“You look like you’re having fun, Tina,” Renge remarked.
“Huh?” I stopped. “I… I do?”
“Yeah…” he smiled warmly. “Seeing you enjoy yourself makes me happy, too.”
Gah!!! I felt my heart skip a beat. His smile was so cute. Ever since I confessed my feelings, Renge stopped being as clingy, perhaps out of consideration for my erratic heart. But well…since he’d accepted my confession, I’d have liked him to stay at least a little clingy. But Renge, being a Mythical Beast, didn’t seem very interested in that. And I’d known so little of love in my past life…
How do people normally handle romance? How does Nakona? She mentioned going on dates with Shida and now they’re married… Maybe I should ask her….
“Oh! Right, Tina,” Renge said suddenly, “messengers from De Marl are here to see you. I told them to speak with Marcus instead. But they came all the way to the fort anyway.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard.”
That must’ve been who Nelt was talking about earlier. They came here before Dad could tell them off. I thought that since they were here now, I should make an effort not to run into them.
“Given their presence,” Renge went on, “I’d prefer it if you stayed on the fort’s second floor. Ideally, they’ll just give up and go back to De Marl.”
“I hope we can talk this out,” I replied, “but…there’s religion involved, right?”
“Yes. They demand that you acknowledge the Gods of De Marl.”
“Oh… I was afraid that’s what they’d want…” I sighed.
I couldn’t do that because of how this world worked. The only true god in this world is Air, the creator deity. All other gods were made up. Belief in these nonexistent gods produced Camilla.
The only other form of acceptable worship was worship of the Holy Woman (aka…me). Since that wasn’t worshipping a god, it didn’t produce any Camilla. And when Camilla built up, it became the Kathra that created monsters and zombies. When Kathra built up and achieved a certain size, it became a planet-eating Sugula that floated in the sky. And we’ve all seen the terror and despair that causes…
Renge had burned away the very concept of the Kaguya with a Will of its Own, so that could never be born again. But that wasn’t true of the Sugula. Sugula was a product of this whole wacky system Air had set up, so Renge could never use Concept Erasure on the Sugula entirely.
In other words, if the world kept repeating its mistakes, the Sugula would come back over and over. This was something Dad and Renge’s group were trying to teach humanity about with the help of the demi-human continent’s representatives. But De Marl’s religionist cliques were dead set against banning all worship of their gods.
I didn’t think faith was a bad thing in and of itself. People look to religion for support, after all. But things like demanding donations to the point of threatening people’s livelihood, threatening non-believers with eternal damnation, or forcing one’s faith onto others were all bad things we could do without.
It all hinged, I reflected, on faith being free. And I did think people having something to believe in was better than them having nothing to hang on to.
But here in Wisty Air, there was only one real god—and that was Air. Faith in any other gods became Kathra, which meant worshipping the Gods of De Marl was objectively a bad thing. And that wasn’t limited to just De Marl’s gods, but all gods. Everywhere. I got letters every week from people in every country, begging me to acknowledge the legitimacy of their gods.
They sent me these letters because they feared the Mythical Beasts. For centuries, the Mythicals had rejected mankind, only admitting those who could reach the Mythical Continent into their lands. But now, the whole world had seen the spectacular way Renge had destroyed the Sugula. To humans, he was like the King of the Mythical Beasts: a legend to be regarded with awe and fear.
I even remember Dad telling me that when he first met Renge, he’d thought the same and feared him. That’s how mighty and fearsome the Mythical Beasts had become to humans.
But asking the Mythicals for freedom of religion was difficult. After all, the demi-human and Mythical continents only worshipped Air and the Holy Woman.
So, humans believed that by asking me for freedom of their religion, they’d get the permission they needed. But of course, I couldn’t do that. My giving them permission wouldn’t overturn the rules of this world Air had set. If they wanted to protect their religion that much, they’d need to speak to Air directly.
But I’ve no idea how anyone can do that…
“I’d like to acknowledge their gods…but that’s just not possible, is it?” I asked Renge thoughtfully.
“No, it isn’t,” he replied firmly. “Through looking into the history of other worlds, Air’s learned that religion only sparks wars and conflicts. That’s why Air decided to be the one and only god of this world. If humans keep making up gods to worship, it’d defeat the purpose of Air’s decisions. De Marl and every other country would be much better off tossing all their faiths aside and worshipping Air instead.”
He’s really adamant about this, I thought. But then again, it was the only thing that could protect each nation—protect the world.
