Several months passed once again.
Encia’s book continued to sell steadily, and her reputation soared. Some mages even showed signs of promoting Encia to the elder of Procyon.
“Why isn’t it working?”
Encia still hadn’t become a god. No, she wasn’t even aware of the divine seed that had already seeped into her.
The faith gathering around Encia was more than enough to surpass many lesser gods, yet she remained human.
“Ugh… What could the problem be? Tia, do you know what’s wrong?”
I pondered for a moment. What should I say? Can one transcend the human body to become a god? If one ends their life as a human, can they become a god immediately?
I didn’t want that. Humans inevitably die someday, but I hoped that Encia would enjoy her life to the fullest before putting a period at the end.
That she would not end her life just to become a god.
“There’s a hint of something, but I’ll keep quiet until I’m sure.”
“A hint?! What part?! Tell me!”
“Just wait a bit longer. I’ll let you know when it’s certain. One thing is clear: the faith gathered around you is more than sufficient to become a god.”
A sufficient amount of faith to become a god. The prayers directed at the god of magic had all gathered around Encia.
If those prayers had no clear destination… a completely new god could have been born from the god of magic.
But Encia couldn’t recognize that faith and divinity.
As if she wasn’t permitted to realize it.
“Ugh… If Tia says that, there must be a good reason.”
Encia said that and let out a small sigh. But you know, if I told her everything, she’d immediately give up her life as a human.
I wanted her to enjoy her life as much as possible.
“Then, if there’s enough faith to become a god… why can’t I become one? Am I still lacking something?”
“Well, I wonder…”
“Ugh… I can’t stand it like this! I must know what I want to know by any means necessary! That’s the curiosity Tia taught me!”
“I mean, I did teach you that mindset, but right now…”
“No! While you were gone, I thought a lot! There’s no guarantee how long Tia will be around! Even without Tia, I must do things on my own! If I just sit around, nothing will get done!”
“That’s a good mindset, but right now…”
“Alright! Time for research! I will acquire knowledge about faith, divinity, humans, and gods!!! Tia! You’ll help me, right?!”
“Ah, um… Yeah…”
Seeing Encia shout out with so much energy, I reluctantly answered.
Really, what a troublesome child…
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“First of all, what is faith? What is divinity? What is a god? I should start by understanding these unknown things. In that sense, I can say I’m lucky. The god of gods is right by my side.”
“Just a heads up, I can’t tell you everything.”
“Why? Tia! Are you betraying me?!”
“It’s not betrayal! There’s knowledge that’s too much for humans to handle! I can’t tell you that!”
“Why not!!! Knowledge should be widely known!”
“There’s knowledge that shouldn’t be!”
“That’s unfair!!!”
Encia shouted that it was unfair, but there is knowledge that truly shouldn’t be shared!
Like the foolish one hiding deep underground, or the spirits scattered across the world that once had different existences, or that all life originated from slimes! And more!
Just by knowing some of these facts would be a shocking revelation!
“Ugh. If Tia says that much, there must be a clear reason. But! Tell me the parts I can know. Got it?”
“Yeah. That much is fine.”
That should be… okay? Probably?
Thus, Encia began her investigation into gods and divinity, faith, and believers with my help.
Researching various gods. Investigating the history of numerous gods. Looking into lists of gods. Investigating the gods of each race. Even digging into various obscure tales.
After repeated investigations of such research…
“What is a god…?”
Encia sat blankly in her chair, as if everything had burned white.
“Right?!”
“No, Tia, you are a god! What’s that! So amazing! Anyway, so amazing!!!”
“Your vocabulary is wrecked, Sia.”
“Ah! I don’t know! The more I research, the less I understand! What is a god?! How do the believers gather their faith? Does it gather on its own?! Does it not possess a distinct body? Does only the soul exist? What is it?!”
“I do have a proper body, you know?”
“Tia is an exception! I definitely realized that the goddess of life, Tia, is on a different level from the other gods!! Including you with the other gods would totally contaminate the data and make it unusable!!”
“Is that so…?”
She looked a bit gloomy at that.
“I think I get that divinity is the characteristic of a god. I must have the divinity of the god of magic.”
That’s correct. The divinity within Encia was the divinity belonging to the god of magic, Cientia.
“Then, does the faith of the believers automatically become faith directed at that god? What process does it go through? What kind of new god is born from such faith? Must one have divinity to gather faith, or does faith need to gather first for divinity to be born? I don’t know which is right!!”
“It’s like trying to determine whether the chicken or the egg came first.”
If you think about it carefully, it would have gone through a process where many people’s beliefs gathered towards an object of fear and reverence, from which divinity was born… So technically, faith or belief gathered first.
However, the difference is that the object of that faith did not have divinity but was a being that instilled reverence, right?
Ah, of course, let’s exclude myself and the children from that.
“It’s only natural for faith to gather towards divinity, and it’s confirmed through Tia that I possess the divinity of the god of magic, but… why can’t I feel that faith? I don’t get it! I really don’t get it!”
However, although there was more divinity gathered than a lower god, Encia couldn’t feel it.
Is it because she’s a living being, possessing life, that she can’t sense it? Is it because the form of her body is distinctly present? A god is a being that changes based on that belief, so perhaps Encia, who can’t change based on belief, can’t become a god?
Can a living being not notice divinity?
But if divinity resides within Encia like that… doesn’t that seem strange?
In those thoughts, something emerged from the memories settled in my mind.
There was a being that obtained divinity while still alive…
One could say it was a sage-god…
Ah! Maybel! Maybel had become a god while alive! She gathered the faith of the Ashen Rat beastmen and obtained the power of a god while still alive! I’d completely forgotten!!!
After becoming the guardian god of the Ashen Rats and leading many of them to create Rattkinia, after her death, she became the guardian deity of the Divine Hall, clearly making her a being that held divinity while alive, akin to a sage-god!
Of course, there were many differences, but… the process of obtaining that divinity was different.
Encia had gathered prayers through her book to attract faith to herself, gathering the beliefs of those praying without them knowing, while Maybel had directly collected faith from many Ashen Rats to obtain divinity.
Moreover, Encia projected a fictional existence, the god of magic, to gather faith, while Maybel merely had faith gathered towards her.
They were similar cases yet distinct.
“Well, strictly speaking, the divinity gathered by Sia is the faith directed towards the magic god ‘Cientia,’ isn’t it?”
“But! Cientia is a name mixed from Tia’s and my name! Is that name the problem?!”
“It may be due to the lack of a clear target. Also, the fact that those praying don’t know where their prayers are directed might be an issue as well.”
During Maybel’s time, faith was clearly directed towards her. The differences probably only stemmed from those two points.
“Hmm… then, what should I do? Should I change my name to Cientia?”
“Well, I don’t think that will solve the problem.”
Names hold power, and that power could prove one’s existence… but that probably wouldn’t be the solution.
