Chapter 418: A Problem From Above (1)
My head started to hurt.
‘Fuck. That can’t be good.’
Unfamiliar situations like these were unwelcome.
When I opened my mouth, tapping my thigh out of sheer nervousness, Kim Miyoung began answering right away.
“You say it is shedding tears of blood?”
“Yes. I heard that the Holy See is currently investigating the exact reason and cause. It’s also something that has not been announced externally. Considering the confusion of the State’s people, that much is obvious, but…”
“It’s not the right time to announce publicly. No, they wouldn’t be able to say anything like that.”
“Yes. I know he is ailing, but Pope Basel wanted you to come to the capital as soon as possible. If possible, within the day…”
“Grunt.”
“If you don’t want to, I will tell him…”
“No. It’s not because of that. It’s not. I am not reluctant.”
‘I have to go regardless.’
It was a request from none other than Pope Basel. This was also a matter related directly to the Benignore Church. It would be strange if I didn’t go.
Even if I was sick, I had to attend those events unconditionally.
Other things could be lightly ignored, but considering that most of the power I had came from there, I couldn’t afford to ignore them as well.
The problem was that the situation felt too serious for it to be treated simply as a mysterious phenomenon, especially in the State.
‘Why are you suddenly shedding tears of blood? Fuck.’
I didn’t even know that such anomalies could occur to the Goddess statue. It was lamentable as to why she hadn’t used those means so far.
I felt like it was an ominous sign.
The reason why the Holy sector wasn’t reacting in any other way was to prevent confusion among the people, no more, no less. If that were wrongly spread outside, the confusion would be incomparable to the previous one.
‘It must be hell inside.’
Considering Pope Basel’s character, who originally had a hot temper, the atmosphere would probably be quite stressful. In addition to this, I knew what would happen when our Pope Basel, who was kind only to me, was now mad, so I had to swallow hard.
In fact, I had initially thought there would be basically no problem.
Originally, the race of gods was a little bit cheap and sometimes did strange things.
Like the trashy Elune, for example.
However, I had to be a little cautious as I recently caused a pretty big event using their names.
It was a situation similar to the saying, ‘guilty conscience needs no accuser.’
Of course, I was not guilty. However…
‘There is a one in a million chance.’
It wouldn’t happen, but what if. What if… it was revealed that the Goddess descent was a lie?
‘Everything will be ruined.’
Everything that I had built up so far could collapse.
It was a little over the top to think like this, but I also thought that the Holy side might first notice and would want to start investigating me.
Saying that the Goddess statue was shedding tears was enough of a reason to interrogate me.
Of course, that wasn’t a serious issue because I could prove my purity and sacredness again through Benignore.
If that was the case, it would do more than just make me feel annoyed.
‘Benignore wouldn’t be preparing to backstab me, right?’
Benignore might just want to do that in earnest.
To think that of the numerous priests in the Holy side, no one would think that Benignore’s voice was unreasonable.
One of them must have heard her voice, and there was a possibility that she was planning some nonsense to screw me up through the statue’s tears of blood.
It was even more so when I thought about the fact that I had a little, very little, dust-like influence on the continent in the first round.
There was stability on the continent at that moment, and the sons and daughters of God didn’t have anyone ready to step up to the task yet.
It was not at all strange timing to catch and torture me, who they thought had been a risk factor.
Naturally, I remembered the old saying, ‘Kill the dog after hunting is over.’
The ones from above might be making a move to remove me from taking the chance to be careless.
‘Am I reading too much into it?’
However, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
‘Still, I did so much for them. They shouldn’t come out like this. Fuck, dirty bastards…’
I had saved the world many times, helped the lovely returner both materially and emotionally, and helped unite humanity.
I had accepted the daughter that the trashy Elune threw away and handled the sh*t that And what I did wasn’t any common achievement, either.
If it were someone else, they wouldn’t have tried to mess with it.
I had instilled stronger faith in the worshippers of the Goddess Benignore and gave a great deal of effort to create the strongest Church. With the sacred democracy, I raised her name and established God’s dignity by dealing with the evil undead.
It didn’t even end there.
In the name of the light, I even punished the demon and saved the people of Laios from the crisis. I re-sealed the ancient god in the museum and reduced its risk to the future by proactively handling all sorts of threats against the continent.
I was the best they could ever hope for. I could affirm that there would be no one else like me.
‘You want to come and attack me like that now? Nonsense. If that is the case, then it doesn’t make sense. There’s no way you can do that wearing a god mask.’
Even Belial, the 72nd Demon King, wouldn’t treat me like that.
They should be giving me gifts instead. This kind of treatment was ridiculous. It wouldn’t be enough even if I made a formal protest. No, if they really thought of doing that, I was ready to make them regret their decision right there and then.
