Chapter 58
Chapter 58
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: The Saintess of L Hotel
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On the pristine white mat, her rigidly pressed forehead trembled in fear, tiny tear stains forming one by one beneath it.
Lee Seonji was bowing her head to me, pleading.
The woman who had giggled through electric torture as if it were nothing now trembled endlessly, gripped by some terror.
‘Can’t blame her.’
I looked down at Lee Seonji, prostrated before me, and righted the chair I’d used to smash Park Sung-hoon, planting it firmly on the floor.
Then I plopped down on it and pressed her head firmly under my foot.
“What were you saying? Didn’t you have nothing to tell me?”
“I-I’ll talk. Everything you’re curious about. So please….”
Her voice quivered.
Even if she looked far gaunter than when we’d first met, her eyes had always burned sharp.
Lee Seonji had something more precious than her own life.
She’d shown me her madness, willing to die for it without a second thought.
‘So just switch the target.’
If she was devoted enough to stake her life on something, make her stake it on something else instead.
Especially for someone like her, harboring deep-seated deprivation and obsessing wildly over it—fill that void, and her heart was yours for the taking.
“Then let’s start with that cult leader of yours.”
I grabbed Park Sung-hoon’s head and lifted it toward her prone form as I spoke.
A faint groan escaped his lips as I yanked his hair, and Lee Seonji looked up at me with trembling eyes.
“……Yes.”
Resigned, Lee Seonji answered through tears, her hollow gaze heavy with effort.
。 。 。
“How many…?”
Halfway through her explanation, I couldn’t believe my ears and asked again.
Her face stricken with fear, she repeated herself.
“Roughly three, three hundred or so.”
Even hearing it twice, the number was unbelievable.
That was the total headcount of the survivor group led by the cult leader.
‘Not a hundred, not two hundred… three hundred?’
A number that defied common sense.
In a peaceful world, three hundred would’ve been a dime a dozen.
But this wasn’t that world anymore.
The place we lived in now was a ruined one overrun by zombies.
‘And they’ve got three hundred survivors there?’
Forget the rest—keeping that many alive was astonishing in itself.
“There’s something I don’t get, then. Food. How do you feed three hundred? Even scraping by, that’s a massive amount.”
Even doling out bare-minimum calories, three hundred people required an insane quantity.
Maintaining that many would outstrip even a department store’s grocery section.
Unless, of course, you wielded powers beyond common sense like I did.
“The Leader… I know you won’t believe it, but he performs true miracles. He’s the real savior.”
To my question, Lee Seonji gave an answer straight out of a cult pamphlet.
But the look in her eyes as she spoke wasn’t fanatic zeal—it was the desperate gaze of someone terrified.
“…Candy’s enough.”
“Please believe me! It’s true! Check our scouting party’s haul—there’s no real food!”
After her follow-up explanation, I rested my chin in thought, and Lee Seonji took it for doubt, clutching my pant leg as she begged me to trust her.
I wasn’t doubting her, really.
The reason they could sustain three hundred.
It was that followers of the cult leader received “grace,” letting them survive on the calories from a single piece of candy for up to a week.
‘That seals it.’
Hearing that, certainty crystallized around a hypothesis in my mind.
The cult leader Lee Seonji followed at L Hotel.
She wielded special powers just like mine.
“Were you close to that cult leader?”
“…Pardon?”
“Trust. Did he trust you?”
“Y-Yes! Among the outer servants, he favored me most!”
Looks like I’d lucked into the jackpot prisoner.
Satisfied with her answer, I leaned down to look at her.
“His room or anywhere nearby… was there a green crystal floating in the air?”
“How did you….”
Lee Seonji’s eyes widened at facts I hadn’t yet explained.
My hunch had been spot on.
‘This is way bigger than I expected.’
What I’d thought was just a chance for manpower turned out to be a golden goose.
‘And you don’t cut open a golden goose on a whim.’
I hadn’t heard everything yet, but the fragments painted a clear picture.
The cult leader strengthened her base with crystals, just like me.
