Chapter 375

375 Nectar of the Gods #5

“…”

Every morning always begins with meditation for me.

After awakening to mana with the help of Elpride, it’s about shutting off all external stimuli so that the mana, which gathers in the lower abdomen, can circulate well through the bloodstream and throughout the entire body.

This cottage, which has grown quiet since Luna left, was quite the perfect place for such meditation.

After about thirty minutes of meditation, I follow what Luna taught me by eating one health bead and checking in on Keng Keng as Luna had instructed.

“Did you sleep well?”

Grrr-.

“There’s a really huge spider at the graveyard. It’s absolutely massive. I think you could probably be friends with it.”

Grrrr…!!

Keng Keng seems to not want to meet that enormous spider at all.

It’s probably because spiders on the Gaia Continent have a strong territorial instinct and dislike leaving the place they’ve claimed as home or having other spiders come into their territory.

Grrr-.

“Yeah, I miss Luna too.”

Hiiiiioooong.

Keng Keng seems to greatly miss Luna, who always cared for him.

Even when I catch a large rat wandering around the corner of the cottage and give it to him as food, he doesn’t even finish half before wrapping the remainder in white silk and storing it away in a corner, which is quite concerning.

It’s been about three weeks since Luna left.

Three weeks, 21 days. By time, that’s around 504 hours.

That’s quite a long time.

It wouldn’t be strange to gradually get used to living alone in this cottage without Luna, and it would only be natural for the scent of Luna that lingered on the pillow to have completely disappeared.

Swoosh.

I opened the window to ventilate and looked up at the sky. It feels like just yesterday that I was here, rolling around while struggling with the summer heat the whole time.

Whoosh-whoosh.

The cold wind entering through the window clearly indicates that winter is approaching.

I wonder if Luna has arrived at Ideope by now and is handling the things she intended to do well?

The lack of a cell phone makes it impossible to contact her, which is very inconvenient. It would be nice if we could at least receive some simple updates.

Every morning, I open the mailbox, but it’s only filled with notices from the city council.

There’s no news from Luna.

Hippolyte is also too busy preparing for the upcoming Amazon festival, making it hard to see her.

Elpride, who used to be found reading books in the inn room, seems to be busy with her own affairs lately as well.

“…”

I feel a bit lonely. The cool autumn wind, and the flowers and trees in the garden that Luna planted, which are now falling as broken leaves, hit me poetically.

Is it fall now?

Come to think of it, I was a boy who was always sensitive to autumn since my childhood. Whenever autumn came, I always felt like this—melancholic and emotional.

They say men feel the effects of autumn because the decrease in sunlight reduces testosterone secretion, leading to certain chemical reactions. That might be why men suffer from autumn syndrome.

“Mr. Hassan, please hurry to the shrine!”

Paranoi’s voice reached my ears. We met in a back alley of the slums as she was coming to greet me on my way to the shrine.

Meeting her welcoming party like this is actually a regular part of her daily routine.

“Last night, I met the nymph Doris of Honey Water in a dream! Doris asked if Mr. Hassan was doing well on behalf of Lady Luna, so I answered-.”

Listening to Paranoi’s busy voice starts to somewhat disrupt the mood of the autumn ambiance I was immersed in.

“And Ideope’s autumn leaves are apparently stunningly beautiful! So, I told her that Sodomora is pretty much the same!”

“Yeah, good job.”

“Sodomora is brimming with autumn leaves!”

Pa-tat!

Paranoi kicked the fallen leaves and trash around with her feet, here and there. Consequently, quite a lot of dust is flying everywhere.

“Isn’t autumn a truly magnificent season?”

“Do you like autumn?”

“Paranoi is a nymph born in autumn! As you can see from my orange hair, it resembles the pretty autumn foliage, right? Since I was born with the vitality of autumn, Paranoi becomes stronger during this season!”

“Is that so.”

Lately, Paranoi has had an overwhelming amount of energy, talking more and flitting around like a butterfly. Apparently, it’s because she was born in autumn and gains strength during this season. Her fiery orange hair does resemble autumn leaves.

Honestly, I don’t understand how being born in autumn connects to gaining strength in autumn, but it’s best to just sympathize with her.

When it comes to befriending nymphs, it’s necessary to cultivate “nymph sensitivity.”

Paranoi and I headed towards the shrine together.

*

“Ah, Mr. Hassan. I’ve been awaiting your arrival. Yesterday, I took quite a large injury to my shoulder-.”

“I injured my knee…”

It’s been three weeks since Luna left. About three weeks since we built the shrine.

After showering blessings of monetary fortune and welcoming priests a while back, my shrine has been growing steadily without much hardship or adversity.

