Ch.292Epilogue – The Empty King (2)

The spread of Baal worship might sound like the expansion of some cult’s influence, but that’s just my perspective as someone with memories of an Earth otaku.

In this world, Baal worship is closer to a new form of faith optimized for winning people’s hearts, rather than being an evil deity—in fact, she’s more like a goddess with good inclinations.

Mother, the goddess ‘Baal,’ has divinity based on ‘abundance’ and ‘fertility’—both types that would naturally be popular among common people.

However, until recently, Mother actually held no religious authority whatsoever.

First, Mother’s innocence was proven when the celestial gods accepted her as one of their own (into the pantheon), and since joining the pantheon, she has been worshipped smoothly through the general faith system.

But despite this situation, the Baal temple that specifically worships Mother—the Baal religion, if you will—had made absolutely no progress…

The biggest reason was, above all, violation of pantheon regulations.

Among the rules observed by the pantheon gods is one that prohibits political intervention in secular society, though it’s undeniable that this rule is practically impossible to follow completely.

Therefore, while this clause might be tacitly overlooked to a certain extent, once that line is crossed, regulations naturally follow…

Mother showing favoritism beyond that of a simple deity as a member of our duchy is a prime example of crossing this line.

Going beyond mere favoritism to actually belonging to a specific secular state and acting as its member—honestly, it would be madness to just leave this unchecked, no matter how lenient one tries to be.

To be frank, in such a case, it’s no joke that following the thinking that “if one starts, the rest will follow,” there’s a high possibility that the mythical age—where each god chose their champion nation and fought—could return.

Therefore, Mother, after long communication with the pantheon, finally reached a compromise, around the time when land reforms were in full swing after the founding ceremony.

The agreement was that she could establish a religious order and lay the foundation for its rise, under conditions such as maintaining political neutrality as long as no cult was involved, and not discriminating against believers from other regions.

Of course, normally, a new religion without even a single priest, let alone decent followers, would find it impossible to expand its influence and scale…

But the story changes when my—or more precisely, the duchy’s—support is added.

Not through blatant favoritism to build up power, but more specifically through investments in promotional activities or temple construction.

Especially given the lack of priests, we plan to focus on promotional activities for the time being, which has high potential for synergy with the divine domains our Mother oversees.

Mother, Goddess Baal, oversees the ‘divine domains’ of ‘abundance’ and ‘fertility.’ This might sound vague, but both are domains commonly possessed by popular gods.

More precisely… they’re domains that easily influence the general public.

‘Abundance’ is the most representative divine domain that sounds abstract, and in reality, the ‘abundance’ of most gods who possess this domain varies in direction depending on their other domains.

An agricultural deity’s ‘abundance’ takes the form of increased agricultural production. For a sea—or more precisely, fishing—deity, ‘abundance’ becomes increased catches. For a hunting deity, it means a significant increase in wildlife encounters.

And from this perspective, the power of ‘abundance’ combined with ‘fertility’ is particularly powerful.

Grains produce more seeds needed for species reproduction, and the number of fruits on fruit trees increases.

Chickens lay eggs daily, and livestock bear more offspring. Forest animals rapidly increase in number, and fish in the water produce more eggs.

Beyond this, this power of ‘fertility’ works wonderfully for increasing human population as well, so honestly, even if it weren’t Mother, it would be sufficient to promote at the territory level.

Thus, starting with promotional activities, we were able to quickly elevate her influence and recognition within the territory to the level of a minor religious order by distributing doctrines that Mother revised according to her will from the pantheon’s common teachings, or through public blessing events.

People began to revere her alongside their main faith without replacing it, and with our somewhat supportive stance—though not overtly—some opportunists were attracted.

Additionally, with the pantheon’s help, we created a special priest training program for the Baal order, and Mother continued her external activities without damaging her image, further expanding her influence.

However, no matter how much we try to expand, a new religious order has its limitations, and in this world where religious spiritual influence is strong, it’s normal that people rarely change their faith.

So while the Baal faith, the Baal order, was struggling to expand in cities—

“We believe! We believe!”

“Merciful Goddess! Please protect your humble servants this year as well…!!”

In the countryside, where the effects of ‘abundance’ and ‘fertility’ could truly be felt, the story was quite different.

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In fact, deities who protect related industries, like agricultural gods or shepherd gods, have always existed in rural areas.

Especially in the pantheon, which is essentially a melting pot of Western Continent faiths, there are as many as six agricultural deities, making it nearly impossible for the Baal faith, a latecomer among latecomers, to find its place.

It was truly a red ocean approaching a black ocean. With established predecessors firmly in place and many competitors, the situation was terrible for a latecomer trying to get a piece of the pie.

But it’s still too early to give up. Far too early.

What believers in agricultural deities usually receive is a simple improvement in crop yields. Though it might seem minor, once you experience its impact, you can never call it simple.

It’s significant enough to ensure that instead of starving to death from crop failure, you can at least grow something, even if it’s just turnips.

Especially since this effect is mystical, it activates regardless of how terrible the climate is—how could the impact of an effect that ensures survival no matter what be small?

However, while it merely averts the worst situations and provides modest bonuses, without a proper priest, it’s impossible to provide such definite effects…

But the “Blessing of Abundance,” enhanced by the powers of ‘fertility’ and ‘abundance,’ was bestowed equally on believers as a “faith effect.”

This “faith effect,” gained simply by holding a specific faith, is a magical effect manifested through the medium of individual belief, and is usually quite insignificant in most cases.

However, Baal, the Mother Goddess of abundance and fertility, was different, having defined her base as the Duchy of Alzar, leveraging her nature as an earth deity.

Embracing her characteristic as the Mother Earth Goddess, Mother took the land of the Duchy of Alzar as her foundation, establishing herself as a regional deity at the cost of penalties in other regions.

As a result, what would normally be an insignificant “faith effect” was greatly amplified within the Duchy of Alzar, to the extent that even fanatics would convert their main faith just for this effect.

Immediately, harvests from fields increased by about 30% in exchange for faith, chickens laid an egg every day, and infertile wives occasionally became pregnant with twins.

Especially since these effects applied to almost all areas and sometimes stacked in certain regions, it was enough to make even those who rarely change their religious views turn their heads.

Honestly, if someone offered to increase your salary by about 1.5 times in exchange for believing in a religion that costs nothing, even modern people, unless extremely individualistic, would all follow.

Thus, thanks to these religious effects, as public sentiment improved day by day, the Baal order expanded its influence, and trust in the duchy also increased significantly.

In this atmosphere, as the third year of my reign progressed smoothly and land reforms were successfully concluding, we were ready to move on to the next stage.

For instance, military system reforms.