Chapter 49 – Conversion

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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At some point, these words circulated among the people.

Avoid the river water. Do not face the things swimming in the river water.

Of course, there were those who stayed behind to secure a stable supply of drinking water and try to catch some fish.

Though their end was a lonely one.

There was a reason such words were circulating. It was when those who believed it and stayed far away returned with lingering feelings just in case.

Only fragmentary traces of those who stayed remained.

People realized after seeing the marks on boards that were scratched so fiercely that their fingernails broke and bled.

The river water was no longer the lifeline of civilization.

Even so, lacking any sharp alternatives, they had no choice but to return to the riverside.

Until wooden barrels were filled with clean water even on a mountain without a single stream, that is.

“Did it rain again today?”

“Yeah. It seems to keep raining on the days the star rises.”

“It’s true… Should I prepare even one more bucket?”

Two women with vigorous impressions exchanged stories like this and that.

What else could be as gracious as the rainwater that overflowed every time the star twinkled.

It was the opportunity that turned people’s attention towards the god who made stars.

Although the majority showed favorable reactions, those who firmly kept their existing faith shook their heads.

The guard Jedin who protected the barrier was a prime example.

Unable to hold back, Jedin even rebuked his colleagues chattering in excited voices.

“Stop saying Star Creation this, Star Creation that, and think a little. Has there been any distinct change since he showed a bright sky once?”

“Hey, hey. Why are you suddenly like this.”

“It’s because I’m dumbfounded. How do you know if that star is an ascended angel or a god? A god from after the pantheon? Demons would also say exactly that.”

A hardline attitude was bound to draw sharp reactions.

Jedin’s sharp, ringing tone returned as fiercely angry mockery.

“What is so great about the pantheon…”

“What?”

“Then, what are the gods of the pantheon doing right now that they are keeping silent even to the priest? Huh? Does it make sense that they withdrew all their divine power?”

“…They probably have more important matters.”

“Important matters, he says. Heuheuheu.”

The soldier who bared his complaints looked at Jedin, who averted his gaze with a sullen expression, and laughed for a long time.

Then he threw his spear down and swung his fist.

Peoeok!

Before Jedin could even scream or groan, the fist from the other side flew in.

“Bullshit! Important matters? You package abandoning everyone to die like that!”

“Eok, euk, eok.”

He was hit so hard that he even let go of the spear he was holding.

It would have been fortunate if someone stopped him, but most of the colleagues they were with merely watched with cold eyes.

“…Just rough him up moderately. He’s a kid who has to stand guard too. If he dies, only your own guard duty times will increase.”

“Telling you in advance, we won’t stand in his place. The guy who killed him has to stand in the dead guy’s place.”

Ironically, these words stopped the fist.

The soldier who was beating up Jedin stepped back, laughing like he lost his mind.

“Heuheuheuheuheu. Fuck. Even when trying to kill a guy spouting bullshit, hearing that my own guard duty times will increase abruptly brought me to my senses.”

“gasp…”

“Get up. I spared you so you can stand guard. If you can’t get up, I’ll just beat you to death right now.”

Kkadeuk.

Jedin, who was groaning in pain, clenched his teeth. Worried he wouldn’t be able to. He stood up again only out of sheer obstinacy.

The reaction that actually returned was entirely mockery and contempt.

“He really stood up.”

“Wouldn’t it have been fine to hit him one more time?”

“Shut up. Don’t egg him on to see a sight where you have to stand others’ guard duties even once more.”

However, even if he drank the blood flowing over his burst lips, he had absolutely no thought of reverting the faith he had resolved upon once.

Even if it was a world where faith became meaningless, it was the same.

Faith was the very way of life a person had lived.

Jedin thought he had not lived a life light enough to simply change the values he had considered right and pursued his entire life.

‘O Bearing Responsibility, since I decided to bear my belief in you, I shall overcome all sorts of contempt and appeasement.’

Rather than believing in a god from after the pantheon who might be a demon, he continued his original life.

Jedin resolved to do so no matter what trials and adversities came in the future.

When the Black Sun rose, monsters popped out.

Up until now, just knowing this was enough. No matter how dense the Dark Light was, it was not that it ate up all flames.

People who adapted to the world moved with sparsely placed torches as guideposts even if it was pitch-dark right before their eyes.

Roughly memorizing the surrounding geography and running swiftly, that was.

And the daily routine repeated numerous times diluted the sense of crisis people felt.

“The sun has risen! Everyone, the sun has risen! It’s the Black Sun!”

