The Rat Religion Tried To Find A Breakthrough

As Ian walked through the palace corridor, his secretary Mardin was informing him of who wished to have an audience with him.

“Bishop Jonia of the Hadis Religion wishes to have an audience with Your Majesty.”

“It must be urgent enough for even Bishop Jonia to move.”

“It is probably because he has been greatly concerned about the recent problem regarding the Rat Religion. Is that not why he requested an audience this time?”

“The Rat Religion, how should I resolve those things?”

Ian had received a report about the Rat Religion not long ago. They, who had been flourishing on the Old Continent, had now advanced even into this kingdom. For now, from the kingdom’s position of guaranteeing freedom of religion, it was difficult to drive them out.

‘Still, I do not think I can let them keep spreading through our kingdom.’

The behavior of theirs that he had heard about in more detail was said to be outrageous. Though it had not reached the empires yet, most kingdoms were said to be troubled because of them. Too many believers had appeared, and the blind faith in what they said and what they claimed was making it difficult to strike them down.

‘Justification is important. I need to do something so I can at least restrain them.’

After the Dairam people caused trouble, now something called the Rat Religion had suddenly appeared and was ruining the peace of the second half of the year, which made him displeased. In any case, his steps brought him to the audience hall, and the moment he entered and sat in his chair, Mardin immediately nodded and announced the start.

“Bishop Jonia of the Hadis Religion enters.”

Since he had already been waiting, the moment the audience chamber doors opened, Bishop Jonia could be seen entering. Seeing him, Ian felt somewhat glad. In truth, he was the person who had officiated Ian’s own wedding, as well as his younger sister’s wedding this time.

“I greet Your Majesty, the King who is the Monarch of the Sea.”

“Welcome, Bishop Jonia. I will express my thanks for officiating my younger sister’s wedding not long ago.”

“Was that not something I naturally had to do?”

“Whether it is the work linked with the Royal Welfare Foundation or various other matters, I feel we have received much help from the Hadis Religion. In any case, is the reason you have come here perhaps because of the problem regarding the Rat Religion?”

At the question that went straight to the point, Bishop Jonia’s face hardened completely, and he nodded as if that was true. Then, with a voice filled with concern, he conveyed words denouncing them.

“Your Majesty, the Rat Religion is truly a group that must be handled carefully. The things they are doing on the continent are truly absurd.”

“I have already heard about the fact that they arbitrarily occupied buildings belonging to the Hadis Religion not long ago.”

“That is correct! How could they do such a thing? It is not anywhere else, but a building that serves Lord Hadis. To seize such a sacred place as they pleased is a truly dreadful matter!”

“I think so as well. That certainly crossed the line, did it not?”

“That is right. As expected, it seems Your Majesty understands us well!”

Seeing King Ian agree with them, Bishop Jonia’s expression brightened. Ian spoke to him as if reassuring him.

“If they commit the same act in this country, I will arrest all of them, so do not worry too much.”

“You must arrest them all even now.”

“That would be difficult. Our kingdom guarantees freedom of religion, so arresting them when they have not done anything yet would itself be illegal.”

“However…”

“We cannot fabricate crimes that do not exist. Only when they commit a crime will we have no choice but to step forward. Please understand our circumstances.”

“If that happens, their power will already have grown.”

“Well, I do not think so. Unlike other places, the circumstances here are very different, are they not?”

Many of the kingdoms on the Old Continent were currently in difficult situations because much had been broken and destroyed. Only now, with the waves of reconstruction, many places were returning to normal, so naturally, many people’s lives could only be harsh. In particular, the harshest places would be the kingdoms that had been within the defeated Doicheun Empire’s sphere of influence.

‘The harder life is, the more people tend to seek extreme religions, and the Rat Religion is a place that rode that flow well and expanded its power. But can they do that in our kingdom?’

