Chapter 34
Finally, the war has broken out!
It’s a fight between a cult and a nation, so you could say it’s repression if you phrase it nicely.
But it’s definitely a war in scale.
Not only is it large in scale, but massive wars didn’t happen often in the early modern period.
The elite of Ansellus Kingdom and the warriors of Future Hope Church.
These two clashed first.
Every time they killed each other, warmth whoosh flowed in!
Hehe!
I feel so good, with warmth lasting a while after a long time!
But the warmth flickered and disappeared like a burning log, not because the fighting had stopped.
Suddenly, the method changed.
This isn’t a war where people snuff out like candles. Instead of a mindless fight where countless lives vanish every time they clash, it’s a method that reduces the damage to allies and amplifies the damage to enemies more effectively.
Future Hope Church is using strategy and tactics.
I know the reason.
It’s Witga. He’s really good at handling people. Last time he fought Yasle, he took command and fought, right?
First, is he fighting the Ansellus Kingdom that has invaded before his eyes?
So, is the Ansellus Kingdom going to fail?
Is Tisah going to fail?
I thought so, but Andrew approached Witga. It wasn’t a private meeting. On Witga’s side there was Isla, and on Andrew’s side, there was someone blessed by me.
He spoke about the current situation and said that Hieronymus abandoned Witga. He said it was already over when the blessed person heading north disappeared.
Then Andrew asked Witga what his goal was.
Witga looked around. He made eye contact with the people who came with Andrew. Thanks to that, I ended up making eye contact multiple times.
That’s right.
Andrew brought several blessed subordinates with him. Isla grabs a weapon. And Andrew’s subordinate, noticing that, also reached out toward the weapon.
It’s a situation on the brink of conflict.
Witga spoke about the fall of Cognia Kingdom with a complex expression. When Andrew asked why, he replied that he was a general of Ogre Kingdom.
As I searched the memories of those who know that word, it’s a country that fell to the Cognia Kingdom.
Indeed.
So he was well-versed in strategy and tactics, and knew how to fight. Isla, who was nearby, stared at Witga with wide eyes as if she didn’t know that.
Andrew promised to help Witga if he followed him. But Witga, mentioning Hieronymus, questioned if Andrew was any different.
Then Andrew mentioned me.
He said there are not three, but four people who can receive blessings. He got this by asking the outsider directly.
It’s as if he twisted the words to suggest that Hieronymus was embezzling.
I can tell since I’m the type to speak the truth and lie at the same time.
Andrew then asked if everything Hieronymus said afterward wasn’t credible.
When Witga slowly nodded, Andrew smiled.
He suggested a deal without asking for Andrew to believe him. He wanted the elite soldiers of Ansellus to rush to a village. If that’s done, he would organize an army made up of the blessed and take command of it.
Then Witga asked if the outsider would facilitate that.
Andrew recited the answer he heard from me.
If the outsider simply provides offerings, they will bestow blessings on anyone.
Witga’s body stiffened at those words.
And a moment later, he asked Andrew if he was thinking of taking the outsider.
Then Andrew replied that it might be suitable to make him a new god.
After a long silence, Witga put things on hold. Then Andrew said to use this subordinate freely while passing a blessed person to Witga.
Those who are my eyes and ears quietly murmured that Witga will be under surveillance, but I pretended not to hear.
Perhaps it’s true.
And the next day.
The blessed ones without special powers marched to the battlefield. And they faced a tragic defeat. The elite soldiers of Ansellus Kingdom covered a distance that usually takes a week by the beast-pulled vehicle in just four days.
Then there was an emergency at the underground temple. Food and water were moved inside from the surrounding villages, and many armed themselves for battle.
And I also relocated from the room I was originally in to a room deeper in the underground temple.
It was the room I lived in first.
In the meantime, I haven’t seen Hyungkesuni. I don’t know if she’s working somewhere else or if she fled. I thought it might be necessary just in case, but I made a mistake.
I should have clung to her, even if it meant acting cute.
If I had failed, I would have to analyze the cause and improve.
To do that, I went to find Yasle.
“What is it?”
“Can we be together?”
I stated just the point. Yasle sighed deeply and tried to coax me. But I had no intention of backing down.
He’s the most promising candidate with knowledge.
Yes, why have I been sitting still until now?
As Future Hope Church is heading towards destruction, would I just watch as my warmth harvesting process and the organization providing warmth crumbles?
I endured.
I endured for a very long time.
Because I wanted something, I watched slowly as Future Hope Church fell apart. I waited while resisting the urge to hasten its collapse. Waiting. Waiting.
Finally.
Yasle was cornered.
Yes. A girl will stick to him there.
Whenever, just give me an offering, and a servant who grants power called blessing.
It’s unsettling, but a simple beast that hasn’t taken any action until now.
I’m worried that Hyungkesuni is nowhere to be seen, but I can’t miss this person. He holds knowledge more important than immediate warmth.
When I first whined to stick to him, Yasle eventually gave up. He ended up giving in.
This is the moment when Andrew is negotiating with the Ansellus Kingdom.
Andrew opened a secret passage and guided the elite soldiers of Ansellus Kingdom to Hieronymus, on the condition of turning a blind eye to him.
Slowly, the collapse of the underground temple is imminent.
I can’t miss this chance.
Absolutely not.
I followed Hieronymus along with Joanna. The cult members didn’t find it strange that I was sticking to Hieronymus.
They probably think it’s dangerous, so I’m sticking together.
