Translator:imperfectluckEditor:Kurisu
“...Please move aside. We have an investigation to carry out.”
“An investigation? Who gave you permission to do so? This is Town Anton of Sala, the land of the God of justice and commandment. We don’t welcome outsiders like yourselves!”
It had only just turned bright outside when I was woken up by all the commotion at the door.
Looking out the window, it turned out to be adventurers in an argument. It was a typical situation of someone blocking the door; a group of people at the door stopped another group from coming out.
The people who had their path blocked looked very familiar. It was the new trio of the dark cult’s investigation unit. The people on the other side seemed considerably strong, yet still caused trouble, so they were naturally not weaklings.
They were obviously a group of divine clergymen and fairly known members of the church.
The white priest’s robe was embroidered with purplish golden thread, which meant they weren’t ranked low. Although the crest with the golden holy sword on the cross was old-fashioned, the faint holy power that flowed upon it was authentication of a priest for a True God.
Behind his back, there were dozens of holy knights and soldiers with silver swords. It looked like the Cardinal of Napous had brought temple knights to the fight.
Napous was the God of Justice and Commandments; he was a Low God. His Divine Concept wasn’t the same as the justice he talked about. After all, the idea of justice was so overly empty and tremendous that even a main God couldn’t digest it. His true divine obligation was only to the lower concepts born under commandments: “discipline”, “self-discipline”, “rank division”, and “military regulation”. Quite a few soldiers and leaders were his followers.
“Is it another conflict about which website is the best for reading novels with belief cell phones?”
For the past few years, these kind of things happened quite often. Followers of various Order Gods didn’t normally get into a fight at the door, but there were quite a few fighting either openly or behind the scenes. As for “fighting for faith and influential power of Hell’s various Gods” getting along well, that in itself was an impossible mission to complete.
Sala was a small country which didn’t have the wealth of a large country, nor any powerful factions and vicious characters. Town Anton was a little remote town, with three small towns surrounding it, of no more than one hundred thousand civilians as population. Napous was a low God with limited priests and fighting power. The reality was that with all these combined conditions, this church only preached in densely populated areas. This small town on the border of Sala simply didn’t have Napous Church members.
Judging by their dusty appearances—sand covered the priest and the knight’s boots and cape—they must have received a mission. They must have been sent here on last minute from the Capital’s parish.
Faith was a True God’s source of power, believers were a True God’s earthly preachers, and the parish was a true God’s earthly residence. We could completely understand how a true God cared for their own inherently few territories, but it seemed that it didn’t hinder our decisions.
Back in the day, the God of law and the God of holy light signed an alliance in the North, which upheld the most fundamental peace and trust of the two major powers. At least, before the abyss was invaded and the holy war ended, and before enemies of both parties were annihilated, this fragile alliance would still last.
Didn’t they already fall out with each other? They had already fought at Hell, so why did the alliance still exist? That was because they’d already fallen out, so this alliance, which at first was completely meaningless, had become so important.
In reality, most foreign relations between countries in the world more or less went down like this. If both parties had the need to maintain their peaceful act for mutual benefits, then one would be able to spot problems in the originally useless expired contract. Mere verbal alliances were capable of becoming solid, ironclad writing.
And if both parties felt that there was no need for the alliance to exist, even if it was an era alliance which was approved by the people of the world, they would fall out in an instant. And then, they’d beat each others’ brains out.
But in that very moment, since Napous felt that he had been affronted, he naturally sent his own loyal subjects to banish those uninvited guests—not the disciples to help himself get out of a dangerous encounter.
At the doors of Rhino bar, the Cardinal of Napous repeatedly emphasized how the opponent overstepped their boundaries. Diyana’s group couldn’t take care of matters here, as this was Napous Church’s turf. In the face of all this, Diyana and the others had become long used to this kind of questioning.
“We grant the guidance of the law and righteous judgement; we come with justice and righteousness in our hearts; we reach our helping hands out to normal people who come to us for help. What about you guys? You live for your great true God? Then why didn’t I see you lot earlier at the blood sacrifice?”
Dark elves always had a poisonous tongue. Even if knights were legally restricted from lying and used mean language to purposefully hurt others, the simple truth was, on the contrary, even more hurtful.
“God of justice? I haven’t seen your God ever do anything for you...”
