A Cult That Kills You Over One Mistake?
“What kind of cult kills people over a single mistake...?”
Shuddering, Burford lowered his head.
Getting a special class after joining the Sadiq Church had been great. At first, anyway.
Back then, he’d been thrilled, thinking, I actually got an opportunity like this? Man, I really am lucky!
But as he cleared quests as a holy knight of the Sadiq Church, he came to realize this cult was no joke.
Holy knights serving normal, decent churches got chewed out at worst if they failed a quest. Maybe they’d lose a little Reputation.
If you failed a quest in the Sadiq Church?
“Aaaaargh!”
[Your HP has fallen to 0. You have died.]
No excuses heard. They just attacked.
Burford had died three times on the way here.
Every single one of those deaths had come at the hands of Sadiq priests.
Of course he was terrified.
But why the hell did this fail? There was absolutely no reason for it to fail!
The Sadiq Church had been preparing for this raid for an incredibly long time.
They drew out the map of the royal palace, trained the holy knights, and gathered buff magic and potions for today’s battle...
And being Damiano II’s uncle, Antonio knew exactly where Damiano II would move.
That was why Burford had come here brimming with confidence.
And then...
Seeing Antonio suddenly come running in covered in blood while the holy knights shouted for retreat was enough to leave him dumbfounded.
Damn it. I already started the stream.
He had started his first live broadcast convinced this would succeed, so having it end like this was a disaster.
Burford furtively checked the stream comments.
The mood was clearly turning into if you don’t explain, people are bailing.
Burford cleared his throat and spoke.
“Everyone, so... this quest was...”
“...more like a declaration of war. The holy knights of my Sadiq Church declared war on the king.”
“It wouldn’t be any fun if we killed him right away, would it?”
The viewers reacted instantly to Burford’s absurd nonsense.
Just moments ago, he’d been saying, “We came for the king’s head. We’ll give you something explosive to watch!”
And now he was saying, “Actually we weren’t here to assassinate him, just to declare war.”
Nobody believed that.
The furious flood of responses left Burford flustered.
“I have to follow the holy knights right now, so I’ll check the comments later!”
When things went bad, he ran.
Burford hurriedly turned off the chat window, pretended not to see it, and spurred his horse onward.
The royal palace, which had fallen into chaos, was quickly returning to normal.
The soldiers kept watch with sharp, severe expressions, but players were still allowed in and out.
Restoration of the Atali Royal Palace
The buildings and artworks of the royal palace have been damaged and defiled by the attack on the Atali Royal Family.
Before pursuing vengeance, King Damiano II intends to restore the palace to its original state.
If you craft and bring replacement items for the ruined buildings and artwork, you will receive a great reward.
🎁 Reward: ?
This quest had appeared en masse for classes like architects, painters, and sculptors.
Of course they all came running, thrilled.
The blacksmiths, chefs, and bards who had participated before suffered nothing but losses, but for them, this was an opportunity.
“How is this fair?! Do you know how much we invested?!”
The loudest shouting came from a guild master.
To curry favor with the king through this quest, the guild had practically emptied out its storage.
And yet the ring they made had been snatched away by someone else before the king ever even saw it.
Naturally, they were furious enough to see red.
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do.”
“What about the cost?! We spent a fortune making that!”
“It was commendable that you put such care into serving His Majesty, but it’s not as if we told you to spend that much.”
The attendant remained cold despite the furious protest from the Punglimhwasan Guild Master.
Not a single coin of compensation for the ring-making expenses.
“You... just wait.”
With curses on their lips, the Punglimhwasan Guild stormed off.
Watching them go, Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan muttered to each other.
“Wow. You seriously never know how things are gonna turn out. That really ended like that?”
“No kidding. I thought those guys were definitely gonna win too.”
To the three blacksmiths, who’d already half given up, it was someone else’s problem.
Woo Jeong-sik, standing beside them, spoke as if they were pathetic.
“For god’s sake. Is now really the time for that? You proud of the fact that you sat around doing nothing while they were making stuff?”
“You’d given up too, old man...”
Punglimhwasan Guild had such overwhelming presence that plenty of blacksmiths had half given up from the start.
These three had tried to latch onto Tae-hyun too, but Tae-hyun had rejected them so coldly that what they’d really done was give up in defeat.
In the end, though, that had turned into a blessing in disguise.
“Ahem. Anyway, the broadcast says it was the Sadiq Church, right? Things are about to get interesting.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I mean, attacking the Atali royal palace is bad enough, but Punglimhwasan Guild isn’t some small-time guild either. That ring they made? They probably had to gut their whole guild warehouse for it. You think they’re just gonna let that slide? Of course they’ll make a move.”
“But Punglimhwasan Guild is made up of blacksmiths, isn’t it? Even if blacksmiths move, they’re not exactly great at fighting.”
“You idiots...”
Woo Jeong-sik began drawing on the ground as he explained.
“Look. Who’s the Sadiq Church made enemies with now? First of all, they’re mortal enemies of the Atali Kingdom, right? They just tried to assassinate the king. And on top of that, they’re enemies with the other churches on the continent too. They got wiped out once before by those same churches.”
“Right.”
“Then do you think the kingdom and the other churches are going to help or not?”
“They’ll help!”
“Exactly. In a situation like this, the major guilds will probably think this is worth a shot too. Kill two birds with one stone.”
