Chapter 3. Faith and Status (7)

Ordinarily, there would have been no reason for anyone else to enter a room occupied only by the advocate and the Saintess Candidate.

If someone did enter, it would have been only the single person guarding the Saintess Candidate, Anna—though, in truth, no one was actually forbidden from entering.

If either of the two had said they did not want anyone listening to their conversation, the Church would have accepted that, but no such request had ever been made.

So it could not be helped that Sophie, another Saintess Candidate who had come to fetch Anna, ended up overhearing that conversation.

And that she ended up listening to it in a daze.

Choi Su-bin, appointed as the Devil’s Advocate, was someone who should have been a reliable ally for Anna.

In the first place, the Devil’s Advocate was a position tasked with verifying the qualifications of the person who would ascend to the seat of Saintess, and therefore the job was to catch and present even the most trivial flaw in that candidate.

Since this Saintess Candidate, Anna, unusually claimed that she had no faith and did not believe in God either, this verification should ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have been unusually easy, unlike all the previous ones—

But at least the current atmosphere was not flowing that way.

"Now, so, Miss Anna. Let's think about it this way."

For some reason, Choi Su-bin kept trying to persuade Anna. And conversely, Anna was stiff-faced, refuting him point by point.

"Miss Anna's ability—it might not actually be Miss Anna's own."

"It wasn't my own ability to begin with, though......"

Anna, having heard Choi Su-bin's words, conceded for the moment, but her expression remained rigid.

"Uh...... so, actually, as Miss Anna thinks, whenever you try to heal people, that power is simply being exerted through Miss Anna......."

"Yes, that's right. the Being Above is exercising power through me, I suppose."

"Look, Miss Anna. The conversation hasn't been progressing for a while now. In the end, isn't what you want to say that God exists up above?"

"No. I simply cannot be certain that what exists up above is God."

Anna denied the word God like that, yet she did not deny the Being Above at all.

Rather, she furrowed her brow as if she did not understand why they were having this conversation in the first place. As if it were strange not to understand such common sense.

Sophie found Anna's talk intriguing.

Anna had already spoken to Sophie directly about such things before. In fact, at that time, Sophie had seriously agonized over whether she should report Anna to the Heresy Inquisition. So much so that it had seemed strange the Cardinal had not immediately sent her to trial after receiving the letter.

But, strangely enough.

This peculiar nun who denied the very concept of God was continuing to speak with an attitude that suggested she felt not a shred of shame about what she was saying.

"The concept of God differs from person to person, doesn't it?"

Choi Su-bin spoke cautiously. He seemed to be on guard after seeing Anna's somewhat stiff attitude, but he did not back down from his argument.

"I mean, even if something isn’t omniscient and omnipotent, there are all sorts of beings that fall under the concept of God. The gods of Greco-Roman mythology are gods, and the gods of Egyptian mythology are gods too. The beings called ghosts ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the East are also gods."

"Yes, that's right. So I consider the word God itself to be meaningless. What meaning is there in calling the Being Above God?"

"Uh......"

"Shall I give an example? Once many people came to accept that the Being Above actually exists, the gods from before became ‘not gods,’ didn’t they? Even if someone now pointed to the gods of other myths and told people to believe in them as real gods, hardly anyone would. Though some might think the god they worshiped had finally descended in that form."

For some reason, upon hearing that, Maria—whether it was a nickname, Anna called her 'Ria'—who had been standing with her arms crossed, quietly listening to the conversation, let out a small snort of laughter.

Anna glared at Maria a little, but calmly continued her argument.

"So, isn't the concept of God actually a word that can be completely negated? Right now, it's said to be helping countless people, but what will you do if, in the distant future, a situation arises where that concept can also be negated? Will you drag the meaning of the word God down and put it back in the position of a ghost, or will you simply strip away the word God?"

Sophie blinked.

Back then, she had been enraged by words that seemed to deny everything she believed in, and before that, she had felt a certain contempt for the fact that someone who was a Saintess Candidate denied God.

But listening now—somehow, she got the feeling that Anna had simply been having a 'different' conversation from the very beginning.

"In my view, the concept of God was never universal to begin with. It’s like the distinction between vegetables and fruit: in one country a tomato is a vegetable, in another it’s a fruit, and in another it’s classified as neither. If we’re going to define the Being Above, I think we need a far more objective category than the word ‘God.’"

"Hmm, but Miss Anna, what you're saying doesn't seem to deny that being. Isn't what you're saying now simply a confession of faith?"

"So, I've been wondering for a while now what exactly you're saying I 'believe' in."

"You mean the sacred being above, right? Though according to Miss Anna, it might not be ‘God.’"

"Look, that's a different matter. I don't 'believe' there is something up above. I 'know' it."

Blink.

Sophie's eyes blinked once.

