#008

Antonio the bell ringer was the only literate person in this village.

Because of that, whenever people encountered something they didn’t know, they sought out Antonio first.

“Lord Antonio. There is something I wish to ask you.”

“Looking at the clouds, it seems it won’t rain this week.”

“No, that’s not it…”

“If there are no major issues, the peddlers should arrive in three days.”

“That’s not it either…”

“If you’ve come to ask if a mushroom is edible, I’ve already told you I don’t know.”

Antonio continued his knitting without even looking up. It seemed the things people asked him every day were predictable.

“What I wish to ask about is the Order Sect.”

Antonio’s hands stopped.

The silver-gray eyes that looked up at me were quite kind.

“Fabio, have you become curious about the Lord?”

“Well, to be precise, I’ve become curious about the Order Sect.”

I pondered for a moment.

It would be a bit strange if a serf, who until yesterday was genuinely devoted to frontier life, suddenly sought a way to convert to a religion.

“Lord Antonio, have you ever been to the capital?”

“I have, of course.”

“The bell tower in the capital must be much larger than the one in the Earldom, right?”

“There’s no comparison. To ring the bell in the capital’s tower, you have to climb six hundred steps.”

As he spoke, Antonio shook his head.

“Compared to that, how wonderful is the bell tower here? You can just pull the rope right where you stand.”

He said that climbing stairs is no small feat once you get older. Antonio said so and resumed his knitting.

“So, why the sudden question about the capital’s bell tower?”

“…I just felt like seeing it once?”

“Hmm. It is certainly a magnificent sight. Those who hear the bell for the first time often lose strength in their legs, collapse, and simply shed tears.”

Antonio nodded as if recalling a memory.

I knew there wasn’t a single shred of exaggeration in Antonio’s words.

‘Even hearing about it in the game gave me chills.’

In Heretic Slayer, the bell tower stage of the capital cathedral occupied by cultists is cited by players as one of the most impressive sections.

After a suffocating battle on narrow stairs that seemed to stretch endlessly, an open vista unfolds.

The overwhelming scene of the prosperous, beautiful, and wondrous imperial capital being burned and collapsed by cultists dominates the view.

A boss fight against a hideously mutated monster takes place against the backdrop of the burning capital, and upon victory, the Heretic Inquisitor strikes the bell with the Divine Hammer…

‘I can’t forget that scene where light spreads with the sound of the bell and the divine barrier unfolds.’

Loclem, the ‘God of Order and Judgment,’ can exercise absolute authority within that barrier.

Monsters that even knights couldn’t handle are instantly killed by bolts of judgment, and the flames devouring the buildings die down on their own.

Then, the ‘Heretic Inquisitor,’ awakened as an apostle, spreads white wings and flies up from the bell tower; since you’ve been trapped in those narrow stairs until that moment, the sense of liberation is truly incredible.

‘Come to think of it, the protagonist of the original work is in this world, right?’

The setting of Heretic Slayer begins at a point where, in terms of Conclude, it’s the 7th year—the latter half of the walkthrough—where the power balance between the Order Sect and the ‘Plague God Cult’ has flipped.

At that time, the protagonist, the Heretic Inquisitor, was 28 years old.

‘Then right now he’s 21… no, this is even before the start of Conclude, so he’s 20 at most?’

A Heretic Inquisitor who just turned twenty…

No, he probably hasn’t even become a Heretic Inquisitor yet.

A twenty-year-old Athanas.

‘It would be a disaster if there’s an Order Sect fanatic among the summoned Contractor candidates.’

The protagonist of Heretic Slayer was famous for having a strange fanatic fandom.

Strange in the sense that…

Some would try to clear the game without using a single recovery item just to hear the panting sounds when Health drops.

Or a one-hour ASMR video compiling only the scenes where the protagonist dies would hit ten million views.

Or in Conclude, they would repeatedly get themselves killed by the Heretic Inquisitor on purpose.

They are a group of perverts who do… well, things I wouldn’t want to associate with.

