Chapter 45: Heaven

Traveling towards the Erst duchy, Savine scoured through the various archives and balance sheets of the Fest duchy's temple. Since she was now the bishop all but in name, she had access to everything in it.

Taking a glance, she could see that there were signs of embezzlement from the few donations the temple received, but the amount seemed moderate. Savine would normally not care for such money, but it was dirt against Sylvester so she kept the files close by.

Next, she checked the list of magic tools and Vasas allocated to the temple. These were very strictly maintained, so there was no chance for anyone to try anything. The number of magic tools fit the need of the duchy exactly with only a few spares, and the number of Vasas were allocated by the duke himself, who in turn was monitored by the Sovereign's trusted retainers.

The matter of mages and Vasas was taken extremely seriously in here, just like in the Magicracy.

Finally, she checked the list of activities performed by the temple. It was something of a log that the bishop needed to update and send to the Head temple. It was a magic tool, so there was no way of falsifying the information. The past eight years, he found nothing noteworthy in it. Everything was due protocol. The temple only performed the duties given to it and never tried anything out of line.

That was expected. After all, during that time, the temple's bishop was someone of the ducal family.

However, before that point, when the temple's bishop was a fallen marquis of the north that was banished to the Fest duchy to work as a bishop, there were many activities that tried to spread the temple's influence wider.

Public events, religious gatherings, masses, all sorts of activities were listed. Of course, there was nothing treasonous, but Savine could see that the ex-marquis tried many things.

"Eight years ago," she spoke to Eliseline. "What happened to the bishop who was here before Sylvester?"

"What?" Eliseline blinked.

"…"

"Oh the former bishop. I heard that he's dead."

"Is it something the Grand Duchess did?"

"I can't know. I've been at the Academy at that time."

Savine nodded.

'Another potential dirt against Sylvester.'

"But… should we have brought the bishop with us?" Eliseline asked, "Since we're negotiating with the Head Temple, I feel that it's somewhat off that he's missing."

Savine shook her head.

"The Head Temple knows that the Fest duchy's temple is under the duke's control. Even in the temple, the bishop doesn't hold power but you and me. Knowing all that, if they're still offended that they can't see a puppet, then they're not worth my time."

Eliseline's eyes were curious, practically asking who Savine would go to if not the Head Temple, but she didn't voice the question.

Savine gave her no heed and continued reading. It was somewhat interesting to read about all the previous bishops but those were inconsequential things. Before long, Savine was finished.

"I've always wanted to ask this, but…" Eliseline spoke up from beside her.

"Hm?"

"Which part of it was true?"

"?"

"From back when I first interrogated you," Eliseline explained.

"Oh," Savine nodded. "What did I say again? I forgot."

"So you did lie back then."

"Well, yes," Savine admitted. "I remember saying I felt no emotions. That was a lie. And I remember saying I met God randomly and that he granted me knowledge and wisdom. That's technically a lie as well."

"So you're not God's Chosen?"

"No, I am God's Chosen, but I'm… well, there's no point hiding this from you at this point. I'm an angel whose task is to save the worlds. And when I am sent to a world, I usually inhabit the body of the strongest person there to make my job easier."

Eliseline looked back at her blankly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"So anyway, no," Savine continued. "I did not meet God and God did not inject my brain with knowledge. The things I've taught you are things I learned throughout the many years I've lived and worked as an angel. Though if you want to get technical, I suppose I could only learn about them since God made me an angel, so…"

"…"

"I'll give you some time to digest it all."

Savine opened the curtains of the carriage and looked outside. Compared to the Magicracy's mountains and cliffs, the Sovereignty was a mild land. Endless grasslands and livestock grazing freely across it.

Occasionally, carriages of people could be seen on the path's side, bowing respectfully towards Savine's group. Though the trio were traveling disguised as laynobles, since they were still nobility, they demanded a certain amount of respect.

And conveniently, there was no need for an assortment of guards, since few in the world could handle the Savine, Eliseline, Lucius trio. There was only the three of them, Zuri, the duke's valet, and the two drivers.

"So… you're an angel."

"Yes."

"And you've been to many worlds."

"Yes. 53 to be exact."

"There are that many worlds?"

"Yes. Countless. And on top of the old ones, at least a dozen new ones appear every ascendant year."

"Ascendant year?

"It's the time flow of heaven. There, a day is equal to a year here. So a year there would be 365 years here."

"So a world is born every 36 years?"

"On average."

"And all of them have humans?"

"Eventually."

"Wait, wait, then… what? Where are they all? Since there are so many, shouldn't we meet at least some of them?"

"Ah, that's not possible. It's because all those worlds are actually overlapping with each other. I suppose it's better to say that there's countless copies of the same world and universe. Except the details on them are all different. For example, there are worlds without magic, worlds with demons and monsters roaming the lands freely, worlds without trees, worlds without oceans, all sorts of variations.

"The only thing that's consistent is the world's size, its position in the universe, and the existence of humanoids. However, the residents of the different worlds will never meet each other. Unless of course, you're an angel."

Seeing Eliseline's face, Savine smiled.

"It's not really something you should worry about," Savine said. "The matters of heaven and the other worlds will never affect you. Unless, of course, an angel like me comes."

"Why do you come to the worlds?"

"To save them, I told you."

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
POW

One of the first iterations of God's job was that he supplied the worlds with resources.

I was gonna be like, 'do you really believe that after mining thousands and thousands of gold and silver, the world wouldn't have run out of them? No! God is stealthily turning dirt into gold! Fools!'

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