Fortunately, there was no sense of incongruity.
In that situation, Witga came to see Hieronymus.
And he fell silent for a moment before suddenly shouting that the Rasve Kingdom and Cognia Kingdom were attacking from two directions to the north.
Then he angrily said that it happened because Hieronymus didn’t give the blessed one.
After ranting for a while, he asked Hieronymus where he would send the troops.
But his face was smeared with lies.
In response to Witga’s question, Hieronymus queried what he meant by “where to.”
Witga replied that they had to choose whether to face the invading north or head southeast towards the capital of Ansellus.
Then Hieronymus, instead of answering right away, asked Witga how the current war situation was.
Witga explained the war situation one by one, responding that they could certainly hold out if they stayed in the underground temple.
It was a lie.
Perhaps that’s why there was guilt etched on his face, but I pretended not to know.
After hearing Witga’s words, Hieronymus commanded that they head southeast.
Witga’s face displayed a fleeting glimpse of resignation and hatred before disappearing. He nodded, turned, and grabbed the door.
And he left without looking back, leaving behind the words that he was tired of lies.
He went far away.
And in a place where nobody was around, he answered Andrew’s subordinate that he would join Andrew’s ranks.
Yasle made a big mistake.
Asking where to send people just earlier was probably the last chance. But Yasle felt it was more urgent to deal with the Ansellus Kingdom.
That’s right. He made a wrong choice.
And that night, Witga left with numerous believers. Although he claimed he was heading to attack the Ansellus Kingdom in the southeast, I know that’s not the case.
After that, I followed Yasle as he inspected the underground temple. At first, he was quite uncomfortable, but after two days, he became indifferent to me.
And on the second day after Witga left.
Bang!
With a loud explosion, sand fell from the ceiling.
Finally, that day has come.
Having arrived at the village where the entrance to the underground temple was located two days ago, and receiving the internal guide from Andrew, there was a reason no soldiers from Ansellus attacked.
They were waiting for the armies of Rasve Kingdom and Cognia Kingdom. When the armies of the two kingdoms attacked the underground temple, they took the opportunity to penetrate inside.
It’s a flanking maneuver.
Led by Tisah, the soldiers of Ansellus Kingdom break into the underground temple.
Inside, there were almost no soldiers. Because they had gone outside to repel the armies of Rasve Kingdom and Cognia Kingdom attacking from outside.
So, the ones blocking them were ordinary church members.
But they were all murdered.
The men trying to stop them, the women trying to trip them up, and the children who didn’t understand what was happening and jumped out to stop these frightening people, all of them.
By the way, there was a blessed child among those kids, so he has an approximate understanding of what’s going on. And apparently, Hieronymus knows it too.
Because the ominous energy I saw before was rampaging, collapsing the underground passages, or breaking the limbs of the approaching soldiers.
But Tisah couldn’t stop them.
And they finally arrived at the deepest place.
Right in front of Hieronymus.
Along with Tisah, several blood-soaked young men and women stood before Hieronymus.
You’d think they would fight, but Hieronymus collapsed the place and entered a secret passage inside that room.
I hung onto Joanna and followed Hieronymus.
And we walked through a long secret passage.
It was a really long secret passage. The only sound was the heavy breathing in the dark corridor.
Eventually, we barely managed to escape outside.
But in front of us stood the soldiers of Ansellus Kingdom along with Andrew and the blessed one.
Surprisingly, Hieronymus wasn’t startled.
Calmly, he looked at them and took out a strange device from his cloak. And then the ominous energy that had been watching until now exploded out from him.
He was strong.
He killed many soldiers from Ansellus Kingdom, as well as a blessed one.
It seemed like a reversal was in sight, but just before the reversal.
Tisah and his comrades came out of the passage we emerged from.
They were incredibly strong, and ultimately, Hieronymus was defeated.
He was covered in wounds and suffered fatal injuries that would soon lead to death.
Yes.
At last.
The opportunity has come.
I waited so long. It’s not that I did nothing while watching. It’s that I couldn’t do anything. Even if someone became a superhuman, regeneration ability was all they had.
Even if it’s said that I could absorb offerings, I don’t know how effective that would be.
Above all, Yasle is the one who summoned me to this place.
He might know how to resummon me.
So, I endured, endured, and kept patient.
I told Joanna, who was holding me, to let me go, and then I approached the blood-soaked Hieronymus, who was barely standing.
Noticing what I was trying to do, Tisah screamed and ran over, while Andrew shouted at Tisah that I shouldn’t be killed.
In that chaos, I asked him. I posed the daily question. He already knew that question all too well.
“I’ll offer myself to you. But later, once you finish everything, I want everything you have in return. What do you think?”
He looked down with a dark expression, then touched his wound with his hand and spread it out in front of him. It was covered in blood.
Yasle nodded towards the outsider.
“Do it like that.”
The violet smoke that extracted from my body enveloped Yasle, and then it touched the light. The light was instantly dyed black.
At the same time, Yasle’s skin cracked open, and from within emerged a tall young man. Of course, his hair was dyed purple, his skin was blue, and his eyes were yellow. His whites turned black.
He became a superhuman blessed one.
In the meantime, I discovered the knowledge I sought. Whether he was a leader of Yeongyang Church Nation or had various skills, none of that matters now.
It’s the technique that calls me back to this world!
The result of perseverance is incredibly sweet!
Hehe!
I couldn’t help but smile widely.
I failed to control my expression.
Please forgive me.
I just achieved my goal!