The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 99

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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

This is not Austin Gerard. The aura I sense is subtly different, and even the way he grips his sword is different.

A separate individual….

However, the body and soul are completely Austin Gerard’s.

He’s being controlled. By the one behind him, the Spider. You can’t call her that! You’ll get in trouble, you’ll definitely get in trouble….

I clutched my abdomen and looked up at her while breaking out in cold sweat.

“Since your return was delayed, I wondered what was happening. You couldn’t resist and ended up bewitching Erendor.”

My body trembles. Not just from blood loss…. A fear that isn’t mine.

Data rushes in like a tide.

No, these aren’t my memories. These aren’t my memories. Teacher, I was wrong…. No, they’re not mine…. I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. So please…. Don’t kill them. Them? Who were they, who were they…. My memory.

“Heuuk…. Aaak….”

I clutched my head with my blood-stained hands.

The ‘Ascetic’ is about to collapse. The line connecting Sernuan Lumiere and the Ascetic crumbles.

Important memories from Sernuan Lumiere’s lifetime rapidly flash through my mind.

Orphanage, accident, Teacher, teachings, escape, gathering…. Sacrifices.

Data fragments and scatters like a storm. My inner self rages like a tempest and memories… one scene clearly emerged.

The Teacher who comforted Sernuan with gentle words.

‘You are the gemstone I treasure most. The more I polish you, the more you shine. You could become a very beautiful piece of jewelry.’

The Teacher wanted to quickly make me into a necklace and wear me around her neck.

I calmly lay down on the altar. The image of Sernuan lying on the cold altar with a calm expression, as if sensing his fate in a few minutes.

That can’t happen!

My vision spins and another me is reflected. Not long white hair, but short black hair and black eyes. The appearance of a Korean.

Yellow linoleum and mother-of-pearl furniture. The typical country house was packed with people.

‘You have to believe so light will enter your life and He will save you!’

‘You’re unhappy because you don’t believe in Him.’

Their eyes filled with pure faith. Those greedy eyes that seemed truly for my sake were false warmth meant to use, exploit, and abandon me.

Just like Teacher.

We just wanted to have a family.

“Uuk….”

My stomach churns. Not just the physical stomach, but the inner power is violently surging….

“Shh…. You need to calm down, Cel.”

Cel.

That was Sernuan Lumiere’s special nickname. A nickname only Teacher called him.

Blink.

The moment I closed my eyes…. and opened them.

I remembered what I had failed to do, what misunderstandings I had while my memories were briefly lost and everything was jumbled.

Austin Gerard, no. Teacher had been comforting me….

“Teacher always…. hopes you understand that I do this because I want what’s best for you. Of course, our Cel knows this well too.”

Then, the raging powers calmed down. It was chilling.

“You know I’m not trying to scold you, right?”

I’m scared. I hate you. I hate you… why me, you said we’d be together. You said you’d become my family. You said you’d stay with me…

Hatred blooms. But at the same time, I feel like I’ll go crazy because I love the hand that comforts me.

The warmth when my small hand was completely covered by hers. The emotion of feeling proud and happy at a single word of praise.

“Ah… aah…”

I trembled and clutched my cracked head with one hand as if tearing at it. Then a hand smaller than mine now gently removed my hand.

“You’re old enough to stop wandering now. Or did you remember another nightmare? I told you dreams are just dreams, yet you’re being swayed like this…”

Embrace.

Teacher hugged me.

Through my disheveled hair, I could see Yelena and Kalebrin in the distance.

Since they were believers who had traveled with me for a long time and interacted frequently, they quickly noticed my condition and ran toward me, leaving the spider monster behind.

But she wasn’t one to let that slide.

Teacher stopped stroking my hair while briefly hugging me and muttered something while looking at the spider monster.

Then the monster pressed the two with even more violent intensity than before.

Bang- Kakakagak.

“Keeeeek!”

“Ascetic sir…!”

Yelena glances at me and can’t concentrate on the battle. Meanwhile, Kalebrin, confirming I was injured, flashed her bright red eyes and rapid-fired curses.

