Obsession… What’s That? I Just Wish Someone Would Help Me Escape - Chapter 150

I gave an ambiguous answer. It was not an outright lie, but far from the truth.

He smiled elegantly and came to sit beside me.

“I asked you before, between me and the Archdemon, who would you choose?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“As it happens, the Saintess position is vacant. How about you take it? Unlike Saintess Justina, you wouldn’t make such irrational choices. You wouldn’t get devoured by me, would you?”

So he meant that if I chose him, he’d make me the Saintess to replace Justina?

Looking only at my current predicament as a prisoner, it was an unparalleled offer.

But thinking long-term, I’d end up tethered to his strings as just another puppet among many.

Despite apparently having discerned my abilities, was the fact that he wasn’t killing me because I was a dual ability wielder?

Or because he wanted to take over my body?

I met his gaze squarely, a smile on my lips.

“All I have is calculated self-interest, nothing like unconditional faith or devotion. I’m an ordinary human in whom good and evil coexist, so I’m not qualified to be a flawless Saintess.”

That god tells lies.

For instance: hadn’t I once been deceived by the very assumption that “gods don’t lie” and swallowed poisoned food?

I recited the proven fact like a creed and smiled sweetly.

As Marvas had said, there must be things I could accomplish by remaining in this prison.

Besides, villainy suited me far better than sainthood.

“Hmm, so you wouldn’t turn to God no matter what trials or grace came your way. Because after all, the world revolves around you.”

His fingers, which had been lingering near my ear, slid into the back of my hair.

Then a large hand seized my neck with crushing force.

“I gave you a final chance to correct your choice, but I suppose that is expected of a heathen who refuses to serve God.”

“Ghhk—!”

A searing pain blazed through me and I thrashed, but his arm held me captive and I couldn’t move an inch.

“This, too, is a method of holistic education^[1].”

So he was giving me a violent lesson in ‘real education’ right now?

“Even if you are a Wielder who joined hands with a wicked Archdemon, being an intellectual from an advanced civilization, I thought you’d be different from the usual barbaric brutes. I thought we could reason with each other.”

Right, so he’d known I was a Wielder all along, playing dumb while testing me for his own amusement.

He added in his characteristically languid drawl.

“Just like your father, the head of the House of Sloth.”

Bzzzt—

My vision flickered like static on a broken screen.

I felt my soul crack. Terror flooded in as a nightmare sealing shut around me.

A pain accompanied it too, and it was the kind that even I, who could shrug off most suffering, couldn’t endure.

“Uughh!”

As I writhed in agony, warning windows began cascading before my eyes.

 ⚠ ‘The Saint Dead to God’ receives divine judgment and enters ‘Hour of Wickedness.’
– Karma increases randomly regardless of date or time (maximum 40%)

 ⚠ Warning – Karma score exceeds 80%. Current karma: 82%

 ⚠ Status Effect (High-Risk Stage)
– Critical physical deterioration and pain, life force depletion per hour
* Karma reduction required through salvation of necessary evil and mercy from the ‘Hour of Wickedness’ caster
* Karma exceeding 80% triggers madness and increased aggression

What is this?

He’d cursed me too just like he’d done to Enrique and Johann?

Beyond the warning windows crowding my vision, El’s violet eyes gleamed ominously.

“So this is the power granted by the god of your world.”

El pulled me as I was writhing in agony into his embrace as if to soothe me, then stroked my hair with a gentle hand.

The pain that felt as though it were ripping my entire body apart gradually subsided, and even the mental turmoil began to settle.

“Quite merciful, wouldn’t you say, for the price of blasphemy and lies?”

As if I’d been purified, my karma score restored to its original level.

But the debuff called ‘Hour of Wickedness’ still remained.

As the pain subsided, I began to grasp the situation.

Was I to live in agony, coughing up blood from karma scores that surged at will?

He placed his hand on my forehead as I gasped for breath, his voice gentle and magnanimous.

“Don’t forget. You’re in the palm of my hand.”

Another level entirely.

The moment I grasped the gulf of his divine station, I was terrified beyond words.

I was nothing but a speck of dust before a being like that. I could never win. And the torment I’d just endured? He could inflict it again on a whim.

Thud—

He cast me, limp and drained, onto the floor.

His cold violet eyes looked down at me without a flicker.

“If you want salvation, come to me for edification. I’ll see to it.”

Translation Notes

^[1] ↩

“holistic education” — The Korean 전인교육 (jeon-in gyoyuk) means “whole-person education,” a pedagogical term for comprehensive character development. El uses this to describe divine torture. Kido’s internal retort references 참교육 (cham-gyoyuk), Korean internet slang for a harsh physical “life lesson”—essentially a beatdown dressed up as discipline.