The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 18

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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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Fire

“…Is that so?”

“Ugh, before this some 3rd Grade Priest came and told me to quit this kind of volunteer work and just make money by healing people instead!”

Cardil’s words, spoken as if disgusted, were quite easy for Austin to understand.

He felt more favorable toward Cardil, who had fought through the front lines with him, than some 3rd Grade Priest he’d never even seen.

Hearing such words to his face would naturally make anyone irritated with the Central Church.

An Inquisitor would have been horrified to hear this, but he was just a sword wielded by the Empire. A member of the Lion’s Heart Knights.

He could overlook such minor complaints. It wasn’t like he couldn’t understand them at all.

“More importantly, did you get promoted from 3rd Grade Priest?”

“Ah, didn’t you know? Yes. I became a 1st Grade Priest a while ago. Six months? Less than a year, my memory’s a bit hazy.”

“Congratulations.”

“What for. I heard you became Vice Commander too. Congratulations.” “How did you know?”

The languid-looking man raised one eyebrow. Then he began speaking as if puzzled.

“Hm? You’re famous. A commoner-born knight who succeeded brilliantly in a war he was sent to die in, came back and joined the Lion’s Heart Knights. And there too he achieved many accomplishments and so on, anyway his abilities were outstanding so he became Vice Commander… I hear stories like that a lot. When doing volunteer work.”

“Ah, I see.”

Austin, who was weak to praise, turned red at the tips of his ears. Cardil scratched the side of his neck and continued the conversation casually.

“When you keep doing this volunteer work, you end up hearing all kinds of stories. I’ve heard a lot about you too.”

“Ahem, cough… I see. Priest Cardil, I should go carry out my official duties now.”

“Ah, right. That’s right. I was keeping a busy person here. Sorry.”

“Not at all. It was good to see your face after so long.”

Cardil seemed not to care whether he was from the 3rd Division or a Vice Commander.

“The place where I do volunteer work is in a hut in that corner over there… Hmm, anyway I’m the only medical personnel. And there are only patients who are sick and hovering between life and death.”

Cardil waved the paper he had received earlier. The yellowed paper with frayed edges fluttered in his grip.

“I haven’t seen anyone dressed like this either. So don’t come. It would be annoying to make a wasted trip, right?”

It was talk meant to reduce his workload.

Austin nodded and filed the information in his mind.

Catching illegal merchants in Moon Village and even conducting heretical interrogations was quite troublesome work for him too.

Actually, it was strange that someone with the position of Vice Commander was doing checkpoint inspections that even regular knights wouldn’t bother with.

This kind of work should be handled by regular knights or other knight orders, but here was the Lion’s Heart, the Empire’s sharpest sword and foremost among knight orders, taking on even such menial tasks.

And not even a regular knight, but him, a Vice Commander.

Austin Gerard.

He was outstanding in ability and despite being Vice Commander, was subtly ostracized by the Knight Commander and other knights.

Austin Gerard knew this fact too.

However, to rebel against this inexplicable ostracism and hazing, he was a knight to his bones and didn’t even have that kind of personality.

A sword simply cuts down enemies. He was a true knight who only cared about not harboring personal feelings.

Or… he had the kind of mentality that couldn’t survive in this place without thinking that way.

“Ah, yes. Understood. Good work.”

“Right. Let’s meet again when you’re Knight Commander.”

“Ahaha… That, that’s… Hmm. Yes. I’ll be going.”

Austin Gerard quickly wrapped up the conversation and hurried off in the opposite direction from the hut.

*

“Phew.”

Cardil let out a small sigh. It was fortunate it was someone he knew, otherwise there might have been trouble if it had been someone else.

As he headed toward the hut, he saw patients who had come rushing out. Cardil asked with half his irritation mixed with fatigue.

“What? Why did you come out?”

“Well, that is.”

“We had to protect the Ascetic…”

“What could you people possibly do against that knight that you’re all out here like this?”

