This task was not an easy one. Fortunately, the most devout and inhumane followers of the Sea God had already perished with Kalvetua. Wearing the Sea God's mask, klein naturally held authority and intimidation over the remaining followers. Thus, reformation wouldn't be too difficult.
However, for those who refused to repent and continued down the path of bloody sacrifices, Mr Fool would simply send them to meet the Sea God they believed in.
Although Klein was kind-hearted, he wasn't a saint without boundaries. For the Sea God Church members who were willing to reform, he would offer leniency and guidance. But for those stubbornly refusing to change, sending them to Kalvetua was a fitting end to their faith.
After handling the matters of the new covenant, Klein became curious about the Sea God's Scepter and its function of accepting believers' prayers. For Mister Fool, this was a novel feature, and after some investigation, he connected with a prayer from one of the followers.
What Klein saw next was a scene under a bridge, where a ragged girl with multiple festering wounds leaned against a corner, murmuring prayers to the Sea God.
The girl, named Buddy, was a native of the Rorsted Archipelago. Her parents were devout believers of the Sea God, and thus, she also followed the faith. Buddy once had a family that was not particularly happy but at least bearable. However, two years ago, her father died in a road construction accident, and the Rorsted Railway Company gave only minimal compensation. Since then, her life spiraled downward. She was sold by her mother to the Red Theater, where she became a prostitute. Later, she contracted a serious illness and was cast out, becoming a sickly vagrant without work.
The only consolation was that her city had a charitable organization that provided her with free food and medicine, allowing her to barely survive and not starve to death under the bridge.
But this was only temporary. Charity had its limits, and her illness wasn't one that could be cured with a few free pills. Her life was already on a countdown.
She hadn't committed any wrongs, but fate had never been kind to her.
"If only I could live like a person..."
In her prayer, Buddy muttered, almost as if talking to herself, expressing her small and fragile wish.
She didn't expect a response from the gods. That was too distant for her. She was merely recalling her parents and the words of adventurers and pirates, leading her to instinctively pray to the Sea God, hoping to find a sliver of comfort in her suffering.
Above the gray fog, Klein instinctively raised the Sea God's Scepter, but he remembered that it didn't have healing abilities.
Fortunately, since becoming friends with Lynn, the extravagant Beyonder who casually tossed scrolls around, Klein had stocked up on various types of scrolls, including those with healing powers.
So, he quickly fished out two healing scrolls from his miscellaneous pile and used them on Buddy through her prayer light.
Under the bridge, in a corner unnoticed by anyone—
Buddy's eyes widened as she saw the warm white light enveloping her body. In that moment, all her pain seemed to melt away, replaced by peace and comfort.
When the light disappeared, she was shocked to find that her festering wounds had miraculously healed. Her body felt lighter than it had in years, as if she had returned to the days before her downfall.
'Was this... a miracle?!'
Though she wasn't highly educated, after a brief period of shock and disbelief, she remembered her parents and the stories of adventurers and pirates describing the miracles of gods. She instinctively knelt down and, just as she was about to bow her head, a distant yet majestic voice echoed in her ears.
"Someone will come for you soon. From today onward, you can live like a person."
Buddy wanted to look up, to see the sky, to see the great figure speaking to her, but she knew she couldn't. That would be disrespectful to the god. She sat there in a daze until the feeling of being watched completely disappeared.
"Drip—"
It seemed like a droplet of water had fallen on her clothes. she instinctively looked up, wondering if it had started raining, but the sun was still shining brightly in the sky.
Only then did she belatedly touch her face, realizing that it was already wet with tears.
These weren't tears of sorrow; they were tears of rebirth.
…
"You don't seem to be in a good mood?"
In the hotel, Lynn looked at Klein, who had just returned from the gray fog, and asked with some confusion.
"I just feel a bit heavy-hearted." Klein sighed and said, "I finally understand why, despite Kalvetua's madness and the bloodthirsty practices of the Sea God Cult, so many people still believe and join... They simply have no other choice."
After saving Buddy and arranging for her to be picked up by a nearby member of the Resistance and given a proper job, Klein also answered some other believers' prayers. He deeply felt the suffering of the Rorsted Archipelago natives and understood the damage colonialism had inflicted on these people.
The higher-ups of the Sea God cult, who led the bloody sacrifices, certainly deserved death. They had long ceased to be human and never cared for the lower-ranking believers. However, the ordinary Sea God followers were largely believers out of desperation.
People like Kalat, the bald leader of the resistance, who had received good education and knew the blood sacrifices were wrong, remained with the Sea God Church because they had no other option—without the Sea God's support, the resistance had no chance against a nation like the Loen Kingdom.
In the end, Kalvetua didn't truly save them, and the resistance's choice was akin to drinking poison to quench their thirst.
"But now, they have you, don't they?" Lynn smiled as he patted Klein on the shoulder. "Mr Fool is far more reliable than that stupid Sea Snake."
(End of Chapter)
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