Chapter 38 - 4-2
Bishop Kabel Kofie was elected Bishop of Siddim with the overwhelming support of the cardinals.
It was the result of an election conducted through legitimate means.
His friend Urgil Necrat, the Chancellor Gilma Rigardie, and King Swad Alish of Siddim had all decided that Bishop Kofie was a fishy priest with a penchant for conspiracies.
In one respect, this observation was correct. The Bishop was a greasy, bald-headed gourmet and glutton. He loved meddling in the human dramas unfolded by the secular folk in the world below.
On the other hand, this new plenipotentiary of the Roma Church in the Kingdom of Siddim possessed a sensitivity that made him tremble like a child locked in darkness whenever he knelt before God. The face he showed the Church was extremely humble.
It was not that he lacked ambition. However, he held no personal ambition.
—To lead the Kingdom of Siddim onto the right path.
This was his cherished desire.
During the northern winter, when the movement of people ceased, Bishop Kofie set out for the holy city of Kindary.
The journey took about a month, as he was frequently delayed by snowfall. During the winter period, a Grand Council is held in Kindary.
This year's main agenda was the movement of the Kosa people.
It began with the wedding ceremony of His Majesty Swad Alish VII.
The Margrave of Carossa, Urgil Necrat, had suggested,
"I want to plant some schemes among the Kosa people."
At that gathering, Necrat sought the approval of Kabel Kofie, who was a bishop at the time. Come to think of it, for a mere local magnate to conceive of something so grand... The Bishop of Siddim fell into deep thought on his way to Kindary.
—You'll agree, won't you? Since you're fond of this sort of talk.
There had been a joking ring to Necrat's tone, as if saying exactly that.
The Count of Carossa's target was the Thora family. Necrat claimed he would stage a crisis involving the Kosa to counter the Thora family. For the scale of the concept, the objective was petty. Necrat was a clever man, but he did not know the world.
To provide money and weapons to the divided Kosa people and give them an opportunity to unite. It was beyond absurd. It was a foolish and dangerous attempt. It was like spending a fortune to create monsters.
Even so, Bishop Kofie went along with the plan.
He devoted his efforts to planning and executing the operation.
The ostensible purpose was the expansion of the Roma Church's proselytizing range. If a great empire like the Kosa Empire, one that seemed to cover the continent, were to appear, what would happen? It would mean the arrival of an expansion period for every conceivable religion. The religious policy of the Kosa people was tolerant. Any teaching could be believed in freely. Free proselytizing activities were guaranteed. Tolerance toward faith was the tradition of the people of the grasslands.
Religious figures from all over the world would be licking their lips. To a religious man, a foreign land is an uncultivated fertile field. A religious man cannot help but rush in when he finds people who "may believe in any religion." Every human whose profession is prayer would leap forward to pour enthusiasm into those of other faiths to convert them.
If the Roma Church could take the lead in creating such a fertile field—that is, by giving money and weapons to the Kosa people.
The Roma Church could become the benefactor of a great empire. It could proselytize from a position of superiority over other religions. The Roma Church's advantage would not stop there. In truth, the Great King Aframa had received the baptism of the Roma Church in his final years. According to reports remaining from that time, the Great King's baptism was "nothing more than political calculation," and the Great King died suddenly of food poisoning twenty days after receiving baptism.
Still, rulers in the East were generally precedent-driven. If they followed the secret example of Great King Aframa, the Roma Church would surely be granted a special status and preferential treatment.
With this argument, Kofie forced the Church to cough up funds for the secret operation.
To be honest, it was a foolish argument.
To guarantee freedom of religion meant not establishing a state religion.
The Roma faith was the only correct teaching in this world. Coexistence with other religions was out of the question; it had to be the sole and absolute truth. For that, legal establishment was necessary. Even if something called a Kosa State were formed, it would be meaningless if it were not made the state religion.
On the contrary, with the establishment of a Kosa State, it was more likely that the Roma Church's sphere of influence would be endangered. The countries spreading to the west and north already had the Roma Church as their state religion; they were, so to speak, the Church's territory.
Just imagine if that territory were destroyed by the Kosa people and incorporated into a Kosa Empire.
'From now on, you need not force yourselves to believe in the Roma faith. Choose whichever religion you like.'
If they were told such a thing, it would all be for naught.
