Side Chapter 67: The end of an empire and the birth of the holy nation

“My beloved citizens. As emperor of the Amid Empire, I hereby declare that I shall relinquish the imperial throne to honorable Alda, the God of Law and Fate. You will henceforth be ruled by his holy words.”

Although Salazar’s voice was amplified by a Magic Item and echoed across the capital, the people did not applaud or cheer at this declaration.

Instead, anxious and confused whispers spread across the city like ripples.

“Relinquish the throne to a god? What does that mean?”

“The pope will serve as emperor at the same time? Is that even possible?”

“The Church will rule the country?!”

It was Pope Eileek Marme who spoke next in place of Salazar, the now-former emperor.

“My beloved people, there is nothing to worry about. This is a necessary step to correct an error, to adhere to the will of our god… and it is necessary for the sake of this world’s future,” he said.

Despite being just barely past his mid-teenage years, he had more charisma than Salazar.

He had become pope after receiving a Divine Message from Alda instructing him to do so, something that was unprecedented. And his pride at having been chosen by Alda had turned into the charisma that was felt by the people.

“From this moment forth, the Amid Empire shall be known as the Holy Nation of Amid,” Eileek continued. “However, as good people of this nation who are devoted to the gods’ teachings, all you need to do is remain as devoted to those teachings as you always have been. It is possible that some may experience disadvantages. But we, the Great Church of Alda, will support you. In the gods’ name, I swear that we will give you the strength to overcome these trials.”

But despite Eileek’s charisma and his reassuring words, the citizens’ worries did not subside.

In the majority of nations in this world, commoners had no opportunity to become involved in politics. If their homelands were conquered by other nations or their rulers were extreme tyrants, they might take drastic measures such as starting riots and waging guerilla warfare, but other than that, it was normal to believed that politics had nothing to do with ordinary citizens like them and to only be concerned with things that were directly related to their work and how full their purses were.

Even if the only media publishing information about the people involved in politics were run by the very same people, and no elections were held to elect rulers, commoners weren’t inconvenienced in any way.

And the vast majority of the Amid Empire’s people were not facing any serious troubles in their daily lives, as the former emperor, Marshukzarl, had ruled well for the past several decades. The current emperor, Salazar, was just a puppet and he hadn’t been ruling for very long, so many of his predecessor’s policies were still in place.

The nobles, Churches, and slave traders around the Amid Empire and its vassal states were expressing their discontent towards Salazar due to his inability to stop the rampages of the Storm of Tyranny, essentially allowing them to do whatever they pleased. But that discontent had not reached the point of demanding Salazar’s abdication.

… The members of Vida’s races were obviously discontent as they faced persecution in the Amid Empire, but that had always been the case long before even Marshukzarl’s predecessor – long before the Amid Empire’s foundation, in fact. Persecution was an everyday part of life for them. And there wasn’t a single member of one of Vida’s races that would expect their life to become better after hearing that the nation would be ruled by the Great Church of Alda.

To begin with, many of the members of Vida’s races who had the initiative and rebellious spirit to actually carry out organized anti-government movements had already been taken out of the country by Schneider.

Therefore, the people responded with anxiety rather than expectations upon hearing that the nation’s rule would undergo a great change beginning from today. They were not currently significantly discontented, so it was only natural that they would fear that their lives would change for the worse rather than feel hopeful that their lives would improve.

And it was often difficult for the common people to strictly adhere to the doctrines of the Church in their daily lives.

It was also next to impossible to follow the law strictly, eliminating any gray areas, without making any compromises or exceptions.

If the people were to be forced to attempt to strictly obey the Church’s teachings, and if they were to fail, would the clergymen punish them for it now that they possessed judicial power? Such concerns ran through the people’s minds.

But the person in charge was the pope of the Great Church – one who had personally received the favor of the gods, no less. It would be unwise to openly voice their fears. Being fearful of the nation being ruled more correctly and according to the wishes of the gods was a sign that they were discontent with the nation being ruled that way, was it not? Thus, it was only natural for them to hesitate to voice that fear.

