As Roroa talked about that, her eyes went ice cold. The playfulness from before was gone, and her voice was filled with disappointment in her family and a sense of resignation.
“If they’d used it right, the starvin’ people, the girls forced to sell themselves, the children sold off so there’d be less mouths to feed, we could’ve cut down on all of that,” she said. “Stirring up hatred against the kingdom and using that to keep down dissent, that ain’t healthy. It’s sure to fall apart eventually. But, still… my old man didn’t listen to me when I tried to set him straight. I wonder when it was, really… that I stopped seeing them as family…”
“Roroa…” I said softly.
Roroa shook her head and collected herself, then smiled. “For me, my only family members are Grandpa Herman, Mr. Colbert, who’s like a big brother to me, and all the nice men and women who live in the principality’s markets. It ain’t a family that’s only related to me by blood that I want to protect. It’s a family that I care about.”
A family she cared about who wasn’t connected to her by blood, huh…
During the post-war talks, Julius had given up on Roroa because she might have become a political enemy of his. And now, Roroa had also turned her back on Julius.
Though they were on even terms, why was it I felt more of an affinity with Roroa? It was probably because, unlike Julius, Roroa understood the importance of family.
“I want to ask one more thing,” I said. “The other day, there was rioting in the north of the country that was put down by Julius, right? Was that something you instigated, too?”
“I’d never do that!” Here, Roroa was indignant for the first time. “In fact, I arranged for the revolts to all happen at the same time to prevent a situation just like that! It’d get my brother tied up so he couldn’t suppress the people! I’d’ve never allowed an uprisin’ that was sure to meet a horrible fate like that!”
Despite her vehemence, her voice was full of sorrow. It didn’t seem like she was lying.
“Well, was the revolt in the north a natural occurrence, then?” I asked.
“That ain’t it, either,” she said, shaking her head. “Look at the geography. What’s near the north where the riots broke out? Wasn’t there some people actin’ shifty up there?”
“Ah…! The Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria!”
Amidonia bordered the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria in the north. What was more, the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria had gathered its forces along the border in the name of defending their coreligionists.
Roroa nodded with a frustrated look on her face. “There ain’t no borders when it comes to religion. As close to the Orthodox Papal State as that region is, there’re a lot of followers of Lunarian Orthodoxy. The Orthodox Papal State probably stirred up the believers there, tellin’ them it was a direct order from the pope, or somethin’ like that. I’m sure they planned on sendin’ in troops to protect those believers.”
“But the north is hardly fertile land,” I said. “I mean, it’s bad enough that they were rioting over it. Was there any reason the Orthodox Papal State would want it?”
“It ain’t the land they want,” she said. “It’s the people. Believers. If they’re zealous believers, no matter how hard the lives they lead, they’ll never break away from the center of the faith. The troubles and hardships they face are all trials bestowed on them by their god, they’d say. That’s why that country doesn’t have to think about the daily lives of its people. So long as they’re performin’ the right rituals, they’ll support them. That’s why that country wants all the believers they can get.”
“That’s problematic…” I murmured. “And, hold on, Roroa, it sounds like you’re not so fond of Lunarian Orthodoxy.”
“I don’t give one whit about Lunarian Orthodoxy itself,” she shot back. “What I hate is the people who use religion to politically enrich themselves, then do radical things and hurt people around them who don’t have anythin’ to do with it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “On that point, I can agree with you.”
It seemed that mixing politics and religion was trouble, no matter what world you lived in. Normally, religion was something that existed to soothe the hearts of people, but some people used it as a justification and excuse for their actions. Interpretations of doctrine changed with those in power at the time, and those who didn’t adhere to their doctrine would be branded as heretics and punished in the name of their god. Honestly, there was nothing worse than that.
“If it were an option, I’d go the rest of my life without ever having anything to do with them,” I said.
“Too bad it’s not,” Roroa said bluntly. “That country’s sure to try and make contact with you.”
“Why? I’m not religious at all, you know?” I said.
“Because that country hates the Star Dragon Mountain Range and the Gran Chaos Empire, that’s why.”
“I can sort of see why they’d hate the Star Dragon Mountain Range, but why the Empire?” I asked, surprised.
The Star Dragon Mountain Range was essentially a nation for the sentient dragons.
The faith which worshiped Mother Dragon who lived there was one of the two largest faiths on this continent, tied only with Lunarian Orthodoxy. (Though I didn’t know what kind of faith was practiced in the Demon Lord’s Domain.) So I could understand the Orthodox Papal State hating the Star Dragon Mountain Range, which was the center of Mother Dragon worship. But why would they hate the Gran Chaos Empire, too?
“You know how Empress Maria of the Empire is called a saint, right?” Roroa said. “That’s just somethin’ the common people saved by her policies started callin’ her on their own; but in Lunarian Orthodoxy, the pope is the only one who can recognize someone as a saint. In fact, there’s a woman in Lunarian Orthodoxy who’s called a saint. That’s why the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria sees Madam Maria as an unforgivable villain who’s misrepresentin’ herself as one.”
“If the people just started calling her that on their own, I don’t see how that’s any fault of Madam Maria’s,” I said.
“They don’t care about that,” she shrugged. “In a theocracy, what the people look for more than anythin’ is charismatic leadership. If they recognized a saint who appeared naturally, it’d impact their credibility. That’s why, now that Elfrieden’s grown bigger by absorbin’ Amidonia, the Orthodox Papal State won’t be leavin’ you alone. Somewhere, somehow, they’ll try to make contact. Could be they’ll offer you some made up title like ‘Holy King’ and try to drag you into their conflict with the Empire.”
Urgh… That sounded both possible, and undesirable.
Because my secret alliance with the Empire was just that, a secret, other countries couldn’t find out about it. Actually, it would be a problem if they did find out about it, so the intelligence branches in both of our countries were working hard to conceal it. That meant I couldn’t openly admit to being allies with them.
The church offering those in power religious positions in order to make their own influence unshakable was something that had been seen in Earth’s history. They might try to turn us into the Holy Elfrieden Kingdom and have us lead the charge against the Empire for them.
That said, I wanted to avoid conflict with the Orthodox Papal State as much as possible. The troublesome thing about religion was that even if you crushed the center and their leaders, the believers would still be left behind. When believers were oppressed, it formed stronger bonds between them, and when their leaders were killed, they only became more revered as martyrs. Worse yet, the vast majority of believers were ordinary people, unconnected to any scheming inside the organization. If I tried to eliminate all of those believers, it would make me the primary culprit of a genocide.