Chapter 09

He answered with his joy plainly written across his face.

“Yes. Of course. Shall I start as early as the next day?”

“I want to remove their suffering as quickly as possible. Thank you for your consideration, brother. May the grace of the Sun be with you.”

I pressed my hands together and gave a small bow.

The coachman awkwardly imitated my gesture.

Watching him, I slowly swallowed my red wine. It was nicely bitter with a hint of sweetness — quite pleasant.

I cut into a steak that smelled faintly gamey, not sure what kind of meat it was, and took a bite.

First, I’d secured the most urgent early followers.

What should I do next?

I chewed the meat and thought.

‘Collecting powerful relics one by one is important, but I also need to invest the points I get from followers to learn new skills.’

This confirmed it for me.

‘The deity aura effect is better than I expected.’

Investing in skills was the right move.

The relics I’d get from now on were hidden in places far beyond my current stats, so I’d have to level more skills to obtain them.

‘If I’m going to play the part of a cult leader, I have to do it properly. So what’s next…’

Money.

Securing a source of funds right away.

For now, treating the sick would be enough to gain followers, but once the patients were all healed there’d be no future.

The next target would be the easiest: the poor, who could be bought with money.

To do that, I needed money first.

I set my utensils down silently. After wetting my lips with wine and savoring the bitter aftertaste, I spoke.

“Brother. Are you some kind of guildmaster of a merchant troupe?”

“Ah, um… calling me a ‘guildmaster’ is a bit grand, but… I do sell goods on a relatively large scale.”

The coachman — no, the merchant — said that after hurriedly swallowing the food in his mouth. In any case, he was someone with a name among merchants.

“In that case… could you sell the things I have to the right buyers? The scene I saw outside is pressing on my heart. I keep picturing people who can’t afford medicine or even a single piece of bread… I want to help them in a small way, but unfortunately what I own are stolen goods rather than money, and I’m inexperienced at handling this sort of thing. I need your help.”

“Oh, of course. I’ll do it. But what goods are we talking about…?”

I fetched the bag I’d left beside the chair. It was a bag sold by that merchant.

When I handed it to him, the merchant took it with trembling hands, holding it politely.

He opened the cloth bag and his eyes widened.

He pulled items out onto the table and inspected them carefully. When he recognized things from his trade, he brightened and spoke excitedly.

“Jewels and… precious metals. This is… a fairly old gold coin. Old gold coins especially have a lot of collectors; you could get a good price for them. Ah, but to get the best price it’ll take some time. Is that okay?”

“I don’t mind, but if possible, please hurry… It pains me to see those wandering souls on the road suffer for longer.”

That was just a line I’d used because I needed money right now.

Still, the merchant seemed genuinely moved by my words.

“…Understood! I’ll do my best. If you need more money, please ask me. Because I’m in the business of selling goods, I have some funds available.”

“No — I can’t demand money for what I’m doing. Your help right now is more than enough… and when the time comes that your heart truly wishes it, please help those sidelined and weary souls then.”

I refused outright, and he nearly burst with joy.

Seeing that a rough man was practically worshiping my words felt oddly satisfying…

“You truly are an ascetic! I understand.”

He answered with a bright smile and poured red wine into my empty glass. I returned the smile with one of my own and cut a potato on my plate with my fork.

I didn’t plan to spend this money directly. That was amateurish.

My funds were limited, and selling all these items would be a one-time thing.

Besides, to survive long-term I needed to make followers — actually doing labor would ruin my image as a cult leader.

A cult leader is like a celebrity: they can do a brief ‘experience-based hardship’ to show they understand suffering, but if they actually make suffering their job, the followers’ illusions break.

So how to multiply money?

Investment.

And given that I knew the game’s knowledge and main story inside out, there was no better money-making opportunity.

I knew what would boom and what would fail. I might look like a prophet.

Of course, it was only a limited window of main- and side-story futures, but knowing what would happen made investing easy.

“Ah, then could I ask one more small favor? There’s something I want to do for this suffering world…”

“Tell me anything! I’ll do my utmost to make it happen!”

“Thank you, brother. I trust you.”

If I got the money, I already had an investment destination in mind.

‘The Labateon Mines near the border.’

An abandoned mine that had been shut because all they were finding was chunks of coal.

‘It used to be famous as a dungeon that paid well.’

Monsters had nested in the abandoned mine, and the mission was to clear the monster nests that had turned the mine into a lair.

After the purge, if you brought mining tools and ventured deeper into the mine, you could mine magic stones.

Those magic stones were fairly lucrative… It was a good dungeon to make quick cash when you were low level and broke.

Of course, the payout wasn’t as good as higher-level quests.

