

“Just changing a name makes us completely forget memories like this?”

 

“Hmm, very interesting! So, Yelena the Inquisitor. What did he say back then? Tell us.”

 

“Um…”

 

Yelena frowned as if trying to remember something from very, very long ago.

 

“It was probably when I went to visit him. I had just heard from a junior inquisitor that the execution was scheduled… I was extremely angry. I knew nothing until right before the execution.”

 

*

 

Thud! Thud!

 

I stomped the ground so hard my soles ached. I couldn’t bear it otherwise.

 

A thousand fires boiled inside me, making me want to scream or destroy everything in sight.

 

“Move aside! I’m requesting a visit under the authority of an Inquisitor, so why are you blocking me! Get out of the way!”

 

The guards blocking my path were irritating. Normally I would have mocked them with regulations, but now even that time felt precious.

 

Crash!

 

I swept them away like autumn leaves with the shaft of my halberd.

 

“Y-you can’t do this!”

 

“I am an Imperial Inquisitor directly under the Empire. I have sufficient right to visit! I won’t say it twice. Move aside!”

 

The guards who realized they couldn’t stop me began to throw tantrums.

 

“If you go in, you’ll be a criminal. Is that alright with you?”

 

“Go ahead and try. Find out first if there’s any Inquisitor more useful than me!”

 

The guards trying to grab me fell away on their own after I twisted my body a few times.

 

What did they think they’d accomplish using such weak people?

 

“Don’t let anyone in for one hour. After that, do whatever you want.”

 

I burst through the underground prison door like a violent storm, and saw him tied up alone in the darkness.

 

“Ascetic! What are you doing here!”

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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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