The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 65

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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

“Kyaaah!”

I wondered who would fall for this ridiculous act, but Centa’s kind high-ranking officials graciously played along. Perhaps because they were raised sheltered, their reactions were quite intense.

“Bandits!”

No. Knights.

“A… Ascetic…!”

The Centa people hurriedly looked at me. They seemed to believe I would solve something, but I was the one who orchestrated this kidnapping in the first place.

Only Yelena, Calebrin, Cardil, and Erendor, who knew in advance, were leisurely waving away the smoke with their hands.

“Cough, cough… Ugh, my bronchial tubes.”

It was natural that Erendor knew about this plan. How else would Austin Gerard, who had no elven blood and hadn’t even seen the ‘e’ in elf, have entered this Elven Forest?

Erendor had already met with Austin Gerard before we came and brought him into the Elven Forest.

He also provided those smoke bombs and various explosives. While Erendor wasn’t the type to win battles with such trivial things, he had great interest in weaponry and could obtain them.

“Ascetic! Please, please evacuate!”

“Where is the saint!”

Bang!

“Ahhh!”

When another smoke bomb was thrown at the crowded Centa people, they panicked like ants coming out of an anthill.

Austin Gerard, whose eyes met mine, trembled with those green eyes before squeezing them shut. A large man wearing a hood and robe approached with big strides.

Then he grabbed my waist with his arm and tucked me under his side.

“I will kidnap the saint!”

Dangling.

At least it wasn’t a princess carry… I was carried like a sack of rice. I was even taller than Austin Gerard, so my toes touched the ground.

Damn. I was bothered by my legs dragging, so I subtly pulled them up.

As Austin Gerard moved, my head tilted forward and white hair poured down. It seemed like my hair would drag on the ground, so I hastily gathered it up.

“Oh my~ I’m being kidnapped!”

She giggled as she drew her halberd.

Yelena, don’t laugh. Don’t enjoy this.

Calebrin looked back and forth between the panicking Centa people and me being carried away. She seemed to be pondering when to follow me.

Since Yelena and Cardil had decided to stay behind to lead the Centa people, they leisurely launched slash attacks at Austin Gerard or threw magic spheres around.

Of course, none hit, and only the innocent ground and trees got damaged. Even Yelena’s playful slash attack, thrown with a grin, instantly cut down an ancient tree that looked several hundred years old.

‘Ugh, if I had been hit, I would have just become Ser/nuan. Thank goodness Yelena is kind.’

How fortunate that she chose dialogue despite having such power. I thought this while being carried away by Austin Gerard.

“Oh…! The, the saint! Is being kidnapped!”

Centa’s spectacled person picked up their glasses from the floor and pointed at me.

I timely raised my head and shouted.

“Brother Erendor! Please save me!”

Erendor giggled as he drew his sword.

“Of course I must save you!”

Uh… Drawing the sword wasn’t part of our prior agreement.

I momentarily remembered when he had burned someone with that sword when we first met.

Those ominously blazing red letters were quite frightening.

As Erendor came running swiftly, Ifrit also came floating through the air. Knowing this was clearly at the level of ‘play’, Ifrit was smiling.

However, only the Centa people, who couldn’t distinguish what this was and had clumsily followed along, were troubled.

“Wait! Without you, we are…!”

“So you want me to just stand by and watch an important saint from a foreign country get kidnapped?”

“Without Sir Erendor, we’ll become a meal for the forest animals!”

Yelena interjected.

“We’ll stay behind~! So don’t worry. To rescue the kidnapped saint, it would be better for Sir Erendor, who knows the geography of this forest well, to go after him.”

Cardil also nodded.

“It may not seem reliable, but please understand that we two also came from this foreign country as escorts to protect the saint.”

“Then, then…”

Long. Too long.

Austin Gerard, with me tucked under his side, seemed to be thinking ‘when will we finally leave’ while staying somewhat distant from them.

