Sitting in the transport wagon, we were now making our way to an interesting territory of Cardina. Certainly, it’s one of the very few meta-countries out in the world, much like Trivis Numerica. The only difference is that Trivis Numerica has three sub-countries, but this territory colloquially known as ‘Waterslew’ consists of four.

* Aquaris, the eastern-most country of the four, which has the biggest territory, but oddly enough the least amount of citizens. It borders the River Stupendium, known as the continent’s lifeline, as it basically ties the more central countries to the rest of the ocean.

* Litus, located just south of Aquaris, one of the lesser frequented countries of the four, as it has little touristic value. It’s a country meant solely for its citizens, one could say, but it’s not like you’re forbidden from visiting the place. You just won’t find anything interesting.

* Maria, to the southwest of the four sub-countries. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t like this place, despite never visiting it before. One of my ex-clients who scammed me out of a patent hails from there, so I’m kind of biased against it. Not to mention the countries name reminds me of Marina.

* And finally, Umoris, located to the right of Aquaris, and to the north of Maria. It’s a country that most resembles a tourist’s expectations. From what I’ve read up on back in one of Meil’s books in Oden, it’s the go-to spot if you wanna go to the beach, due to the climate being in the goldilocks zone. Neither too hot for you to get sunburnt to a crips, nor too cold for it to not feel like a summer vacation. If she’s not still mad at me for what I did at the end of the previous chapter, I’d like to see Cecily in swimwear. Yeah, you can immediately guess which place I’m most looking forward to.

In any case, the sub-countries of Waterslew are pretty amazing, especially their cities. I’m not sure about the other three, but Aquaris’ capital, Wiltea, is simply breathtaking! It’s like we’re in a fairy-tale, what with all the bodies of water, irrigation systems, canals and waterfalls riddled across the entire place. Well, I don’t quite particularly enjoying getting my socks wet though, so it has both its pros and its cons.

“Mom, what’s that~!” Nelly pointed with pure wonder in her eyes, “That giant towew on the side of that cliff!”

“That’s the church, I believe?” Cecily turned to me so as to reaffirm, “It’s the place where people go to pray to their God. Although I don’t think there are any churches built for our God, so we have no business there.”

“The people of Cardina believe in Selzion.” I added, “But always remember, Nelly, that if someone doesn’t share your religion, you shouldn’t make that a reason not to get along, okay?”

“What God is ouw God?” Nelly put her finger to her lips, “Auwos?”

Pfft, Auwos, she said. Y’know, that guy gets on my nerves, so I might just start calling him that to spite him. That being said, she’s completely wrong, I wouldn’t believe in a war-hungry moron like him even if he was the only God out there.

“Nope, we believe in the God of Meditation, Prylos.” I explained, “Oh, but, you don’t have to if that’s not your choice. Pick and choose for yourself who you wanna believe in, or heck, if you don’t wanna rely on others, just don’t believe in any God at all.”

“Then who’s Uncle Meil’s God?”

Oof, this was a tough question to answer, simply because even I don’t quite understand that. It would’ve been simple to just say “Meil’s people don’t have a God”, but he doesn’t believe that he’s of Abyssal descent. In fact, he stated, quite loudly and proudly, that he believes in a long forgotten Sun God, so do I just go with that?

“Didn’t Lune just say that someone’s religion isn’t important for how you view them?” Cecily saved me, “If you like someone, then religion shouldn’t play a part in your opinion on them. Just enjoy their company and be done with it.”

“I like Uncle Meil!” She pomphed up her cheeks, “I just wanna have mowe topics to talk about when we’we both in Univewsity!”

Turning at each other with a light chuckle, both Cecily and I realized that Meil might have a bit more trouble with Nelly than we had originally thought. Honestly, what does this girl see in that guy? Is it his white hair? Cause that’s literally the only thing I can genuinely admit is cool about him. But just like religion, hair is only a fraction of what you view in a person, because underneath that snow white hair lies a damned annoying brat know-it-all that refuses to admit when he’s wrong.

Actually, that asshole better not get together with my daughter! I know I shouldn’t be taking Nelly’s feelings seriously, since she’s still just a kid, but I still don’t like her being alone with some guy across the world from me. Sh…

“Should I buy a house in Simpleton?” I sweated nervously.

“Dude, one house at a time, please!” Cecily gave me a deadpan stare, “That being said, you’re not taking her seriously, are you? Ooh, papa’s jealous~!”

“I am sewious though!” Nelly jumped up at her mother’s provocations, “I wanna stand next to Uncle Meil, as equals, as soon as possible! And we’we gonna buy a house, and have thwee kids, and…!”

“T-Three kids?!” Cecily whinced, “Why such a specific and… high number?”

”Because I don’t want my kid to be lonely all by himself ow hewself!” She firmly defended her stance.

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“This kid means trouble, after all…” Cecily silently agreed with me that we should look into the real-estate situation in Simpleton.

***

“God bless, my children.” An old priest could be heard calling out to us, “Please, do come in and light a candle for your journey.”

“Ah, no, we’re not…” Cecily tried explaining, but to no avail.

“Come in, come in!” The priest insisted, “You’re just in time for evening prayers. Stand over there, would you?”

Without finding the proper moment to escape, we were left no other choice but to do as the old man had ordered. As a beautiful organ began playing in the background, the voices of the choir echoed one after another, and soon enough everyone but us had begun singing along.

