"What a heretic! ...Wait, doesn't the Holy Church of Misery actually not help us at all?"
"Oh my, you poor heretic... Oh, hello there, Alan."
"Your Holiness, pass judgment on this heretic! ...But honestly, what's wrong with being a heretic?"
After thinking things over at the duke's mansion, I decided to use [Reverse] to flip people's faith.
The more devout someone was, the less devout they'd become.
If the Pope's strength lay in the number of his followers, then let's just crush that.
For now, I'd spend about a week going around and using [Reverse] on everyone in my area who showed hostility toward me.
Of course, anyone who came at me with force would get sent packing, but the real bulk of them were just ordinary people going about their daily lives.
Every time someone called me a heretic, I'd immediately use [Reverse] on them, but the irritation kept building no matter what.
And so I frequently went to the Commerce Guild to have Sophia hug me.
Since it worked out nicely, I decided to move out of the duke's mansion for a while and stay at Sophia's place.
◇◇◇
In short, it was a contest of endurance.
I traveled to various towns and had the faithful reverse their faith one by one.
The feeling was like patiently pulling weeds in a garden.
If they were going to slowly chip away at me using their followers, then I'd slowly chip away right back.
A short while later, I heard that the Saint had denied my designation as a heretic.
Sorry, but what I'm doing doesn't change regardless.
◇◇◇
"Is this... my power declining?"
Saint Thérèse was treating the faithful as she always did.
There was also the underground struggle against the Pope, which she couldn't afford to neglect either.
After all, her ultimate goal was the salvation of all people, and the strength of the [Saint] skill fluctuated based on the power of faith directed at her.
Things that would normally heal easily were taking a bit longer now, her mana consumption had increased so she got tired more easily, and the number of people she could treat in a day was gradually decreasing.
Come to think of it, she felt like the number of devout believers had been dropping lately.
Ever since Pope Linus had designated Alan as a heretic.
She couldn't prove it, but Alan might possess a method of reducing faith.
If that was the case, then after Alan defeated the Pope, she needed to figure out a way to rebuild the Church without making Alan hostile toward them...
◇◇◇
Pope Linus had been troubled lately by the fact that donations kept decreasing.
"Why is this...! The followers who used to only give money are now opening their mouths along with their wallets. More and more nobles are finding excuses to hold back on donations, even though I've been dispatching high-ranking priests to them!"
But there were more worries.
"Alan, whom we designated as a heretic, hasn't had anything happen to him. Either he should have come crawling to us within a week, or his corpse should have been floating in some river by now."
And more still.
"Furthermore, people have begun leaving the Holy Church of Misery, which is the state religion. Don't tell me the Saint is planning to start a separate church together with him."
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Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Phantom Thief Gentleman] [Dark Magic] [Rock Iron Magic] [Holy Magic] [Space-Time Magic] [Scorching Magic] [Freezing Ice Magic] [Magic Hand] [Seduction] [Pain Relief] [Complete Status Abnormality Resistance] [Fire Spirit's Protection] [Illusion Demon] [Swift Wind and Thunder] [Dark Spirit's Protection] [Monstrous Strength] [Thunder God Blade] [Fortune] [Clear Storm Magic] [Humility] [Heaven's Gate]
Rank: Gold (Alisa: Gold)