Chapter 142: Harvest (2)

<Regular Meeting>.

A skill that temporarily summons designated targets to a predetermined meeting room.

It was also a skill for holding the periodic executive meetings of the cult.

It had been a long time since the cooldown of the <Regular Meeting> skill came back, and there were many things to report in the game.

That’s why I decided to use the <Regular Meeting> skill.

It was the first regular meeting since Peter and Daniel became apostles.

-“Daniel, I heard you became an apostle. Congratulations.”

The first thing that came up after the meeting started was congratulating Daniel on his selection as an apostle.

Maybe it was because the news of the new apostle had already spread throughout the cult.

Roan was quick to offer his congratulations to Daniel as soon as he saw him.

Perhaps it was because everyone knew Daniel’s fearsome nickname, the Silent Butcher, that all the executives who attended the meeting nodded in agreement.

Of course, I agreed too.

Daniel was an amazing character who didn’t fall behind any other executive in both faith and combat ability.

“The problem is that there’s a boss that looks hard to catch even with such a character…”

The image of the boss I faced last time came to my mind as I looked at the characters.

An unidentified mage who freely moved through space and used magic.

He was the culprit who made me use [Contract of Regression], and also the one who had a great impact on this meeting.

I had to select Peter as an apostle to stop him from defeating Eutenea.

“We’ll have to be careful not to let the apostles meet him for a while.”

The most important reason for this meeting was also because of [Contract of Regression] that I used to revive Eutenea.

It was to inform the executives who attended the meeting about the penalty imposed by using [Contract of Regression].

I had to announce the penalty that I had to bear for 30 days, and adjust the activity plan accordingly.

Of course, there was also a meaning of warning about the new boss character.

As I was thinking about various things while looking at the meeting room, I saw Estasia do something unexpected while greeting others.

-“I’ll give you a special gift for becoming an apostle.”

She got up from her seat in the middle of the conversation and went over to Peter, who was sitting calmly, and hit him on the head.

And then she said she would give Peter a gift.

I looked at Estasia, who was hugging a [demon doll], with a puzzled face.

The Estasia I knew was not the type to give gifts to others.

She was the angel who ate a whole basket of strawberries by herself in front of Aronia.

I couldn’t easily imagine that Estasia would give something to someone else.

-“I’ll invite you to the harvest festival.”

“Well, that’s it.”

As expected, it was not much different from what I thought.

The gift Estasia was talking about was an event called the harvest festival.

Most of the events that took place in the branch were handled by the bishop in charge of the Catterun branch.

It was fair to say that Estasia had nothing to do with them.

I looked at Estasia, who was confidently inviting the executives, with a smile.

“But still… isn’t it nice for the characters to get together once in a while, even if it’s not a meeting?”

I thought it would be fun to hang out with other executives.

If I used Uto, I could travel quickly to the Catterun branch.

It wasn’t bad to refresh my mood that had been shaken by Eutenea’s death.

Besides, there were many people among the cult’s executives who didn’t have a proper acquaintance yet.

Inviting them to the event was not a bad idea.

If it weren’t for Estasia’s last remark.

-“By the way, you can bring Cuebaerg too.”

-“?”

A word that Estasia uttered while shrugging her shoulders as she looked around at the other executives.

As I heard that word, countless questions flashed through my mind.

The image of Cuebaerg joining the festive atmosphere devoured the festival in my head.

I couldn’t understand why she said that and reached a situation where I couldn’t understand.

“What is she inviting him for?”

I muttered out loud, thinking of the giant rice cake.

[Abyssal Demon: Cuebaerg].

Now that he had shed his skin into a rice cake-like appearance, he was roaming the sea.

The giant rice cake that had become a marine creature floated in the sea as big as a whale, swallowing up all the fish he saw.

Although his size was much smaller than his heyday, it was still not something to laugh at.

“Is that a festival for him too?”

I imagined the giant rice cake standing next to the cult’s branch in my head.

No matter how I thought about it, it seemed hard to fill his stomach with human food.

It would be lucky if he didn’t eat people, let alone grab food.

The executives also had question marks over their heads and pondered.

Maybe it was because they couldn’t stand the frozen atmosphere of the meeting room.

Roan, who had been watching him, quickly tried to sort out the situation.

-“We have received your invitation to the harvest festival. We will consider whether to attend or not, and now let’s talk about the main topic of today’s meeting.”

Fortunately, thanks to Roan’s intervention, Estasia’s strange conversation didn’t last long.

It was Roan’s skillfulness that shone, who attended more meetings than anyone else.

Of course, there were other issues to discuss in the cult besides the harvest festival.

The most prominent one was the new boss that appeared.

-“Arien Crost. The main character of this incident…”

-“By the trust of the great one, some guidelines have been given to the cult…”

-“For the time being, we will reduce the external activities of the cult…”

The problem that happened to Eutenea and the emergence of a new formidable enemy.

And the penalty that the cult had to bear because of [Contract of Regression].

Various topics kept pouring out of Roan’s mouth.

Of course, the most important thing was to reduce the activities of the cult.

This was what I ordered Eutenea to avoid contact with the heroes.

-“Above all, please be careful not to confront the heroes.”

-“If you have to contact them, try to escape as quickly as possible…”

Avoiding contact with the heroes.

That was the way to cope with the penalty of ‘not interfering with the heroes’.

According to the penalty, for a while, I was likely to be blocked from sight even without special patterns like <Sanctuary Proclamation>.

So I wanted to reduce the scope of the cult’s activities and prevent meeting with the bosses called heroes.

For a while, the total amount of karma I acquired would decrease, but one month in game time was not a long time for me.

-“Is there anything else you are curious about?”