The economic situation of the Polia Kingdom, which had avoided the Great War, was rising sharply as if renewing itself every year. Everyone’s lives were comfortable, and warmth lingered in people’s hearts. Although they had recently dispatched troops to the Colonial Continent and had been thrown into confusion because of the Dairam people, that too had now been resolved.

‘To begin with, to the people of our kingdom, the Rat Religion is only at the level of making them think, So there is also a religion like that?’

Of course, even amid this, there were bound to be people in difficulty, and some would fall into it, but their number would not be that large. Meanwhile, Bishop Jonia could only feel frustrated by the king’s words that, although he agreed with them, they could not be driven out unless they committed illegal acts.

Of course, as the king said, there was no guarantee that their believers would greatly increase here as well, but considering what had happened in other countries, he could not feel at ease.

“You clearly said that if you find out they are committing illegal acts, you will drive them out of this country?”

“Of course.”

Seeing the king nod and say it was certain, Bishop Jonia thought that he had to quickly select people to monitor them. He even felt like deliberately making them commit illegal acts, but if he did that, a fatal situation could instead come upon the Hadis Religion.

‘King Ian is someone who would drive us out too if we committed illegal acts. So with their ideology and capacity for action, they are people who will commit illegal acts even if we leave them alone. Let us wait. If we only monitor them, we will certainly be able to catch evidence.’

Thinking that, Bishop Jonia immediately gave his greetings and left the royal palace. At the moment Bishop Jonia of the Hadis Religion had an audience with Ian the king, the very members of the Rat Religion who were the target were discussing the current situation at the lodging where they were staying.

The five people were gathered in a room of a medium-sized hotel. Amid this, most of them were feeling skeptical about what they had done so far.

“Lord Zad, the number of believers is not increasing. The believers we have gathered so far amount to only fifty.”

“It seems that the people of this kingdom do not receive our words. What should we do about this?”

“To be honest, I am bewildered. On the continent, whenever we spoke these words, was it not normal for hundreds, even thousands, to gather?”

“…At this rate, I think it will be difficult to gather even five hundred believers within this year.”

The middle-aged man called Zad seemed to fall into thought for a moment. He too was quite bewildered by the current situation. In the square, he had calmly conveyed the words of Lord Rat, who was a god, but his inner feelings were not like that.

‘Even in the empires, there were many who listened to our words, yet here, our words are not reaching them this much. Is it truly because everyone lives comfortably?’

If there was certainly something different, it would be the expressions on people’s faces. Even the expressions of the imperial citizens from the victorious nations had anxiety about the future, but here, there was almost none of that. Zad strongly denied this fact.

How could Lord Rat’s words be determined by whether people lived well or poorly? That was irreverent.

“They say the next group of people will soon come over here, so when that time comes, let us increase the number even more.”

At Zad’s words, everyone had no choice but to nod and say they understood. Since the number of people would increase, they would be able to deliver Lord Rat’s words in many places, and they thought they would then be able to increase the number of believers quickly.

Time passed like that, and around July 13, new personnel entered through the harbor and came to them. Meanwhile, when they heard that they had still gathered only around one hundred believers, they showed rather bewildered expressions.

Zad felt uncomfortable under those gazes, but for now, as if telling them to experience it too, he ordered them to gather believers. They immediately conveyed the words of the god Rat with confidence and tried to persuade people’s hearts.

However, the result did not change just because new people had arrived. The gazes toward the Rat Religion were still only fascination and slight curiosity. And even this perception was gradually changing as time passed.

July 19.

“Let us all become happy!”

“Lord Rat is equal to everyone!”

“If you believe in him, happiness will come!”

“Smiles are the medicine for all diseases. Everyone, let us smile!”

The voices of those shouting along the main road were gradually rising. In truth, in the beginning, there had been no need to raise their voices much, and several people had drawn people’s attention by speaking as one voice. But now, there was none of that, and each of them raised their own voice as they preached about how good it was to believe in the god Rat.

