The elderly woman speaks after the fire of a candle illuminating pretty strongly shook heavily.
“It must be something similar to this. I agree that it is a pain.”
She looks as if she should have retired a long time ago, but she is actually an active merchant.
She is at the very top of the circulation of goods and has continued working in Tsige since her young days, the representative of the Couple Company, Capli.
Rembrandt is having a discussion with the representatives of the main big companies and checking the movements of the church.
“Have you been affected as well?”
“Yeah. My place moves people from one corner of the city to the other after all.” (Capli)
“…Any countermeasures?”
“They have been showing up at the street corners lately so they are basically hunting passionately. I can’t think up a countermeasure at all.” (Capli)
It seems like Capli is also holding her head, truly troubled by this.
By hunting, she means the proselytizing of the church.
It is something not seen often in Tsige.
Or more like, it is pretty rare in a worldwide perspective too.
This place isn’t a remote location but is no doubt a big city where many people gather.
Normally, the church would be lively with believers even without doing anything, and coin would accumulate proportional to the scale of the city.
It is the church that worships the one and only Goddess, so it is a natural sight.
But in this country that’s growing ever more lively with adventurers and merchants who are faithful to their desires, the teachings of the church and the faith were honestly burning low.
Most of all, the higher ups of Tsige have not cooperated with the church actively after becoming a country.
You could say this is possible because they are not dependent on their ability to keep public order or form common grounds.
But that’s troubling for the church.
If people go away, coin doesn’t gather, and the weight of their words is weakened.
The church has managed to maintain control in places other than Tsige with their praiseworthy management, but they do have a trump card.
Beauty.
It is the most important part of the Goddess’s teachings, and even if it is a person that is turning their back to the church, as long as you are a resident of this world, it is a topic that they have no choice but to direct their interest in.
For Makoto, who is a Japanese person, he does find it strange how everyone regardless of old or young, male or female, has a decently high interest in beauty. However, the way of thinking of Makoto is the overwhelming minority -heretical even.
Beauty is a precious thing for the good and the evil.
It is natural to prioritize being beautiful and striving for further than that even more than anything else.
As long as that way of thinking is rooted deeply into the very foundations of many people’s hearts, the many excellent beauty products of the church and their techniques have become a powerful and invincible card.
“Is their aim us?” (Rembrandt)
“It is the adventurers that are making big achievements. It seems like they are also prioritizing the commoners with high influence.” (Capli)
“Commoners with influence?” (Rembrandt)
The answer of Capli made Rembrandt ask back in wonder.
It is because he is not used to hearing that combination of words.
“Come on, isn’t that something you began? You know, like the idols.” (Capli)
“…Aaah. I see. So they are not idiots. Not a bad place to put their eyes on.” (Rembrandt)
Rembrandt monologues with a rough tone for a moment in thought and then praises the aim of the enemy.
“They cast fishing rods on all sides, and if the person they fish is someone they were aiming for, they will put all their efforts in bringing them in. When it comes to the teachings of the Goddess…not even we could one-sidedly prohibit it.” (Capli)
Even if they are on the wane, it is not like the appeal of the connections and the products the church deals with are gone.
Being able to work as a believer is enough to move a decent amount of coin, and they can bring up the standing of individuals to a decent degree.
You by no means can underestimate the church that can mobilize the most primordial of resources that is people themselves.
There’s countless people who end up losing to its appeal and get a little bit too passionate about the teachings of the Goddess.
They eventually get raised as zealous believers, or are in a dangerous one step into changing.
“Right.” (Rembrandt)
“It seems like they are spreading quite a good amount of coin and people. Your church hate has resonated with all the merchants to a certain degree, so they are probably desperately trying to survive here.” (Capli)
Seeing the behavior of Rembrandt, there’s only a few companies who continue their relationship with the church in public.
Changing the type of support and donations is one thing, but the amount of that was clearly decreasing.
As if all of the merchants in Tsige coordinated to do that.
“…It is not like I hate them. I have promised them the same amount of support I have given them until now, and I have properly kept that.” (Rembrandt)
“A city of this scale has grown more active and is growing even more, and yet, giving the same amount of support as before? Of course the church won’t be accepting that. That there’s barely any new churches despite new and expanding sectors is proof of the cold treatment.” (Capli)
“They are a bunch that just leech off coin without doing anything. I think it would have eventually ended up like this.” (Rembrandt)
“The Curse Disease of your wife and daughters, right?” (Capli)
Capli easily spoke of the Rembrandt family’s taboo.
But the relationship between these two must be quite good, there were no signs of anger from Rembrandt.
“Not only that.” (Rembrandt)
“It is also the price and amount of your wife’s beauty products.” (Capli)
“If they just played clumsy moves, I could have considered them cute. But they…” (Rembrandt)
“It truly is a messy affair. However, that sacred weapon of theirs has basically been broken now, so it is natural for them to become desperate, you know?” (Capli)
The arrival of the mysterious hot spring beautifying experience and the high quality beauty products that don’t lose to the church’s.
Rumors of this have been spread ingeniously by Lisa Rembrandt, and there’s even whisperings that Lisa’s secret salon is the one that provides the best beautification in Tsige.
Lisa, who had been freed from the Curse Disease, was hoping to regain her original appearance, and it seems like the methods of the church had a certain allure for her, her offensive in that front is not lessening even now.
