The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 192

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 192

No.

Anyway, Austin Gerard is bait so he’ll definitely die, and she’s planning to use Austin Gerard to call me out and ruin the plan I’m weaving…

Not only that, but if it’s the Widow, if it’s Teacher…

She must be planning yet another move.

‘First, I should meet Alderion and head to the snowy plains. His mental state doesn’t seem good, so I’ll take the opportunity to strengthen his mentality too.’

Just as I was thinking that.

“…Please let me come with you.”

What grabbed my ankle was the Young Lady who had sensed through her skin that something was seriously wrong.

How is it that I’m always surrounded by such moths drawn to flame?

To reassure her, I put my robe hood back on that I had taken off and pulled out my measuring reed.

“What? I don’t understand what you think you can do to suggest accompanying me. What god in this world would invite a believer to come die when they don’t even truly grasp this situation?”

I said that and tried to turn around. Then, the Young Lady’s lips moved.

“The current situation… I know it all. My eyes and ears have become capable of encompassing the Empire.”

The Young Lady had eyes full of great determination.

“I couldn’t tell Lord Austin Gerard, but if the Ascetic were to arrive, I have a strategy prepared to use.”

I checked on Austin Gerard. Someone was breathing life into him so he wouldn’t die.

Considering what I have to do ahead, time isn’t exactly abundant, but…

It’s worth listening to, I suppose.

“I will become that woman’s ‘chess piece.'”

“…A chess piece.”

“Right now the Widow lacks useful cards. So I should be able to be used as a chess piece. Also, please place a ‘curse’ on me right now.”

A curse?

“One that looks terrible on the surface, and seems like it would corrupt even the soul… a curse like proof of being abandoned by God.”

Curses aren’t my specialty though.

I could just ask Kalebrin to cast something like that.

“I’ll become a cowardly traitor who sold out Sir Austin and fled, cursing you to survive and surrendering to the Widow. Since she knows the future, she won’t doubt humanity’s base nature either. This ugliness of me struggling to live will become the most reliable ‘guarantee’ for her.”

The Young Lady continued breathlessly.

“I’ll enter that woman’s embrace, and at the most crucial moment… I’ll detonate that ‘curse’ you planted.”

Since Teacher enjoys watching humans fight desperately on the board she designed, if the Young Lady came crying and begging, there was a high possibility she’d arrogantly accept it thinking ‘as expected, my prediction was right’ rather than being suspicious.

Though that’s only a possibility to a certain extent.

“I don’t know the Widow particularly well, but I know that if we try to defeat her from the outside, even if I died hundreds of times it wouldn’t be possible.”

Right. Teacher’s most frightening aspect isn’t her clever mind and schemes, various moves, hidden troops, etc…

It’s her strong combat power even when alone.

“So. I’ll become the poison that crumbles her from within… How about it?”

In reality, confronting the Widow would be impossible unless you’re a Transcendent like the Demon King, and Teacher would predict that from the start and extremely avoid meeting Transcendents.

So, there’s no choice but to crumble her from within.

“…Hooh.”

I nodded at the not-bad plan.

“However, that plan needs more weight of ‘truth.'”

Since it’s a plan relying simply on the Young Lady’s acting alone, it has many flaws.

To blind the suspicious Widow’s eyes, I need to throw her bait she’d covet.

“I’ll give you my weakness, so take it with you. If you stake what’s most precious to you as collateral, that woman will also let go of her strings of suspicion.”

The Young Lady paused for a moment, then asked back with a troubled expression.

“However… to dare use such massive information as a god’s weakness as bait. Isn’t that price… too great?”

“Otherwise you’ll die. You can only survive by definitely conveying information about weaknesses. The Widow is that kind of person.”

“…”

The Young Lady bit her lips hard. She realized there was only one choice for survival.

I approached her again by one step, bent my massive body and whispered quietly in her ear.

“The chains that bind my Divine Power are…”

*

After sending the Young Lady off like that, I headed toward Alderion.

“My servant, what are you so afraid of?”

As soon as Alderion saw me, he grabbed my trouser leg.

It was heartbreaking that I had left him behind thinking he was non-combat personnel.

I tried to grab Alderion’s hand to help him stand, but he had no intention of getting up. Like someone whose legs had given out, he refused to stand on his own.

He just sat slumped at my feet, listing his crimes one by one…

“I’m scared of myself… Once again, I put a person in my mouth…”

“Who did you devour?”

“…It was an intruder. According to Sir Austin, it was one of the spider legs.”

“So?”

“I couldn’t control myself. When I came to my senses, there was blood around my mouth… crunch, the sound of bones being chewed…”

Alderion covered his mouth as if about to vomit. Sharp claws protruded long between his fingers.

‘What? You did well though?’

He just handled it well, so why is he like this?

Hanbul Park, who had a normal ego, reasoned.

‘Is he saying this because he ate a person? Well, it was like that last time too, so it must feel similar now?’