Help out Punglimhwasan Guild, and while they were at it, earn massive rewards from the kingdom and the churches.
That was a deal worth taking.
Woo Jeong-sik’s guess was dead on.
In reality, several major guilds were already gathering members and preparing to join the quest to subjugate the Sadiq Church.
“You can basically say the Sadiq Church is finished. Why’d they do something so reckless?”
Park Seong-chan tilted his head and asked,
“But isn’t something weird here?”
“What’s weird?”
“The Sadiq Church isn’t stupid, right? Even if they killed the king by raiding the palace, the kingdom army and the churches would still be there. Didn’t they know that before attacking?”
“Well... yeah?”
“Then wouldn’t that mean they attacked because they had some kind of plan for after the fighting started?”
Woo Jeong-sik went silent.
He had no answer to Park Seong-chan’s point.
“Huh. You’re right.”
“See?”
As Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan chattered on, Woo Jeong-sik scratched his head.
Maybe they really do?
As soon as he heard that the major guilds, the kingdom army, and the other churches were going to move, he’d immediately thought, The Sadiq Church is finished.
But thinking about it now, the Sadiq Church was a cult that had already collapsed once before.
If a cult like that was acting this boldly, maybe it meant they had something solid to rely on.
“Master. Master.”
“What is it?”
“I want to eat that food.”
“Will eating help you recover?”
“A little?”
“So it won’t help, then?”
Tae-hyun was suspicious, but he still set Yong-yong up on the table.
Thanks to the dishes prepared and brought over by the royal palace chefs, the spread was lavish.
This is good.
You have eaten a cake decorated with dazzling technique.
Your Cooking skill increases.
Strength temporarily increases by 15.
Your Ingredient Analysis skill increases.
Your skill level is insufficient to identify the recipe.
The palace was busy, but Tae-hyun was resting in leisure.
That was because he had saved the king’s life.
Even if it had all been a misunderstanding.
“Truly extraordinary, Tae-hyun-nim. Me, Ed-an—never in my life did I imagine you’d get out of that situation with a lie like that...”
“Shut up. Someone outside might hear.”
“Ghk!”
Tae-hyun stroked Yong-yong’s wing while the dragon stuffed cake into his mouth.
Looking at him now, he was genuinely adorable.
So adorable it was hard to imagine his original form.
“But if you could still fight in that state, why were you just sitting around until now?”
“Master, every time I use my strength, my recovery slows. You saw it earlier too. Every time I enlarge my body and use magic, my power drains away quickly.”
“So... if you want to recover faster, you can’t use your power?”
“That is correct, Master. Chomp chomp.”
This is giving me a headache.
If Yong-yong’s power was available in future battles, it would obviously be a huge help.
But if fighting only slowed the recovery of his original strength, then...
Do I only use him at truly critical moments?
“By the way, Tae-hyun-nim. Have you learned the Authority yet?”
“Not yet. I don’t have enough Divine Power.”
He couldn’t learn it because his Divine Power stat was too low.
Isn’t there any fast way to raise Divine Power?
Normally, the best way to raise a stat like Divine Power was by clearing quests related to a church.
You’d go to a church, change classes into a holy knight or priest, and then clear relevant quests to raise Divine Power.
The problem was...
I can’t join other churches!
As the Avatar of Archisus, if he joined another church, it would be complete chaos.
He had to clear quests connected to the Archisus Church instead.
“There is a good method.”
“...?”
“Eliminate the holy knights of the Sadiq Church. That alone should raise your Divine Power.”
“...!”
Now that he thought about it, that was a method too.
Fight other churches and elevate the name of the Archisus Church.
There was a high chance that counted as a quest rewarding Divine Power.
Tae-hyun’s expression sharpened with interest.
“That does make sense... And those bastards already made enemies of me anyway.”
“Fufu. Well? What do you think of my idea?”
Ed-an preened for a moment, then suddenly froze.
“Wait. Wait just a moment. Tae-hyun-nim, what did you just say?”
“What? That the Sadiq Church and I became enemies?”
“Uh... you became enemies with the church?”
“That’s what I said. Didn’t you hear what they shouted when they left?”
Scrrraaape—
Ed-an shoved his chair backward, putting distance between himself and Tae-hyun.
His whole body radiated one thing: I do not want to get dragged into this and die with you.
“Fufu. Surely you misunderstand, Tae-hyun-nim.”
Ed-an immediately scooted back into place.
If he ran now, the Sadiq Church might not kill him—but Tae-hyun definitely would.
“Just how did you end up becoming enemies with the Sadiq Church?!”
“Are you blind? Didn’t you see me fighting that Sadiq holy knight?”
“You should’ve held back! Held back! If you’d just stalled them a little and done nothing but defend, the royal guards would’ve been the ones to earn their hatred. Why’d you have to step in and make yourself the enemy? Good grief!”
“It wasn’t that kind of situation, you bastard.”
If he hadn’t gone all out and reduced their numbers, Tae-hyun would’ve died first.
“And you little bastard. You were hiding in the back while I was fighting, and now this is what you have to say...? Fine. Next time we fight the Sadiq Church, you stand on the front line.”
“?!”
Tae-hyun’s words hit Ed-an like a hammer to the back of the head.
“Aigoo, no! Please spare me just this once!”
“No. Damn it. Now that I think about it, we fought together, but only I ended up making enemies. That feels a little unfair. If we’re making enemies, we make them together.”