Saint Aponia

After all, this guy doesn't care about firsthand experience...

"Sorry, this guy is a bit too open about relationships, please don't mind him."

Eden explained to the three modern civilization members who were somewhat dumbfounded.

"Please don't mind this guy, Miss Rita, just tell me about Liu Bai's usual habits and preferences."

"Just this?" Rita tilted her head, immediately seeing the pride in Eden's bones. "Alright, in that case, let's start by talking about Liu Bai's eating habits..."

"Paintbrushes?" Seele scratched her head in confusion as she looked at Gretel who had approached her. "Those oil painting brushes? Sorry, we don't have those here. Can we have crayons and colored pencils instead?"

Gretel nodded slightly, indicating that she could.

So Seele quickly found crayons, paintbrushes, and some white paper and gave them to Gretel.

However, when she returned, the books that Seele was carrying under her arm still caught Gretel's eye.

She didn't recognize the words on it.

"Um... Studying, studying."

Seele felt a little flustered when she saw Gretel's gaze.

(Pshaw, it's clearly just that someone's lustful thoughts have surfaced again.)

Even Dark Seele, who had always been on good terms with Seele, was now mentally looking down on Seele.

(Anyway, since it's wrapped in a textbook cover, it won't be noticed as long as I'm careful.)

Seele initially wanted to play something with Gretel, but after a while she realized that she seemed completely bad at communicating with Gretel; the child spoke even less than her own sister.

Now that Gretel is asking her for paintbrushes and such, she's actually relieved—that way, they won't have to keep staring at each other like that.

Speaking of which, it seems my older sister has already started talking to Prometheus, but I wonder what they're talking about.

"Win over my brother..."

Prometheus received the information from Project Bunny, and a serious and earnest expression, rarely seen on his face, appeared on his face.

"That's unscientific. How could a human possibly have so much bodily fluid? That would be a lethal dose for a normal person."

"My brother isn't an ordinary person," Bronya said nonchalantly. "Besides, this is an exaggeration, you know what an exaggeration is?"

After staring at Prometheus for a while, Bronya realized that this robot seemed to be a kindred spirit to her, and that they shared a common language.

So, as a fake idiot, he quickly reached an agreement with Prometheus and began using Project Bunny to transmit doujinshi to Prometheus.

"Useless to me."

After a brief moment of contemplation, Prometheus made his judgment.

Do you have any stories about fathers and daughters?

"..."

This time, Bronya fell silent.

When she first heard the words "useless to me," she realized that the other party was a robot and did not have such strong desires.

The next sentence was actually about father and daughter?

Is this thing really a robot? Its level of intelligence is a bit outrageous!

"For now... um, not for now. If you need, I can give you some websites, you can hack in and filter them yourself."

As Bronya answered, she pondered a question—would this be considered a cyberattack?

Um... I don't think so, since it was a mutually agreeable arrangement.

However, after thinking about it again, Bronya suddenly remembered that Mei was a weakling, and she was no longer afraid. Although she did not advocate violence, violence could still be useful in critical moments. So, without any more scruples, Bronya directly ordered the Project Bunny to start transmitting the URL.

Bronya had absolutely no worries about whether a "50,000-year-old relic" could hack into the modern network.

Although the other party is an old relic, its level of advancement is even higher than that of the Project Bunny. Network adaptation is a piece of cake for this kind of supercomputer.

Instead of worrying about that, it's better to worry about what will happen to the other person after they absorb the knowledge...

"Why do I have a feeling that Sister Bronya isn't doing anything good?"

Seele scratched her head; her sisterly intuition was kicking in.

(She's not going to educate the robot about pornography, is she? Haha! That's definitely something Sister Bronya would do.)

"No... it can't be like this, can it?"

Chapter 481 Saintess Aponia

Very good at it.

Seele's intuition told her that her sister was really capable of doing such a thing.

Although it's not very ethical to say this, Seele is about to come of age, already has some rather harsh understanding of reality.

Perhaps, among the trio of her, Bronya, and Raiden Mei, the only normal person... or at least the relatively normal one should be her dual personality.

Seele genuinely felt that this fact was somewhat unbearable to witness.

However... how things end up over there doesn't seem to have much to do with her—and Seele doesn't feel she can blame her older sister from her own perspective.

Who told her to have several inappropriate comics tucked under her arm?

"Seele, could you please sit over there?"

Gretel's soft, sweet voice rang in Seele's ears.

"Ah, here? Sure, of course, but Gretel, what are you doing here..."

"I want to paint a portrait of Sister Seele."

"Oh... I see."

Seele showed a curious expression, "Should we strike a pose?"

"Seele just needs to focus on reading."

Gretel didn't make any demands, but Seele's expression turned strange.

Just read the book carefully—but the problem is, this book of mine isn't a proper book!

But looking at her adorable little sister Gretel, Seele just couldn't bring herself to refuse.

(This is what it means to be a responsible older sister!)

Seele stiffly took the position Gretel had designated, then stiffly opened the book, forcing herself to suppress her blush as she began to look at the notebook in her hands.

Gretel was completely oblivious to Seele's embarrassment; her attention was entirely focused on the clean white drawing paper.

Hopefully it will end soon... If I keep looking at this page, I'll eventually stop feeling anything.

Seele comforted herself in this way.

"Seele, could you please show me the page-turning animation?"

"Eh! Yes, of course you can..."

