Ah, the Best, You Say! (3)
“This is unbelievable!”
Isaac had drawn the Supreme God.
With that single fact, the entire clergy was thrown into chaos. No—it wasn't just them. Word had spread all the way to the foreign dignitaries, and pandemonium reigned.
—Have you heard? Isaac Eshua drew the Supreme God.
—The Supreme God, of all things! Has that ever happened before in all of history?
—History itself is about to be rewritten. Does that mean the next leader of the Holy Empire will come from the Blue Faith?
—Then will that boy become the Pope?
The foreign attendees buzzed among themselves, wondering whether they ought to start cultivating connections with Isaac now.
Which meant the Red and Gold Faiths had no choice but to clutch the backs of their heads in despair.
Do they even understand what God Selection is?!
It was the solemn ceremony where an apprentice priest contracted with a god and stepped forward as a full-fledged cleric. In other words, which god you drew determined the path of your entire future—and the shape of the political landscape to come.
Every other faith was visibly shaken as well, but more than anything, Red and Gold had gone beyond shock and descended into complete meltdown.
Gold, especially.
“Those lunatics……!”
“Of all the faiths, why the Blue……!”
It was as if they'd been sitting quietly minding their own business, only to take a brick to the back of the skull out of nowhere.
Originally, they had planned to announce the god Kina had drawn to the world and elevate the Gold Faith's prestige in the process. A god of Kina's caliber would have let them negotiate with the foreign dignitaries from a position of strength. Every eye in the empire would have been on Gold.
But compared to the Supreme God, all of that paled into nothing.
Well, it's true that occasionally another faith's priest draws one of the Gold gods.
Though in those cases, they'd simply buy the rights to the god in a private transaction.
But the Supreme God?
Those wretches would happily sell off something THAT valuable!
And to the Blue Faith—the thorn in their eye—of all people!
“You're telling me His Eminence took NO measures whatsoever?!”
“Well, you see……”
The priests delivering the report squeezed their eyes shut.
From the sound of it, even the Gold Cardinal hadn't sat on his hands all the way to the end.
“When the God of Wealth showed signs of favoring Young Lord Isaac, he tried to bind that god to us……”
“And even THEN, the Supreme God appeared?”
“Yes. They say a far stronger power pushed the God of Wealth aside.”
The Gold priests were struck dumb.
Don't tell me the Supreme God actually favors that brat that much?
They had no idea what on earth was going on, but the how of it didn't matter right now.
“In any case, we cannot allow the contract to happen.”
“Agreed. The Blue Faith will seize the moment to surge upward and plant itself at the head of Gold.”
“Thankfully, there's still the 'God Summoning' stage that follows the Selection.”
God Summoning was the final step: calling down the god you had drawn and binding it through contract. And summoning a god was no simple feat.
It demanded stamina, capability, everything. It was like applying to a school—being eligible to apply and actually getting accepted were two entirely different problems.
That was why apprentices carried items associated with their chosen god, to improve their odds of a successful summoning.
And what did that mean?
It means if you want to summon the Supreme God, you have to hold an item connected to the Supreme God.
And so they gave the order.
“Cast the Rest Divine Art on every item associated with the Supreme God.”
!
The Rest Divine Art. Rest was just the pretty name for it—in practice, it was a curse that loosened the body's tension and sent the victim crumpling to the floor.
“Make him collapse the moment he tries to summon the Supreme God.”
For priests, this was a bitter pill to swallow.
“A-are we even allowed to do such a thing?”
“The filthy Blue Faith drawing the Supreme God is the greater danger. Do you understand? This is for the greater good.”
“Yes, Your Eminence!”
“There's no need to even look—that brat will throw a tantrum insisting he wants to summon the Supreme God.”
“Quite right. No matter how well the God of Wealth regards him, nothing tops the Supreme God.”
“Why do you think it's called the Supreme God? He is the being who stands above every god in existence. With the Supreme God under our banner, the next papacy itself would be within reach.”
“And the very greed that drives him to summon the Supreme God will be the noose that wrings his neck.”
But at that very moment, the person in question……
“I'm gonna pick the God of Wealthehhh!!”
……was throwing a tantrum insisting he wanted to draw the God of Wealth.
Shuri could only click his tongue at the sight.
Honestly. The God of Wealth. Of all things.
“First time I've ever seen a guy draw the Supreme God and complain about it……”
But Shuri's opinions meant nothing to Isaac, who had already set his sights on Shuri's divine stone.
“Wowee, Shurikins. The god you drew looks real nice? Hand it over.”
And on top of everything else, he was a guy who tried to rob people of their gods! That was a first, too!
“Why? Come on, Shurikins, you drew the Blue Faith's Chief God, didn'tcha? The God of Light, right? That's awesome. A God of Light's gotta be good at finding shiny things, no? Right? He'd be great at sniffing out gold too, yeah?”
“You insane bastard! The God of Light is NOT like that!”
“Hah, our Shurikins is gonna make a fortune. Chief God of the Blue Faith means he's locked in as the next head of House Eshua. So trade with me.”