Still, it was clearly the best choice now.

Moreover, magic stones were one of the rare raw materials that sold for high prices in this world. In a pre-electric age, magic stones—more effective than electricity and with diverse uses—were more precious than gold.

Some said certain magic stones could cure minor ailments just by being ground up.

Usually the mines that produced such magic stones belonged to nations, but unfortunately this mine’s operators had stopped mining before they even found any hint of real magic stone veins.

If they’d dug a little more, they might have hit gold. They didn’t know, so they gave up — lucky for me.

‘I’ll use the money to buy ownership of the mine, hire a mercenary band and miners…’

Since it was an abandoned mine, buying ownership wouldn’t cost that much.

And since I’d be regularly mining, buying the mine outright would be better than just buying mining rights.

‘I don’t need to hire the best mercenaries.’

Anyone who could swing a sword would do. The monsters in there were probably at most level 7.

As it’s a chapter-1.5 storyline dungeon, I remembered the recommended level was around 5–7.

‘What does level 5–7 mean in practice?’

Looking at the basic stats of a swordsman-type, a level-10 is about a regular mercenary; so this would be more like amateur mercenaries.

“Do you know the Labateon Mines near the border?”

“Hmm… sorry, I’m not familiar with that name.”

“That’s fine. I’ve seen the future of this world before I came down…”

The merchant’s eyes lit up.

“That Labateon Mine hides some of the world’s most valuable things. But monsters come out, so you can’t just send miners.”

He was quick to catch on.

“Then…! Could it be the magic stone?”

I smiled and sipped my wine; he immediately blurted out.

“I’ll use the money you give to buy the mine’s ownership, hire mercenaries and miners! Then there’ll be more profit, and with that profit you’ll be able to realize your ascetic’s greater goals! Such foresight! Ah…”

Because he was perceptive, he took all the tasks I intended to delegate. It’s true: the more alert someone is, the more work they end up assigned.

“The knowledge I have of the future will be for saving the suffering, of course. Please, brother.”

“I’ll get to work quickly, then.”

“Yes, thank you for your warm heart.”

Yes — I’d achieved success without lifting a finger!

“If you give me just two weeks, I’ll definitely bring it through!”

“Please don’t overdo it. Your health is most important. Now that your daughter is healthy, shouldn’t you spend time with her as well?”

The merchant was moved to tears by my words.

I found myself calming a man who was crying while we ate, which was not something I was used to.

To cement his trust, I touched his arm and flashed a brief ability beam, showing a little radiance.

‘I should visit Kardil again tomorrow.’

I needed to both gather money to lure the poor and keep treating patients to recruit followers. The followers would be my shield and soon my lifeline.

‘Things really are going smoothly!’

“Captain, the cult leader’s corpse is missing.”

Clack.

Someone sheathed a sword with a crude lion carving and walked slowly toward the captain to report.

“Are you sure you examined properly?”

At the captain’s low voice, the man who’d removed his helmet began his report calmly.

“Yes. White, long hair like an old man, grey eyes, about 190 cm tall and large. We considered that hair and eye color can be changed by magic, but we did not find the body of any tall man.”

“Hmm…”

The captain standing quietly in the pit glanced around.

Among the many rotting corpses in the pit, not a single fly or maggot circled. The bodies were decaying steadily and slowly, in accordance with time.

Clack. The captain’s boot struck the stone floor and dried blood crumbled into dust. The torchlight’s shadow flickered against the dark stone wall.

Being in this pit made my stomach churn and gave a numb, tingling sensation from my hands and feet.

The captain looked at the knights who were diligently searching: the elite of the elite. Even Lumensia’s sharpest spears and shields were uncomfortably queasy.

He flexed his tingling fingers and looked up. Through the cavern entrance in the distance, the sun was sinking low.

“Gather the bodies and leave. Collapse the pit.”

The captain turned and gave the order. With the creak of armor, the knights inside the pit moved in a coordinated bustle.

Frowning, the captain, who had been listening to the distant sound of a stream, spoke to the bleeding vice-captain who had been collecting corpses.

“Bring that ‘leader’ out to the gallows. He must be executed.”

The vice-captain nodded.

“Because Lady Lumensia ordered it.”

They had to show the children of Lumensia the fate of heretics’ blasphemies.

Rows of bodies — knights who had died with their hearts mysteriously stopped and heretics covered in cuts — were laid across the meadow.

Outside, flies came from nowhere and buzzed around the corpses. That pit was definitely strange.

The vice-captain drew his sword from its sheath. Seeing that, the knights stepped back from the pit’s mouth.

When he raised the sword, a pale green aura visibly clung to the blade. He swung at the pit, and in a single blow the stone-built opening collapsed.