‘Just in case, I must absolutely avoid getting entangled with Athanas.’

Because there might be crazy fanatic players around the original protagonist.

‘Even without such crazy players, Athanas himself is dangerous.’

Athanas is famous for killing without mercy anyone related to heresy.

And although I haven’t signed a contract yet, I am nonetheless a human summoned by an Othergod.

Of course, he probably hasn’t become a Heretic Butcher at this point, but…

‘You never know.’

…Then wouldn’t it be better not to go to the capital at all?

“But what sudden whim made you curious about the capital cathedral?”

Antonio asked curiously.

Since it would be awkward to say I was suddenly not curious anymore, I changed the subject.

“…Actually, what I was truly curious about was neither the Order Sect nor the capital’s bell tower.”

“Then what is it?”

“Lord Antonio.”

I paused for a moment and maintained long eye contact.

“Once, when I called you ‘Priest,’ you said you were not a priest. However, I still believe that you are more like a priest than any other priest I’ve known. If I had to pick the clergyman I respect the most, it would be you, Lord Antonio.”

Antonio looked surprised for a moment, then soon wore a warm smile.

“I am honored that you think so. But I am truly an unremarkable person. There are plenty of clergymen far more wonderful than I. You simply haven’t…”

“…seen them, perhaps. I know that too.”

I put on the most serious and solemn expression I could manage.

“I am a serf with no education and little experience. All I’ve done my whole life is touch the soil, and even then, if there’s something I don’t know, I come to ask you, Lord Antonio.

I am not ashamed of being ignorant. Because it is the truth. But every time I hear that it’s because I don’t know, because I haven’t seen much, or because I’m young, a thought suddenly occurs to me.”

“What thought was that?”

“…If I continue to live like this, will anything change even when I reach your age, Lord Antonio?”

Before Antonio could speak, I continued.

“Nothing will. I will simply become Fabio, an old and ignorant serf. Even if I reach that age and tell people, ‘The clergyman I respect most is Lord Antonio,’ no one will listen to my words. Because they are the words of an ignorant Fabio who knows nothing.”

“…Fabio.”

“When I think of it that way, I suddenly realize that while being ignorant isn’t shameful, it is truly inconvenient. The words of an ignorant man have no weight. They have no meaning. No matter what I say, it will sound like the babbling of a child who knows nothing.”

Even after I stopped talking, Antonio remained silent.

“…That’s why I thought that if I could see, hear, and experience a bit more, things might change.”

‘He has the look of someone deep in thought.’

“Of course, I will still be ignorant compared to you, Lord Antonio, but if I go to the capital, see the grand cathedral and the bishops, and then say, ‘My most respected clergyman is still Lord Antonio,’ wouldn’t those words carry a different weight?”

I placed both my hands on top of Antonio’s.

“Lord Antonio. What I was truly curious about was how I could stop being ignorant.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the capital. Just where should I go and what should I see to escape being a person who knows nothing?”

In this godforsaken Medieval-land, the highest intellectuals are the clergy.

Nobles? Knights? Those are ignorant fools who think, ‘If I keep an educated person under me, I don’t need to learn anything.’

So the answer is set.

‘Spit out the way to convert to the religion! Anto-emon!’

“How should I live so that when I say, ‘Lord Antonio is the most wonderful clergyman I’ve seen in my life,’ everyone—including you, Lord Antonio—will accept it as, ‘He truly is a wonderful person’?”

Hearing this, moisture welled up in Antonio’s silver-gray eyes.

He looked deeply moved.

‘Of course he’s smitten when someone says they want to change because they respect him so much.’

Just because someone is a devout, frugal religious person serving in low places doesn’t mean they hate flattery.

No, rather, it can be said they are thirsty for it.

Since they are people who do not pursue material wealth, power, or fame, it means they live pursuing only ‘spiritual satisfaction.’

‘There’s a saying that if someone seems to hate flattery, it’s just because you didn’t flatter them properly.’

This type of person has a very specific point to target.

