When Allen addressed the crowd that formed around them, asking if there were any cultists there, a mother holding her child replied with a loud shout, saying "It's not called Evil Cult."
(I knew it, there are cultists in this city as well. Religious people are always so passionate too...)
Allen had no religious beliefs.
The God of Creation Elmea had brought him to this world.
Because of that, he had this risky and exciting life.
While he was thankful to Elmea, he had no faith.
That was something that carried over from his past life as well, he had never been religious.
He had played multiple games starring justice and evil, angels and demons.
There was a time in his past life when he played as a Holy Knight under the alias of Kenpii in a game.
In the start he was merely a Warrior, but after leveling up he could upgrade his class many times, reaching Holy Knight by the endgame, though there was also the choice to become a Dark Knight.
He had the option of siding with evil as well.
The reason why he chose to be a Holy Knight had nothing to do with a sense of justice.
Holy Knights had Skills especially effective against monsters, while Dark Knights had Skills to fight other players.
He played by hunting piles of monsters to get stronger, so Holy Knight was the obvious choice.
During Christmas, he would simply buy fried chicken and cake from the supermarket, and eat that while gaming.
That was how Kenichi spent each holiday ever since he started working and living alone.
His only opinion of those days was that the number of players online decreased.
"I'm sorry, I only called it that because this is an emergency."
Allen apologized to the mother holding the child.
(So there is someone who believes in the Evil Cult here. I don't know what to think about that.)
Apparently not all the cultists had been turned into Pagan Worshippers.
But the fact that he apologized, meant that at least Allen respected her beliefs.
While he was not someone religious, he still believed that everyone was free to choose what to place their faith in.
Though he was not so tolerant as to pardon the religion as a whole.
The current priority was to go to cities under attack by Pagan Worshippers and rescue them.
And while the Grimoire had given a name to the Pagan Worshippers, Allen still wanted to know exactly what they were.
From their garments, it was obvious that all of them had been regular people, only recently turned into monsters.
Most of them wore common clothes, but some also had priest robes.
Unless they found out what caused them to turn into monsters, the fundamental issue would never get resolved.
This all might even be part of the Demon King's Army plan.
And maybe by discovering how humans had been turned into Pagan Worshippers, they would get a clue for the Demon King's Army's goal.
Trying to see if he could find out anything else, he decided to ask if there were any cultists in the city.
"Ah, no, it's okay..."
The mother holding her child answered.
She had shouted at Allen even though he was ignorant of her ways, so she huddled her baby and calmed herself down.
"Then tell me, why did you, as a follower of Gushara's Sacred Thoughts, stay here three days ago, instead of going to Theomenia?"
"Well... My child is still small..."
Allen had caught a lot of attention, but no one stopped him.
Even the priest Nicolai had an idea of what Allen was trying to accomplish.
He remained silent, watching everything unfold.
(That makes sense. They might have had other issues, so not all the cultists were able to go protest against the execution three days ago.)
A large number of cultists had assembled in Theomenia.
But Allen wondered if there had been more out there, so he asked in the city if there were any.
It was hard to imagine even the small children, the elderly, parents, or those who lived too far away, would also go to the execution..
(There are no serfs in this country after all. With less restrictions, more people were able to make the trip to the execution.)
There were no serfs in the Holy Land, and no slaves either.
The allied countries of that continent were mainly republics, so it was to see slaves in them.
Sometimes groups of people would decide to split off from the Giamut Empire, or influential people would be banished, and they would go to this continent and build their own countries.
Many of those pioneers opposed having serfs or slaves as well, which was another reason why so many countries did not allow that there.
There was even a high likelihood that Gushara had chosen the Holy Land to be captured in, knowing that anyone could travel freely from one city to another.
Maybe that entire disturbance had been in the works for a long time, and they had settled on the Holy Land as the most suitable place to carry it out.
"Got it. By the way, are there any conditions to be able to follow the teachings of Gushara's Sacred Thoughts?"
(If there are, I doubt it's something complex.)
"Well..."
"I can answer that. There's a lot of conditions if you want to get a high position. But just to enter the Evil Cult, I heard all you need to do is to drink some of the Holy Water from the Holy Grail."
The mother seemed to struggle finding a way to answer, so Nicolai took over.
Even though there was someone who believed in the cult right in front of them, Nicolai was still a priest of Elmea, so he refused to call it anything else but Evil Cult.
It was obvious there was a rift between the two religions.
"Holy Water?"
"Yes, at least that's how the Evil Cult calls it. It's some clear liquid, and you have to drink it to prove you're a believer. It doesn't seem to be poisonous, but I don't know exactly what it is."
