The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 91

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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

“… Yes. I understand the Ascetic’s will.”

Viola smiled brightly and slowly dropped her fingers from the dagger’s handle.

Thud.

It sank deep into the snow field.

It was probably just a simple performance. Viola could likely kill someone with just her bare hands.

I didn’t let my guard down and glared at her. Then Viola’s lips trembled slightly.

“Right. Then let’s negotiate.”

It worked.

I felt slightly relieved.

“Instead, I’d like you to come alone to the negotiation site we’ve prepared, Ascetic.”

“Don’t listen to such nonsense!”

When Yelena shouted, Viola stepped firmly on Kalebrin with her foot.

“That bastard…!”

“I understand.”

“Lumiere!?”

Yelena panicked and suddenly shouted my real name.

“Instead, just let Kalebrin go.”

“Of course.”

Viola smiled slyly and played with her hair. It probably wasn’t even real hair, so why was she doing that.

She kicked Kalebrin, rolling her into the snow field.

“Now, woman over there. Take her. You two seemed quite close.”

Kalebrin rolled through the snow field. Yelena rushed over and caught her.

“You son of a-“

Yelena cursed at Viola. Even though she’s an Inquisitor, she’s basically a follower of God, so I wondered if it was okay for her to curse like that…

Since Cardil was a foul-mouth to begin with, I decided to let it slide.

“Shall we go then?”

Viola extended her hand. In her other hand was a stone that appeared to be a transportation artifact.

“Please take care of my Brothers and Sisters while I’m gone.”

“Ascetic…”

Yelena, holding the unconscious Kalebrin, looked at me. Don’t look at me like that. You’re not even a believer and you don’t trust me that much anyway.

Still, the concern wasn’t too bad.

“I will return.”

I smiled and took Viola’s hand.

Then, space began to distort from the edge of my vision and I felt like I was being sucked into something.

When I opened my eyes, I had arrived inside some house.

It had the structure of an ordinary family home, but there wasn’t a single piece of furniture and no sense of life at all.

It felt like a model house where all the useless furniture had been thrown away.

“Could you give me that friend over there?”

“Sit.”

Erendor gently took Ife from me. Ife struggled wildly, but it was futile to escape from Erendor’s embrace.

-{Ascetic!}

Viola pressed down on my shoulder and made me sit on the sofa. He pulled out handcuffs from his waist and said.

“When I said ‘alone,’ that includes this child too.”

“It wouldn’t be a good sight for a child to see… and I won’t be of any help anyway, so I’ll wait outside?”

“Yes, Erendor. Let’s save the nagging for later.”

Viola’s tone kept changing rapidly. The voice also changed, sometimes becoming feminine and sometimes masculine.

Click.

Erendor went outside the door.

When the door closed, I lost the sense of Ife who would be in Erendor’s hands.

Even when Ife was dwelling in the fake sacred relic, I could still faintly sense Ife’s presence.

However, now I couldn’t feel Ife at all.

‘They must have set up some kind of device in the room.’

I called up the system. I had random tickets and skill tickets, so I could use those…

 

[No Communication Zone]

[Please check your network connection.]

 

What?

‘System.’

 

[Please check your network connection.]

 

The blue window only displayed those words before crackling and disappearing.

“Would you please put these on obediently?”

He spoke in a neutral voice while jingling the handcuffs.

“I don’t think this is how you treat a negotiator… but fine.”

I held out both my wrists. Soon the handcuffs were fastened.

‘… System.’

 

[No Response]

 

As expected, Viola definitely knew some method to block my system.

And even though I called it a system for convenience, those things were controlled by something inside me.

‘Last time when I almost died to the Knight Commander, I couldn’t use any skills because the system was under maintenance.’

But I could still use Sacred Relic Power.

‘This might be the type that blocks even Sacred Relic Power… or maybe they’ve tampered with this space itself.’

I tried to check my Sacred Relic Power by fidgeting with my fingertips.

My blunt nails couldn’t even scratch my hand. I barely felt any pain either.

I wasn’t sure if it was because of the Defense Relic. Sernuan Lumiere’s body had dull pain and sensation, so this kind of pressing couldn’t be distinguished.

‘I need to act boldly to somehow get through this. Whoever cowers and lowers their head first loses.’

Let me just think about how to finish this negotiation.

I raised my head.

“Now then, as Erendor already spilled everything, our goal is for you to join our organization. I’m very sorry that things got twisted so violently.”

“How unfortunate indeed. Threats accompanied by violence… isn’t that quite old-fashioned?”

Before I knew it, Viola had a dagger in her hand.

“Ascetic, your tone is more insolent than I thought?”

Blood flowed from my shoulder. When I touched it, it seemed my cheek was cut. Warm blood flowed down my neckline.

It wasn’t purified or healed.

‘Sacred Relic Power is blocked.’

My heart began beating rapidly. Was it fear? No, don’t focus on emotions. That won’t solve anything. Let me judge the situation as coldly as possible and find a way out.

“If you accept the proposal, you’ll become a new member of the concert. I don’t want to be so cruel.”

“What is your purpose?”

I interrupted, but Viola only paused briefly and didn’t show as big a reaction as before.

‘Is this level okay?’

Sometimes she reacted sensitively and sometimes she just calmly passed it over, making her unpredictable.

Someone who changes roles so rapidly that their personality changes instantly like that can’t be normal.

She’s probably a sociopath, psychopath, or multiple personality disorder case as the users speculated.

It would have been better if Erendor had come to negotiate rather than this unpredictable person…

“Purpose? Well, I just follow the Boss. I just need you to fulfill the Boss’s will. That’s all.”