“Why, why, why won’t it die. Why…!”

The situation inside and outside the hut was strangely different.

I sat there blankly like a doll.

Teacher slowly released the arms that had been hugging me. I staggered and half-collapsed onto the bed.

Despite the bed turning bright red with the blood I had shed, completely unconcerned, he sat beside me.

“Have you calmed down? Then, we should have time for a brief chat.”

I tried to move my lips and say something, but it didn’t work well.

Right now I’m too confused, emotions that aren’t memories… They’re not mine. But at the same time, they are mine.

“Erendor was originally meant to be assigned to you anyway, so that didn’t matter, but I really didn’t expect you to fall into this state. Really…. I didn’t expect it.”

I could only tremble and listen to her words one-sidedly.

When I rolled my eyes, he was wiping the knife that had stabbed me on the bedsheet.

“You really exceed my expectations.”

I’ve heard this before.

When I, when Sernuan Lumiere ran away from the mansion.

I thought I had escaped Teacher, but when Teacher found me again, these were the first words she said.

The bleeding abdomen gradually heals.

Ah, I’m once again.

Blink.

When I opened my eyes, a familiar system window blocked my view.

 

[System Activated]

[Welcome, ‘Sernuan Lumiere’]

Right, I possessed a game character who appeared as the story boss named Sernuan Lumiere.

To survive, I must create believers and live the life of a cult leader.

-{Ascetic! Are you coming to your senses? I was worried because you couldn’t hear me all this time!}

Ife worries about me.

Probably since I was stabbed in the abdomen, the contract was shaken so I couldn’t hear his words or see his form.

I slowly got up from the bed. Then the bed that had been stained red slowly regained its original color.

Dust like gold powder floated upward and fluttered in the air. The blood that had been caked in my hair also disappeared, restoring my pure white hair color.

He smiled at me with a smile Austin Gerard would never give me. And stroked my hair again.

I smiled back at him too.

“Yes…. Teacher. Now, now I’m fine. I remember everything.”

“Good, then you know well what you need to do, right?”

I was Sernuan Lumiere.

The trembling in my body is no longer…. there.

I am not afraid of her.

“Yes, of course. Teacher.”

“Good, then Teacher will return now. Don’t forget to call me ‘Widow’ when we meet next time.”

I smiled.

“Please go home safely.”

Creak-

Thud.

As soon as the hut’s door closed, the presence disappeared. I returned to an expressionless face as if my bright smile had been a lie.

Her approaching me like this was a mistake.

Because I had learned too much.

Thud….

After a brief silence, there was the sound of something heavy collapsing to the ground.

When I turned my head from the door he had exited toward where the half-destroyed window had been, the two had already finished defeating the monster.

They ran toward me, covered in wounds.

“Ascetic!”

Yelena frantically felt around my abdomen where blood had been flowing.

My stomach had already healed long ago. I placed my hands on them. And skillfully exercised my power.

Yelena, realizing her wounds had disappeared, snapped at me.

“I told you to stay still…! What if something had gone wrong!”

“You’ve returned.”

Kalebrin didn’t avoid my gaze or stutter, but looked directly at me as she spoke.

“Yes, I’ve returned.”

Those two exchanges were enough for Kalebrin and me. Yelena sat down on the floor beneath the bed, staring at the ground as she muttered.

“That person earlier was definitely… wasn’t that Lord Austin Gerard? Why on earth was he here, how did he come, and also…. Ah, my head is too complicated to know what to ask first….”

“That couldn’t have been an easy battle. You all worked hard.”

I smiled gently.

Now there were no longer levels written above Kalebrin and Yelena’s heads.

Even when I opened the skill window, only the names of skills were written, while levels and additional effects had cleanly disappeared.

The system had broken down.

But now that was no longer something to worry about.

Since most of my memories from when I wasn’t the Ascetic had returned, I could use skills skillfully even without the system’s assistance.