Seeing the other person’s lack of confidence, Mary, the soldier, took that opportunity to continue attacking. Mercenaries that didn’t know how to have a good argument would be angered to death sooner or later, and it was difficult to answer her question. Only the newbie of the team, Thor, wore an alarmed expression on their face.
“You guys... You... evil desecrators. Why do you deserve to be God’s servant? You dark-skinned...”
That was the kind of thing the Cardinal mumbled. To him, evil dark elves should have all been burned to death to begin with, and the God of law who associated with them was also an evil God. No—in the eyes of the fanatics, as long as someone didn’t believe in his God, then that was already a fatal crime.
From the way this Law trio saw things, these new guys were practically making trouble for no reason, and the fanatical priests were the loyal dogs of the Order True Gods.
But from how the old Cardinal saw things, the way that the other person looked down on his God was simply intolerable and reprehensible. If his God hadn’t issued a strict order to avoid conflict, they probably would have been fighting right now.
If it were other people, they would probably think that this was yet another inevitable prelude to a religious-conflict-driven holy war, which was commonly seen every couple centuries or millenia. However, I saw some innate differences between faith and the nature of holy teachings.
The pillar of holy light and the pillar of law were amongst the four pillars. They were also responsible for acting as the power source for law and holy-light-related divine power. The Southern sect and the church of law were created because of me. The most fundamental difference between them and traditional churches was that their teachings did not leave room for the Gods themselves. Their faith and approval were for the holy light and the law itself, not for other Gods.
Perhaps this didn’t look like much difference, but it was an enormous contrast in fundamentals. It concerned the relationship between mortals and Gods, and the future of the entire world.
Priests of various churches had a mutual respect for one another because they were all the most faithful servants to God, preachers of God’s will, and shepherds who herded their flock of sheep on Eich. Priests were absolutely proud of their titles, and subconsciously drew a line between themselves and mortals.
And yet, the teachings from the two new major sects told the people of the world that the world belonged to mortals. The point of spreading faith was to guide people to benevolence, and to make the world a better place; it wasn’t to carry out the work of God. Those out-of-touch Gods were just officials with special privileges who could be replaced or even erased.
If this wasn’t desecration against the Gods, then what was? Let’s not even mention that antiholy knight whom all the Gods saw as their natural enemy. For him to actually walk with those two major sects, it dissatisfied the various God orders.
In some sense, the church of law and the southern sect held up religious banners, but dug up graves for various Gods with their words.
For some reason, I, who had been observing from the sidelines, suddenly thought about the phrase “generation gap”... If we were to see things from another angle, time allowed for both generations—of the old and the new—to develop views on values, the difference between values of life, and different understandings of “faith and religion” that were simply too similar before our eyes.
But as mutual benefits and enemies existed, they had to keep their cool under the heavy pressure of their higher-ups. At the very least, they couldn’t carry the guilt of being the first to provoke an argument.
And so, this extremely helpless situation unfolded before our eyes. The Cardinal of this land had temple knights who had travelled from afar with him to block the opposition, and yet all they could do was...
“You’re a douchebag. Your entire family’s full of douches.”
“Your entire family’s full of douches! My father’s really impressive.”
“Douchebag, do you dare come out?”
“Douchebag, do you dare come in?”
“I’m coming in. Hit me!”
“Ha! Hit me first if you’ve got the balls.”
Since he couldn’t hit him, all he could do was talk.
Divine clergymen wouldn’t curse at people. They wouldn’t forgo those fickle religious terms and quotes, and turn them into everyday speech. All that was left was this kind of playground trash talk.
And since it had been decided that there would be absolutely no fighting, then they deserved to be praised for their ability to graduate to a school kid’s argument. And since there was no way to gang up and fight, some people came up with other means.
“I, the holy knight who has lived an honorable life, White Behemoth, challenge you to a fair duel!”
The middle-aged knight and leader of the group stepped out. Judging by his epaulette and mighty aura, he must have been a Legend-ranked knight.
From the looks of things, he must have seen that the strongest opponent was ranked Gold, so he wanted to use his name and strength to beat down the opponent.
However, the others stared at him with anxious looks. Clearly, the situation wasn’t hopeful for them.
Since the elemental tide skyrocketed since the dawn of the new generation, it became a lot easier to rank up than ever before. It became normal to see masters who ranked Gold, and there was even an ample supply of those ranked Legend.
