The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 58

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

Fire

I watched Yelena kill a person with an expressionless face.

Yelena seemed to hesitate for a moment, then quickly gripped the halberd and brought it down.

The Marquis’s head, hardened stiff by Calebrin’s sorcery, rolled across the floor.

Blood splattered all the way to the ceiling and pooled on the floor.

Yelena was practically drenched in blood, and even I, standing some distance away, got splattered.

Though the blood disappeared in white light the moment it touched my clothes.

‘So that’s how much blood sprays when you cut off a person’s head.’

I’d seen corpses many times, but this was the first time I’d directly witnessed someone die.

Especially watching someone I had tortured and threatened meet their death…

‘Normally, I would have been shaken. My mental state would have shattered too.’

But now I felt surprisingly undisturbed.

My mental state didn’t break either. Even though this was definitely the first time I’d seen someone die.

Even with a person’s head falling off and dying right before my eyes, my heart remained as calm as ever. Except for that unusual encounter with the widow, it was perfectly peaceful.

Even disgust was welling up.

Just like when I ordered the torture, I could instinctively tell I was clearly twisted.

This should have carried completely different weight from merely performing the role of a fraudulent cult leader for survival.

But now…

‘Whatever. I was thinking about this earlier anyway. Mercy is a luxury for someone who tried to kill me…’

I consciously stopped myself from thinking any deeper.

While healing was now possible without direct contact, purification still required touching each thing individually. I crouched down.

This caused my pure white clothes to touch the blood pool and turn red, only to repeatedly disappear as light from the purification power.

I drew out my purification power and dipped my hand into the blood pool.

The blood pool my hand touched became light and filled the dark space.

The blood splattered everywhere became sparkling light and disappeared just from me stepping on it. Yelena watched this scene calmly. Calebrin did the same.

I reached out my hand to Yelena. She looked at my outstretched hand with confusion.

“The halberd. It has blood on it.”

“Ah…”

Yelena pondered for a moment, then quickly placed the halberd in my hand.

When I roughly wiped the halberd blade with my hand, the blood and flesh clinging to it disappeared. As expected, the purification ability was incredibly useful.

I gave the now-clean halberd back to Yelena. Yelena lightly took the halberd, let out a deep sigh, then spoke to me.

“So what are we going to do with these two?”

What she pointed to with the halberd blade was the head and body that had become the former Marquis. Calebrin quietly emerged.

“Anyway, he was ca-caught up in terrorism and went missing… even had a fu-funeral held… so here… yeah.”

I could understand the rest without hearing it.

It would be more troublesome to drag this out and dispose of it, so she meant we should handle it here as much as possible.

“I’ll do it… is there by any chance a fi-fireplace?”

The old villa didn’t have proper plumbing, but it did have a fireplace. Yelena picked up the head.

“Put it in the fi-fireplace… I’ll ha-handle the rest.”

It was a belated thought.

Yelena and I were fine, but it was fortunate that Calebrin was less shaken than expected.

If Calebrin had a fragile mentality, she might have been shocked by this and our incredibly useful dealer might have fled.

‘Cardil really must not find out about this.’

And if Cardil saw this scene, rather than his own mental state breaking, he would probably kill the other party—that is, me who caused this situation.

Even considering the fact that I was attacked first and that he was the terrorist mastermind.

Yelena stepped forward first and stuffed the head and body into the fireplace.

Due to the Marquis’s large build, no matter how much she crammed it into the fireplace, his legs stuck out.

Thanks to her taking the initiative, I could handle all of this without moving a single step.

Yelena became covered in blood and dust.

“Clean me up.”

Now she’s thinking of me as some kind of dry cleaning service.

Her earlier strangely frightened and hesitant attitude had disappeared, replaced by her usual bold demeanor.

I just smiled quietly and patted Yelena’s head a few times and brushed off her clothes.

The blood and dust disappeared even with that brief gesture. The now-clean Yelena spun around lightly. Her blonde hair tied up high drew a semicircle in the air.

Calebrin poked at the two legs sticking out of the fireplace with her staff.

The bare ankles turned slightly at her prodding, then quickly returned to their original position.

“Does the whole body have to fit inside?”

She looked ready to cut it into pieces if Calebrin answered ‘yes.’

So her earlier hesitation wasn’t about hesitating before killing someone. I became curious about her true feelings and wanted to level up quickly.

“It’s not th-that… I’m worried the fire might… spread…”

“Would cutting it into three parts work?”

Calebrin pondered for a moment, then shook her head vigorously.

She dipped the end of her staff in the Marquis’s blood, then drew a semicircular magic circle on the fireplace floor.

After drawing the magic circle in blood, she tapped the floor with her staff. Then the Marquis’s body and head began to burn.

Burning a person takes some time. That was true even with modern high-performance furnaces.

However, the green flames Calebrin summoned quickly incinerated the Marquis, and he soon became white bones. The bones turned to dust within minutes.

The Marquis transformed into a large pile of ash in less than 10 minutes. The magic circle drawn in blood was scorched in its pattern like a desk without a pot holder.

