## Chapter 14 – A Date?
It was the next day. Normally, people have the common sense to rest for two consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday, so I was sprawled out on the inn bed, basking in the morning sunlight, wondering if I should take another day off. But then, the thought suddenly struck me.
The sermon.
Today was definitely the day the Brass Sanctum Church was holding its sermon.
A sermon held by the church is usually a regular event aimed at gathering new believers, explaining doctrines and benefits like, “If you join our religion, you can go to heaven,” or, “If you get promoted to an intermediate believer, we’ll heal you when you’re injured.”
The biggest draw is that visitors receive a bottle of holy water as a souvenir, which is bait to lure in poor, uneducated people who have no money and treat holy water like some kind of panacea.
Once those guys join the religion, they rot as low-level believers for life, diligently paying their tithes. As far as I could see, the churches in this world were no different from multi-level marketing schemes.
Most of all, the holy water they give out is [Lowest Grade Holy Water].
Not even low grade, but *lowest* grade.
At that point, it’s probably not much different from plain water.
In fact, they might just be giving out plain water. In a barbaric age where crazy scammers are rampant, it’s unlikely that churches would be any different. They’re not clerics who can sense divine power, so if the church just hands over plain water while saying, “This is holy water,” the ignorant masses, knowing nothing, will firmly believe it’s holy water and experience a placebo effect, babbling nonsense like, “My back doesn’t hurt anymore,” or, “My knees aren’t stiff anymore,” after drinking it.
If they believe it, then maybe it’s okay, but the fact that they’ve been deceived doesn’t fundamentally change.
Somehow, as I was talking, it seemed like giving out plain water instead of holy water had become an established fact, but that’s just how I’m saying it, so don’t worry, it’s not really like that. In this world, the most trustworthy people are the religious folks.
Anyway, I wasn’t interested in that kind of holy water, and above all, I didn’t believe in gods, so I had no interest at all. If I had to choose, I might attend if they gave out a loaf of bread instead of holy water. I already know from experience that the holy water they give out at sermons has no effect whatsoever. I’d be willing to go if it meant saving on food costs.
And well, I didn’t really believe in the gods of my world, so believing in the gods of this world was out of the question. From what I’d vaguely heard, the gods in this world supposedly descend in the form of avatars, and divine power itself is said to be the power of the gods, but I couldn’t really imagine a god with a physical form.
Having been born in a country where polytheism has collapsed and Christ is revered as the one and only God, there was no way I could believe in things like the god of order, Izer Mart, or the moon god, Dantemone.
I keep getting sidetracked.
That’s just how it is when you wake up on a weekend morning. But more importantly, the core of those rambling thoughts that suddenly came to mind wasn’t that carefree feeling.
“Ah, shit…”
Come to think of it, didn’t I make a promise to go to the sermon with Winia after making some lame excuse?
Realizing that, my heart started beating fast. I felt a suffocating feeling, as if the black, tar-like tentacles of an octopus were constricting my heart.
I felt like I’d had a terribly bad thought. It was actually a bad thing. I should have just slept without thinking.
“Isn’t this fucked up?”
Spending the weekend with Winia? That doesn’t make sense…
I didn’t think that Winia, a mage who must be busy, would actually invest her precious day and go there with me for the sole purpose of tormenting me.
No… Thinking about it negatively, it’s quite possible, which is even more chilling. My only hope was that she was just saying that to make me anxious at the time. I believed it. She must have just said that to make me uneasy. That’s 100% it.
Is being a mage a leisurely job?
On her days off, she’d do magic research, make scrolls to earn pocket money, and hang out at the magic tower. If not, she’d teach magic to junior mages or meditate to recover mana. If not that, memorizing spells that have been passed down for ages would also be good.
Mages’ schedules are filled with such productive things, and I thought that just handling those things would be enough to fill a day. That must be it. That’s more reasonable. Aren’t mages extremely intelligent and rational beings? Even if Winia is a senseless bitch, she’s still a mage at heart. She’ll definitely think and live rationally.
Thinking with the power of positivity, I covered up the anxiety that had swelled up like a sprout crawling out of the ground and tried to fall asleep again.
“ㅡ!”
Suddenly, I heard a loud noise of someone shouting outside.
Who is it, some inconsiderate bastard shouting at the top of their lungs this early in the morning?
After all, common sense doesn’t exist for the people of this world. Come to think of it, Hel Korea wasn’t much different. Anyway, I wish they’d stop shouting at the top of their lungs on a weekend morning.
“ㅡ!”
I tried to ignore it and sleep, but the loud petty criminal showed no signs of stopping.
Maybe they got hit by a carriage and are screaming.
Unfortunately, someone kind and righteous would report it for me, instead of me, who was sleepy. In the first place, I didn’t even know how to report it in a world without 911.
“ㅡ!”
It was a little better when I covered myself with the blanket. Let’s just sleep.
ㅡKnock knock knock.
This time, the downstairs was noisy.
What kind of idle, crazy, penniless bastard is drinking from broad daylight and tap-dancing on the first floor? The world is so fucked up that whenever I try to sleep, people who were quiet until then suddenly get excited and start causing a ruckus.
