"So here's the deal. Because I know so much about the Outer Gods, I've ended up on these Outer God cultists' hit list. That's why they sent someone to try to take me out, and I doubt this'll be the last time."
Shortly after Luxford got the tarot card, Church members arrived on the scene. He gave the strawmen a quick rundown of the situation.
Pluton's followers knew Luxford's secret, but they had no proof. Think about it: a bunch of Outer God cultists trying to accuse a high-ranking Church official right in front of Church staff? Not a chance. Luxford could practically pull the whole "who dares accuse this court official?" routine. So he had zero reason to worry about the Church people. If anything, they were his biggest asset.
"Rest assured, Master. We will keep you safe. May the God of Abundance bless you."
The strawman traced a few upward lines across his chest, representing the growth of crops, the symbol of the God of Abundance.
"Thank you. May the God of Abundance bless you as well."
Luxford traced the same gesture in return.
Then the strawman simply waved his hand, and straw wrapped around the corpse in the living room. He hoisted it over his shoulder and carried it out of Luxford's house.
Before long, the spacious two-story house was quiet again, with just Luxford and the others.
"Master, what exactly happened...?"
Now that things had calmed down, Nepheli finally asked. Renna was watching Luxford with curious eyes too. Astrid, as always, wore that blank expression. You couldn't read a single thought from her face.
"Oh, it's nothing major. The sacrifice at the festival? That was me. I offered the God of Abundance's children to the God of Greed in exchange for power.
"But that put me on the radar of the God of Greed's followers. The guy who attacked us was one of them."
There was no point hiding things from the kids he'd raised. For their safety, Luxford laid it all out, though he left out the God of Greed's true name.
"So it was you! What'd you get? Don't you get a ton of stuff for sacrificing to an Outer God?"
Renna was excited about it. She didn't care about right or wrong. As long as Luxford came out ahead, that's all that mattered.
This was insider information. Only Outer God followers and a few witches knew about this. Righteous God believers would never find out.
The followers of the Righteous Gods gave everything and got nothing but a pat on the back from the Church. The Outer Gods, on the other hand? You sacrifice, you get rewarded. Simple as that. Any rational person could see which was the better deal, which was exactly why the Church was always going after Outer God followers.
Of course, that didn't mean the Outer Gods were the good guys. Their real goal was to devour this world. Without the Righteous Gods holding them back, the Outer Gods would've destroyed everything long ago. Every sacrifice to an Outer God was another step toward pushing the world into the abyss.
But what did that have to do with Luxford? The Righteous Gods had been holding off the Outer Gods for thousands of years. His couple of sacrifices weren't going to tip the scales, especially when plenty of Church higher-ups were doing the same thing on the side.
Luxford was absolutely a hypocrite. If he liked someone, everything they did was right. If he didn't, everything they did was wrong. The Righteous Gods had been persecuting witches for ages. He was just collecting a little interest.
Besides, the Righteous Gods weren't exactly saints themselves. The only reason the Outer Gods had found this world in the first place was because the Righteous Gods had been devouring the world's essence to fuel their own power.
"I got a massive amount of mana. But now's not the time to get into all that..."
Getting the tarot card, The Tower, was only the first step of Luxford's plan. There was still a long time before the game's main story would kick in, and plenty of opportunities left for him to seize.
After scarfing down a few bites of food, Luxford headed back to his bedroom under Nepheli's watchful gaze. He laid bullets out one by one on the magic circle he'd already set up on the desk.
As he softly chanted an incantation, the enchantment tome on the desk began flipping on its own. Inscriptions lifted off the pages and floated through the air before settling onto the bullets, which glowed with an eerie light.
"Keep going."
This time, Luxford was enchanting bullets himself. Regular ammo was easy to buy, and money wasn't an issue, but enchanted rounds were nearly impossible to find. For one thing, almost nobody would "waste" an enchantment on bullets. If someone had an enchantment to spare, they'd put it on a sword or a blade. Luxford was the only one with enough mana to burn through enchanting ammunition.
On top of that, enchanted bullets were a genuine threat to the nobility. Their bodyguards could stop ordinary rounds at best.
Luxford stayed holed up in his bedroom all day. He had a serious case of "not enough firepower" anxiety. There was no way he was stepping outside without at least a few hundred rounds ready to go.
Church members patrolled around his house the whole time. Renna watched them through the window with open curiosity. A witch who could look at Church people with that kind of casual attitude? She was the first of her kind.
Even now, Nepheli still got nervous around the strawmen. She'd actually been hunted before, unlike Renna, who'd been under Luxford's care since she was a baby.
The Church members respected Luxford and quietly kept watch. It wasn't until evening that someone knocked on the door again. Before Luxford could even answer it, the visitor had already been tackled to the ground by a swarm of strawmen.
"I'm from the Falling Star Trading Company! I found what the Master was looking for!"
Words weren't proof. The Church naturally wasn't going to take the man at his word, and by the time Luxford came out, they'd already half-stripped him.
"Let him go. He really is here for me."
Luxford looked the man over. His face was ghost-white, his hands wrapped in thick bandages, though blood was still seeping through in spots. The paleness was clearly from blood loss.
"Yes, Master."
The Church members were extremely obedient to Luxford. If the person they were supposed to protect said it was fine, they'd comply.
"Sorry about that. Come in, have a seat."
Luxford helped the man up. Even that little bit of movement left the guy winded. The moment Luxford shut the door, the man couldn't wait to hand over the box he was carrying.
"Here's what you requested. We only paid one copper for it, but the commission is twenty gold. Is that acceptable?"
"Not a problem. You earned it."
Luxford handed the man a check. He knew what was in the box, and the trading company's efforts were absolutely worth the price.
A hundred copper equaled one silver, and a hundred silver equaled one gold. The currency system in this world was kind of like Terraria's, but not exactly the same. "Gold" here wasn't literally gold coins. It was just a denomination. One copper had roughly the same buying power as a dollar in the real world.
Luxford opened the box. Inside was a ring, gold-crafted, with a cracked diamond set on top.
"The Blood-Weeping Wedding Ring. The wearer's body permanently loses the ability to heal itself. They become more fragile, their stamina drains faster, they gradually grow ugly, and they're cursed with permanent bad luck. Once you put it on, the curse sticks with you for life, unless you give the ring to someone else and they accept it knowing full well what it does."
The merchant's description made Nepheli's eyes go wide. This was the kind of thing everyone would run from, but Luxford had other plans. He knew there was a tarot card out there that could reverse the effects of curses. Once he had both items together, he'd go from glass cannon to unkillable tank overnight.
And the chance to get that tarot card? It was coming up soon.