“Oh Almighty God of Wisdom! Thank you for another blessed day of your teachings, without which this land could not prosper, without which these people could not find salvation…!”

“Does this guy ever shut up?” Cecily whispered, “I swear to Prylos, he’s…”

“Prylos?” The music came to an abrupt stop as everyone present in the room turned to us, the priest donning a terrifying frown, “My child, I am a bit old, so it seems I might’ve misheard you just now. Did you just say you swear to Prylos…?”

“A-Ahm! Uh…!” Cecily scrambled for the correct words before Nelly stepped in between her and the priest.

“We believe in Prylos, but I hope we can…!”

“Demons!” The priest interrupted Nelly’s speech and had actually reached in to grab her, but I slapped his hand away, “Tsk! Repent for idolizing a fake God!”

It might’ve just been because of the dimly lit room around us, what with only a couple of rays of Sun illuminating him, but the moment we had prepared ourselves to leave the room, I could clearly see the priest’s Eyes shine bright Red as a small ball of flame erupted from within the palm of his hand.

“Whoa!” I yelped, “Did he just-?!”

“Repent, repent, REPENT!” The priest yelled, as the choir comically began singing a more epic song in the back, “We let you in so that you may find peace in mind within the confines of our dearest Selzion’s church, and yet you stoop so low as to publicly tarnish these holy walls with your lies?”

“Dude, who cares about that!” I talked as I dodged one fireball after another, “You can use Iro Abilities?”

“What now?!” He stopped for a moment to humble me, “These are not abilities, these balls of flame are a gift from the one true God! You’d do wisely not to call them any other way…”

“A gift from ol’ Selz, huh?” I stopped dodging as I winked at his direction, “Sorry to disappoint you, old man, but you’re wrong about that one. Otherwise, how would you explain a non-believer such as myself to do the same?”

Setting my hand in the correct position, with a flick of the wrist I had successfully managed to display Spark to the masses, leading to the priest holding back his rage-filled scream, and the choir dramatically lowering their voices in unison to signify the twist.

“Do not refer to him as such!” He threw another weaker fireball in between breaths, “His name is Selzion, the God of Knowledge! As for why you have his gift, I do not understand myself, but none of that matters now, because it is time for you to-!”

“Bonk.” A red-head young lady sporting a pixie cut had suddenly hit him on the side of the head with our suitcase, “Don’t tell me you forgot about us, old man? You really shouldn’t have let your guard down just because I’m a girl.”

“Cecily!” I smiled, “So you noticed my signal just now?”

“The wink?” She shrugged, “To be honest, I’m more surprised you managed to spot me while I was inching closer to him in the shadows. Not many people could do that.”

“Nah, I just saw Nelly adorably tiptoeing behind you, so that kind of gave it away.”

“Gah!” Nelly jolted.

Yeah, that dumbass priest really didn’t have another ace up his sleeve safe from his Red Iro Ability. But I see now, so do the people of Selzion’s religion believe these to be divine powers bestowed upon them by the Gods themselves? Well, the only way I’d know for sure would be if I could one day ask Prylos myself.

But now that I think about it, why didn’t I just ask Auros about the mysteries behind Iros? Surely, he’d have the answers I was seeking, no? Eh, I was too focused on getting out of Sulfury that I didn’t really think about it at all, so I hope you’ll excuse my forgetfulness.

“They defeated the Priest!” One of the choir boys raised his voice, “Get the sinners!”

“Ugh, must we always make ourselves the enemies of every state we enter?” I facepalmed, “And to think, we just got here, too…”

“Less whining, more moving!” Cecily swooped Nelly off of her feet and booked it to the doors, “Come on, before they close the door!”

“Too late for that!” One of the choir boys said as they pulled a lever, closing the front doors to the church firmly shut.

“Dad, the window!” Nelly pointed me to the right direction.

“Ooh, good thinking, sweetie! Smell ya’ later, guys!”

Moving to the right of the room and shattering the glass from the windows, I had successfully jumped out of the church and, thankfully, landed in a haystack just underneath it. I wonder, just who put that convenient haystack there? Must’ve been some assassin. Heh, I can already imagine the faces those scrawny choir boys are making, thinking Did this guy seriously leave his daughter and wife behind?!

Well, I’m not such a bad person, so of course I didn’t. In fact, it was Nelly’s plan from the beginning to have me jump out alone, as I could just as easily do this!

“Materialize! And…!” Forming a wormhole like hand-sign and reaching into it, I had successfully summoned both Nelly and Cecily into my arms.

“Nice going, now put me down.” Cecily said, trying to wriggle herself out of my embrace.

“No can do~!” I decided to abuse the situation, “A double-princess carry involving the fair lady and her daughter is way too good of an opportunity to pass up!”

“Grr!” She wriggled about a bit more before finally giving in, “Hmph! Fine, but just know that you’ll be carrying us like this until we get to the transport wagon then!”

“That’s on the other side of town!”

“Alright then, I’m getting off.”

“No!” I sweated a bit more before showing off as much as I can, “I-I can do it!”

And so, thanks to my evasion skills, Nelly’s quick thinking, and Cecily’s experience with sneaking about, we had successfully avoided further issues with the church of Selzion. That being said, we should probably teach Nelly to not go saying her religion from here on out, although I’m pretty sure she learned this lesson herself…