* * *
As Andrew moved away from Rebecca, two people whom Hieronymus had assigned to watch Rebecca approached him.
Generally thinking, it would be to catch someone who recklessly approached the surveillance target, but.
Those two bowed their heads to Andrew, and Andrew patted their shoulders and turned back.
Because those two were people more loyal to Andrew than to Hieronymus.
They were in the same position as warriors of faith, but Andrew’s subordinates had infiltrated among them.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they don’t believe in the Future Hope Church.
They believe in the same god, live for the Future Hope Church, and can do anything for it.
Just the person they’re loyal to is different.
Just like there’s an A-line and B-line in a company, they had different people they trusted and followed more.
Originally, in a proper cult that breaks people, such things are difficult to happen. Moreover, Hieronymus brought in an already verified system. Therefore, there wasn’t a big problem with the system.
But even if the system is perfect, problems arise if the people using it have issues.
As a result of Hieronymus focusing on greatly expanding the Future Hope Church as a cult and neglecting internal management, gaps opened up.
Originally, such things should be suppressed with one voice over time, but Hieronymus lacked that time. Because for him, the Future Hope Church was just a cult to use and discard. Therefore, he doesn’t trust anyone.
And the person who dug well into that gap was none other than Andrew.
Originally, he too was a person who gathered people who believed in a god for the desperate with innate wisdom and charisma to create a religion.
No matter how much such religions were absorbed to become the Future Hope Church, do believers change at once?
Andrew also joined the Future Hope Church with the desire to have a larger religion.
And he was slowly moving to take the Future Hope Church, which had grown in size according to that desire, into his own hands.
But suddenly, with the appearance of the monster called Rebecca, all the plans were in danger of falling apart.
If it was simply a monster with strong power, it wouldn’t have been this dangerous.
But this monster gave powerful strength in the name of blessing to those who followed it. They obtained visible evidence of loyalty.
This was extremely dangerous.
Because if Rebecca was a being that only reacted to Hieronymus, Andrew’s position would be shaken to the extent of having to find extreme methods.
Andrew who can’t give anything versus Hieronymus who bestows blessings. It’s obvious who would be trusted more in the current situation.
So he urgently contacted Rebecca.
And he heard a very satisfactory fact.
If sacrifices are supplied, blessings are given. It said it would attach itself to whichever side gives more sacrifices, regardless of who it is.
While thinking he had summoned quite a scary monster, he heard information that he could seamlessly continue that position even if he ousted Hieronymus.
Moreover, he heard the fact that even if Hieronymus wasn’t there, the monster could be killed in case of emergency.
Or if he couldn’t have it, he could kill it.
The human body weakens so it exercises.
Hearing Rebecca’s words, Andrew understood that she wasn’t just a transcendent being, but a being bound to that body.
If necessary, she can be killed.
Andrew makes plans to reclaim the Future Hope Church from Hieronymus while comparing the cases of obtaining Rebecca for himself and killing Rebecca.
And the scale tipped towards obtaining Rebecca.
The blessing Rebecca gives was that attractive.
In addition, he learned that there was one more position where he could receive blessings without having to forcibly take Rebecca from Hieronymus.
Since it would be difficult to identify over several thousand people one by one, he thought of giving blessings to his subordinates once some more time passed and it became difficult to identify all the blessed people.
Only to his subordinates.
Of course, Andrew had no intention of receiving the blessing himself.
To receive a blessing from such a monster and become a monster like that, is he sane?
Fundamentally, Andrew didn’t think Rebecca was related to the god he believed in.
He just thought she was a monster Hieronymus summoned with some strange occult technique.
Unfortunately, although it was fundamentally correct that that god was summoned, Andrew analyzed it wrongly.
But that wasn’t anyone’s fault.
No, strictly speaking, there was a being who twisted the story with malice in between.
But that being would say this.
That it only spoke the truth.
It would say so while deceiving, knowing how its words would be heard.
Deceiving and being deceived, the Future Hope Church slowly started rolling down the slope.
Until the moment it stops.
Continuously.
* * *
Meanwhile, after escaping from the Future Hope Church in the jungle to the southwest of the Kingdom of Kogni, Tis immediately moved southeast.
He wanted to get as far away from the Future Hope Church as possible.
So he ran away continuously until he reached a small village.
For three days and nights. He advanced with a body that regenerates any wound. Originally, wounds or diseases that would have held him back disappeared, unable to overcome his regenerative power. Even insects heal faster than they can eat away at his body.
Blood-sucking insects can’t push in their proboscis, and even if they suck blood, their bodies immediately melt into dark purple.
With such a body, he crossed the jungle without much burden.
The lush jungle that seemed to go on forever slowly changed its appearance.
The stifling humidity decreased a lot, and the appearance of the trees changed. Instead of sticky ground, he often stepped on hard ground.
The jungle became a forest.
No, to be precise, he had escaped from the southern jungle of the Kingdom of Kogni and reached the forest at the northern edge of the Kingdom of Anselus.
And there he stood at a crossroads of choice.
Ahead were nine men carrying lots of luggage, and a girl being forcibly dragged along by them. It was obviously an unfortunate event where she was being taken away by bandits.
