The Outer God Needs Warmth

The next day.

Hyungkeshni came to check on my injuries early in the morning. She unwrapped the bandages from my hands and knees, examined them, and sighed deeply. This time, she pulled out a red vial from the small bag on her back and applied it only to my knees.

At first, I thought it was a "magic red potion," but the liquid itself was transparent.

As the gelatinous liquid covered the wounds, the scabs began to dissolve slowly. The skin beneath healed gradually, though it stung fiercely.

“It stings and itches,” I said.
“Endure it. That’s the sting of healing,” Hyungkeshni replied.

She then cut a fresh white bandage to wrap my hands, unlike the slightly yellow ones she had used the day before.

Wouldn’t it make sense to use the same solution on my hands that she used on my knees?

But there was no indication that she planned to do so.

I didn’t fully understand her reasoning, but soon it was time for the blessing ritual. Joanna helped me get dressed, and this time, she handed me gloves. Was she trying to hide my injuries? If so, wouldn’t simply giving me the healing solution have been easier?

I began to think. My knees and hands—was there a significant difference between them? Could it be because of their visibility?

If that were the case, wouldn’t it be easier to hide my knees with a long skirt? There must be another reason she’s treating my injuries differently.

Even though my mind doesn’t work particularly quickly, I continued to ponder.

She’s creating a distinction.

Perhaps she’s trying to observe some difference between the wounds. Is she trying to measure my recovery rate? If so, wouldn’t a single night of observation suffice?

Consuming warmth and bestowing blessings.

Back when I first arrived in this world, there was an incident where half of my head was blown off. I recovered from that injury.

So, is she trying to confirm whether consuming warmth accelerates my healing? That must be it.

It’s true that my powerful regeneration was evident back then, yet now my recovery is slower. It’s unusual.

Though, to be honest, my HP has been slowly regenerating automatically, and there’s no urgency, so I’ve left it to natural healing. Even if there’s pain, it doesn’t necessarily translate to suffering.

Even if it stings and itches, I don’t feel a compulsive urge to fix it. It’s like a status effect in a video game: a character might have a burn debuff, but it doesn’t mean the player feels the burn. If there’s no critical functional impact and it heals on its own, there’s no reason to worry.

In that case, I can heal wounds while consuming warmth.

I already know how.

The process should be the same as when I create clothes.

With that decision made, I waited for Hieronymus.

As expected, he arrived on time and led me to a secluded area. There, I saw heretics captured from distant lands.

That meant today’s ritual was about blessing those who had completed missions for Hieronymus.

In front of me were three people: two men bound entirely in restraints and one woman.

Without hesitation, I consumed their warmth. As always, the warmth from this group was much greater relative to the size of their lights. The two men were from the northeastern Cogni Kingdom.

One of them was a warrior.

He had lived in a city near the Scard Rocky Desert in the southwestern region of the Cogni Kingdom. Born in Cogni, he had followed his mercenary cousin into the trade, but as he grew older, he returned to his hometown to settle down.

However, the hometown he returned to was filled with a strange fervor. The Future Hope Sect had taken over most of the area. Coming from a region untouched by the sect’s influence, he quickly realized something was wrong.

Every morning, people prayed to a god with an unfamiliar name. The impoverished town gave away what little it had to strangers who appeared out of nowhere.

Those who refused were labeled heretics and stoned to death in the town square.

He had tried to stop this madness but was captured by one of my blessed followers. Unfortunately for him, while he was a strong warrior, he wasn’t a superhuman. That’s his story.

The second man was older, almost elderly. He was an ordinary person—or at least, he seemed ordinary at first glance. His background was more complex.

Originally from the Yongrang Theocracy, he had held a position equivalent to a fifth-grade civil servant. However, he defected. Though his rank dropped significantly, he moved to the Cogni Kingdom and accepted the hardships.

Even more intriguingly, he abandoned his original faith and converted to the Sacred Light Religion.

It’s rare for someone to renounce their faith entirely. Fascinating.

Not long after, the Ansellus Kingdom invaded the Yongrang Theocracy—not Cogni. I suspect the information he provided after defecting helped Ansellus with the invasion.

The Yongrang Theocracy was located in the jungle to the west of Cogni, while Ansellus was south of Cogni.

For Ansellus to invade Yongrang, they would have had to pass through Cogni’s territory.

It’s strange.

Especially for someone like me, who knows about conflicts like the Imjin War, this stands out even more.

In the end, Ansellus destroyed Yongrang. Strangely, the Ansellus army returned to their homeland unscathed. By that time, this man had settled in Cogni and was drinking, spewing bitter remarks about the theocracy. I agree with him—Yongrang’s methods were barbaric. They gathered children for brutal training to create strong warriors.

When I say “brutal,” I mean it killed so many children that it seemed unnecessarily cruel.

This man lost two children to Yongrang’s practices. He eventually fled with his devastated wife.

Unfortunately, his wife didn’t survive the journey.

That was about 20 years ago. Since then, he had been living quietly in Cogni until he was abruptly kidnapped and brought here.