Every day, more than a hundred people visit asking for massages. Healing just one of the diseases they carry increases my mission points by a thousand each.

Of course, that’s only theoretically speaking.

The number of people I can handle in a day is around twenty, at most thirty.

Considering it takes at least ten minutes to massage one person, even massaging just five people takes well over an hour.

Ding.

“The turtle neck condition of Berga has been cured.”

“Current mission value points: +720”

Still, it’s a good thing that the mission value points are being accumulated smoothly. With these points, I can not only upgrade levels but also use the mission store.

“Ssveol, it’s exhausting…”

As the afternoon approached and the sun began to set, I roughly sent the people off, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and relaxed for a moment when someone approached me.

“Mr. Hassan, today we’ve received this much in donations!”

It was Marda, draped in a robe No. 2. The basket she was carrying was filled with hard bread, dried fish, and beneath these, quite a stack of copper coins could be seen.

“Even after sharing with poor people, this much is left?”

“Yes, it looks like we have a few silvers. If this continues for a year, building a shrine may not be out of reach.”

That’s right.

After the blessings of monetary fortune spread throughout, those visiting my graveyard were not only from the poor but also included middle-class citizens and wealthy merchants.

The donations they left were quite substantial, which sufficiently covered the monthly salary of 15 silvers for 11 priests, excluding Paranoi, as well as miscellaneous expenses.

Of course, since it’s not a fixed income, it will be challenging to cover fixed expenses.

It would be good if even more donations came in.

What do you think about creating a doctrine that says the more the rich donate, the higher the probability of their passage to the paradise of Elysium instead of Tartarus?

That sounds quite reasonable.

Speaking of which, doctrine…

I asked Marda.

“Did you submit everything from yesterday?”

“That has been placed on Paranoi’s desk!”

Today is the day after Shilaya visited the graveyard. Last night, I tasked everyone with coming up with simple doctrines and rules by midnight. There should be something useful among what they have written.

As I was about to move towards the office, Marda added one more sentence.

“Um, Mr. Hassan.”

“What is it?”

“Recently, thieves from the underground market have started coming in to receive bread or coins. Is it okay to accept them as believers?”

“Ah, thieves?”

I remembered that I had once shattered the Hydra Thieves Guild that was operating underground in this Sodomora. Thanks to that, many people who relied on the shady underground market were left unemployed.

Of course, dark trades didn’t completely disappear; they just became more concealed in deeper and darker corners.

The executives of the Thieves Guild must still be alive somewhere in Sodomora. I just lost the contact paper or whatever it was, so I couldn’t get in touch with them.

Marda continued.

“If we accept thieves and hoodlums as believers, wouldn’t that harm our reputation too much? Also, there may be those who cause trouble while invoking Mr. Hassan’s name…”

“Hmm-.”

“Am I saying something out of line?”

“No, you make a valid point. If they cause trouble in my name, it would be troublesome for everyone.”

In fact, I had heard from Hippolyte that some followers have indeed been causing problems.

Fortunately, these issues were merely small disturbances in taverns, but as our power grows and more young and energetic men join the shrine, such incidents will likely increase.

Thus, I strongly felt the necessity of placing chains on them. Strong rules alone could tame the fiery bl**d.

Creeak.

Opening the office door, I found Paranoi sitting at her desk, looking at various scrolls with a furrowed brow.

“Is everything going well?”

“Mr. Hassan, I have summarized everyone’s suggestions and selected brief regulations and doctrines based on them!”

“Oh, really?”

“Like this…! These are the basic ones, and I plan to gradually add more details as time goes on!”

I took the scroll that Paranoi handed me.

On it, I could see Paranoi’s crooked handwriting. The contents were written as follows.

“Mr. Hassan’s Basic Five Commandments:

1. Respect Mr. Hassan with all your heart and soul.

2. Do not carelessly use Mr. Hassan’s name.

3. Do not commit injustice.

4. Offenses under point 3 can be forgiven in cases of self-defense.

5. Love all nymphs and detest alien elves.”

“What? Ssveol.”

It seemed somewhat plausible but also rough. Number four was a bit odd, and number five was definitely strange. Clearly, number five was a rule based on Paranoi’s preference.

So, I swiped my finger over the fifth point. Paranoi trembled slightly upon seeing this, but she couldn’t say anything and only looked at me for cues.

I asked.

“Let’s rethink the fifth point last.”

“But, is it really okay with just five rules? Shouldn’t we have at least ten? If you ask me, even a hundred or a thousand wouldn’t be enough!”

