The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 8

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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

Cardil’s mouth moved as if he wanted to say something. He silently fixed his gaze on the floor.

I had no time to worry about Cardil.

‘Since I’ve decided to do this, I need to properly act like a god. Otherwise, I’ll die…!’

The person in front of me was a direct priest belonging to the Central Church.

With just one report letter sent to the Main Headquarters, my head could roll.

‘This side also took risks to act like this.’

Of course, I wasn’t doing this without something to rely on.

If this was Cardil from the game I knew, I was confident he wouldn’t report me to the Main Headquarters as a heretic.

The evidence for that confidence came from the endless devotion he showed to patients, both in the original work and now.

‘What if I cure all the patients here and treat all the patients who come seeking help?’

If they come with external injuries, I’ll lie and say it’s because they lack sincere and pure faith, and if it’s illness, I’ll cure them all.

Cardil will be watching all of this from the closest position…

And if he sees all of that, he ultimately won’t report me to the Main Headquarters.

Cardil’s devotion to patients is his most blind life principle.

In the game’s main story, abandoning his affiliated group and beliefs was proof of this.

He was someone who thought patients’ well-being was more important than religion.

I looked down at him steadily. Seeing his thick hair on top, it seemed he wouldn’t go bald in the future.

In the corner of my vision, the Weakness Detection skill window disappeared like an old TV screen turning off. The effect must have ended.

Probably… about five minutes had passed. Not too bad.

[Cooldown Time | 05:59]

A six-hour cooldown time…

Still, considering it was level 1, it was pretty good.

Then Cardil suddenly raised his head. And glared at me.

Ah, shit… That startled me.

Being in a position of fraud, I was already on edge.

“I believe in Sun God Lumensia, but are you really…”

Cardil stammered. He was shaken by my words.

‘If I mess up here, I’m dead.’

If news of me reaches the Main Headquarters, it’s 100% torture and execution…!

Just thinking about it gave me chills.

I wouldn’t even get a proper burial. I’d be lucky if they fed me to pigs.

‘I’ll take control here.’

I pulled myself together.

“Ah, Brother… you think I’m not a god?”

I tried to smile as kindly as possible. But since Cardil wouldn’t look at my face, it was a meaningless action.

I briefly brought my hand to my lips, then reached out to pat Cardil’s head.

When my hand touched his head, Cardil trembled greatly.

I ignored it and patted his head. I felt the texture of his dry hair.

‘Let’s establish discipline.’

If I don’t want to die…!

“That’s understandable. My faithful servants sometimes do foolish things… guiding such people to the right path is also my mission.”

I turned around and placed my hand on the forehead of a patient who was groaning in pain. The patient’s forehead was hot like a fireball.

“I couldn’t ignore the groans of all those suffering like this, so I came to this place.”

I drew upon the Sacred Relic Power again. Golden light flowed out between my fingertips.

It was now completely evening, and the hut had become darker than before when golden light burst forth.

The cloth piece covering the window fluttered and spilled light outside.

Golden powder poured down in the room, then disappeared before touching the floor.

The light seeping through my fingers faded, and darkness settled in the hut again.

Like a moment of magic. The miracle disappeared.

The First Patient sitting on the bed was greatly moved by the sight and bowed his head.

Meanwhile, the Second Patient regained consciousness.

Cardil stood frozen with a dumbfounded expression.

Even if once was coincidence, seeing miracles performed twice, he seemed to be wondering whether to believe this or not.

I smiled benevolently as if driving in a wedge and spread both arms.

The brown robe spread out, appealing my broad embrace.

“Do not fear. I simply didn’t want to hear the screams of the suffering living and stand by.”

“Ohhh…”

The First Patient banged his head on the floor.

I could see the believer count being counted at the edge of my vision, but I had no time to pay attention to that.

Right now I had to do tremendous Method Acting…!

I turned around smoothly and brushed the Second Patient’s hair.

“Now that your god has arrived here, leave all anxiety and pain to me, an Ascetic.”

I knelt down and helped up the first believer who was bowing his head.

He seemed to have been bedridden for a long time as he staggered, making me feel like I was doing something bad.

Something bad…

Actually, that’s right…!

It was fraud trying to deceive people, so it was indeed something bad…

The two patients groveling on the sickbed expressed reverence to me despite their poor physical condition.

