I wasn’t their god, but they seemed to like me in their own way.
The man called Hieronymus took me to the stone chair, sat me down, and then bowed his head saying our answer had come down.
The heretics around who were in a commotion also followed suit and bowed.
When they bow, I can’t see their faces so I don’t know what they’re thinking. Still, by licking the boy and girl with the ridiculous title of warrior of faith, I roughly grasped the situation around.
I got warmth from the corpses below, but they were already quite cold, so although there was warmth, there weren’t proper memories.
It’s like watching a video that hasn’t loaded properly, with terrible lag and some parts teleporting. Something appears only once every 10 seconds, it’s impossible to watch and understand the context.
So I just had the warmth.
But those two were different.
From their memories, I barely learned the name of this heretical group.
Future Hope Church.
It’s an easy-to-understand name. Rather than a heretical group that believes in a specific god, it’s closer to a pseudo-religion created for private purposes.
They say that as pseudo-religions develop, they separate the god they believe in from the leader. In other words, they put a figurehead and the leader gets the most important thing.
Because if they focus on the leader, the pseudo-religion easily shakes with the leader. Even pseudo-religions have what’s commonly called owner risk.
But separating the object of belief from the object of obtaining wealth is convenient later. Like when passing down the pseudo-religion to the next generation.
Here, they’ve placed the pseudo-religion’s god on an unknown phenomenon and have been acquiring believers.
They demand excessive amounts of money, make people evangelize exaggeratedly so they can’t have a social life, and break people’s self-reliance through continued failures.
Once the label of being a member of a pseudo-religion is attached externally, it becomes impossible to go outside now. And hiding faces with masks is also effective.
It prevents horizontal relationships from forming between believers. Relationships are only effective from top to bottom.
They mentally torment, cut off relationships with others, and make people only look up to those above them.
It’s exactly the same kind of job as a torture technician.
But I don’t like it.
Shaving like that makes the light lose its warmth.
According to my experience until now, when hope is big, light has warmth close to heat. How can we raise this more?
Even if they’re covered in cloth or wearing masks, if their gaze is directed here, I can see everyone’s expressions completely.
About half of them have complaints. But whether Hieronymus’s charisma is strong or not, they don’t express it outwardly.
He must be a capable person?
I’m curious how this man will use the function I have.
He probably knows more specialized and extensive knowledge than someone with shallow knowledge like me. Based on that, he might be able to make a more meticulous plan.
Of course, I thought about immediately inserting my power into this person, but that’s not it.
The goose that lays golden eggs shouldn’t have its belly cut open, but should be raised with patience.
I obediently follow Hieronymus.
Hieronymus ends the ceremony with a shallow lie that our savior has come. He calmly tells lies that even he doesn’t believe.
Therefore, not many people are fooled.
The ultimate technique of a liar is to believe their own lies, but he hasn’t reached that point yet.
He took me to a place that the warriors of faith don’t know about.
Warriors of faith.
I scrutinized them carefully as we passed by.
I didn’t expect to directly taste warriors who would risk their lives for god in a specific religion like this, but they have more warmth than I thought.
It will be warm from now on!
Although the feeling of the wick of the body being frozen still hasn’t gone away, if I can get more warmth, maybe I can clear away some of this coldness.
So I wasn’t surprised at all when Hieronymus took me to a room in the middle of an underground cave.
“Rebecca Rolfe. Will you really use that name?”
“A name is needed to designate the subject.”
“I thought gods considered names important.”
Is a name important?
Is it? Maybe it is. I know that major religions have verses saying not to use names carelessly, and there are many religions that talk about various settings like names having power.
So
“I’m not a god. I’m just colder than others, so I need warmth. I don’t need anything else.”
I don’t need a name either. I just borrowed this body’s name because it’s inconvenient to use pronouns when calling. It’s very different from when licking light, but I can recall memories from the brain.
So I should use it well.
Emotions?
I can think that the person in front of me is hateful and scary. But that’s nothing compared to the cold.
So it’s as good as nonexistent.
“So, Hieronymus. Do you want me to act like a god?”
Before that, I asked Hieronymus a question because I wanted to decide how to proceed from now on. He thought for a long time before opening his mouth.
“No. You’ve already revealed your name. We can’t call you Lord Cruxshibal now. If we say that, no one will believe.”
“Then what shall we do?”
“As you please.”
After saying that, Hieronymus made a very troubled expression. Of course, from the outside it looks like a very stiff expression, and when I was human, I would have thought it was expressionless, but.
I can see it like this.
Light isn’t hidden.
“Do as you wish. And lend that power whenever needed.”
When needed.
That would be when Hieronymus needs it, not when I need it, right? Then I should say this.
“Bring someone with deep faith. I need warmth.”
It’s too cold.
I’m restraining myself. But I really can’t stand the cold. Even though I’ve already obtained more warmth than I had for a while, my heart is too cold.
A fundamental question flashes by whether my heart will become warm by obtaining warmth like this, but I ignore it.
Rather than losing this and sinking to that bottom to feel the cold that gets colder and colder forever, I hope to get even a little more warmth.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll bring someone right away.”
Disgust and fear, and faintly hatred rose and fell, and Hieronymus left me alone in the room.
Looking around, there are several unlit candlesticks, wooden chairs. And in the place where the gazes of the chairs converge in a radial arrangement, there’s a podium.
