The next day.
Hyunkeshuni, who came in the morning, unwrapped the bandage and checked the wound.
After looking at the hands and knees and letting out a deep sigh, Hyunkeshuni this time took out a red medicine bottle from the small bag on her back and applied it only to the knees.
I thought it might be red medicine, but the medicine itself was transparent.
A soft liquid covers it, and not long after, the scab slowly melts away. And with a very stinging sensation, the skin gradually heals.
“It stings and itches.”
“Endure it. It stings because the wound is healing.”
While saying that, she cuts and attaches a snow-white bandage to the hand, not the slightly yellowish bandage she wrapped yesterday.
Couldn’t she just apply what she put on the knee to the hand?
But there’s no sign of that happening.
I’m not sure, but it’s soon time to go for the blessing, so I entrusted my clothes to Joanna.
Unlike usual, she gives me gloves. Is she thinking of covering the wound? If that’s the case, she could just give me medicine.
I calmly think about the reason. Knees and hands. Is there a difference?
Visible position?
But if it’s going to be covered with clothes, isn’t the knee better than the hand? I can just wear a long skirt. Therefore, there’s another reason for not treating the wound.
Although my brain doesn’t roll very well, I can still think, so I ponder.
She made a distinction.
She intends to check by widening the difference.
Then the difference in wounds. Is she trying to check the recovery power? Isn’t one night’s sleep enough for that?
I steal warmth and bestow blessings.
Before, when I first came to this world, there was an incident where half of my head was blown off. I recovered then.
Then, is she trying to check if I can recover by eating warmth? Is that it?
Certainly, it’s strange that the recovery is so slow now when I showed such powerful regeneration then.
No, honestly, HP is slowly filling up automatically, and since there’s no urgency, I just left it to natural healing? Even if there’s pain, it’s not connected to suffering.
Even if it stings and itches, it means that impulses don’t rush in to resolve it. For example, even if a game character gets a status effect of being burned, it doesn’t actually itch, right? Especially if there’s no special function reduction and it heals on its own if left alone.
If that’s the case, I should heal the wound when eating warmth.
I know the method.
It would be exactly the same method as when making clothes.
Having decided that, I waited for Hieronymus.
And as expected, when the time came, Hieronymus came and took me to a secluded place first. There are heretics captured from far away.
That means today I’m bestowing blessings on those who succeeded in Hieronymus’s mission.
There are three people in front of me.
Two men whose entire bodies are wrapped in restraints, and one woman.
So I quickly stole their warmth. As expected, this side has more warmth compared to the size of the light. The two men are from the Kingdom of Kogni in the northeast.
One person is a warrior.
A man who lived in a city overlooking the Skard Rocky Desert in the southwest of the Kingdom of Kogni. Born there, he became a mercenary following his mercenary cousin, and when he got older, he returned to his hometown to settle down, a fairly old man.
But the hometown he returned to was full of strange heat. It was a place mostly occupied by the Future Hope Church. He came from an area where the Future Hope Church had no influence. So he quickly noticed that his hometown was strange due to the pseudo-religion.
Every dawn, they pray to a god with a strange name, and in a village that already has nothing, they hand over what they have to people who come from somewhere.
And those who refuse are stoned in the center of the village as heretics.
He returned to the village and tried to stop it, but was caught by someone who received my blessing. Unfortunately, although he was a strong warrior, he wasn’t a superhuman. That’s this person’s story.
And the next man. This one is quite old, close to an elderly middle-aged man. And a commoner? No, it’s a bit ambiguous to call him a commoner.
His history is quite deep.
Originally, he was in a position like a 5th grade civil servant in a place called the Luminous Theocratic State. But he defected. He endured a much lower position and moved to the Kingdom of Kogni. Despite being from the Theocracy, he even converted to a religion called the Holy Spirit Religion.
It’s unusual to abandon one’s native faith, which is interesting.
Anyway, not long after that, the Kingdom of Anselus invaded the Luminous Theocratic State. The Kingdom of Anselus, not the Kingdom of Kogni. But I vaguely know that the information he released when defecting must have been helpful.
Because the place called the Luminous Theocratic State was in the jungle to the west of the Kingdom of Kogni.
And the Kingdom of Anselus is to the south of the Kingdom of Kogni.
Therefore, for the Kingdom of Anselus to invade the country called the Luminous Theocratic State, they had to pass through their own country.
It’s strange.
Especially to me who knows about the Japanese invasion of Korea.
So the Kingdom of Anselus destroyed the Luminous Theocratic State. And surprisingly, the army of the Kingdom of Anselus returned to their homeland as if nothing had happened.
By then, this man who was already in the Kingdom of Kogni was spewing harsh words while drinking, saying it served them right. I agree. Because the Luminous Theocratic State gathered children when they were born and subjected them to cruel training to create powerful warriors.
By cruel training, it means there were so many deaths that it looked cruel.
He lost his children to the Luminous Theocratic State. Twice, even. So he fled with his devastated wife.
Unfortunately, his wife died during that process.