I’m not sure why the Future Hope Sect went out of their way to abduct him. Perhaps it’s because of his connection to the Sacred Light Religion?

Whatever the case, I now see hints of the relationship between Ansellus and Cogni. He possesses useful information.

Lastly, the woman whose warmth I consumed is also a priestess of the Sacred Light Religion. Unlike the other two, it’s not surprising she was captured—she had been actively resisting the sect in one of its expanding cities.

Interestingly, she could wield a unique power known as divine energy. It’s said to be a light-based authority granted by faith in her god.

But even if I mimic her actions, no divine power manifests in my hands. This means the power must originate from a separate entity.

Heh.

So, gods do exist.

Hyungkeshni calls me an Outer God, but honestly, I’m more of a monstrous creature in their eyes.

I’ll save these thoughts for later. Thinking about it now would only stir unnecessary emotions.

Now then.

The Sacred Light Religion seems to dominate the eastern kingdoms, excluding Cogni and Ansellus. There are numerous small kingdoms in the east, and the religion is so widespread that it’s nearly universal there.

The enemy of religion is another religion.

Could it be that Hieronymus is sending people eastward because the Sacred Light Religion hinders the expansion of the Future Hope Sect?

Things are complicated here.

It’s also possible that the Sacred Light Religion itself is Hieronymus’s enemy. But if that were the case, he wouldn’t have spoken so favorably about noble factions like royalty and aristocracy when we first met.

Instead of asking me to help kill another god or something along those lines, he’d surely have phrased it differently.

The pieces seem like they’re connecting, but not quite.

It feels like I’m on the verge of understanding Hieronymus’s true intentions, but there’s still not enough information.

Still, as the leader of the Future Hope Sect, he’s bound to bring in more offerings brimming with information. I can figure it out slowly.

For now, before putting the dark purple mist I had extracted back into my body, I willed my form to return to normal. My body complied, and the faint stinging in my palms disappeared entirely.

Fully healed, I followed Hieronymus to the large underground space where the altar was located.

There, I bestowed blessings upon the three individuals.

The "Will of the Great God."

(And by that, I mean Hieronymus’s will.) According to his interpretation of that "will," we awarded those who had successfully carried out their missions.

One of them was unharmed, but the other two were missing one of their limbs.

After I bestowed my blessings, their hair turned entirely purple. One of them had their skin turn white, while the other two had their skin shift to a blue hue.

Of course, all their other injuries vanished completely.

Having witnessed this process countless times before, Hieronymus ordered the blessed individuals to demonstrate their newfound power. One of them extended a hand, producing a liquid tinged with purple.

Pointing to it, they declared they had received a great blessing. Hieronymus, with his usual skillful rhetoric, whipped the followers below into a fervor.

He preached that, by receiving blessings, they could partake in the miracles of the Great God.@@novelbin@@

With masterfully chosen words, he stirred the hearts of the crowd.

It’s fascinating.

He repeats the same message every time, yet manages to phrase it differently with such diverse vocabulary and sentences. It’s not just natural eloquence; I can see signs of diligent study.

In a world akin to the late medieval period, not many would have access to this level of education.

I feel like I’m inching closer to understanding his identity, but I can’t quite put the pieces together.

Am I simply too unintelligent?

The lack of information plays a part, but it’s still frustrating.

As always, Hieronymus concluded with a sermon on doctrine, leaving the congregation in rapturous cheers. He then slipped away with me, leaving the excited followers behind.

It was time to ascend from the underground.

The corridors weren’t straight; they twisted and turned in various directions. By now, I’d memorized the path.

It’s fascinating that the layout avoids straight lines, making it easy for newcomers to lose their way. It must have been difficult to construct, but the design serves its purpose.

After navigating the winding corridors and climbing upward, we arrived at a large building.

The building, assembled from the knowledge gleaned from blessed individuals, has a distinctive shape. It’s built in a circular formation, centered around the stepped pyramid in the underground space.

Predictable.

It’s likely designed as a failsafe, ready to sacrifice everyone here or something similar if the situation calls for it.

If I could uncover the purpose of this structure, I might learn the technique used to summon me.

For now, most of those receiving blessings are little more than disposable laborers. The captured offerings from the outside tend to be far more knowledgeable.

Both groups offer potential sources of information.

But sadly, no one seems to know anything. Well…

One person.

One person might.

That elderly man whose warmth I consumed earlier.

Huh.

Strange.

That script—it’s the sacred characters used in the Yongrang Theocracy.

A flood of information rushed through my mind.

The Yongrang Theocracy. Spiritual leaders. Cult leaders. God hunting. Gods and humans. Annihilation by the Ansellus Kingdom.

Ah.

I see.

Hieronymus is a survivor of the Yongrang Theocracy. Not just any survivor—someone who held a very high position.

I now know where to search to uncover the summoning technique that brought me here.

I have a new goal.

The overarching objective remains finding a way to ensure I can be summoned back into this world.

But my secondary goal has evolved beyond just searching for traces.

Next target: The ruins of the Yongrang Theocracy.

I’ll proceed slowly. There’s still plenty of time.

Smiling, I returned to my room.