Or should I call it an altar?
It’s a prayer room. But the place is narrow.
It doesn’t look like a place where all the believers there pray. A place for special people to come.
That seems rational to think. Even though I know the general form of pseudo-religions, I don’t know the details, so I thought there would only be meetings rejoicing in wealth formation at the top. But looking at this, it seems that’s not necessarily the case?
No, thinking of a certain pseudo-religion that likes white hoods that evaporated due to comic book heroes after writing the same character three times, maybe it’s not necessarily like that.
Immersion is a phenomenon that can happen to anyone.
But the man called Hieronymus is not a person who gets immersed. Like a leader of a pseudo-religion, he looks coldly at the religion he belongs to.
He’s just using it because he needs it.
Such a person seems to be able to use the system much better. Pseudo-religion.
I keep thinking.
This is the first time.
Every time, like a fish that eats bugs by shooting water from the bottom, I’ve been reaching out to light, bursting it, and obtaining sinking warmth.
It’s a huge progress compared to when I could only watch without being able to do anything.
And if I miss this opportunity, I don’t know if I’ll be able to set foot in such a world with a body like this again.
It might be a chance that will never come again.
Then I should use it as well as possible. Forever if possible.
I don’t want to play god, but if necessary, I should include that in the plan.
I’d like to see the faces of the gods who actually exist, who didn’t show even their noses while I screamed so much looking at the light.
But that’s a lower priority compared to warmth, so I push it far away until life stabilizes.
While I was carefully drawing a rough direction of what to do in the future like that, there was a knock on the door, followed by a man’s voice.
It’s Hieronymus.
He’s back.
When I answer to come in, he enters with a woman.
The person who came with him is an old woman wrapped in quite plain cloth.
Was there a lower rank than those on the 3rd circle? Even they had patterns on their clothes. Even if she took off her mask when she saw me, the numbers seem much larger than expected.
It’s a much larger pseudo-religion than I thought.
“Oh, Lord Cruxshibal…!”
As soon as she sees me, she kneels down and bows.
Ah.
He brought her here by deceiving her that I’m a god? But the light is very small, and the warmth is small too. A human who has despaired to the fullest extent.
A broken person whose only hope, very small, is clinging to a god.
I don’t see any part of her body that’s whole. She’s missing fingers, and her skin is stuck with edema. Meanwhile, the man who brought this woman is looking at me with an observing gaze.
It’s the gaze of looking at a beast being raised.
An old and sick woman. But she has faith. Will this beast eat this food well? The thought that if it can be raised by giving food close to a relatively useless thing, it might be raised cheaply is visible. Wow, it’s funny.
Hmm.
Hmm.
What should I do?
This is neglect. It’s too small.
But it might be worth experimenting. Until now, when I stretched myself up from down there, it burst instantly. But if I’m in front like this now, and if I can speak, there might be another way.
I approached and took the old woman’s hand.
“I am not the one called Cruxshibal.”
Let’s break it first.
The hand I held twitched and then dull despair spread across her face. And what appears next is doubt about me.
“I am a cold sea wanting warmth from below the bottom.”
Truth is always a powerful weapon. When speaking, sincerity is conveyed even though it’s nothing special!
“I don’t have the power to grant wishes.”
Yes. The only thing there is me. If I had power, I might have gone around shouting harem like an isekai fantasy protagonist. There are even novels with slime protagonists, so if I were even that, I don’t know.
I’m on the low quality side.
“The only thing I can give is myself, so I’ll give myself to you.”
A slight dark purple mist came out from my hand. No, my body? This touched her. I want to take it away for warmth as soon as it touches the light, but I hold back.
Effort is needed to sow seeds and plant.
I push myself in.
I did something similar earlier.
“Instead, when you finish everything later, I’ll take everything you have then.”
At my words, the old woman slowly nodded with a blank face. Then, even though I’m applying the same force, the dark purple smoke gets sucked into her.
It gets absorbed when she agrees! But until now, it just burst.
Please don’t burst.
Please don’t burst.
Please become my tenant!
Crack.
What, is it bursting?
Cracks appeared on the woman’s face. Oh, I can see the name. No, I can see her gaze. I look at her, and she looks at me.
Joanna Smith.
Born as a landowner’s daughter and married into a good family, but her husband was a bad-tempered person, so she lived being abused, miscarried a child, and was abandoned. And with her mind broken, she couldn’t even think of going home, wandered the streets, and joined the Future Hope Church 30 years ago.
Only one woman remains, completely broken from overwork and hard labor after belonging to a pseudo-religion.
Clatter.
Fragments of her face fell to the floor. But inside, I can see pure white skin. Joanna Smith feels overflowing with energy. Her body falls off like pieces of a statue and a new body is visible inside.
As if breaking out of a plaster statue, a young woman burst out from inside. Except for the fact that her skin is quite pale, she’s not only recovered but even rejuvenated.
The light is stained dark like her skin, but there’s still warmth left.
Good. First, it seems the seeding is done.
Then next, let’s try raising it.
“Joanna Smith. How do you feel?”
She touched her skin that had turned blue, then came in front of me and bowed her head so low it almost touched the ground.
But even before she bowed, I knew her answer.
“I will believe and follow you for life.”
Hehe.
I’ve got a tenant.