In the past, the threshold to rank Legend was the most difficult to breach as it was a step to creating one’s own Soul Imprint; it was the conclusive end to the past and the clear path to future. It wasn’t easy to actually realize oneself, and with the current environment, even those without Soul Imprints were able to rank up. However, there was no way to compare strength with true legends of the older era.
Half-baked Legends like this were no different in stats from Golds.
Yet, there was still hope for them. As they strengthened their boundaries, they were able to also get a Soul Imprint. However, they were still destined to never be able to realize oneself. There was no way to compare their Soul Imprints to those of truly powerful Legends of old. It was always the case of a slight increase in some ability, but quantitative change couldn’t achieve qualitative change. Legends like this were called False Legends.
Now, the leader of the knights, White, issued a challenge for a duel. False Legends like him who only just ranked up not too long ago might be able to add a Soul Imprint with some time, but now, he and the Gold master were no different in stats. It was no wonder his companions were a little worried.
“If you lose, please withdraw from this mission and hand over your most recent clues to us. We’ll handle matters of the state.”
When arguments arose, it was common for knights, who saw honor as their life, to settle their disputes with duels. And, this was the best method White could think of there and then.
“We decline. We want to go ahead with the mission. Among us, we don’t—” Mid-sentence, Thor was dragged right back by a single delicate hand. Diyana took a step forward, and with a wave of her hand, she withdrew her silver heavy sword with sparks flying.
“Knights never cower from a duel. Please.”
I shook my head as I watched helplessly from above. How could this lady copy this too? Silly girl. What was a dark elf doing, copying the spirit of a knight? She had to be confused.
“But as the challenger, and a stronger challenger who was unfairly taking advantage of someone smaller at that, do you actually think that you have any honor worth believing in? Alright, then. As the person accepting the challenge, if you lose, your must leave behind the sword in your hand.”
Alright. I had to take back what I’d just said. Diyana was a lot sneakier than Diana. The heavy sword in her hand was just a standard weapon, which was considered excellent at best. The knight in front of her carried a double-edged sword with a slight glow. It was obviously an extremely remarkable magical weapon, and a superior level at least. Who was to say, it might just be an epic sword—one definitely worth gambling for.
And what was the sneakiest, she only mentioned what would happen if the opponent lost. She didn’t say that she would have to give her life if she lost. Even if she did lose, she could still talk her way out.
But the old-fashioned leader of the holy knights far exceeded the limit of his dignity when he heard “unfairly taking advantage of someone smaller”. The opponent’s words, which weren’t considered cutting, had left his face completely flushed. If this competition didn’t greatly affect the church’s reputation, then he would have had the urge to turn and run away.
Now that he heard his opponent suggest such a seemingly unfair wager, not only did he hurriedly nod in agreement, he even flashed the female elf a grateful look. For a second, he even believed that the opponent was the honorable knight helping take care of his knightly honor.
The flustered looks on his teammates’ faces seemed as though they saw something, but as their leader had agreed, there was no way for them to say anything now. All they could do was cheer their leader on.
On the other side, the trio was undoubtedly from Sulfur Mountain City, and a lot more simple and practical. Mary immediately threw the little bag that she had packed to the brim with all different kinds of tools to Diana. Those were items which a four elemental swordcaster who relied on foreign objects carried on their body.
And Thor handed Diana an ammunition bag he carried on his body. The open bag revealed different kinds of wooden grenades, which made people feel numb on the scalp. Goblins didn’t care what main job class they had, as they were all part-time merchants or goblin engineers.
The bastards in the bar were already tuned into watching the show and constantly pointed around.
And in that moment, I suddenly remembered something. I hurriedly got up and trotted downstairs in a rush.
“Wait! Wait! Don’t hit just yet, and spare his life from your sword!”
Then, the moment I rushed in the middle of both sides, everyone stared at me oddly. However, they really did come to a stop, as though they were waiting for me to say something.
“What clues did you uncover?”
Seeing the guide suddenly run over, Mary seemed to have quickly figured something out. Instantly, her words caused an uproar.
I, on the other hand, tried hard to be pleasant and shot my head up. I scanned every anxious face with all seriousness and used my high and mighty, yet deep and resounding voice to speak up.
“Gold female elf 1 to 15 odds, Legend holy knight 2 to 1 odds, a draw 1 to 3 odds. No limit. Come on now and place your bets, time is money!”

Comments

Loading...