After that, Kaoru and Reiko hurried back to the inn. There was a bit too much fuss. If they continued, people would come out of the houses and shops, so Reiko grabbed Kaoru's hand and they quickly retreated. Judging from the situation, it would be easy to find out what was going on with everyone, and they probably weren't in any financial difficulty. Thinking this, Kaoru seemed to have a little more room in her mind.
"Well, religion is profitable after all..." (Kaoru)
And then Reiko said something blunt. That it hadn't changed at all since the old days. What on earth had been the result of decades of life experience?
Thinking this, Kaoru hung her head in despair.
They both decided to rest at the inn that day and continue their adventure the next day.
The next day, instead of heading straight to the headquarters of the Goddess' Eye, they both headed to the library. They thought it might be better to understand the situation first, so they reconsidered the order. And the library, which was still in the same place as before, still had the same entrance fee, which was quite expensive. Well, even if the number of silver coins was the same, the monetary value might have changed—And the first place they headed to was, of course, the history book section.
The first book that Kaoru picked up was the "History of the Kingdom of Balmore." If you wanted to learn about history, a history book compiled by the country was probably the best. Of course, some parts might have been changed to suit the royal family's needs, but it was far better than a book written by an unknown person, filled with limited knowledge and one-sided prejudice, or a book written by some noble family who wanted to portray their own family as heroes.
And then, Kaoru read the history book. On her way to this section, she had come into view from the religion section and decided not to look at some of the books, such as "The Complete Guide to the True Religion of Goddess Kaoru," "Goddess or Angel? The Mystery of Kaoru-sama," "Collection of Kaoru-sama's Famous Quotes," "99 Secrets of Kaoru-sama," "Kaoru-sama's Diet Tips," and "Things to Never Try! Kaoru-sama's Breast Augmentation Techniques."—Especially the last one!!
Reiko was also reading books about the current state of affairs in order to learn more about this world. For Reiko, there was little point in knowing about the past now, and since she didn't know what it was like back then, reading history books wasn't very interesting. So, rather than reading history books, it's much more useful to read about the present—Especially for Reiko, who knew very little about this world—
After reading the section of the history book covering the past 70 years or so, Kaoru went around to various other sections and read a variety of things, including books summarizing historical events, woodblock prints written at the time, and pamphlets that appeared to have been written by people involved. Apparently, it was a major incident, and there were many books written about it, but due to the quality of the paper, writing utensils, and ink, and the fact that they were handwritten copies, the letters in the books were large and the number of pages was small, so they could be read quite quickly. Even so, Kaoru remained engrossed in her reading until the librarian tapped her on the shoulder and told her it was closing time.
"In the end, today was just spent at the library… But, well, it was something I absolutely had to do, so I guess it can’t be helped…" (Kaoru)
Kaoru muttered this as she returned to the inn.
"So, what were the investigation result?" (Reiko)
Well, judging from the state of the "Holy Land" of Aras, the capital of Brancott Kingdom, and the state of her former home in this city, there's no way that Kaoru was said to be a villain—Or rather, of course, Reiko had figured it out for the most part.
"Yeah, that's it though..." (Kaoru)
Kaoru said that.
After Kaoru was dropped into a pit and entered an item box to escape from a large rock.
The goddess Celestine descended and, in a rage, declared the destruction of the continent.
The continent's guardian deity and absolute hero, the brave Francette, stopped her. The goddess Celestine ordered the legitimate successor to the throne of Brancott Kingdom to deal with the evildoers and return them to heaven.
Afterwards, the throne of Brancott Kingdom was passed on to the legitimate successor, the first prince, and the second prince, who attempted to usurp the throne, was beheaded for the crime of murdering his father, and his wife and children were also sentenced to death to eliminate any worries.
Of course, the former priests of Rueda, the nobles, and the wealthy merchants who had instigated the second prince were also found guilty and sentenced to death, and their houses were abolished.
It was a golden opportunity to cleanse the country of its root causes, and even before that, considering what would happen if the instructions of the Goddess Celestine were not followed, it was inevitable that the punishment would be severe, and it seemed that no one on the receiving end of the punishment objected.
Surely, even the most evil person would have found it difficult to bear the idea of a continent being destroyed because of them.
