In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 5 Page 11

“Why are you here of all places...?!”

  “I came to help you, of course! I felt pretty responsible about that execution order!”

  “N-No, Grand Duke, please! This isn’t your doing, it’s all mine...!”

  “Shh, you’re being too noisy!” I clamped a hand over Phyllis’ mouth.

  ...... I-Is it okay? Maybe the guards’ll just think she was talking to herself... I hope they don’t get suspicious... Well, I don’t hear anyone coming, at least...

  “Phyllis, who’s that sleeping person over there? Is she a friend?”

  “That person... or rather... that woman... is Her Holiness the Pope, Elias Altra...”

  “Excuse me?!” I suddenly blurted out my surprise, and instinctively covered my own mouth.

  The goddamn pope of all people?! But wait, that can’t be right... what about the old crone I met earlier with the piercing eyes?! This woman looked completely different. I took a closer peek at her face, and it was definitely not the same person. She was definitely about the same age, but this sleeping woman’s face was far gentler and softer.

  “Wait, this is Elias Altra?! Then who did I meet earlier?!”

  “It’s more likely that you met a different person entirely. Did she look similar age-wise, but with a more piercing gaze?”

  “Yeah, kinda like that I guess.”

  “That was probably Cardinal Kyurei, then... She’s Cardinal Zeon’s elder sister.” That would make her the sister of that annoying mustache guy. Hm, but that didn’t add up... It seemed as though they’d prepared a fake pope and given me a fake audience with her! Which meant to me that they were all working together. This was beginning to seem like a seriously foul conspiracy.

  “Sorry, I’m finding it a little hard to follow here... Can you tell me everything from the top?” According to Phyllis, after she returned home and reported to the pope and the others, everything went wrong. The cardinals were furious at her for the denial of their God, and the opposition of their doctrine. Immediately, they demanded she be executed. However, the pope herself, along with a few other priests, stood up and objected to that.

  Phyllis wasn’t entirely surprised by their reaction, but was amazed that the pope herself stood by her side. Regardless, she was arrested either way.

  After a few days, the pope was also thrown into the dungeon, albeit in a severely weakened state.

  “But why would they toss the pope of all people in prison...?”

  “Th-That is because... the secret of this nation must be protected, at all costs.” The pope opened up her eyes, and stared right at me. She seemed to have awoken. The pope’s left eye was green, and her right eye was blue. Her eyes were heterochromatic, mismatched. It brought to mind Yumina’s Mystic Eyes... “You are the Grand Duke of Brunhild, are you not...? My name is Elias Altra, it’s a pleasure...” The pope herself slowly raised herself up and introduced herself. Despite her motions, however, she looked extremely weak. I decided she’d need to heal up.

  I cast [Recovery] and [Refresh] on her, which brought her body back to relative strength. After that, I slapped on a [Cure Heal] for good measure.

  As I healed her, I wondered why she hadn’t just healed herself... but that was stupid, just because she worshipped a God of Light didn’t necessarily mean she’d have any talents with Light spells. I was pretty sure I remembered someone telling me Dark and Light were fairly rare attributes to have affinity for, anyway.

  If it was similar to a fantasy RPG, then people who had healing magic would probably be priests who channeled the power of God through their spells. That kind of thing was a staple in videogames, but this was another world, not a game world. Even so, I couldn’t help but think if that’s how it worked, then the religion would’ve spread further and faster.

  “Thank you so much for that... I feel considerably better.”

  “I’m glad. But more importantly, why were you brought here? You said something about this country’s secret?”

  “...... Hmh...”

  She stayed quiet for a time, before looking right at me with a focused expression.

  “It is a secret that would shake the very foundation of the country we stand in right now, but it seems there’d be no point in keeping it hidden from you. It is indeed as Phyllis said. Lars, God of Light, does not exist.” What? I was completely taken aback. The pope of a religion had just denied her own God. I looked a Phyllis, who seemed equally shocked.

