Chapter 115 - 115 Religious Tribunal: Supreme Court
On the day of the religious tribunal, Steve stood in the defendant's seat.
The courtroom in the Great Cathedral of the Holy Nation was larger than any church in the Kingdom of Cascade.
The familiar faces in the courtroom were Prince Carter testifying as a witness, Eaton holding the rope connected to Steve, and the Saintess, Julia.
Everyone else was an unknown official of the Fries Holy Church. Seated on the judge's bench at the front was the Pope. Steve had nicknamed him "Toad" in his heart for his ugly, fat appearance.
The trial would begin shortly.
The Pope announced the charges.
"The defendant has advocated the concept of evolution and denied divine providence. This is heresy. Is that not so?"
"I did not deny divine providence. I merely wished to investigate whether such providence existed."
"Doubting God is a sin."
It was a farce. They intended to find him guilty from the start, and Steve's defense would not be heard. Furthermore, they would not question the witness, Prince Carter, either.
And then, the topic turned to Julia's adultery.
"The defendant held a secret meeting with the Saintess last night. This is also the sin of adultery, which God has forbidden."
"Just meeting and talking constitutes adultery?"
"Who would believe that a secret meeting in the dead of night involved only conversation?"
"Perhaps it is because you have experience with such vulgar suspicions. Why not hear the Saintess's opinion?"
Steve laughed mockingly, provoking the Pope. The Pope smiled back with ease.
The Pope found it surprising that Steve was not surprised by the sudden accusation beyond the charges he had summoned him for, but he assumed Steve would have no way to escape.
The reason Steve was not surprised was that he was used to his wives being accused of such suspicions and having to explain himself. It was truly the power of domestic support.
"The Saintess's opinion is unnecessary. We will now proceed with the judgment of sin by God's miracle."
"Oh? What kind of thing is it?"
"Hey."
The Pope gave an order to the priest waiting nearby.
The priest brought a glass containing liquid over to Steve.
"Drink this. If you are guilty, you will lose your life by God's judgment."
"If I survive?"
"Then you are innocent. Confess now while you can."
"Confess? Let's skip that. It would take a month to confess everything."
Saying that, Steve downed the glass.
The contents were a fast-acting poison. The Pope was surprised by Steve's boldness, but soon began to eagerly wait for the moment he would die. However, after one minute passed, then two, Steve did not fall.
This was only natural, as Steve possessed the passive skill [Drug Resistance]. Whether it was hydrofluoric acid or tetrodotoxin, he could neutralize it. As long as it was a drug created by humans, his resistance could not be broken.
"Well, you aren't dying no matter how long we wait. Is this so-called 'God's judgment' over? Is your god indecisive?"
The Pope gritted his teeth at Steve's attitude.
"The church cannot allow someone like you to be declared innocent by God."
"What has this church done until now? People whose homes were burned by war and fled, children crying. While the world below suffered, where was the church? Were you licking God's feet in the heavens?"
"Do you intend to insult God?"
"God? That boring fellow who created such trivial sins."
Saying that, Steve turned toward the spectators.
"Well, I am an apostle sent to correct the church's corruption from that boring fellow."
The courtroom erupted in murmurs. Only Julia and Eaton nodded in understanding. Prince Carter struggled to suppress his laughter at Steve's theatrical attitude.
"I don't want those who smuggle and sell drugs to use God's name."
The Pope panicked at Steve's bombshell statement. There were those present who did not support him, and he understood the danger of people believing Steve, who had survived drinking poison.
"Such nonsense!"
"Shall we bring in a witness?"
Saying that, Steve teleported and brought Camilla with him. Steve had no intention of making her recall painful memories, but last night, Camilla had begged him to cooperate, confessing that the Pope's faction had used drugs on her in the courtroom.
"I am Camilla Frank, a Holy Knight. Based on information regarding drug manufacturing in the Holy Nation, I investigated and found that the Pope drugged me. My consciousness was then stolen by drugs. I testify to this now."
"She survived..."
