The World I Was Supporting Was Real - Chapter 91



91. May God’s Blunt Truths Reach Us

“What…?”

Ares looked so earnest that Linea, bewildered, could only repeat her question—

“I told you everything before. I said I’d come.”

“When the heck…?”

“When you weren’t here, to the red-haired knight. She said the path of the Divine might be hard, but I should still do my best?”

‘Ophelia…!’

Linea let out a small sigh, then carefully shifted her gaze to the side.

“And is this person beside you the one you mentioned…?”

Standing there was—a woman with long, brown hair, meticulously adhering to the Gweodeon Order’s characteristic nun’s habit with its excessive side slit.

Even from afar, it was easy to tell, “Ah, a nun,” with the pouch of divine power jutting out noticeably.

A very cute-looking young woman with a faint mole near her lips, leaving a striking impression.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Karen! As you can see, I’m a nun serving Master Igwogeodeon!”

“Ah, hello……”

Was there really a nun named Karen?

Her appearance was exactly as Ares had repeatedly and vehemently insisted—the woman was real.

But… when I was asked to look into this, I searched several times, and there was no one like that?

Just then.

Ares, noticing Linea’s unase, spoke first, cutting in ahead.

“Karen-noona is a very special person, unlike most nuns.”

“Special?”

“Yeah. Karen-noona is… the very essence of Master Igwogeodeon’s unadulterated truth.”

“……What?”

Unlike Linea, who was wondering what kind of nonsense this was—Karen, looking a little embarrassed, awkwardly stroked the back of her head and nodded shyly.

“Ehehe… … That’s right. I am Master Igwogeodeon’s unadulterated truth. “Our Prince, have you remembered?”

“How could I ever forget that, noona.”

Sparkling, with eyes as clear and pure as a lake than ever before… …

Linea felt a chill crawl down her spine at Ares’s words, the kind a religious fanatic would spew.

“Ares, you… don’t tell me… !”

“Hey, did you… did you meet Saint Erin too?”

Before I could even ask if she’d shoved the ‘Scripture’ in your face and laid down some ‘plain facts,’ like she did with me—

“Sis.”

This time too, Ares spoke before Linea could even get a word out.

“Let me be clear. I haven’t met the Saint separately.”

“Huh…?”

“Even if I had, it was just to talk about Karen, like you talked about Yuria. I didn’t use the Scripture to do anything or face any illusions.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really. Why would I lie to you?”

“Then why…why are you suddenly saying that? You said it yourself. If there was a god, it would be Saint Erin, not some corporeal Iggwogodan—”

“Linea, sis.”

Then.

Ares spoke with a seriousness I’d never heard from him before, a tone so stark it was almost unsettling.

“Listen carefully. The God… Iggwogodan definitely exists.”

“……!!”

“Iggwogodan, who most certainly exists, cherishes us. And this is an incredible stroke of luck for us humans. Got it?”

“Luck…?”

“He keeps giving us undeniably clear miracles, miracles that anyone can see. He’s resolving every difficulty with love. He doesn’t ask anything of us, he’s just sharing love.”

“Th-that’s….”

“To be honest. The miracles that fell on Mother and Yuria, maybe they’re just brainwashing disguised as miracles. But after being brainwashed, did they become evil? Does that change make Yuria and Mother unhappy? Do you think it’s something that establishes “Do you think God’s choices are fundamentally wrong?”

Linea couldn’t answer, but… she could still manage to shake her head.

Far from becoming a villain, he became an emperor and successor, recognized by the nobles and loved by the people.

Especially the way the people viewed Eirene had changed dramatically.

Clearly, when he sent her here, his only goal was to strengthen the imperial authority. He had spoken in a cold tone, as if religion didn’t matter at all, saying, “Be a touchstone to place the Church under the imperial family.”

But now, with a very benevolent expression, he was carrying out politics for the people with his own hands, giving the somewhat hard-to-understand reason that “a ripe woman should be this way.”

