◆Chapter 17: Believer Coalescence
◆Chapter 17: Believer Coalescence
BY noon the next day, I’ve finished purifying wandering zombies and blighted land in the area, and have returned to the capital city with Lex. One of the knights recognizes Lex from a distance and runs over to us.
“Sir Lex!”
“Please excuse me, Lady Mizuha.” Lex and the knight begin discussing something while they stand a few feet away. Both of their faces are grim. The conversation wraps up quickly, and Lex returns to my side.
“Something to do with Iris?”
“You could tell?”
“Well, yeah, after what went down yesterday. Things aren’t going well?”
“The Goddess Sadia Fanatics are a single group, so their discovery is easy. Iris, however, has hidden her whereabouts since the incident yesterday.”
“She hasn’t been captured by the fanatics, has she?”
“Their base of operations is being monitored even now, and I have not received any report of her capture.”
“She’s safe for now, then.” I exhale a sigh of relief.
Lex turns a dazzling smile on me. “You truly are kind, Lady Mizuha.”
“Nah. I’m not. I just don’t want her stirring up trouble using my name.”
She’s the wacko who started a new religion in my name. If something bad happens, not only will it weigh heavily on my conscience, it’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.
“But I wonder where she went.”
“Many buildings are still vacant, so we will just have to search for her at random.”
“Sorry about this. I feel bad this happened because of me.”
“This is simply another knightly duty.” Lex beams with pride.
“Fight! A fight has broken out down the road!” someone shouts.
What the heck are these people doing in the midst of the apocalypse?! I exchange looks with Lex.
“Lex!”
“Yes, let’s check it out!”
It’s great and all that we broke into a run together, but as soon as my left foot hits the ground, I stagger. Fatigue from using my power all morning long hasn’t lifted yet.
“L-Lady Mizuha?!” Lex turns back for me. “Are you all right?”
“Sorry! I’m more exhausted than I thought from this morning. Go ahead without me.”
“…As you wish, m’lady!”
I watch Lex reluctantly run in the direction of the fight. I feel guilty, but I’ll leave settling it to him and take this time to rest. Besides, it’s not like I can do much by going with him. At best, I can heal any injuries caused by the brawl.
I’m leaning against the wall of the nearest house when all of a sudden everything goes dark. For a second, I wonder what happened, but then it instantly clicks that someone’s pulled a bag over my head.
“H-Hey?! What are you doing?! What’s the big idea?!” I paw at the bag with little effect beyond it stretching slightly. I struggle frantically anyway until I’m suddenly wrapped in a hug that pins my hands down. From the feel of it, this has to be another person’s body. And they’re restraining me with only one arm, yet they’re so strong I can’t shake them.
“I want to avoid hurting you if possible, so please don’t struggle.”
“That voice… Are you possibly Iris?”
“You remember me?! I am deeply honored, Goddess!”
Her clear voice oozes a saccharine sweetness that disturbs me. Strangely enough, feeling unsettled helps me regain my head. I timorously ask a question to get a better grasp on the situation.
“…What are you after?”
“Your servant Iris simply came to return the Goddess to her rightful place.”
My feet are lifted off the ground. Apparently, she just hefted me onto her shoulder. I thought she had a fragile, delicate body, but boy does it house some inhuman strength. This is probably not the time to put up a fuss.
Iris secures me on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and starts running. After five minutes of hearing her panting heavily in my ear like a dog, I’m finally freed from the bag.
I’m in a dark room about 130 square feet large. I have partial visibility from the sunlight filtering in through the window covered with an old rag.
“Where is this place…?”
“The holy headquarters of the Church of Our Lady Mizuha!”
A rather shabby location for such a lofty name. Iris had tied my arms and legs to a chair and placed me in the dead center of the room. She takes a great big breath and buries her face in my chest. Rubbing her face hard against me, she begins noisily snorting my scent like some kind of dog.
“Goddess! Goddess!”
“Wh-What the heck are you doing?! Stop it! Quit it!”
“Gentle and warm like the sun… This is my goddess’s smell! Iris has it memorized now!”
I have never been smelled like this by someone before. My face is burning with humiliation. Iris finally pries her face from my chest, only to wrap her arms around my lap and start nuzzling me there.
…What is this woman’s problem?!
“Um, Iris? Why are you doing this?” I ask, trying my best to keep my voice calm.
“Doing what?”
“Confining me here, for starters…”
“This isn’t confinement. It is the natural order for Goddess Mizuha to be enshrined and worshipped at the Church of Our Lady Mizuha.”
Uhh, I can’t tell if we’re on the same page or not.
“When the world decayed, I thought the goddess I believed in had betrayed me. But she did not betray. She has descended from the heavens in human form to save the world!”
“Yeaahh, I’m a normal human.”
“No, you are the Goddess! Goddess Sadia was Goddess Mizuha all along!”
Nothing she says makes sense, but I now know she still mistakenly views me as the deity of this world. At any rate, I want to get out of here.