The Pope let that slip out before hastily covering his mouth. However, the spectators had already heard it.
Immediately after, Julia stood up from the spectator seats.
"The information came from my revelation. God ordered me to investigate this matter."
With this, the Saintess's faction regained its breath. Just when they thought it was all over due to the adultery accusation, a turning point appeared.
"A whore telling lies!"
The Pope shouted, but no one in the courtroom listened. Even those not in the Pope's faction, who were not high-ranking officials, believed the magic Steve had shown was a miracle of God. Naturally, God took precedence over the Pope, and the tide turned immediately toward Steve.
"You cannot get away with this. Divine punishment will fall upon your family."
The Pope threatened Steve.
The highlights in Steve's eyes vanished at those words.
"Go pray. You will not return alive. For the first time in my life, I am thinking happily about killing someone."
Hearing that from Steve, the Pope fled. He descended from the judge's bench and exited through the rear door.
"Your Holiness."
The priest who had brought the poison, a sycophant, followed.
Knights of the Pope's faction stood before the door the Pope had fled through, trying to stop Steve from pursuing.
Steve stopped his pursuit. Then, he made a declaration to the noisy courtroom.
"The Pope is excommunicated effective today. This is my decision as an apostle. Anyone with objections, step forward."
No one could object to being called an apostle, for it would make them heretics. Even the Pope's faction did not dare oppose Steve now that the Pope had fled.
Thus, less than ten minutes after the trial began, the first not-guilty verdict in a religious tribunal was issued. And the judge himself became the one declared guilty.
Julia came from the spectator seats and took Steve's hand.
"It was no mistake that God chose you."
"Maybe. Someone else might have handled it better."
"No, this is what God decided—"
Julia fell silent, remembering Camilla.
Camilla did not blame Julia.
"Do not worry. This is a trial God gave me."
"Camilla..."
At this moment, Julia's faith wavered. Why had God not presented a different solution?
Julia, trembling slightly, looked more distressed than Camilla.
Just then, Eaton spoke of a debate he and Steve had during their journey.
"God exists in a dimension far higher than humans. The Apostle taught me that it is difficult for us, mere mortals, to understand His thoughts. Everything in this incident has meaning. However, our souls have not yet reached the dimension to understand it. Striving for that height is also training. I apologize for speaking out of turn, Saintess."
"Yes. Although I am called a Saintess, I still lack training. I must aim for that dimension."
Listening to this conversation, Steve used his insect's-eye view granted by the Pope to watch the escape route. He saw the Pope going through the underground drug factory and descending further into the depths via stairs.
It was a quite large cavern, with something resembling a lake. At the end of the stairs was an altar, and a figure in robes with their face hidden by a veil stood with their back to the stairs.
The altar was on a cliff, offering a panoramic view of the lake. It was brightly illuminated by some magic, making everything clearly visible.
The Pope prostrated himself before that figure.
"Master Sect, a person has appeared who draws a bow against our church."
The one addressed as Sect Master asked without turning around.
"Can you not solve this yourselves?"
"That is a demon. He does not die even after drinking the poison we gave him."
"Not dying from poison is interesting. Come meet him. You are watching, aren't you?"
The Sect Master spoke as if he knew Steve was watching.
"Julia, is there a position called 'Sect Master' in this Great Cathedral?"
Julia twisted her neck at the sudden question.
"There is no such position in the Fries Holy Church."
"I see. The Pope is bowing his head there."
"Could it be that you can see the fleeing Pope?"
"Yes."
To Steve, it was a reconnaissance magic, but the church members mistook it as God seeing everything, causing them to worship Steve even more.
Steve sensed the atmosphere and felt uncomfortable. He was embarrassed to be worshipped.
"There is a large cavern deeper than the drug factory, where the Sect Master and the Pope are. I thought the Pope was the mastermind, but it seems there is an even bigger mastermind."
"I never thought such a place existed. And the existence of the Sect Master. This hidden part of the church must be the reason God gave me a revelation."