ARGH! You deranged lunatic!
When Isaac made a grab for Shuri's stone, Shuri clutched it for dear life and shouted.
“You drew the SUPREME GOD, why are you coming after me?! Can't you see everyone's green with envy?!”
And that wasn't all.
“A gift from the Supreme God already showed up!”
Shuri went red in the face, pointing at a potion bottle sitting in the junk pile.
It wasn't an everyday occurrence, but gods did occasionally send gifts to the priests they held dear.
Of course, they weren't free.
When a priest accumulated merit in a god's name, the god sent a slip of paper as recompense—delivered to the Holy See or the temple of the relevant faith. An administrator would then exchange the slip for actual goods on the priest's behalf.
But in Isaac's case, things were radically different.
Good heavens, the god is sending him goods without a single scrap of merit to his name! Does that even make SENSE?!
And it had dropped right into Isaac's lap! A potion engraved with the Supreme God's crest! Naturally, everyone had screamed in outrage.
But the recipient himself couldn't have looked more bored.
“Don't need a stamina potion, though?”
WHAT?! You DON'T NEED it?!
“It's the Supreme God's blessing—why not!”
“A blessing, big whoop. Does it feed me?”
“It DOES feed you! Don't you know that with that alone, summoning the Supreme God is guaranteed? Normally, people cough up blood and collapse halfway through summoning a high-ranking god! Why won't you summon the Supreme God?!”
“Hah.”
Yeah. Fine. Sure. The Supreme God is great. If the god had a grudge against me, it wouldn't have chosen me in the first place, so it's not bad, I guess.
But he had no idea of its intentions, its goals, anything. He couldn't get the faintest read on what kind of god it even was.
You think handing me something like that makes me want to contract with you? Do you know how careful a person I am?
[You just tried to steal the Supreme God's treasure, got caught, and bolted. That's why.]
Shut it.
[A thief crying “stop, thief” at the top of his lungs… KWEK—!]
Just as Isaac was strangling Whisper's ghostly throat, Shuri let out a sigh.
“Look, I respect your opinion, but whether you like it or not, you should lock down a high-ranking god.”
“Huh?”
“The Red Faith is lying in wait. They're going to summon their god and drag you off to be executed.”
Shuri pressed a hand to his forehead, as if to say how does he not grasp the situation.
“Traditionally, only the Red Faith's heirs can draw their gods—and those gods are terrifyingly, absurdly strong. Top-tier combat power, top-tier offense, all of it.”
“Stronger than the gods of the Blue or Gold Faiths?”
“They specialize in different things, but the point stands—gods that only the Red heirs can draw, and gods that are mad strong. Nothing less than another high-ranking god can stand up to them.”
In other words, the moment Naiser summoned one of the Red Faith's gods, Isaac could very well be attacked and killed by a deity.
No—not 'could be.' He dies like ninety-nine percent of the time.
The Red gods were, in their vast majority, high-ranking deities presiding over punishment. And while that mattered little on an ordinary day, the moment a god was actually summoned, the equation changed completely.
Summary execution.
The instant one of them laid eyes on Isaac's level of faith, it would skewer him with lightning on the spot. Without defenses on the level of a high-ranking god, he'd simply lose his life.
That was the kind of gods they were.
“So honestly, the fact that the Supreme God chose you at all is a miracle!”
“A miracle? What's wrong with me?”
“What's WRONG with you? Hey! Why don't you take another good, hard look at your compatibility?!”
Shuri slapped his palm down on the papers strewn across the floor.
Scroll paper carpeted the ground all around Isaac and Shuri. And this was no ordinary paper—it was special test parchment, designed to measure one's compatibility with the gods.
“You said you hated the Supreme God, so I went and sourced this precious test parchment for you—and the results all came out looking like THIS!”
The God of Light, the God of Punishment, the God of Abundance, the God of Love and more. They had tested his compatibility with every god under the sun.
And the results?
What was even the point of saying it out loud.
“I have lived a long time and I have NEVER seen compatibility readings of 0% across the board! How can there be a single person out of a thousand gods whose compatibility doesn't even break 0%?!”
“Ugh, why! If we test more gods, some might show up!”
“With faith like yours, you think testing more gods is going to accomplish anything?!”
Though, to be fair, there had been exactly one exception.
— Supreme God —
Compatibility: ∞ (INFINITE)
Which meant going mad was the only sane response.
I have seriously never seen anyone this far on both extremes of the spectrum!
“Anyway! Consider it a miracle and summon the Supreme God! If it's not a high-ranking god, you won't be able to resist whatever Naiser summons!”
“Shurikins, you've got a high-ranking god too, don'tcha. Guess I'll just take yours.”
“You—you shameless leech! You'd strip the fleas off a beggar's hide!”
In any case, everyone expected Isaac to summon the Supreme God.
But Isaac himself just brushed it off.
A contract with a god was a necessity for a priest—an unavoidable future. If he could just land a good god, great, but honestly, what god out there would mesh well with a Demon King?
