Chapter 9 – In which Am explains the rules

The eyes of the priest in front of Amara opened wide as she clenched the paper crane and…

[As expected! All the rumors were blasphemies! Of course, the first thing His Excellency is concerned about are heretics and corruption and his new attendant ability to deal with them! Rest assured Your Excellency! I’m most capable of setting fire under those corrupted souls!]

She sent a ‘loud’ telepathic message.

Thoughts weren’t supposed to feel loud, but somehow this one did.

Was it the type of synesthesia Ver once told him about? But it should mainly apply to senses. Are thoughts perceived with some sort of sense, just like sounds are perceived with hearing and flavor is perceived with taste?

Amara was regrettably unable to draw any reasonable conclusion from this train of thoughts and there was no Ver around to share thoughts with.

Amara changed his sitting position to relax the tense back muscles and said:

[Seems like there are many who doubt that I would be concerned about heretics and corruption.]

Phlox’s brow twitched as she explained:

[Many sins go unpunished and there are many believers who suffer terrible injustice. People whisper and cry about the corruption that spreads among the priests. They even say that sinners are protected from law because His Excellency the Saint allows those demons to rampage and covers up for heretics. They say that His Excellency stays silent because he is indifferent to the blood that is spilled.]

Phlox’s eyes burned with anger, as she continued:

[But I now have evidence that it’s not the case. Your Excellency, what do you need me to do?]

Amara stayed quiet for a moment.

‘Indifferent to the blood spilled, huh?’

Looking at the past, before his old memories awaken, it was hard to deny it wasn’t the case.

Even though it hurt to admit, he was indeed indifferent.

Now, the only thing he could do was to do everything he can to redeem himself.

But he needed to be smart about it.

[I need Priest Phlox to stay quiet.]

[Excuse me?]

Amara took a sip of his bitter unsalted raspberry tea as he glanced with the corner of his eyes at the passing attendant.

[There is a reason why rumors of my indifference spread. There is a reason why I must act indifferent.]

[A reason.]

[Because people will die if I don’t, Priest Phlox. And they won’t be heretics.]

Amara put down his tea cup and smiled slightly as he opened his mouth for the first time:

“There are rules at this temple, Miss. And they must be strictly followed.”

[Otherwise you risk catching the attention of those who wish for the blood to flow. And enough attention means that I might not get to see Priest Phlox ever again.]

He explained through a telepathic link.

Phlox nodded, her face serious.

“First, do not ask for attendants' names or history. Do not concern yourself with their lives or duties.”

[Those people have no names or history. If they do, it was taken away from them. Do not be fooled by their good clothes and refrained attitude. They’re not here out of their own will. Nor do they hold their lives or duties in their own hands.]

“Second, thoroughly follow the head priest’s commands.”

[He is the focal point of the disease that is clenching Purplus. He holds most power here and can remove anyone, including me. But we can’t just get rid of him. If you break the biggest tumor, you risk its poison spreading to smaller tumors and strengthening them. Therefore you need to avoid his suspicion.]

“Third, no matter what you hear or see here, stay quiet about it.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[Because if you spread the information, the victims may suffer more or be killed.]

Amara related a few other rules, which boiled down ‘Ignore, be quiet, follow orders’.

When he finished, Phlox looked at him and said:

“This temple has many strict rules.”

Her gaze on him felt… pitiful.

But then the previous fire, that burned when their meeting began, returned.

[But it doesn’t seem that His Excellency plans to stick to those rules.]

Amara controlled his facial expression, to make sure he wasn’t smiling when he asked back:

[Priest Phlox, do you know what is the biggest mistake that corrupt priests and unbelievers usually make?]

[No. What is Your Excellency?]

[They forget about the existence of gods.]

Amara ignored the cheers and shouts of ‘We exist!’ in his head as he spoke to Phlox who made a bewildered face.

[For us, who are sensitive to the spiritual world, their existence couldn’t be more obvious. But those whose faith fell or was never there to begin with, they are just a concept without matter. In the eyes of those who can’t see red and yellow, those colors do not exist no matter how much they strain their eyes to look for them.]

Amara never held anything against those who didn’t have or lost their faith in gods.

In the end, as long as you lived an upright life, did good and were happy, did it matter to you if gods exist or not?

Amara thought that if someone could get through their life without sacrificing milk and rice every evening to some annoying bastard in fear of having an army of chickens to chase them around, they were rather lucky.

*Huh? No, wait! Am, this was only once!*

Amara continued:

[But what if those unbelievers are surrounded by believers? If they’re not careful, this world may become a bit too hot for them. I’m a saint. You’re a priest. Isn’t it our duty to make sure that believers’ fireplaces are always warm and welcoming?]

He worked really hard to control his facial expression.

On the other side of the yard where Amara settled down for tea with a new attending priest, stood two attendants, awaiting orders.

They couldn’t hear what exactly Amara was talking about, but they could see his every move.

If Amara made a signal they would rush to his side to receive a command.

Failing to do so would meet with a harsh punishment.

“Is His Excellency sick? He keeps making weird expressions.”

The younger of the two asked the older very very quietly.