But even so.
Even risking that danger, there was value in nurturing and utilizing Kosa.
In Bishop Kofie's mind was the Kingdom of Siddim. This was not political or military; for the Bishop, it was a religious activity seeking ideological purity.
At the Delano Cathedral in Kindary, where bishops from various countries and bishops with territories gathered, it was reported that the Kosa people had triumphed over the Byo Empire. The Kandasyata Plateau would likely become a warring states period among nomads.
The assembly hall buzzed. Only a limited few knew that the Roma Church was behind this matter. For many, it seemed to be a bolt from the blue. A protracted discussion followed, but the decision was to send envoys to transmit information. The agenda shifted to the criteria for designating heresy.
One night, the Bishop of Siddim visited His Eminence Archbishop Kyle VIII at the Kindary Palace.
It was a night where the clear moonlight made the magnificent white marble mausoleums and halls stand out. On the roads, there were countless pilgrims carrying candles. No one spoke loudly. When seeking salvation, people immerse themselves in a melancholy silence. The procession of lights in Kindary was a procession of silence.
The Holy See Knights guarded the Kindary Palace. They, too, did not engage in idle chatter. It was so quiet that one felt as if they had come to a place not of this world. Judging by the face of Bishop Kofie, who had arrived by carriage, he had a pallor like an otherworldly ghost, stripped of all grease. Recently, he had been eating nothing but simple meals.
He was greeted by an attendant and guided to a small room. His Eminence the Archbishop was present in that small room, which had only a single candle. He possessed a stout build. His face was sagging at the bottom, his eyes were small like an elephant's and surrounded by wrinkles. What stood out were his thick lips. They were wide and large. Thanks to their thickness, they also had vertical height. They were a healthy red, with vertical lines clearly carved into them, and were always moist.
Bishop Kofie closed his eyes and knelt at the feet of His Eminence the Archbishop.
His Eminence made the sign of the cross and gave him a blessing.
While receiving the blessing, it was nothing special, but
"Bishop of Siddim, you have finally come this far,"
the moment he was spoken to, his body shuddered.
"We must see it through, mustn't we?"
"It is exactly as you say, Your Eminence."
—Now, there is no turning back.
Bishop Kofie's resolve was set. His Eminence was expecting this.
To destroy the Siddim royal family.
This was the cherished desire of Bishop Kofie of Siddim, and the task the Roma Church had continued to work on for hundreds of years. It was also what His Eminence Archbishop Kyle VIII prayed for.
The root of the "Siddim Problem" held by the Roma Church lay entirely with the Siddim royal family.
The first King of Siddim was a priest who claimed to be a descendant of the snake god Meki. He was a national hero who led the persecuted followers of the snake god to a separate paradise in the north. That man founded the Alish royal family, and his descendants have continuously succeeded as Kings of Siddim.
That was the problem. It could not be helped that such a history existed.
But it was problematic to drag that along to the present day. The feelings the Siddim people held for the royal family were simple. It was an intimacy of "Our ancestors fled together with this King." The royal family, too, looked down upon the people with affection, thinking, "The royal family existed along with the ancestors of these people." Between the two, there was a kind of happy warmth that was difficult for others to enter.
Because of that, the Kingdom of Siddim had a stronger sense of nationhood than other countries. In the bond between the King and the local magnates, there flowed an emotional unity that could not be settled as mere feudalism.
It was a truly beautiful story, but since it was an intimacy based on the faith of the snake god, it had to be called a mistaken, unhealthy relationship. In fact, what was being practiced in Siddim harbored dangers that could be called heretical worship.
If this point were pointed out, the people and King of Siddim would likely be wide-eyed with surprise. They believed without a doubt that they were proper Roma believers. They were convinced that the faith of the snake god no longer existed anywhere.
—That is wrong.
That is incorrect. The faith of the snake god breathed on steadily. Within the things that made Siddim what it was. In the very existence of the royal family.
Only the Roma teachings could teach the way a human should be. Only the Roma Church could shape a nation. It was a matter of who grants the qualification of a King. There was none other than God. Only the Church, which mediates between the Tenshu and the secular world, can crown the kings of each nation. He especially wanted to say to the people of Siddim.
You are entrusting yourselves to something other than the sole and absolute God.
The one you have formed a bond of trust with is the snake god's king, whom the Roma Church denied.