Her relationship with Rembrandt, the company, and the church had been twisted into the worst state because of the Curse Disease.
Not only her dealings with the church had turned crafty, she even did childish retaliations on Rembrandt and showed blatant cold treatment.
From the outside perspective of Capli, everyone has their fair share of negatives here.
Also, Capli has clearly made a clear distinction in which is more important between the church and the Rembrandt Company.
That’s why she has come to the reception room of the Rembrandt Company and met him face to face.
“In the past, the Anti-Goddess people would gather supporters secretly. The Goddess Church really has fallen quite a lot. Hahaha.” (Rembrandt)
A dry laugh that one can’t feel pity or compassion in.
Not only that, it even felt as if he found it amusing.
It is a completely fake laugh.
“The rations, the beauty products, and the mysterious salon are all things the Rembrandt Company is using to steal the shares of the Church after all. So…are you seriously thinking about crushing them?” (Capli)
“It is not only me. It is the same for the Kuzunoha Company.” (Rembrandt)
“The same? For me, it feels like they are serving as your amulet. The representative Raidou-kun seems to be a really interesting and stimulating boy, so I would like you to please not drag him into your personal grudge.” (Capli)
“I think that Raidou-kun also has his own thoughts towards the Goddess and the Church, so it isn’t all my own personal grudge. But well, the Batoma, Muzo, your place, and mine as well have learned plenty well about their stubbornness.” (Rembrandt)
“Oh my, Bronzeman—” (Capli)
“The representative himself has apparently gone out to the wasteland for half of the weeks and is concentrating on leveling up, so he doesn’t have time for that. He obtained the skill version of a magic bag and is now making some nice eyes after seeing the possibilities of non-combat jobs.” (Rembrandt)
“…That sounds like him alright. It certainly was a mystery for many years how there were jobs like cook, blacksmith, and merchant despite you registering as an adventurer.” (Capli)
“It seems Mio-dono has finally made her job cook together with Raidou-kun. They apparently had a lot of trouble with that.” (Rembrandt)
“…That’s crazy.” (Capli)
She went through the trouble of ignoring all the many combat related jobs and obtained a non-combat related job. Not only that, she gleefully announced it.
As Rembrandt said, it is a rumor in the city that they faced quite the hardships before the cook job branch appeared.
Everything about it is insane.
A cluster of insanity is the only word that can describe Mio from the Kuzunoha Company.
“I totally agree. Compared to them, I am a commoner among commoners. I don’t even reach their toenails.” (Rembrandt)
“This and that are different matters. What are you going to do about the Church? I think I have the right to hear about it too.” (Capli)
“Being a child of the Goddess, as an individual hyuman, I will change my heart, provide appropriate donations to the Church, and will actively propose to provide new places for their worshiping with the congress.” (Rembrandt)
“…Hm?” (Capli)
What Rembrandt said with a smile made Capli’s thoughts halt for a moment there.
She tried repeating those words countless times in her head and traced them carefully.
She doesn’t get it.
It is way too weird for those words to have come from the man that’s trying to murder the Church and is making an empty smile showing those intentions.
“Actually, just recently, I got advice from someone I can’t ignore about cooperating with the Church. Yup yup, I am thinking about cooling down my head and bringing out a decent amount of coin to reflect about my actions until now…” (Rembrandt)
“A-Are you out of your mind?” (Capli)
“…I am of course totally sane here. But…” (Rembrandt)
“…”
‘Aah, I knew it’, Capli thought.
The word ‘but’ relieved Capli.
There’s no way Rembrandt would actually be reformed and flatter the Church.
Capli knows parts of what the man in front of her has done…how he has dirtied his own hands in order to obtain his current glory. There’s no way she would believe he has had a change of heart.
“To the Lorel Church that has recently come, that is.” (Rembrandt)
“…You are one nasty person. Even Raidou-kun would be taken aback by it.” (Capli)
“I won’t deny the religion of the Church that places the Goddess as the summit. I will even cheer them on. Give them coin. Even if the Lorel Church is technically worshiping the Great Water Spirit more than the Goddess, a church is a church, right? The Empress was requesting the dispatch of the Church decently strongly. Oh, is there a problem? I am not doing anything nasty here though.” (Rembrandt)
“Even if the Lorel one is called a church, it is technically a different entity. You are doing this because you know they will definitely be eating each other, right? Moreover, if one side will be getting the extravagant support of the Rembrandt Company… Fuuh.” (Capli)
She can imagine what will happen.
Rembrandt seriously plans on crushing the Church that has been latching to this place for a long time.
“If they stay put to a certain degree, and are sincere to a certain degree, I would have no complaints. Allowing that Church with their old teachings to make a big face here when Tsige has these many demi-humans would be even more problematic. Do you think I am wrong here?” (Rembrandt)
Capli shook her head to the sides.
But was that because she acknowledged the opinion of Rembrandt, or is it because she was baffled by how settled he is on his stance here?
No answer to that came out from her mouth.
You could even call it an insect extermination through pesticide.
The way Rembrandt said it was truly nasty and effective.
The religion of the Goddess is changing into something without presence like that of air in Tsige, and it is being changed into something that has almost no influence in the policies of the country. This is the beginning of that.