The Outer God Needs Warmth

The next day.

Brrrrr.

Hyungkesuni, who came to visit early in the morning, unraveled the bandages and checked the wounds.

After examining my hands and knees, Hyungkesuni let out a deep sigh and took out a red medicine bottle from a small bag behind her, applying it only to my knee.

I thought it was red medicine, but the actual liquid was transparent.

A squishy liquid covered the area, and it didn’t take long for the scabs to slowly dissolve. It stung quite a bit as my skin slowly healed.

“It stings and itches.”

“Hang in there. It feels that way because the wound is healing.”

As she said this, she cut a fresh, white bandage instead of the slightly yellowed one I had from yesterday and wrapped it around my hand.

Can’t I just apply what I put on my knee to my hand?

But there seemed to be no intention of that.

I wasn’t sure, but it was almost time to go for blessings, so I entrusted my clothes to Joanna.

She gave me gloves, which were unusual. Is she trying to cover the wounds? If that’s the case, she could just give me medicine.

I calmly thought about the reason. My knee and my hand. Is there a difference?

The visibility?

But if she’s covering me with clothes, wouldn’t it be better to hide my knee rather than my hand? I could just wear a long skirt. So, there must be another reason for not treating the wounds.

Although my head doesn’t work that well, I can still think, so I pondered.

She differentiated them.

She’s planning to check the differences.

In that case, the difference in the wounds. Is she trying to assess the recovery rate? Wouldn’t a night’s rest be enough for that?

Woooosh, and she takes away my warmth, giving blessings.

Back when I first arrived in this world…

There was an incident where half of my head got blown off. I healed from that.

So, she must be checking if I can recover by consuming warmth. So that’s it?

Indeed, I showed powerful regeneration back then, but it’s odd that I’m healing so slowly now.

No, to be honest, my HP is slowly restoring automatically, and since there’s no hurry, I’ve just let natural healing take its course. Even if there’s pain, it doesn’t connect with suffering.

Even if it stings and itches, it means that I don’t feel the impulse to resolve it. For example, even if a game character is inflicted with a burn status ailment, it’s not like I actually feel itchy, right? If there’s no significant impairment in special functions and it heals on its own if left alone, then even more so.

So, if I treat my wounds when I consume warmth, that would be great.

I know how to do it.

It’s probably the exact same method as when I made clothes.

Having made that decision, I waited for Hieronymus.

As expected, when the time came, Hieronymus came to fetch me and took me to a secluded place first. There were heretics captured from a distant land.

Which means today I’m bestowing blessings on those who have succeeded in Hieronymus’s mission.

In front of me, there were three people.

Two men wrapped in restraints and one woman.

So, I quickly drained warmth from them. Indeed, there’s much more warmth on this side compared to the amount of light. The two men are from the Kingdom of Cogni in the northeast.

One is a warrior.

He’s a man who lived in a city overlooking the Skard Rock Desert, located in the southwest of the Kingdom of Cogni. He was born in Cogni and lived as a mercenary following his cousin, then returned to his hometown to settle down as he got older.

However, upon returning, his hometown was filled with a strange heat. It was mostly occupied by the Future Hope Church. He had come from an area where the Future Hope Church had no influence. So, he soon noticed the oddity of his hometown due to the cult religion.

Every dawn, they pray to a God with a strange name, and in a village that hardly has anything, they give what little they have to strangers that come from somewhere.

And those that refuse are pelted with stones in the center of the village, labeled as heretics.

He returned to his village and tried to stop that, but unfortunately, while he was a strong warrior, he wasn’t a superhuman. That’s the story of this man.

Next is the other man. He’s a middle-aged guy, closer to being an old man. And a regular guy? No, it’s a bit ambiguous to call him a regular guy.

He has a bit of history.

Originally, he was a Level 5 civil servant in a place called Yeongyang Church Nation. But he changed his allegiance. His rank dropped significantly, but he endured it and moved to the Kingdom of Cogni. He must have come from the church nation but even switched to the religion of Seongsin Church.

It’s quite rare to abandon one’s original faith, which is interesting.

Anyway, not long after that, the Ansellus Kingdom invaded Yeongyang Church Nation. Not the Kingdom of Cogni, but the Ansellus Kingdom. However, I know that the information he provided when he switched sides was likely helpful.

Because Yeongyang Church Nation was located in a jungle to the west based on the Kingdom of Cogni.

The Ansellus Kingdom is to the south of the Kingdom of Cogni.

So, for the Ansellus Kingdom to invade a nation called Yeongyang Church Nation, they would have to go through their own territory.

It’s strange.

Especially for someone like me who knows about the Imjin War.

Thus, the Ansellus Kingdom destroyed Yeongyang Church Nation. And surprisingly, the armies of the Ansellus Kingdom returned to their homeland without any incident.

At that time, the man in the Kingdom of Cogni was already drinking and spouting nonsense about how great it was. I agree. Because Yeongyang Church Nation had gathered children to train them brutally to raise powerful warriors.

When I say brutal training, I mean that there were so many casualties it seemed cruel.

He lost his children to Yeongyang Church Nation. Twice. So, he fled with his devastated wife.