“To begin with,” Renge continued, perfectly calm, “the reason magic isn’t commonly used on the human continent is precisely because every country worshipped their own gods. The Kathra became too dense, which kept lowering Air’s density. It’s not getting any better. Even with the Sugula destroyed.”
“Oooh…” I hummed.
Which means monsters will only keep manifesting naturally, too. I thought I’d be back in Rofola in a decade. But what if this takes longer than that…? I didn’t like that thought one bit.
“If humans keep being so stubborn,” Renge stated a bit bitterly, “Air might decide to take away their capacity for magic. Now maybe that won’t bother humans at all. But a whole third of the world not being able to use magic on a continent where monsters appear easily is something neither us Mythicals nor the demi-humans are going to be happy about.”
“Yeah, that’s true…”
And I needed Air’s power to make medicine, too. So, I simply couldn’t afford to let its concentration drop anymore. Humanity would just have to convert to worshipping Air. Full stop.
Oh… But now that I think about it…
“Say, Renge,” I asked curiously. “You mentioned Air said that religions trigger wars. But I’ve heard it’s possible for people to feud over different interpretations of the same religion. If they fought over how to worship Air, would that be…less of a problem?”
I knew from my past life that humans saw war as a profit source and that included wars between different factions of the same faith. For example, technological progress being at odds with either tradition or the present day’s ideologies. In cases like that, people all followed the same faith and still fought… What does Air think of that?
“Well…” Renge thought for a moment. “…A war would just produce more Camilla. And to begin with, do enough people worship Air to even cause a difference in interpretation? Even if it did, they’d still be presuming to know what Air is thinking. And that’d only make Air angry…”
I hesitated, then asked, “You…said you’ve personally met Air, right…?”
“I trained under Air, yes.”
So…if humans presumed to know Air’s intentions, they’d only incur Air’s wrath… Air sounds like a difficult god to worship.
Given that, I realized why worshipping the Holy Woman—like the late Lady Akari and myself—might sound like a much easier option for humans. But I didn’t like being worshipped!
Not that the people of Fort Deshmel really did, of course. Probably because they saw me every day. But it was just so…off-putting when worshippers came from the Mythical and demi-human continents to visit me as part of a pilgrimage.
Back in Rofola, I’d been happy to have more customers as a consequence. But really, just being worshipped period made me feel icky. Like…there was nothing about me worth worshipping. I’m just me!
Still…compared to people worshipping gods that don’t exist and perpetuating Kathra, it was definitely a healthier alternative. And if the Holy Woman was an idol people were allowed to follow, that was acceptable in my eyes.
“I’ll try to convince these De Marl worshippers about the truth of things,” Renge said firmly, looking at how deep in thought I was. “If they won’t reform, they’re the world’s enemies. If they’re willing to put their lives on the line and doom the world all for their faith, we’ll eventually have to treat them as heretics. I’d rather not burn another country to the ground, especially since De Marl is Marcus’ homeland. If I can help it, I’d prefer not to have to do that.”
“Yes…” I agreed. “But forcing people to change their beliefs is difficult.”
“Yes, that’s why I said we’ll have to treat them as heretics if they don’t.” His jaw was set. “Air acknowledges no other gods to begin with. Air had the option of creating gods to help manage the people, but refused because multiple faiths would just cause oppositions and wars. Holy Woman worship is the sole exception, since they—you—aren’t gods, but humans being lent Air’s power.”
“R-Right…”
At this rate, De Marl’s faith would be marked heretical and that wasn’t what the believers wanted. But if they didn’t cast their faith aside, the Mythicals would brand them as heretics whose worship doomed the world—as enemies to be eliminated. And all the Gods of De Marl’s believers would die…!
The laws of the world made it so they couldn’t worship any god but Air. The whole balance of the world depended on whether the human continent was willing to convert to worshipping Air.
But can’t they admit their gods are false but just…worship them some other way? Like…yeah! Like in my past life when people cheered on idols they loved. Couldn’t that work?
Maybe having them direct their faith towards something tangible would work. Something that’d offer a clear benefit, like praying to a harvest god to improve the crops!
No, that won’t work. Air doesn’t tolerate other gods. We can’t turn local gods into idols. Wait…local gods…maybe we can make them into mascots? That way, they won’t be worshipped. But everyone will still love them!
Surely mascots wouldn’t upset Air. And each mascot would help its country by drawing in tourists!
“Renge,” I finally said, smiling. “I have a great idea! Why don’t we make local mascots?”
“Mas…cots? Huh? Wh-What’re those?” Renge stared at me, completely baffled.
…Drat, I have to explain what mascots are…!