"You seem to know a lot."
"Yes, there were countless reports from the atrocities committed by that cult, so the church could not overlook it."
"Did any priest drink that too?"
"Hmm... I heard some did while investigating it."
They had tried it to see if they were spreading some illicit substance, or if it was poisonous.
Though in the end they felt no effect from it.
(I see, so everyone believed the Holy Water was harmless, but in reality there was some form of poison in it that turned the cultists into Pagan Worshippers. But why isn't this woman turning into one as well? Did it only happen to those near Gushara?)
Allen mulled on everything he had heard.
So far it was obvious the Demon King's Army had something to do with the incident, but their objective was still shrouded in questions.
The Holy Land had no slaves or serfs, because of religious and political reasons, so anyone could travel if they wanted.
If the Cult Leader was caught and scheduled to be executed, a large number of cultists would gather in Theomenia.
Anyone who drank the Holy Water was accepted as a member of the Evil Cult.
Some priests had drank of that too, wanting to see if it was poisonous.
"Poison maybe? A really slow acting one? Though then some cultists would have turned to monsters before the rest.."
"I see what you're getting at. Allen, maybe touching the pillar of fire in Theomenia was the trigger? Or just seeing it?"
"I'm afraid that might be the case, Kiel. They wanted to spread those monsters everywhere, and this was their best way."
If the poison was activated after a few days of drinking, then very few people would have followed the Evil Cult, seeing how their members became monsters.
(I'm sure there was an important reason for the Demon King's Army to create so many Pagan Worshippers. And with poison, huh.)
Allen took out an Aromatic Vegetable from his Inventory, which was produced with the Awakened Skill of Grass C summons.
It was an item that could heal any and all status effects.
There had never been poison or paralysis that had not been healed with it.
"I thought it didn't work earlier. Are you going to try that again?"
"Yes, Cecile. Maybe it'll work before she turns into a Pagan Worshipper."
It had no effect on the Pagan Worshippers as monsters, but maybe it could still help the mother while she had human reasoning.
"Kyahh?!"
"Wh-what happened?!"
"Something's coming out of her!!"
"Uwahh!!"
A pitch black thing began coming out from the mother's back.
It looked like a shadow without defined shape,struggling to get out before scattering into the wind.
The mother's surprise shocked her baby as well, who began bawling.
"I guess you can say it worked this time. And there were more of them around here."
Aromatic Vegetable had a radius of effect of around fifty meters, so there were other people around them aside from the mother who had shadows coming out of their backs.
"Wh-what did you just use?"
"You can think of it as an exorcizing fruit. It comes from the World Tree in Rosenheim, so it's quite valuable. And it worked here, I'm glad I brought them just in case."
Hearing Nicolai's question, Allen lied as naturally as he breathed.
Nicolai nodded sagely, seeing Sophie with them. She was a High Elf, which meant she had royal blood.
He seemed to take that as Rosenheim's royal house lending their hand as well.
Hearing the World Tree mentioned, the Spirit Mage frowned in discomfort, but said nothing.
"But that sounds incredibly expensive to use on us..."
"Not at all, finding a way to neutralize the threat is important. Though there's a chance it will need more work."
The people in the city began calming down understanding they had been saved. Though they also began looking at those who had the shadows on their backs with derision.
"I see."
"Anyway, could you gather everyone that had that shadow come out of them? I'd like them to be somewhere safe and resilient so we can continue monitoring them. Don't do anything cruel to them though."
There had been some effect, but there was no guarantee they would not turn into Pagan Worshippers regardless.
Allen told Nicolai to continue being careful.
(Aromatic Vegetable work on a radius of 50 meters, so I'll need to send people to activate more of them throughout the entire city to cleanse it. Then we also need to prepare Gold Beans.)
Allen checked his Inventory to check his piles of Gold Beans, Heaven's Blessings, and Aromatic Vegetables left while planning his next move.
After a year of being supported by the central continent, Rosenheim, and Baukis Empire, his stash filled up more than ten thousand storage boxes.
He had no intention of handing it out like candy, but he had no reason to be stingy either.
"What should we do now? Go around to other cities?"
"Hmm...huh? Ah, yeah, sure."
"What happened?"
Allen's face had changed dramatically, which made Kiel wonder what was distracting him.
The rest of the party also noticed that change.
"Oh, it's just that.. Merus was just killed in Theomenia."
"""Wha-?!"""
"It seems there's a Demon General there."
Merus had been sent on a reconnaissance mission, and had gotten killed.
There were still too many question marks left unsolved for Allen.
