Chapter 0

**Prologue**

I was the type of person who didn’t care much about how many religions existed in the country I lived in.

I mean, as long as they didn’t keep trying to convert me, who cares what anyone believes?

Trying to preach to people who won’t be convinced is just going to frustrate both sides.

So, no matter what people said about real-world religions or how they influenced stories, I didn’t care. If I didn’t read it, it wouldn’t bother me at all.

But there was one novel I just couldn’t overlook.

It was a world where the existence of God was actually confirmed, and that this God wasn’t the same one known in all the religions we recognized—what a twist!

Including that premise, the story was about a gate opening to reality and monsters pouring in, with people battling those monsters. It had its amusing points, and the characters were decent enough.

Yet, there was one aspect that didn’t sit right with me.

“……Theocratic state? State religion? In 21st-century South Korea?”

Yup.

In a world where God really existed, people had no doubts about that fact.

I guess that was plausible up to a point. It’s a trope you see often in other novels. Modern fantasy with dimensional gates isn’t exactly rare.

Still, the way the protagonist kept hanging around that religious convent seemed a bit unrealistic, but I guess you have to introduce the heroine somehow.

What really got to me, though, was the sudden transformation of South Korea into a theocratic state in just a few years because of that!

Life didn’t change that dramatically, but as long as there was an officially established state religion, that country could never truly be secular. It meant it was fundamentally a very exclusive world for other religions or atheists.

What kind of nonsense is that in a 21st century dominated by reason and logic?

And it was a country that used to guarantee freedom of religion! Not to mention, it wasn’t some old-rooted religion, but essentially a new one!

If it were any other time, I would have brushed it off and found another novel to read, but after just a few chapters in, I found a character I liked and ended up reading all the way to the latest chapter.

And the more I read, the more that underlying premise continued to bug me.

After thinking it over for several days, I finally decided to send a message of support to the author.

I started with something like, [Author, doesn’t it sound ridiculous for a secular state to turn into a theocratic one in just a few years?]

That message was stretched out with a maximum word count across multiple entries—

Explaining why existing religions would not let this historical shift slide without conflict. Discussing how, even if God existed, dragging religion into worldly matters would lead to severe historical and logical consequences—

Ending with, [I’m really enjoying the novel. Keep up the good work.]

It was a perfectly polite message, without whining that I was dropping the series, or harassing other readers, or attacking the fundamental genre of the story.

But when I woke up the next day, I found myself transformed into a five-year-old kid.

And I was just sitting there in front of a church, dressed only in rags, holding nothing in my hands.

Just then, a priest going in to attend to the church found me and brought me inside, literally rescuing me, and somehow I managed to settle into this new world with the name they’d given me.

I made sure to observe how this new world worked as best as I could, picking up a few words used in this world, figuring out my name and the place I was in, and most importantly, seeing how shockingly similar my appearance was to how I was described in the novel—even though I was still young—I quickly concluded what kind of world this was.

And then I was stunned.

“……Saintess?”

I muttered to myself.

Wait, are they really expecting me to become a saintess?

Someone genuinely gave me advice and guidance, and now they sent me to this world to mess with me, right?

No way that guy who wrote the novel was actually the god of this weird world, right? What a joke!

If someone claims to be a god, I’ll humor them if they can prove it.

I grabbed my neck in disbelief.

Yeah, a saintess.

Despite being set in South Korea, why do I have this bright blonde hair and blue eyes that seem distinctly Caucasian? And with a great figure and a sweet personality too.

I mean, a heroine being nice and having a nice body is all good, but why that huge race difference?

I get it if you’d want a refined character, but isn’t that just a bit unnatural? You can see the author’s taste from a mile away!

Did I ask to change the fundamentals of the story?

Can’t you just tweak the world-building a bit? Adjust the settings about church officials similar to civil servants in Korea, change some characters’ religious backgrounds, and alter the backstory of the hero’s parents that drop them off at the convent? Isn’t that all that hard?

If you just fix that, I even wrote that it could be a great novel!

Well, I guess they chucked me into this world because they didn’t want to put in that effort.

Whoever it is, they’re ridiculously irrational and illogical. They must know it’s a lot easier to rewrite the story than to reincarnate someone into another life.

…….

“Ugh.”

I put my hand to my forehead.

What in the world is happening?

A saintess? I’m destined to become a saintess?

“……Can I do this?”

I muttered to myself.

Of course, I don’t plan on doing anything of the sort.

Fine, I’ll just act all rebellious from now on.

And I’ll get kicked out of the convent to trample that plan right from its roots.

“It seems like they want to claim to be a god, but we’ll see if I acknowledge that.”

Just so you know, I absolutely refuse to accept that—at least when it comes to that one point.