“…I know her, the water hero, Celestis-chan.”
When I returned to the Light Church, I report to Karen-san about what happened today.
Karen-san answered with a bitter smile.
“She is an incredible person, right? She fights monsters as a hero and also works as an… idol, was it? The job that you sing and show people your dancing, right? I really respect her.” (Karen)
“Hmph, what she is doing is not such a admirable thing like that.” (Mirack)
At the side of Karen-san, there’s Mirack that’s irritated as she fans her tea.
That’s right, that Mirack.
“What they are aiming for is something more sly and wretched than that. It amazes me just how stupid men are for being deceived by that surface cuteness without knowing anything.” (Mirack)
“Uhm…Mirack-san?” (Haine)
“What?” (Mirack)
The fire hero, Katack Mirack, answers.
“You are acting as if it’s extremely natural to be here but…what’s going on? This is the Light Church, you know?” (Haine)
Your headquarters are at the neighboring land, you know?
“Are you an idiot? Karen and I have formed a official alliance. For the sake of information exchange, isn’t it a given that we would be meeting at least once a month?” (Mirack)
“But Mirack-chan, you came yesterday as well…” (Karen)
“Of course I did!” (Mirack)
She vigorously washed away the retort of Karen-san.
“If we are talking about incredible, Mirack-chan is also incredible, you know Haine-san. Since we joined forces, she segmented the light and fire land in detail, and decided on how to cover those areas with the two of us. She is also actively seeking for training in combining elements.” (Karen)
Eh?
This girl that was shouting repeatedly that ‘all heroes aside from me are enemies’ not that long ago?
“What? Do you have a problem?” (Mirack)
“No, not really. Mirack-san has cute parts as well huh.” (Haine)
“Those words, I will take them as a declaration of war.” (Mirack)
Well, it is a good thing that the two who were in a stormy relationship are now able to get along like in the past.
“Anyways! About the talk of the water hero Celestis, even within the heroes, she is one of the foulest women!” (Mirack)
Looks like the fire hero still has more bones to pick.
“Why? Is working as an idol that bad?” (Haine)
“Haine, you are unexpectedly sharp so you must have already noticed but, advertising the church is a part of the activities of us heroes.” (Mirack)
“Well, yeah.” (Haine)
If the hero holds the standard of the church and defeats monsters, the good will of the populace will incline to their favor.
“The idol work of Celestis is something that radically increases that point of a hero. If we digest what an idol is, it is a popularity job. They make the people themselves as their advertising signs. Celestis promotes herself as a hero via her work as an idol. She is increasing the worth of the Water Church’s standard.” (Mirack)
“That’s…in order to increase the amount of believers in the Water Church?” (Haine)
“Of course. And in reality, there’s certainly fans of Celestis who have joined the Water Church just like that. Moreover, rumors say that it is quite the number.” (Mirack)
Seriously?!
It is true that when I look at Karen-san and Mirack, I can understand that the heroes are the face and standard bearers of the church.
But the water hero Celestis didn’t stop with that, she went further ahead and increased her worth to get more believers. So that’s what an idol is?
“In truth, I understand why captain Vesage and the others are getting neurotic about this. Not only that person’s headquarters, the Water capital, Hydra Ville <ハイドラヴィレッ>, even in the far away Apollon City, her popularity has spread.” (Mirack)
“So that means, Water Church believers might appear right under the nose of the Light Church huh.” (Haine)
Hearing that, I began feeling that was incredibly bad.
“Within the five Churches, there’s a number of agreements made. Forbidding the creation of ethereal weapons is one of them, but the other important agreement is that it is prohibited to do any proselytizing activities at the headquarters of the other churches.” (Mirack)
Well, that’s a given.
The five Churches scramble for the limited amount of believers, in other words, they are business rivals. If a rival were to begin doing business at your garden, that’s akin to picking a fight and would definitely develop into one.
“As long as the Water Church is able to obtain believers at a high efficiency with the Celestis fans, the work of Celestis as an idol is akin to proselytizing. And her popularity has reached Apollon City and even my Muspelheim as well. People in these places become fans of Celestis. And if she gets fans and they enter the Water Church…” (Mirack)
“It would be a legitimate breach of the agreement.” (Haine)
“That’s right. But as of now, the other churches are still lacking a way to attack this breach. No matter what’s said, there’s no proving that idol activities are the same as proselytizing activities after all.” (Mirack)
‘I have also heard about it’, is what Karen-san said as she takes over on the explanation.
“The ones that are actually spreading the word of Celestis-san are the newspaper reporters, and those…’idol goods’, was it? The ones who bring in those idol goods are merchants specialized in that area. It is not like a legitimate member of the Church was involved in it, so it doesn’t enter into the grounds of proselytizing, they say.” (Karen)
“Our Fire Church has also sent numerous objections, but they used the same logic to deftly avoid it. In the end, the best countermeasure of it for now is just as you have witnessed today, stepping into the houses inside the city and confiscate the items related to Celestis. Hard to call that an effective method.” (Mirack)