  “Each of the cardinals know the truth as well. After I ascended to cardinalhood before I was pope, the previous pope told me the truth as well.” That means the higher-ups knew... but they still continue the farce of believing in this Light God... why? There was something more important than that, though. Sure, Phyllis and myself knew Lars didn’t exist because God himself had verified that information for us. But how did the cardinals themselves know for sure that the God they worshipped wasn’t real? “Long ago, this territory was the domain of monstrous beasts, demons, and wicked spirits. The one that appeared to purge these creatures was a man known as Ramirez. But Ramirez was not the priest our scriptures state he was.”

  “He wasn’t...?” Isn’t Ramirez the founder of Ramissh? What’s going on here? “Ramirez was no priest, he was a mage. One that specialized in summoning. His greatest affinity was Dark Magic.”

  “What...?!”

  “The scriptures state that Ramirez summoned Lars, God of Light, to purge the land of wickedness. But the truth is different entirely. What Ramirez called down were wicked spirits, servants of the darkness. After he used that power to purge the land of beasts, he came up with an idea, and began to set it into motion.” Hm, so God was right after all, he’d summoned powerful spirits. But they weren’t light, they were creatures of the dark... Still, Ramirez must’ve been a hell of a guy to call upon dark stuff like that... My attention turned back to Elias, who was explaining what the man’s idea was. “Ramirez thought he would build a kingdom upon his newly-conquered land, using the powers of dark spirits to manipulate the minds of the people who lived there. That’s how he began the Lars faith. The dark spirits he summoned merged into one great beast, and meddled with the minds of the people who were brought into the area. Through this method, their thoughts were twisted in line with Ramirez’s. All of the citizens accepted Ramirez’s doctrine without question, and the Ramissh Theocracy was formally founded.” What the hell...?! Isn’t that just brainwashing?! Or maybe it could be called something more akin to hypnosis... still, twisting people’s brains like that? That’s totally messed up.

  “Was the dark spirit’s mental conditioning that strong?”

  “The influence of the spirit made it easier for him to convince people of his ideals, but people who were resistant to magic ended up being less affected by it. That’s why Lars, God of Light was created as a figurehead for the faith. He used mental conditioning, and an idol people could aspire to. Using that wicked combination, he captured both the hearts and the minds of his people.” Ramirez disgusted me. I wasn’t surprised that they were so desperate to keep the secret. Their entire religion would collapse if this leaked out. It was truly heinous that a religion built on the ideals of light was actually spawned by a monster from the dark...

  “...I understand that this is a really important secret, but... Why does this mean the pope had to be locked up?”

  “I protected Phyllis, so they believed I may have gone rogue and threatened to spill the truth. Not to mention the fact that both Kyurei and Zeon were originally in the running for popehood, and saw an opportunity to supplant me and my position. I was gradually fed a medication that poisoned my body and weakened my mind. They didn’t have to kill me to replace me, after all.” That made sense enough. They probably had no idea why I’d come to their country, and with the pope being absent they decided to trick me into a fake meeting... They were probably suspicious because of what had happened with Phyllis, too... They didn’t handle it very well, though.

  “But, Your Holiness... why did you protect Phylli
s? Aren’t you kind of meant to be the figurehead of the religion? Why would you stand by someone who would shake the faith so much?” I didn’t get it at all. If I were a pope, then someone like Phyllis would be seen as a pest.

  “...I truly believed in Lars, God of Light... it’s why I joined the priesthood. I worked hard, for the sake of my Lord. But when I became a cardinal... They told me there was no God. That my work was fruitless. After that, I simply worked to maintain the lie, a cog in the wheel like all the rest. Once you learn the truth, there’s no going back to normality.” That sounded pretty rough to me. I figured they’d probably set up methods to silence anyone that threatened to reveal the truth anyway. Dead men tell no tales, after all. And now I had learned this secret, so they’d probably end up after my head if I wasn’t careful.