Paranoi seemed displeased that the rules of such a great deity could be summarized with just one hand.

“But, if there are too many, people won’t remember them. It needs to be something that immediately sticks in their minds so they’ll be careful.”

“Indeed… Your wisdom in considering even the intellect of ignorant people is admirable! I, Paranoi, am deeply moved!”

“Then, for now, it seems appropriate to publish these four rules.”

“Understood! I will inform all the priests! And, what do you plan to do with the punishments for those who violate the rules? Without punishment, these rules would be nothing but empty words!”

“You’re right.”

There’s more to consider than I thought.

Punishment.

As I was lost in thought, Paranoi approached me with a very sinister tone.

“Mr. Hassan, how about we operate inquisitions and enforcers like Jupiter’s Knights?”

Inquisitors, you say? The enforcers of Hassan’s shrine. You could say they’d be an elite repression team.

“Wouldn’t everyone fear and submit to the rules if we have powerful grand warriors spreading doctrines and punishing sinners?”

Indeed, Paranoi’s suggestion was quite reasonable.

Truly, isn’t peace produced not so much by the rules themselves but by the disadvantages of breaking them and the violence of overwhelming force?

Peace through overwhelming force. Pax Romana, Pax Americana. They’re actually quite effective.

But then, another problem arises.

Shrine Knights who rival even Gold Tier Adventurers. Where are such beings supposed to come from?

Still, I sensed that Paranoi had something in mind when she said this.

“Are there any people you’ve already looked into?”

“In fact, there are some usable individuals…! I believe they will be sufficient to satisfy Mr. Hassan… It will take some time, but they are worth the investment…”

And then Paranoi chuckled like a cultist.

The next day.

I stood on a high stone slab and read the five commandments to the people.

“Ah, um. There are five things to remember. Since there are only five, I think everyone can memorize and memorize them. So, first, respect me, Hassan, with all your heart and soul. Second, don’t exploit my name, Hassan. Third, do not commit unjust acts. Fourth, point three can be forgiven in cases of self-defense. And fifth-.”

I closed my mouth halfway through mentioning the fifth point. I noticed a slash crossing it out. The last item hadn’t been decided yet.

“Anyway, that’s it. So, priests, distribute the scrolls containing the commandments. By the way, there’s a terrifying punishment waiting if these commandments are broken, so be careful. As a god, I can know everything.”

Following my instruction, the twelve priests distributed the papers to people like skilled teaching assistants at a university. As people took the paper, they frowned as they read the text.

Me, I can’t read. What does it say?

It’s exactly as he just said. But why are there only four when there were supposed to be five?

That’s true. There are only four. There’s an empty slot here, right?

People seemed quite confused because there were only four commandments written down even though five were mentioned.

At that moment, someone spoke.

Fools! Don’t you understand the meaning of this empty space? This blank represents endless possibilities. This last, empty commandment contains countless truths…

What? What truths are stored here in this blank?

Ignorant ones. This means you should judge and follow not just what’s written here but everything unspoken. In other words, it’s a self-commandment. Its number can be as vast as the universe!

Wow, so this empty slot contains the universe!

So, this scroll embraces the universe as a doctrine. Truly remarkable.

What nonsense is this, ssveol?

I never intended this, but everyone interpreted it freely, creating something profound. Is this the power of collective intelligence?

As they say, among every four people, there’s always a teacher. Naturally, among hundreds, there will be someone prominent.

“Ah, in fact, I, Paranoi, knew all about it!”

Also, one thing that’s definitely clear is that Paranoi knew nothing as well.

Paranoi told the crowd,

“Since I may question these commandments at any time, please memorize them!”

Anyway, the rules seemed to be spreading well among the people.

Now with the three essential elements for forming and operating a religion—prophet, doctrine, and sect—we’re all set.

I am the prophet Hassan.

The doctrine consists of the Five Commandments of conduct we just created.

And the sect is this Dark Brotherhood standing here.

Thinking about it this way, it felt like I had lifted a great burden.

“Glory to chaos!”

Ding.

“Hassan’s current holdings

Number of believers: 237,731

Number of foundations: 1

Number of shrines: 1

Number of priests: 12

Number of graces: 1

Summary: A juvenile and gentle deity now has a place, a doctrine, and priests to lead people. Now it’s time to commence full-fledged evangelism. Expand your followers and grow your strength.”

Indeed, the overall evaluation, which previously included somewhat negative narratives, had transformed steadily.

Then, I can now address the problem that I had set aside.

“Hey, Paranoi. So, where is this Nymph Welfare Foundation?”

I became interested in the nymph of muddy water who had supposedly stolen the design of Nectar.

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