I Am Raising a Daughter in This Life

Religion (2)

What is divine power?

It was literally a divine power bestowed by God.

In general, it is a power specialized in healing, but it strengthens the body and also acts fatally on demonic beings.

In a way, it was similar to the mana that wizards deal with.

To be honest, I’ve never experienced both, so I don’t know what it feels like, but the power given by those who are really gods is right.

The water containing such divine power is holy water, and if you use it, you can pretend to use divine power even if you are not a priest.

It’s usually effective for healing or dealing with undead monsters, but… … My job was to do neither of those things.

“Looking at this, it reminds me of Rize’s childhood.”

Seeing the large basin in front of me reminded me of when Lise was still a small girl, she used to bathe in it.

In the summer, I used to get cool water and splash around.

With the newly emerging memories as friends, I first filled a basin with water. After roughly adjusting the amount with an eye test, two bottles of holy water were poured into it.

The liquid containing the light did not mix with the water, but rather formed into a mass and slowly sank to the bottom. If you stir it like this, it won’t mix properly.

The priest prayed for three days and nights to make holy water through the process of putting the divine power into the water itself, and if it was copied in this way, it would have been a funny story.

“Hmm, is there anything lacking?”

After checking the ingredients once more, he picked up a container of salt and poured it roughly into the basin.

I put a little bit of sugar, a little bit of alcohol, and put the prepared things in the eyes. It seems to be put in roughly, but it was okay because the ratio was not very important.

So, I put all the ingredients together and stirred them with a wooden spatula.

Then, the liquid containing the soft light that had accumulated at the bottom began to slowly dissolve.

After stirring slowly and evenly for a while, the light finally spread throughout the basin, which soon turned to faint.

“German silver… … That should be enough.”

I was going to add a little more water, but this much seemed fine.

After distributing them into pre-prepared bottles, they immediately put them in the bag one after another.

These did not increase the holy water, so to speak, they were diluted.

The holy water undiluted solution had quite strong divine power, so there was no excessive side. I needed a lot of holy water with a light concentration rather than thick holy water, so this was perfect.

Of course, no matter how much water you add to holy water, unless it is this mixing ratio that you accidentally found out during countless regressions, it will just turn into plain water.

If the church side knew this, they would turn on the light in their eyes and look for it, but they had no intention of telling anyone else.

I wonder if Rize is curious.

After diluting the holy water, I entered the house and heard Irina’s voice reading something.

“Then Lu Nera said, Light is everywhere, for I am watching. So… … .”

I thought they would read me a fairy tale, but it was the Lunara Bible.

I wondered if I could read something like that, but looking at Rize’s face, it seemed more interesting than I thought.

I also read a lot of Bibles just in case, but I was only disappointed because most of them were absurd stories that didn’t help much.

I don’t mean to disparage it at all, but for me, it didn’t have any value beyond that.

“Oh, it’s Dad.”

“Yes, Dad. Is the Bible interesting?”

At my question, Rize smiled and nodded her head.

“Amazing and fun. there is Lu Nera says she’s always watching over you. Are you still watching? God, I want to meet and talk.”

“Can’t we meet? I’ve never even seen my dad before. No, would it be different if it was Rize?”

Rize made a strange expression, then tilted her head and opened her mouth again.

“Dad doesn’t you trust Lunara-sama?”

“I don’t believe you. Dad is not close with the gods.”

“Huh… … .”

There was no reason to hide it, so I answered honestly.

Rize was deep in thought, and Irina looked at me in disbelief. In the Empire, there were no atheists even after washing their eyes, so I had no choice but to be surprised.

However, he soon turned his attention to the words that came out of Rize’s mouth.

“Then I won’t believe in God either!”

“miss!”

Surprised, Irina raised her voice, and Rize flinched as well.

“Oh, sorry. But, if Lu Nera wants to protect her, you better have faith and pray. Our knights always pray for safety to Lunara-sama before going out.”

“Then, if I pray, will Dad keep me safe? Don’t you believe Dad?”

“Ugh… … Right?”

“Um, should I believe it… … ?”

At the lukewarm reply, Irina stared at me with sharp eyes.

It must be why you say such useless things and bring things to this point.

Still, I couldn’t instill wrong religious views in my daughter, so I decided to help with a few words.

“Lunera is a good god. Much better than some weird pseudo-god. I’m not close with my dad, but why don’t Rize get closer to God instead?”

“you’re right. It is said that back then, even the hero of light believed in Lunara. Moreover, during the fight against the dark lord, they say that the saintess who served Lunara was also with her.”

I don’t know why you bring up such a story.

No, more than that, Irina was such a devout follower of the religion of Luna. Or maybe he was simply doing that to create more common ground with Rize.

Still, Rize nodded and said a word, as if it didn’t seem to have had a zero effect.

“I want to read the Bible more.”

Whether you believe in God or not is your own choice.

I was going to respect whichever Rize chose.

Of course, if you tried to believe in a god that would lead Rize down the wrong path, I would personally destroy that religion to the very root.

In fact, fighting a religion was not a light story.

Religions that can be fought over make one weary of fanatical belief in God.