  “Before I knew it, I had ascended to the position of pope. But it was an empty position, my heart was already withered. I was trapped in a place that I couldn’t possibly abandon. Then, Phyllis came and told us what she had seen. She appeared, truly convinced that there was indeed a God out there.” After speaking, the pope turned to Phyllis. She turned to me, vigor in her voice, a beautiful smile painting her face.

  “Can you imagine the euphoria I felt in that moment? It was indeed true that Lars, God of Light, did not exist, but... There was in fact a God that did exist. And there was a person who had actually met Him! The words that she had heard from God, I was desperate to learn more. It was the first time in years that my heart truly began beating again.”

  “But why did you believe Phyllis without question? You didn’t doubt her at all?” After I asked, the pope pointed to her left eye. Her pale green eye suddenly turned darker.

  “I possess the Mystic Eyes of Sincerity. I’ve never been able to miss a lie. It was also one of the reasons I was elected as pope. When Phyllis told me her story, I knew she was no liar. I learned in that moment that God truly existed, and it made me so happy. In that moment, I was euphoric, because of God’s blessing. I was also envious, as I wished to meet God myself...” The pope let out a quiet, sad mutter. Oh. Oh no. Before I could stop it, I realized what was about to happen. I turned to look at Kohaku. The tiger was frozen stiff!

  “Yoo-hoo! Did someone want to meet little old me?”

  From the darkness, God himself descended, clad in dazzling light.

  God, please! You’re way too whimsical!

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Have you just been watching this whole time?”

  “It had been weighing on my mind. The poor girl had been locked away because I had done something I shouldn’t have, and I felt rather guilty about it all. But then, as God, I couldn’t exactly come to her rescue myself...” I knew what he meant. The root cause of all that was going on could be narrowed down to carelessness on God’s part.

  I stole a glance in Phyllis’ direction and noticed that she’d already fallen prostrate before His divine presence, while the pope stood, mouth slack, staring at us in confusion.

  “Umm... Your Majesty, who might this be?”

  “This is God.”

  “G-G-God...?!” The pope’s eyes snapped wide open, and she gazed at both God and I in turn. She was certainly surprised, but it seemed she still had some doubts. I could feel her using her Mystic Eyes on me. She could tell that I wasn’t lying, but it seemed like she hadn’t quite fully grasped the reality of the situation yet.

  “Oh, I know. God, do that flashy halo thing you did before.”

  “Eh? I thought you told me not to use my divine aura anymore.”

  “You have my permission this time.” God nodded and gradually begin to let out his divine aura. Welp, here it comes.

  God’s majestic form lit up for all to behold. His halo of divinity was as impressive as ever. One glance would be enough to convince anyone that this person was, indeed, the one true God.

  Bathed in His divine light, the pope also laid herself prostrate on the ground next to Phyllis.

  “Can I turn it off now?”

  “Yup, that’ll do.” The imposing light vanished as swiftly as it came. Just then, a certain doubt floated up from the back of my mind. Why was it that I could resist his divine aura which should easily have overwhelmed any normal human? Was that another one of the perks he gave me when I was sent to this world?

  “Is there something the matter?”

  “Hm? Oh, I was just wondering why your aura doesn’t completely overwhelm me like it seems to do to everyone else. I just figured maybe you’d done something that would give me some resistance to it.” God looked at the two girls at his feet and tilted his head.

  “...Come to think of it, that is rather strange. Any ordinary — or even extraordinary — human being exposed to my divine presence in its true form should be left bowing before me in awe, like these two girls. None of my gifts to you included a resistance to Divinity itself, so I cannot think what would be... Ohh!”

  “...God, what did you do to me?” What’s with that face?! Why do you look like you’re screaming “Oh, shit!” in your head?! Looking away is just making you look more suspicious! And why are you trying to play it off by whistling? These days not even cartoon characters do that! ...You’re a poor liar, God.”

  “Erm... Weeell... Could you wait for just one moment?” He raised his right arm aloft and unleashed some kind of power. I couldn’t tell what he’d done for a moment. “I’ve stopped time for the girls, as well. It would be rather troublesome if anyone were to ever learn of this, you see.” The girls had already been paralyzed in their positions bowing before God’s feet anyway, so it didn’t really feel any different from a moment ago. Still, if God said so...