I trampled that pattern thoroughly with my shoe. Then the blackened pattern disappeared like it was erased, following the traces of my steps. It was like those stain removal sticks for when you spill kimchi juice on clothes.

While I was diligently erasing the traces with my foot, Yelena cleaned up the surrounding situation. The old villa quickly transformed as if nothing had happened.

I raised my head. And I spoke as kindly as possible to the two women.

“Shall we go?”

Calebrin held out her staff to me.

“Clean mine too…”

She seemed bothered by the blood on the tip of her staff.

It felt somewhat strange that they thought of me as some kind of dry cleaning service, but it was better than them being troubled by it.

Of course, I’d need to be ‘intimidating’ at appropriate times… but it would be fine. Something like this much.

I cleaned Calebrin’s staff thoroughly.

*

After returning, I sat alone in the large room of the mansion I’d received as a saint.

It was the remaining time after finishing the disposal of the Marquis.

“He got the demon sword from there…”

The demon sword quest timeline I knew was like this.

First, the first owner was a saint named Hezrail who was most revered by the Central Church.

Of course, since this was a behind-the-scenes story, few people would know this tale. Maybe the widow at most. Perhaps even the widow might not know.

Because it was a story the Central Church tried to thoroughly hide.

To roughly summarize, it goes like this.

<The first saint Hezrail was revered as God’s representative. But he contracted an incurable disease and became more desperate to change the world. Despite his bone-grinding efforts, the world became increasingly corrupt. He killed 99 people with a sword and then committed suicide with that same sword.>

That’s how the demon sword was born. And that demon sword passed through various owners before ending up in the ‘Bandit King’s’ hands to call forth blood… and stopping it was the great player! That was the story.

But among the various owners, I’d never heard of Marquis Bernator. That’s why I was puzzled.

Since the demon sword was a story with hidden plot threads about the Demon King and Lumensia, it was the item that attracted the most lore enthusiasts, so my questions only grew.

“Hmm…”

Even if I survived, I thought that would be a problem of later settings changing.

I thought issues from before Sernuan Lumiere appeared, like the demon sword, wouldn’t change.

But hearing the Marquis’s story, that doesn’t seem to be the case either.

The Demon King approaching me like that was strange to begin with.

I recalled the Marquis’s desperate, urgent words like a dying declaration.

-“A horned man… a demon saved me on the battlefield and gave me that sword! I swear, I only touched the demon sword to survive. Who in that situation could possibly refuse such an offer? I’ve only used that sword for the Empire…! I’m not a heretic, and I really didn’t use it for my own benefit…!”

A horned man. He called him a demon, but demons and the demon race are strictly different.

He probably met one of the Demon Race and received the sword from them.

-“When did you meet that demon? It must have been during the Second Demon Territory Subjugation War… That’s when I received the sword too… I could never forget it. Those eyes! Those inhuman eyes…!”

The Demon Race’s eyes are naturally heterochromatic by default, so of course… they would be inhuman eyes.

The Second Demon Territory Subjugation War was about 10 years ago…

‘If they gave him a demonic sword, they must be a high-ranking noble. They would have connections to the Demon King… so it’s safe to say the Demon King ordered it. The Demon Race absolutely obeys the Demon King’s commands…’

The Demon King had been preparing for 10 years… preparing to change the game’s story.

But how…?

The only conclusion I could reach was to arrive at the Demon Realm as quickly as possible and talk with the Demon King.

“The World Tree of Senta… I should be able to reach it in about a month.”

The World Tree of Senta held that precious defensive item, which was essential for meeting the Demon King who could try to kill me at any moment.

“Sigh…”

There was so much I didn’t know. Despite loving this world more than anyone and dedicating my life to it.

*

A few weeks later.

I departed the country amid grand celebration.

“It’s the Saint!”

“God’s Representative, bring us peace!”

Children stood in lines along the roadside, clutching pure white lilies in their small hands, while elders prayed with their foreheads touching the ground, desperately wishing for fleeting peace.

Young people raised golden banners high, chanting his name.

“If it’s the Saint, he can end this war!”

The citizens shouted until their voices were hoarse.

I wore the luxurious white robes I had tailored before and waved to them. And wherever my gaze fell, I unleashed the power of the healing relic.

Streams of healing light spread out like gentle touches.

The bent backs of weary elders slowly straightened, and a child who had been coughing for so long touched his own throat with surprised eyes.

The sick who had been sitting hugging their knees rose one by one. An old woman who had been supporting her back with wrinkled hands collapsed and wept.

“Truly… a divine miracle has descended!”

“The Saint really is God incarnate…!”

Some shed tears while raising both hands high to the sky, and young people chanted his name again with ecstatic faces.

“Long live the Saint! With the Saint here, we have nothing to fear!”

Countless flower petals, cheers, and hymns poured down like rain over the path of the procession. I savored the cheers as I boarded the carriage.

Inside the spacious and comfortable carriage were Kalebrin, Yelena, and…

“Why am I here?”

Cardil sat there with a displeased expression.

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