Viola honestly revealed her purpose.

“What is the Boss’s will?”

“Are you pretending not to know on purpose, or do you really not know?”

Viola made an incredulous expression and spun the dagger in her hand.

She muttered, “Should I tell you, or not.”

“Destroying the Empire. That’s the Boss’s goal.”

So that was Harmony’s purpose after all.

I had roughly guessed it… No, I had been certain of it.

“And for that, we needed you.”

She pointed at me with the blade of the dagger.

“Well, if our concert manages to recruit the Empire’s hottest star and lead actor, how spectacular would our show be?”

Viola circled around the sofa I was sitting on, brushing my shoulders. It was a truly dramatic movement to behold.

“For that, we’d like the Ascetic to cooperate smoothly.”

“Smooth cooperation…?”

“Cooperation to destroy the Empire, I mean. Bringing internal information? Doing spy work! That sort of thing. Doesn’t it sound really fun? Though these days I’m so sick of that stuff I just want to smash everything.”

Even though I was dealing with a criminal who seemed ready to commit terrorism at any moment, I didn’t lose my smile.

“…That would be quite difficult work.”

“If you need support, I can provide it. To some extent. After all, now that we’re teammates in the same concert, there’s no way I’d tell you to handle everything alone.”

“I have just one proposal.”

She shrugged and sat down in the wooden chair across from me. Stroking the dagger with her fingers and tilting the chair precariously, she smiled.

“If you want to use me, please treat me as a real comrade.”

“A real comrade?”

“I also want to… actually stop the Empire’s actions. If I can hinder the Empire from my position, I can cooperate with full sincerity and effort.”

Viola stopped rocking the chair and listened to the conversation with a serious face.

“However, I cannot cooperate as a disposable consumable. As you mentioned earlier, you want to cast me as the lead actor, right? Then how about we work together not just on this project, but on the next one and beyond?”

She widened her eyes as if she had heard something absurd. Then she blinked.

“I don’t like being treated as a tool. I’d like at least some guarantee that my believers and I will be safe.”

“Hmm, I understand what you mean.”

She scratched her cheek.

“And I’ll decide how to provide information. I have a position within the Empire and there are watching eyes right beside me.”

Her expression looked both uncomfortable and suspicious. But she only showed those emotions for an instant. Viola quickly hid her expression.

“Ah… You mean that woman with the long blonde hair?”

She was speaking like this even though she obviously knew Yelena’s name.

“Yes. Yelena the Inquisitor.”

I knew that Yelena had been assigned as eyes to monitor me.

Her timing that seemed coordinated from the Banquet Hall, the way she occasionally left and returned…

I don’t know why she was assigned to monitor me, but it’s probably due to the subtle ostracism from the Central Church.

However, the reason I’m not desperately trying to get rid of her surveillance is because she poses no real threat to me.

If anything, she might even be helpful.

And lately, I’ve been getting the strong feeling that she wouldn’t betray me. Like the feeling I get from believers.

“What if that information is fake or if the Ascetic doesn’t cooperate properly?”

“Then I’ll just be expelled from Harmony. After that… you can do whatever you want.”

“You’re a Scholar with a boldly sharp mind.”

Her tone carried a hint of irritation.

Does she not like my proposal itself…?

This is a dangerous tightrope walk. I’m more nervous than when I first possessed Sernuan Lumiere’s body.

“But there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

She cleared her throat several times and spoke in my voice.

“Earlier, you said ‘I want to… actually stop the Empire’s actions. If I can hinder the Empire from my position, I can cooperate with full sincerity and effort’… Why does the Saint think that way?”

My voice came out of her mouth. It was so identical that it was creepy enough to be terrifying.

Voice Mimicry? Hearing it in person was truly bizarre and frightening.

“…Because the Empire’s faith is twisted.”

“Hmm. So that was it after all.”

She nodded as if she understood.

She’s probably thinking of me as some kind of heretic or cult member and accepting it? It was fortunate that she let it slide like that.

“Well, those conditions are acceptable. But we’re not going to stop the Empire, we’re going to destroy it… Can you cooperate with that?”

She asked as if she was worried about me. But what was contained within wasn’t worry.

“Of course. Since I want the Empire’s power to be weakened as much as possible, it wouldn’t matter if it collapsed.”

She nodded.

“Last question. How did you meet and become friends with Erendor?”

“…?”

She’s suddenly asking about Erendor here?

I don’t understand her intention, but the negotiation was almost over.

Since it ended on a good note, it should be fine to answer honestly. If she asks Erendor later, any lies would be exposed quickly anyway.

“We first met in the garden. We became close while chatting on the way to Elar’s Tears.”

“I see. Well, that bastard Erendor does like people with firm convictions.”

I raised my handcuffed hands.

“Then I’d like you to remove the handcuffs as a sign that you’ve accepted my proposal.”

“Hmm… The thing is.”

She paused.

“I started thinking, why would we even need a spy?”

“…?”

“Well, I’m tired of using my brain now. Wouldn’t it be more damaging to the Empire to just cut off the Ascetic’s head and display it in the Empire’s marketplace?”

The reason she was irritated earlier and didn’t look pleased wasn’t simply because she didn’t like my proposal—

“Wait a moment.”

So suddenly like this?

She’s coming at me this way?

“Let me talk for a bit—”

I urgently raised my handcuffed hands to stop her.

Viola approached with large steps, dagger in hand.

“Sorry about this.”

Without giving me a chance to say anything.

The flashing dagger plunged below my neck.

 

[system: You have been logged out.]

 

*

 

“Dead.”

Viola looked at the Ascetic who was slumped on the sofa, bleeding out.

—————
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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