Chapter 151
After that damned El left, I had been lying on the ground whimpering like a pathetic dog, but promptly dusted myself off and stood up.
It was excruciating in the moment, sure, but once it passed, it was nothing special.
Persuasion, appeasement, then threats. What a familiar negotiation playbook.
That’s the gods for you. Bestowing unbearable trials and natural disasters under the banner of enlightenment and repentance.
“This is going to be fun.”
The unfamiliar terror and dread I’d felt moments ago had transformed into euphoria, like the giddy thrill of glimpsing paradise and strolling back out.
I clutched my flushed cheeks and broke into an ecstatic smile.
Whenever faith dips, gift them with the disaster trio: earthquakes, floods, plague. Humans will cry and wail, turning to God in prayer.
Leave that behind as a textbook example and people will pray and bow on their own, replenishing faith through a hands-off system.
The Ancients must have allied with the Archdemons precisely to shatter this wretched structure.
Omnipotence, mastery across every domain, they were beings beyond even the apex predator.
Could another being this perfect even exist?
I was going mad wanting everything he had.
Because I was the kind of human who had to have it all.
That position, those abilities… Magnificent… I would take them from him, no matter what.
No matter how terrifying the punishment, humans turn around and start thinking about something else entirely. That’s just how we are.
As for the random karma penalty, well, he’d laid out the solution of edification before he left, so perhaps I’d visit him frequently and figure out how to circumvent it.
The opportunity for salvation through necessary evil probably wouldn’t come up often enough.
He offered me the Saintess position yet treated me like this. The treatment I’d receive as El’s lackey Saintess was painfully predictable.
Besides, how could I ally with someone who despised the Inmaz and had killed the only person who mattered to me?
Unless it was a two-faced strategy, smiling with a mask while hiding a knife behind my back.
I had also formed a hypothesis: as long as my uncle’s body remained alive, there might still be a way to recover his soul.
“Uncle Claude…”
I recalled the feelings I’d experienced with him, the emotions whose contours were barely discernible.
Unlike the Count and Countess who loved me as a means to advance themselves, and unlike the father from my past life who taught me never to love people, Uncle Claude had tried to teach me what affection between family and between people truly meant.
He was clumsy at it himself, not fully understanding it either.
Was that why I wanted to get him back?
“Are you alright, big sis?”
Lost in thought, I heard Number 3’s voice from the punishment cell across the way.
You just tried to slice me clean in half a moment ago, and now you’re worried?
His name was Kiesa, if I recalled correctly.
The unusual hair color and silver eyes matched a house I recognized.
Just as I was about to ignore him and leave, Number 3 spoke again.
“So you were a Wielder too, big sis.”
How much had he heard?
El had let me live despite knowing I was a Wielder of Sloth, so maybe it didn’t matter if this kid knew too?
Besides, he was locked in solitary, so it wasn’t as if he’d go around spreading it.
“Was Number 0 in the prison you, big sis?”
“What’s ‘Number 0’? I’m Number 49.”
“Oh, so you were the lowest of the low. I should’ve just killed you earlier.”
That little—?
I shot a glare at the small window hatch, and the silver eyes visible through the square opening crinkled as if smiling.
“Just kidding.”
“You should pick your audience properly before cracking jokes.”
“I did pick my audience. You’re the lowest rank.”
I knew perfectly well that this wasn’t a child’s cleverness, but was a grown adult’s mockery.
“Did it hurt a lot? I heard all the screaming.”
I couldn’t tell whether that sympathetic tone was sincere or an act.
At this rate, the sun would rise. When I tried to ignore him again and leave, Number 3 kept snagging me with his words.
“I was in pain just like you, big sis. The priests locked me in strange places and hurt me, ever since I was really little.”
Had he been subjected to the Order’s soul experiments?
I sensed there was some kind of lead buried in Number 3, but if I got caught having snuck out, there’d be no escaping a whipping.
“I might get in trouble if I stay any longer, so I’m going. I’ll come back, so we can talk then.”
“Mm-hmm, you have to come back.”
***
While checking my surroundings on the way back to my room, I spotted a guard emerging from the on-duty room done slacking off, apparently, and quickly ducked out of sight.
“Where the hell did that guy go instead of patrolling? Tch.”
Stomp, stomp—
The guard’s boots drew closer to my position.
Tch, I needed to take a different route.
CRASH!
I backed up and knocked over a mop that had been propped against the corridor wall.
It was just a stick falling over, so how did it make a sound like thunder and lightning?
Who left this here instead of putting it back where it belongs?
Come to think of it, that was me.
These things happen.
“Who’s there?”
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