Those who suffered the most were the other former priests who no longer had political ambitions and intended to live out the rest of their lives in leisure, and who fled Rueda with their wealth.
An order from the Goddess Celestine was sent to the countries at the base of the peninsula, and each country frantically searched for the former priests, capturing them all and sending them back to the Rueda territory of Balmore Kingdom along with their confiscated property.
The lives of everyone on the continent, including themselves, were at stake. The people who were searching seemed to be terrifying.
And since everyone on the continent was cooperating with the search with all their might, it seemed that the former priests who had never imagined something like this would happen and had been careless in concealing and managing their personal information were arrested one after the other.
Well, not all of them were sentenced to death, and among those who had nothing to do with the incident and who weren't particularly evil to begin with, it seemed some only had their property confiscated...
The first prince, who became king of Brancott Kingdom, immediately signed a peace treaty with Balmore Kingdom, and forming a trade treaty with the four peninsula countries—Asheed Kingdom, Alligot Empire, Balmore Kingdom, and Brancott Kingdom.
They also reached out to the neighboring kingdoms of Driszart and Eusral on the continent, laying the foundations for a huge trading sphere in the peninsula and the countries at its base.
"That stalker, I'm amazed at how politically skilled he was..." (Kaoru)
Kaoru had a complicated look on her face as she said this, but of course, that was because Fernand was recognized as "Someone who the Angel and Kaoru-sama had lent their strength to as a person worthy of being given kingship." Without that, he would have been seen as "An incompetent young man who caused chaos in the country with a fight for succession," and would never have been able to unite the nations...
And in addition to his title as the great hero who saved the country by protecting the Balmore Kingdom from the invasion of Alligot Empire, Francette was also treated as a living god, as "The guardian deity and absolute hero of the continent, Francette the Brave," who protected the entire continent from the evil hands of the goddess Celestine. Afterwards, she was promoted two ranks and became a marquis—
"Even though she's a goddess, she's the 'hand of evil'..." (Reiko)
Reiko said this with an exasperated look on her face, but Kaoru just shrugged her shoulders.
And then, Francette and Roland's extra-large wedding was celebrated not only by the BARUMOA Kingdom, but by countries all over the continent. Their daughter born married the Crown Prince, the eldest son of Serge—Roland's younger brother and the King—and Serge was said to have cried, saying, "Now, my brother's blood has been returned to the mainstream of the royal family..."
There wasn't much written about the children in "The Goddess's Eyes."
Since they were just orphans who Kaoru had looked after, it was probably decided that there was no need to record their names in a book. It's possible that they didn't want to leave behind an official record of the fact that those closest to Kaoru were not royalty, nobles, or clergy, but orphans—People like that could be found anywhere.
...However, the name "True Goddess Kaoru" appeared briefly in some books.
It was a minority religion that was called heretical by some because it said that Kaoru was Angel-sama, a human who was favored by the goddess Celestine, and that while the mainstream teachings were of the "Goddess Orthodoxy" type, which considered _SELESUTIINE_ the one and only God, Kaoru was a goddess from another world who was a friend of the goddess Celestine. Founder, Emile Nagase.
"Eh? Kaoru's child? And is Kaoru a noble?" (Reiko)
"I'm still single and a commoner of good pedigree! The child is an orphan who was living with us, you know." (Kaoru)
Kaoru answered Reiko's question while scratching the tip of her nose.
"But only nobles have surnames..." (Reiko)
"Yeah, that’s basically true, but it seems wealthy merchants are allowed to use their family name or shop name, and these girls have asked me to, well, make them Kaoru-sama’s associates!" …No girl can win against those sparkling, 14-year-old eyes… So, I ended up agreeing. Then he said, 'Okay, now we are Kaoru-sama's subjects, in other words, her servants and messengers, her family, relatives, and retainers. ...In other words, we're family!' Everyone knew that those kids were living with me, so I don't think anyone could have stopped them from taking my last name. I was worried that I might have done something unnecessary and incurred Celes's wrath..." (Kaoru)
"Oh... I guess they just turned a blind eye to it... I guess the children did that because they wanted Kaoru's name to be known correctly and in full, right?" (Reiko)
"Yeah……" (Kaoru)
Kaoru also understood how Emile and the other children felt, so she had no intention of complaining...