Chapter: 164
A voice filled with joy broke the silence that settled between the two.
“Ah! Lian has made plants grow from barren land!”
From a distance, a worshipper of the Lian Church, who usually spread their teachings, shouted loudly and rushed forward. The buzzing sounds of the worshippers inside the mansion echoed out.
“What? He created life?”
“No, he said he created land!”
As always, stories about Lian inflated ever more. The Lian Church, known for speaking outlandish things without a shred of hesitation, saw nobody trying to rein in the storytelling. Consequently, the rumors grew larger and larger.
“It’s the creation of the world! He’s making a whole new universe!”
Since the uproar was solely within the Lian Church, Lian chose not to correct the exaggerations, enlightening expression and all — well, until later. For now, the focus was on the suspicious priest.
Thanks to a barrier he had set up with magic to obscure their conversation, the risk of their words leaking out was non-existent. However, it was necessary to change locations as a Lian Church member could potentially draw others in.
The two made their way to the back of a storage shed behind the mansion. The shed was small, used for storing firewood and assorted items, but it was plenty big enough to conceal their conversation.
“While that priest seems suspicious, he might wield powers akin to yours, so I can’t just interrogate him on a whim. Can you help? As a priest yourself, you might notice something I can’t,” the Duke asked.
“Of course! I’ll help!” Lian replied enthusiastically.
“Thank you.”
Hearing that the priest might have similar abilities to himself naturally drew Lian’s gaze towards God’s Seal.
When he first received the seal, it had a notable color, but as his divine power grew stronger, it intriguingly blended in with his skin tone, making it hard to notice unless looked at closely.
As the divine power increased, the size of the seal grew, spreading down to his wrist and forearm. Had the seal not closely resembled his skin, he might have been forced to wear gloves.
‘The seal doesn’t communicate nor express emotions, so it’s a relief that it was neither a cause for concern.’
The seal branded as proof of his contract with the magic sword could have its size and color adjusted by the sword’s will, so he could request it to be less conspicuous. When the sword got overly excited, terrifying patterns would crawl up to his shoulder, creating the need to be cautious, but there wasn’t really anyone strong enough to cause that level of excitement, so he didn’t worry too much.
‘It’s a bit funny how it often darkens when drinking blood.’
Seeing the seal darken and then fade repeatedly, almost made him feel like he was observing a charging electronic device.
Remembering this made him think of what the God of the Dark Fantasy World once said.
‘Thinking about it, he did say I’d get plenty of help if I visited a temple.’
Since it was advice from a god, he had jotted it down in his mind, fully intending to utilize it. That was until he visited the temple in the village.
‘Rather than help, it was more of an obstacle.’
The temple Lian had visited was a den of criminals with not a single proper priest in sight. From the perspective of the Dark Fantasy God, this could be deemed rather unfair.
The trouble was that the other temples were in similar disrepair. The fact that such criminals could take up the post of substitute priests showcased how corrupt the temples had become. Finding a temple managed by a devout substitute priest would be more challenging than plucking a star from the sky.
The only feasible option seemed to be visiting the Substitute Temple located in the capital of the Empire.
‘If there’s an opportunity, I might just pay a visit.’
Even if he drifted away from his group, he planned on helping them from a distance should they be in dire straits, meaning it wouldn’t be easy for him to just head to the capital. The possibility existed that the Substitute Temple was completely corrupt as well, leading him to conclude, ‘I’ll visit when the opportunity arises.’
“Then I’ll call on you as soon as I’m ready, so rest for now.”
As Lian wrapped his thoughts about visiting the temple, their conversation came to a close.
*
To avoid arousing suspicion from the villagers, Lian, the Duke, the Captain of the Knights, and the Wizard decided to search for the priest as a group of four.
Finding the priest was not difficult at all.
“Thank you!”
“Please be careful going forward.”
In the town’s center, the priest resided in the most extravagant building. He was an older man with hair turned white over the years, boasting a long beard that dropped down to his chin, resembling a kind Santa Claus figure. He seemed like the personification of the word “gentle.”
To Lian’s surprise, the old man appeared to be a ‘normal person,’ incongruous amidst the bizarre village, providing an inexplicable sense of relief just from looking at him.
