Even as I grappled with that off feeling, I worked to address her with as calm of a tone as I could manage.
“Welcome, saint of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria. I am the king, Souma Kazuya.”
When I did, the Lunarian Orthodox saint gave me a polite bow. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Great King Friedonia. I am the humble Mary Valenti. I am here today as emissary of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria. In place of our pope, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for granting our request for an audience, even though it was so sudden.”
Mary… Even her name was reminiscent of Maria’s. The way she spoke was polite, too.
I had expected her to be more high-handed, ordering me to believe in their god, so I was a little underwhelmed. Well… I guess when they’re dealing with the king of a nation, they can’t afford to be too overbearing on the first meeting.
When Mary raised her face, she looked me in the eye and said, “Word of your exploits has reached us in the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria as well. Having been summoned as a hero, in a mere year, you got Elfrieden back on its feet, destroyed the Principality of Amidonia, and incorporated its territory into your own. Truly, a heroic feat.”
“…You give me too much credit,” I said. “I haven’t done anything heroic. I was only able to rebuild the country because I was blessed with good subordinates; and though I drove off Amidonia, the annexation was just something that happened as part of the flow of events afterwards.”
“The flow of things is a fate beyond human knowledge,” Mary said. “Surely you must have been under divine protection, sire.”
Divine protection, huh… That was the sort of opinion I would expect from a religious person. Not that I bought into it.
“Nah, that flow was created by one person in particular,” I said. “I’m not the one you should praise, but the Sovereign Princess of Amidonia, who made the decision of a lifetime.”
“Roroa Amidonia, you mean. Though still young, she took on two countries and found the path to the greatest benefit for her people. I admire her as a fellow woman.”
I was pretty sure Roroa had hated her country, though.
When Roroa’s elder brother Julius had been Sovereign Prince of Amidonia, the Orthodox Papal State had incited their followers in the country into a rebellion. That rebellion had been put down by Julius, but Roroa was angry that her people’s blood had been shed as a result.
Honestly, I had wanted Roroa to be here, as the candidate to become my third primary queen and the one who shouldered this country’s finances; but in consideration of her enmity towards the Orthodox Papal State, I had decided to have her wait in the governmental affairs office with Juna and everyone else. Roroa wasn’t the type to let it show, but I didn’t want to make her hold her emotions back.
But… just how serious was this girl when she said that?
Her tone of voice was plain, and I couldn’t detect any particular emotion in it. She didn’t seem to be plotting anything, either.
If she could speak like this while knowing what her country had done, she was a great actor, but it was entirely possible that she had lived a sheltered life and knew nothing of her country’s actions.
…No, if it had been either of those two, she would have shown more emotion. She was entirely too quiet.
If it were the former, she would probably have appealed more to her sincerity in an attempt to deceive me. If it were the latter, she should have been more enthusiastic about being here to do the right thing. However, Mary’s attitude seemed to say she was here to do something perfectly normal.
That might have been how a country’s emissary was supposed to act, but in her case, I felt like she took it to an extreme. I could feel that off feeling I’d had before growing in my chest.
In order to keep that feeling from showing on my face, I asked her straight out. “Well then, Madam Mary, what business are you here on today?”
“Oh, that’s right,” Mary said, and bowed her head meekly. “I did come here today with a request for you, Your Majesty.”
“A request?” I asked, having a bad feeling about where this was going; and Mary answered me with a smile that didn’t let me sense any ill intent.
“We would like you to adopt Lunarian Orthodoxy as the state religion of the Kingdom of Friedonia.”
A state religion…
State religions. They were a concept that had by and large been abandoned in the developed countries of Earth. I think countries used to use state resources for the defense and worship of a particular faith. They turned religious festivals into state functions, if I recall.
…Whatever the case, as long as we were a multiracial state, it wasn’t a realistic proposal.
“Madam Mary, do you understand what it is you’re requesting of me?” I asked. “If a multiracial country like ours were to give one religion preferential treatment, it would end up splitting the state. Are you asking me to make that sort of foolish mistake?”
I took a somewhat stronger tone as I said that. I did it to indicate that I was irritated with what she had said. I might not always seem like it, but I had gained enough authority that people called me a great king. If I hadn’t been such a big deal, getting mad over such a little thing would probably have worked against me. However, her expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“We aren’t asking you to give us preferential treatment. We would appreciate it if you would, but for now, just adopting us as your state religion is enough. In Lunarian Orthodoxy, we preach tolerance for others. That applies to other religions, too. We don’t drive out followers of other faiths or demand they convert.”
Then Mary raised her palm towards the ceiling.
“The moon in the sky changes with the seasons, and her face changes depending on the day and place from which you see her. Furthermore, the patterns of the moon look like an animal to some, and a person to others. Faith is the same way. Even if our views differ, we all still worship God. What we see as Lady Lunaria, those of other faiths simply see as something else.”
I was silent.
That was an awfully poetic opinion. If she was speaking her true feelings, then that certainly was tolerant, but… I just didn’t think the way her country acted was in line with that.
“But you don’t recognize Mother Dragon worship, now do you?” I asked.
“God is in the sky, and in our hearts,” said Mary. “If you worship something that exists, it’s purely out of fear for that thing. What is Mother Dragon going to do for her worshipers? Is it not true that the Star Dragon Mountain Range has no relations with any country other than the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom?”
“It’s natural for fear of something greater than yourself to develop into religious faith,” I said. “Isn’t Mother Dragon a symbol of nature itself, beyond the realm of human knowledge?”
“It’s a difference in the way we think,” Mary explained indifferently. “We think of faith as the bond that arises from God thinking of mankind, and mankind thinking of God. To us, Mother Dragon worship looks like an illicit love for Mother Dragon. We cannot recognize that as a legitimate faith. Of course, we understand that there are people who think that way.”
She wasn’t saying anything especially out of the ordinary, I supposed. If anything, she came off as logical. If these were her personal views, I almost wanted to talk with her at length about it some time. But there were some premises she was wrong about.
“This seems like a good opportunity, so I’d like to hear your opinion on something,” I said.
“What might that be?”
“I hear that spies from some other country have been sending spies to the royal capital recently…”