But the type of power she used was quite different.
If mine made me a necromancer, hers was more like…
—Saintess.
A ridiculous title for a cult leader, but it fit her perfectly.
“Start with that ‘grace’ of the cult leader. Explain in detail.”
After that, I extracted every scrap of info Lee Seonji had on L Hotel’s faction.
Summing it all up in one line:
‘A women-supremacist cult.’
That nailed it.
The leader at the top was female, all the executives female.
New survivors? Women joined as regular members, men as slaves.
Believers took it as gospel and followed the leader as the true savior of this world.
Even the enslaved men.
‘Well, yeah, if one candy lets you last a week.’
Not that strange.
Hell, even on my side, Lee A-rin treated me like a messiah with cultish devotion.
‘Now, how to swallow their faction whole.’
Once I’d heard her out, I leaned back in the chair, leg crossed, chin propped, lost in thought.
Forcing a merger by herding zombies as a threat? Not viable.
According to Lee Seonji, the hotel was zombie-proof thanks to the leader’s grace.
‘Probably some barrier.’
I had a base-defense skill called “Impregnable” from my crystals.
No shock if she had something similar.
‘This is getting fun.’
Faced with the puzzle of conquering L Hotel, my heart raced like a kid discovering a new game.
If it came to a straight fight, I’d win.
That was the unbreakable rule of this zombie-overrun world.
So if I wanted, I could wipe out her side anytime.
But that wasn’t my goal.
I wanted to devour those three hundred without losses, savoring the cult leader like the strawberries on a strawberry cake before claiming her.
‘And she’s supposed to be a real beauty.’
Hearing Lee Seonji describe the leader and executives had me intrigued.
“Good work explaining. Super helpful.”
“Th-then…!”
After wringing out all the info and finishing my deliberations, I stood from the chair and looked down at her.
Lee Seonji, watching me tensely, sent pleading eyes that screamed, *Are you going to spare me?*
‘Now, what to do with her.’
Of course, this didn’t fully settle my grudge against her.
Just…
Hearing about the cult leader made me realize Lee Seonji still had uses.
So as I pondered her fate…
“Um, excuse me…!”
Park Sung-hoon, lying nearby, called out to me.
“Could we possibly talk for a moment…?”
Trembling with fear like her, he asked cautiously.
Curious, I granted his request and stepped aside for a private chat.
“Yeah, good work. Your acting was spot on.”
Naturally, the glances, signals, everything he’d sent her while taking my “beating”—all staged under my direction.
I’d figured it’d take more than that to win her over so quickly.
But.
“About those promises you made… if we pull this off…”
“Hm?”
I’d made Park Sung-hoon one promise.
Seduce and conquer Lee Seonji, and he’d escape the livestock treatment in the parking garage.
He wasn’t one of the dorm crew who’d treated me like a slave from the start—just a survivor caught up in it.
And back then, Lee Seonji had been pretty sturdy, so my order to bed her seemed rough going.
That’s why I’d dangled a tempting incentive to fire him up.
And yet.
“C-could you change the terms…?”
Terrified but holding my gaze, he pleaded desperately.
“Slave’s fine… I-I don’t need to be treated human, even naked.”
Tears welled in his eyes.
I wondered what they meant as I listened.
“Please… don’t kill Seonji….”
His revised condition caught me off guard.
“Treat me however…! J-just spare her! I beg you!”
“…No, …why?”
I was genuinely baffled, asking in confusion.
Was he still method-acting? The cut had come ages ago.
To my question, Park Sung-hoon bowed his head briefly, then answered in a shaky voice.
“I… I’ve fallen for her. For real.”
Hearing Park Sung-hoon’s confession, I parted my lips in shock.
“I’ll do anything. Whatever you order from now on… please, just reconsider once?”
I’d told him to seduce her through acting.
And for the finale, play the man whose fake feelings turned real.
‘Never thought the act would become genuine….’
His performance had seemed too good for just acting.
Watching their chats sometimes, or his glances while taking the hits.
He’d exceeded expectations, leaving me impressed.
