Chapter 256 (3): I Am Superman All Along

“Sorry, I seemed to have come late.”

Wayne apologized, exiting his knight state and spreading his arms. “So, want to hug and celebrate your new life?”

Regina smiled awkwardly. Well, maybe not. Next time for sure!

Her flashback was much happier than Ottilia’s. Born into a wealthy family, she had a twin sister and never wanted for food or other basic needs since childhood. She worked hard toward the goal of becoming the Holy Maiden.

In the process, her aura as a genius made her proud, while her good upbringing kept her from becoming arrogant. She was prideful but respected her opponents, which was a quality she had shown in her fight with Wayne.

Regina resented the church and worried that her sister would suffer the same fate. She also resented the fact that her pursuit of magic had ended prematurely. Although she was dead, she remained defiant. If she had the chance to live again, she would use her talent to prove to the higher-ups how blind they had been.

She was no disposable pawn. She should’ve reached higher than a Holy Maiden.

After bringing back Regina, Wayne gathered the remaining twelve aggrieved spirits to him, looking for their corpses so that he could revive them. For them, he was truly too late—at least twenty years late.

The twelve Holy Maiden candidates’ bodies had long been corrupted by Darkness and Death after years of being buried in the Misty Forest, with nothing remaining. Wayne mumbled regretfully. He signed each of their contracts and saw their past flash through his eyes. Their figures solidified around him one after another.

Sapphire... Liesbet... Elma... Britton...

The twelve Holy Maiden candidates had been dead for years, the most recent being twenty years ago. Time eroded their memory of life, and they manifested as wraiths.

They had persisted for so long partly because of their phoenix blood, but the power of Darkness and Death of the Misty Forest was also crucial. Perhaps it was fate, or perhaps heaven was showing them mercy; they met Wayne and gained the tickets to a new life.

The twelve candidates had lost their bodies, so the

Book of Greed

transformed them into magical creatures. They existed as spirits and were naturally drawn to Darkness and Death. On top of that, they possessed great mastery over fire elements.

Thanks to the book, they had regained the memory they had lost, remembering their names and recovering their beauty from life.

It was a given that they would be beautiful since they were Holy Maiden candidates. The combination of the two seemingly alive beauties and the twelve spirits with their own charms painted quite a spectacular scene, no less than the three knightly swords appearing together.

Senna struggled to recover her jaw. Wayne had demonstrated power beyond what a chosen knight should be capable of, creating fourteen followers with limited materials. Moreover, their existences were completely different from hers.

As expected of her faith, he always revealed something new.

Senna knew that this line of thinking was wrong, that curiosity would breed attraction, which would then lead to corruption. However, she didn’t suppress her admiration—what she was seeing now was worthy of it.

Wayne didn’t look at the beautiful sights around him. The twelve Holy Maiden candidates had brought him numerous skills, and each of them had a great affinity with fire elements. With the same abilities stacking multiple times, a fundamental evolution began, pushing Wayne’s affinity with fire elements to a new height.

With a strange look on his face, he turned around to look at Senna. His eyes blazed with red light, shooting high-temperature beams out.

Heat vision!

Senna, not allowed to fight back, took the hot blast to the face, her beautiful head instantly vaporizing.

“No wonder I could never find my Clark. It turns out that I am Superman all along.” Wayne checked his repertoire of skills. Flight, super hearing, super vision, fire affinity... The newly acquired or enhanced abilities were almost all related to phoenixes.

Fire affinity, especially, could be expanded into several abilities: fire immunity, fire absorption, and energy release. His heat vision was a manifestation of energy release. He could shoot out energy from body parts other than the eyes.

Wayne took a deep breath, suppressing his eagerness to experiment. This wasn’t the time for fun. The priority was to appease the fourteen vengeful spirits.

He looked around, growing increasingly shocked. These girls were each more stunning than the last. Every single one of them could win a beauty pageant.

This was bad. It made him seem like a scoundrel who had saved these girls to start a harem. Why did they have to be so beautiful? Now the misunderstanding would get out of hand. He would never be able to clear his name.

He wiped cold sweat from his forehead as fourteen beautiful ladies circled him, looking at him with curiosity or confusion. Many of them were also looking at him with admiration. He puffed out his chest unconsciously.

“Ladies, are you ready for revenge?”

“...” x14

The beautiful women paused, huddling together and whispering to each other.

“Did you check the contract? It’s so exploitative. We can only get mana from him by obeying him. What if... what if he’s a bad person?”

“He isn’t. Wayne’s not that kind of person.”

“Yeah, I agree. He’s a chosen knight. He can’t be a bad guy.”

