Chapter 110: Noah
"Master Mentor, welcome to the Kingdom of Gonia."
Loren was already accustomed to being greeted upon arrival whenever he stepped out of a carriage.
Those who came to greet him were people from the Church of Pain. They were called "Sufferers," a local specialty troop similar to the Scarecrows, but different in that they showed their faces. Therefore, Loren could also see their faces, ravaged to the point of being unsightly.
Unlike the commoners who gained happiness by losing the sense of pain, the Sufferers were the exact opposite. They obtained power by experiencing extreme pain.
The leading Sufferer had no eyelids or lips. His nose and ears had been sliced off, and many needles were embedded in his eyeballs. Just looking at him made Loren feel a wave of pain.
That wasn't all. A row of fishhooks hung from his arms, with fishing lines dragging casually on the ground. If they snagged on something, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"I'm only staying here for a short while. I'll be heading to the Kingdom of Anselm soon. Please help arrange the itinerary."
Anselm was a nation that worshipped the God of Vows and Wind, and it was also the rendezvous point Loren had agreed upon with Mara.
In the Kingdom of Gonia, Loren's reputation still carried weight. The Church of Pain would also do their utmost to serve Loren, all to curry his favor.
"Please wait in the inn for a moment. We will make the arrangements immediately." The Sufferers had already prepared a carriage and a room for Loren in advance. Even Laila was starting to get used to this kind of treatment. The current Laila had become the type of person she used to despise the most.
Loren and the others boarded the carriage. Here, carriages were a rare sight. What they used more often were rickshaws.
Not the kind of rickshaw pulled by a person, but literally using people to pull the carriage. Here, people were much cheaper than horses.
Loren had just seen a passing rickshaw where the person pulling it had half of his foot worn away. Such injuries were nothing major. Followers of the God of Pain had strong regenerative abilities. As long as they weren't missing arms or legs, most wounds would heal on their own overnight.
Their faces were all beaming with happy smiles. They could only see how much money their hard work had earned, completely unable to feel the immense pain they endured for it.
In a sense, the scenes here were even more unsettling than those in Bardo.
"I feel the territory of the God of Bountiful Harvest is actually quite nice."
Having witnessed the scenes of another country yet again, Anna felt even the Kingdom of Gedlan had become more beautiful. At the very least, the majority of people in Gedlan were still normal.
"That's true. Over in Gedlan, even though they don't treat people as human, at least people still resemble humans."
Loren looked at a Sufferer escorting them outside the carriage window. She had shaved her head and embedded a spiked iron chain into her skull as a substitute for hair. Her face was covered in dense, tightly-packed wounds.
Faced with Loren's open criticism right in front of her, the Sufferer did not react at all. Loren was not someone she could afford to offend.
Anna and the others just took one glance out the window and couldn't bear to keep their eyes open. Tragedies were everywhere here.
"The highest level of cruelty is not even recognizing it as cruelty."
Loren looked out the window and sighed with emotion. Then, he turned and said to the coachman:
"Take us to the church first."
Loren's thinking was simple: since they were already here, they might as well get a blessing from the God of Pain. Although it wouldn't help him much, there was no reason not to take it if it was offered.