It goes without saying that many vassals were moved by this change as well.

Yes.

Even her mother, who used to be engrossed in political strife and schemes, trusting no one.

Even her older sister, Yuria, who used to look down on everyone with only a cynical gaze… Linea could see that they now wore incredibly handsome smiles.

As for which state was happier, the current state was clearly closer to the word ‘happiness’.

“So, it would be good if you, too, abandoned wrong ideas like ‘God doesn’t exist,’ sister. If you needlessly defy God, and the God who graciously favors us becomes angry at a creation that denies Him and abandons humanity … that wouldn’t be something like me could solve with some half-baked reformation.”

God abandoning us?

She was going to study religion, but perhaps it was because she had never believed in it originally.

She had just uttered words that were exceedingly audacious for a true believer.

“That’s the kind of thing, sister. You are a knight chosen by God, after all. While I was able to reach the truth through the grace and love of God, if you look at it, you are chosen by God even more so than me, and you’re receiving much greater love from Igwogweodon-nim, so I think you’ll realize it soon.”

“Ares….”

“You can just forget what I said last time. It was just a problem with my misjudgement of the situation. Even though He could sufficiently punish me, He didn’t… so I think that learning the will of God is the right thing to do now.”

—But I’ll say it again, this isn’t brainwashing or anything.

It’s enlightenment.

“…….”

It was terrifying that Ares, of all people, was so affirmative about the existence of gods—

But what confused Linea even more was that she could vaguely tell he was in his right mind.

Clearly, his impression was different from how her stepmother Eirene or her sister Yuria had been when they completely changed.

And, that fact felt even more frightening.

Even without being brainwashed, he could, by his own will, follow the gods far more actively than she, who had been chosen by them… ?

“Well, I’ll be going.”

With that, as Ares turned his back and entered the cathedral—

“You’re the Princess’s older sister, aren’t you?”

“Ah, yes. I am…”

“You don’t need to worry too much. This is all just the plain truth from Yggdagon. And, you, Linea, know, don’t you? That there was a much easier way for the gods…”

“!!”

A much easier way.

Through the Saint Erin, like they had done with her sister and mother—injecting the ‘plain truth’ as ​​it was.

“Why Yggdagon chose the troublesome path to deliver the gods’ teachings to Ares instead of the easy one, I believe the day will come when you, Linea, who are loved by Yggdagon, will understand. Well then…”

Yggdagon’s ‘troublesome choice’…

The gods cherish us.

If such gods were to become enraged…

Watching Karen and Ares’ backs from her, Linea repeated those words over and over.

* * *

Some time had passed since the third proclamation.

The exchange with the demon race was becoming increasingly common, and the looming crisis of the ‘Demon King’s emergence’ was, somehow, just barely side-stepped with Master Gwegweodeon’s matter-of-fact truths—

“I’m hungry….”

“Mother, please just hold on for three days. The holy knights and priests from the capital city will be here soon….”

Unfortunately, the fundamental problem of poverty remained completely unsolved.

The Order was regularly and enthusiastically carrying out relief efforts across the widest possible areas, reaching as many people as they could.

The Emperor, too, was keeping pace with the Order, taking measures such as drastically reducing extravagance and cutting less crucial budget items, doing his best to lower the heavy taxes and military duties placed on the people—

But the scars from the epidemic that swept the continent before the Holy Maiden appeared, along with the aftereffects of disasters that erupted everywhere, were still deeply etched.

And, although it was improving now, the memory of suffering under brutally heavy taxation was still fresh.

A series of calamities had struck, and it was clear that this harvest season, which required so much labor to come to fruition, would be even more brutal than usual.

This was a problem that even if Ailene had gotten her head on straight and started ruling wisely… when viewed coldly, couldn’t be resolved in just a few months.

Rather, the situation was so dire that if Ailene had remained stubborn and hadn’t embraced the grace of the gods, Ares might have achieved the ‘transformation’ he desired.

