Chapter 57
A hollow laugh escaped me before I knew it.
The hints had been sufficient.
No matter how many gifts Dominic, who ran a small clinic in Mornveil, had received from his patients, it was strange for him to possess wealth far exceeding his known means.
Unless, of course, he was receiving support from some cult.
The abilities he had displayed before me were also far from ordinary.
Even Edel had expressed it openly.
’Everyone in Mornveil has been treated by Dr. Dominic. Every single person, without exception.’
’Because the Doctor called them. To his clinic.’
It was the ’Call’ of the Void.
I closed my eyes for a moment as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over me.
Edel’s laughter echoed through the underground cavern.
I barely managed to suppress the vertigo and opened my eyes.
Edel smiled beautifully. It was a gaze like someone looking at prey they had already captured.
Under that greedy stare, I scrutinized her thoroughly.
The revealing nature of her clothes was convenient at times like this.
As expected, there were no deformations in her body.
Some inconspicuous part might have been altered, but that alone wouldn’t allow her to wield this much power.
It was certain she hadn’t contracted with Dominic.
’He wouldn’t have liked that.’
Dominic had cast himself in the role of ’Mornveil’s psychiatrist.’
He likely would have rejected being revered as a god.
If so, the current situation might have arisen because Dominic had brainwashed all the citizens of Mornveil.
1. All of Mornveil is under Dominic’s influence.
2. Edel’s cult worships Dominic as a god.
3. Call of the Void system judged all of Mornveil as a cult.
It started to make sense.
It was because the world of Call of the Void was rendering judgments that were infinitely favorable to Dominic.
There was a high possibility that the system’s erratic behavior was also Dominic’s fault.
Possessing such immense power, it was plausible that his desire to recover his memories was influencing the system.
’That’s why it kept presenting me with strange options.’
Given how persistently the options were forced upon me, if I had joined the cult and performed the summoning ritual, it probably would have helped Dominic recover his memories.
However, even after grasping the general situation, an unresolved problem remained.
How did Dominic end up trapped in Call of the Void and lose his memories?
If he truly possessed a status befitting a delusional title like Lord of All, he shouldn’t have been swayed by a summoning ritual performed by a mere trial NPC.
It was an incomprehensible situation.
I even hypothesized that the descriptions within Call of the Void were merely grandiose and that he actually lacked significant power.
But the moment I thought of the stewards, that hypothesis vanished.
’There is one last assumption.’
It was the one I least wanted to believe, even as I thought of it.
Yet, it was a suspicion that had been lodged in my mind from the moment I realized Dominic was the God of the Void.
"It’s not too late, Little Lamb."
I paused my thoughts.
Edel beckoned to me.
"Join me in the ritual for Him."
She tried to tempt me, as if that were the only path to true peace and salvation.
She looked frustrated, as if she couldn’t understand why I didn’t recognize this happiness.
"I want the Little Lamb to be happy."
But the gaze attempting to persuade me was empty.
Ever since my conversation with Dominic, her eyes had remained unfocused and hazy.
Looking at the dazed Edel, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
The idea that Edel’s easy trust in me and her becoming my ally might have been entirely due to Call of the Void’s system.
It felt unpleasant.
Perhaps it was because I remembered the time I spent with Edel in the game.
The happy ending I had wanted to reach with her didn’t look like this.
Of course, back then, we were also doing the crazy thing of summoning the strongest Outer God.
But at least in the game, Edel...
She wasn’t a being moved by the system or someone else’s whims.
She had acted passionately for her own desires.
It was ironic that the Edel I met in the reality of the trial felt more like a manufactured existence than the Edel who moved within the developer’s pixel game.
"Roasted Chestut-nim, do I look hideous?"
"Thank goodness... If Roasted Chestnut-nim says I’m pretty, then it’s okay!"
The words Edel had said to me in the game kept coming back to me.
"I looked strange, so I was beaten a lot since I was young. That’s why I wanted power. So that no one could treat me carelessly."
