The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 38

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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

That damn angel, angel. Doesn’t he know my upper body is covered in blood?

I gently lifted the Marquis’s chin with my hand. Then I softly wiped away the black tears with my extended thumb.

“What are you saying, Alderion.”

You need to live long and well to become my backer and a person of power. Don’t say things like you want to die!

“I, I… *sob*…”

The kid can’t speak because he’s crying. I pulled my hand away and knelt down. My white shirt was still bright red with blood.

I gently took his hand and enclosed it between both of mine. The Marquis’s fingernails were still somewhat sharp.

“Alderion, my friend. Let me ask you one thing. Was it your will to harm people?”

“Absolutely not! Absolutely not. I am a faithful servant of Lumensia who swore to protect this territory for life…”

“Then, if it wasn’t Alderion’s will, doesn’t that make it fine? Look here.”

I took Alderion’s hand and placed it against my neck.

“I’m still alive and well like this, aren’t I?”

See, it’s okay~ Now let’s stop crying and get to work?

That was the meaning behind my action, but moisture began to fill Alderion’s eyes once again.

This middle-aged man who looks like he’d say ‘Get lost, inferior being!’ if you said one wrong word to him is acting like this, so it’s a bit burdensome.

Since all the black demonic energy had drained out, the tears Alderion shed were transparent.

‘Hmm… why is he crying?’

I tried to understand why he was crying for a moment, but it didn’t work out well.

Both Alderion and I are fine, so why is he crying?

Could it be because he hurt me? But I told him it was okay.

‘Ah! It’s because there were people who were killed by Alderion before!’

Then I should give him absolution as a cult leader, shouldn’t I?

Just one confession or repentance prayer in front of a cult leader and you’re innocent even if you tried to destroy the nation~

I even have the Scale-Punishment tech tree, so the effect would be even more certain.

“Alderion, you’re already thinking of the souls of those you killed and grieving for them. You truly have a warm heart, Brother.”

I stroked his head and then embraced him. His sobbing and whimpering body slowly found stability.

“Because you have such a kind heart, you must be suffering like this. I understand it all…”

There’s a reason hospitals give out teddy bears. Of course, that’s actually a scheme by American hospitals to charge more medical fees.

“Then shall we determine your sins with a fair and just judgment of God?”

“A fair and just… judgment of God…?”

“It will determine your sins most objectively. If it is a sin, you will receive punishment where your limbs rot away, and if it is not a sin, you will be saved.”

[Will you use ‘Scales’ on user Alderion?]

‘y’

[God’s Scales are tilting.]

Alderion’s eyes widened greatly. Is he seeing something?

[Alderion’s judgment content compilation complete]

[View]

-Murder 12 times

-Cannibalism 13 times

-Evidence of otherworldly entity invasion confirmed.

Hmm, how should I spin this?

After a moment of silence, I opened my mouth.

“Your sins are by no means light.”

*

Alderion couldn’t bring himself to lift his head at the firm voice and buried it in the ground.

From the moment scales that could only be called divine appeared behind him, he had been trembling with fear.

Those scales would soon fall heavily to one side and take his head off. That’s how he would die.

It was rather fortunate. He was given time to repent at the last moment, and the merciful Lumensia had come to personally judge him – how blessed was this?

“You harmed your own kind, bit those who shared your blood, and all those moments remain as indelible traces.”

Because he foolishly harbored the desire to live…

“But… was there true ‘will’ in those acts? If it was merely external coercion and a tragedy that occurred while unconscious… are you truly an ‘evildoer,’ or are you a victim?”

He opened his eyes wide at those words. But soon he was trembling, unable to lift his head for fear of the result that would befall him.

Step.

The God who approached softly placed a hand on his head without even the sound of rustling clothes.

“Bear the weight of those sins, but do not collapse. The only way to prove you were not a monster is through your choices starting from this very moment.”

What warm words these were.

“So, lift your head and walk forward again. The judgment is over, but salvation begins now.”

I lifted my head at the gentle touch. The smiling, pure white God had forgiven him. The God’s beautiful hand took his blood-stained hand.

Then his blood-soaked hand sparkled and became light sand that floated away into the air. His hand became clean in an instant.

I have been saved!

Under brilliant divine light, with soft and warm hands, salvation was bestowed upon me.

As I stared blankly for a long while, God’s Scales slowly disappeared from behind the God.

This wasn’t the time for this.

“Then Lu, Lord Lumensia-“

“I am not Lumensia. Alderion. One who bears the heavy will of the world to become a god and merely carries out his mission. Please call me Ascetic.”

“Lord Ascetic…”

He says he’s not Lord Lumensia. But the scripture clearly said not to believe in any god other than Lumensia…

“And the insolent thing that turned you into such a mindless monster should be in the garden.”