It was time to go. I put my hand beside my mouth and shouted.

“Sister Calebrin! Please help me!”

“Oh, um… I’ll, I’ll come too…!”

Calebrin ran earnestly.

Thud!

“Ow.”

Calebrin, who had been running earnestly, tripped over a tree root and fell. She was indeed a clumsy mage dealer.

Erendor, who had been leisurely running toward us while launching flame sword aura here and there, confirmed that she had fallen.

He looked exasperated for a moment, then jumped back, tucked her under his side, and leisurely ran toward us again.

“I’m taking the saint!”

Austin Gerard, who had become a kidnapper (experience: 5 minutes), delivered his line well without stuttering.

“Such a terrible kidnapper… *cough*, I see. I’ll teach you a lesson and get the saint back!”

“Sir Erendor~ Please make sure to bring back the saint~!”

Yelena’s voice from far away was also masterful. Calebrin’s lips were also twitching upward, seemingly finding this situation amusing.

It was fortunate that my expression was hidden by my hair. Austin Gerard threw another smoke bomb, and when Erendor slashed at the smoke, flames blazed up.

“Ugh.”

Austin Gerard timed it and ran with a leaping motion. Thanks to that, my stomach was pulled and I almost vomited.

I was carried like that for about a minute. Austin Gerard, having gained sufficient distance, set me down on the ground.

The sensation of solid ground under my feet was truly welcome. Even a roller coaster would be less bumpy than this.

“I… I’ll put you down now…”

“Thank you, Sir Gerard…”

I trembled as I stepped on the beloved ground. Calebrin’s condition wasn’t much different.

She was trembling with the arm holding her staff. I quietly approached and poured sacred relic power over her. The scraped wound on her knee from falling and the dirt disappeared.

Austin Gerard, being physically oriented, didn’t break a single sweat despite carrying the nearly 190cm Sernuan Lumiere while running. The same went for Erendor, who had run while carrying a person.

‘These brutish physical types.’

I swept up my disheveled hair with one hand to roughly arrange it. Erendor sheathed his sword behind his back.

“Well, shall we head to the World Tree now? If we go quickly now, we can arrive before sunset. By the way, evil things come out after sunset.”

Hmm, I wanted to go quickly.

“If we want to go fast, how about carrying us under the arms like before? If we each take one person and run, we can arrive within 30 minutes.”

“If we… walk…?”

“2 hours, no. About 3 hours?”

It would probably take longer than 3 hours since Calebrin would obviously keep falling.

3 hours vs 30 minutes… But considering the sore ribs and nausea, the former seemed okay too…

“I think carrying would be better. What do you think, Ascetic?”

Just as I was about to suggest walking for 3 hours, Austin Gerard asked. I declined being squeezed under the ribs. But being carried on the back would also damage my image. I declined the princess carry.

Looking to the side, Calebrin was already in Erendor’s arms. The princess carry was skillful. Erendor was even gentlemanly holding Calebrin with clenched fists.

Oh, please.

I answered while maintaining the image of Ascetic Sernuan Lumiere as much as possible.

“Yes, I think it would be fine.”

It’s not fine.

“But if I carry you like before, your legs would drag and be uncomfortable… Should I carry you like that?”

Erendor, holding Calebrin in a princess carry, looked over as if asking what we were looking at.

“Shall we go quickly?”

“Then I’ll carry you!”

I was lifted up instantly. Right, it would be stranger if someone who could cut mountains with a single sword couldn’t carry one man… And carrying in a princess carry would be more efficient.

“Are you comfortable?”

I suppressed the urge to cover my face with my hands.

This is… something that can’t be helped. To survive, I must suppress even my shame. Compared to what I’ve done so far, this much is nothing….

“Yes… I’m fine.”

“Shall we depart~?”

I pretended to arrange my fluttering hair while covering my face. This was the first day my long hair had ever been helpful.