It made sense since I had essentially extended their lives from near death.

If a doctor had made my legs movable with just one gesture, I would have suspected that doctor of being divine too…

But receiving that reaction, I was a bit…

‘Burdened…’

Yes, it was burdensome!

The Coachman at least expressed it moderately, but the patients here were truly serving me more than Cardil who had sincerely cared for them, which was burdensome.

I had treated the patients, but I couldn’t receive favorable looks from Cardil.

I was extremely tense.

‘He won’t report me, right? Considering I saved the patients, please hold back on the heresy report…’

While I was inwardly whimpering, Cardil asked with a sharp edge.

“If you say you’re an Ascetic, why are you going around acting like a god?”

He began to suspect me of heresy. As expected, his official temperament doesn’t go anywhere.

But there was a reason I deliberately changed my words to Ascetic.

“When a god is reborn, they are reborn in the most humble place and perform miracles. And to become a god again, one must go through the path of an Ascetic. Priests who try to approach the presence of god also periodically walk the ‘path of the Ascetic’ out of respect for god. I am simply starting over from being an Ascetic.”

Cardil made a puzzled expression after hearing my words.

Probably due to impaired judgment caused by accumulated fear.

“Therefore, when I coughed up blood after performing the miracle earlier, wasn’t that all the result of bearing that holy mission?”

The patient sitting on the sickbed at my suggestion asked with sparkling eyes.

“Then you’re saying you don’t yet possess a complete body?”

“Unfortunately, that’s correct. To descend to this land, I had to leave many things behind…”

Even at my nonsense, the patient nodded and was busy making the sign of the cross repeatedly.

“Only the true faith of the living and the dead can make this lacking flesh complete and holy.”

“Ohhh…”

Honestly, it was embarrassing.

But I didn’t show it.

The unfortunate fact was that despite my endless self-PR, Cardil absolutely didn’t believe I was a Reincarnated God.

This was because the believer count didn’t go up except for the two patients and one Coachman.

He didn’t even appear in the temporary believer window.

Damn, I tried to take it easy but it’s not easy at all.

At this rate, I’d end up hanging in the plaza to die.

I hastily added more words.

“You don’t have to believe right now, Brother. I’m not forcing faith upon you. Just… see, feel, and realize for yourself.”

It was tongue-wagging to survive.

Calling over non-believers and skeptics to force them to believe in God with illogical arguments is one of the perfect conditions for creating rebellion.

After saying that, I placed my hands on the patients’ foreheads one by one to heal them.

In total, ten patients regained consciousness and awakened.

The believer window also changed.

[Number of Believers: 11]

As soon as the patients rose from their sickbeds, they believed in me as if enchanted.

But that made sense, since I was currently equipped with ‘Divine Aura.’

From the patients’ perspective, they probably felt tremendous pressure, right? And such a being had saved them.

Just yesterday they were on death’s door, but they came back to life with just one touch of a hand on their forehead.

Even the people around them experienced miracles and urged them to praise?

It would be strange if they didn’t become believers. A Reincarnated God (fake) performing miracles right before their eyes…

Unlike knights, they had no mental defenses, and being commoners, they lacked education. Moreover, having directly experienced a miracle, it wasn’t strange for them to believe readily.

After finishing treatment on the last believer with the Sacred Relic’s power, a strange sense of exhaustion enveloped my entire body.

‘It feels like I stayed up all night and exercised too…’

[system: If the number of believers remains at ’11’ after 11:59 minutes, physical collapse will begin gradually.]

Phew, fortunately my self-harm threat was postponed for another 12 hours.

[Number of Believers: 11]

Hmm. Nine more until the reward.

If I made rounds to noble estates with incurable diseases and places with sick people like a delivery driver collecting Chinese restaurant bowls, I could probably fill the quota.

In the game’s main story, incurable diseases were given significant weight, so just curing those would bring rewards rolling in.

Now I should go to the Coachman’s house, eat, and ask to sleep there.

I naturally thought about settling into the Coachman’s house as I turned around. Cardil still had an expressionless face.

“Will you come again next time?”

However, the voice speaking to me was gentler than at first.

“If the living writhe in pain, I cannot help but go to them. That is the mission given to me.”

I tried to speak as sacredly as possible.