That’s how the meeting proceeded quickly under Roan’s leadership.

Many things were delivered unilaterally, and no one objected to Roan’s words.

It was the same for the additional items that Roan added.

Estasia dozed off for a while during the meeting, but as soon as Peter took away [demon doll], she woke up and snatched it back.

-“That’s it for this meeting.”

The regular meeting that took place after a long time ended quickly.

As Roan declared the end of the meeting after talking about all the items, Estasia, who held onto the doll, yawned.

After that, they just chatted with each other.

Of course, since <Regular Meeting> skill had a duration limit, they would all go back to normal if left alone.

“I’m sleepy. Should I go to bed?”

I put down my smartphone after watching the meeting until the end.

I felt sleepy after staring blankly at the meeting for a long time.

I thought I could understand Estasia’s feelings a little bit.

Yawn.

I suppressed a yawn that burst out of my mouth and went to bed.

I lay down there right away.

Sleep poured out of my tightly closed eyelids.

***

The east of the empire.

There is a blue sea there.

There was a huge creature swimming in the sea.

Its name was Cuebaerg, a giant creature that floated in the sea with a round shape.

He used to be one of the lords who ruled the abyss, but now he was nothing more than a marine animal.

Of course, his size was enough to disrupt the surrounding ecosystem.

-“…”

Bobbing. Bobbing.

Cuebaerg’s body swayed along with the waves.

But soon he returned to normal and stared at the deep sea.

He saw the fish moving diligently under the blue surface.

The schools of fish were swimming against the sea following their leader.

Cuebaerg gazed blankly at the fish and then opened his mouth wide.

-Gwooooooo.

As soon as Cuebaerg’s huge mouth opened, a massive amount of seawater rushed into his mouth.

The fish swimming in the sea were no exception.

They couldn’t resist the huge current and were sucked into Cuebaerg’s mouth in an instant.

Crunch.

Cuebaerg closed his mouth after sucking in countless fish and filling it with seawater.

He just had to open his mouth and the prey would come in by themselves.

This was the secret of how Cuebaerg quickly grew his size in the sea.

-“This time, I didn’t catch as many as I thought.”

Cuebaerg swallowed the fish and spat out a jet of water into the sky.

A huge fountain sprang up and a rainbow rose in the sky.

He spat out the unnecessary seawater, leaving only the fish in his mouth.

This way, he only had pure meat in his mouth.

Sometimes trash or seaweed came in, but he spat them out diligently.

He was a fervent carnivore.

-“Ahem…”

As Cuebaerg enjoyed his leisurely meal, he felt a huge magic from the sky.

Crackle. Crackle.

A huge thundercloud rose in the sky, and black lightning wrapped around it.

The thundercloud that Cuebaerg saw was clearly that of a familiar friend.

Evan Alemier.

It was the energy of the second apostle of his master.

He seemed to be trying to fall on top of him, and Cuebaerg wondered if he should welcome him for a moment.

It was quite stinging when lightning fell on his head.

-“Long time no see, Evan.”

But soon he put aside such worries and took Evan’s lightning on his head.

Boom!

The dark red lightning burst out and struck Cuebaerg’s head.

And below that, Evan’s figure appeared, wrapped in lightning.

Crackle. Crackle.

Evan scattered the black lightning around his body and greeted Cuebaerg.

“Nice to see you again, Cuebaerg.”

-“Do I look bigger?”

“Definitely. I’d believe it if you said you were an island now.”

Evan sat on top of Cuebaerg and stroked his smooth surface with his finger as he spoke.

He was right.

He was now big enough to compare with a mediocre rock, let alone an island.

Although he wasn’t as powerful as he used to be, he had regained a considerable level of strength by now.

Thanks to the nature of the sea, which had many creatures and was similar to the abyss, he had received a lot of help.

Cuebaerg caught a squid and threw it to him as a gift, and asked Evan who sat on his head.

-“What brings you here this time? Isn’t it time to stop protecting me?”

He used to be protected by Evan because he had lost a lot of power, but now that time was completely over.

Evan nodded his head and agreed with Cuebaerg’s question.

“That’s true. I came here to tell you two pieces of news.”

-“Two pieces of news?”

“The first is what he said himself. Be careful not to meet the heroes.”

Heroes.

That word echoed in Cuebaerg’s mind as he recalled the crusaders of the holy land he had met before.

They were a troublesome opponent for him, each wielding a special weapon.

And the core power of those crusaders were the ones called heroes.

Cuebaerg spat out the seawater that remained in his mouth, remembering the nightmare of the past.

-“I don’t think I’ll meet them on the sea, but… I’ll be careful as much as possible.”

“Right. It’s better to be careful. One of the apostles has already been defeated.”

-“An apostle was defeated?”

“Thanks to his intervention, she’s fine now.”

It was clear that they were a formidable enemy if they could even defeat an apostle.

It was best to avoid them as much as possible.

Cuebaerg’s power was still lacking, after all.

He needed time.

Time to devour countless lives and dominate the entire sea.

“And there’s another thing…”

-“What’s the other thing?”

Evan, who had brought up the warning about the heroes, hesitated to mention the next thing.

Cuebaerg urged him to tell him the next thing, guessing that it would be a serious matter, considering the importance of the previous one.

Under Cuebaerg’s constant pressure, Evan opened his mouth with an awkward expression.

“I think this is a stupid question, but do you have any plans to attend the harvest festival?”

-“…?”

Cuebaerg tilted his head.

Evan’s body also shook on top of Cuebaerg’s head.

Evan tried to balance himself on Cuebaerg’s swaying head and muttered with a displeased face.

“I guess I asked for nothing…”