For the sake of the future, it would be ideal to secure at least one high-ranking god……
Ah. Is there really no high-ranking god out there who'll do what I say?
[Would you care to hold your breath waiting for one?]
Whisper clicked its tongue.
One week later.
The Summoning Ceremony was louder and rowdier than any before it.
“The Supreme God, you say? Are we actually going to SEE the Supreme God?”
“Are you kidding? Drawing a god and summoning one are two different things. How is anyone supposed to summon something like THAT?”
“Honestly, there've been more cases where someone drew a high-ranking god, failed the summoning, and just settled for a contract with some lesser god.”
“Hey, is that really what matters right now? Have you not heard the rumors about Isaac Eshua's faith readings?”
“They say he's summoning the Red Faith's Chief God! I hear they're going to execute Isaac Eshua right there at the ceremony!”
Starved for spectacle, the crowd was swollen with anticipation.
Meanwhile, the Red Faith's team preparing for the ceremony kept glancing at Naiser as if to ask if he was really all right with this. But Naiser only smirked.
“I don't know what tricks that brat pulled, but they won't work anymore.”
!
Naiser had already petitioned the gods of the Red temple to pass judgment on Isaac. Upon hearing his account, the gods had raged.
—Not only has he shattered the statue of the God of Penal Law, he has branded a divine messenger a heretic.
—Summon us. We shall confirm and investigate the soul of that devil's child with our own eyes, and govern him with execution.
Having confirmed those words with his own eyes, Naiser could not help but wear the smile of the victor.
“That brat will be executed at the Summoning Ceremony.”
At that declaration of war, the Blue team and Shuri moved to protest—
“Well, he's not wrong.”
!
The Gold Cardinal had appeared before Isaac.
“You're far too young to summon the Supreme God. You won't be able to handle one of the Red Faith's gods.”
Isaac arched a brow at Cardinal Verith. Did this guy come all the way here just to pick a fight?
But the Cardinal said something entirely unexpected.
“I will help you summon the Supreme God.”
“……?!”
I'm sorry—come again? He's cooperating with the summoning of the Supreme God?
Shuri and the Eshua family stared at him as if questioning his sanity, but the Gold Cardinal only gleamed slyly.
“In exchange, hand the god over to Gold once you've summoned it. Do that, and I'll give you the God of Wealth.”
!
The moment they caught on to Gold's objective, the head of the Blue Faith and Rillai immediately frowned.
“'Hand it over'?! What on earth are you—”
“A transfer of contract rights. You do nothing but the summoning; the contract will be ours.”
Yeah, figures these guys would pull something like this.
Rillai stepped forward.
“Even if you offer those terms……”
“You wanted it, didn't you? I'll give you the finest of the wealth deities.”
At that, the Eshua family and the Blue team let out hollow laughs.
Kids, know when to quit. Do they really think trading the Supreme God for the God of Wealth is a deal anyone would take?
Right on cue, Rillai smiled confidently at Cardinal Verith.
“Your Eminence, I take it you're unaware of just how generously the Supreme God is already treating Isaac. A transfer is simply impossible.”
“Well, that depends entirely on the boy's own will, doesn't it?”
“As if Isaac would ever just hand it—”
“Sure, I'll hand it over.”
……Huh?
“It's just a god, right? You can have it. In exchange, I want the God of Wealth.”
HEY, YOU LITTLE—!!
Shuri whipped his head toward Isaac in sheer horror.
But Rillai and the Blue head of house merely pressed their hands to their foreheads, as if they'd seen it coming.
“Well… fine, then.”
Truthfully, it made no difference to them whom Isaac contracted with. Frankly, the fact that Isaac could contract with a god at all was already a miracle in itself.
He hadn't drawn a malevolent god—they should be counting their blessings.
At this point, so long as it has the face of a god, we're grateful.
What mattered was summoning a god before Naiser did. Once he summoned a high-ranking god, he could dodge whatever the Red gods threw at him.
And besides, Naiser's summoning slot came after Isaac's anyway.
We can defend just fin—…
But right at that moment—
“Head of House! It's terrible! The order of the Summoning Ceremony has been changed!”
The Blue knight's report startled everyone.
“The order was CHANGED?!”
“Young Lord Naiser has been placed ahead of Young Lord Isaac.”
Curses rose unprompted.
And sure enough, the rarely flustered Goel shouted out.
“WHO changed it?!”
“The Cardinal of Black, sir. It appears the Red Cardinal slipped him a bribe.”
A curse slipped from the Blue head of house's lips.
“…That son of a bitch. A man of the clergy, taking BRIBES?”
“He really is a gutter rat, isn't he.”
“You're telling me.”
As his sons cursed in rare, perfect unison, the head of the Blue Faith nodded gravely.
“Rillai.”
“Yes, Father! I'll go lodge a formal protest right awa—”
“We'll pay a bigger bribe.”
“……?!”
FATHER?!
Are we really allowed to do that, Blue Faith?!