Chapter 55
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: This Could Be Fun?
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Even after finishing the job, there was still a week left until the subjugation team arrived here.
I had nothing to do in the meantime.
The charred corpses piled high in the village chief's wooden house would prove that I'd taken care of everyone, so all I had to do was wait.
I looked up at the sky.
"Is the drought finally ending?"
Dark clouds were gathering.
Soon, they unleashed a torrent of heavy rain.
I ducked into the cave to escape the downpour and hung up my soaked clothes to dry.
I checked over the gear I'd brought with me again.
"Fake identity... didn't even get to use this."
From our first encounter, everything had gone to hell, so I never had a chance to reveal the identity I'd so carefully prepared.
"...Ha."
There was no time to feel sad about it.
I needed to assess the situation.
Guilt and a sense of sin.
Those were things I felt every day, every hour, so there was nothing new about them now.
I could push the self-recrimination aside for a bit.
First things first: I had to prepare an excuse for the subjugation team that would arrive here within the week.
Even if they were doomed to be subjugated anyway, there would still be questions about the process.
How many people would believe that I'd massacred over a hundred by myself?
Especially since I'd burned all the bodies to prevent further desecration, making it impossible to even count the heads.
To survive, I had to wrack my brain as much as possible.
I wasn't particularly sharp, so even a week felt too short.
"...First off."
Let's look at the books.
I had a feeling the ones I'd pulled out before burning down the village chief's house might help in some way.
I crushed a bug crawling toward the cave underfoot and examined the books.
Unlike the goblins' scriptures, these I could read just fine.
"Nine volumes on medicine... and the other three on demon worshipers..."
I set the medical texts aside on the ground and looked through the ones on demon worshipers.
These were the knowledge the village chief had accumulated through rituals on over a hundred people.
"...Demon worshiper means taking in the power from the demons' world—the demonic realm—into your body and becoming like them."
The demonic realm overflowed with life force, and humans who took it in couldn't withstand it; their bodies melted away.
But life force wasn't meant to kill—it was the power to sustain life.
Most adapted to the massive influx without dying.
They survived with faces melted away, reborn as true demon worshipers.
"Demon worshipers themselves don't necessarily harbor malice... Anyone can become one just by performing the ritual."
Blood was required for the ritual, but not necessarily human blood.
I didn't know about other rituals,
but the chief's notes mentioned using chicken and pig blood.
This world and the demonic realm were closer than I'd thought. With the right sacrifice and ritual, anyone could transform into a demon worshiper.
No wonder the temple was so wary.
"If the ritual had been harder, the temple wouldn't be this vigilant."
It was too easy—that was the problem.
Once you knew the method, it was simple, so they were extremely cautious, wiping out anyone involved regardless of guilt.
I didn't know the full story, but the chief's writings were dangerous for that reason.
There were plenty of people in the world who just wanted to stay alive, no matter the cost.
For them, this was the worst, last-resort method—and a sure way to extend life.
I wasn't sure if the chief had invented it, but the village itself was a secret that couldn't be allowed to spread.
"A place like the temple surely has some information on this."
The priests who'd infiltrated first had apparently gone back to report the truth.
Yet they'd sent multiple attempts, even me in the end—not just for subjugation, but with some other goal.
And figuring out that goal was my path to survival.
I had to ponder and agonize to infer the answer.
Luckily, I had a rough idea.
"They probably want me to report these villagers as irredeemable villains."
In other words, not the truth, but to justify their subjugation.
In any era, justification was key.
That's why they'd sent me—to fabricate one.
But if so, why hadn't they told me at the start...?
Probably suspicion toward me.
My face looked fine, not like a demon worshiper's, but my aura was indistinguishable from one.
They'd sent me here to test.
If I was a demon worshiper, leading them in some scheme wouldn't be surprising—that alone would give the justification they wanted.
If I understood the temple's intent, framed them as absolute evil, proved my innocence, and provided justification, that would satisfy them too.
"Tch..."
I clicked my tongue.
My heart felt heavy.
My eyes stung, my breaths felt nauseating going in, and deeper sighs escaped on the exhale.
Air felt scarce; my chest tightened.
It was too late to cry injustice now, but I couldn't help saying it again.
"What the hell did I even do wrong?"
Every time something like this happened, I was too busy cleaning up.
No time or reason for whining.
But alone in this village cave, having massacred everyone and waiting out the week, the sense of injustice I'd harbored welled up from my chest, staring back at me.
I scared and disgusted myself at how numb I'd become to killing.
Even villains wouldn't swing without hesitation.
After slaughtering the innocent, was I just a monster with no excuses?
Before they suffered horribly, I'd end it cleanly on my terms, I'd told myself.
Maybe there were better ways, but I just took the easy path because I didn't want to think deeply.
Once the stray thoughts burst forth, they flooded my mind.
I hadn't thought like this when cutting down 149 or burning the pile.
Regretting it all after the fact made me feel like an idiot.
I swept back my hair and gazed out at the pouring rain.
Shwaaaaa...
The roar made my ears ring.
Maybe the heavy rain would wash away my frustration.
Stark naked, sword in hand, I stepped out of the cave.
Thick rain lashed my body; I raised the blade high to the sky.
Forgetting Grandpa's basics, Shan's and Marcel's applications,
I just focused on swinging.
No flashes of insight, no meaningful results.
But fiercely swinging the sword calmed my mind a little.
No clock, but it felt like about two hours.
Shivering, I returned to the cave, laid out firewood from the wall pile, and sparked it with lightning.
My body warmed a bit.
Smoke billowed thickly, but there was a vent, so no issue.
I wiped moisture from the blade, applied whetstone, and polished with dry cloth.
Lying down, I picked up the books again.
I'd wasted time on weird stuff because my head was a mess; now, focus.
"Framing innocent people as heinous criminals doesn't sit right..."
But in the end, everything depended on me surviving.
Good deeds or evil, they gained meaning only if I lived.
The world after my death? Didn't care.
So, I still wanted to live.
Even in this absurd world, I didn't want to die.
I started fabricating the villagers' misdeeds.
The blood for rituals? Not chicken or pig, but human.
How they survived the drought? Cannibalism.
Why they'd gathered here...?
Stuck for a moment.
Slapping outrageous crimes on innocents felt wrong.
"Haa..."
My stomach churned.
Hadn't eaten, but wanted to vomit.
"Come to think of it, Rie might kick up a fuss too, not just the temple."
I pressed my throbbing temples and flopped down.
Originally, I'd planned to leave the subjugation to the saintess.
Now, she'd think I'd snatched her achievement.
Rie was shortsighted and dumb like that.
"Not just the temple, but prepare for Rie too... This is rough. For real."
It really was.
Maybe my greed kept causing this.
Trying to live among people led to this mess.
"Should I just live alone?"
But.
"I didn't do anything wrong—why should I have to?"
I covered my face with my hands.
The question rising from deep inside scattered into the empty air, unheard by anyone.
Like that, six days passed.
The subjugation team arrived much faster than I'd expected.
I hurriedly incinerated the chief's books with lightning and told them my fabricated story.
No dice roll.
Some didn't believe me, some did.
Most ignored it entirely.
Not far from what I'd predicted.
But Rie.
Rie's reaction was way off my guess.
[Uh...]
[What is this? Affinity with demon worshipers increased... Uh, so like. You can start as a demon worshiper when creating a new character...?]
She didn't get mad at me.
[This could be fun?]
Her interest turned elsewhere.