The older, which happened to be the same attendant who clothed Amara in the morning, answered:

“I didn’t sense any physical disharmony this morning. His Excellency is healthy.”

He looked at Amara whose lips’ corners twitched as he said something to the new priest.

“Maybe he is upset about something.”

“Ah! Right, His Excellency doesn’t like when people fervently worship him. This priest chanted all His Excellency’s titles like prayers before coming here. Maybe he heard some of it and it put him in a bad mood!”

The younger attendant drew his own conclusion and glared at the new priest.

The older didn’t refute, deciding to keep his observations to himself.

Because the walls had ears.

‘His Excellency’s mood isn’t getting better.’

This morning, he found Amara shrouded in such dark thoughts and feelings, he thought that maybe the saint received the revelation of the world ending.

But Amara was going about his day like usual.

‘His Excellency usually feels gloomy, but this is somewhat different…’

If this attendant had to describe it, Amara had an aura which felt like a cold morning fog.

It wasn’t evil or dark, but it was… uncaring. Like a fog that slips between your fingers when you try to touch it.

But this morning it suddenly changed.

A clear fog became darker and more turbulent, as if something was moving hidden within it.

Yet it also felt warmer and somehow…

The older attendant had a feeling that if he stretched his hand out towards this fog now, it would cling to him and pull him in.

He observed weirdly acting Amara, worried.

‘His Excellency seems to have lost the ability to control his expression.’

Amara kept doing suspicious faces.

The older attendant just wished the whistleblowers among the servants were particularly blind today.

*-*-*

In the evening, Amara strolled through the temple’s inner garden.

He was alone under the excuse of wishing to rest after finishing all his duties for today.

Of course, in Amara's case he was never truly alone.

*... And that’s how my priest started to make scrambled eggs during the holy ceremonies.*

*I’m not sure if it’s something to be proud of.*

*I sniff a source of divine inspiration! I shall write a play!*

*In what genre?*

*Satire.*

The whispers of gods never went away.

Though maybe it was his imagination, it seemed that gods were weirdly more talkative and loud since his reincarnation.

‘Did you confirm which temples are pure?’

Gods could see the world only through their believers.

In some cases, their knowledge of the mortal world was limited to what their believers knew.

Therefore, it took some time for gods to confirm the exact states of their temples.

*Yessss~*

*Of course!*

*I’m pure!*

*What? You’re literally a god of filth.*

Soon the information about temples which remained completely free from corruption and served their god faithfully poured into Amara’s brain.

They were mostly temples of minor and unpopular gods, or enclaves on the outskirts, too far away to pay attention to them in the eyes of the public and masterminds behind the scene.

‘Thank you.’

*Our Am is too kind.*

*It’s really nothing~*

*AM THANKED ME!*

There were some gods who wished to inform him about their pure priests in their impure temples, but he refused.

It was an information that was easy for him to obtain if he visited a temple personally and it wasn’t worthy of wasting gods’ energy.

The reason he asked for pure temples now was because he needed to gather pebbles to throw and stir this lake.

During his short conversation with Phlox, he asked her to first learn the temple layout and guards’ placement. And then to devote herself to her duties as a priest, while ‘secretly’ trying to get to the source of corruption in the temple.

It was because Phlox was famous as a devotee always ready to burn the heretics.

If she didn’t appear to try to get rid of corruption, it would only draw more suspicion.

Of course, that head priest wouldn’t get rid of her immediately. He probably planned to let her dig around a bit, let her find some useless things… get rid of them.

‘He would first let her do some cleaning of the things he has no longer use for. And when the rumor about her destroying heretics spreads, he would add another titbit, about how the Universe Temple must be completely free from heretics now. Phlox’s failure in finding any other leads would be a silent proof of that.’

In other words, sending Phlox here was probably an attempt to trap her.

From what Amara deduced from the little stories he heard from gods, Phlox would be a growing headache among people abusing their power in the borders of Purplus.

She was like a hound that never lets go of its prey.

Her popularity and impossibility to be swayed by anything meant that she was hard to quietly get rid off.

Therefore the head priest must have opted for the second best option.

Of trapping her in her own ambition.

If someone like Phlox was to step into the focal point of all religion, the main temple and discover it reeked from corruption and suffering of the innocent?

What if she meets with an indifferent saint, who oversees it all with cold eyes, without even lifting a finger?

She would of course try to do something. Anything.

And that meant she would waste her energy here and nowhere else, letting heresy spread like a plague.

If it was before Amara’s soul pieced itself together it would have worked.

But now the head priest just gave Amara an excellent tool to use.

‘That timing is quite curious…’

Amara’s spiritual sense was telling him there was something suspicious about this situation.

As if it was almost fated.

But he quickly stopped thinking about it.

Fate was something one shouldn’t think much about.

Amara looked around, admiring beautiful flowers blooming in the lights of stars, when…

A small head caught his eyes, hidden between leaves of the bushes.

The small head moved and looked up, locking eyes with him.

Amara and the small head stared at each other for a silent moment.

And then Amara suddenly turned around and headed to his room.

His steps weren’t that fast so it’s not like he was fleeing.