"If we contract with the strongest Outer God, no being will be able to harm us. We’ll be truly free!"
Once I left this place alone.
The Edel remaining in the trial would continue to live the same life.
Worshipping Dominic as a god, waiting for a freedom that could never be achieved.
"Only Roasted Chustnut-nim promised me freedom."
It was a meaningless promise.
The Edel here didn’t even remember it.
"Little Lamb."
Edel called me in a yearning voice.
I slowly parted my lips.
And I called the NPC by the name she didn’t use for me.
"Edel."
Only after calling her did I realize I was addressing her just as I had when playing the game in the past.
But it probably didn’t matter what I called her.
Whether I used honorifics or just her name, it wouldn’t be important to the current Edel.
The ritual could no longer be stopped.
Clearing via the Journalist route had become impossible.
The contingency plan I had prepared in case escaping with the hologram badge was difficult had vanished.
But that didn’t mean there were no other ways.
"I wish to join the cult."
Edel’s eves widened.
Her lips parted in a small ’o’ before she beamed, like a flower bud bursting into bloom.
Jumping down from the altar, Edel ran to me and hugged me tightly.
A rich scent of flowers enveloped me.
"I knew the Little Lamb would come! I’m so happy!"
[You have joined the ’Apostles of the Void’! All evidence collected as a journalist is destroyed.]
[You have become a general believer.]
A small, white hand cupped my cheek.
Edel looked up at me desperately and asked.
"The Little Lamb is the true apostle meant to serve Him. You’ll perform the ritual with me, right?"
"Gladly."
[You have become the 13th Apostle.]
If my final assumption was correct, there was still a way to clear this with the True Ending.
It wasn’t for Edel.
It was just... preparing a measure just in case.
I wrapped my hand around Edel’s and replied.
"Edel. In today’s ritual, please offer me as the sacrifice."
"Ah..!"
Edel let out a gasp of emotion.
She was even tearing up at my devotion.
I smiled at Edel.
"Let’s perform the greatest ritual together."
"Thump, thump, aaaah-!"
"Thump, thump, aaaah~!"
The sound was rhythmic.
People stomped their feet in time with the beating of a large drum, and then everyone chanted in unison.
As if they had become one.
As the sound repeated, a surging excitement and vitality boiled through my entire body.
Honestly it was kind of tiring.
It was to release even a bit of the heat building up inside me.
The basement where the cults ritual took place was so vast and deep it was hard to believe it was beneath a building.
Hundreds of lives had already been taken outside, but the apostles were not satisfied with that alone.
The most faithful among the believers were selected and brought underground.
To be used as sacrifices for the main ritual.
The believers were all dressed in pure white.
The clothes were designed to be long, covering the entire body.
Only the apostles wore revealing designs, and fortunately, as the one to be sacrificed, I was given relatively decent clothing.
Sitting atop the marble altar, I could look down upon everything happening below.
At my feet, Edel slit the throat of a sacrifice.
A fountain of blood erupted, splashing all over me.
It was when she killed the sixth believer.
"Roasted Chestnut!" Finally, Dominic appeared.
While everything around was stained with blood, Dominic alone was clean.
He strode toward the altar.
Edel’s face lit up upon seeing Dominic, but she couldn’t approach him.
She only retreated a distance, as if fleeing.
"What is the meaning of this? I returned after rescuing those meant to be sacrifices, only to find Roasted Chestnut had become a sacrifice himself."
Shocked by my appearance, Dominic looked around for something to wipe me with.
But there was no such thing.
I watched silently as he tried to pull out the handkerchief I had used earlier to wipe my cold sweat, and then I asked.
"Dr. Dominic."
"Yes, Mr. Roasted Chestnut?"
"What kind of being are you?"
Dominic paused and looked down at me.
With the candles lighting the basement behind him, his face was in shadow.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said."
"Roasted Chestnut..."
Dominic sighed and turned his head aside.