Maria, standing a little distance away, glanced at Sophie, who wore a slightly dazed expression. When their eyes met, Maria shrugged.

'Look at that.'

Exactly as if she were saying that.

"If there's a pebble in front of you while walking down the road, we don't say we 'believe' in it. It's just there. When you see lightning strike in the sky, you don't believe lightning is striking. It really is just striking."

So Anna was saying that the Being Above definitely existed.

She was saying that she simply did not want to call that being 'God.'

Because the word 'God' was so unstable that it could disappear at any moment.

"Hm."

Startled by that sound, Sophie turned around, and at some point the Cardinal had entered. Only then did Sophie remember that she had not fully closed the door. Had the voices leaked through the gap in the door?

Several clergy who had been following the Cardinal also entered the room and were watching the debate with interest.

The topic was drifting slightly off from where it had been a moment ago.

"Since it exists, whether it is good or evil doesn’t matter. In the first place, is healing people a good power? Even before we could heal people with Holy Power, we already knew that ‘healing’ was not inherently good or evil. In nature, flies and maggots can spread disease, and because they are often found around decay they were considered filthy, yet those same properties of maggots have also been used medically."

"......."

"So this Holy Power is the same. It's simply a power that heals people. It wasn't my power to begin with, after all."

"So, Miss Anna...... you're saying you deny all the merit you may have earned up until now."

"At least on that point, haven't the two of us been in agreement from the start? I didn't really do much of anything in that position. I just couldn't control that power and wandered around here and there, staying by people's sides. I shouldn't call that earning merit. There are people in the world who truly risk their lives fighting, aren't there? For people's safety."

Anna said that without changing her expression.

"If we're going to talk about who took on danger, Ria is far more impressive than me. The one who actually swung a sword and fought was Ria, and that's why I was able to survive too."

"Huh!?"

At those words, Maria finally showed a slightly surprised expression, but seeing the people nearby, she quickly composed herself.

But the gazes were already directed at Maria. As if embarrassed, her face turned slightly red.

"Well, I understand wanting to call it God. When you see a power that heals what medicine couldn't heal and lets someone who might have lost an arm or a leg live without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠disability, you might think the Being Above is simply a good being, and so it will keep helping from now on, and want to call it God."

Anna spoke in a calm voice.

"But in the end, isn't that just believing in power? If it's God because it can help me, then will you also believe that a being that can harm me is God? Well, in the past, people did believe smallpox was a god. They feared it, calling it 'Mama.' The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were also, in a sense, beings no different from gods."

The room fell completely silent, but Anna did not seem to notice.

"So, yes, to be honest, I don't really know what exactly people these days mean by that being called 'God.' Do they call it God when they see that white light healing their injured selves? Or do they call the one who simply exists up above God? If you're going to claim that God exists, I think you first have to agree on what that being is. That's what I think."

Having heard that much, Sophie quickly looked around.

And she was certain.

The Cardinal was looking at this nun named Anna before him with completely different eyes than when he had first seen her.

Anna seemed to have contemplated the being called God for a long time.

Perhaps at the end of that contemplation, she had finally arrived at some conviction about that being.

And perhaps that was why she could understand God better than others, and why she had become able to call forth such power.

"......Very well."

With a somewhat stiff expression, Choi Su-bin opened his mouth.

"I can at least see that the places we're each looking at are not exactly the same. In that case......."

Choi Su-bin let out a light breath and spoke.

"In that case, what should we call that being? I mean, according to Miss Anna's words, under the assumption that it exists, anyway. We do need some means of referring to it."

At those words, Anna finally broke into a beaming smile.

Everyone's gaze in the room focused on her, everyone held their breath waiting for the next words—

Anna finally opened her mouth.

"First, we need to establish a proper scientific name."

She answered like that while lightly brushing her hand, cleanly shaking off the light that had been falling onto her head from partway through.

Ah.

If only it hadn't been for that last line, it would have been truly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠perfect.

*

"First, we need to establish a proper scientific name. Of course, we still don't know anything except that it exists, but scientists do tend to name hypothetical beings in advance."

Indeed.

After learning that there were as many as thirty kinds of elementary particles, scientists thought that, in that case, there must be a single particle composing those thirty particles.

But since there was no way to observe it yet, the scientists had already decided on the name Prion for that particle. Of course, no one yet knew whether it really existed, but just in case, they made an 'assumption' and thought about it.

But if the Being Above at least existed, couldn't they give it an even more definite name?

People were also defined as animals and classified with the species name Homo sapiens sapiens, with even a subspecies name separately assigned, so wouldn't it simply be a matter of giving a scientific name to the being they call God and studying it—

Admiring my own idea, I turned toward Ria, and belatedly noticed that there were far more people in the room than in my memory.

"......Uh."

And I felt the atmosphere sink very coldly.

Only Ria, far off in the distance, was barely holding back laughter.