“Now, now. Pull yourselves together, check the braziers and torches once more so the people who went outside can return.”

“We just have to hold out until the star rises. Everyone knows, right? Just defend the barrier until the star sweeps them entirely once. Don’t overdo it needlessly. Jedin, you…”

Dopel, a man who boasted he was a low-ranking officer when the world was intact.

Actually, Dopel made a vast contribution to keeping the shelter running tolerably.

Naturally, he was also quick to notice the lynchings that tended to be rampant within an army.

Dopel shifted his gaze between the soldiers feigning ignorance and looking elsewhere, and the beaten-up Jedin, and raised his eyebrows.

“Stop doing things that warrant a beating.”

Dopel left while patting his shoulder.

Jedin stubbornly kept his silence among the giggling colleagues.

At that moment, the Black Sun rose, and the dark purple aura crossed above the shelter.

None of them noticed even when it bizarrely twisted like a squirming tentacle instead of stretching straight out unlike usual.

It was much later, when people were watching the ground instead of the sky, that they felt an abnormality.

“What’s this? Why can’t I see the embers?”

“Who was on duty. Can’t you manage that properly?”

Jedin was watching the riverside beyond his swollen eyelids. At least he wasn’t on fire duty this time.

Dopel, who was inspecting the condition of the sentries, let out a deep sigh.

Dopel raised his voice while pointing his finger at the buzzing soldiers one by one.

“Spouting nonsense ends with getting beaten up, but failing to manage the fire is a death penalty, a death penalty. Seriously… How can you guys not even manage a fire like this.”

And the moment he poked the brazier with the poker he held in his hand.

“Wait. What is.”

Because of the heat he still felt, he opened his eyes wide at last.

Though doing that couldn’t stop the anomaly.

Huk, huk, huk-.

Torches and braziers, both only spewed heat. Every single one was losing its light.

It was the firelight that acted as stakes even if it couldn’t illuminate the surroundings. They lost all of this and were left in the darkness.

Only then did the paralyzed sense of crisis and fear rush in all at once.

The problem was the cries that resonated right after the light disappeared.

rattle, kkeureuk, gasp.

There wasn’t even time to run in confusion because the firelight disappeared.

The sound of footsteps coming from the forest towards the riverside and the ruined village was ringing the ground.

Ambush.

Only one word hovered in Dopel’s mind.

“Drop the guys trying to climb the barrier indiscriminately!”

Like that, the fight in complete darkness began.

The soldiers had to grit their teeth and drop the things crawling up the barrier.

Even if they knew what they were piercing with the spear tip, that is.

“I-I’m not! I said I’m human!”

“Uh… What should I do. They say they’re human.”

“Why are you fucking asking that! Drop them, you brought them trailing behind you!”

“Aaaaaaaak!!!”

Jedin was one of them too.

It was a fight where they solely had to rely on the wind, smell, and sense of touch. So distinguishing was rather easier.

Jedin could clearly feel the breath of the living person he dropped with the tip of his spear.

Kkeureuk, rattle.

The groans of the dead and the living mingled under the barrier.

Pushing them away with the spear tip was outright murder.

Even while feeling that way, Jedin silently followed the responsibility he bore. Jedin had a responsibility to protect the shelter.

But until when did they have to be like this?

The difference between having firelight and not having it was much greater than expected. Even though they probably repeated the same task every time, the overwhelming pressure they accepted was different.

In the darkness where they couldn’t distinguish even an inch ahead no matter how wide they opened their eyes.

He couldn’t even tell whether what flowed down his cheek was sweat, blood, or tears.

Such was the case until a shy starlight illuminated the surroundings.

“Hold out just a bit longer!”

Even just a handful of light was enough to drive away the darkness pressing down from all directions.

The outlines of squirming shadows were seen first. Next, his own hands tightly gripping the spear shaft were revealed.

“Priest, it’s dangerous! The monsters keep swarming!”

“I would like you not to worry. Because I’ll show you what kind of person I was in my prime.”

“What in the world is…”

What Bagnus, the priest of the shelter, showed the bewildered Dopel was a flower. A single nameless flower that had yet to bloom, holding plenty of starlight within its bud.

The hand grasping the stem, the blue veins on that hand were being dyed in a golden hue.

Looking at the confident Bagnus, Dopel traced back his old memories that had already grown faint.

“Divine power?”

Bagnus grinned and raised both his arms.

“O God who makes stars, the father of all stars to be in the future! I have never had an audience with you, but I believe in your great power and will!”