But it turned out that wasn’t acting at all.
‘This is unexpected.’
Everything else had gone to plan, but I hadn’t foreseen him actually falling for Lee Seonji.
Flustered, I hesitated.
Park Sung-hoon watched my silence with tense eyes.
‘What to do….’
Right when new ideas for using her had surfaced, and now this.
I wanted to punish her properly.
After all, she had killed Yoon Hyun-seo’s dad and tried for Baek Min-ah.
“Well, got it for now.”
“Th-then…!”
“For now, I said. I’ll think it over.”
“Thank you…! Really, thank you…!”
Still, I wouldn’t kill Lee Seonji right away.
She’d be useful for devouring the cult side.
I’d decide later.
“Sniff… th-thank you so much….”
Even though nothing was set, Park Sung-hoon kept thanking me through tears.
I led him back to where Lee Seonji waited.
They exchanged a few words, confirmed feelings, embraced, and shed relieved tears.
Both seemed overjoyed the other was alive.
‘Well, this works out better.’
Whatever his feelings, I needed to use Lee Seonji.
Having him genuinely into her would only help.
Love grants immense power but shackles you inescapably.
Park Sung-hoon would make a fine hostage over her.
“Hey, one more question.”
“Y-Yes…! Anything. I’ll do whatever you say…!”
Lee Seonji, tears of joy over Park Sung-hoon’s survival, looked at me with a grateful smile, like a loyal dog.
I liked it.
“You scouted for survivors, right?”
“Yes…. That’s right. The Leader’s grace depends on the number of believers…”
Lee Seonji didn’t know the details of the leader’s power but said faith from followers mattered.
That’s why she’d hunted survivors like Yoon Hyun-seo.
Kids especially—still pure, easy to convert into believers, her Leader’s most prized resource.
“Then…”
Perfect—she’d scoured Seoul in my stead, so I had something to ask.
“Any unrecovered survivors? Virgins.”
My final ingredient for growth.
。 。 。
Before a steadfast statue of the Virgin Mary stood a cathedral.
Incongruously, it was littered with corpses.
Maggots writhed in rotting flesh.
Fresh ones shambled about, not yet decayed.
No longer a house of worship.
Yet inside that cathedral, believers still prayed to God for salvation.
“Sister… going out today?”
“Oh, you’re awake?”
Inside the firmly sealed cathedral, barricaded against the zombies outside.
Survivors endured, awaiting rescue.
Just five kids and one woman.
Only one adult capable of action: a frail woman.
Even so, Sister Grace risked her life daily on scavenging runs to save the children.
“Sister will find something yummy, so Eunji, be good with the others.”
Outside waited a cold, dead city and zombies lunging to kill.
Yet before venturing into that peril, Grace smiled brightly, stroking the child’s hair to reassure her.
“…Sister.”
But even a child knew the horrors outside.
Knew Grace was heading into them to protect them.
Still, the child couldn’t hold her back.
She knew they’d all starve if Grace stayed.
“…Sigh.”
After soothing and sending back the worried child, Grace tied her sneakers—mismatched with her habit—and eyed the bolted door.
Her skirt, ripped short for mobility.
No leather jacket for protection, to move fast.
If zombies grabbed her, death was her only option anyway.
Speed was her sole lifeline.
She adjusted her leather gloves against bites.
‘If only I could ditch these too.’
Prepared, fists clenched in tension, Grace glared bitterly at her chest.
Breasts that had lost purpose since devoting her life to the Lord.
Their unwanted size now hindered her mobility.
Every frantic sprint brought pain; she’d cursed her body countless times.
At least if they lactated, she could feed the infants.
Thus, before plunging into the city of death, Grace wasted time on futile laments.
Now truly time to go, she stepped forward resolutely.
‘Gotta find a ton this time.’
The kids had subsisted on water alone lately.
They’d reached their limit.
Today’s run had to yield real food.
Even if it killed her.
Recalling her goal, Grace steeled herself and unlocked the cathedral’s back door with trembling hands.