#037

I don’t know what the hell the System is doing, not even displaying names above the Units’ heads. The user convenience is just terrible.

‘Ter… curly hair, mint-colored eyes… Sixth Apostle… epithet unknown… can see emotions as colors….’

“…What are you thinking about?”

‘Thinking that I wish the System had a memo function….’

“Ah, I am committing everything about Lord Ter to memory!”

“About me? What? Is there anything else to remember besides my name?”

“The things we talked about today… and your appearance, Lord Ter. I am engraving them into my heart.”

“…The conversation is one thing, but why my appearance?”

“Because it will be very rare for me to meet the Apostles in the future! I want to remember you properly so I don’t forget!”

I said this with a bright smile.

‘This bastard seemed genuinely sincere about not wanting me to get close to Adna.’

Rest easy now!

The (former) serf will go to a place fitting his station and live quietly!

You two can bicker and fight amongst yourselves all you want!

‘But can Apostles even date?’

I’m certain they can’t marry, but I’m not sure if dating is also forbidden.

There were descriptions suggesting that even for priests, as long as they don’t pass down assets, having children out of wedlock isn’t particularly considered a sin….

“…Why?”

“Pardon?”

“Why are you so sure that meeting will be rare?”

‘What is he talking about.’

“Wasn’t it you, Lord Ter, who said it would be better for me if I didn’t stay close to the Apostles?”

‘Thanks to that, I’ve got a setting where I can’t call Apostles by their names and another where I shouldn’t be near divine power.’

“…If you aren’t using divine power, wouldn’t it be okay?”

‘No, seriously, how much more thorough does he want to be with this gatekeeping?’

Is he interrogating me now, wondering if I’m thinking that Adna, who isn’t using divine power, would be fine? Right now?

“But the fact that I am a ‘Watched One’ must not be revealed, right? To the public, I am just an insignificant fellow from a serf background, so it would look strange if I had points of contact with the Apostles.”

“…What if there was a way to meet while avoiding people’s eyes?”

‘Wow, I’m seriously sick of this.’

I mean, how would I know such a method?

Even if I did, would I be the one asking Adna to meet?

If Adna tried to do that, I’d run straight to this guy and beg him to stop her.

‘What’s the point of being with someone who’s pissed off? Other than getting chewed out, what else is there?’

“Even if there were… would there be a reason to go that far just to meet?”

“You said that relationships require effort.”

‘Wait, did he take that as something I said about Adna?’

Just how much is this guy thinking about Adna?

“That meant I would put in the effort…. It didn’t mean the Apostles had to play along with that effort.”

I felt a bit disgusted by this excessive gatekeeping, so I quietly pulled my hand away.

“H-how could I possibly hope for such a thing. Just as Apostle Adna said, I know my place….”

“Don’t worry about what Adna says.”

However, the Sixth Apostle didn’t seem to care about that and gripped my hand tightly.

“Instead of Adna, let’s get close to me.”

‘Wow, even for childhood friends, this is a bit too creepy.’

Why not just honestly tell me to get lost? Instead, he says, “If you’re going to get close to Adna, get close to me first!”

I could feel his determination to ensure that Adna and I are never alone together, even by a slim chance.

Is he doing this because the Apostles’ current mission is something like observing the ‘Watched Ones,’ and thus there’s a possibility Adna might be assigned to me while performing her duties?

“…Do you hate it when I do this?”

‘Ah, right. This guy can see emotions.’

He must have read the emotion of absolute disgust I felt.

Flustered, I pretended to be overwhelmed and looked down.

“I-it’s a bit burdensome. Who am I to….”

“Sorry. I’m not usually someone who acts so tactlessly….”

Despite his words, the Sixth Apostle seemed to have no intention of letting go of my hand.

“…But would it have been burdensome if Adna did this?”

‘Seriously, Adna this, Adna that…. Is this guy’s epithet “Adna’s Childhood Friend”?’

“W-well, since Lady Adna isn’t here, I’ll be honest….”

I continued in a small voice.

“I’m afraid of Lady Adna… so being alone with her is very burdensome.”

“And being with me?”

“…If I had to be with either Lady Adna or Lord Ter, I’d prefer it to be Lord Ter.”

“Is that so?”

Ter’s expression brightened instantly.

‘Look at that face change.’

Are you satisfied now that I said I have no ulterior motives toward Adna?

“The Saintess told me to grant you whatever you want, if possible. If that’s how you feel, then I should be the one in charge of you. Right?”

“…Yes. That’s right.”

