[Stop, stop-! I really don't know anything more!]
“Are you sure?”
[Yes! I’m sure!]
Surrounded by the witches and receiving a physical lesson, the World Tree screamed, insisting it knew nothing more.
Seeing this, the witches seemed to realize they had squeezed out every last drop of information and slowly backed away from the World Tree.
Finally free from the beatings, the World Tree trembled, watching Yohan and the witches’ every move with extreme caution.
“Hey.”
[Hic-!]
“...Anyone watching would think I was hitting you.”
Yohan scratched the back of his head, looking at the ridiculously terrified World Tree. He had told them to rough it up, but he never imagined they could reduce a being like the World Tree to a blubbering mess in such a short time.
What Yohan didn't know was that the period the World Tree had experienced wasn't short at all. There were nearly ten witches present, each with different kinds of magic. When that many witches gathered, almost anything was possible.
The World Tree, which seemed to have been tormented for a mere moment, had actually endured decades of torture in that short time.
And that amount of pain was enough to break an ancient being that had lived since the beginning of time.
“You really don't know how I can get back to where I came from?”
[I don't, I really don't. I'm not lying, I swear-!]
“Then who might know?”
The World Tree immediately began to spill everything it knew about the oldest living beings. Since it was impossible for a human to live that long, most of them were witches or monsters.
Unfortunately, however, most of the long-lived witches and monsters had already been dead for a long time.
The witches who lived too long lost interest in life and ended it themselves, while the monsters who lived just long enough were exterminated by the advancing humans.
“So there’s no one…”
Yohan grew dejected as he listened. Seeing her beloved disciple looking so down, Evangeline did her best to cheer him up.
“I-It’s okay, Yohan! So what if you can’t go back? You can just live happily with us here!”
“That’s right. It might be better to live without any worries than to struggle trying to go back.”
“...Everyone.”
Yohan nodded at the witches' encouragement. Right, what’s the point of searching for a way back that might not even exist? I can just live happily here with the witches.
However, the World Tree, which had been secretly listening, tilted its head as if something was strange and asked a question.
[...Excuse me.]
“What? What is it?”
[The way back... wouldn't the god who brought you here know?]
“And how am I supposed to know where a god is?”
[I don't know where the god is, but there are many people who claim to be able to speak with them...]
Hearing the World Tree's words, Yohan finally understood what it was getting at. If a god sent him here, then it made sense to ask that god for the reason and the way back.
And in this world, the ones closest to God were the clerics.
‘...There was nothing special when I went there a while ago.’
But Yohan recalled his visit to the Holy Nation with Evangeline. The place was crawling with self-proclaimed clerics, but he hadn't been able to speak with any god.
There was no god there. A god does not descend upon a temple adorned with gold leaf.
A god descends not where they are needed, but where they need to be.
‘If it’s that place...’
Yohan remembered the nun he had seen on his way to the Holy Nation. The most devout being in that country.
The saintess who practiced God's teachings with her own body while others merely recited the scriptures with their lips.
“So that’s why you came to me.”
“Yeah. I figured it would be easier to talk if we had another nun with us.”
Yohan immediately headed to the church in the Empire with Margaret. There, he met Elesis and began to persuade her.
He told her he was planning to meet the saintess of the Holy Nation and asked for her help.
Hearing this, Elesis let out a hollow laugh, as if finding the idea absurd.
“A saintess... No way such a thing exists.”
“Why not?”
“Isn't that something you only see in history?”
“The present will one day become history to the distant future.”
Elesis, who looked at Yohan skeptically, eventually nodded and accepted his proposal, figuring she had nothing better to do anyway.
However, there was one problem.
“I’m already a wanted person in the Holy Nation. Can I even get in?”
“It’s fine. We’re going to smuggle ourselves in.”
“...Isn’t that an even bigger problem?”
“It’s legal if you don’t get caught.”