Anyway, that was about 20 years ago. After that, he was living in the Kingdom of Kogni when he was suddenly kidnapped and brought here.
I don’t understand why the Future Hope Church specifically kidnapped him. If I had to choose the most likely possibility, it’s that he believes in the religion called the Holy Spirit Religion?
But I vaguely saw the relationship between Anselus and Kogni. He has good information.
Lastly, the woman I stole warmth from is also a priest of the religion called the Holy Spirit Religion. It’s not strange for her to be brought here since she was fighting against the Future Hope Church in a city where it was expanding.
An interesting point is that she can use a special power called holy power. It’s said to be the power of light that can be used the more you believe in God.
Even if I do as this person did, holy power doesn’t come out of my hands. In other words, we should consider that there’s a subject that gives power?
Hehehehe.
So there is a god.
Hyunkeshuni called me an outer god, but honestly, I’m more like a monster around that level.
Hmm. Let’s think about this side a bit later. My heart still feels like it might get too excited.
Now!
It seems the Holy Spirit Religion is believed mostly in countries in the east. Besides the Kingdom of Kogni and the Kingdom of Anselus, there are quite a few small kingdoms, and the main religion of the countries in the east is the Holy Spirit Religion. It’s spread so widely that it’s almost like a universal religion.
The enemy of religion is religion.
Seeing that Hieronymus mainly sends people to the east, is it because the Holy Spirit Religion is hindering the expansion of the Future Hope Church?
This is complicated too.
Or there’s a possibility that the Holy Spirit Religion itself is Hieronymus’s enemy, but if so, I don’t think he would have talked about the noble side like kings and ministers when we first met.
Rather, he would have asked for help in killing other gods, or spoken in that way.
The lines seem to connect but don’t.
It seems like I might see Hieronymus’s true intentions, but there’s still not enough information.
But this leader of the Future Hope Church will continue to bring sacrifices containing a lot of information. I can figure it out slowly.
First, before putting back the dark purple smoke I took out of my body to steal warmth, I thought that my whole body had returned to normal. And the body did return to normal. My palms that were slightly stinging don’t hurt at all now.
After successfully completing the regeneration, I headed to the large underground space with the altar along with Hieronymus.
And there I bestow blessings on 3 people.
The will of the great god.
Open parenthesis, write Hieronymus’s will, close parenthesis, and give rewards to those who carried out missions according to that will.
One person is fine, the other two are missing one of their limbs.
But when I give the blessing, their hair all turns purple, and one person’s skin turns white, while the other two’s skin turns blue.
Of course, all other wounds disappeared.
Hieronymus, who has seen this many times, orders them to check the blessings they received. Then one of those who received the blessing brought out a purple-dyed liquid from their hand.
Pointing at that, they shout that they received a great blessing. Hieronymus skillfully uses words to push the people below into excitement.
According to the will of God, thus if you receive a blessing, you can receive a share of God’s miracle.
He shakes people’s hearts with very ingenious words.
It’s interesting.
How can he use such diverse words and sentences while saying the same thing every time? Rather than being good at speaking originally, traces of study are visible here and there.
I think there aren’t many people who can receive such education in a world view close to the early modern period.
It feels like I’m getting closer to his identity little by little, but I can’t make any connections.
Is it because of lack of intelligence?
There’s also a lack of information, but it’s quite frustrating.
Hieronymus, who finished the story while preaching the doctrine as he always did, left the place with me, leaving behind the cheering church members.
Now it’s time to go up from underground.
The corridor isn’t straight and needs to be turned several times, but I’ve memorized the way now.
It’s very interesting that there are many places dug in curves instead of straight lines to make it difficult to know the way. It has the advantage of making it easy for first-time visitors to get lost, but it must have been quite difficult to make.
When you come up through the winding corridor, there’s a large building.
Although I pieced it together with information from blessed people, this building has a specific shape. And it’s built in a circle based on the stepped pyramid underground.
It’s obvious.
There’s a high possibility that it’s preparation to sacrifice the people here if necessary, or something equivalent to that.
If I could figure that out, I might be able to know the technique that summoned me.
For now, most of those receiving blessings are like disposable workers. Rather, the sacrifices brought from outside have more knowledge.
I can get information from both sides.
Unfortunately, there’s no one who knows. No.
One person.
One. There’s someone I’ve seen before, though I don’t know the meaning.
The old man I just ate warmth from.
Oh my.
This is strange.
This is the sacred text used in the Luminous Theocratic State.
A lot of information I’ve gathered so far flashes through my mind.
Luminous Theocratic State. Spiritual leader. Leader of a pseudo-religion. Hunting gods. Gods and humans. Destroyed by the Kingdom of Anselus.
Aha.
I got it.
Hieronymus is a survivor of the Luminous Theocratic State. And someone in a very high position at that.
I’ve found where to look to find the technique that can call me.
I update my goal.
The main goal is still to find the technique that can call me to this world.
But the sub-goal can move on from finding traces.
Next goal.
Exploration of the fallen Luminous Theocratic State.
Let’s proceed slowly.
There’s still plenty of time.
I returned to my room with a smile.