As the number of followers increased, it was really annoying to see them reminiscent of an army of immortals because of their divine power.

That’s why I try to avoid being hostile to religious people unless it’s for the most part… … .

This time, for the sake of Rize’s future, he had no choice but to thoroughly destroy one religion.

This holy water was specially prepared as a cornerstone for this purpose.

* * *

“I want to borrow a carriage.”

A middle-aged man who seemed bored at my words responded by knocking on the carriage he was leaning on.

“Are you going for a ride? Or are you going to drive yourself?”

“I want you to take me to your destination. I will give you enough money, so lend me a whole day.”

“Whatever, every single day, huh.”

When I held out the money bag, the entrance of which had been opened in advance, he opened his eyes in surprise, then quickly jumped into the coachman’s seat with his mouth hanging wide open to make sure he didn’t say anything else.

“Come on, where shall we go? I’m familiar with the geography around here, so just talk. If you give me money, I will go to the capital.”

“I’ll think about it after seeing how well I drive the wagon. We have an urgent way to go, so let’s start quickly.”

“Yes, Nari. What!”

The horse, having made a single truce, soon moved forward. It seemed that he was well taken care of, as he was full of energy in his steps.

I looked at the small village that was quickly moving away, then turned my head and fixed my gaze on the mountains still visible in the distance.

I hadn’t been there a few times, so it was necessary to compare the information in my head to determine the exact location.

“Then may I ask your destination now? If it takes more than a day, we won’t have to negotiate again.”

“I know there is a village on the way to that mountain, but I want you to go there.”

At my answer, the coachman flinched and turned his head to look at me with an unusual look in his eyes.

“Hmm, it may be a useless meddling since I already received the money, but it would be better not to go there.”

“Is anything going on?”

“Don’t talk. It was a place where I often came and went when I had business to do business with, but about a month ago, the village became a mess overnight and it wasn’t even a fuss. The soldiers came and went several times, but in the end they couldn’t find the cause.”

The coachman clicked his tongue lightly and shook his head.

Rumors like this spread around this time. Usually, by the time I came, the village I had just visited had long since disappeared.

At this level of progress, I seemed to have hit the right time.

“People are cursing evil spirits and all, and everyone doesn’t even go to that village. I don’t want to be cursed either, so I can’t take you all the way into the village.”

There really is a curse, but it’s not a cheap skill that’s overused against ordinary people.

Rather than explaining the fact, I thought I should start with the suspicious look, so I took out a mercenary plaque from my pocket and opened my mouth.

“I don’t intend to take you to a dangerous place, so please drive well. Like I said before, I’m in a bit of a hurry, so could you please understand?”

“Ah, it’s okay. I will take you there as quickly as my wish.”

As soon as he saw the mercenary plaque, the coachman said so and swung the reins, and the wagon speeded up a little.

“Are there any other rumors around? This is my first time here, so I would like to know if there is any information that might be helpful.”

“Well, rumors… … . It’s a very quiet neighborhood, so… … . What the mercenary master would be interested in… … . ah, yes, indeed. Are you going to climb that mountain?”

“If there is a place to investigate.”

“If so, stay away from the big valley halfway up there. It is a place where herbalists used to come and go, saying that the mountain is good and there are many medicinal herbs. Oh, yes, yes.”

He listened to the trivial stories of the coachman and entrusted himself to the swaying wagon.

I was able to arrive near the village a little earlier than I thought, so that the words that I would go as fast as the wind would not be colorless.

“Then I will return from here. If you need to go back, I might wait for you.”

“Not now… … Could you come the day after tomorrow morning? I will pay the same price as today.”

“Hmm, well, there’s nothing wrong with me. Can you come over here?”

“Don’t arrive too late. And I’ll add a little more as an advance payment, so I have a few requests… … .”

After talking like that, I looked at the carriage leaving and turned around and headed towards the ruined village.

As the coachman said, the village was truly miserable.

Buildings were shattered in places, even collapsed, and although no bodies were seen, it seemed to smell fishy.

As I looked around at the scene where the smell of the terrible incident was rising, my eyes stopped at one place.

I didn’t even think to look for it because it was the point where it was meaningless to look for it before, but since it came into my eyes by chance, I decided to look for it for the first time in a while.

As I approached and brushed off the accumulated dust, I saw a pattern faintly engraved on the wall.

A strange pattern with a large eye embedded in an inverted triangle.

If an official from the Lu Nera Holy Church saw it, it was a very meaningful pattern that would have foam at the mouth and thoroughly overturn the surroundings.

If there is a group that worships the light.

Conversely, there must be groups that worship darkness.

Against the light god Lunara… … It was the damn dark lord.

Although not strictly a god, there was a religion that believed in him, as if he was a divine being.

‘Dark Truth Church’.

It was a pseudo-religious religion, but the powers they possessed were real because they were aiming for the resurrection of the dark lord.

If left unattended, he would become one of the main actors who would resurrect the Dark Lord and turn the world into a mess, so it was necessary to use his hands in advance.

I took my eyes off the pattern, raised my head, and looked around the valley the driver had spoken about earlier.