Vampire Girl's Perspective I don't have a family.
If I had to name someone close, Melazophis would come the nearest, but there's no blood relation between us.
I have no blood relatives.
Because the Divine Word faith killed them.
My grandparents, whom I met only once, might still be alive, but even if I met them now, I don't think I'd feel any sense of kinship.
Even my own parents, to the me who was Reincarnated, felt like strangers somewhere, and I never had the sense that we were truly related.
And yet, my parents loved me.
If there had been no war, if we'd lived in peace, I might have gotten by just fine under those gentle parents.
Melazophis might never have become a vampire, and Noilia, who sacrificed herself so I could escape, might not have had to die either.
Noilia wasn't the only one.
There were many servants in the mansion who had steeled themselves to face the end alongside my parents.
If only there hadn't been war. In that town, in that mansion, surrounded by my parents and the servants, concealing the fact that I was a vampire, living like an ordinary human.
That future might have existed.
I can't discard being a vampire anymore.
But if a different future had been possible, maybe there was a path to living as a human, too.
With my poor imagination, I can't tell whether that would have made me happy.
Even so, there's no denying that one possible future was stolen from me.
Until now, wars between nations were on such a grand scale that I never even knew what to resent.
I can't deny that I channeled that murky frustration into resentment toward my Master.
Otherwise, I couldn't have untangled the black emotions swirling inside me.
And so, given time, I managed to sort through those feelings.
But right now, the being responsible for all of it is standing right in front of me.
This isn't the same as the tantrum I aimed at my Master.
This is the genuine article—the one who set the war in motion.
The one who killed my parents, who took away my place in the world, who stole my future.
"Why did you launch a war against the Kingdom of Salierra?"
I pressed down the murderous intent threatening to spill over and put the question.
All this time, I had convinced myself that the war was born from a religious dispute.
But today's meeting, and the discussion I had beforehand with Lars, taught me that the Divine Word faith isn't just some ordinary religious organization.
That knowledge gave rise to the question.
Why was it necessary to start a war at that particular time?
After all, religious squabbles are trivial things for the Divine Word faith.
They're a group that merely wears the guise of religion while actually working tirelessly to save the world.
That might sound religious at first glance, but they never sit around praying to a god for salvation.
They move on their own feet, tackling problems head-on.
I don't understand why such an organization would want to weaken the Goddess faith's power.
Religious wars are muddy quagmires by nature.
That kind of drawn-out conflict, with plenty of soldiers being raised only to die, should have been exactly what the Divine Word faith would have wanted.
And yet, in that war, the Divine Word faith was clearly acting to crush the Goddess faith.
Even though it would have been more convenient for them to keep the Goddess faith at a certain level of strength.
It wasn't a matter of weakening them slightly.
I'm certain of this because of what
The fact that she spoke so decisively means she must have had substantial grounds for it.
I remember all of this because Ariel spoke of that war as "an unstoppable current of the world."
And then she said the next step was what mattered.
Back then, I was an infant. There was nothing I could do.
When the same kind of thing happened again, she asked whether I would resist or give up. That was what counted.
And I answered.
I would resist.
Since then, I've grown considerably stronger in terms of my Status.
Strong enough to handle everyone here except my Master and Lars without issue.
Depending on the Pope's answer, however, anything could happen.
"The Goddess faith worships the Goddess. Within that faith lies a truth unknown to the general public. To crush that truth, they decided to crush the Goddess faith itself. Well, that's likely what the Upper Layer of the Divine Word faith who aren't present here today are thinking."
I couldn't help but blink at the Pope's words.
The emotion surging through me—was this really why my parents were killed?—deflated and withered with a sense of anticlimax.
"That was indeed one purpose, but the essence lies elsewhere."
His sharp words pierced through my deflated feelings, driving into my ears.
The weight behind that voice caught me off guard and startled me.
"We of the Divine Word faith anticipated a world after the Goddess's passing, and so we decided to annihilate the Goddess faith in advance."
A chill crawled up my spine.
The heaviness of the Pope's resolve.
And beside me, a faint but unmistakable anger.
Sensing both of them, I was struck speechless.
"If things continue as they are, the Goddess will inevitably have to sacrifice her own being to replenish the MA energy. Once that happens, even someone who has sustained the System and saved this world until now will clearly be unable to endure. It follows that the Goddess's lifespan is believed to be running short. And after the Goddess is gone, the Black Dragon will step into her place."
Lars started and looked toward my Master.
My Master ignored Lars's reaction and continued watching the Pope.
With those closed eyes, yet with complete seriousness.
"If the Black Dragon becomes the new pillar of the System, then the Voice of the Divine Word that we proclaim will, of course, shift from the Goddess's voice to the Black Dragon's. When that happens, the Divine Word faith will descend into great upheaval. We must prepare for that moment—to be able to calmly announce that the god has been replaced."
The Divine Word faith's doctrine teaches that the System message is the voice of God, and that followers should strive to hear that voice.
If that divine voice were to suddenly change, it could shake the very foundation of the Divine Word faith—a momentous crisis.
No amount of effort could prevent distrust of the faith from taking root.
I can understand the need to prepare for that.
But what does that have to do with destroying the Goddess faith?
"In order to minimize the chaos, announcing the fact that the Goddess is gone from this world is absolutely necessary. That is why the Goddess faith, which worships her, had to be brought to ruin."
The Pope continued.
Because people would lose the will to live, he said.