Why does the person upstairs hammer nails into the wall every night? Why does the person upstairs jump in the living room every night? What does night mean to them? I think they’re definitely performing some kind of ominous ritual every night.
Amidst the deepening questions, I started to think that those were the best times.
ㅡBang!
And my door opened.
I was terrified and slightly lowered the blanket I had covered myself with.
ㅡWhat I saw was.
“Hey, Darkie.”
A busty mage with pink hair.
It was Winia.
“You should come out when I call you.”
I was so shocked by this unbelievable reality that I fainted. My vision went dark for a moment. Foam started to come out of my mouth. Lying in bed and falling asleep forever wouldn’t be so bad.
ㅡWhack!
“Ack!”
“Not only did you make me wait, Darkie, but you made me come all the way here, and now you’re falling asleep in front of me? Amazing! What do you think promises are!”
A staff can not only be used for magic, but also to inflict physical blows to the head like this.
Screaming in pain and surprise, I immediately got up and was dragged out by Winia. Winia was so strong for a mage that she could drag me around with her bare hands.
“Let’s go!”
“W-where?”
“Didn’t you forget that you were going to hang out with me today?”
Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to have forgotten our promise that day. Goodbye, my beautiful day. I was going to read books, exercise, and laze around, but it’s all fucked up. This is bullshit.
“Wait, wait! Let me wash up before we go!”
“You don’t have to wash up!”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re cute when you’re scruffy, Darkie!”
“What’s cute about this!”
“Hmm, I wonder? Like a big, dirty dog? Anyway, let’s go quickly!”
I was immediately dragged out without even washing up, just putting on my shoes.
It seemed that Winia was suffering from an antisocial mental illness that gave her pleasure from walking a dirty, big dog.
As far as I know, there doesn’t seem to be a religion that specializes in healing sick minds. If there was, I would have told her to go there instead of the sermon.
“Ah, shit…”
My shoulder-length hair wasn’t styled and was disheveled, my clothes were thrown on, and I hadn’t even washed my face.
If I were a woman, I would have been deeply hurt and screamed in horror just by walking with a man like this.
But Winia just kept smiling and marching forward, holding my wrist tightly. I don’t know what this sadistic woman’s tastes are.
“Then, should we do what you want to do first, Darkie? You said you were going to a church sermon, right? Let’s go there first!”
“It’s common sense to clean yourself up before going to church.”
“It’s okay when you’re with me. No one cares if you’re dirty except me, right, Darkie?”
“I-is that so? Whatever.”
I was uneasy about Winia saying “first.” Was she planning to stick with me all day?
I was too afraid to ask.
Well, she came all the way to find me this morning, so there’s no way she’d just let me go…
“Welcome, brothers and sisters.”
“The sermon hall is inside.”
After walking for a while, we arrived at the Brass Sanctum Church.
This large church was bustling with people from the entrance, as if many people had gathered for the sermon.
What kind of glory are they going to enjoy by joining a religion that they gather at this time and place? Religion won’t save you. Only your own strength can save you. If there was a god, it should have saved me from Winia a long time ago.
“There are so many people. You have to hold my hand tightly so you don’t get lost, Darkie. If you disappear on your own, taking advantage of the chaos, I really don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll hold your hand tight like a mom, so don’t worry.”
“What are you saying, that’s disgusting.”
We left the nuns and priests who were soliciting and entered the training hall inside the church. In the churches of this world, they not only teach good words, but also conduct professional military training based on the common idea of exterminating evil beings.
The training hall existed for that purpose. What else would holy knights or crusaders do inside the church during their free time? They can’t even beat their meat, so they’ll just shed sweat and blood.
Anyway, the large training hall was filled with people who had come to the sermon.
“Welcome, future saints. Today, we have prepared this place…”
While spending time with Winia, who was tormenting me in various ways, the sermon soon began. An old man who introduced himself as Senior Priest Alfredo began to give a boring explanation. It would be nice if there were chairs, but it was just like listening to the principal’s speech standing in the playground.
“Are you really interested in this, Darkie?”
“As I said, my purpose isn’t religious enlightenment, but holy water. Health is important.”
“They’re giving holy water to all these people? No matter how you look at it, they’re just going to give out some shitty thing that pretends to be holy water. What do you think, Darkie?”
“Hmm, you’re right.”
I know, you idiot.
While dealing with Winia, who seemed unable to bear the boredom, I decided to listen to the doctrine out of boredom.
The doctrine of the Brass Sanctum Church was as follows.
First, beat to death the monsters that kill humans, kill evil humans on sight, don’t do bad things that go against morality, kill anyone who does such things, otherwise kill yourself, punish the unjust. If you do so, you can go to heaven, praise Verde, the god of the righteous scales. That was the content.
If you just listen to it, it seems like a decent religion, but if you think about it for just 3 more seconds, you can see that most of the doctrines end with “kill.”
What kind of criminal group is this? If you consider that about 50% of the clergy arrested for assault in this city [Krasheim] belong to the Brass Sanctum Church, it becomes a bit strange. As a bonus, the remaining 50% belong to the Radiant Star Cross Society.
The source is what I’ve heard here and there from the Adventurers Guild, so don’t trust it.
Anyway, time didn’t pass at all.
