I Became the Apostle of an Evil God Chapter 2

“A new notification? I’ve never seen a notification before.”

While Van tilted his head and read the system message, trying hard to shake off his sleepiness, his roommate, Tish, spoke up hesitantly.

“I see. Oh, come to think of it, Priest Winod was looking for you last night.”

“…Why?”

“W-well. He didn’t tell me the reason, but he asked me to let you know when you woke up. But you know, according to Solan… a p-prophecy seems to have come down.”

Though I don’t know if it’s true. Even at the timidly added remark, Van remained indifferent. It wasn’t that he couldn’t believe a prophecy had come down, but rather that he already knew no prophecy had ever come down at this point in time.

But well… it did seem like the relentless tormenting of Orma had begun recently. When Van nodded with a calm face, Tish lowered his eyebrows as if disappointed. Van comforted Tish by lightly patting his soft brown hair.

“Don’t worry about that kind of thing.”

“T-this time, they’re really not making a fuss over nothing…. Solan said he had the honor of audience with the High Priest when he mentioned that a few days ago.”

“Tish.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you seen Solan since then?”

“No….”

“Then if the High Priest asks to meet you, don’t go and run away.”

“…Huh?”

A hollow honor, a falsely fabricated opportunity, a fine-looking trap called a prophecy.

The High Priest would pick a suitable holy knight, make him mistakenly believe he was the hero who would save the world, and then actually take him away to serve as a gatekeeper of hell. Therefore, in reality, no such thing as a prophecy had ever come down; it was all a fabrication cooked up by the priests.

One day, the priests discovered the harbinger of disaster. The entire world began to burn scorching hot, the days grew longer, and bizarre flowers that altered their shapes at will began to bloom. The priests, recognizing the beginning of the disaster that would someday arrive as recorded in the archives, fell into despair and agony. Because the only being capable of stopping that disaster was Orma—the very one they had personally thrown into hell and left trapped.

Thus, the result of them putting their heads together and scheming was the ‘false prophecy.’

They had to open the gates of hell, go inside, bring Orma out, and convince him to save the world… but even in their own estimation, they knew Orma’s resentment would be immense. There was no way Orma would willingly cooperate, nor did he have any reason to save the world.

Ultimately, the priests lured a mouse to bell the cat under the grand name of ‘God’s Messenger in the Prophecy’ and threw him into hell.

Behind the scenes, they referred to that Messenger of God among themselves as a sacrifice. After all, not a single soul had ever returned alive.

“Why?”

“Hmm, I just have an intuition that we won’t be able to see Solan again. It feels unpleasant, too.”

Van persuaded the disheartened Tish while comforting him. Because in the original game, the name of the final sacrifice offered by the priests was ‘Tish.’

In the game, after the number of Messengers of God… no, sacrifices who died by Orma’s hand like that reached dozens or hundreds, Orma grew annoyed and crawled out of hell on his own accord. Orma, having ascended to the surface, delightfully broke the world with a mind that was just about as unstable as Van’s.

The day when finally no one could help but fear Orma was the final chapter of the game, and at that point, Orma encounters a certain knight—a descendant of the lover who betrayed him.

That was the player, namely Van, the final bastion whom the priests had discovered in the mud and ambitiously prepared.

By now, all knights belonging to the Order were called holy knights, but Van was a being on a completely different level from those ordinary holy knights. A noble and sacred knight capable of using powers from the realm of God, surpassing human strength. He was no different from a sort of seeker the priests had been eagerly waiting for.

So, if everything went according to the original story, the priests would never have thought to throw Van, their final ray of hope, into hell as a ‘Messenger of God,’ but….

“So, Priest Winod looked for me?”

“Yeah. But his expression didn’t look too good, as if he was a bit… angry. Could it be…?”

“It’s fine, don’t worry.”

In the old days, it was passed down that the bloodline of Saint Herna, who had blocked and repelled the demon invasion, was imbued with sacred power, allowing them to use God’s power and blessings, albeit weakly. Van, who was reincarnated as her descendant and the player character in the story, also possessed a power that ordinary humans could never have, but he kept it tightly hidden away after realizing his power wasn’t the kind of type people expected.

That seemed to be gradually getting on the nerves of some priests, including Winod.

They surely felt there was something there, but since there was no prominent performance to match their expectations, they must be growing extremely anxious.

Won’t he get angry and demand that I show what I’m hiding pretty soon?

“Then I’ll head out to train now.”

“Huh? Aren’t you going to visit Priest Winod?”

“…Mm, he’s probably busy right now.”

Van replied in a murmur with a faint smile on his face. It wasn’t a lie.

Solan, who became the sacrifice, would have died as soon as he faced Orma, and Winod would be racking his brains over whom to choose as the next sacrifice.

While Tish was left speechless by his reply, Van changed into the knight order’s training uniform, washed up neatly, and immediately moved his steps toward the training ground. In the meantime, the highly anxious Tish kept restlessly asking this and that, but Van was relaxed and placid.

Only after entering the training ground with a gentle face like calm ripples without any particular change in expression and occupying a corner was he able to let out a faint sigh. Perhaps something had happened while he was asleep, as the system message kept blinking, distracting his mind.