With a grin, Yohan looked at Margaret. As long as she, who could freely leap through space, was with them, smuggling themselves in was no problem at all.
If her movements couldn't be stopped in the 21st-century modern world, with its CCTVs and cameras everywhere, what chance did a medieval fantasy world have, where guards stood watch with their own two eyes?
With a small chuckle, we immediately teleported inside the Holy Nation. Despite the considerable distance, Margaret moved as if it were nothing.
“This way.”
Seeing that the two were fine, Yohan immediately headed toward the slums. Even though the sun was high in the sky, there wasn't a single soul to be seen on the slum streets.
He could, however, feel eyes on them from all directions. He knew they were staring at them—or more accurately, at the two beautiful women behind him.
‘Well, they are both gorgeous.’
In a medieval fantasy world where cosmetics were a luxury for nobles and most commoner women had to toil under the scorching sun, pale skin was in itself proof of beauty. If a woman had a beautiful face on top of that, she could be considered a peerless beauty.
Both women met these two conditions, meaning that in a slum like this, they were beauties of a level that one wouldn't even be forgiven for looking at.
With two such beauties following Yohan as if they were his attendants, the residents of the slum assumed he was some powerful figure or a noble and kept their distance.
“We’re here.”
“...It’s so shabby. And right in front of the Holy Nation’s capital, no less.”
“That’s the church for you.”
Elesis stared at the crumbling church, as if she couldn't believe such a dilapidated building existed right in front of the capital.
She couldn't understand how a church could be in a place like this, nor why it was so run-down despite being a church.
Leading the sighing Elesis inside, a nun who had been dozing off in a chair shot up and greeted the group warmly as they entered.
“Ah, welcome, brother, and sister...s?”
“Good to see you.”
“Ah, ahh-! Finally, you’ve finally come!?”
The nun rushed over to Elesis and grabbed both of her hands. As she shook them up and down in an overwhelming show of welcome, Elesis tilted her head, completely bewildered.
“...Do I know you?”
“Huh? Aren’t you the nun they said they were sending from the main church...?”
“I am not.”
“Ah, ahh—m-my apologies. I was just so eagerly waiting... Um, in that case, who are you?”
The nun tilted her head, finding it strange that Elesis, who wasn't from the church, had shown up wearing a nun's habit.
Elesis let out a deep sigh at the nun staring at her and cautiously began to reveal her identity.
“...I am Elesis, a nun from the Empire.”
“What? The Empire? The Empire has a church...?”
Though it’s unofficial— Elesis managed to swallow the rest of her sentence. The nun, who was marveling at the fact that the Empire had a church, belatedly realized she hadn't introduced herself and began to do so.
“Ah, I am Asha, the nun of this church.”
“Sister Asha. The reason for our visit today is not for anything else, but...”
Elesis glanced back at Yohan, who was observing from behind her. Receiving the cue, Yohan finally stepped forward and bowed his head in greeting.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sister.”
“Hmm...? Ah, ahh! You’re that man from before!”
Recognizing Yohan's face, Asha jumped in surprise and started pointing a finger at him. The man who had suddenly appeared, asked strange, philosophical questions, thrown a money pouch at her, and then run away was standing right in front of her.
Seeing that the nun recognized him, Yohan knew that things would proceed quickly.
“I came because I have something I’m curious about, Sister.”
“A-Are you perhaps—here to take back the money pouch you gave me last time...? I’m sorry, but I’ve already spent all of it...”
“That’s fine. It was a paltry sum.”
“A p-paltry sum?”
“What I’m curious about is something else—have you ever seen God?”
It was another incomprehensible question. The nun wondered if she would receive another money pouch for a good answer and tried her best to come up with a reply.
Before long, the answer she came up with was this.
“Th-This way.”
Leading Yohan into her room, the nun pointed at a statue of God distributed by the main church.
“He’s right here...”
“...This is God?”
“It’s a statue of God, so... ahaha.”
I’m screwed. The nun sensed it instinctively.