Ch.208208. Broadcasting Contract (2)

Bahamut transformed into human form as promised and arrived at the church introduced by Mary, Alicia’s maid, who guided him there.

However, the journey to the church was anything but smooth.

Well…

“This. It’s not exactly a normal place.”

“While they’re rebuilding the center of Paris, areas even slightly outside the central district have been heavily affected by the apocalypse. Frankly speaking, regions outside Paris are essentially slums.”

The closer one got to central Paris, the more human civilization seemed to be recovering, but venturing even slightly beyond Paris made it abundantly clear that the world had once faced destruction.

Though Bahamut was in Paris, the capital of France, unlike the area where Alicia stayed, this place exuded a desolate atmosphere as if civilization had truly collapsed.

Not only were there ruined buildings, but the few citizens on the streets merely stared blankly at the collapsed structures, their faces showing no glimmer of hope.

A small number of people were somehow clearing away fallen construction materials and beginning reconstruction work, but the workforce was woefully inadequate compared to the scale needed, making proper rebuilding seem impossible.

“Well, even in Seorabeol, there are still ruins if you look just a bit inside.”

“Everything can’t be rebuilt overnight. Civilization is being reconstructed through someone’s sacrifice.”

“A cruel reality.”

But this was a common sight in the current apocalypse.

Even in Seorabeol, areas neglected by the cabinet looked not much different from this scene, and there were regions where the entire population had been wiped out, making reconstruction impossible even if desired.

Unlike Seorabeol, which had successfully managed the apocalypse, Paris had truly been conquered by monsters, so the damage was beyond imagination.

Even the government responsible for reconstruction couldn’t begin to contemplate the task.

“That seems to be the place? It has somewhat maintained its structure. But like other buildings, it’s little more than collapsed ruins.”

“At least being an Awakened, they could operate even a ruined church.”

And the person Bahamut wanted to meet lived in such an area that couldn’t even be rebuilt.

Despite gaining enough fame to reach Bahamut’s ears, they lived in stark poverty, inversely proportional to their reputation.

The exterior of the ruined church relied on dim light filtering through collapsed stained glass to illuminate the interior, lacking not only materials and energy but even…

“Mister, who are you?”

Only small children who couldn’t help with survival lived here.

Children were playing in what had essentially become an open space due to the collapsed building.

When a well-dressed gentleman and a maid approached the ruined church, the children asked curiously who they were.

“Me? Well. I’m just someone who has business with the owner of this cathedral.”

“Someone interested in Sister Teresa!?”

“Maybe a confession!?”

The children imagined a common love story, asking if he was interested in her or if he had come to confess his feelings.

In peaceful times, this might have been typical childish talk, but Bahamut found it remarkably strange to hear such innocent words in this apocalyptic world.

‘At least. She thoroughly protected those around her.’

The fact that she could care for orphans without lacking necessities in this apocalypse meant she was more capable than expected.

As Alicia had said, she seemed to have both ability and spirit.

Inwardly raising his assessment of the person he was about to meet, Bahamut calmly smiled and spoke.

“No, not that. This is my first time meeting her.”

“Then why did you come, mister?”

“Well. I came to learn who this Teresa person is.”

“Suspicious.” “Suspicious.” “Are you a pervert, mister?”

Bahamut honestly revealed his reason for visiting, and the children responded with innocent expressions, calling him suspicious.

To this, Bahamut didn’t object, but rather…”No. Would it be better to call me a suspiciously wealthy mister at times like this?”

He called himself a suspicious mister, specifically one suspiciously wealthy.

He was essentially agreeing with the children, which horrified the maid who had been quietly listening beside him.

“Stop joking. It’s true that having too much money is a problem, but…”

“Does it matter? It’s just charity. Something that can be done out of goodwill.”

Well, that statement was entirely true.

As a dragon god who partly functioned as a federal reserve in this apocalypse, he had money to the point of excess.

The goods he produced were mysterious items desired by all Awakened, and gossipmongers said that a single word from the Dragon God could easily shake the economy of a small country.

So the maid couldn’t help but be shocked at Bahamut’s joke that wasn’t really a joke, and seeing her reaction, Bahamut sighed and corrected his reason for coming here.

“And a lost… no, I’m not lost, but is it enough to turn away the footsteps of a gentleman who has business at this cathedral?”

“That’s for Sister Teresa to…”

Just as the children began to respond to Bahamut’s words.

“That’s correct.”

A sharp voice came from the church.

“I always welcome lost lambs. But you don’t seem to be a lost lamb, do you?”

The nun was somehow standing at the door with her arms crossed, warily watching Bahamut.

She wore a nun’s habit, but not the conventional kind; it was modified for ease of movement.

To be frank, it was an outfit that seemed to proclaim that rules were meant to be broken and traditions ignored, rather than resembling real-world monastic attire.

It wasn’t much different from the combat-suitable nun’s outfit one might see in fictional works.

“Haha. According to rumors, I thought you’d be someone offering prayers before a dusty altar.”

“Then I would have been robbed or killed long ago.”

“True. The apocalypse is cruel to the powerless, so building strength is the only option. God’s blessing. It was in this church.”

She was far from the cult leader he had imagined.

If she were a cult leader… or rather, because it was a cult, he expected someone obsessed with fundamentals, but the cult leader before him seemed more like a cynical religious person disappointed with established religion.

Bahamut shared the impression he had heard about her, and the nun firmly stated that with such an impression, she would have died long ago.

Bahamut nodded in acknowledgment and marveled that God’s blessing must have been present in this place that had at least maintained the framework of a church.