Lex said he didn’t know where Iris was hiding—he probably won’t be coming to save me anytime soon. In which case, I have to break out of here by myself. Even though I hate playing into this madness, pretending to be Iris’s goddess should help me escape.
“Um, Iris? Would you mind undoing these ropes? My skin hurts from them cutting into me…”
“No can do. You’re planning to run away, aren’t you?”
“N-No, I’m not. I won’t run away, okay?”
Holding back my twitching cheeks, I continue forcing my best smile through. Iris, however, stares hard at my face. I can tell she’s on guard. If only I could think of a way to make releasing me beneficial to her…
“I just wanted you to unbind me so I can pat you on the head. Haha.”
That was a horrible excuse, if I do say so myself.
“Very well.”
Seriously? She was convinced by that? She really is like a big dog.
“But please make it three pats on the head. And make them full-circle pats.”
“S-Sure.”
Is she cheeky or what? At any rate, I accept her conditions because she’s not asking for much. She quickly unties the rope. I’m finally free, but my liberation is short-lived. Since nothing about my current predicament has changed, my nerves are still on edge.
Iris lightly crouches in front of me and offers her head. “Okay, Goddess, please do what you promised.”
“O-Okay, I’ll do it.”
I cautiously begin patting her on the head. I’m touching her veil, so I have no particular comment on the feel. Eventually, I fulfill her request for three full-circle pats. Iris enters a prayer pose, smiling in ecstasy.
“Aah. I never believed the blessed day would arrive when the Goddess would pat me on the head… Supreme bliss!”
While Iris is in a state of rapture, I stealthily sneak away, breaking into an all-out run. Just a little farther and I’ll reach the door! And that’s when she firmly seizes hold of my arm.
“You promised you wouldn’t run away. You deceived me,” Iris whispers in a low, deadly voice over my shoulder.
“L-Listen, I really have to pee! That’s why!”
“A goddess should not lie.” She spins me around to face her and brings her emotionless face right up to mine. Her beautiful features make it all the scarier. “Please use that if you need the restroom.” She points to a wine barrel. It doesn’t even pass for a chamber pot.
“No, no, no, no. I can’t use that—”
“You will be living out the rest of your life here. If you can’t do your business there, you are welcome to use the floor.” Her voice is dispassionate but incredibly intimidating. This woman is dead serious.
“Your holy headquarters are going to stink.”
“I fully welcome anything that comes from the Goddess.”
“And I am fully repulsed…”
I can’t believe she is this infatuated with me. It’d be kind of cute if she listened to anything I said, but to my grave misfortune, she’s not that type.
“Come along now, Goddess Mizuha. Return to your shrine…” Iris leads me back to the center of the room by the hand.
The Royal Knights are actively searching for Iris’s whereabouts, but the capital city is large and complex. If worst comes to worst, I’ll be living in captivity for a long time. The silver lining in this whole mess is that I won’t be killed or tortured, but not even I’m optimistic enough to withstand being confined to this dank room forever.
If only Lex could come to my rescue like before. My hopeful thoughts are disrupted by the cracking sound of wood being smashed to pieces. I look over my shoulder at the damaged door. Did Lex really come for me?
That hope is dashed a second later, when three unfamiliar men barge into the room through the broken door. All three are clad in dull navy religious habits consisting of a tunic covered by a scapular and cowl.
“Sadia Fanatics, I presume?” Iris snarls, glaring at the men.
It appears these men are members of the Goddess Sadia Fanatics Lex told me about. They seem to have some sort of close connection to Iris.
“Stop calling us fanatics. We simply have a stronger faith in Goddess Sadia than other believers.”
“Excessive faith only makes you blind.”
You’re the last person I want to hear that from, Iris.
“You have deified that woman and blasphemed Goddess Sadia. These actions are unforgivable. We will now purge you as a heretic.”
The fanatics pull weapons from behind their backs like they are drawing swords. Their weapons of choice: goddess statues the length of their arms. The divinity overflowing from the sculptures of the simply attired woman makes them look like goddess statues from any angle.
“I will take you on if you want to fight.” Iris rummages through a wooden chest in the corner. Just when I’m wondering what she’s going to procure, it turns out to be another goddess statue.
If I ever meet Goddess Sadia, I think I’ll tell her that there are people in this world brawling with her statues.
Both parties are facing off, prepared to go at it statue to statue. Now’s as good a time as ever to make a run for it. Pressed up against the wall, I gradually advance toward the exit, but then stop halfway. I can’t just leave them here to kill each other with goddess statues.
“Ahem… Why don’t you all stop this nonsense? Okay? Why don’t we peacefully talk things out—”
“We have nothing to say to this bitch!”
“I don’t want to speak with these bastards either! My ears will rot off!”
Instead of calming down, they’ve become more argumentative. It’s no use. They show no signs of stopping.
The floorboards creak, signaling both sides to commence the fight—but before they can clash statues, thundering footsteps can be heard pounding the ground, accompanied by crashing and clanging.