"... It is the development of the five hundred years after Schicksal took over on its own. I am sorry, I have not brought the glory of the Lord God to the world."

In the bishop's office, after explaining the history of Schicksal to Aponia, Otto showed a look of shame.

"No wonder, I didn't feel any faith here at all..." Aponia said thoughtfully.

—Actually, Aponia was being rather tactful; if Otto hadn't spoken up, she wouldn't have even realized this was a church.

"However, the Lord God is not the kind of god who is keen on spreading faith, so Your Excellency the Archbishop need not feel guilty."

Aponia soothed softly.

Aponia must admit that, after the past is gone, she has finally found something that interests her in the present civilization.

No, it should be said that I have come to a realization about certain things.

"However, the Lord God should be like the sun in the sky, so that even if the people do not believe, they can still receive the Lord God's blessings and recognize the Lord God."

Aponia was undoubtedly a heretical nun—no matter how much a proper nun felt the darkness in people's hearts, she would never propose the idea of mind control.

Although Liu Bai made her realize that controlling the mind with discipline was not feasible, now... she saw another viable path in Otto —faith.

Using faith to restrain evil thoughts... this is actually not a progressive idea.

Ultimately, this is one of the reasons for the birth of primitive religions.

But Aponia didn't really believe in this. After all, she was born in Dusk Alley and had seen most of the ugliness of humanity. She knew that talking about faith with people who were about to starve to death was meaningless, and Aponia couldn't guarantee that she could feed every person who was about to starve to death.

However, the young female bishop in front of her could do just that, just as Otto instantly sensed the similarities between himself and Aponia also instantly sensed the potential within Otto.

She doesn't spread her faith because she doesn't have the ability, while the other party might not spread their faith simply because they don't want to.

Well... Aponia's feeling was really accurate.

There were two reasons why Otto didn't participate in the holy war at the time: one was to clean up the mess left by Schicksal, and the other was that the rising Renaissance showed her the future trend, and she didn't want to go against the times.

However, it turned out that Otto was able to clean up the mess left by Schicksal in less than ten years; the only problem was actually the trend of the times.

However... Otto didn't want to go against the times, not that he couldn't. To be serious, if Otto had gone against the times, the most likely outcome would have been that Otto is the times. The nascent Renaissance was something Otto could have strangled in thirty or forty years, roughly a generation. After that generation, books would have been burned, and the dark ages would have continued.

In fact, in Liu Bai's previous world, the Church at its peak was terrifyingly powerful. Even though the Renaissance caused Christ to split into two heads, it didn't prevent the Church from burning Bruno in the 17th century. To put it more bluntly, many of the Renaissance leaders were Christians themselves. To be even more shameless, the main reason Bruno was burned wasn't because of his heliocentric theory, but because he used it to support his Egyptian sun god religion, and then denied doctrines like the Trinity and Jesus being Christ, making him a heretic of the Iron Religion...

In the Honkai world, Schicksal has real military power. If Otto were to take action, he would definitely conquer the world and plunge it into darkness into the 21st century.

But Otto was too lazy to go against the tide. The people would eventually become enlightened, and she also needed the secular world to develop productivity so that Schicksal could leech off her. So, she let it be.

After AI took over, it paid even less attention to matters of faith, completely letting things drift.

Getting back to the main topic

Otto wasn't stupid either; when he heard Aponia say, "The Lord God should be like the sun in the sky," he immediately understood what Aponia meant.

The other party's target is too arrogant... What does it mean to be like the sun in the sky?

All religions ultimately lead to one!

To wage a religious war now, especially one waged with money, damn it, this is just too... too much to her liking!

Otto began to consider the possibilities.

The traditional missionary approach to spreading information is absolutely impossible; in modern times... it's all about business warfare.

Otto's eyes lit up.

Yes, in the business world, the non-top-tier high-tech products produced by Schicksal are exported to the world, and more civilian products can be developed, directly covering the entire life of a modern person. In this case, even the most hardened person will become a superficial believer in pragmatism.

Similarly, they can also buy countries through business warfare... well, actually buying countries isn't really a problem for them.

The Mandate of Schicksal controls Europe, Anti-Entropy controls the Americas... Everyone has experience in this area, it's just that they've extended this operation, and then they'll merge them together— the Destiny Holy Empire!

Otto had even come up with a name for the future political system of Earth.

"A very meaningful suggestion, Sister Aponia."

Otto adopted a very serious posture.

Otto's thoughts as a believer were simple: I think my god is incredibly great, nothing more. I think you should all come and see.

Aponia's thoughts as a believer are very simple: I think my god is extremely noble, no other meaning. I think everyone should try to learn from my Lord God.

In terms of goals, these two people are completely unrelated, but in practice, they are like-minded.

"Miss Aponia, do you wish to become the Saintess of Schicksal?"

"Naturally." Aponia is also willing to be a guide for others.

"Huh?" Kallen, who had been listening to Otto and Aponia's strange conversation, exclaimed in surprise.

"What, some 500-year-old thing is planning to call herself a saint?"

Otto glanced sideways at his best friend... no, stranger.

What Kallen Kaslana? I'm not familiar with her at all, don't get involved. Her best friend now is this Miss Aponia in front of me.

Kallen? Just a dairy cow.

This Miss Aponia is truly a saint with a heart that embraces the world! Any initial hostility towards her figure has completely disappeared; Otto now finds Aponia pleasing to the eye no matter how he looks at her.