For Alderion, cannibalism wasn’t simply just a meal.

It was probably a fear like a brand that he could never stand on humanity’s side, that he could only eternally be a beast.

‘Anyway, how sensitive.’

For me, who became a god, to return Alderion to a proper human state comes with quite a few restrictions.

And if Alderion became human… Teacher’s plan to use Alderion would be disrupted, but if it’s Teacher, she’d quickly find a spare.

In various ways, I can only feel sorry for Alderion who got caught up in this kind of affair.

However, this is now a war of gods… the process of preparing for Ragnarok.

He’s not someone who will die soon, and he’s a half-human half-demon who can maintain his reason to some extent… I couldn’t spend any more cost on Alderion.

Unfortunately.

“Alderion.”

The system’s filtering mixed into my quiet call. The ether waves resonating through space forcibly calmed Alderion’s trembling.

“Raise your head. My faithful guardian.”

“Sa, Savior… I have… a filthy mouth…”

“Filthy? How can you say such a thing.”

I suppressed his demonic energy with the Divine Power emanating from my hands and continued gently.

“You didn’t devour them because you lost to desire.”

I met his gaze.

“You only acted because you wanted to protect those you wanted to protect, didn’t you?”

“But still…”

“Shh, are you trying to make me into an idiot who can’t distinguish cause and effect?”

“Th… That’s not it. How presumptuous! I haven’t had even a penny’s worth of such presumptuous thoughts…!”

“I just looked into your memories. A portion of merciless evil that emerged only in a life-or-death moment… Wasn’t that to protect yourself?”

“…Did you see it too, Savior? Then you must know what I almost did afterward. I almost bit Sir Gerard to death without being able to distinguish friend from foe.”

It’s been over a year since Alderion’s mentality was shaken like this and he grabbed my trouser leg… hasn’t it?

Anyway, I could restore Alderion’s mentality as cleanly as kneading clay.

However, it would be troublesome if the same thing repeated.

“Then what were you planning to do to atone for your sins?”

“Though it’s truly blessed nonsense and empty words, I want to go to the Savior’s embrace. I cannot forgive myself and it’s been a life full of only pain. Now… I want to be at peace-“

“You fool!!!!”

Rumble-!

Along with my roar, the Young Lady’s mansion flashed. Great Nature responded to my mood.

Outside where it had always been sunny, an untimely shower fell with lightning strikes. Alderion froze like he’d swallowed honey.

“Do you think running away through death is atonement! Didn’t you say with your own mouth that true atonement can be settled by giving what you have and serving others! Did you think I’d forget everything just because I became the Savior instead of the Ascetic!”

“…!”

“I am greatly disappointed.”

“…! I’m, I’m sorry. I, I was…. I was weak. I harbored wrong thoughts…! Please forgive me, Savior…! Please!”

I spoke coldly to Alderion, who was clinging to me while crying, without comforting him with the loving kindness I had shown before.

“I can well imagine your heart, weary from the long battle with illness.”

I didn’t particularly like saying such things, but the situation was urgent, so it couldn’t be helped.

“However, being pitiful cannot cover all wrongs. I saved you. And having obtained this precious opportunity, why do you try to choose the shadow of death instead of life? When those who desperately need my touch are as numerous as corpses on a battlefield, did you plan to be satisfied with merely holding a miracle, a star in your hand?”

However, instead of snapping to attention at my words and pledging to live well, Alderion simply collapsed where he stood.

“…With my weak spirit, it seems difficult to fully enjoy the blessing and miracle that is you, Savior. I am someone completely beyond your salvation, someone no one in this world welcomes.”

The cannibalism must have been that shocking to him.

Even if he had committed cannibalism once due to falling into the attendant’s scheme, he should have been able to maintain his sanity sufficiently now, but he couldn’t, and it seemed he was greatly disappointed in himself for this.

However, Alderion’s partial transformation into a demon was not by his own will but by external force, and from my perspective, becoming a monster was a kind of illness.

In other words, it wasn’t right to blame oneself for coughing due to a cold and transmitting it to others. Especially considering that the person in question usually wore masks and used hand sanitizer.

“If the world turns its back on you, then I shall conscript you. Alderion, even the time spent shedding tears in sentimentality is precious. Raise your head. It’s time for those hideous teeth of yours to meet the most brilliant reason.”

“…What?”

Alderion stopped wiping his tears and asked back with a stupid expression.

He seemed unable to understand what I meant by teeth and reason.

“Get up. There’s no need to pack anything.”

I grabbed Alderion’s shoulder and pulled him to his feet. The man who had been talking about death just moments before stood up awkwardly, overwhelmed by my fierce momentum.

“Wh-where are you taking me? As you know, Savior, I am utterly useless, poor at speaking, lacking in intelligence, and….”

Alderion went on and on, only speaking words that belittled himself.

“This is valuable enough to be called the reason you were born into this world. So stop trying to find value in yourself.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————