In this situation, people everywhere began to pray to the gods with all their might.

Prayers happening simultaneously, here, there—

This was the greatest evidence that the Gweodeon faith had recently penetrated deep into the lives of the common people.

“God… please, I beg you. Please save my mother…! Anything is fine. Just… just her life…!”

“He is too young to leave us. Take my life as a substitute instead. So, please, grant our son Master Gwegweodeon’s matter-of-fact truths…!”

They knew that their prayers might not reach.

Even the priests who had spent their lives studying the Gweodeon faith couldn’t dare to communicate with the gods, and even the Holy Maiden Erin couldn’t speak with the gods whenever she wished. How could our words, who barely believed in any religion, who had only just opened our eyes to the name Gwegweodeon, possibly reach them?

But, in this desperate situation, the only thing left for humans to rely on was the gods—

And so, full of hope, they prayed, and prayed again.

――Please, give us the raw, unvarnished facts of God… !

* * *

“Hmm…….”

I slowly sipped my zero-calorie cola, rereading the manga one more time.

It’s nice that so many people are believing in me as religion spreads, but—

‘Is it too many… ?’

After all, I thought a god should love everyone equally. I had even resolved to do so if I could.

But this was just too many. Not only the “main characters” like Erin and Eirene, who I see often, but as religion kept spreading through the world, and the positive results from the patronage I gave started to become well-known, a considerable number of people had started praying to me.

A third party might think, “They’re just extras anyway, so just ignore them.”

In fact, if it were me from the early days when I just started reading this manga, I would definitely ignore them.

I did feel sorry for them, but it was a manga after all, and they weren’t like Erin, who’s my type of female character.

Still.

I just can’t ignore the desperate prayers of my people.

How could a god turn a blind eye to the hardships of their common folk?

[Igogweodon: The situation is worse than I thought…]

[GiveMeMoney: Sorry]

[GiveMeMoney: The number of people praying to God has recently skyrocketed… I couldn’t help but observe it.]

[Igogweodon: Nah ㅋㅋ You did good]

[Igogweodon: It’s the lives of the people in the country that our Eirene rules, so I need to know roughly how they’re doing anyway]

[Igogweodon: Even if you hadn’t shown me, I would’ve asked you to show me first?]

Helping out, it’s not that hard, really.

It’s the same as it was with Erin. Clean water, rich and tasty food – give a thousand won, and it appears.

Even those on death’s door, well, as long as their life hasn’t been completely snuffed out, just like the kids at Luka’s orphanage, you could save them with a few thousand won.

A thousand won here and there, it wasn’t a big burden on my wallet.

But.

That wasn’t the problem.

When it was just one or two people, sure, it worked – but if I kept helping people with these isolated ‘miracles’, inevitably, I’d reach a point where I couldn’t handle it anymore.

Not only would a kind of ‘miracle inflation’ occur, but there was also the possibility that those I couldn’t care for would feel a sense of deprivation.

Handing out support willy-nilly without solving the fundamental problem, that could actually be a net negative for everyone.

You could say, “Why are you thinking so seriously about a mere comic,” but I was sincere.

‘Let’s see.’

I scrolled up, observing the lives of the common people.

While everyone’s circumstances were different – ​​what particularly stood out was how they were starving, unable to properly begin farming due to the continuous disasters and epidemics.

Moreover, even if they started farming now, the land was so ravaged that there seemed to be no hope.

‘The biggest problem is the food shortage, then.’

If so, let’s solve that problem first.

It’ll take some time, so it won’t fix the immediate issues, but to help the people escape hunger in the long term, without the need for relief efforts, what’s needed is—

[Lee Gwogweodon: So, first of all]

[Lee Gwogweodon: Let’s start with some fertilizer, shall we]

—Nitrogen fertilizer.

Let’s start by boosting the total food production of this world.