Five knights storm the room from the broken door. Without hesitating, they take down the fanatics, restraining them in the blink of an eye.
“Lady Mizuha!”
“Lex!”
Lex is among the knights.
“…I am very glad to see you safe and well, m’lady.”
“Thanks. I knew you’d come for me.” Though I didn’t think he would come this soon. “How did you know I was here?”
“We tracked the fanatics to this place. They began acting suspiciously after you disappeared, which led us to believe it was somehow related.”
So they were able to show up here because of their observation of the fanatics’ actions. This is one thing I should be grateful to the fanatics for.
“This is the holy headquarters of the Church of Our Lady Mizuha. Everyone, even Royal Knights, must leave if they are not believers.”
“Then I needn’t leave, for I am a member of the Church of Our Lady Mizuha.”
“Uh? Lex? What random things are you claiming this time?”
“Y-You are my brother in the faith…?”
Oh my gosh. Iris even believes him.
Lex seals the deal with a daring smile. “I have been worshipping her since long before you.”
“A more mature brother in the faith…?” Iris jerks her head back as if she’s been struck by a shocking blow. A fraction of a second later, she’s giving her head a hard shake. “Y-You nearly had me fooled…! You are the heathen trying to steal Goddess Mizuha from Iris! That is, the enemy!”
Iris charges at Lex with the goddess statue. But Lex immediately seizes her wrists, curtailing her movement. Not even Iris and her superhuman strength are a match for Lex, who fights for a living.
“Quietly surrender… The crime of abducting Lady Mizuha, the savior of our kingdom, is a heavy one.” Shortly after that, Iris and the fanatics are bound in rope, their next destination: the dungeons. “This way, Lady Mizuha. Let us be on our way.”
“O-Okay…” With Lex leading the way, I try to leave the room.
“Give her back! Give Iris’s goddess baaaaaaaack!” Iris has begun violently struggling with such force the rope cuts into her bound hands and feet. Her skin bloodied from the ropes is too much for me to look at.
“Lex, give me a moment with her.” I return to where Iris is detained and crouch down until my gaze is level with hers. “Iris, you should know, I am not really the Goddess.”
“Liar! Goddess Mizuha is the Goddess!”
“You won’t believe me?”
“The Goddess is all Iris has! The Goddess will light up my world!”
Her crazed shouts help me remember she was raised in an orphanage.
People who grew up in orphanages aren’t the only ones who feel disappointed in the world. It’s probably presumptuous and wrong of me to pity her, but even so, the feeling that I shouldn’t just abandon her here is stronger than anything else. More than that, while Iris is physically older than me, she’s mentally closer to a child.
“Lex, is it possible you could free her?”
“That is a difficult request… First of all, you will be put in harm’s way again, Lady Mizuha.”
“It’ll probably be okay.” I return my gaze to Iris’s eyes and softly try to persuade her. “Say, Iris, do you want to be tossed in the dungeon?”
“No, I don’t. I won’t be able to see my goddess again…”
“Then are you willing to promise never to hurt another person again?”
“Can I start the Church of Our Lady Mizuha?”
“No. You must promise not to do that either.”
“Booooooooo…” Iris continues moaning in mental anguish.
Ten seconds after I stifle my desire to make a joke about just how bad she wants to open a church in my name, she nods her head with pursed lips.
“I…promise.”
“Good girl, good girl.” As a reward, I pat her on the head in the same way she enjoyed earlier. Iris’s facial muscles slacken into a blissful smile. Her inherent qualities are good, but she can also be extremely cute. Anyone would take to her if she was always like this. What a shame.
“W-We will listen to anything you say, so please give us any punishment other than the zombie dungeons!” The fanatics start begging after Iris’s ropes are untied.
“Lex, go ahead and free them too.”
“B-But—”
“It’s not fair if Iris is the only one let off the hook.”
“…As you command, m’lady.” Lex reluctantly orders the other knights with a look to undo the ropes.
The freed fanatics regain their smiles. I hate to ruin their moment of happiness, but they must be warned with as much intimidation as I can muster.
“I won’t stop Lex and the knights from punishing you the next time you hurt someone. Also, you shouldn’t defile the goddess statues like that. You’ll only sadden her by doing such things.”
“But then how can we deliver divine punishment…?”
“It isn’t supposed to come from you guys, is it?”
“We are Goddess Sadia’s representatives on this land and—”
“You are forbidden from dishing out divine punishment. You swore to listen to anything I say.”
“W-We shall do as you command.”
“Good. As long as you understand,” I answer with a satisfied smile. I’m glad things ended peacefully. That sums up my feelings on the whole thing.
“Oi, Iris. It seems like you were right all along,” the fanatic leader concedes.
“There is no greater joy for me than you seeing the light. I leave the rest in your hands.”
“You can count on us…!”
Iris and the fanatic leader are exchanging a firm handshake over something or other. I’m not really sure what just happened, but I guess this is case closed with their reconciliation…right?