“…What use is prayer to God now?”

But she said that the existence of God no longer had meaning.

She seemed to have experienced complete disillusionment.

“Oh? I heard rumors that others call you a heretic. Are you a religious person who doesn’t believe in God?”

“Yes. I’ve abandoned all faith. If God existed, He wouldn’t have allowed this world to break like this.”

The nun quietly responded to Bahamut’s pointed question with her eyes closed.

“Seeing this apocalypse, I simply cannot believe the lie that God is testing us. If God existed, He wouldn’t have abandoned the little lambs who believed and hoped for salvation. Only those who don’t lose faith will receive salvation? How could that be! In today’s world, faith has no meaning!”

She wasn’t wrong.

In Seorabeol, because the god Bahamut existed, the existing religious community could maintain faith in God, and the remnants of that religious community could transform into Bahamut’s faith without resistance.

But what would other regions without Bahamut think about this apocalypse?

That it’s God’s wrath and God’s punishment?

What nonsense.

If so, where was the hand of salvation for the little lambs who cried out to God for salvation?

“There’s even a fool who calls herself a saint and rampages as she pleases. On the surface it looks splendid, but in the name of country or heaven, powerless ones like us are plundered and starving! Those with faith continue to disappear. Now I understand. The God we believed in is dead. No, He never existed.

When they were being robbed and exploited by fellow humans, without any salvation from the God they believed in, it took only a moment for a nun with faith in God to become an anti-theist.

Rather, because she knew religion, because she knew its contradictions better than anyone, she claimed in this apocalypse that God was dead.

“But you’re neither an atheist nor an anti-theist, and I hear you’re called a heretic. By the way, I haven’t heard what kind of heresy.”

But she was being called a heretic, and she was neither an atheist nor an anti-theist in the common sense.

This meant that in theological circles, her claims were considered heretical, and she still had faith remaining.

If she had truly become disillusioned with God, couldn’t she have simply taken off the clothes she was wearing and left religious life behind?

“Haven’t they become famous recently? The Dragon God Bahamut and the Phoenix. My claim is that we should worship these two as gods.”

“What.”

Her answer to that was simple.

She was claiming that instead of a God who offered no salvation, the two divine beasts who were currently saving humanity should be considered gods.

Bahamut was startled when his own name suddenly came up, but the nun continued her assertion.

“The reason humanity is still alive now is because those two beings reign as gods. I denied the existence of God, but at the same time affirmed it. As long as those two powerful beings firmly exist, I gained the belief that humanity will not end. Yes. The God I believed in didn’t exist, but beings who could be called gods actually did exist.”

“……..”

Bahamut could only respond with silence to her claim, and as if representing his feelings, a howling wind began to blow outside the cathedral.

But Bahamut couldn’t bring himself to refute the nun’s claim.

After all, even in Seorabeol, a faction making the exact same claim as the nun had emerged.

It was because of the Dragon God Bahamut that Seorabeol could exist, and even the cabinet was making claims that Bahamut was saving humanity.

“So whether you believe or not, God always exists.”

The nun whispered quietly at the end of the silence.

“My God denied humanity, but another God is affirming humanity, what hopeful words these are.”

“The God in question isn’t looking at you. Rather, He might be overwhelmed just taking care of Himself.”

Being praised and called a god, Bahamut honestly expressed his feelings.

Honestly, all Bahamut was watching over was always the Dragon Priestess he had contracted with, while other people were merely acquaintances he kept at a distance.

Though there were some he trusted, if there were conflicts between the Dragon Priestess and them, Bahamut would choose the Dragon Priestess without hesitation.

So, he could say that he wasn’t watching over people.

“That may be so. God might not be watching me and these children. In fact, that’s highly likely, which makes it desperate. But…”

But the nun affirmed even this fact.

She said that He might not be watching over her and the children she cared for.

Even if that were the case.

“Seeing that power, can you deny that He is a divine being?”

“I’d like to deny it, but. Isn’t it just people calling us whatever they want? Dragon God, Phoenix, and so on.”

They couldn’t deny that they were gods.

The nun asked if he could deny the divinity of God after seeing that power, and Bahamut strongly criticized that it was just people calling them whatever they wanted.

In the end, terms like Dragon God or Phoenix were just arbitrary labels people had given them, not titles they had claimed for themselves from the beginning.

Humans had simply elevated them by calling them Dragon God or Phoenix just for existing.

“Yes. It’s arbitrary. Because humans are weak. Because I too am only asserting what I believe.”

The nun readily admitted to this claim.

Humans were weak creatures who wanted to believe only what they wanted to believe.

This included the nun herself, and she too was currently asserting only what she wanted to believe.

Seeing this, Bahamut put on a serious expression and questioned her.

“What if. What if. If the God you choose to believe in were to see you, what would you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Saint of Orleans contracted with Phoenix. Conversely, the being you praise as God could be by your side through a contract.”

He said that the being she claimed as God could be connected through a contract.

“Even that power called divine can be manifested through a contract. If such a miracle were given to you, what choice would you make?”

And he seriously asked what she would want to do if she were to gain such miraculous power.

To that question, the nun had only one answer.

“If God were with me, I would move toward a country where these children could live. Even if the end is painful!”

She wanted a world where the children who had barely survived this apocalypse could live without hardship.

The nun smiled slightly.

“So the God I believe in is always by our side. Even when He denies us.”

At those words, Bahamut scratched his head.

‘I can’t make an assessment. This is troublesome.’

It was truly perplexing.