Eileek had assured the people that they would be able to live their lives the same way as they had always done, and that although some may face hardships, the Church would support them. But even if he was a saint who had become the pope after receiving a Divine Message from the gods, he could not dispel all of the fear accompanying the great change of the Amid Empire becoming known as the Holy Nation of Amid.

“This more correct state of existence that I speak of, one that adheres more closely to the will of the gods, is to make peace with Vida’s races… to implement the ideology that has spread in the Orbaume Kingdom; to acknowledge races such as Beast-kin, Titans, Dark Elves, and Merfolk as races of people who are just like us,” Eileek continued. “From this moment forth, I declare that we at the Great Church of Alda will adopt the teachings of Alda’s Peaceful Faction as our doctrine, and that we shall take this law that protects every citizen of the Holy Nation of Amid as the exemplar that we should strive for.”

The citizens now knew that they had been right to be fearful. It was now clear that the lives that they would live in the Holy Nation of Amid would be completely different from the lives that they had lived thus far in the Amid Empire.

Alda’s Peaceful Faction and its teachings had been born in the Orbaume Kingdom, a nation that had been the Amid Empire’s enemy since its foundation. Although the Amid Empire’s people knew the faction’s name and had a general idea of what it stood for, almost none of them were particularly knowledgeable about it.

But the acceptance of Vida’s races as people and granting them the same rights was enough to tell them what was happening.

The Amid Empire and its vassal states had always had severe restrictions on the rights of Vida’s races. The law stated that they were not even allowed to begin their own businesses, let alone become civil servants or soldiers. They were free to become adventurers or mercenaries, but even if they achieved great things, they would never be granted court ranks, and they could not serve as knights or mages employed by the nation.

They could live in towns and villages as craftsmen, farmers, or manual laborers, but the law didn’t even protect them from being suddenly kidnapped and turned into slaves. More than half of the slaves traded in the Orbaume Kingdom were members of Vida’s races.

Races that possessed Ranks… not just Vampires and Majin, but races such as Scylla, Harpies, Centaurs, Lamia, and Arachne as well, were treated as monsters. If they appeared near places where people lived, guards and adventurers would hunt them down, and if their homes were discovered, soldiers would be sent to exterminate them all.

And this included Dhampirs – those born between Vampires and other races.

This nation was suddenly declaring that the ideologies of Alda’s Peaceful Faction were right. There was no way that life would simply continue on as it always had.

The situation was particularly dire for slave traders and their clients. They would be forced to give up their products and assets for no compensation, but not only that – they even feared that they would be imprisoned for what they had done in the past.

Even if it was the pope pushing for this change, the people could not remain silent. But just as the citizens were about to raise their fists into the air and shout in outrage, something peculiar occurred.

“H-hey, the moon…” a woman murmured, pointing at the sky.

Although it was early in the afternoon, it was turning darker. It was summer, so the days were longer and the sun would not set for some time, but it wouldn’t be entirely strange for the moon to be faintly visible.

But the moon, which should have been difficult to see even when squinting at it, was very clearly visible, and it was gradually growing larger.

“The moon is getting bigger!” the woman shouted.

Many of the citizens, whose anxiety, bewilderment, and anger had been on the verge of exploding, were distracted by this strange development. Some even began praying, believing that this was a miracle caused by a god, just like the time Alda created a solar eclipse as a sign of proof that the Divine Message sent to Eileek was genuine.

On the balcony, the bodyguards and knights were on full alert, looking around at their surroundings to try and figure out what was going on.

“Is this some kind of illusion?! What are the mages doing?! Where are the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords?!” Salazar shouted in panic.

In contrast, Heinz was completely calm. “Eileek-dono, is this part of it as well?” he asked.