[Month of the Ram, Day 6, 06:31 *You have a new notification!]

It was the first notification Van had seen since reincarnating in this world. The system messages kept popping up as if reminding him not to forget he was born in a game world, and he could encounter all sorts of things like viewing information or receiving minor quests, but a notification was a brand-new type.

After staring at the message for a long time with narrowed eyes, Van finally opened the notification.

“Hmm….”

[The Faith Gauge has been activated! Piety has been unlocked!

*As the Faith Gauge increases, your Faith Level rises, and the Faith Points you can obtain increase. When your Faith Level rises, your stats increase, and you can satisfy the conditions for special skills that can be newly learned. With Faith Points, you can purchase various items in the shop. The influence of God increases in proportion to your piety.

Current Status: Atheist (Infidel) / Piety:

— (Disabled: Unlocked after gaining belief.)

▷ You can view the list of Gods to devote your faith to.

— Serca

— Banan

— Muhwi

— ??? (Locked 52%)

Upon satisfying specific conditions, the God you can serve will be unlocked. However, once your faith is determined, it cannot be changed.]

‘…What on earth is all this.’

Until now, most of what he could see through these system messages were largely insubstantial things.

For example, personal information like this.

[Tish Viol / 19 years old A lower-ranking priest belonging to the Order that believes in Serca, the God of Light and Creation. Timid and cowardly.]

Or light and minor quests.

[Daily Quest: Swordsmanship Training for 1 Hour (0/1) Reward: Strength +2, Agility +1]

Therefore, this kind of thing was entirely new.

Van calmly read through it one by one, grasping the system’s intention.

Up until now, the system messages had been so trivial that even Van had mistaken himself for an extra character, but it seemed he truly was the player character in the game after all.

‘So summarizing it… it means for me to choose a religion?’

A similar ability existed in the original game as well. Once you became an apostle following a specific god, special skills would be unlocked. Even the names of the gods listed here right now were familiar.

‘Serca,’ proudly written at the very top, was the chief god who created this world, Serca of Light and Creation.

It was also the god of the Order Van was currently a part of, but if asked whether Van believed in Serca, that was a no. Taken in by Serca’s temple solely because he was an orphan, he outwardly pretended to believe in Serca, but his inner mind was otherwise.

Well, if asked why, from the very beginning Van believed there was a separate reason why he was reincarnated in this world. And he thought that it was entirely the result of the ‘choice’ he made after defeating Orma.

Hence, Van had no interest in Serca, nor the God of Abundance, Banan, beneath him, nor the God of Destruction, Muhwi… none of them. He merely drew the conclusion that the time he had been waiting and waiting for had finally come.

After thoroughly reading the system message, Van quickly closed the window and quietly began today’s daily quest, the swordsmanship training, alone.

Even though it was still a dim dawn, the outside world where the disaster had begun to arrive was excessively hot, but it was just when he had been training hard for a full hour without playing any tricks. Along with a busy stride, a displeased voice echoed from behind.

“Ahem! Van, you were here.”

“…Priest Winod.”

“Didn’t Tish tell you? That I was looking for you.”

“I did hear, but since it was too early an hour, I intended to visit you in the morning.”

At the flawless remark, Winod clicked his tongue, scanning Van up and down.

He was drenched in sweat, proving he had trained diligently with all his might, but his beauty had not faded one bit.

His silver hair, which exuded a noble, sacred, yet mysterious atmosphere, swayed smoothly along the gentle wind. His long eyelashes blinked slowly as if hiding a treasure, and catching his eyes—clear and refreshing like the sky beneath them—was enough to take one’s breath away.

With a fairly tall height and slender physique, fine muscles clung firmly to him as if boasting the results of his past training, so it was not incomprehensible that artists who happened to visit the temple looked at Van and sought to make him the source of their artistic inspiration.

If those debating over Van’s identity were told that he was a noble holy knight serving God, half of them would easily accept it, while the other half would ask back if he wasn’t the incarnation of Banan, the God of Love and Abundance. However, it would be troublesome to mistakenly assume that his inner thoughts were as compliant as the corners of his eyes, which were slightly lowered as if in submission, and his flawless, pure white skin.

Winod tried hard to swallow his anger and opened his mouth toward Van, who was boasting his diligence alone in the empty training ground.

He wanted to fabricate tenderness as much as possible, but his patience had now reached its limit.

“…Van, do not hide it any longer and speak without falsehood before the name of God.”

“Hide what?”

“Are you not clearly the apostle sent by Serca!”

‘Is this a turning point? Meaning if I’m going to choose Serca, choose him now?’ This level was less of a choice and more like pressure, coercion….

“I do not know what you are talking about.”

Van spoke, meeting Winod’s eyes with a placid face without a single change in expression. Winod, with a flushed face, shouted at Van, who played innocent until the end.

“No, then the disaster has arrived and no one can walk around in this weather! Do you think it makes sense that you alone calmly endure the sunlight and train!”

…Why wouldn’t it make sense? Van thought indifferently, opened the water bottle he had placed beside him, drank refreshingly, and replied with a smirk.

“Then I must really be the Messenger of God in the prophecy, just as you say, Priest. Just like ‘Solan.'”