‘At this rate, the whole Order will know he has a one-sided crush on Adna.’

“Right, Fabio. If Adna becomes a nuisance, I’ll block her for you.”

“…Thank you.”

‘Does Adna even know you like her?’

“Well…. Adna has no ill intent, but she has a natural talent for driving people crazy.”

‘Wow, look at him. Adna has never flirted with anyone, but he’s complaining that people are troubled because they’re obsessing over her of their own accord.’

If you take that one step further, it’s called a spouse-dependency complex.

It’s slightly better in that he doesn’t doubt his childhood friend, but rather doubts every man around her, but I really wish he knew how creepy that is.

If he gets caught obsessing this much, his Affinity will plummet.

‘My Affinity for him is already plummeting.’

“Somehow, I ended up in the role of cleaning up after Adna whenever she causes trouble… so I can say I know her better than anyone.”

‘The “closest childhood friend” appeal is strong here.’

“Since I can read emotions, there are times when I feel like I’m going crazy even though I know Adna didn’t say things with that intention.”

‘So Adna is the type who has zero romantic feelings but makes comments that can be easily misunderstood, like “I entrust my life to you.”’

“That’s why now, even when Adna isn’t around, she doesn’t leave my head.”

‘Yes, yes. You are a severe Adna-addict in need of treatment.’

“…Even now, I wish someone would just take Adna out of my head entirely.”

‘Seriously, why am I having to listen to this?’

To have to listen to an executive’s ongoing one-sided love story on my first day of employment.

The Order is really running great….

“Um. In that case, how about we start by stopping the talk about Apostle Adna for now?”

“Right. Exactly. Sorry.”

Ter lowered his head, his face flushing slightly.

“I-I look forward to working with you, Fabio.”

“…I look forward to working with you too, Lord Ter.”

‘But so, where am I actually going now?’

Considering that Ter even bet his “character delete” to clear up my misunderstanding, and that the Saintess told him to grant most of my requests, my position seems better than I thought.

‘I wonder if they’d let me be a Chanter if I said I wanted to?’

That sweet-spot position where there’s no responsibility and only pleasure.

‘Even if they say no, I might as well just shoot my shot.’

“Um, Lord Ter. What kind of person does a Chanter actually become, and what do they do?”

“A Chanter?”

Ter’s mint-colored eyes widened.

“…Where did you hear about Chanters?”

“When I was learning Sacred Script, Lord Antonio mentioned that even if one lacks the talent to become a priest, as long as they can read Sacred Script, they can at least become a Chanter. But after learning that one can read Sacred Script just by receiving a Blessing, I wondered why Chanters were necessary.”

“Ah….”

Ter looked a bit troubled, as if he didn’t know where to start explaining.

“What did that Antonio… explain? About what Chanters do?”

“I heard that among the nobles, there are many who can read ordinary text but cannot read Sacred Script, so they hire separate people to read the Scripture to them. Therefore, I heard that as long as one can read the Scripture, they’ll never go hungry for the rest of their lives.”

“…You know that’s not the case, right?”

‘As expected, the dream job where money comes just from reading books didn’t exist.’

I had suspected it since I heard that one could read it immediately upon receiving a Blessing, but having it confirmed like this made my heart ache.

‘Nobles would have obviously received the Blessing, so they’d be able to read Sacred Script without needing someone else to read it for them….’

“Yes. The nobles are those within Order, and since most of them possess divine power, they might be illiterate in common text, but there wouldn’t be anyone who cannot read Sacred Script. Thus, there would be no need for someone to read the Scripture to them.”

“Correct. To be precise, the position of a Chanter was created to do the opposite.”

Ter explained.

“Nobles who had just been incorporated into the Empire often received a Blessing when they were granted their titles, so they could read and write Sacred Script, but they hadn’t yet mastered the common language. In those cases, a Chanter would read books or documents written in the common language to that noble family in Sacred Script, or transcribe them.”

‘So they were like in-house translators and interpreters.’

It’s harder than just reading the Scripture, but it still seemed like a decent profession.

‘Translation and interpretation is a professional field, so if I learn a few more languages, I wouldn’t have to worry about making a living.’

I’m fairly confident in my language learning abilities….

“Well, that’s a story from the era when the Empire was in full expansion. Nowadays, there are almost no nobles who cannot use the common language, so very few people receive Ordination as a Chanter specifically to work as one.”

‘Dammit.’

The market has already collapsed.

As expected, the Blessing is too broken.

A perfect intermediate language that prevents mistranslation….

‘If it’s a religion, shouldn’t they have smashed something like the Tower of Babel to tear languages apart?’