Still covered in blood and wearing a dark red shirt, the ‘Ascetic’ pointed at the door with his finger.

“Open the door with your own hands and go out into the world with your own will.”

Since God commanded it, humans must obey. But was he really a god…?

‘I know it’s an impious thought, but the scripture clearly said there was only one God. The existence of another god doesn’t make sense…’

Let me open the door and go out first. Then I should check the ‘insolent thing’ God mentioned. It wouldn’t be too late to believe after that.

I slowly walked over and grabbed the door handle.

Crack.

“Huh…?”

I thought I grabbed it normally, but the door handle broke.

“Haha… You haven’t been awake long, so you made a mistake controlling your strength. It’s a natural mistake any person could make…”

The expression of the God… saying this looked very gentle.

His strangely pale complexion must be because I had bitten him earlier.

“I’ll have to be careful about this.”

I muttered to myself. I might accidentally harm others again if I’m not careful.

I opened the half-destroyed door and headed to the main gate. Though the corridor had no candles lit, perhaps because my illness was cured, I could see as clearly as broad daylight.

When I carefully opened the main gate so it wouldn’t break, I saw a garden flooded with moonlight.

In the center of that garden stood a tree with the face of an attendant who had served me devotedly.

I slowly approached the tree. What looked like tree bark was the face of a human filled with pain.

“L-Lord Ascetic… what is this…?”

“That wretch is the one who made you into a mindless monster. He made you spill others’ blood, tear their flesh… and caused needless suffering to good souls. In the end, he tried to pin all those sins on you alone. Punishing such a being is God’s work.”

I felt nauseous. I was disgusted with myself for doing such things, but the sense of betrayal was greater.

Revolting. Confusing. The God’s power that turned a person into a tree was fearsome and awe-inspiring.

Rustle. Rustle.

The unmanaged garden was full of dried leaves and tree branches. The Ascetic approached step by step from behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“32 counts of indirect murder. 19 counts of direct murder. Even half those numbers would warrant the abyss swallowing him. Yet he still lives. He can hear, feel, and even… speak.”

God quietly turns his head to look at the tree’s face. The tree, which gives off an unpleasant feeling just by being looked at, cracks and splits under God’s gaze. From the cracks flows not sap, but blood.

“Attendant. Please tell me. What you have done, how much you have deceived your ‘master.'”

Hueeer-

From the gaping mouth came only sounds like air passing through.

But it was certainly responding with will.

“Urgh…”

Nausea surged up.

He staggered away from the tree’s side.

‘…Did he really turn me into… such a monster?’

The sensation of devouring people. Hot fresh blood splattering on his face, terrible screams turning into sounds of escaping air, the feeling of gradually tearing apart cold corpses.

With sharp hands, he had gouged out hearts and squeezed their blood to drink.

It was certainly thanks to that ‘Ascetic’ that he had been pulled out of those hellish days.

‘Is someone who can turn people into trees truly a god…? But if he is a god. If he really was a god, shouldn’t he have come before I suffered such pain?’

Perhaps due to his weak mind, fangs of hatred quickly bared themselves toward the Ascetic.

‘No. The Ascetic was simply busy. Didn’t he save me from that hell even while being devoured by me?’

Like his churning stomach, his mind continued to waver. With such a pathetically weak mind, no wonder he couldn’t come to his senses even after tearing apart human flesh and killing dozens of people alone.

“Alderion, is it very difficult?”

He wanted to believe. But… if he believed and was betrayed again… then he would truly come to hate himself.

Perhaps God could sense even such weak hearts and rotten thoughts.

“A god is not an existence that is always by your side. At the end of suffering, when no one extends a hand. Only then does he wait quietly, at the very bottom, to pull you up.”

Was this pain ultimately a journey to meet God?

The Ascetic’s gentle voice seemed to purify his heart that had been rotting layer by layer.

He was ashamed of having such blasphemous thoughts. He couldn’t bring himself to turn his head and look at the Ascetic.

“But it would have been good if I had known a little sooner how much you were suffering. It’s all due to my inadequacy, Alderion.

God had called himself inadequate.

“Though I have walked diligently carrying the mission of an ascetic, I still have many shortcomings. Won’t you give me strength? There is something only Alderion can do.”

God said he needed me.

Even me, who had killed people and done terrible things. God needs me.

Then, perhaps just once more… it would be okay to believe?

Yes. If God says he needs me, what more could I need?

*

[Yes. If God says he needs me, what more could I need?]

I looked at displayed in the translucent system window and smiled.

As expected, putting points into Weakness Detection was the right answer.

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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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