Chapter 130 - 130 An Unchanging Frame-Up
The day after Mercury and Jupiter arrived in Archibalt Land, Steve met with them again. It was to eliminate the danger posed by Sonne, the head of the Inquisition.
When Steve said he would go visit them, who had come to live at the church, Nancy also volunteered to go as an escort. The one being escorted was not Steve himself, but his chastity.
Steve had told them it wasn't romantic feelings, but a feeling of faith, like with Julia, so both wives disliked Julia's attitude as well, and that was how it came to be. Christina stayed behind to prioritize safety.
The moment Nancy saw Mercury and Jupiter at the church, she felt this was dangerous. She felt their strength, their appearance, and their faith were all dangerous. She had received a report from Bella, but seeing the two of them in person allowed her to recognize their danger level as top-tier.
Incidentally, Bella did not exaggerate or fabricate, for better or worse.
Steve introduced the two to Nancy.
"This is my wife, Nancy. I'm asking her to help maintain the town's security, so I thought we should have a formal introduction."
That was the reason given.
There are many travelers, but actually, there aren't that many residents yet. There are so few that Nancy could memorize them all. If she wanted to memorize these two new additions as well, it sounded like a perfectly natural reason.
Mercury and Jupiter apologized to Nancy for having targeted Steve's life. Nancy forgave them regarding that matter. However, she said she would not tolerate it if they tried anything next. Of course, "trying something" didn't just mean targeting their lives, but the two of them only interpreted it that way.
Unfortunately, Nancy's true intentions were not conveyed.
Anyway, as Steve intended to fulfill today's purpose, he tried to ask the two about Sonne, but Mercury asked a question first.
"Master Steve, was turning my right leg into gold yesterday also a law decided by God?"
Those eyes were full of expectation and respect.
However, Nancy's eyes were full of suspicion.
"Master Steve? You gave permission to call you by your name?"
"Oh, yeah. You know, because they said to treat them the same as Julia and the others."
"You've become quite close, it seems."
To Nancy's severe gaze, Mercury answered without malice.
"Love is equal towards everyone."
"You know, it's in a religious sense,"
Steve added.
It was unknown how much Nancy believed that, but to move the conversation forward, Steve decided to answer Mercury's question.
"Yes. God decided what matter is by the number of protons. Mercury has 80 protons. Gold has 79. In other words, if you remove one proton from mercury, it becomes gold. This is an absolute truth decided by God."
"God's truth, wonderful words. However, why did God not convey this to people?"
"There must be God's thoughts that humans cannot understand. Trying to know that is likely what training is about."
"Just like I spoke with Saintess-sama continuously after that yesterday. I have been mistaken all this time. I thought the church conveyed God's thoughts, but I realized there are still things not yet conveyed to us, and things that are wrong. From now on, researching what the true words and thoughts are will be my atonement until now."
"That's right. Let's research the truth together."
"Yes."
At the word "together," Nancy's eyebrow twitched slightly, and Bella was dumbfounded, wondering what they were doing.
Well, that happened, but after Mercury's question ended, Steve moved on to the main topic.
"I intend to correct the Inquisition's thinking from now on. However, since there are cases where it cannot be resolved through discussion, I want to know the abilities of the opposing side."
Jupiter answered that question.
"The department head Sonne's magic attribute is fire magic. Even without using magic, his swordsmanship is on par with the Ace of the Suit Knights of the Yellow Empire. Aside from him, there are seven main members. All are mages, and while their individual combat abilities do not reach Sonne's, they are equivalent to us. Their attacks are primarily magic-based, but their swordsmanship is quite formidable."
The main members were Venus, Erde, and Saturn of the earth attribute. Mars of the fire attribute. Uranus of the holy attribute. Neptune of the water attribute. And Pluto of the poison attribute. Upon hearing that they were all men, Steve and Nancy let out a sigh of relief.
Incidentally, Mercury has the mercury attribute, and Jupiter has the lightning attribute.
Also, their names are codenames, and they discard their secular names when joining the Inquisition. They say they receive a new Holy Name upon retirement, but it is undecided how Mercury and Jupiter will be treated this time. After all, they have ignored the department head's orders, so it is unknown if they will even be considered retired.
"Is it difficult to persuade them by charging in head-on? Mental magic won't work either, right?"
"Regarding magic items that cancel out magic effects, carrying them out is prohibited except when on missions, so unless information leaks that we are planning to attack, I don't think they have prepared to meet us."
The Inquisition was not in a state of constant war. Therefore, when charging into the headquarters in the Holy Nation, if their movements were not detected, they could attack an undefended opponent. Now is the chance, as the information about Mercury and Jupiter's failure has not yet reached them.
For now, what Steve is considering is neutralization and persuasion, so he has no intention of suddenly attacking and killing them. Since there is no one with magic like Mercury to break out of confinement, he thought it would be good to have time to bind them with earth magic as usual and persuade them. Although, looking at the situation, it was more coercion than persuasion.
While Steve was thinking of a strategy, Nancy proposed persuasion by the Pope.
