Chapter 4

“Well, technically, yes.”

But putting theory aside, plans rarely go according to how we imagine them.

The information I had about Lee Chae-eun was that, on the surface, she resented the gods but actually had deep faith within her.

While I knew better than anyone that I wasn’t that ‘god’, Lee Chae-eun was after all a child raised in a family of heroes.

She couldn’t completely escape her father’s influence, and as the story suggests, that fact only poked deeper at Lee Chae-eun’s inner self.

So, I thought to myself—

What if she revealed her unshakeable faith hidden deep within?

And usually, it’s during a massive crisis or when faced with an unthinkable heretic that such profound faith tends to show itself.

“Do you understand? What I’m saying is that the word ‘god’ doesn’t accurately represent that existence. If we think of it in the terms of this region, then Zeus is a god, and ancestral spirits are gods, and the gods from foreign religions are all gods, right? So, what meaning does a term that lacks consistency have?”

It was breakfast time. I made my case in front of Ria.

I thought it was a rational point, but the regular folks in the church usually looked at me like I was spouting nonsense whenever I said such things.

For them, the term ‘god’ had long been synonymous with that existence in this world, so no matter what I said, it seemed to hold no weight.

If they just broadened their perspective a little, they would see how reasonable it is.

However, aside from that, this line of thinking actually proved to be very effective in sending annoying people packing.

If someone who has been educated on how the Earth revolves around the sun hears that the sun is orbiting the Earth, and no matter how many pieces of evidence or theories you show them, they’re utterly unyielding, they’d usually just huff and leave.

Then, they would be reassured of how rational they are.

Ah, of course, in this case, I’m the normal one and everyone else is the abnormal one, so it’s a bit different.

“Oh, is that so?”

But when it came to Lee Chae-eun—or rather, Ria, she simply let my thoughts wash over one ear and out the other every time I tried to chase her away for not making me comfortable in the same room.

A veil was casually draped over Ria’s bright red bob, I guess she was imitating how I usually walked around wearing one.

Earlier, as I passed by the table, the Sister Warden had looked at me with deep wrinkles forming on her face, and I felt like there was some doubt about my utility in her gaze, sending chills down my spine.

W-what if I got kicked out of the church like this!? I might end up confessing to seven people!

“So, to elaborate—”

“But…”

With a very sleepy expression, Ria interrupted as she scooped a spoonful of cream soup into her mouth like she just had a revelation.

“Hey, what’s this?”

She pointed her spoon at me, causing some cream soup to drip back into the bowl.

“It’s a spoon,” I said, and Ria nodded again.

“But there are tons of types of spoons, right? So why do we specifically call this spoon a spoon?”

“Huh?”

“A soup spoon is a spoon, a pudding spoon is a spoon, and a spoon for putting sugar in a teacup is also a spoon, right?”

“……”

“Isn’t it just that people made a collective agreement to call all these types ‘spoon’? Or we could just call it a spoon in English?”

“So, gods are just gods, right?”

Ria shrugged her shoulders and continued,

“Isn’t it strange to call something that everyone collectively agreed to call a god, anything but a god?”

“……”

I stood there with my mouth agape.

“What, has no one ever shot back at you with this argument?”

No, wait. Usually, they start from the point of accusing me of blasphemy rather than simply approaching it from a lexical perspective.

Even if they say it’s something they were forced to learn in the convent, most people tend to live under the influence of saint power. While they may feel some resentment towards that higher existence, at the same time, many more see it as a grace and feel grateful for it.

Because that way, they can utilize their saint powers a bit more.

And such people tend to approach the term ‘god’ from a theological angle as soon as it comes up in conversation.

The more educated they are, the more so—especially for the Sister Warden and priests.

In fact, an explanation centered around the idea of ‘just being called a god’ could easily be met with accusations of blasphemy for another reason altogether. It might imply that the being in question isn’t worthy of the name, after all.

If people stop calling it a god, wouldn’t that mean it’s not a god anymore?

For all I was still standing there with my mouth hanging open, Ria resumed stirring her spoon and scooping up more soup into her mouth.

Just a moment ago, she had an incredibly lethargic look, almost like the world was just one big hassle, but after throwing that jab at me, there was a strange spark of life in her face.

“And, if we don’t call a god a god, can you still accept it? People will still end up treating that non-god-like thing as some kind of deity to believe in, right?”

“Ugh….”

I was frustrated.

It had been a long time since I felt like all my logic built over 15 years has been entirely negated.

She was definitely on point.

If we change the word ‘god’ used here to ‘thing’, people would worship that ‘thing’ just the same.

‘Faith’ would become ‘thing faith’, and ‘saint power’ would simply stick to being ‘saint power’ as it is.

“So what do you gain by denying the word god?”

“……”

Damn it, I’m way too logical to refute that argument.

I can’t deny that something exists above my head.

After confirming that the Earth is round from a spaceship, denying it would just make me look like a fool spouting nonsense.

In the end, I just decided to keep my mouth shut and finish my meal.

I felt eyes watching me as I roughly tore apart bread and dunked it into the cream soup, but I didn’t feel like responding to that.

For some reason, white light fell over my head again, and I waved my hand to scatter it away.

*

After breakfast, we took brooms in hand and went out to clear the thin layer of snow that had fallen the previous evening. It was now mid-February and the amount of snow wasn’t so much that it made us incapable of having a conversation.

“See, if there really was a god looking after us, wouldn’t they make us do such bothersome chores? If you love people, you should let them have fun and eat. Isn’t there a chance the scriptures got it wrong?”

“That scripture, they regularly make new editions, remember?”

“……”

“This year marks the fourth edition, actually.”

Really? How did I not know there were that many versions of the scriptures in just over a decade?

I had heard there were revisions, but…

“Wait, are you saying that casually?”

“I mean, of course I learned about that much.”

I puffed my chest out, trying to put on a show.

“They throw out anything with miracles or anecdotes if they can’t cross-verify them, right?”

“Is that so?”

Gah. I found myself genuinely intrigued by her words for a moment.

I never really liked calling the scriptures the scriptures, and back in my middle school days, during a phase where I had outgrown the typical teenage angst, I once referred to the Bible my friend was reading as ‘A Collection of Jewish Myths’, which nearly got me beaten up. But I still found the scriptures somewhat interesting.

In fact, I had read it a couple of times.

Rather than being interested in faith, I enjoyed myths and had read quite a bit on related subjects.

Though, I oddly turned into an atheist because of it.

“This new religion doesn’t have such a deep history yet, right? As new religions emerge, you’ve got to firmly lay down the groundwork. It’s just a natural process.”

“That’s… pretty rational… wait!?”

I accidentally answered back before slamming my mouth shut.

Ria was looking at me with a smirk, and I waved the broom about, clearing the snow from the floor in a huff.

“Ouch!”

Just then, I accidentally jabbed my finger on a thorn from the old wooden broomstick.

It wasn’t a massive wound, but a thin cut formed at the tip of my finger, with a trickle of blood pooling slightly.

White light fell over my head again, and I waved my uninjured hand to scatter the light.

“With saint power, a scratch like that wouldn’t take even a second to heal, right?”

As I held my finger to my lips, Ria came over, teasing me with a smug grin, causing me to glare at her, brows furrowed.

Gah. Why is she so annoying?

I think I’m starting to understand why the Saintess Lee Chae-eun always ended up fighting with her.