  “Well? Out with it.”

  “Hrmm... To summarize, you have already died once, back in your old world. I took responsibility for that and reincarnated you, but...”

  “But?” I couldn’t see what he was getting at. Heck, I was actually pretty thankful to him for giving me a new life in this world.

  “Normally when reviving someone, I would repair the damage done to their physical or spiritual body using the basic elements and energy of that specific world. In your case, though, I summoned you straight up to the Divine Realm before anything else. Physical body and all. Only after that did I revive you into a new world.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

  “Well, I revived you using the materials I had at hand. And since your body and soul were both in the Divine Realm at the time, I ended up putting you back together with divine matter. To put it simply, your body is similar in composition to that of a God.” This was the first I’d heard any of this. I was dumbstruck.

  “B-But I still get exhausted if I run for too long, and I can still get injured like anyone else. It doesn’t really feel like I’ve got a God’s body...”

  “Well, it has only been one year since you were reincarnated, your powers might not have fully bloomed yet. Can you think of any similar situations where your strengths or resistances have felt rather abnormal for a human being?” ... More than I could count. My near-limitless mana pool, and my ability to use any Null spell I wanted, for example. I’d always chalked it up to being “God’s gift,” but... It turned out that it was actually “all God’s fault.”

  “My mistake. Wahahaaah!”

  “Don’t just laugh it off like that... Please tell me there aren’t going to be any adverse effects to this later on down the line.”

  “None at all. Think of it as just having obtained a much sturdier body than the norm. Although, you may find yourself awakening to some strange new powers later on... if I’m right, your body is like that of an infant God’s right now. So please let me know if something like that does happen.” Whaddya mean by strange new powers?! I damn sure hope that I won’t randomly wake up one day with a halo of divinity radiating from my entire body...

  ... I decided not to worry about it. If it wasn’t gonna kill me or directly harm me in any way, then I figured I could live with it. Just so long as I coul
d continue living out my life in this world, that was enough for me.

  Just then, something came to mind that might’ve been able to destroy my peaceful life in this world.

  “Hey, God, do you know anything about the Phrase?”

  “Phrase? Nothing comes to mind, I am afraid to say.” I figured as much. I seemed to recall him saying that he hadn’t been checking in on this world much until after he sent me here. As God would say, if a world faced potential destruction, then it was up to that world’s inhabitants to find a solution to that which didn’t involve divine intervention.

  But if God wasn’t the one who drove the Phrase away around five thousand years prior, that only made me question what caused them to leave...

  His explanation finished, God raised his hand once more and let out that same power as before. I assumed the girls could now move again, but it was hard to tell since they were still bowing before God as they had been this whole time. Kohaku, however, was quite clearly still frozen in time. I felt kind of bad for Kohaku being the only one left out...

  “You can stand up now. I’m very sorry that my carelessness has put you in this difficult situation, young lady.”

  “N-Not at all! P-P-P-Please, think nothing of it!”

  “It seems as though I’ve even managed to get the pope wrapped up in it... I’m truly sorry about all this.”

  “Th-thank—... I am grateful for your words...” The two finally raised their heads. This was Phyllis’ second time meeting God, so although she was nervous, she could at least look him in the face. On the other hand, the pope had just exchanged words with God himself, and the encounter had left her with tears flowing down her face. Well, it was a pretty life-changing experience for her, to put it lightly.

  “I overheard your conversation. It must have pained you greatly to have lived your whole life embracing a lie like that. Fret not, though. All will be fine now.”

  “Such benevolence...!”

  “Whaddya mean, everything’s gonna be fine? Are you gonna step in and resolve the whole situation for us?” For a moment I was worried that he planned to just walk out in front of everyone with his halo on full power and declare “Your God of Light doesn’t exist. There, religion disproved,” and wrap it all up with a clap of his hands. I mean, that did seem like the quickest and easiest solution, but...