"More than a hundred people were confirmed to have become believers of the 'Great Mother'?"
The day after leaving Belon Village, Angel sat in the same top-floor private dining room where she had met Bernadette, enjoying an Intis feast adapted to better suit Loen tastes as she asked the question.
Although she no longer needed food physiologically after becoming an angel, enjoying good food in moderation was beneficial, whether for psychological satisfaction or for maintaining her humanity.
Even in some small places, people set out food when worshipping deities. For instance, the ritual magic for my first communication with Mr. Fool required four different dishes... Reassuring herself with the excuse that "Mr. Fool did it too," Angel brought a thick-cut piece of steak to her mouth with her fork.
Perhaps weighed down by too many worries, Bernadette, seated opposite her, had little appetite. She nodded at the question.
"They accounted for a quarter of the village's population. Most were the young and middle-aged men Nast had employed, along with their families. After interrogating them, the Purifiers learned that Nast had first preached to them deep in the forest, saying that all humans shared the same Great Mother, and that only because they had strayed from her had reality polluted them, making them dull and weak. If they renewed their faith in the 'Great Mother,' they could return to their original state.
"Normally, such heresy would have had difficulty winning over villagers who already believed in the Eternal Blazing Sun. But Nast most likely amplified his words and distorted their behavior, inducing these locals, whose years in the countryside had left their thinking and horizons narrow, to provisionally accept his claims. Then he demonstrated some miracles, such as curing chronic illnesses, accelerating plant growth, and making people more energetic..."
*That sounds