If Tis was a person with thoughts, he should have run away here.
Not because Tis couldn’t beat the bandits.
Purple hair is now almost a symbol of the Future Hope Church.
The hair that turned purple after receiving the blessing from the outer god was irrefutable evidence.
But Tis inherently couldn’t tolerate seeing someone suffer misfortune.
That was his misfortune.
If he didn’t have such a nature in the first place, no matter how alien he found the Future Hope Church, he would have lived there and used it, so it was meaningless to call it misfortune.
Because the trigger for him thinking it was strange was that someone by his side died for the sake of god.
Therefore, Tis moved to save the person in front of him.
Mere bandits were no match for Tis, who had such powerful regenerative abilities that when hit with a sword, flesh would push up immediately, making it impossible to stab properly.
Even just comparing abilities it was like that, but Tis had learned how to fight properly from a young age. And above all, he’s a person who has experienced actual combat several times.
So he easily drove away the bandits.
There was no need to kill them, so he did that out of his innate goodness.
While at it, he obtained all their things along with the plundered luggage.
And he headed towards the girl’s village with her.
If he had just saved the girl, he would have received words of gratitude. But he brought all the plundered luggage.
Tis became a hero of the village.
For exactly one week.
For one week, he could taste an ordinary daily life he had never experienced before.
A wooden house with an adult man and woman. And the girl he saved.
Tis tasted an ideal reality to the extent that he thought this might be how he becomes part of a family.
But as I said it was unfortunate, the end wasn’t good.
The human-like daily life he had barely obtained and felt for the first time was shattered in an instant.
The reason wasn’t much.
It was because his hair was purple.
So because there was a person who received the blessing here, people from the Future Hope Church came to help.
As I said earlier, despite having a specific symbol, the symbol of the Future Hope Church had long since changed to people with purple hair.
Because unlike ordinary church members who wore masks and covered their bodies with hoods, the superhumans using the special power called blessing didn’t wear such clothes and revealed themselves.
They wore very fancy clothes without hiding.
And the influence of one boy fanned this even more.
People with outstanding abilities have special titles.
It was the result of the desire to be recognized by others, which everyone has as a human, meeting with power.
Of course, as the number of church members increased exponentially, it also settled easily as Hieronymus encouraged it to make management easier. Rather than giving individual instructions, if he just gave big directions to those who received blessings, the rest would move on their own.
So currently, the Future Hope Church is moving centered around people with purple hair.
In other words, purple hair has become the power of the Future Hope Church.
Appearance and power combined.
Then the church members began to follow those with such appearances more passionately.
Because by following people with purple hair, they could gain a lot.
I explained once before, but do you remember that the Future Hope Church liberated villages suffering under tyranny?
That has now become a fact that should obviously be done.
Even the cause and effect were reversed, and all villages of heretics became places that the Future Hope Church should liberate.
By the way, liberation means converting all people in that village to the Future Hope Church and destroying everything else.
Just like the Yellow Turbans collapsed in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, they had become plunderers who indiscriminately plundered everything around them.
The result is obvious.
Plunderers armed with religious beliefs came to that village. How did they know and come?
The bandits he first drove away.
They followed their story and came.
The people from the Future Hope Church who came thoroughly plundered the village.
If Tis’s hair wasn’t purple, he wouldn’t have become unfortunate so quickly.
But because his body changed like that, he was able to escape from the Future Hope Church.
Fortune was in his hands, and misfortune followed him like a price.
Tis fought hard, but it was impossible to save the village from numerous church members.
When he came to his senses after taking out church members, he realized he had failed.
In other words, everyone died.
Tis held the hand of the girl who had become a corpse and fueled the flames of revenge.
He swore to take revenge on the Future Hope Church.
Tis, who had only thought of escaping from the Future Hope Church, now had a different goal.
The boy buried all those who had become corpses and began to move east again.
But there was no joy of gaining freedom like when he first escaped from the Future Hope Church. Instead, vengeful thoughts towards the Future Hope Church took its place.
So he started heading towards the center of the Kingdom of Anselus.
* * *
Hehe.
It’s interesting!
It’s like watching a story of a hero being created!
Certainly, stories of becoming a hero after gaining special powers in such a dangerous place are common. But I didn’t expect to actually see it.
Originally, stories are far from reality. So when I saw it directly, it was extremely interesting.
I experienced Tis through his perspective.
Of course, I only know physical information like changes in expression or how his heart beats, and where and how it hurts, but it’s not impossible to guess what he’s thinking.
Yes. So I know he’s advancing for revenge.
Coincidentally, he’s heading towards the Kingdom of Anselus.
The Future Hope Church led by Hieronymus.
The Kingdom of Anselus, the target of Hieronymus’s revenge.
And an enemy of the Future Hope Church is walking in there.
I’ll leisurely wait in a corner of this Future Hope Church until the moment their hearts clash and reality changes.
But if it’s too late, Andrew might deal with Hieronymus and change the Future Hope Church.
I’ll live like a carefree pet, thinking hard about how to obtain the technique that summoned me to this world no matter how things roll, without worrying about the world.
Hehe.