CH 121

[Cathedral and Denominations]

“Oh~! The building looked amazing from the outside, but the inside turns out to be even more so.” (Iris)

“Even if they’re rotten, this is still the center of religion, so they made it grand to show off their authority. Ahh, those mammonists are so unseemly! I wonder if we should shave them bald with that gold knife and bring it back with us as a souvenir!” (Ethel)

“Spoken like a true mammonist.” (Sakurai)

We left Horsie… I mean, Freon at the inn and came to the cathedral.

This place was said to be based on a famous cathedral in my previous life.

As soon we entered through the entrance, we were immediately greeted with the grand-looking huge nave.

The pure white nave is wide, tall, and long to the point that the extremely large crowd of people bustling about inside it look like ants.

The designs and decorations applied to every part of the nave are all splendorous and luxurious, but they don’t destroy the atmosphere of the white-based nave, but rather further enhances its elegance and purity.

There are side corridors on the left and right sides of the nave, and statues of various gods are enshrined there at regular intervals.

In addition to the gods of the Egyptian mythology led by Anubisthat I’m familiar with, there are sections with a mix of Norse and Greek mythologies, and also sections of Japanese mythology.

There are 13 god statues on each side, 26 in total.

These were all the gods introduced in the game after the ‘Netherworld Arc’ and another additional content were released, so it seems that this world fully adopted all the elements of the original game that I knew.

The gods gathered here have their own fields of dominion, and people are separated into different denominations depending on which god they believe in— that’s the setting of religion in this world.

“That being said, denominations all have the common principle of basically ‘let’s live in harmony, don’t do bad things’. As for their difference, perhaps it is the advantage that each denomination gives. People usually choose which god to worship depending on what role they want to play in society.” (Ethel)

“I see… Then, for example, that god. What kind of god he is?”

“Hinokagutsuchi, eh. He rules over everything related to ‘fire’. He’s worshipped by anyone who uses fire in their profession like blacksmiths and cooks. It is said that if you have wild temperament, you can compose yourself by worshipping him, on the other hand if you pray so that the fire doesn’t go wild you can get better at handling fire. Also, he gives blessings that can improve your skills or prevent you from getting injuries or getting into accidents that stemmed from fire.” (Ethel)

Ethel, being asked by Iris, explains a little lazily.

From her expression, Ethel doesn’t seem to be motivated, but still, no matter how rotten she is, she’s still a former sister. As we walked down the nave, she smoothly gave the explanation without even turning her head.

By the way, ‘denomination’ in the game was a means to further strengthen the Faith skill possessed by a character.

A character who has raised their Faith skill to a certain level by continuing to pray in church in the academy would be able to choose one of the 26 god statues in this cathedral and become a part of that god’s denomination.

And depending on which denomination that is chosen, the character can get bonus abilities and special skills, of which power is based on the level of the Faith skill.

Using ‘Hinokagutsuchi’ that they’re talking about for example; worshipping him gives ‘n% reduction to received fire-attributed damage and n% increase in the success rate and quality of production skills related to fire’. Worshipping Anubis, on the other hand, gives ‘n% increase in attack power against immortal and ghost type monsters, and become able to learn some of the Soul Attack skills’.

(But honestly, I hardly ever chose Anubis back in the day.)

Sacred magic, which can be used by raising Faith skill, itself is very effective against immortal and ghost type monsters, so if you raise it, you can demonstrate unrivaled might against those monsters.

However, since immortal and ghost type monsters rarely appeared in the main storyline, the opportunity for Faith skill that was strengthened by joining his denomination to show its worth was few, so I hardly ever chose him.

Well, back then, I failed to raise the level of Faith skill and ended up wasting my precious time, so in this life, I’ll never going to touch anything related to it.

“Ah! Sakurai-san, it’s Anubis-sama! That’s the statue of Anubis-sama!” (Iris)

[Iris, huh. It is good to see that you are healthy.]

“Do these statues have a conversation function, too?” (Sakurai)

“What are you saying, Tōru. There’s no way they do.” (Ethel)

“No, but this one’s talking.” (Sakurai)

“Haah? I don’t hear anything, though. Anyways, if the object of worship, that is the statue of god, begin to speak on its own, that would be a monumental affair, y’know.” (Ethel)

[O’ Sakurai. Only humans who have been in Netherworld can hear our voice.]

“Ah~, is that so… hm? In other words, this is kinda like an oracle, in that only a limited number of people can hear?”

[That is right. Alhough, we cannot keep the conversation for too long.]

“Anubis-sama! I’ll bring you a souvenir the next time I come back!” (Iris)

[We look forward to it, but don’t push yourself. It is our utmost joy to see you safe and healthy.]

“Ah, please give my best regards to Big bro Thoth.” (Sakurai)

[Umu.]

“Hey, who are you two talking to? What do you mean by oracle? Don’t tell me, you really hear the voice of god? Heyyy???” (Ethel)

Ignoring Ethel who has begun to become flustered for some reason, Iris continues to exchange words with Anubis.

To check how she’s doing by performing an oracle of sorts… he sure loves her.

Anyways, our purpose in coming to the cathedral is not to talk to a god.

It’s gonna be a problem if the conversation continues endlessly, so I end it at an appropriate moment, take Iris’s hand who seems reluctant, and lead the way forward.

“N-no one is aware of it, right? It’s fine, there was no one nearby, so it’s gotta be fine. If the fact that the two received an oracle gets out, things will totally become troublesome… un, let’s forget it. I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t know anything, and there was no way they were able to hear an oracle! Yosh!” (Ethel)

As we were guided to a separate room by an official of the cathedral, Ethel was acting strange along the way.

Could she be worried about returning to her mother’s place, who is the current saintess, like in the game?

(The other party summoned her as a condition for providing information about dungeons, so I’d like her to get a grip, but… well, I’ll be there support her when the time comes.)

If she is someone who I don’t have much interaction with, I’d have forcefully sell her out to the other party in exchange for the information when she lets her guard down and get back home quickly, but Amanai already entrusted her safety to me in advance, so I can’t use her as an exchange goods.

(Good grief, even though I just came to get information, there sure are lots of works to do here. If only threats work on the other party, this would surely end in a jiffy~)

But the other party is a person who holds the position of saintess, she’d never give in to something like a threat. Which means, we’d have to obediently discuss with her.

Well… that discussion would lead to the start of Ethel’s individual episode and things would get messy, though.

(Well, it’ll work out somehow! Probably, I’m sure!)

With that in mind, I did practice-swing… until an official of the cathedral came and told me to stop, so I worked hard on knitting using the yarn I took out of my pocket.