The King of Siddim is by no means a savior who led the people. A savior appears from among the Roma believers.
Your faith is muddy. You serve a pagan king.
—With such things, I cannot save you...!
The Church tried various measures in Siddim. Preachers explained how humanity had overcome the mistaken faith in an animal god. The Siddim people would not listen. Because they believed they were honest Roma believers. That the snake god faith was a story of the past and had nothing to do with their current selves.
There were even those among the Church's clergy who could not understand the essence of the problem.
It would be even better if they could say "the snake god Meki was a demon." However, if they said that, the Roma Church would lose the trust of the Siddim people. It would lead to a sharp conflict with the King of Siddim.
For Siddim, the origin of "we who were once snake god believers" was important.
To take pride in ancestors who were followers of the snake god was a betrayal of the Roma faith. Yet, they would absolutely never admit it. With various strange excuses, they made their identity as someone close to the royal family and their identity as a Roma believer coexist.
This was a situation that could not be left alone, and it was a bad precedent.
The thousand years of the Alish dynasty in Siddim were also a thousand years of defeat for the Roma Church.
The Kingdom of Siddim had to be corrected. The Alish family had to be destroyed, and the dynasty had to be severed.
As the means for that, the Kosa people.
They would likely destroy Siddim. And their destruction would surely burn away and purify the errors of Siddim.
That was the core of the religious activity promoted by Bishop Kabel Kofie of Siddim.
Bishop Kofie was guided to another room by His Eminence the Archbishop. There was a dining table lit by candles. Wine and a whole roasted chicken had been prepared by an attendant.
He reflexively swallowed, his throat clicking.
His Eminence the Archbishop smiled.
"Let us eat. Come."
Urged on, he took his seat. The Roma faith only forbade excessive eating and drinking; drinking alcohol and eating meat did not violate the precepts. Still, not eating was what it meant to be a member of the clergy. Luxurious food should be given to the poor.
His Eminence the Archbishop was eating, his red lips glistening with oil.
He possessed an appetite that was almost admirable.
Bishop Kofie also started on the meat. The Bishop of Siddim thought that His Eminence the Archbishop was surely eating out of consideration, forcing himself to do so.
While eating, they discussed the dangers arising from fattening the power of the Kosa people.
"The strange thing is that those Kosa people do not use gold and silver as currency very often. Yet, there are no people who seek the power of gold and silver as much as they do. In other words, they view the countries of the world as swamps filled with gold coins."
"And they want to connect those swamps into one and create a river where gold coins flow?"
"That is correct. And a great river at that. Their world domination is the domination of that great river. Your Eminence, the Kosa people likely view the countries where our good people, the people of Roma, live as lakes where gold sinks."
"I imagine so. Even so—"
It was unavoidable that the north and west would be embroiled in war with the Kosa people.
—The survival of the Church is the most important thing.
That was the sort of thing His Eminence the Archbishop said.
"Besides, even if we had not intervened, this was an unavoidable fate."
"Fate?"
"Bishop of Siddim, do you know of the star called Luv-Oo?"
It sounded familiar.
In a distant memory, a trio of old men appeared.
"Fifteen years ago, it was a red star that shone in the northern sky. Luv-Oo chooses one king and changes everything. We had no choice but to take action."
"But that way of thinking is far too..."
Pagan, perhaps?
The act of predicting the future through celestial observation was heresy; His Eminence the Archbishop himself had privately leaked that just the other day.
"Indeed. I intend to burn prophets and magicians alike at the stake eventually. However, that is not because those practitioners of occultism are liars or incompetent."
His Eminence's small eyes narrowed, and his great lips wore a smile.
In the carriage on the way back, Bishop Kofie thought of the scale of His Eminence the Archbishop's thinking.
God, the Church, and the people.
These three are enough for the world. A beautiful, clean world; a transparent, pure, correct world. Snake gods and magic are impurities. They are mud that stains spring water. His Eminence intended to eliminate them. He intended to remake the world into something transparent.
Bishop Kofie found His Eminence the Archbishop's ambition reassuring.
His blood surged with the feeling that he wanted to be of help.
—I shall push further; that seems better.
Once he returned to Siddim, he would immediately send instructions to Meira.
Was it not about time to decide on the King of the Kosa State?