How the Cult Saves the World

My expression hardened without me realizing it. This was a warning message that I had never seen in the game.

I remembered when I saved the people of Rovel. They were not believers of the Rizes Church, so this message did not appear.

'This...'

I reread the message.

They gave me a warning, which meant they wanted me to be careful.

But, I was glad that it said 'may detect' instead of 'detected'.

That meant it was still okay.

It was something I had to do sooner or later anyway. To drive out Diego Faith, which occupied the continent. So, for me to survive, I couldn't be scared and back off.

First, I had to finish things here.

I managed my expression and showed both arms to the villagers.

"Our Kyros Faith is always open. A Kyros Faith temple will open soon in Rovel of the Holden Territory, so please visit us sometimes."

The elder glared at me for openly recruiting believers, but he couldn't say anything.

I smiled happily as I heard the cheers of the villagers.

In this small village where most of the people were believers of Kyros Faith, what could a single follower of Diego Faith do?

'Nothing.'

Considering the distance, Kyros Faith temple was much closer than Diego Faith temple.

Maybe, soon the elder would become a believer of Kyros Faith too.

I bowed my head to the villagers who were hugging each other happily. It was time for us to part.

"Then, we'll go back now."

"What? You're leaving already?"

"Stay and sleep here! We'll leave in the morning!"

"Yeah! We want to repay you too!"

The villagers tried to stop us, but it was inevitable.

"It's okay. We didn't do this to get repaid. So have a comfortable night."

We had to go back home before the sky got completely bright.

The villagers let us go as we refused every time they tried to stop us.

"Thank you so much for everything."

"No, Cyril. We should thank you more."

Cyril also said goodbye to Kess and followed us.

"Let's go back."

It was time to go home.

We left Cartel Village.

"It looks peaceful when you see it like this."

Zain looked around the forest and muttered. Cartel Forest, where there were no darkwolves, felt quiet and serene.

"That's right."

Cyril also smiled as if he felt nostalgic.

"It's such a beautiful forest! Right, Chesi?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah."

The kids also seemed excited.

But I couldn't smile easily. I had a lot on my mind.

There were too many things that bothered me.

I sorted out the things that had happened one by one.

First, Terdius might have been brainwashed by Diego Faith too.

I didn't mind that much that he wasn't on my side. After all, He was the protagonist of this world.

But still, if he was brainwashed...

'I want to free him and bring him with me if possible.'

I couldn't just ignore him. Even though he was my enemy now, Terdius was still the protagonist of the original story. There was nothing bad about being on his side.

And another thing was the 'divine punishment' that the villagers of Cartel Village mentioned.

I didn't see it in the game, so it bothered me.

Maybe Diego became more evil than in the original story.

Let's say that was my guess for now.

And finally, there was Khalid and a Black Arc that suddenly appeared.

This was...

'I don't know what to do either...'

The difficulty of this hidden route became abnormally high.

At this rate, I had to get stronger as soon as possible.

I sighed softly and opened the quest window.

[Main Quest <Conversion>

Content: Help the God of Beauty Kyros eliminate the Evil God Diego.

Goal: Make more than 80% of the population on Celeste Continent a believer of the God Kyros within 3 years (currently 0%).

Success: ???

Failure: Death (soul annihilation), World Destruction.]

I often checked the main quest. To see if the current number in the goal increased.

But the display was still 0%.

'...Does it not show decimal places?'

The current number of Kyros Faith believers is about 250. But, the goal number didn't budge at all.

Maybe I had to fill at least 1 percent. How many people live on this continent?

-My little bird!

Kyros called me in a refreshing voice when I was swallowing curses in my mind.

-You did a great job. A really great job! You saved our believer and made the villagers a believer of Kyros Faith, too! I'm so happy!

'Yes. Me too.'

I answered dryly.

I still had a long way to go, and it was daunting...

But, the feeling of helping people was not bad.

My prediction was exactly right. I felt like I was on the brink of death.

Of course, I could rest all day if I wanted to.

But then, they might suspect me now.

Suspicion starts from a small spark, so I decided to endure one more day for caution.

That Fanatic bastard increased the intensity of the exercise, and my body was miserably crushed...

'Damn kid. Can't you take it easy for a day?'

I cursed Fanatic in my mind as I dragged my legs that hardly moved to my room.

I tried using healing skills on myself, but they didn't get rid of all the fatigue.

-It seems that kid hates you.

Kyros felt sorry for me who had been exercising all day.

