182 – Fragment of Power (11)
“Damn… Damn…!”
A voice boiling with hatred resonates darkly. The voice, which was similar to crawling on the floor, was so heavy that if there were other people around, my body would immediately freeze.
“This is the emperor! Compared to what I thought, it is so insignificant!”
The identity of that voice is the emperor of the Aquileian Empire.
If Faust had not existed from the beginning, he would have led the richest country and grabbed the most power in a world maintained by the order created by Seraphia, but the power has long since left his hands.
The upper echelons of the empire, which had experienced countless nightmares from Serapia’s brainwashing to the Baton Touch of the Faust Church, were filled with crazy people whose brains were filled with fanaticism, and those crazy people had no idea about administrative work.
There are already a lot of places that need to be restored, but everyone is just stupid, so the wealth of the empire is not going where it needs to be restored, and it is gradually drying up, and this becomes an arrow aimed at the emperor, who is ultimately responsible, and undermines his authority.
If other people were just incompetent, I wouldn’t be so angry.
“…Pierre, that bastard must be killed.”
The emperor speaks calmly, without any concern that it might cause trouble if someone overhears. If I don’t spit out all the scum that has built up in my mouth, I feel like I’m going to die of heat illness.
Isn’t it impossible to throw one’s life away just because one’s political position becomes disadvantageous?
[Are they sabotaging us now!? What is the point of all this useless budget!!]
[Speaking of a useless budget, isn’t the most important thing for the devastated people to be prayers to God and the psychological stability that comes from such prayers?]
[We need to think about restoring the devastated environment, what are we going to do if we make people get used to the devastation!!]
[We don’t know how long the recovery policy will take or whether it will be successful, but the work of spreading religious faith and stabilizing society has a set period and will definitely succeed. Isn’t it obvious where to allocate the budget?]
[This guy…!]
From Noble mtl dot com
Above all, the emperor’s anger is extremely justified. Pierre, the patriarch of the Church of Faust, took the opportunity to spread the glory of the Church of Faust in the ruined empire after numerous incidents, and desperately tried to interfere with the emperor and his associates who still remained sane.
Above all, the ability to restore the empire was all hijacked and used to build churches or spread the power of the religious order, so anyone who knows how the country is going can’t help but hate Pierre.
Pierre, who very effectively controls and utilizes people whose heads are simply filled with fanaticism, is the number one person to eliminate for those who want to restore the empire to its original state.
“Ha, hahahaha… hahahahaha…”
However, despite knowing this, the emperor cannot do anything. He can’t move his hands or feet, his whole body is tightly bound, and all he can do is cry out for help.
Because Pierre is just an agent.
An agent of God who is alive, breathing, and walking around the world.
When the Seraphia Church spread widely throughout the empire, it was not at this level.
Seraphia treated everything in the underworld as a battery source of power, so she didn’t really care what happened, but in other words, no matter how or what the underworld people did, as long as they served her, she didn’t touch them much. It doesn’t matter to Seraphia how the lower things live.
But the Church of Faust is different.
Unlike Seraphia, Faust lives in the underworld and interferes closely with him, and that alone provides great religious satisfaction to those who truly believe in Faust, and those who are so satisfied join the Faust Church and use Pierre’s weapon as the weapon of God. It has become a weapon for agents.
If Pierre is assassinated in this state, the weapons will lose their owner and be wielded carelessly, which means the fall of the empire. At the very least, the entire imperial family, including the emperor, will undoubtedly be exterminated.
“…In the end, that’s all there is to it.”
Then there is only one means left to the emperor.
You trample on your own pride, trample on your own personality, and reject your own reason for existence, but this is the only means to overcome this terrible bondage.
Making a wish to Faust.
It is an extremely humiliating choice for the emperor, whose empire and life have been ruined by Faust, but if this is not done, the emperor will become a vegetable and unable to do anything, so he must at least struggle.
‘…There is no such irony in asking Faust to solve the problem caused by the tyranny of the Church of Faust…But there is nothing we can do for the sake of the subjects.’
Above all, it is a problem for the people of the empire.
At least the emperor, who knew very well what position he was sitting in, had a tremendous sense of responsibility for his throne, and that sense of responsibility was enough to make him feel pity for the people of the empire who were merely livestock.
If the people of the Empire were to live as slaves and livestock forever due to the Church of Faust, nothing would be more terrible than that, so the moment the emperor thought about that, he had already made up his mind.
**********
‘Umm…’
At night, while the warrior party is sleeping after finishing their training, Faust, on the rooftop of the mansion where everyone is staying, sighs deeply.
Anyway, these days, my faith in myself is getting stronger day by day. At first, I just ignored it because it was so weak, but as I continued to ignore it, it grew to a level where I could no longer ignore it.
The demons of Katara managed by Irine now completely worship me as the only god, so the power of faith coming from the demons is extremely strong, but the power of faith coming from other places is also negligible. No.
‘This will be conveyed not only to me but also to others, right?’
When the other me was separated from me with half of my strength, the power of faith that filled my body was also split in half.
In other words, it means that another me is also entitled to the power of faith, so half of the power of faith that fills my body at every moment will also go to another me.
Hmm… That’s difficult.
I would say it is better to have half of the power in my possession than to have the divine power completely from the other side, but wouldn’t it be worse than not getting any power at all?
If another me, who possesses all kinds of divine status, also gains power through faith… Ugh, it’s scary to even think about it. Since you can only fully use divine power if you have faith, the more I imagine dealing with another me who also has faith, the more I get goosebumps all over my body.
“Aigoceros.”
“Yes, Faust.”
Even though there was obviously no one around, when I called Aigokeros, Aigokeros appeared next to me so naturally, as if he had been there from the beginning.
“How many people are spreading their faith in me?”
“That’s… Sorry, it’s hard to know for sure because there are so many, but I think it’s around 200,000.”
“200,000 People… Isn’t that a bit small considering that they traveled around the world doing missionary work?”
“200,000 Does not simply represent the number of believers. It is the number of people who are truly inspired by Faust’s power and are desperately engaged in missionary work… So, if we compare it to the Order of Seraphia, it is almost like a first-class priest.”
“…Priest?”
So there are 200,000 priests? How?
Isn’t the religion about me created not too long ago? Since it was suppressed by force in the first place, there would be no way for people to truly have faith, right?
Uh… Well… Anyway, since there are so many of them, their faith in me also soars, drawing an exponential graph as time goes by.
“Their service to me is their freedom and service to me, so I won’t say anything, but I want to postpone it until at least two years.”
“Of course they will do it if Master Faust orders it, but… They will not be able to stop the naturally spreading faith. Since God has appeared directly in the first place, it may even have the opposite effect. The easiest and quickest way is to just do everything. “All we can do is kill them all.”
“That would be difficult.”
If I kill them just because they trust me… Doesn’t that look like it? It doesn’t look like a picture or a horse.
Ugh… I have no idea what to do. If this trend continues, two years from now there will be another me armed with all kinds of worship.
[-Please grant my wish.]
“…?”
At that moment, a wish reached my mind. It’s a very standard route.
All the wishes that have reached me so far have been intercepted using magic before they reach other demons, so I have even granted the wishes of those who had insignificant souls and could not pay a large price.
But this time is different.
There is a price that demons cannot see even if they ignore it.
It is also a wish that can be seen as having value commensurate with the price, a soul that is worthy enough to pay a fair price to the great devil called [Faust].