Unfortunately, his wife died during the escape.

Anyway, that was about twenty years ago. After that, he lived in the Kingdom of Cogni until he was suddenly kidnapped and brought here.

I wonder why they would go through the trouble of kidnapping him for the Future Hope Church? If I had to choose a possibility, it would be that he believes in the religion of Seongsin Church?

But the relationship between Ansellus and Cogni was vaguely visible. He has good information.

Finally, the woman from whom I drained warmth is a priestess of Seongsin Church. It’s not strange for her to be captured since she was fighting against the Future Hope Church in a city where the Future Hope Church was expanding.

Interestingly, she can use divine power, a special force. It’s said that the more you believe in the God, the more light-based powers you can utilize.

Even if I do what she used to do, divine power doesn’t come out from my hands. In other words, it seems there must be a subject that gives the power, right?

Hee hee hee.

So, there is a God.

Hyungkesuni called me an Outsider, but honestly speaking, I’m more of a nearby monster.

Hmm. Let’s think more about this later. My feelings might get heated right now.

Alright!

It seems that Seongsin Church is predominantly believed in the countries in the east. Excluding the Kingdom of Cogni and the Ansellus Kingdom, there are many small kingdoms, and the main religion of the eastern countries is Seongsin Church. It has spread so widely that one might even consider it a universal religion.

The enemy of a religion is another religion.

Looking at how Hieronymus usually sends people mainly to the east, perhaps Seongsin Church is obstructing the expansion of the Future Hope Church?

It’s complicated here too.

Alternatively, it’s not impossible that Seongsin Church itself is Hieronymus’s enemy, but if that were the case, I don’t think he would have mentioned nobles like “Crown Prince” when we first met.

He’d likely have asked for help in killing a rival God or something similar.

The line seems to connect, but not quite.

It feels like I can see Hieronymus’s inner thoughts, but there’s still not enough information.

However, the leader of this Future Hope Church will bring about many well-informed offerings going forward. I can slowly piece everything together.

For now, I thought my body had returned to normal before sucking in the dark purple smoke I had extracted to drain warmth. And indeed, my body returned to normal. My slightly aching palm was no longer hurting.

Having successfully completed my regeneration, I headed to a large underground space with Hieronymus where the altar was.

And there, I bestowed blessings on the three people.

The will of the great God.

Brrrrrr, it’s official, and after writing Hieronymus’s intention in parentheses, I award the one who completed the mission.

One person looks fine, while the other two are missing one limb each.

But as I bestowed my blessing, all their hair turned purple, and one person’s skin turned white while the other two’s skin turned blue.

Of course, all their other wounds vanished.

Seeing this multiple times, Hieronymus commanded them to check their received blessings. One of them took out a purple-tinged liquid from his hand.

He pointed at it, shouting that he received a great blessing. Hieronymus skillfully used words to enrapture the people below.

According to the will of the God, those who receive blessings can share in the miracles of God.

He skillfully trembles people’s hearts with his words.

This is interesting.

Though he keeps saying the same thing, how can he use such a variety of words and sentences? Rather than being inherently eloquent, there are signs of having studied.

I don’t think many individuals would receive such education in a world close to the modern era.

I feel like I’m gradually getting closer to his true identity, but I can’t connect the dots.

Is it due to a lack of intelligence?

There’s also a lack of information, but it’s truly frustrating.

After preaching the doctrine as always and wrapping up the conversation, Hieronymus left with me, leaving the cheering congregation behind.

Now it’s time to head back up from the underground.

The corridor isn’t straight, and I have to turn several times, but I’ve memorized the path now.

It’s fascinating that the paths are paved in curves instead of straight lines, making it hard to figure out the way. While it makes it easier for newcomers to get lost, it must have been tough to create.

As I passed through the winding corridors and came up, there was a large building.

Though it was constructed using the gathered information from the blessed individuals, this building has a specific shape. It’s arranged in a circular manner, based on the step pyramids located underground.

It’s obvious.

If needed, it could highly likely be used to sacrifice the people here or something similar.

If I could find that out, I could uncover the technique used to summon me.

Unfortunately, most of the blessed individuals are one-time laborers. On the contrary, the offerings brought from outside tend to possess greater knowledge.

Both sides have information to glean.

Sadly, I don’t know anyone. No.

I have one person.

One. There’s someone. Though I don’t know its significance, there’s someone I’ve seen before.

The old man I just drained warmth from.

Oh, how strange.

This is the sacred script that was used in Yeongyang Church Nation.

Many pieces of information flash through my mind.

Yeongyang Church Nation. Spiritual leader. Cult religion’s leader. Hunting Gods. Gods and humans. Destroyed by the Ansellus Kingdom.

Aha.

I see.

Hieronymus is a survivor of Yeongyang Church Nation. And indeed a person of very high status.

I’ve found where I need to go in order to seek the technique that can summon me.

I update my objectives.

The grand objective remains the same: to find the technique capable of summoning me into this world.

However, the smaller objective can move on from seeking trails.

Next goal.

Exploration of the fallen Yeongyang Church Nation.

Let’s proceed slowly.

There’s still plenty of time.

With a smile, I returned to my room.

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