“But still, the Ascetic can’t be taken away…”

“Damn it…”

Veins bulged on Cardil’s forehead. He roughly swept back his bangs and asked.

“Where is that Ascetic… sir?”

“He evacuated to a safe place.”

He almost turned a perfectly healthy person back into a patient.

“Where is this safe place…”

Cardil.

Though he was in a position of doing medical volunteer work, he had no talent for treating his volunteer subjects ‘kindly.’

No, even if he had it, his basic personality would prevent him from displaying it.

Actually, if he hadn’t had this kind of personality, he wouldn’t have left the religious order he belonged to. After all, sociability was the same as tolerating society’s absurdities well.

The only thing he was interested in was treating those who were sick and bedridden. Those who came out with perfectly healthy limbs, spouting nonsense about confronting knights, were outside his interest.

“Uh… probably the back mountain?”

“Ah… I see.”

Cardil thought to himself, ‘These bastards are hopeless. How does he say nice things to guys like these? Lumiere is really amazing.’ as he entered the hut.

“Hm?”

“Hello, it seems things were resolved well.”

Contrary to what the believers said, Sernuan Lumiere was sitting leisurely on the bed inside the hut.

“Weren’t you supposed to have fled?”

“…It seems I couldn’t feel at ease leaving the believers behind. I know that choosing to abandon their efforts would be the wrong choice. But is it really right to always follow efficiency? Since I still have human feelings left… I couldn’t turn my back on my brothers.”

“Ascetic…!”

“Sob…”

“To brand such a person as a heretic and try to execute him… Lumencia is truly heartless!”

“Ascetic, may you be blessed forever!”

Those who heard these words began shedding tears or bursting with indignation. Cardil just let out a sigh.

The man sitting on the bed was only smiling faintly through his black veil.

With a chillingly emotionless face.

Now that I’m getting used to it… this person is really quite something.

Cardil thought to himself…

*

Around the time I was giving baptisms in earnest. I started handling two tasks at once by keeping my status window open like dual monitors.

Rough location information and status, the ability to steal the vision of believers with deep faith. I used that ability at full power!

Even better, perhaps because of the blessing I gave earlier, everyone’s faith had deepened so I could steal all their vision! It was an unexpected bonus.

I activated my skill, and as soon as I saw the knight and Cardil talking and parting ways, I hurried down from the mountain and came back to the hut.

To build trust with the believers.

Even though~ I was told it would be fine to run away, still running away with my tail between my legs would be a bit.

If I had done such a thing at this timing when style was most important, public sentiment would have been completely shattered.

Being a cult leader is really hard work~

They probably wouldn’t have come all the way here for checkpoint inspection anyway.

That was something Inquisitors would do, not within the scope of work for the Lion’s Heart.

Moreover, Vice Commander Austin Gerard doing checkpoint inspections? It would definitely be full of holes like cheese gnawed by mice everywhere.

That Cardil didn’t report me was something I expected, so I wasn’t nervous.

Hmm. More than that…

‘What exactly is the standard for “deep faith” attached to this skill here.’

I wondered if even the system had things that couldn’t be converted to numbers, using such ambiguous language.

Well, actually, even during the previous faith system explanation, it didn’t speak in precise numerical divisions.

‘At most there’s only “use all” or “use about 1/9.”‘

Even “use all” or the figure “1/9” were frustratingly vague.

If I only have 9 Faith but use 10 to activate Prophecy, wouldn’t that mean it still triggers?

Or if I have 10 Faith, I could use it all to activate the Second Coming skill…

I said a few words to those wailing around me while thinking about other things.

‘Ah, then it might be a skill whose power is determined by the Faith you possess. I didn’t think of that.’

It probably won’t work the way I thought earlier. No, but then shouldn’t there be an explanation that power is determined by Faith level?

‘Is it really okay to make a system this carelessly?’