‘Hold on… doesn’t he look familiar?’
With a strange sense of déjà vu, Lian squinted and scrutinized the old man’s face. Despite rifling through his memories, nothing surfaced, leaving him with a resounding question mark over his head. He wondered if he had simply forgotten, yet the man’s unique appearance made it hard to believe he would ever forget.
While Lian submerged in thought, the Duke approached the priest to engage in conversation.
The dialogue between the exemplar of a devout priest and the kindly Duke appeared peaceful on the surface, but upon closer inspection, one could easily spot the sharp words lurking underneath.
“Wow, so this is noble speak, huh?”
The Duke posed a different question to verify if the priest responded uniformly, filming an uncanny chill in Lian.
Lian couldn’t help but be impressed with the Duke’s skill in conversation.
‘It feels like I could’ve skipped this and things would’ve been alright.’
Before he could finish that thought, the priest began to utter unexpected words.
“Oh, the changes in the environment around here were not caused by me.”
“What do you mean? The villagers…”
“Ah, explaining that might take a bit, are you alright with that?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Hmm -… I am a servant of the gods who wanders about delivering their will. Per the god’s instructions not to covet too much, I’ve been helping the sick without a price and continuing on my journey with small favors received. My visit here was for such reasons,” the priest stated.
The old man seemed like a grandfatherly figure regaling tales from his past, puffing his long white beard as he delved deep into his story. With no clear idea of the information sources, the Duke endured the bore and listened closely.
To summarize the lengthy dialogue:
The priest had intended to assist the villagers to earn some money or food by visiting a nearby village. Given the rarity of healers in this world, the priest was welcomed and began treating the villagers.
However, shortly after commencing treatment, a blizzard began raging unexpectedly, and the priest was forced to remain in the village for a while.
The dilemma arose when the blizzard wouldn’t stop for over a week. Being a wandering priest with limited divine power, he was less effective in treating serious wounds, and soon began to feel like a burden, consuming their resources.
Given that getting chased out in a storm likely meant certain death, the priest desperately sought a solution, ultimately remembering to pray to the god.
After waking before dawn and trying to pray, he caught sight of the blizzard being swept away by an odd wind outside the window. The miraculous scene made the priest ecstatic, and he promptly offered thanks to his deity. He believed it was all due to divine mercy.
Overwhelmed by joy, he could not help but proclaims to the villagers that all of this was God’s mercy. Unsurprisingly, nobody believed him.
The priest thought the village had been chosen by the gods and decided to stay a few more days to continue praying. But trouble arose the next day.
The following day, monsters that had been roaming around the village seemed to melt away, and the next day, the accumulated snow gradually melted, revealing lush green grass.
As astonishing miracles continued for several days, the villagers began to praise the old man as a messenger sent by the gods. By this time, the priest was starting to realize that something was off.
For something to be labeled God’s mercy, an eerie energy had started to permeate the surroundings.
The priest later cried out that everything was a misunderstanding, but the villagers, as if enchanted by something, failed to heed his words.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the priest tried to leave the village to seek help from another temple, but the villagers, possessed by a demon-like frenzy, turned their eyes red and pursued him, forcing him to stay while he searched for odd signs.
‘In simple terms, he’s calling for help, huh?’
In games and novels, allies offering a way out amidst dire situations typically crop up. The man standing before Lian appeared to fit that description perfectly.
“I’d like to ask for your assistance in investigating if possible… but I’m well aware that I seem to be the most suspicious one in this village. So, please at least accept the information I’ve gathered so far,” the priest requested, offering a bundle of old papers.
After the Wizard confirmed that there were no curses or magic placed upon the papers, they passed them to the Duke.
“Your efforts deserve respect. If I need assistance, may I come to consult with you?”
“Hahaha, I’d be grateful if you did.”
The Duke paid his respects to the priest, who had worked tirelessly to save the village, before he and his team returned to the mansion.
“The priest doesn’t seem like the culprit,” one of the knights commented.
“Well, we can’t know for sure,” the Duke replied firmly.
As the Captain of the Knights reflected on his thoughts, the Duke cautioned in a strong voice.
“Children, women, old men. There’s a saying cautioning against being careless regarding these three, so don’t jump to conclusions.”
