Ch.173Winter Is Coming

About a few weeks after the incident where Goose transformed into a Pegasus, the season finally changed to full winter, and the entire world was covered in garbage falling from the sky… pure white snow.

As winter’s mystery arrived, the rapidly dropping temperature caused heavy snowfall. For a supposedly warm land, it was excessively cold even for a typical European climate.

I certainly thought this country was equivalent to France on Earth, but looking at the falling snow reminds me more of the Baltic states in Northern Europe.

The river froze solid enough for people to walk across, and the forest, with no one to clear the snow, transformed into a complete “snow country” landscape, becoming a magical realm.

Environmental conditions were so perfect that elemental spirits of snow and ice, winter spirits ranging from low to mid-tier, appeared in abundance.

Even corpses that had died from exposure began to reanimate under the influence of diminished life mysteries, to the point where undead hordes appeared near the village, requiring suppression efforts.

And as time passed and the world froze over, many events were unfolding in the domain as well.

Quite a few villagers who underestimated the winter cold were carried away with frostbite while working outside, and above all, many buildings were damaged by the weight of snow that began falling with winter’s arrival.

Although there were no human deaths from freezing, likely thanks to thorough winter preparations, the situation was still far from optimistic on many fronts.

Food reserves, while not insufficient, weren’t abundant either. In winter, calorie consumption increases during outdoor activities to maintain body temperature, but simultaneously, obtaining food becomes much more difficult.

Most edible wild plants dry up in winter, and winter is hardly a good season for farming.

And if humans, who can raise temperatures with fire, are refraining from outdoor activities due to the cold, how could animals freely roam outside?

Animals that don’t want to freeze to death naturally reduce their activities, stockpile food, or hibernate as part of their winter preparations, meaning meat supplies inevitably decrease compared to normal times.

Even fish from the river, which had been a relatively stable food source, became much harder to catch as the water froze solid, dramatically increasing the difficulty of fishing.

While fish, living underwater, are relatively less affected by cold waves, they aren’t completely immune to the effects of severe cold.

Additionally, amphibians and aquatic creatures like giant frogs and snails hibernate during winter, but how could fishing activities be easy in a completely frozen river to begin with?

Enduring the rising cold while drilling holes in the ice for fishing means losing several times more calories than gaining. Setting traps yields poor efficiency due to lack of technique, and diving into water with nets in this winter is unthinkable.

With fishing, the village’s last hope, essentially destroyed by winter conditions, they had no choice but to survive on food stockpiled during summer and autumn.

But more important than these minor domain issues was one major problem… the aftermath of the incident where I heard Jephtal’s voice and Goose transformed into a Pegasus.

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As someone with the partial consciousness of an ordinary modern person, I didn’t fully grasp how significant it was to hear a god’s voice in this world where divine existence is proven.

No, I intellectually understood it was important in a world where religion holds substantial spiritual influence, but I couldn’t comprehend deep in my heart just how important it truly was.

The underlying thought pattern of people in this world is what might be called “religious rationality.” At first glance, it seems to follow reasonable standards, but from a modern perspective, those standards seem somewhat strange.

Of course, people who can encounter actual gods during Sunday worship and experience divine influence through the Pantheon are “different” from modern people.

Especially for someone like me, who lived in a secular society where non-religious people outnumbered religious ones, and who, despite knowing about gods’ existence, maintained a certain emotional distance from truly believing in them.

So while I intellectually knew but emotionally didn’t understand, I informed them about my contact with the Pantheon god “Golden-Handed Jephtal”…

And the response, or rather the events that unfolded after this fact was announced, made things quite troublesome for me for quite some time.

It began with an investigation team from the Temple of Golden-Handed Jephtal, dispatched to the village at my father’s request to the Pantheon, to verify whether I had truly experienced the miracle of hearing Jephtal’s voice.

They explained that verification by an investigation team was essential in all cases, as there are always those who seek life-changing opportunities through impersonation, despite knowing the consequences and punishment such deception would bring in a world where gods exist.

Anyway, the investigation concluded, as expected, with them finding traces of “Jephtal” in my body…

And afterward, both the investigation team and the villagers displayed behavior bordering on madness.

“”””””Ohhhhh…!!!”””””

“Praise! Praise His grace!”

“””””By the mission of the Honorable One~ Fight, defend, protect~!”””””

While some simply looked up to me in reverence, there were priests who burst into tears on the spot and began preaching, and simultaneously, dozens of people gathered to sing hymns devoutly under a priest’s guidance.

It was a scene reminiscent of collective hysteria or frenzy to any observer, and above all, I felt quite uncomfortable witnessing such excessive fervor.

But considering the position of gods in this world, it was understandable.

As I learned later, the status of “Jephtal,” the de facto leader of the Pantheon in this world, is almost equivalent to medieval Christianity.

Roughly speaking, in the Western Continent, about four out of ten passersby can be assumed to be Jephtal worshippers, and his religious authority is overwhelmingly dominant, with his presence required in virtually every “Pantheon.”

If asked why… it’s probably because the divine domain that “Jephtal” governs is “justice” and “light.”

In Earth’s history, the authority and name of “justice” has been clearly tarnished by countless individuals who committed atrocities under its banner.

But that’s a story from another world.

The existence of “cultists” as absolute evil, causing countless harm and defiling the world as irredeemable evil, has granted great social power to Jephtal and his Pantheon who directly oppose this evil.

Of course, the Pantheon, being an organization led by humans, isn’t without mistakes or dark aspects, but if we were to condemn the Pantheon as absolute evil for this reason, then no organization like a state could exist either.

The Pantheon and personal temple led by “Jephtal,” an infallible, perfect superhuman leader who never falls to corruption, is at least the last hope that those who haven’t fallen to evil in this world can believe in.

Therefore, the authority and social power that the god Jephtal holds is, as mentioned several times before, in an untouchable realm.

While there are quite a number of people who criticize the secular “Pantheon” organized by mortals, even they dare not point fingers at the gods behind the Pantheon.

Thus, after their certification proclaimed that I had experienced the miracle of contact with Jephtal, I now possessed a kind of authority as a “religious leader.”

While I had experienced admiring or respectful gazes directed at respected leaders or authority figures before, having people show reverence with religious intent was an extremely unfamiliar and strange experience.

Although I had become somewhat accustomed to being viewed as a person of high status, I wasn’t thick-skinned enough to endure this strange gaze, resulting in an inexplicable sense of shame.

But beyond this subjective change in how people viewed me, I also received several forms of support(?) from the Jephtal order…

“I look forward to working with you, my lord.”

“…Yes.”

Among these, the most representative was the dispatch of two priests from Jephtal’s order, assigned under Priestess Joanna of Debona.