"Sir, even though they are the Inquisition, they are an organization within the Fries Holy Church. If we ask the Pope to persuade them, and if they don't comply, we tell them they will be declared enemies of God, don't you think they would reconsider?"
"Cults tend to develop strange unity and further radicalization when threatened like that, which is troublesome. Their subordinates feel that no one around understands them, so they feel only this department understands them. They exploit this by intentionally making them say extreme things in other departments, experiencing criticism even within the church, and making them feel their only place to belong is here, thereby strengthening their unity."
What Steve was describing was a method to increase the unity of cult religion believers. Often doing things that are criticized by the general public is to make them realize that only the cult religion understands their claims.
Because of that, he thought that forcing them to choose between excommunication or submission by the Pope might lead to further runaway behavior.
"So, what will you do, Steve?"
"I'll talk to find a compromise with the other party."
Even so, it was unknown if a compromise could be found. Even with experience dealing with very stubborn craftsmen, there were times when the other party had no intention of yielding even a millimeter, and negotiations failed. They tried to swallow every demand of a difficult person. Negotiation became impossible.
Normally, since the information about the failed raid hasn't reached them yet, he would want to charge in immediately and persuade them, but he decided to gather his thoughts a bit first.
Leaving the church, Nancy said to Steve,
"You haven't forgotten about your training with Daphne, have you?"
Steve, who had completely forgotten about that, made a face of "oops."
"Oh, it was today."
"You forgot, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
Daphne's training was still continuing, and Nancy was sparring with Daphne. Steve had been receiving calls from various places due to his recent experiments with mercury, and due to the busyness, he had accidentally forgotten the training day.
"Between work and a raid, it's understandable you forgot. As a wife, I can't support you much, but at least I will convey the schedule I know. Besides, taking a break from work might be a good change of pace, wouldn't it?"
"Thank you. That helps."
Grateful for Nancy's behind-the-scenes support, Steve teleported to Daphne.
Daphne, who had today off, was waiting for Steve and the others at her home. Upon arrival, she showed a worried expression.
"I heard you were attacked at the church yesterday, but it seems you are safe."
"Well, against opponents of that caliber, I wouldn't fall behind."
The attack incident at the church was not made public. However, a report was sent to the King, and it reached Daphne, who was on duty yesterday. Even if she was on vacation, if a faction of the church turned its fangs toward the Kingdom of Cascade, it would have reached the ears of the Royal Guard Knights Commander.
"Is it resolved?"
"The root of it is yet to be dealt with. I persuaded the two who attacked and got them to repent."
"An attack on a noble right in the middle of the Royal Capital. No matter how you judge it, the death penalty is unavoidable, yet it seems you have a very broad heart to pardon them for repenting."
"If I killed every enemy, dealing with the mountain of corpses would be a hassle. Besides, you can't have normal nerves. Someone once said that killing one person makes you a murderer, but killing a million makes you a hero, but those called heroes are mentally abnormal. One death is a tragedy, but once it exceeds ten thousand, it only feels like statistics. Well, if I thought about the people I've killed so far, I wouldn't be able to do anything, so I haven't. In that sense, I might already be abnormal."
Daphne said it with the meaning of "Is this another new woman?" but the words returned from Steve were heavier than expected. Therefore, she couldn't say anything immediately.
Steve felt he had said too much and reflected on it, trying to correct the direction of the topic.
"The mastermind behind this seems to be the attackers' superior, and I'm worried about how to get him to repent. I don't want to hinder the church that is trying to be reborn."
"Why did that superior plan the attack?"
"He said he doesn't want the current doctrine to be changed."
"If so, showing them that the future created by the past doctrine and the new doctrine are different might surely make them change their minds."
"I see."
Steve felt he could see what he needed to do with Daphne's words.
Steve's expression suddenly brightened, so Daphne easily noticed the change in his mood.
"It seems I could be of some help in finding a clue to the solution."
"Thank you."
"If it's not too much trouble, I would like to know what you were thinking."
"I plan to show the mastermind the past, present, and future, and make them realize that if they continue as they are, they will face a tragic future. You know, that sounds like God, doesn't it?"
What Steve had thought of was to show Sonne hallucinations of the past, present, and future, and make him realize that terrible things would happen if the doctrine was not changed.
He said it sounded like God, but the underlying idea was from the concept of Samadhi of the Great Mirror, becoming a Buddha and seeing everything clearly. In other words, it was not God, but Buddha. Well, explaining that was troublesome, so he indulged in the perception that an omniscient and omnipotent God could do it, and that's what he decided to do.
"I'll go right away. I'll be back soon."
Saying that, Steve teleported to the Holy Nation.
The remaining Daphne and Nancy looked at each other's faces.
"You left me behind."
"As a wife, I can't even stand next to you easily."
When Nancy took a mount with the word "wife," Daphne countered without losing.
"It seems you grasped a clue from my advice. It would not be an exaggeration to call this behind-the-scenes support."
"It's not an exaggeration. It seems unnecessary to hold back in today's training."
"Holding back was unnecessary from the start."
Invisible sparks flew between Daphne and Nancy, crackling like steel being polished by a grinder.
Thank you always for your typo reports.