‘Can you hear me? Are you really going to attack me like this? Fucking bastards? Can you hear me? If you turn your back on me, you and I will all be doomed. Do you understand?’
We really would.
‘Do you think Kim Hyunsung will be on your side?’
However, there was no voice coming from the sky.
I didn’t feel nervous, but I suddenly started to get upset. I wondered if Kim Hyunsung was lost in thoughts because he had heard the news about me.
‘Fucking demon bastards. So, they will come out this way, huh.’
I thought they might have stopped monitoring me for a second, but seeing that a forced quest wasn’t created even after a few minutes, it seemed that something happened.
Earlier, it was a simple doubt, but I began to get more suspicious.
I kept tapping the table as I waited for the quest to come down from the sky, but nothing happened.
There were two possibilities.
- There was something wrong going on up there.
- They were really preparing to get rid of me as I thought.
If it were the former, it would end with a light incident, but if they really chose the latter, I would show them how bad of a choice that was.
I stood up.
Manager Kim Miyoung looked at me with a slightly startled expression as she called out to me.
“Vice Guild Master?”
“I think it would be better to go to the Capital right away.”
“Okay. I will prepare it. How do you want me to prepare the schedule…?”
“I want to leave this evening, please. I’m moving in a rush since it’s an urgent issue. I think there really is a problem in the Church.”
“Who do you want as the entourage…?”
“Jung Hayan and Park Deokgu… no, I will take Cho Hyejin. In addition, please contact Yuno Kasugano and Heera, manager. And… Dialugia and…”
“Should I contact Miss Elena too?”
“Is she in Lindel now?”
“Yes. Yesterday I fixed the Blue Guild enrollment form, and as of today, she’s an official Blue Guild member. Her position has not been decided yet, however…”
“Good.”
“Is everyone going to the Capital together?”
“Yes. For now, that’s the plan. And um… Send what I’m writing now as letters to all the guilds in Lindel, including the Black Swan Guild. Please wait a moment. It will be over soon. And… I would like you to send this one to the elves and dwarves. You can give this one separately to Han Sora.”
“Okay.”
“And after arriving at the Capital, if an incident breaks out, spread the letter I am writing now throughout the continent through the Goddess’s Mirror, manager.”
“Vice Guild Master, I’m sorry, but when you say incident…”
“If anything really happens, you will naturally know. If nothing happens, I think you can immediately destroy what you received… It’s just a precautionary measure, so you don’t have to worry too much. And put the items I’m writing down in Dialugia’s nest. The more secretly, the better. Of course, what I’m talking about right now is security. When you go outside, don’t say anything to anyone, manager.”
“O-Of course, Vice Guild Master. B-but… is this er… perhaps…”
“I can see what you’re imagining… haha. You don’t have to worry about it. I just want to be prepared for any scenario. Yes. This is just a backup plan.”
“Okay, then I’ll make it happen right away, Vice Guild Master.”
“Thank you very much, manager Kim Miyoung.”
“Yes.”
As I nodded my head and looked at her back that’s heading out of the room, I felt relieved.
‘It’s good to have people with great talent and skills underneath me.’
I was honestly sure that she was several times smarter than me.
When she first came in, I thought things didn’t go well for her because she was unlucky. Or maybe she was a little less selfish.
If it weren’t for her, my life in Blue would’ve been several times harder. I cleared up my thoughts once again.
‘Would it be better to inform Jihye in advance?’
If my relationship with the false god Benignore was broken, she was one of those who could play a pivotal role at the beginning of the mess.
‘And Hyunsung too…’
Lee Jihye was important, but it was also urgent to sweet-talk the lovely returner.
That one was a bit difficult to deal with, but I could make him come over to my side enough based on the trust I had built up with him so far.
It was a bit hard to take them together to the Church at that time.
‘That’s because continuous management and care are needed.’
Of course, all of those might’ve just been my delusions, but if I considered the chances of it happening, it was not unreasonable to be prepared a thousand, no, a billion times.
Being used, discarded, and abandoned, did not exist in the Light Kiyoung dictionary.
I had to be prepared to fight against the fallen Goddess Benignore and the trash gang following her with the Mace of Light at any time.
[Common-grade forced quest is activated.]
[No. No. This is a misunderstanding… so, I mean. I can explain every… thing… it’s a misunderstanding! Benignore! Say something!! You can’t!!! It’s a misunderstanding… (0/1)]
[Due to an unknown reason, the common-grade forced quest has been canceled.]
[Quest creation has stopped.]
“For a fallen god, a Mace of Light.”
I could surely throw this weapon her way should the need arise.