But behind that was the inner thought of ‘I want to live… I don’t want to die by torture…’

Unlike my confident words, I had no ability to discern who was currently suffering.

For now, I only planned to get a spoonful from the free treatment hut that Cardil had set up.

Of course, limited to sick people.

External injuries are still too much for me! I hope Cardil will handle those!

‘Cardil would be pleased seeing this and raise his favorability. It would be even better if I could increase believers while I’m at it.’

This hut was perfect as a believer supply source.

I just had to act somewhat sacred and place my hand on their foreheads, and everyone would go “Ohhh!” and crawl on the ground.

“…I understand.”

I was relieved by that answer. That response was like a tacit silence that Cardil wouldn’t report me to the Main Headquarters as a heretic.

He was truly a doctor of this era who worried about patients’ welfare over faith in God.

If this were modern times, he would definitely lose his job fighting with a Hospital Director who only thought about money.

I smiled and announced my departure.

“Hehe, if there are any sick people around, bring them to me. This truly belongs to ‘good deeds,’ so when you reach the Afterlife later, you will receive more of the sun’s grace.”

When I mentioned the sun’s grace, my heart area tightened.

…Arrhythmia?

Since it was just for a moment, I brushed it off, clasped my hands together, and bowed my head.

“Praising the Ascetic’s steps, I will follow your words.”

Ten patients dumbly mimicked my actions and bowed their heads in unison.

Thus I safely concluded my first meeting with Cardil.

Cardil didn’t even greet me as I left the hut, just stared piercingly at my retreating figure.

He wasn’t using profanity because of his dignity as a Priest, but in his heart he probably already made scripture out of curses about me.

‘I need to get a Healing Relic quickly, but it’s not easy at all…’

Then again, when have things ever gone smoothly for me?

I postponed the Cardil problem for later. If I just went around treating patients as a Healing Magic shuttle, maybe we’d become friends at some point and he’d convert.

‘Or maybe I should just suppress him with aura…’

His personality was the problem. If only his personality were gentle, he would have fallen for it quickly.

Whether due to the special nature of being a Priest or high mental strength, a level 1 Divine Aura didn’t seem to accomplish anything.

‘Seeing appear as a weakness in the status window earlier, Divine Aura seems useful…? It’s still hard to define what the effect is.’

While pondering whether to suppress Cardil with a leveled-up aura or gain favor by showing him patient treatment, I returned to the Coachman’s house.

A feast was laid out on the table. That is, the kind of banquet you see in fantasy games was set up in this commoner’s house.

‘Do they usually eat like this?’

Seeing me standing at the door, the Coachman graciously escorted me to the table.

“I put in a little effort.”

“Thank you for Brother’s grace. God’s blessing upon this feast.”

I tried my best to eat in a quiet and refined manner.

While I was slowly savoring my meal, the Coachman cautiously asked what he should call me.

“My name is Sernuan Lumiere. But… Ascetic is sufficient.”

“Understood, Ascetic.”

My God impersonation act kept growing. Though I was putting on an act, the food went down my throat smoothly.

‘Wow… it’s delicious. Should I just keep freeloading at this person’s house?’

I had rather thuggish thoughts as I wiped my mouth with a handkerchief. Meanwhile, the Coachman brought red wine.

Red wine was poured into an elegant glass.

From wine to such fine glass cups. This wasn’t a scene you’d see in an ordinary commoner’s house.

It seems the Coachman was quite wealthy.

Come to think of it, even the house didn’t look like what ordinary commoners lived in. Maybe he wasn’t actually a coachman but a Merchant Guild Leader?

I didn’t ask about his occupation. But asking what work he does might break the mood.

I slowly swirled the glass of red wine and brought up a topic.

“This time I returned after saving souls in suffering. Their state was truly pitiful beyond words. Seeing those trapped in pain like Brother’s beloved daughter broke my heart.”

“Ah…”

“Are there any around Brother who suffer from illness?”

“Not particularly around me, but I know several in the Merchant Families and Noble Families I deal with who suffer from incurable diseases. While going around trying to cure my daughter’s illness, I found many people suffering from similar diseases.”

I spoke in a pitying tone. However, I couldn’t hide my smiling expression.

“Oh, I see. That is precisely where my touch must reach. Brother, if you could lend your strength according to the sun’s will, could you guide me to them?”

The Coachman’s eyes widened.

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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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