For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 113

The once tranquil lakeside became instantly chaotic with Kyte’s appearance.

A man with long, white hair and a cold impression. If not for his tall height and broad frame, his beautiful and alluring looks could easily be mistaken for a woman’s. His skin was so pale, it hardly seemed human.

Everyone stared at Kyte in a daze.

An angel, or perhaps a witch.

As people’s minds rushed to define Kyte in their own ways, Kyte opened his mouth.

“I am Kyte, a young lion called by God.”

「 He’s the next Pope! 」

Whether there was a planted hype man or not, someone shouted out, and the crowd stirred even more.

The next Pope? That guy?

Those who’d thought he was simply a beautiful priest all looked shocked and quickly bowed their heads.

“Hearing that the precious water which sustains your lives has been tainted by evil, I prayed that the pilgrimage procession would be led here by God’s will.”

A priest began rapidly translating Kyte’s obvious lies into Dongguk language.

“And I received an answer. The very proof is that His Holiness the Pope has set foot on Seonui Lake.”

It was already part of the pilgrimage route.

Why was he pretending it was his own prayer that brought them here?

I shot a sidelong glance at Kyte’s shameless face, spewing lies without even wetting his lips.

It really was curious.

How could a person so easily put on and take off two completely different masks as if they were both his own?

Now, Kyte, clad in white, was comforting the people’s pain with a merciful face and warm voice, as if an angel had descended. And yet, who knew what sly, cruel thoughts he was hiding behind it all.

His shameless performance built to a fever pitch, and soon people were no longer calling for the Pope, but for Kyte, begging him to show them the power of God.

With apparent resolve, Kyte stepped down from the platform, standing barefoot.

One step, then two. He stepped into the water, and as he opened his eyes wide, he pointed to the center.

“There it is. I sense something evil, interfering with the hearts of the good.”

It matched exactly where Ariel had mentioned before.

At the same moment Kyte dropped to his knees, water splashed and a ripple spread across the once-still surface. As the ripple grew larger, forming a great circle—

「 Wow… 」

「 Oh, God… 」

The area lit up as if illuminated by spotlights. The bright halo of light radiated from Kyte alone. Was this truly a divine power any human could possess? The holy power that lit up not just the space around him, but the entire vast lake, was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The radiant halo, which had brightened everything, suddenly condensed into a small shooting star and shot straight toward the center of the lake.

Like a firework that fades, the surroundings returned to darkness, and people blinked in surprise.

「 Is it over? 」

「 Is the water clean now? 」

The crowd buzzed, and Kyte, straightening from his kneeling position, pressed his hands together at his chest with a benevolent smile as everyone looked on with hopeful eyes.

“In just a day or two, the lake will regain its blue color once more. God has said so.”

「 Thank you, thank you! 」

「 We’re saved! 」

「 He’s a hundred times better than the Holy Kingdom! 」

The people burst into rapturous laughter.

But the only ones not caught up in that joy were Feyden, Ariel, and me.

Standing motionless, I looked at Ariel’s back as he stared at the spot where Kyte had poured out his divine power and thought,

‘Did you realize anything?’

The spectacle Kyte had just shown was nothing but a trick.

As someone skilled enough to become the next Pope, surely you saw through it all?

***

In the deep of night.

Due to the so-called ‘purification of the lake’, no one was allowed near the lakeshore.

Ariel, finding this suspicious, disguised himself as a pilgrimage priest and hid among the trees near the water.

Ordinarily, as an apprentice priest with little experience, he would have simply accepted that there must be a good reason for this restriction.

And he probably would have been so moved by the beauty of the next Pope Kyte’s holy power that he wouldn’t have looked deeper.

But, wracking his brain for a way to prove the temple’s innocence to Estira, Ariel found himself observing the next Pope’s prayer much more closely.

He pondered, over and over, how he might explain it to Estira—and then, he was struck by shock.

Kyte’s display of holy power was indeed vast, pure, and beautiful. Even more radiant, Ariel thought, than the current Pope’s.

But what Ariel focused on was the ‘something’ beneath the lake where that divine power had shot down.

If, as Kyte said, it was truly ‘evil’, then that holy power should have reached it and triggered a process of purification.

But Ariel, who had focused all his senses on the bottom of the lake, could feel that the divine power simply scattered aimlessly across the lakebed, showing no signs of trying to purify anything at all.

After days spent praying by the lakeside, gradually pinpointing the location of the entity disturbing the lake, Ariel could now even tell that Kyte’s divine power hadn’t touched that presence at all.