“Yes!”
Lian followed behind his party, a frown creeping onto his face as he stroked his chin.
‘I’m sure I’ve seen him somewhere… ugh…’
Lian was still struggling with the nagging sense of déjà vu. Once sensing that deja vu emerge was one thing; feeling it repeatedly made him feel like a small snowball could build into a massive avalanche that would eventually bury him if he shrugged it off nonchalantly, so he couldn’t stop racking his brain for those memories.
*
“Ahahaha! Everything is going according to plan!”
As the kind-looking old man slowly brushed his white beard, he couldn’t help but burst forth with a wicked laugh that was entirely at odds with his appearance.
Just as the Duke suspected, the old man was indeed the culprit behind the bizarre state of the village.
“Ha! If I had known it would turn out this way, I would have just stolen the body from the start.”
However, the priest’s secret didn’t end there. He was masquerading as a human by stealing ‘someone else’s’ body.
“Damn it… I regret having to hold back the tears back when I used to cry for help.”
The image of a pink-haired pervert, who would throw tantrums while crying and had stalked one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Ercioban, until she was expelled from the Demon King’s army, surfaced vividly in his mind.
That’s right. The original owner of the old man’s stolen body was the ‘Necromancer’ who almost flew off to the stars with Lian and the Duke’s attack.
The Necromancer had shot skyward, almost as if aiming for the cosmos, only to go into shock at the heights and crash back to the ground, leaving the body vacant for the old man to claim.
The once lofty fortune enjoyed by the Necromancer had turned into misfortune. It looked as though she was unfortunate enough to have her body stolen, but it was all a foregone conclusion.
It was he who facilitated her ability to command powerful monsters and execute notoriously difficult teleportation magic to an extent that even Ercioban would shake his head.
All of this arose from an artificial ‘luck’ newly created by the old man.
The luck she enjoyed stemmed from an unfair trade-off that required giving up everything, including her soul. This transaction had been secured unbeknownst even to the parties involved, driven by one singular reason.
The being that devoured the Necromancer’s body was of a different caliber than humans.
‘Ahh… no, if I had stolen the body sooner, I wouldn’t have gained the chance to hide in the Duke’s house. So, it’s true that seizing the body at just the right moment is what made this work. Hehe, this is also proof that ‘that certain being’ is blessing me!’
The old man’s identity was that of an ‘external god’ who had infiltrated the Dark Fantasy World, eager to gulp down its hollowed universe.
You’d think a being defended by the word ‘God’ would possess tremendous power, yet the old man was rather weak among the outsiders.
He was even a lesser figure compared to the external god that had scoured Lian’s mind only to dive into the mouth of the comedic god. In simple terms, he was the lowest of the low, closer to being a minor deity than an external god.
Because of this, the schemes the old man had laid out were mean and covert, befitting a weaker being.
“With enemies potentially lurking around every corner, it’s especially sweet to lend a ‘helping hand’ in times like this. Picking off mentally fatigued humans with a horrific trap would be easier than devouring a world devoid of life!”
To summarize the long-winded rant filled with self-congratulatory remarks, he intended to ‘gain trust by rescuing the Duke, whose spirit is battered from a horrific experience, to draw closer to him.’
He aimed to play a heroine to win the affections of the woman he desired by colluding with thugs to create a manufactured crisis and then orchestrate a faux rescue narrative!
The scheme, affectionately titled ‘The Duke’s Benefactor’ kicked off right from the moment the Duke set foot in the village.
“If this goes just right, I’ll become the Duke’s benefactor and be able to sneak into the Empire’s center. If that happens, I’ll gain immense information that’s vital to the Demon King’s army and win favor from ‘that certain being!’ Hehehe!”
With the first goal of ‘appear harmless to the Duke’ successfully achieved, the old man was in a heady state of confidence, feeling as though success was already in the palm of his hand, as he chuckled away.
The minor god, or rather, the ‘lowly god’ was oblivious to the fact that the being he reveres as ‘that certain being’ has planted itself in the village and possessed (comedic filter) powers that would ensure his plans would spiral into disarray if he ever got too cocky…
“What? Why is this happening…?”
Thus, the lowly god could only watch in stunned silence as his plans crumbled before his eyes.
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