“No, that is not Alda’s divine authority,” Eileek replied. “However, I do sense the presence of some god. It is likely–”

But before Eileek could finish his sentence, an enormous fissure appeared silently on the surface of the enormous full moon in the bright blue sky. And then the fissure opened.

From within the fissure, an enormous eyeball appeared. It was as if the moon had been replaced by a monstrosity that consisted only of a single eyeball.

“AAAAAAGH!”

“M-MONSTEEEER!”

Many voices rose in panic from the people as they gazed upon this unprecedented, sinister sight, and they frantically began trying to flee.

But Heinz was certain of one thing. “This is either Vandalieu’s doing, or the doing of a god who is connected to him!”

He unsheathed his ceremonial sword, put a foot on the balcony’s handrail, then leapt into the air.

“‘Heroic God Descent!’”

The heroic god Bellwood descended upon Heinz’s body, and his surroundings were filled with light and a holy aura.

“Ooh!” one of the citizens exclaimed.

“Is that… a god?” said another.

The panicking people forgot their fear as they saw this divine-looking sight.

Using a Magic Item to fly towards the moon, Heinz held his sword aloft in the sky above the people’s heads.

“‘Evil-breaking Holy Radiant Zenith Flash!’”

The shockwave produced by Heinz’s powerful attack split the half-open eye on the moon in two.

With a noise that sounded like the shattering of glass, the grotesque moon vanished. All that remained was the ordinary-sized moon, faintly visible in the blue sky.

“It doesn’t feel like I defeated it… Did it retreat?” Heinz murmured.

He gazed suspiciously at the moon for a while, but the citizens of the Amid Empire cheered and praised him.

It wasn’t just Alda’s worshipers that did so; the worshipers of Peria, Botin, Ricklent, and Zuruwarn cheered as well – just as the people of the Orbaume Kingdom did when they saw Darcia with Vida descended upon her.

Meanwhile, on the Dark Continent, Aradia gave a short cry and fell onto her backside.

“What’s the matter, Aradia? Did you step in some lava? Or did a monster bite you?” asked the Moon Giant Deeana, running over with her spear in her hand, wondering what had happened to her calm, quiet daughter.

“I’m alright, Mother. I wanted to know what kind of enemies Father had, and I felt like I would be able to ‘see’ them, so I did ‘see’ them, but I was stopped,” Aradia said, sitting on the ground and blinking repeatedly with the eye on her forehead as she gave an answer that didn’t make much sense.

“I see. Are you hurt? Does your eye or your head hurt? Do you feel ill?” Deeana asked.

She seemed to have understood what had happened, but prioritized making sure her daughter was alright.

Tiamat and Bakunawa came over as well, having noticed that something was wrong and looking worried.

“What is it? Has something happened to Aradia?” Tiamat asked.

“Are you okay?” asked Bakunawa.

Their current location was some distance away from the Demon Continent’s ‘city’ and Zantark’s sacred grounds; it was far from a safe area.

But to Deeana and the others, who were demigods, there was not much of a threat. If they were humans, then this was like a picnic in a grassy meadow surrounded by nature. The children might be stung by insects or scrape their knees if they fell over while running, but it wouldn’t be a problem if their parents watched over them. Thus, the situation didn’t appear to be all too serious.

“She’s alright. I checked just in case, but she isn’t injured,” said Deeana.

“I’m not in pain, either,” said Aradia. “I was just surprised by how bright and shiny it was.”

Indeed, nothing serious had actually happened to Aradia herself. Having confirmed this, Deeana then began explaining to Tiamat and Bakunawa what had happened.

“The power of the Demon Eye on her forehead has awakened. I’d suspected that the eye on her forehead was a Demon Eye, but I didn’t expect her to be able to use its power so soon,” Deeana said.

“Something like clairvoyance or a second sight, perhaps?” asked Tiamat.

