Ch.3131. Emil Albieu (4)

“Excellent, Emil.”

[“T-that’s too much praise! O Great One!!!!”]

After commending Emil, who had fallen to his knees sobbing with emotion from meeting me directly and receiving my praise, I returned my consciousness to the divine realm management interface and thought.

I had only considered Emil as a starting point for distributing daggers that would be active in various fields, but I never imagined he would orchestrate such a magnificent revenge drama.

As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this endeavor was to release daggers into the holy city—created by detaching and processing parts of the substance that constitutes me, similar to Rael’s spear—to indirectly expand the influence of the Revenge Cult.

Even those with minor grudges or desire for retribution could gain power through simple rituals or take revenge using the dagger’s power. If the target of revenge was powerful, they could simply invoke my servant to possess their body by offering a sacrifice—a simple but effective method.

But even though I gave him the dagger for this purpose…

Who would have thought his burning desire for revenge would go beyond merely invoking my servant for possession and lead him to ascend as my servant himself?

This pleasant miscalculation ultimately accomplished what I thought impossible: imprinting my existence throughout the holy city without exposing the cult.

As information about the Avatar of Vengeance (spread by Gracchus) circulates, desperate people are increasingly praying to the unnamed God of Revenge—me—as their last hope, like clutching at straws.

Of course, with my evil deity characteristics, I can respond to these prayers without significant faith loss. I bestow various blessings that grant power for revenge or arrange connections with the cult to join the empire collapse plan.

As a result of my actions, people with physical mutations across the empire have begun killing those they hold grudges against. Perhaps now I’m finally acting like a proper evil deity.

Furthermore, as the frequency of personal retribution increases under my guidance, faith is pouring in rapidly, gradually elevating me to a mid-tier deity. Separately, the Roman Empire has essentially become trapped in this cycle of revenge.

Anyone can achieve vengeance simply by praying to me, and with the explosive discontent among the lower classes throughout society, this is a situation I, as the God of Revenge, must welcome with open arms.

Oh, and if you’re wondering whether the slaughter of potential followers and believers—the socially vulnerable who died en masse in the slum incident—was counterproductive, let me assure you: absolutely not.

The slum area sacrificed in this incident was completely intertwined with the Phobos Temple—where fathers were thugs and mothers were madams. It was an area that was practically one with the Phobos Temple, oppressing ordinary citizens.

Each household routinely paid monthly tribute to the Phobos Temple like taxes. Security was handled by Phobos Temple thugs, and they even had specialized institutions for training gangsters.

Even the boys throughout the slums I wiped out dreamed of becoming Phobos Temple thugs after training at these institutions. This symbiotic relationship could only be severed through such violent and extreme methods.

This wasn’t just about 15-year-olds admiring gangsters and wanting to be mafioso—we’re talking about 7-year-olds proudly declaring their dream was to grow up and rape non-believers.

That’s why I didn’t stop Emil from carrying out his plan in the middle of the residential slum area. The slums near the Phobos Temple were a cesspool that the Roman Empire desperately wanted to eliminate but couldn’t touch because of the temple.

Well, it no longer exists now.

※ ※ ※

After the catastrophe in the slums where the Phobos Temple was located, the Roman Senate and Pantheon predictably designated the God of Revenge and his followers as Enemies of Faith and began persecution.

Anyone possessing decorative items or tattoos resembling the “cross with a skull in the center” that was engraved on the Avatar of Vengeance’s body was authorized for immediate execution regardless of reason. The Revenge Cult, though its existence was revealed, was designated as heretical despite no accurate information about it.

However, these harsh measures were merely exploited by unscrupulous individuals to frame those they disliked or saw as obstacles. In reality, not a single follower of the God of Revenge was discovered.

“I beg you! Please, please, if you exist, give me the power to avenge!”

These severe responses actually spread information about the God of Revenge throughout the holy city, causing those with nothing to lose to pray to the God of Revenge. Even those falsely accused burned with vengeance and turned to prayer.

And the God of Revenge, true to his evil nature, responded well to even these trivial prayers by bestowing blessings.

Of course, perhaps as the price for granting great power at once, these “blessings” often resembled curses.

Some gained ogre-like strength to crush thugs who had tormented them, but in exchange, their arms swelled thicker than their torsos. A girl seeking revenge against a senator who had caused her parents to be sent to war and killed found tentacles growing all over her body.

These transformed individuals, who had nothing left to lose, plunged Roman society into utter chaos. This reached its peak when the aforementioned senator died of asphyxiation from tentacle strangulation.

The Year of Avenge had begun—where anyone could pray to the God of Revenge and gain power to seek retribution.

Amid this chaos, the incident in the slums where the Phobos Temple was located was gradually being buried with time—

And the dagger of the God of Revenge, the core cause of this incident, disappeared at some point, or more precisely, was stolen by the foolish nobleman in charge of the facility where it was kept.

This nobleman, the fourth son of a family that had produced eight consuls, was so incompetent and stupid that he couldn’t be entrusted with public office. Consequently, he was forcibly enlisted in the city guard with his family ties half-severed, though his physical abilities and remaining connections allowed him to advance relatively quickly.

After becoming the captain of the guard for the important items storage facility where the dagger was kept, he discovered it during a routine patrol and foolishly pilfered it simply because he liked it.

His crime was premeditated—he even purchased special magic-concealing cloth. Upon arriving home, the moment the guard captain touched the well-wrapped dagger’s handle—

The vengeful spirits gathered within the dagger, centered around Emil’s, flowed into his mind. The infinite hatred toward the entire Roman Empire completely shattered his psyche.

The emotions that the God of Revenge had personally compressed and packed into the dagger flowed into the guard captain’s mind, shattering his personality into fragments. These fragments were reassembled with hatred as their driving force, fundamentally transforming him.

His repulsive personality—so disgusting that his fiancée had left him—turned to anger. His playful nature became madness focused solely on revenge. His rock-bottom character disappeared, replaced by something that would do anything to achieve its purpose.

Thus, the pathetic, silver-spoon waste of a guard captain vanished, and in his place remained only the designated second Avatar of Vengeance, following in Emil’s footsteps.

The first thing this transformed man did was look for an opportunity to visit his family home with the dagger.

Despite being practically disowned, he was still allowed to visit his family home on his birthday each year, which was just nine days away.

He spent all his remaining money gathering various tools and, on his birthday, visited his family home with such a remarkably changed attitude that he was grudgingly permitted to join the evening meal—

Shortly after dinner began, he secretly drew the dagger hidden in his clothes and formed a barrier around the entire banquet hall.

“……..?!!!”

*Squelch!*

He stabbed his third brother—a military man who had noticed something—with the dagger, then activated its paralyzing function to immobilize his entire family.

What happened afterward was… too cruel and brutal to describe.