Julia gripped her hands tightly and stared intently at Steve's eyes. She was convinced she had seen God's intent.
"You must take responsibility for involving my family in that intent. I don't know what will happen to the church, but I intend to end everything, including the Sect Master. God might have just wanted to pat us on the bottom and let it go, though."
"It is not a crime that can be forgiven as lightly as disciplining a child."
"Probably. If they wanted to forgive it that easily, I would have gone to God to complain."
"Then please take me with you. I wish to behold God's holy face."
Steve was surprised by Julia's unexpected reply.
"Aren't you afraid?"
"It may be presumptuous, but if I am with the Apostle, I am not afraid."
"A good attitude. Well, let's go see the Sect Master's face first."
Steve's anger subsided, and he became completely calm, due to the unexpected appearance of the mastermind and Julia's refusal to flee.
If God exists, then the woman called the Saintess before his eyes is also a victim of revelations, and a companion when filing a class-action lawsuit against God.
There was one more person qualified to join the class-action plaintiffs: Camilla. She agreed to go to the Sect Master with Julia as a guard, and Steve accepted this.
With that decided, they asked Eaton to suppress the drug factory and head underground.
"Eaton, we are going deeper than the drug factory. I leave the suppression of the factory to you. If we do not return within one hour, seal the underground."
"Seal it?"
"Yes. Let's lock those bad guys inside."
"And you, Your Excellency?"
"I can escape however I want, and if I can't, it means there is something terribly dangerous there."
"I understand. May you have good fortune."
"Thank you. I want you to pray to God."
"Is that alright?"
"I do not deny Eaton's faith. Pray to whatever you like."
"Yes."
Hearing Eaton's reply, Steve spoke to the soldiers blocking the door.
"Well, do you worship God or the Pope?"
"..."
The soldier remained silent.
"People are weak. Deluded by the worldly benefits presented by the Pope, you have twisted your faith. I think it is not too late to repent now. Anyway, I can catch up to the Pope even without passing through here, so it is better not to do useless things."
Saying that, Steve teleported with Julia and Camilla to the underground altar.
There, the Sect Master, the Pope, and the priest were present.
The Sect Master spoke one word in a low voice.
"I have been waiting."
Steve mocked the Sect Master provocatively.
"What can three people do? I won't show mercy, but I might give you time to pray to God."
"Hmph, there is no God."
When the Sect Master said that, the Pope's eyes widened.
"Sect Master, what do you mean by that?"
"The Fries Holy Church was created by me. For the sake of research."
Julia thought this was impossible upon hearing it. She immediately denied the Sect Master's words.
"The Fries Holy Church has a history of three thousand years. It is impossible that you created it. Are you saying you have lived for three thousand years?"
"That is correct. Whether I am 'alive' or not is another matter."
Saying that, the Sect Master removed the veil hiding his face. There was a skull. Where the eyeballs should have been, a sinister red light glowed.
Seeing this, Julia realized her rebuttal was wrong.
Steve remembered monsters from fantasy manga from his past life.
"Like a Lich. Perfectly fits the image of an Undead King."
"Yes. I am undead. I have talent for Necromancy, and after much research, I discovered how to bind my soul and spirit to this world. However, others could not do it so easily."
Saying that, the Sect Master used magic.
The earth at the priest's feet swelled, and a corpse crawled out. It bit into the throat of the terrified, frozen priest.
Now, the Sect Master controlled the dead priest with magic.
"See, I can move the dead like this. However, I cannot keep them in this world forever. Watch as I make this man who just died move again."
Saying that, another corpse emerged from the earth and bit into the priest's body. In an instant, the priest's body was torn apart and disappeared.
Seeing this, the Pope vomited the contents of his stomach.
"Ugh."
Seeing this, Steve turned back to check if Julia and Camilla were okay. Both had pale faces and were covering their mouths with their hands.
Thinking he couldn't show them any more, Steve used Fireball magic to burn the moving corpses.
"Does cremation go against the doctrine?"
