Chapter 357 (1/2)
Chapter 357: Secret Currents
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
“The Holy Church has been forced to such point?”
When I learned of the Holy Church’s sha the credit for that battle, I wasn’t angry at all On the contrary, I was quite delighted
So in the lead was synony as whoever was in the lead—for exahty percent of religion in Eich—didn’t take extrenificant mistakes, it would be almost impossible for others to catch up to them
It would be quite difficult for outside forces to significantly pressure a behe as they didn’t havefactions, they could probably remain in power for the next several centuries based on their foundation alone
But this tie one
I could understand why theyto them amid the current situation In fact, it appeared to be a superb decision in their eyes since the Holy Church had a matchlessly solid foundation
Everyone understood that public opinion could distort the truth The Holy Church had a ard, so of course they felt they could twist the truth however they wanted One could deduct fronable; it see And they were presu down on the Ayer Faction
What the Holy Church’s higher-ups most likely wanted was to use this combat report to stabilize the situation for a while After some time had passed and the Holy War had entered its et about this matter Maybe some of them would want to falsify their co their way
Even if this issue becauely written—it just said stuff like “The Holy Light guided us to victory” Sincethe Contract Heroes, believed in the Holy Light to begin with, it was impossible claim that this statement a falsehood They could simply maintain their position that the author had
And in the absolute hypothetical worst-case scenario, even if the Holy Church was put in a bad situation by people chasing the problem to the root cause, the Holy Church could just use the excuse: “Cardinal Stephen orried about how the bad combat situation would affect his own future so he lied and fabricated military successes to the Holy Church He has now been excommunicated, and he died of self-inflicted suicide in a h as he would be dead as well as a scapegoat
In actuality, this type of occurrence was quite co as so off a branch to save the whole tree Nothing could be done to the Holy Church itself
What the Holy Church wanted the ative influences of people hearing that they lost the first major battle of the Holy War They also wanted to increase the coht Faction Of course, it would be even better if they could lessen the presence of the Ayer Faction in the process
But there was one issue that even Pope Caloest mistake of all
Pope Calonored theest victim wasn’t me nor was it Oak Town’s Wood Spirits—it wasn’t even the Ayer Faction None of us needed to prove our power to the world right here and now, and there were plenty of chances in the future for us It could be said that the glory and honor from this particular battle wasn’t that important
Yet for the Contract Heroes, the adventurers who risked their lives all for the sake of fah to change their lives They still had those shi+ny lory they had just obtained was robbed by soed about their accomplishments to others, it was likely that they would be treated as liars
For these young adventurers who typically viewed “honor” as more important than their lives, this was utterly unacceptable They would forever remember the hypocrisy and fake side of the villainous Holy Church In fact, all the Holy Light job classend of copious amounts of en Holy Light priests even changed the God whom they worshi+pped
The Pope and the Cardinals had long since gotten used to being on top, causing theet that the scariest part about huht now these Contract Heroes were mostly only novice adventurers But the Justice Points systerow Once this first batch of Contract Heroes became the skilled veterans of this systehout the land They were hidden, living, and ticking tio off and truly take effect so after, the newly veteran Contract Heroes wrote a guidebook for novices joining the systeuidebook stated “Perhaps you can trust Holy Light individuals that truly believe in the Holy Light, but the Holy Church’s higher-ups are nothing roup of old bastards Never leave your back unguarded against the to you and then burn you alive as a heretic Don’t believe us? Just look up Oak Town’s history”
And once hatred for the Holy Church set in from the very foundation, no matter what the Holy Church did, it would be quite difficult to recover from it
Of course, for the Holy Church, their “Holy Warriors” systeuess the full extent of the influence our “Contract Heroes” syste adventurers would becoh I was quite pleased with how the Holy Church shot itself in the foot this time, there were still actions needed to be taken
Even if our Ayer Faction eaker than the Holy Light Faction, ould seem far too weak for us to take an attack like this without taking our revenge In this world, weakness itself was a sin Should they detect any weakness, the wolves forever circling around you would ju to do? Or what has he done already?”
It was only natural for the big boss to make the call at such a time From what I knew of hi like this lying down
“…Over the past few days, two stars have fallen Although the Holy Church hasn’t made any public announcements, the God of Precepts and the God of Punishet into contact with their True Gods Their few priests have lost all their divine powers Although these two Gods eak ones with very little sense of presence, as they were both only ordinary mortals that ascended to become Half Gods, they were still Follower Gods under the God of Ascetism, Tremat You should understand why these two Gods quietly died off”
In ancient fairy tales, a star falling would represent a God’s death In this world, while not all falling stars represented a God’s death, a God’s death would indeed create a falling star… Well, it was dom and Throne to burn up in the sky, so every lifeform would instinctively understand that a God had perished upon seeing such a sight It was the same for any mortal existence that ascended to Godhood—the entire world would learn about it
I had never heard of either of these two unknown Gods before Only by looking up their information did I find out that the God of Precepts and the God of Punishment were both former SemiGods from the Holy Church They had successfully becoht True Gods in order to obtain Divine Concepts and become Follower Gods These two Gods’ churches were both located solely within the Holy Church’s headquarters The God of Precepts provided heretic seekers with some Divine Arts that could search out heretics, while the God of Punishments was amore than Tremat’s, the God of Ascetism’s, loyal followers, while Treht
“…I heard, well, at least on the surface, that this incident was caused by the powerful God of Ascetiss are very close to masochism as he believes that everyone should live in austerity and poorness, which will erase all conflict froht clothing in winter to strengthen their bodies, have only rice and water in the suh ascetish Tremat is quite venerated by people in the s s are about people seeking wealth in order to improve their lives Of course, this explanation about Tremat was provided by the Holy Church’s bastards themselves, and I feel that the Holy Church bastards are all responsible for this incident as well Well, I suppose that they’re just upgrading the level of the scapegoat to blame”
Solo, the God of Music and Dance, was quite casual about things as he told h one of his follower bards He was currently chatting with ht, he had kept in contact with entlemanly Gods, it was indeed necessary forwith the Gods It also wouldn’t do to contact Ayer about every little thing
The other Gods I kneere even more unreliable, and it wasn’t like I knewa Dwarf Goddess along with her Divine Concept of Alcohol Barrels, was typically in a drunken state h to give myself over on a silver platter to her I heard that recently, any tio into a berserk state
“Ayer killed thedom, heavily injured Tremat and killed off these two Follower Gods from the Follower Gods that tried to stop him He also stole their Divine Souls and Divine Concepts”
“There was no reaction from the other Main Gods? Or any response at all froin? After all, doesn’t this count as internal strife right at the beginning of the Holy War? Isn’t Ayer breaking the rules?”
“He didn’t, because the Holy Light faction broke the rules first, so the other Main Gods are quite displeased at their actions But since the Holy Light Faction lost two Follower Gods, and Tremat was seriously injured, this incident caain”
From a certain standpoint, this was a type of coin of Order On the surface, it would appear that the Ayer Faction even lost out in this compromise After all, the Ayer Faction had lost the opportunity to gain fah two Gods had died in the Holy Light Faction, they were teak Follower Gods that very few people even knew existed In the eyes of the norable