More precisely, I had learned the limits of what I possessed and could now freely exercise my power within those bounds.

‘The points I worked so hard to collect, the faith stats, the levels – how meaningless and useless they’ve all become. Damn!’

I despaired just a little. But rather than being buried in numbers and obsessing over them, let me focus on how my range of freely usable abilities had expanded….

Another fortunate thing was that even when I had half-lost my memory, requesting the veil, another sacred relic, from Erendor had definitely been the right thing to do.

 

[Uncollected Sacred Relics: 3/9]

 

Though stats, points, and levels had disappeared, the penalty window and Quest window were still appearing perfectly fine.

 

[Sacred Relic Collection Period: 11 days]

 

If I exceeded the sacred relic collection period, my body would suffer additional strain, and taking further damage beyond this would be dangerous.

‘This death was definitely… quite taxing on me too.’

In the skill window, I could see skills I hadn’t unlocked.

 

[Mind Control 30]

[Life Drain 150]

.

.

.

[Resurrection]

 

After this incident, various skills that had been marked as ‘???’ became visible, but among them, resurrection was blocked.

‘I should consider this as having used an advance. The price of that advance was… data loss. Ah, thinking of it as data feels a bit… strange.’

Because I forcibly drew upon the power of resurrection, I lost my memory and got tangled up with the personalities inside me.

Thanks to that, I learned various information, but it couldn’t be considered a particularly positive situation.

‘Teacher… no, the widow is exactly what….’

The task the widow had given to the previous Sernuan Lumiere. That was to make everyone believe in Lumensia.

‘It matches the Quest’s objective.’

The stories I heard from meeting the Ancient Spirit at the World Tree and the knowledge I gained living as a player – how on earth did the widow know all that?

“So could you please explain what exactly that monster’s identity was…? Earlier you said something about demons and remnants of gods and such.”

…I did?

I had no memory of saying such things.

I thought carefully.

Certainly the monsters that attacked us earlier were mobs called that could only be encountered by entering specific dungeons.

The very fact that such a thing was here made no sense, and midway through it seemed to be under the widow’s control.

The mob annoyingly stacked debuffs on players and used those to buff itself. That was all I knew!

What this talk about remnants of gods and demons was about….

Such settings were never revealed in the first place. Though hardcore otaku who thoroughly studied game settings had theorized they were amorphous monsters, which was almost accepted as fact.

But I had talked about the mob’s background setting that I didn’t even know?

‘Some parts are missing from the memory recovery process.’

Probably information I shouldn’t know right now… information that only the personalities within me know.

But there was no time to piece together the missing memories. Even Erendor, who had been with me the longest, wasn’t here because I had sent him on an errand.

‘That bastard Erendor pretending to be a friend, what on earth is he thinking….’

However, I could definitely tell he had changed course after seeing my situation. He had been consistently favorable toward me and also….

‘Erendor knows things I don’t know.’

Even when I was under a kind of confusion debuff and showed signs of madness, Erendor alone maintained a relatively normal appearance.

Even when I told him to bring the veil, he didn’t ask what it was….

Though he travels alone, he has the reliable backing of Harmony.

As long as our interests align, he’s convenient to use and there’s no worry about him stabbing me in the back.

Moreover, since he pursues power, he would have visited many ancient ruins. Just like he seemed to have been to the World Tree.

Then he would be helpful in recovering the sacred relics.

Furthermore, for the final goal of having to kill a god – the ‘Prometheus’ project – he was the perfect talent.

‘As the widow said, Erendor was the most optimal card for me.’

Just like a teacher guiding a student down a good path….

What on earth is the widow thinking?

What exactly does the teacher want from me?

 

*

 

The widow pushed back the bitter veil she had worn inside the mansion and received the wine her attendant poured.

“When the time comes, even that sun will eventually set.”

She held up the wine glass near the window. In the swirling red wine, the bizarrely clouded and reddened sun rippled.

“To eliminate a god, one must use a god – in the end, gods cannot be separated from human life…. How truly lamentable.”

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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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