At their appearance, people now merely passed by indifferently as if annoyed. In truth, since the same people passed along the same road, they had seen them too many times and now felt sick of them. Fascination and curiosity lasted only for a moment.

In the end, the first to grow tired of such indifferent reactions were the members of the Rat Religion. If people at least reacted somehow, they could have gotten excited and spoken, but since there was none of that, their hearts could only become tired first.

Many people were passing indifferently along the sidewalk between the buildings as if each had their own business, and as they watched that sight, they could only let out short sighs.

“Sigh, this is the first time evangelizing has been this difficult. People no longer properly listen to our words.”

“What is even harder is them. Since the police keep watching us, we cannot grab people.”

They would sometimes try to grab passersby and inform them of the doctrines of the Rat Religion, but whenever such a thing happened, the police who had been watching from a little distance away stepped forward and gave strong warnings about that behavior. Perhaps there had been some kind of order, because police were present wherever they appeared.

From this sight, they could tell that they were beings who were not welcomed in this country. The authorities did not impose sanctions, but they were regularly sending wary gazes. Since the situation had become like this, they were in a state where they could do nothing except evangelize with words.

“They say the square is no different from us, so we need to find a method.”

“Is there no method?”

“….How about this? We distribute gifts to people.”

“Gifts?”

“Yes, even if they are not expensive, we use ordinary household goods to draw people’s attention.”

“That is a good idea, is it not?”

They spoke as if it was a good method, but the drawback was that carrying out such a thing would require an enormous amount of money. Even if they were ordinary household goods, once the number increased, it would cost a great deal.

Still, along with the fact that it was fortunate they had thought of such a method, they could no longer continue evangelizing and had no choice but to pack up and return. The police who had been monitoring the departing Rat Religion members also returned only then, as if their work was finished.

Of course, unlike those police officers, there were also people who continued monitoring the Rat Religion members. After returning to the lodging where they were staying, they all gathered only around evening and held a meeting about the gift offensive.

“A gift offensive, will this method really work?”

“It will work. Is there anyone who does not like free things?”

“Even so, it will require considerable funds.”

“Could we not receive support funds from the Central Order?”

“Would they give support funds to us?”

Everyone had many things to say, but the conclusion was that money was the problem. Listening to those words, Zad’s heart could only be filled with gloom. To think that the conclusion they had reached after failing to evangelize properly was to use money and a gift offensive to capture people’s hearts.

‘This is not why I came over here.’

Only less than a month ago, when he had arrived here, he had been full of confidence. But he had no choice but to feel skeptical about things turning out like this. He could only worry over whether they should continue evangelizing like now until the end, or gather believers even by using expedients.

Everyone’s gazes had soon turned toward Zad. Since he was the one responsible for evangelizing in this Polia Kingdom, they were trying to hear his opinion. Receiving those gazes, he pondered over it in the end, but could only settle on one conclusion.

“I will contact the Central Order and try to receive support funds. If I properly convey the situation here, they will surely help.”

“Then are we going with the gift offensive?”

“Certainly, this method seems to be the best for now.”

“That is right. Everyone will try to listen to our words, even if only to receive gifts. We can properly persuade them at that time.”

“Before the support funds come, should we not first look for what to give as gifts?”

“We will have to check all the prices and choose.”

Even though it had not yet been decided, seeing them already trying to find the types of gifts, perhaps they too knew that there was no method besides this. Zad contacted the Rat Religion Central Order like that, and the result was delivered after a week had passed.

「I have read the contents you sent, and I understand that the situation is not good. The fact that you thought of a gift offensive because the circumstances are different from other countries has been judged positively. The support funds will be sent through the bank, so as soon as you receive them, proceed according to the plan.」

After receiving the message sent by the order, Zad immediately went to the bank and withdrew the support funds. And through this course of action, he was able to purchase goods through an industrial products company he had found in advance. Following these actions, the Rat Religion, unlike before, began drawing people in with the bait called gifts.

The effect was certainly good. People’s attention was focused on them again. Even reporters came back again.