“Then what is the reason for receiving Ordination as a Chanter without actually working as one?”

“Because the Chanter is the only sacred office that has no obligations prescribed by Doctrine and requires no specific qualifications. That’s why when people feel the need to receive priestly Ordination, they end up getting ordained as Chanters.”

…What?

‘The Order allows people to receive Ordination even if they have no intention of becoming a priest?’

Isn’t that essentially the sale of ecclesiastical offices?

The Order allows that?

I mean, of course, selling offices and selling indulgences makes it feel like a primitive Middle Ages and makes me want to start a Reformation, but….

‘The God actually exists in the Dark Realm.’

No matter how you look at it, this is exploiting a loophole in the current law, and the ‘God of Order’ turns a blind eye to this?

‘Is there a reason why He has no choice but to turn a blind eye?’

“U-um, what are some reasons why one would need to receive priestly Ordination?”

“Hmm…. In the case of priests who serve only Loclem, to receive Ordination, they must swear to the Lord that they will not marry. You know this, right?”

“Yes.”

“However, while legal marriage and having children are forbidden, dating itself is not prohibited.”

‘…Seriously, dating isn’t forbidden?’

Holy moly.

I mean, is it okay to allow that even for the God of Order?

Do you know how much disorder and chaos campus couples or office couples bring about….

‘Well, I guess that’s why Ter can be so openly obvious about his one-sided love for Adna.’

If dating were forbidden by Doctrine, a guy like this would either not be able to become an Apostle, or his romantic feelings would have been wiped clean the moment he became one. If one can manipulate disgust and Affinity, why wouldn’t they be able to manipulate the feeling of love?

‘If I were the God of Order, I would have made everyone asexual the moment they received Ordination.’

Then there would definitely be zero sex offenders among the priests.

Since no energy would be wasted controlling unnecessary desires, overall efficiency would increase.

Wouldn’t the priests welcome a permanent state of post-nut clarity with open arms?

Surely divine power would increase too….

“People born into noble families have many complex rules when marrying, even if they have no right to inherit the family. Depending on the family, even descendants who cannot inherit the lineage may have the right to participate in the family’s affairs, and that right may not disappear even after marriage.”

Listening to Ter’s explanation, I recalled the contents I had seen in the setting guide.

‘The Empire was formed by swallowing various ethnic groups and small nations whole… It said that tribes or kings who pledged surrender to Loclem became feudal nobles as they were.’

In Loclem’s case, He grants power to anyone who believes in Him regardless of their origin, but many of the indigenous gods of the Dark Realm treat converts and those born into the faith differently.

Like the desert tribe with golden eyes, they view only those born with the bloodline as true believers.

‘Like an ethnic religion, such as Judaism.’

The difference from Judaism is that in the Dark Realm, the Divine Bloodline actually exists, and abilities are inherited as traits.

By bloodline, I don’t mean that a god descended to earth and mated with humans to produce hybrid demigod offspring like in Greek and Roman mythology.

Those who were once used as vessels by a god undergo significant physical changes, not just in eye and hair color, but in their very bodies, becoming closer to a god; surprisingly, these changes are hereditary.

‘From this, we can see that not only somatic cells but also the DNA of germ cells are affected by divine power.’

Apostles of Loclem are not supposed to have children according to Doctrine, but assuming they did, a child born to an Apostle of Loclem would have white hair from birth.

‘If that child is used as a new vessel, the cost is lower, so there’s a high probability they’ll be used as the next vessel… and even if the child doesn’t become an Apostle, they are born with a body different from ordinary humans, making them easy targets for veneration.’

In that way, if an entire bloodline establishes itself as something akin to descendants of a god, that bloodline naturally becomes the ruling class of a theocratic society.

Since various communities ruled by such ruling classes were subjugated by the Empire and given the title of nobility, the nobles of the Empire should be seen as a collection of various minority ethnic groups rather than a group with a unified culture.

“However, if you receive Ordination from the Order Sect, you renounce all rights to your family and become an individual serving the Main God…. Whatever the ordained person does, it no longer affects the family.”

‘So they’re basically using religion to strike someone from the family register.’

“That’s why there are quite a few cases where people are made to receive Ordination to solve such problems.”

“Does Lord Loclem allow such things?”

“From the Order Sect’s perspective, there’s no reason to stop it.”

No reason to stop it….

So as long as they aren’t technically breaking the law, it doesn’t matter if they’re abusing a loophole?

‘The Order Sect is really just winging it.’

38 – #038