At the end of the day, the weakening of the Goddess Religion as per the Divine Word Religionâs intentions, was a subject that couldnât be avoided. While the Divine Word Religion wants skills and status to be raised for the sake of the System, at the same time it is spreading a network throughout the humans, and has been putting in efforts in order to stabilise the world. Reducing the damage to the whole of humanity as much as possible, simultaneously has the meaning of being a countermeasure towards the demons. That was a major reason why the demons struggled to conquer the humans, in spite of the demons having higher status values. Controlling them so that large-scale wars amongst the humans would not break out, their built-up stress was forced onto the demons instead. That is the sort of detailed manipulation of peopleâs opinions and information being deployed to manage the whole of humanity.
However, if the Goddess dies, that influence will collapse. Should the Voice of God actually change, for the Divine Word Religion that places that at the heart of its doctrine, thatâs surely a huge problem that cannot be avoided. No matter what, itâs unavoidable for peopleâs faith to be shaken. If many humans then convert to the Goddess Religion, it would be possible for a reversal of fortunes to occur.
The Goddess Religion is not as skilled as the Divine Word Religion in dialogue capable of commanding public opinion, nor as skilled in managing information. If the Divine Word Religion sent a covert operative into the Goddess Religion, and then properly trained up a successor to the Divine Word Religion then that would probably be a different matter, but if they can put in that much time and effort, it would be easier to simply crush the Goddess Religion and allow the Divine Word Religion to continue. More than anything, the Goddess Religion does not understand the System. So installing the Goddess Religion in their place, is surely something that the pope could not countenance.
Originally, it was expected that the death of the Goddess would be much much further in the future. But then, because a certain someone used manipulation to cause a waste of MA Energy in an attack on that measly D, it caused a precipitous shortening of her lifespan. Most likely, the Divine Word Religion had intended to cause the gradual decline of the Goddess Religion, over many more months and years. Instead, there was a change in plans, as the situation had become severe enough that they had to quickly reduce the Goddess Religionâs power even if it meant war.
In advance of the death of the Goddess, the Divine Word Religion has been steadily advancing their preparations. Part of that has involved information manipulation. So that there wonât be chaos even if the Systemâs voice changes, they are already spreading rumours that indirectly suggest that the voice could change. Those rumours are steadily disseminating, and when they have spread through the population, those rumours will even be supplemented with legends to give them a trace of authenticity. For example, the Goddess has become pregnant and her husband is taking over her duties until childbirth. Anyhow, without making a statement on the Goddess of the Goddess Religion when doing so, Iâm sure theyâd make a declaration that the god of the Divine Word is the Goddess. Thereâs probably people who would notice that anyway.
Even if that isnât the whole truth, there is no way for ordinary members of the public to verify that. If the Divine Word Religion are able to make the announcement in advance, then when the Voice of God does change it would give them credibility. Even with just that the collapsing of their authority would probably be considerably reduced.
However, in that case doesnât that mean they have no reason to crush the Goddess Religion? Maybe, but itâs not so simple. Even within the Goddess Religion, there are those who regard the god of the Divine Word and the Goddess as having the same voice. Just with the voice changing like the pope said, there wouldnât be many humans who make the leap of logic to the Goddess having died. So I think that there wouldnât really be any humans who despair and lose the power to live from that. However, with regards to the god of the Divine Word and the Goddess as having the same voice, that presents an opportunity that is capable of causing the Goddess Religionâs authority to collapse instead. Iâm sure this pope would be capable of doing that much. However, he wouldnât do that. He wouldnât have the time.
For the Goddess to have died, that means his back would already be to the wall after all. The reason why the Goddess Religion hasnât been crushed yet despite having an inconvenient truth in its doctrine, is solely because itâs convenient as a hypothetical enemy. Or otherwise, maybe the pope has some kind of lingering sympathy for the Goddess. Making it painful to crush a religion that worships the Goddess.
Lumping all those expectations together, the death of the Goddess would involve the world in a major event. While thereâs already not a moment to waste, thereâs no spare time to deal with the political and ideological complications of the Goddess Religion. Thatâs why, he had to crush them during this time.
