“What is this…?”Lete stared at the divine power Simon had manifested, as if she couldn't believe it, then stammered, “Th-that’s right! You’ve finally gained faith in the Great Goddess! It seems reading the scriptures was worth it!”“I don’t think so.”“Then what is that blooming in your left hand? It’s proof that your faith is overflowing!”Simon said with an indifferent expression, “The Goddess is a liar.”“Wh-what? Hey, you bastard! What did you just…?”Whoosh!However, the divine power in Simon’s left hand grew even larger and brighter. Seeing this, Lete’s mouth dropped. “I proved it.”Simon grinned. “At least for me, divine power doesn’t come from faith in a god.”“That’s impossible!”She clutched her head in agony. Divine power was a force from the Goddess, and there should be no exceptions. Lete felt the entire tower of faith she had built up shaking.Then Simon asked, looking embarrassed, “But how do I turn this off?”“……”She, who had been burying her head in her knees in anguish, slowly raised her head. “You ask the Goddess for permission, I guess… ‘Thank you for lending me your great power today. I will now return to being an ordinary human.’ Something like that.”“Really?”Simon tried it as Lete said.‘As if that would work.’Next, he applied his previous know-how. He tried asking himself, not a god, for permission to stop the power. But it failed.‘Is this not it? It feels slightly different.’Simon pondered for a moment, then changed his thought.‘Actually, it’s normal for me not to be able to use divine power.’Flicker!As soon as he thought that, the divine power in his palm extinguished as if by magic. “Oh.”Lete’s eyes sparkled. “Did the Goddess answer your prayer?”“No, I just thought, like self-hypnosis, that I couldn’t use divine power, and it turned off.”Tremble, tremble.Her kneeling body trembled like an aspen leaf. Simon felt a slight sense of danger and tried to back away, but she was a step ahead.With a flushed face, she lunged at him with a ‘Waaah!’ and instantly pinned Simon to the grass, climbing on top of him. “You bastard! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”Flash!A pure white spear of divine power formed in her hand, extended above her head. “Don’t think I don’t know your scheme! You’re trying to shatter the faith of Efnel’s top student! Not a chance! Whose instigation are you acting under?”“……What are you talking about? I haven’t lied once throughout the lesson.”Simon said with an unwavering voice. “Why would I lie about something that concerns my mother’s life? I’m more serious than anyone right now. If I had to keep you in check, it would be after obtaining the materials from the Tree of Life. What benefit would I gain by shaking you up here?”“……”She bit her lip, trembling. Eventually, she backed away from Simon and sat on the grass. “Haaah.”It was a sigh filled with deep anguish. “Lete.”“Wait.”She stretched out her hand and said, “Just give me a moment to think.”“……Huh? Oh.”Twenty minutes passed with her asking for time to think.Worried, Simon asked again, “If it’s too hard, should we stop here for today?”“No.”She raised her head. “……I was foolish.”“Hm?”“I simply haven’t grasped the great will of the Goddess yet. What seems like a perfectly natural cause and effect in the Goddess’s eyes must appear distorted through my narrow vision, due to my lack of training. To have my faith shaken by something so trivial, it’s a lack of training. Perhaps my arrogance as Efnel’s top student made me miss something fundamental.”Simon let out a silent chuckle. It sounded like self-rationalization, but he decided to pretend not to notice. “Alright, let’s move on.”Next, Lete had Simon practice turning his divine power on and off freely. She explained the specific principles of divine power generation and had him feel its flow. “Everything begins with feeling mana.”Whether it was divine power or Jet Black, the base was mana.If Necromancers used an organ called a ‘Core’ in their bodies to process mana into the power of Jet Black.Priests felt as if their entire body was a core. The moment mana in their body was released externally, it decolorized and became divine power. “Be more conscious of it with your mind.”Of course, simply releasing mana without thought was useless. To turn mana into divine power, a very strong mental recognition, practically a form of self-hypnosis, was needed.The ‘faith’ that Lete kept emphasizing. For Simon, the switch to generate divine power was a firm self-awareness that he could use it.‘……I guess that’s why there are so many fanatics in Efnel.’In a way, divine power was the realm of madness. One had to firmly believe they possessed a power they didn’t yet have.If you believed you had it, even if you didn’t, you had it. If you doubted you had it, even if you did, you didn’t.A fanatical belief, truly close to brainwashing. Simon even wondered if religion was the system adopted by divine power users to fulfill precisely that belief.All complex thoughts are omitted. Only an absolute, complete, and infinite good called ‘God’ is placed. Then, everything becomes clear.If one builds faith around worship and uses it as a foundation to generate divine power, the user would be able to generate divine power freely.Of course, if that faith wavered, one could collapse endlessly, like Flema. “Lete.”During a short break, Lete, who was reading scriptures to reaffirm her faith, replied with her characteristic cynical voice, “What is it?”“In general, how do Priests of the Divine Federation come to use divine power?”She raised her head. “This is power bestowed by the Goddess. There’s no answer but training for faith.”According to Lete, every village in the Divine Federation had a monastery. When a child turned seven, they were obligated to undergo a ‘Divine Aptitude’ test at the monastery.And children with an aptitude above the standard were obliged to become devotees of Dave. They would receive theological education at the monastery for a certain period each day, cultivating their faith in the Goddess. “But only a very small number of laypeople can become Priests. To become a Priest, you must pass the 19 Ordeals.”