When they are doing work that hardly gets noticed despite their hard effort, they are immensely grateful to the person who recognizes that work.

And if that person adds that their life was changed because they were influenced by them?

‘It’s over.’

“Fabio.”

“Yes.”

“No words have ever weighed as heavily on me as the words you just spoke.”

Antonio spoke with a slightly choked voice.

“The Lord said that the most noble Order can be found even in the lowliest of places. Until now, I had memorized those words by mouth, but I had not understood them with my mind.”

[

SYSTEM:

‘Bell ringer Antonio’ has been deeply influenced by your words!]

[

SYSTEM:

An anecdote is added to the achievement ‘Miracle of the Silver Tongue’.]

[

SYSTEM:

Affinity has increased very slightly.]

I couldn’t help but blink at the sudden system messages.

‘…My Affinity increases from something like this?’

If the System isn’t lying to me, ‘Affinity’ is a special stat that makes you a god if you just keep accumulating it.

Although it said it increased ‘very slightly,’ the fact that it increased at all was shocking.

‘If I just persuade enough people, can I become something like the God of Tongues?’

Not a priest or a bishop, but just persuading a bell ringer sent to a frontier village for waste disposal counts as an achievement.

Is accumulating Affinity easier than I thought?

“It is not that I am a great clergyman. It is that you are able to see a great clergyman in me.”

I snapped out of my thoughts at Antonio’s words.

“But I am still ignorant, am I not?”

It would be troublesome if this ended with the conclusion that ‘you are sufficient without learning.’

I need to get close to the Order Sect.

“No, you simply haven’t filled it yet, but you possess a vessel larger than anyone else.”

“But it is still empty. If I wish to fill that vessel, where should I go?”

I looked at Lord Antonio with eyes full of passion.

‘Send me to study abroad!’

‘Write me a recommendation letter for the Order Sect!’

‘Tell me it’s a waste for me to stay here!’

“…Fabio. It is a waste for you to live your whole life as a serf in such a remote place.”

‘Yes! Success!’

“Come to my house starting tomorrow. I shall first teach you how to read and write.”

‘…Huh?’

“There is much more to teach you. I had many books I brought with me, unable to let go of my lingering attachments, and it seems they have finally found their owner.”

This too must be the Lord’s guidance. Antonio gazed at me tenderly.

‘This isn’t what I wanted.’

Cold sweat broke out.

The reason I said I wanted to learn something was solely because I needed a reason to go to a larger city than this.

But if I learn from Antonio, I have to stay here.

‘However, since I said the reason I want to learn more is ‘because I respect Lord Antonio,’ I cannot refuse this proposal.’

It was a complete checkmate.

‘If I stay here too long, a Mothergod Fanatic might show up…’

But no matter how much I thought about it, no clever solution came to mind.

If I suddenly changed my words, I would only lose the Affinity I had built.

I quickly organized my thoughts.

Since it’s come to this, I have to think about what I can gain from the current situation.

‘Being able to learn to read and write in the Middle Ages is a precious opportunity.’

Since I’m not a child, there’s a high chance that no leisurely clergyman in the city would hold onto an adult serf to teach them literacy.

‘I’ll master reading and writing as quickly as possible, then insist I want to gain experience and leave the village.’

A serf who cannot read would spend all day doing trivial chores even if they went to the city.

But if I learn to read, the things I can do change completely.

Unless there’s a guarantee I can return home even if all the Othergods’ Contractors are exterminated and it’s Game Over, I had to find a way to survive in the future.

“Lord Antonio…”

I trembled my voice as if my failure to answer immediately was due to emotion.

“Thank you! I will study hard!”

Fortunately, I already know how to speak, so I should be able to pick up reading quickly.

As long as it’s not an ideogram like Chinese characters, I just need to memorize the rules for pronouncing the letters; it’ll take a month at the fastest, three months at the longest.

My spelling might be a mess, but I don’t have time to master that right now!

‘I’m leaving this place within a month!’

9 – #009