Even for the Divine Word Religion, it certainly must have been very difficult to accelerate the plan for the destruction of the Goddess Religion by several centuries. Then I, who at that time was seriously called the Nightmare of the Labyrinth, casually turned up and was used as a pretext to take advantage of the situation. Well, now that I think about it, I guess it couldnât be helped huh. Back then even I didnât really understand what the Divine Word Religion was about, and went around tearing up the battlefield in a fit of rage after all. So-o-o sorry!
According to the Divine Word Religion they are still going ahead with crushing the Goddess Religion. It wouldnât be called a war, but in order to reduce the national power of the country of Sariera, they have been increasingly isolating them diplomatically. The current situation is that theyâre waiting for the country of Sariera to lose patience and attack. When that happens theyâll be crushed right away, and even if they donât then their ideology will be gradually rewritten. To achieve that, war orphans and the children of poor people are being adopted in secrecy, and being trained in the Divine Word Religionâs style.
While I think itâs dirty, the pope wonât change his chosen path. Even if he has to create 10,000 corpses, then so long as it will save 10,001 people, he will implement that without hesitation. That is the man known as Pope Dustin. Recognised even by the Demon King, the monster amongst the humans. In a sense, even more than Kuro or the Demon King.
It is not possible to force this man to change his will. Unless you thoroughly prepare a path of no return for his will, then negotiations themselves are impractical. The subject of the negotiations this time was the anti-elf collaboration. Therefore, the chances of him agreeing where high.
However, we ended up being obliged to surrender more of our intelligence than expected, and it had felt like the talks were deadlocked. Since itâs also painful for me to talk on and on, once we simply had an agreement on the collaboration towards the elves, just when I was about to scarper immediately, this time it was vampire girl who screwed up. I seriously thought she might knock the popeâs block off.
Well, if thatâs the case then it would save me the effort of dealing with him in the future though, so for me that was all OK. The end result, was a KO loss for vampire girl. For a mere young girl who is wavering over how she should live her life, it was painfully obvious she would have no chance against this ojii-sama though. Heâs a monster of ideology who could even be called the Will of Humanity you know.
ăI have clearly witnessed your determination.ă
Vampire girl has frozen, so Iâll redo that declaration to leave that failed just earlier.
ăI hope we shall be able to develop a beneficial relationship going forwards. I shall come again another day.ă
What da heck! Donât stop me! I wanna go already!
ăFor the invasion of the demons, is that decided?ă
ăWhen abouts will it be?ă
ăAs soon as the preparations are complete.ă
ăVery well. When do you expect to visit us again?ă
ăIn ten days, at the same time.ă
ăThen, we shall prepare and wait in that regard. For making time in your schedule for today, you have my sincere gratitude.ă
ăLikewise, for your cordial reception in spite of our sudden arrival, thank you. ThenâŚă
A bow of the head, and this time for sure teleportation is activated. Their barrier? Itâs irrelevant!
I toss vampire girl and oni-kun into a suitable location in the mansion, and I teleport again. Iâve come to another dimension. Just for me, another dimension with nobody else.
Iâm worn out. Iâm totally worn out. I want to simply do nothing for a while here, without having to meet anybody. Or rather, I shall. When I think that Iâll have to go through the same thing again in ten days, it makes me so melancholic I could die. I feel like I want to spend the next ten days doing nothing here.
âSo-o-o sorry!â â Shiro literally says âmengo mengoâ, which is a corruption of saying âgomen gomenâ (sorry sorry). Basically, a very insincere apology.
âKO lossâ â just to be clear, this means a âknockout lossâ â ie, if the verbal battle between Sophia and the pope was a boxing match, he would have totally dominated and won by a knockout.
âI have clearly witnessed your determinationâ â this line from Shiro to the pope might sound a bit strange but itâs a somewhat archaic turn of phrase in Japanese. Itâs a bit like giving someone a pat on the head (as a compliment) but dressed up in noble language.
âWhat da heck!â â Shiro says ânanyanenâ here (short for ânandeyanenâ) which is a typical tsukkomi in the kansai dialect. âWhat the heckâ is a pretty literal translation.