“What’s that?”Listening to Lete’s explanation, it truly sounded like ‘ordeals’.Carrying heavy crosses on pilgrimage, fasting for three months, passing through a thorn bush naked with only faith, entering fire, and so on. Just hearing about them made Simon shudder. “Did you do all that too?”“Of course.”She answered with a voice full of pride, crossing her arms. “Only after completing all of that are you granted the qualification to enter the Sanctuary of Divinity.”The Sanctuary of Divinity was the final, 19th ordeal. One had to endure a week trapped in a chamber where divine power flowed endlessly. “……Why is everything on your side so inhumane and cruel?”She snorted at Simon’s words as he shook his head. “This is faith, this is belief. It’s on a different level from you people who just dirty your bodies to create something called a core, and then any dog or cow can call themselves a Necromancer.”“Right, right. But what happens if an ordinary person is exposed to such a large amount of divine power?”“A small amount of divine power can heal wounds, but being exposed to divine power for an entire week is a different story. Divine power is ‘alien’ to an ordinary body. If you can’t endure it, you die.”“……Crazy.”Through this barbaric ritual, a kind of ‘mutation’ occurs in the human body, giving rise to individuals with extremely high divine aptitude. These are the ones who are baptized and become Priests.Those who give up midway are said to lack faith and must return to being laypeople, starting from the first ordeal again. And even if they endure for a week but no mutation occurs, and their divine aptitude falls below the standard, they become ‘Clerics’. “I’ve never heard of Clerics before.”“They’re just cowar… *cough*, people who handle the practical duties of cathedrals and monasteries. They can use divine power, but not as well as us Priests.”The Divine Federation was a strict hierarchical society.Ordinary people. Devotees. Clerics. Priests.Lower ranks had to absolutely obey higher ranks.Of course, the Dark Alliance also had commoners and nobles, but the difference in status wasn’t as strict.Among commoners, soldiers, merchants, and Necromancers sometimes held greater social authority than many nobles. In Kizen, skill and academic year were more important than status.However, the difference was that in the Dark Alliance, status was inherited, while in the Divine Federation, everyone started as commoners, and their status changed according to the position they earned. “Certainly, to properly act like an acolyte, it would be good to study the culture of the Divine Federation.”Lete nodded at Simon’s words. “That’s right. If you can use divine power but don’t even know what a Cleric is, the Inquisitors will suspect you.”“I have one question after hearing your story.”“What is it?”“You said divine power comes from faith in the Goddess. Isn’t it actually dependent on ‘Divine Aptitude’ that one is born with, rather than just faith?”Lete immediately growled. “Ah, seriously! If you put it that way, even among Efnel’s Priests with similar Divine Aptitude! Some rise to become bishops, while others remain Priests their whole lives! How do you explain that?”“It would depend on their own effort and their ability to handle divine power.”“It’s a difference in FAITH!”She shouted. “The stronger your faith and belief in the Goddess, the greater the amount of divine power you can handle and your control ability! This isn’t something that can be shaken by your refutations; it’s a fact proven by long history, you idiot!”If that were the case, shouldn’t the high-ranking officials of the Divine Federation not take private gains or bribes? It didn’t seem like all of them were incorruptible.But Simon swallowed his words, fearing that further rebuttal would lead to a real fight.‘……Right, Lete has her own values.’She must have seen and learned things throughout her life. It was natural for her to react negatively if her values were simply denied or belittled just because they differed from his. “Break time is over.”Lete placed her hands on her knees and returned to a serious expression. “I hate to admit it, but your divine power isn’t inferior to that of Priests who’ve passed the Sanctuary of Divinity. So, let’s move straight to the basic training course. This is the level acolytes you’ll be impersonating learn.”“I’ve been waiting for that.”Simon’s eyes sparkled. Lete rummaged through her backpack and laid out the textbooks she used herself at Efnel. “Efnel, and all other holy schools, teach a total of nine subjects.”Blessing Studies.Divine Mechanics.Healing Studies.Spirit Studies.Guardian Studies.Divine Beast Studies.Holy Combat Studies.Darkness Defense Studies.Mass Class.She picked up a nearby twig and wrote the subjects on the ground. Simon’s pupils wavered as he looked at them.He had definitely never heard of these before, so why did they feel so familiar? “Efnel’s Three Great Compulsory Subjects, students shorten them to ‘Bless-Div-Heal’. And below that are the Four Auxiliary Subjects: Spirit-Guard-Divine-Combat.”Simon chuckled, and Lete frowned. “What are you grinning about again? It’s annoying.”“No, I just thought that people’s lives are pretty much the same everywhere.”“What do you mean?”“Nothing.”He had just heard stories about ordeals and the Sanctuary of Divinity that made him feel a strong cultural difference, but seeing this, he suddenly felt a great sense of familiarity.Curse Studies and Blessing Studies, Divine Mechanics and Jet Black Mechanics, Martial Arts and Holy Combat Studies—there were many contrasting yet similar aspects. “Ah, why do you keep laughing?!”Simon smiled broadly at Lete, who flared up in anger. “Oh, nothing. I was just wondering what it would have been like if I had gone to Efnel instead of Kizen.”“……What a crazy thing to say.”Lete pouted, but Simon didn’t mind.His heart was pounding.Since he was learning divine power from Efnel’s top student, shouldn’t he do it properly? “So, which subject will you teach me first?”He couldn’t stand still; his body was itching.Quickly, give me something to learn.
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