I let it slide for now since people were around. It’s not particularly important anyway. It’s not like I’ll be using Prophecy or Second Coming right now.

“Then, I shall take my leave now. Ah, and since Brother Cardil may be tired, I ask that you brothers please take special care of him.”

“Yes! We understand!”

“No, forget it and all of you get lost.”

Well, anyway I avoided the checkpoint inspection and got some decent skill level-ups.

The wanted poster is a bit of a variable though…

[Faith: 211]

Even after giving those blessings, my Faith kept rising steadily. Probably the Believers crying out to me in prayer during this incident helped quite a bit…

I should go home and enhance Ranoop’s necklace.

“I’m not even sick, so why do you keep coming here making noise?”

“We’re serving for the Ascetic’s sake, for our sick brothers’ sake!”

“Ugh…”

I’ll have Antonio get me a carriage and go to the Witch’s Forest early in the morning to obtain a Healing Relic.

I’ll gain the power of Purification and Healing simultaneously, plus get a random skill ticket, and gain more Believers, so a wanted poster is nothing.

The week the Blacksmith promised isn’t up yet, but should I go ask how much progress he’s made on the sword? Seeing as he didn’t report me, he seems to be faithfully keeping his promise.

That’s what I thought, but I momentarily forgot the fact that I’m a wanted man.

That is, a criminal.

Having lived virtuously my whole life in a law-abiding nation, I completely forgot.

Even if that Blacksmith kept his promise, I could get caught and arrested while going back and forth to the city center.

‘I’ll have to send someone on an errand.’

I called for ‘Ethan’ in front of the cabin.

“Ah, the sword? I understand. Then if I receive it, where should I bring it…”

“Antonio’s residence. Do you know the location?”

“You don’t mean… when you say Antonio, you mean the Golden Merchant?”

Golden Merchant…?

Is that Antonio’s epithet?

Uh… Antonio? You didn’t say you were a merchant famous enough to have an epithet…?

You said you were just a small-time merchant…?

Even the epithet is flashy.

“If you’re referring to Antonio Tradetore, then yes.”

“Oh… I understand.”

It seems Antonio is somewhat famous.

I really did strike gold with my first Believer.

*

I returned to Antonio’s house.

“I heard Antonio’s story from a brother.”

“My story?”

The person standing there flustered, holding herring pie with oven mitts, looked completely different from someone with the epithet ‘Golden Merchant.’

“The news that Antonio has earned the epithet Golden Merchant. Didn’t you say you were a small-time merchant?”

“That’s… well, compared to those who do big business with entire nations, I am small-time. And Golden Merchant, that’s nothing compared to your epithet, Ascetic.”

Antonio set down the herring pie and smiled awkwardly.

‘What’s he saying…’

Even a passing dog would know that in an epithet battle between ‘Golden Merchant’ vs ‘Ascetic,’ the former would win by a landslide.

“Ah, I’ll have the carriage prepared by dawn tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry for suddenly giving you work like this.”

“Please don’t feel that way. I’m just trying to fulfill my duties as a Proxy. Ah, don’t you need mercenaries? I hear the Witch’s Forest has many monsters that use poison…”

“Don’t worry about that. Divine Protection always guards my body.”

“As expected of the Ascetic.”

The child was eating herring pie, stabbing at it with a fork. Watching ‘Father Antonio’ correcting the fork handling felt quite strange.

“…”

Looking down at my hand, my fork grip was flawlessly perfect.

How strange.

I can do Chopstick Handling, Spoon Handling, and Korean Dining Etiquette properly, but I’ve never received Etiquette Education for forks or knives.

I’ve never even been to restaurants that cost over 100,000 won per course, and I’ve never even cut meat with a knife. I cut it with scissors.

So why does this action feel so natural to me…

[Sacred Relic 1 Recovery Time: 21 days]

‘Hmm. I need to get that Healing Relic quickly.’

I don’t even know what it tastes like

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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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