'Right? It doesn't make sense at this intensity, right?'

-Yeah, yeah. How dare he make my child suffer so much. Tsk tsk.

I swallowed my irritation and dragged myself to the bathroom, where I took the poison and splashed some water on my body. Then I lay down on the bed.

I should avoid going out at night for a while. I need to recover from the fatigue and stick to the plan.

I closed my eyes. I was exhausted, so I thought I would fall asleep soon.

"Ah, right!"

Then I suddenly remembered something.

I quickly opened my inventory.

[1-time Agent Draw Ticket (5 pieces)

Grade: ???

Description: You can draw an agent from C-grade to S-grade.]

Draw tickets! I should use them before sleeping!

I smiled as I looked at the tickets. I reached out to use them. As soon as my hand touched the tickets, I felt the same sensation of floating, and then everything turned white.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in another dimension.

A world where only a slot machine was waiting for me.

'I can't get used to this no matter how many times I see it.'

By the way, the slot machine had changed from before.

There used to be only grades written on the screen, but now there was an explanation.

[You can set the desired branch by consuming 5 Agent Draw Tickets.]

[However, the grade is random, and you can only draw one agent.]

So this is a guaranteed draw, right?

There was no such message last time, so maybe it only activates when you have more than 5 tickets.

Anyway, even though it consumes 5 tickets and the grade is random,

'If I can choose the branch, it's a different story.'

First of all, I checked the list of branches that I could draw.

Cooking, it would be nice to have a chef who can take care of the cooking at the temple.

Singing, a singer that praises Kyros would not be bad either.

Healing, healers are always welcome.

Politics, might be useful when there is a conflict between religions.

Cuteness.

...Huh? Cuteness? Why is this here? It's kind of tempting. But. Maybe, I'll try it later when I have more tickets.

As I was looking through the list,

"This is..."

There was one branch that caught my eye.

"It's exactly what I needed. What a lucky break."

The branch was 'Art'.

The most needed thing for the opening of the temple was a picture and a statue of Kyros, so I needed an art branch.

"But it's 5 tickets, maybe there will be no art branch? No, wait, but honestly, I'm not very lucky..."

Let's just go for the guaranteed draw.

If I drew 5 people without confirmation and there was no art branch among them, it would be a total waste.

After thinking for a long time, I finally chose the 'Art' branch and pulled the lever.

[5 Agent Draw Tickets will be consumed.]

Ding---ding---ding---

The slot machine started spinning with a flashy sound effect. As soon as that happened, I clasped my hands together and prayed.

'Please, please an S-grade! God, Buddha, no, Kyros! Please!'

Bling---bling---bling!

With all kinds of sound effects and flashes, the slot machine started to slow down.

Thump, thump, thump. My heart was beating fast. C, B, A, S, the alphabets were spinning rapidly and finally stopped.

On an 'S'.

"Woohoo!!"

I roared with joy.

I drew another S! I beat the 25 percent chance!

[Congratulations! You have drawn an S-grade agent!]

Confetti exploded and a congratulatory message appeared. The slot machine emitted light and in an instant, I was back on my bed.

And in the same lying position as before.

Wow, I really drew another S-grade!

I kicked the blanket with joy.

Then, I felt someone moving next to me. When I turned my head, I saw my S-grade artist.

The new arrival was Sasha, a cute girl with brown hair tied down on both sides who looked about the same age as Alphius and Chester.

She looked a bit tired but she nodded her head when our eyes met.

"Hello, Leader. My name is Sasha."

"Hi, Sasha. Nice to meet you."

This girl is an S-grade in the art branch! Yay!

-Oh my goodness, what a cute angel!

Kyros was as happy as me. This was not the time for this. I got up from the bed and grabbed a paper and a pencil from the desk. I handed them to Sasha and she took them with her small hands.

Then, Sasha sat down on the carpet and started drawing.

She immersed herself in drawing in an instant. She looked cool.

Thump, thump, thump. I was excited and sat quietly on the bed, waiting for Sasha's artistic spirit to burn.

After about a minute.

Sasha handed me the paper.

"I'm done."

And when I took the paper from Sasha, I couldn't help but widen my eyes and open my mouth.

-Gasp...!

Even Kyros was so surprised that he swallowed his breath.

It was inevitable. Sasha's drawing was not just a drawing. It was amazing. Even I, who knew nothing about art, could tell. It was like she took a photo of Kyros.

I smiled so wide that my mouth reached my ears.

This is it. This is it. This is it...!