To a priest, divine power was a measure more important than anything.

The reason they doubted the deaths of the gods was precisely because they could not feel divine power. Because dead gods could not bestow divine power.

Therefore, the sight of Bagnus performing miracles served as certain proof.

The brilliant golden divine power illuminated everything in the surroundings.

Before they knew it, both the ghouls and the soldiers stopped fighting with dumbfounded faces.

Bagnus even shed tears at the fact that the god from after the pantheon was much more benevolent than he had thought.

“Make the wailing of ghosts cease with thunder, Roar of Ten Thunderbolts!”

The power given to Bagnus, who was no more than a mere low-ranking priest, was marvelous.

He fronted in front of Dopel, but he had never possessed the faith to show off a miracle of this caliber.

Rather, straying from the commandments, he was closer to a playboy who liked to play around with the residents while acting drunk.

However, Bagnus sincerely cherished the residents, and the residents had also lived cherishing the drunkard priest.

‘I am sorry I have not lived diligently since then.’

The lightning extending straight out and piercing through the ghouls in a single breath.

Bagnus clenched his hand, perhaps thinking of the people who might be buried within there.

A single strike was sufficient to clean up the ghouls sweeping over the shelter.

Seeing the ghoul pack purely swept away, everyone naturally knelt down.

“O Godfather of the Stars, please accept us.”

“Miracle. I’ve seen a genuine miracle.”

Even Jedin, who had kept a staunch faith, was no exception.

It was quick for Jedin, who had been clashing to maintain his faith, to mix in with the group.

“If I convert, would that person accept me?”

Although they showed a sharp attitude at first.

“Huh? This bastard… didn’t you say you shouldn’t change your faith once decided.”

“That’s enough. Stop it. Didn’t you see earlier when defending the barrier? The ghouls swarmed over there but he’s the guy who kept his place until the end.”

“Hmph. If you couldn’t even work properly, I would have beaten you one more time.”

The appearance of fulfilling his responsibilities in the attack drew the acknowledgement of his colleagues.

One way or another, it was an era where people were precious, and among them, reliable people were even more precious.

The soldiers forgot their previous quarrels and continued sharing stories about the new god.

That is, until a commotion arose at the main gate.

Buzz buzz…

It was to the extent that even those who were scooping out a bowl of soup put in a pot one by one were curious.

“What’s going on?”

“Well. Did something happen?”

And it was the moment Jedin quietly scooped with his spoon.

[Responsibility cannot be laid down until the moment permission is granted.]

“Upuup!”

Jedin stopped scooping with the spoon and spewed a violent cough.

“I told you to eat slowly. See, I’m not beating you up this time.”

“Wait… that’s, not going down the wrong pipe.”

A soldier who noticed something stealthily raised his body, but it was already too late.

“Uheok, euk, ueooeoeoeok!!!”

Jedin was continually spewing out coughs mixed with blood.

Then, as if crushed by something heavy, his waist folded in half.

[And apostasy is not permitted without any exceptions.]

Eoeoeoeok…

Now even his groans did not come out as sounds.

Jedin merely trembled violently at the punishment handed down by the god he had served.

[Instead, I permit laying down the responsibility of life.]

***

At that time, Bagnus heard unbelievable words from the existence before his eyes.

“I, I was old and feeble and could not hear your words. Please, just once more…”

Bearing Responsibility.

A god consisting half of white armor and half of a pure white shape, as if a person was split vertically.

The fact that he was alive was surprising, but the words he brought out were even more surprising.

However, the admiration of a mortal brought no sentiment whatsoever.

Bearing Responsibility looked around the shelter while brilliantly shining a platinum halo denoting the Armed Church.

[No, you merely heard and feigned ignorance. You simply turned a blind eye because you wanted to avoid responsibility.]

Then suddenly, he firmly shouted while clenching his right hand.

[The god who makes stars needs an ally. He is the sole opportunity who can lead this fight to victory. Although the god who makes stars needs a helper, an ally to be with him.]

“Th-those words are true, but.”

[Regrettably, my power is insufficient to be with him.]

The people who noticed something was strange took a step back one by one.

Only Bagnus petitioned to turn the god’s mind around.

“O Bearing Responsibility. We are still…!”

[Your lives will be completed inside me, not here.]

The blazing platinum flames calmly declared.

[Live inside me. Since the Black Sun has already paid attention to this place, it would be better to live inside me. I shall guide you to the light of victory.]