“It’s not as powerful as clairvoyance. I think she used the moon as a medium to look at some distant place. She said she wanted to see Vandalieu’s enemies, so either the Amid Empire or the Farzon Duchy, from what we’ve been told. And a light-attribute magic user or someone with a shining weapon stopped it,” said Deeana.

She had more or less discerned the truth. But since Aradia couldn’t properly explain what she had seen due to her lack of experience, Deeana didn’t know what had taken place at the location Aradia had seen.

If Aradia was capable of looking at her own Status, she would have been able to tell her mother about it, and Deeana would have been able to make conclusions for her. But because she was a demigod, she was not affected by the Status System.

And because neither Deeana nor Tiamat possessed Demon Eyes themselves, everything they knew about Demon Eyes was second-hand information.

“To be able to use your power already, less than a year after your birth. You make your mother proud, Aradia,” Deeana said.

“Thank you! I’ll work even harder to make sure I’m not stopped next time!” said Aradia.

“You don’t have to be in such a hurry. Take a millennium or two, however long you need, and grow up to be big and healthy. That’s all I can ask of you,” said Deeana.

Having lived for over a hundred thousand years, she had a very slow sense of time.

“Such a doting parent you have become, Deeana, despite having watched me raise hundreds and thousands of children in the past,” said Tiamat.

She had given birth to Bakunawa’s older brothers and sisters… Not only Elder Dragons, Colossi, and Beast-Kings, but also to the races created by Vida who lived only on the Demon Continent – the Maryujin and Kiryujin.

Deeana gave a small laugh. “I have known you for a long time, but I don’t think it needs to be said that raising your own child is completely different from watching someone else raise theirs,” she said. “Ah, we must tell a Demon King Familiar about what Aradia saw… Tiamat, where are the Demon King Familiars?”

“I apologize; my boy has eaten all of the Demon King Familiars we had with us,” said Tiamat. “And we left behind the Demon King Familiars that he usually plays with… Boy?”

Tiamat looked over at her son and saw him holding a Demon King Familiar that had been stuck to his mane like a flea between his fingers.

“Here, my emergency snack Papa,” Bakunawa said.

“I was staying hidden here because I thought it might be a problem if every Demon King Familiar was eaten, but it seems that he knew all along,” said the Demon King Familiar.

Apparently, Bakunawa had simply been saving this Demon King Familiar as an emergency snack.

“Were you listening to our conversation, Vandalieu?” Deeana asked.

“No, I made this me for emergency contact purposes, so I’ve been making it stay asleep most of the time in order to conserve Mana and extend its operational duration. I’d appreciate it if you explained things one more time,” the Demon King Familiar replied.

And so, Vandalieu learned of what had occurred.

Some days later, a meeting was held at the palace of the Holy Nation of Amid.

Everything about the Amid Empire’s transition to becoming the Holy Nation Amid had been rushed, as it had begun after the Demon King Guduranis’s defeat in the Orbaume Kingdom. Thus, problems were continually arising even now, after the changes were announced to the people and the country’s name was changed.

But precisely because it was a hastily-established religious state, it was essentially like a store that had changed the sign outside the door. The civil officials and military officers from the Amid Empire had been granted positions as clergymen, and they were still being made to do the same work as before, so the chaos had been suppressed to some extent – Except for the nationwide adoption of the teachings of Alda’s Peaceful Faction.

The civil officials who had been granted positions as priests were making reports to Salazar, who had been granted the position of cardinal.

“The release of Vida’s races from slavery is progressing smoothly. This is likely in large part due to the fact that the owners are being paid the slaves’ market value as compensation, and because of the authority of the gods.”

“At the same time, there are some who are kidnapping members of Vida’s races and pretending that they owned them previously in order to fraudulently claim these compensatory payments. There are cases of things like members of Vida’s races collaborating with humans to commit this fraud, but at this point in time, things are being handled.”

“Most of the unsavory nobles and large slave traders have already been crushed by the Storm of Tyranny, after all.”

