"Absurd."
No sooner had Mephisto finished speaking than a priest stood up.
"Since you admit that gods bestow material blessings upon humans, you shouldn't deny faith. It's outrageous to rely on deities for your current life and yet not want to believe in them. Where is such a good thing?"
The onlooking crowd nodded in agreement, reasoning that where there is gain, there should be giving, which seemed fair. Yet faced with the opposition's accusation, Mephisto appeared calm and unruffled.
"Your Excellency, I believe you may have misunderstood my words."
"Besides humans, animals can reproduce; they are born because of their parents and exist during their youth due to their parents, hence they respect them, but this is not faith; deities also have descendants, born of their parents, whom they respect, but this, too, is unrelated to faith."