It was a gentlemanly attitude, attempting not to show an emotional reaction to me.
"Have you too been tainted by Miss Edel’s nonsense?"
Muttering like a lament, he met my eyes again and spoke.
"It is true that I am a being who does not belong here. However, that does not mean I believe the clown-like role Miss Edel claims is mine."
"Think about it, Roasted Chestnut. If I were truly the Lord of All..."
A glint appeared in Dominic’s eyes.
His voice twisted eerily.
"Would I recover my existence based on a few words sputtered by things like those?"
My breath hitched at the voice that felt like it was crushing my brain.
Belatedly, I checked my surroundings.
All the believers were kneeling on the floor, trembling. I was the only one in a relatively normal state.
I answered Dominic slowly.
"You are right, Dr. Dominic."
At that, Dominic’s gaze returned to normal. He seemed greatly relieved.
"I believed that you, Roasted Chestnut, would make a rational judgment."
However, when I still didn’t descend from the altar, Dominic finally looked around.
Facing the barbaric scene created by the cultists, he frowned slightly.
"This... I suppose I bear some responsibility for this as well."
Dominic explained for my sake.
"When I first opened my eyes, I tried to determine what kind of place this was."
He had called every NPC in Mornveil to his clinic to examine them one by one.
But no one knew that Dominic was an outsider.
Dominic had revealed his heterogeneity to one person as a test, and that person was Edel.
That was the reason Edel had come to revere Dominic as the God of the Void.
Having finished his story, Dominic spoke with an apologetic face.
"It seems Miss Edel used my name to incite people. I will speak with her so that she does not do so again."
"There’s no need for that."
I stepped down from the altar.
As if waiting, the option window popped up.
[Perform the glorious ritual as the 13th Apostle.]
- Start the ritual for the God of the Void!
- Start the ritual for the God of the Void!
- Start the ritual for the God of the Void!
- Start the ritual for the God of the Void!
That damn ritual.
It seemed that performing this would actually help Dominic recover his memories.
In the midst of this, the neat and tidy font of the system window was almost absurd.
But I would not choose anything.
If my final assumption was correct, I wouldn’t have to choose.
My eyes felt hot....
I felt a force attempting to restrict my actions.
But it could not bind me.
The system window, having received no selection, began to break.
[Start the ritual?Start the ritual!Start the ritual??Start the ritual!FortheGodofthe Void!Starttheritual!RitualforVoid!God!Void!Starttheritual.Start.Start?Do!Start?Start??Start???Don’t start!]
I felt that if I used ’Escape’ now, I could get out.
But I didn’t grip the hologram badge.
I looked up at Dominic and made a request.
"Could you tell Edel to hand over the position of cult leader? To me."
Blinking slowly for a moment, Dominic asked in a lowered voice.
"Is this also part of your reporting? It’s dangerous for the sake of gathering evidence. Of course, I will keep you safe, Roasted Chestnut, but these people can be quite bothersome."
"It’s fine, so please do it."
"Very well."
Showing his disapproval, Dominic turned to Edel.
Usually, his actions were habitually imbued with consideration for a lady.
Now that the shell he had been mimicking was gone, his eyes looked as if he were staring at an insect.
"Miss Edel."
Edel trembled slightly as she looked up at Dominic.
"I want Roasted Chestnut to be the cult leader."
"If the Doctor wishes it, anything can be achieved."
Before Edel could even finish her sentence, the system window appeared.
[You have become the 1st Apostle leading the Apostles of the Void.]
"Are you satisfied now?"
Dominic asked, turning back to me.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he didn’t bother to hide his dissatisfaction.
Dominic tilted his head slightly and stared at me.
"Dr. Dominic."
"Yes, Roasted Chestnut."
"There is one last thing I want to say."
"Last?"
He reached out his hand to me.
"Are you alright? You look like you need some stability."
I couldn’t take his hand.
’I’m sorry.’
Instead, I said something to Dominic that should not have been said.
"I am the one who summoned you here."