Hearing these reports, Salazar was immersed in a dark sense of happiness.

He had been a puppet emperor, and now he was a puppet former-emperor cardinal. If future problems arose in the Holy Nation of Amid, he would be made to take responsibility for all of the citizens’ discontent and executed. His position hadn’t improved in the slightest.

And yet, unlike when the end of the Empire was announced, he felt refreshed – likely because he was now surrounded by people who were in the same situation.

Salazar hadn’t believed for a moment that this forced, sudden transition into a religious state would go well. Either the transition process would collapse and end in his execution, or the nation itself would collapse before that. The nation would vanish and be recorded only in history, just as many great, prospering nations had done in the past – though the authority of the gods would likely prop the nation up for a while longer.

Eileek Marme, who was leading the Amid Empire’s transition into a religious state, gave a satisfied smile. “It seems that things are going very well overall. Alda’s words were right – with the authority of the heroic god Bellwood and your strength as a guider, we can lead the people like a herd of lambs.”

Eileek had received a long and complicated Divine Message from Alda, the God of Law and Fate. None other than him… or perhaps Nuaza, the highest-ranking figure in the Church of Vida in the Demon Empire of Vidal, would have been able to completely receive and understand such a Divine Message.

Obeying this Divine Message, Eileek had begun taking action to transform the Amid Empire into a religious state. Everything was in accordance with Alda’s will… Everything was for the sake of defeating Vandalieu and the Demon Empire of Vidal.

At first, Alda had intended to combine the Amid Empire and Orbaume Empire’s forces to fight against Vandalieu.

But having seen the Orbaume Kingdom after Vandalieu defeated the Demon King Guduranis, he had decided to give up on it.

Alda had noticed that the guidance of Vandalieu and his companions was different from the other guiders that had appeared throughout history. It was already too late to do anything about the Orbaume Kingdom, with the exception of the Farzon Duchy. Undoing what had been done would be impossible.

That was why it had been necessary to firmly unite the Amid Empire, at least; he was now trying to have it join forces with the Farzon Duchy.

But Alda also knew that people would not take action in exact accordance with his will. That was why he had been unable to exterminate Vida’s races for the past hundred thousand years, and this had resulted in the recent acceptance of their existence.

That was why Alda had decided to do what Vandalieu – and Vida – had done.

“All I did was act as a member of Alda’s Peaceful Faction. And this development is not what I intended,” said Heinz, who had traveled to the Amid Empire with his companions at Nineroad’s instruction.

He was cooperating with Eileek as a member of Alda’s Peaceful Faction.

What had been desired from Heinz was for him to give a speech to make use of his power as a guider and to use ‘Heroic God Descent’. Eileek had intended to use this to forcibly guide the people who were unable to hear the voices of the gods.

“If possible, I wanted to talk to the people, make them understand, and agree with us sincerely and truthfully, rather than forcing them to obey by using ‘Heroic God Descent,’” Heinz said. “If that strange event hadn’t happened…”

“It is nothing to concern yourself over. And your gaining of the people’s support was important. With this, you are now a hero of the Holy Nation of Amid,” said Eileek.

“… A hero who did not defeat anything,” Salazar added snidely. “We should be thankful to this Vandalieu.”

The other cardinals attending the meeting directed sharp gazes Salazar’s way.

But Heinz, the target of Salazar’s derision, thought that his words were very reasonable. And he directed his next question not at him, but at Eileek. “Although I was born in one of this nation’s vassal states, I am an S-class adventurer in the Orbaume Kingdom, and I have been working for Alda’s Peaceful Faction. Do you not think it strange for you to make me a hero?”

Eileek gave him a surprised look. “It is Alda’s will, after all. As Alda’s agent here in Lambda, I do not think there is anything to question.”

He gave a clear, genuine smile – or perhaps it was a nihilistic one.

Eileek currently held more power than any emperor, and yet… perhaps the Holy Nation of Amid and its people were of little value to him.