Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Miracles Have No Price Tag
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Even if the church is at odds with the secular world,
priests belonging to the church aren't entirely free from worldly ways.
They can't indulge in alcohol, women, or gambling, so they often reveal their greed in other areas instead.
Money, honor, power—that sort of thing.
And Bishop Dori was more sincere about money than anyone.
"As long as we steadily send gold his way, Bishop Dori will properly educate Matthew according to our agreement. He's more of a merchant who honors credit than a true servant of God."
"He certainly seemed like the type who'd do anything for money. How did you know a bishop like that existed?"
"Corrupt priests are a dime a dozen as villains."
"Pardon?"
Bishop Dori was a villain from the original story.
A corrupt priest obsessed with money.
A local power holder who obstructs the protagonist after his interests are threatened.
A flat, predictable character.
That was why I was certain Bishop Dori would accept my proposal.
I had plenty of gold,
and he had an insatiable greed.
"I'm just worried he might take the money and neglect the slave out of sheer materialism... But if Your Excellency says so, it must be accurate."
"Well, he's not purely materialistic. He is a bishop, after all. No matter how corrupt a villain he is, someone at his level has to have some purity in his faith. Once Matthew shows results, he'll support him wholeheartedly."
"...Can the words 'corruption' and 'purity' even be used together?"
"Being pure in faith doesn't mean being incorruptible. Just because it's harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle doesn't mean you shouldn't get rich."
This was a world where God truly existed.
No matter how money-mad a priest was, he couldn't have become one without believing in God in the first place.
He hadn't become a priest to make money.
He wasn't selling God's name as a tool to earn cash.
As a priest serving God,
he simply took worldly gains to maintain the dignity of his secular flesh.
If it were truly blasphemous,
even a corrupt priest like Bishop Dori couldn't accept such a proposal.
That's why he could serve as the catalyst for my plan.
Treating slaves as objects was the secular norm,
while recognizing that slaves possessed human souls was religious truth.
Bishop Dori was corrupt enough to ignore secular norms and cheat as much as he pleased,
yet pure enough in faith to humbly obey before religious truth.
"This slave endured horrific labor and persecution that would make him forget his soul, yet he held onto and nurtured his faith. On top of that, he's memorizing scripture and prayers on his own to draw closer to God's will. Do you know what religion calls this?"
"...Commendable, isn't it?"
"A miracle."
Anyone born with a soul,
even a slave treated like a beast in the secular world,
could shine under God's grace.
How many facts in this world could bolster religious prestige like that?
Truths beyond secular norms and logic
existed in this world.
They were called God's mercy, God's love, and God's justice.
For a religious person, this was
an event stimulating enough to fry the brain with orgasmic pleasure.
"In the end, he'll give back more than the gold we provided. Even if it costs him all his religious prestige as a bishop, he'll make sure Matthew graduates seminary."
"Even faith is just part of the calculation...?"
"Well, it will take quite some time."
"That's how long-term investments work. I believe it will yield equally great results."
"It could all be a waste of time and end in failure. No business is guaranteed success."
"That's just an excuse from quitters. If this plan fails, won't Your Excellency just find another way to knock on the church's door?"
"True enough."
"Your Excellency has the ingenuity to make things happen. So it will succeed."
"Hearing you say that makes me a bit embarrassed... Thanks, Torsso."
"It's my joy."
A miracle.
Bishop Dori had witnessed one.
"...You memorized all of this?"
"Yes."
The slave education had begun after receiving 'too much gold to refuse' from a noble.
He had started without much thought,
but the scene unfolding before him shattered all his common sense and prejudices.
'Is this person really a slave? How on earth...'
When the slave first read the Bible aloud,
he thought it was a high-class slave who'd learned letters.
When he memorized all 127 prayers,
he thought it was a slave with a good head.
When he perfectly understood church customs and history,
he suspected it might be a noble from an enemy nation.