I won’t cut it in the future either….

*

“We’ve arrived.”

Erendor gently helped Kalebrin down. Kalebrin seemed to have dozed off during the ride. She was truly carefree.

Meanwhile, I had been trembling in fear that Austin Gerard’s reckless driving would crash us somewhere.

I wanted to stretch my stiff back, but a Saint wouldn’t do such a thing. I endured the urge to stretch with transcendent mental strength.

The entrance to the World Tree was… so vast it was overwhelming, dominated by Great Nature itself. Honestly, I thought there would only be rotting trees, but they were very much alive.

The tree was truly massive. It would take about five hundred people just to barely encircle its trunk. Naturally, it was equally tall and dense.

The thick shadows made it cool and chilly. Since the sun was setting, it felt even colder. I wondered if max utility Kalebrin might cast some warming magic if it got colder.

I looked around briefly, but there wasn’t anything particularly special around the World Tree.

“Let’s head inside.”

Erendor pointed to roots that protruded above ground. The exposed roots were almost like a cave.

‘A defensive relic. I only knew from NPC dialogue that it was in the World Tree, but I’d never confirmed it directly….’

It really exists, right? Though it’s too late to worry about this now, anxiety welled up as I faced this major project.

Since it was inside a cave, it was very dark. When Kalebrin waved her staff twice, small will-o’-wisps floated around us.

Seeing this, the Ifrit curiously touched the flames.

We entered the [World Tree: Recommended Level ???] field.

‘It’s less impressive than I thought.’

The floor was damp with many small tree roots, and there were traces of animals that had lived here. Various insects crawled around the bones.

It was nature itself, but as we moved forward, we could clearly see underground stairs that humans had worked on. Two stone monuments stood blocking the entrance.

The monuments had inscriptions carved on them, and Kalebrin and Austin Gerard struggled with translation. I had given up on translation early on. Only Erendor seemed able to read the text on the monuments as he spoke up.

“Here… only the Ascetic friend and I can go.”

“Why is that?”

“First, there are personnel and qualification restrictions. Probably we two can pass through… but you two won’t be able to pass this barrier.”

Being left alone with Erendor in an empty place… He won’t kill me, right? This time I really need to bring up the demonic sword appropriately.

“Look, see. I can pass through, right? But you…”

Erendor explained kindly. His hand could pass between the monuments. But Austin Gerard’s hand was completely blocked as if by a transparent glass wall, let alone passing through.

Kalebrin also tried touching it out of curiosity, but it was the same.

‘What’s the condition?’

Well, Erendor knows he meets the qualifications, so that’s why he’s acting like that.

The only thing Erendor and I have in common is Spirit Sight. But the barrier wouldn’t let us through just because of that, right? If that were enough, the World Tree would have been crawling with elves who had contracts with spirits.

“So just the two of us will go and come back. Please guard the entrance?”

Erendor stepped onto the underground stairs. I also followed, stepping on the lower stairs. My foot passed through the barrier easily, unlike Kalebrin’s situation.

Since we now had to go into a dark place, the Ifrit lit will-o’-wisps for us.

Kalebrin seemed anxious about just the two of us heading into the unknown space.

“We’ll be careful and come back safely.”

“Uh, okay…”

“Hurry, hurry!”

Erendor urged me on. I quickly moved my steps and went down to the lower floor. Down, down.

“Well, we have quite a way to go now, so let’s have some interesting conversation.”

“Shall we? Hmm… We were definitely talking about the demonic sword last time.”

“Right. I promised to tell you that story as fitting payment for this ridiculous prank.”

When Erendor shared part of the plan through voice transmission, I gave him a taste of information about the demonic sword, and now he was dying of curiosity.

It would be troublesome if he killed me and ran away here….

I answered casually while walking down the stairs.

“About that demonic sword. Actually, I have it.”

Erendor’s steps, who had been walking ahead, hesitated for a moment.

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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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