"It doesn't matter. As I said earlier, the Fries Holy Church was created by me. For funds and materials for research. God's teachings were fabricated. There is no way divine punishment would fall."
"What are you saying?"
The content was shocking to Julia. To Julia, trembling slightly with surprise and anger, the Sect Master recounted the church's history.
"Religion is convenient for gathering money and corpses. There was suppression from rulers of the time, but that only solidified the believers' unity. The sight of them swearing loyalty to God was ridiculous. Everyone, they were not killed by rulers, but by me for experiments. And once the church was socially recognized, the believers began creating what they called 'God's words' for their own benefit. From then on, I had no involvement. I just let it be as long as it didn't interfere with my research. Most of the scriptures were not made by me. I only needed research funds."
"Is greed the true form of God?"
Steve glanced at the two behind him. They were confused, having learned that what they believed was a lie.
At that moment, Julia remembered the miracles the church performed and clung to a sliver of hope.
"Is the ceremony the church uses to find magical talent not a gift from God?"
Upon being asked, the Sect Master once again controlled a corpse, grabbing the Pope and throwing him toward the lake.
"Sect Master, what are you doing? Help!"
Ignoring the Pope's plea, the corpse threw the Pope off the cliff. A splash sound indicated the Pope had fallen into the water.
However, the Pope's body soon returned to the top of the cliff, caught by a giant pitcher plant-like creature.
"This is called Man-eating Grass. It feeds on human despair and pain. The powder of its fruit mixed in water is the drug that finds talent. It used to grow everywhere, but as a result of my extermination efforts, it now only exists here. The fruit washed up on the lake shore—"
"Gyaaaaaah"
The Sect Master's explanation was drowned out by the Pope's screams. Soon, the screams ceased.
"Seems mealtime is over."
Watching the Man-eating Grass return underwater, Steve understood the Pope had perished.
"We need to choose the next Pope."
The Sect Master looked at the Saintess.
"She is no good. She is a devout servant of God."
Saying that, Steve fired a Fireball at the Sect Master. The body burned in magical flames but regenerated immediately.
"It is useless. My soul and spirit are strongly bound to this world. Both soul and spirit regenerate quickly. It is a pity that others cannot do this."
"Cogito, ergo sum?"
"What is that?"
Steve was reading the weak point of Necromancy from a work standard book only he could see.
And he learned the reason why only the Sect Master could bind his soul and spirit to this world.
"What matters is whether one has the capacity to think about oneself. Even if others resurrect you with Necromancy, you will leave this world again immediately because you lack thought. That is why only you were able to bind your soul and spirit to this world."
"Can you use Necromancy too?"
"Well, yes. I just learned it."
The red light in the Sect Master's eyes grew even stronger.
"Has three thousand years of research finally come to an end? I thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Then, let us have a grand finale."
With the Sect Master's magic, countless corpses crawled out of the ground.
The Sect Master spoke to Steve and the others again.
"Three thousand years ago, there was a kingdom called the Kingdom of Palesfield. It aimed to conquer the world and waged war on neighboring countries, but the neighbors formed an alliance and defeated it, causing it to perish. I was a member of that royal family. I researched creating an undead army to fulfill the dream of conquering the world someday, but that research is now finished. Even if I am the only complete undead, if I cannot die, I will eventually conquer the world. The dream of the Empire again!"
The Sect Master claimed to be a royal family member of a once-existent, destroyed kingdom, aiming for world unification by the undead.
"An act that does not fear even God."
Julia glared at the Sect Master.
"That is why there is no God."
The triumphant Sect Master had no expression, but it was clear he was mocking Julia. Julia felt frustrated.
While that exchange happened, Steve tore the souls from the undead spirits.
"Oh my, I must return the pitiful souls."
Steve used Necromancy to separate the souls from the corpses. Immediately, the corpses stopped moving. An irritable aura emanated from the Sect Master.
"Only you remains."
"To be able to separate souls. But can you do the same to my soul and spirit?"