'...He memorized the entire Bible?'
When the slave memorized all 73 books of the Bible,
Bishop Dori had no choice but to see it as a miracle.
It was impossible by common sense
for a mere slave.
'...'
Looking back,
it wasn't just good memory.
A slave who could hardly taste meat had strictly observed the six meatless days.
He obeyed doctrine faithfully.
He asked questions about Bible stories with curiosity and zeal.
Bishop Dori had never seen this slave break a commandment.
'A miracle—a real miracle? Truly?'
It was impossible without a miracle.
Thus,
Bishop Dori couldn't help but doubt.
'Why me? Shouldn't miracles go to upright, conscientious priests...?'
The only 'miracles' Bishop Dori had seen before
were trivial things like fertilizer turning to gold.
Bishop Dori was pure in faith,
but not devoted to the church.
He resented not being able to use church funds privately, so he filled other pockets.
This didn't deny God's authority,
but it ignored the church that reveres God and the Pope as bishop of the whole church.
Yet a miracle happened to him.
Not some worldly miracle like gold duplicating,
but a 'real' one where a soul finds salvation.
'...No. Perhaps because I'm like this, God granted the miracle. Miracles start in the darkest places.'
Dull, foolish secular nobles who only believe what they see
mistake divine power for miracles.
They think healing people in God's name is the greatest miracle.
But any priest knows.
That's just 'authority.'
Like a priest's right to administer sacraments,
or a king's right to collect taxes,
divine power is merely the priest's 'authority' to heal using God's name.
Priests use that authority to earn money,
repair church walls,
and build grand chapels and cathedrals to display God's majesty.
That's not a miracle.
Faith blooming in land without missionaries,
one person martyred for another's salvation,
one person's sins forgiven—
those were true miracles wrought by 'God' Himself.
'...Damn. No wonder my luck's been good...'
You can't do business with miracles.
Business with God Himself—
such a horrific, terrifying thing was impossible.
'I was planning to build a marble fountain in my garden with the incoming gold!'
No more gold now.
He'd have to tell House Riddle
not to send fertilizer anymore.
You couldn't spread stinking compost in the garden of God.
'What damnable glory.'
Bishop Dori grumbled inwardly at having to rewrite his ledger from scratch.
But surprisingly, it didn't feel bad.
No matter how much he loved money,
he was still a priest pure in faith.
How could he not feel his heart race at the word 'miracle'?
Honestly,
his pants were a little wet.
"Fine. If this is God's will..."
In the thrill of his priestly excitement and regret as a profiteer,
Bishop Dori wrote a letter to House Riddle.
"...Sigh. What a shame. My humble means... Hm."
Muttering to himself, the bishop pondered briefly
and added one line to the letter.
'Right. If I can't build a fountain in my garden, I'll just build one in the churchyard.'
If he couldn't squander church assets privately,
he could just spend on the church.
Wouldn't that please God all the more?
'I'll need to revise the doctrinal education schedule too.'
Having written and sealed the letter properly,
Bishop Dori began replanning the doctrinal lessons for Matthew.
The progress was faster than expected, so he'd adjust accordingly.
'At this rate, I could teach him all of pastoral theology and homiletics by year's end. If I teach well, he might even top the seminary entrance.'
To Bishop Dori, Matthew being a 'slave' no longer meant anything.
This was a miracle.
He had to teach him everything he knew as a bishop, giving his all.
"He wants official donations instead of backroom bribes?"
"Yes."
"Hm. Guess he doesn't want us holding his leash."
"The amount is large, so it must feel burdensome. It could become a weakness."
"More rational than I thought."
Considering the original story's setup, I figured he'd swallow any amount and burst, but
he still had some reason left at this point.
Bishop Dori opposing the protagonist was far in the future.
Not that strange.
Selling your conscience
only gets bolder the more you do it.
"Fine, do as he asks. It's not bad for us either."
"Understood."