“The Pope is also supposed to be good, representing the goddess and the church. But look what happened.”

“Still, he’s the goddess’s chosen...”

“Open your eyes.

Three

goddesses have chosen him!”

“Doesn’t that make him even more amazing?”

“Now that you mention it, he is impressive.”

“I want revenge, so I won’t turn him down. What about you?”

“I miss home...”

After a brief discussion, the Holy Maiden candidates selected two representatives: Ottilia and Regina.

Wayne was speechless. After all that deliberation, they managed to elect the traitors. Nice work, everyone.

He glanced at Ottilia, who gave him a smile that indicated she would take his side and help him win over these women. Although he was touched, he declined her kind offer. He didn’t want to take advantage of these pitiful souls. They should just follow the contracts.

Ottilia’s smile broadened. She turned to her fellow vengeful spirits. As she said, the man was decent, so they should just go for it!

“Um, Master?!”

Regina addressed Wayne as the contract required, feeling like her tongue was twisted. She wouldn’t mind calling a regular chosen knight ‘master’, but she knew Wayne and had fought him before; they had been equals competing for the same goal.

Though she had lost and gotten thoroughly beaten.

“If you don’t like the title, just call me by my name.”

Wayne compromised. Having fourteen female servants calling him ‘master’, especially when they were all so beautiful... Something was bound to go wrong. They should forget that clause. Heaven knew that he had actually come to save people. He didn’t want his intention to... harden one day.

“We discussed it,” Regina said. “We’re grateful for your kindness. If you can help us fulfill our wish, we’re willing to become your vengeful spirits.”

“Who do you want revenge on?”

“The church.”

“That’s too broad. I can’t do it.” Wayne waved at them in denial. Silvia and Veronica were both members of the Church of Nature, and Silvia was even a high reverend.

“Then the Pope.”

“That works...”

“That won’t work, either!” Before Wayne could nod in agreement, Senna interrupted, coming up to him hurriedly and whispering, “The Pope is the church’s highest authority. He can’t die.”

That earned her angry glares from the fourteen ladies.

Senna was unfazed until Wayne glared at her as well. She amended, “At least he has to stay alive while he’s in office. His death will have a significant impact on the church, the Life Alliance, and even the religious landscape of the Chosen Land...”

She preached about the greater good. She wanted nothing but to get the Pope killed, but not now. His status meant that he couldn’t die during his term.

“The Pope cannot die, but Ludwig can,” Senna insisted.

Then she talked about the Pope’s level of power. He had been suppressing his rank and could reach the demigod level at any moment. Only the Nature Knight would be able to kill him. To be frank, fourteen inexperienced girls could do nothing to the Pope even if they all attacked together. They should forget about it and choose another target.

The ladies looked indignant. If they couldn’t get any of what they wanted, what was the point of life? They might as well go back to being dead.

“It’s not entirely impossible...” Wayne looked at the three knightly swords before him, narrowing his eyes. “The Pope cannot die, but Ludwig can. He won’t be the Pope forever. He’ll retire someday.”

The ladies were so overjoyed that they chattered about Wayne’s good looks. He maintained his poker face. They were only stating the truth. They didn’t know how to properly flatter people!

“Don’t celebrate just yet. The Pope has been in office for two hundred years, and he can last another two hundred. Can you wait for that long?” Senna sneered. Although she didn’t know exactly what Wayne had done, she understood part of it. After he reshaped the spirits, he had given them a fair contract out of pity.

What gave them the right? She didn’t get fair treatment!

When she was unhappy, she couldn’t stand seeing others happy. She presented the facts, quieting the spirits with her reasoning.

“I’m willing to become his vengeful spirit. I believe that Wayne will help me fulfill my wish.” Ottilia stepped forward. “It’s been too long. I don’t want to waste more time in this godforsaken place. I’ll be waiting either way. I’d rather wait outside.”

Regina weighed her options. Although revenge was important, her sister’s life mattered more to her. She followed Ottilia in joining Wayne.

Blind conformity. Humans tended to depend on others when they faced difficulties they could not resolve on their own. They would unconsciously give up on thinking and seek the safety of numbers.

With Ottilia and Regina taking the lead, the twelve other ladies followed suit.

Vengeful Spirits +14

Wayne frowned. He glanced at the innocent Ottilia, then at the sneering Senna. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

After some consideration, he decided to follow his heart.

“Since you all trust me this much, I’ll skip the platitudes. We can’t kill the Pope now, but I can help you collect some interest first...”

He looked at all of them. “While the Pope is the mastermind, he wasn’t the one who killed you. Name your killers, and I’ll bring them here.”