Julia was the one who despaired at the Sect Master's words. She shook Steve's shoulder.
"How can we defeat that Sect Master?"
"If he understands jokes, I'll make him laugh to death."
Steve turned and winked. Camilla placed a hand on Julia's shoulder.
"Saintess, let us trust Mr. Steve. You received a revelation, did you not?"
"Yes, Camilla."
Steve wanted to meet the expectations of the two and organized the current situation.
"Undying enemy, lake, carnivorous plants, negative emotions."
He found the answer connecting them.
A pillar of earth created by Steve's earth magic flew toward the Sect Master.
"Blow away!"
The earth pillar captured the Sect Master's body.
The Sect Master mocked Steve's attack.
"What will such an attack accomplish? My body will regenerate immediately."
"That's right. That's why it's fine."
Due to Steve's mana, the earth pillar extended further. The Sect Master's body was pushed off the cliff and fell into the lake.
A splashing sound echoed through the cavern. The Man-eating Grass appeared on the water's surface, having consumed the Sect Master's body.
Steve, having achieved his aim, smiled at the eating Sect Master.
"Hope you get eaten for eternity."
"What did you say!?"
The Sect Master's body regenerated as soon as it was eaten, repeating the cycle of regeneration and turning its gaze toward Steve. On the fifth time, the Sect Master's voice of resentment echoed.
"When this grass withers, I will come out of here and definitely kill you. If you are dead, I will kill your descendants."
"Yes, yes, that is the negative emotion I wanted. Now I can harvest the fruit without killing anyone."
Steve's aim was to get the fruit without killing anyone. If he kept the Sect Master being eaten by the Man-eating Grass, the negative emotion of nutrients would be continuously supplied.
Anxious at the Sect Master's voice of resentment, Julia pulled Steve's sleeve.
"Lord Archibalt, what will you do if the Man-eating Grass withers?"
"If it doesn't wither for three thousand years, I don't think it will wither soon, but not for eternity. Before I die, I will sever the binding of the Sect Master's soul and spirit to this world."
"Mr. Steve, can't you monitor it for eternity?"
Julia's eyes widened as Camilla called Steve by his name.
"Camilla, when did you start calling Lord Archibalt by his name?"
"When you took me to the hideout, you allowed me to call him by his name. He said it was too stiff to call him Lord Archibalt."
"Isn't that a bit too intimate?"
"Mr. Steve's wives have also agreed to it."
Steve had hidden Camilla with his wives. Christina and Nancy initially thought Steve had brought another new woman, but upon learning of Camilla's background, their hostility vanished, and they treated her kindly.
"Well, that's why Camilla calls me by my name, and I call her Camilla. But, as I am not immortal, I will send the Sect Master to the other world at an appropriate time. After that, I need to think about what to do with the fruit."
"However, the church is over. Even if there is fruit to find magical talent, the organization to use it will be gone."
Julia displayed a tired smile. 'Despair' might be the appropriate expression. The church's teachings were all lies. She did not know how she could preach God's teachings to people from now on.
Steve placed a hand on Julia's shoulder.
"People need religion. To escape the fear of death, people created religion. If it disappears, the fear of death may reignite, and society might become chaotic. Julia, I think you can stop that."
"I never thought I would hear this from someone who has denied God so many times."
"I hate those who take advantage of human weakness and persistent religious figures, but I do not deny religion itself."
Steve showed a smile. Julia was confused, not knowing what to do, and silently watched Steve for a while without speaking.
Unable to bear the silence, Steve was about to speak when he felt mana flowing through Julia's body.
"It is a revelation. 'Continue the Fries Holy Church and convey God's words.'"
"It's a bit late to leave the name unused for three thousand years. Is God really omnipotent?"
"Even if God is omnipotent, it does not mean we can understand His words and true intent."
"God, who rules the sky. All things in the world are meaningless."
Saying that, Steve looked at the cavern ceiling. Julia and Camilla looked at the ceiling in the same way.
Thank you always for your typo reports.