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Volume 1 Chapter 4 Part 10

「That’s because God turned himself into Crests and bestowed power upon the Lords. When all the Crests will finally become united as Grancrest, God will appear before us, and he will end the era of suffering so that all who believe in him could live in a world that has become paradise!」

「Thank you very much for sharing your unsubstantiated hypothesis with me. If a god really appears when the Grancrest is completed and the true emperor is born, I will gladly become a believer of his.」

「Those without faith will only be consumed by the holy light when God appears!」

「Oh…? So you are saying that if I repent and renounce my sinful ways, there is still going to be time for me to be saved? Well, well, well, is that not convenient now.」

Siluca sneered at the priestess. That was precisely the thing that she hated the Order of the Crest the most for: because they always tried to use fear of Divine Punishment in order to brainwash people into becoming the believers of the Order.

「But many people already believe in our God.」

「And there are many more people who don’t believe in him. According to a survey done by the Mages Association’s Statistics Bureau, the number of believers in the Order of the Crest is less than  10% of the population of the entire continent.」

「It’s also a trend that is  increasing at a furious pace, especially among Lords lately… 」

「Yes, of course it is, because If you preach that the Lord’s rights are absolute and God-given, then  I am sure there are going to be some foolish Lords who will gladly believe anything that you will be saying to them. 」

That was a method of manipulating the actions of the Lords by making them feel indebted for becoming a Lord in the first place by implying that they did not get their Crests because of their own will and actions, but because of someone else, some mysterious higher force.

「I can understand why someone would want to stick to your church if they were told that the gift that they have obtained was a legitimate right given to them by God, since it is such a convenient excuse.」

「And what about you Mages? Are you not using the peerage system to your own advantage by binding the Lords to yourselves so that it would be easier for you to control them?」

「I am not going to deny the existence of such Mages, because they do exist and everyone knows that. However, the Order of the Crest is still much worse than that, because its ultimate goal is to collect the Crests in the name of a false god and subjugate all the Lords to it eventually, right?」

「That is because we want to bring about the birth of our God in this world…」

The priestess did not even deny it.

「But ask yourself: are you looking to bring a god to life? Or do you merely want to create an Emperor whom you could control and who could in turn control the populace by using his religious authority?」

「It is ultimately up to you to decide which is the truth and which is false… but that is not the purpose of my coming here today! Just let me meet with your Lord already!」

Since the priestess used the argument that Siluca should be the one to decide what she believes to be right or wrong, it means that their little discussion was now over, and there is no use in arguing about it anymore.

「I understand well that the doctrine of the Order of the Crest is full of contradictions that might discourage people from joining it… but I am not going to go back with nothing to show for it! It is my mission to serve a wonderful Lord like Lord Theo!」

Siluca turns and sternly ordered the gatekeepers not to let the priestess through no matter what happens or what tricks she might try to get inside… but then she saw Theo coming towards her, and Siluca sighed involuntarily, knowing what was about to transpire. With Theo’s personality being the way it was, there is no way that he is not going to turn the girl away without listening to what it is that she had to say at the very least.

(Ugh… this is going to get troublesome…)

The Mages Association and the Order of the Crest are, from a lack of a more fitting word, at extreme odds with one another. Some of the Lords are obviously dissatisfied by the fact that the current peerage system places such a big emphasis on the role of Mages, which makes it look as if the Mages were the ones ruling over the Lords. The Order of the Crest was using that dissatisfaction of theirs to its advantage by introducing the doctrine that Crests are not the power that comes from within the Lords with strong feelings and convictions, but rather that it is a type of a special power that has been granted to them by the fictitious god that the Order of the Crest made up. Many people recognized the lie straight away, but unfortunately, some people and even Lords bought that lie since the idea of a god being the source of all Crests appealed to them.

(However, I think that it should be okay with Lord Theo, since there is no way he would ever believe something like that… )

But still, since Siluca wanted to depart Theo’s territory for Waldrind tomorrow, she was worried about what might happen during the period of her absence. She looked at the priestess again, and then she realized why she of all people was sent here by the Order of the Crest. She was cute, beautiful even and well-built in certain places,so it was obvious that the officials from the Order of the Crest were not pulling any punches in their attempt to get Theo to join the Order.

Moreover, the priestess herself seemed to be just a pure believer in the doctrine of the Order, so she cannot be dealt with by simply accusing her of scheming together with the rest of the church.

(Should I just crush her here and now before she becomes too much of a problem to deal with?)

Siluca wanted to complain to the Mages Association’s decision-making body, the Sage Committee.

The increase in the number of Lords who look down on Mages just like Mesut Medric and Navir Gerje did is also believed to be the result of the increasing influence of the Order of the Crest, because the ideals and doctrine that it propagates are the ones that deny the usefulness and the purpose of the current peerage system from the ground up. Siluca was also not expecting the Order of the Crest to send a priestess to meet with someone like Theo, a Lord who was largely unknown until just recently, so fast.

(The power and the influence of the Order of the Crest might be bigger than I have initially thought.)

Even Siluca had no idea if and how their power was going to influence the incoming Great War, but that was something that she simply could not afford herself to think about right now. At the current moment, her only concern should be getting to Waldring as soon as possible and getting Marine Kraishe to accept Theo’s inclusion into the ranks of the Factory Alliance.

Siluca had no idea about what her adoptive father was thinking and how he is going to react to her appeal, but no matter what happens and how fierce the opposition against her plea is going to be, she needs to make sure that the negotiations are going to end up with their success by convincing her father and Lady Marine that Theo is going to be a useful addition to the Alliance.

The thought of her failing the negotiations was scary… but at the same time, Siluca was also happy that she was going to see her adoptive father after quite a while.

*          *          *

Siluca was escorted by Aishela and went to the capital of Waldrind in secret. Capturing and killing a Mage who was acting like a messenger on behalf of their Lord was a clear violation of the agreement, but ever since the incident with Mesut Medric Siluca preferred to be safe than sorry, even more so since she needed to pass through the territories controlled by the King of Selvis, whom they just fought against the other day,  if she wanted to reach Waldrind. That is why she has chosen to refrain from traveling in any overly flashy or eye-catching way, so she did not take the carriage.

Since Irvin was sent to Waldring ahead of her, she had him already apply a request for negotiations in her name, and when she finally arrived at Waldrind, she was greeted by him immediately.