"Being overly superstitious about the gods is also a sin. This saying..."
Tales took a deep breath and tactfully voiced the teasing, irreverent joke:
"Priestess Megan, does your goddess agree?"
Megan merely smiled, her tone relaxed and carefree:
"An excellent teacher would not like a student who blindly revered him as supreme, treated his words as law, borrowed his power, expected him to save them, and yet showed no self-awareness or progress."
Megan gave Gilbert a casual glance.
Gilbert, already numb to it all, could not even be bothered to change his expression again.
Megan said earnestly:
"Those who believe in the gods should be humbler. That humility also encompasses how you should view the gods and your faith."
Tales' thoughts stirred.
How strange.
That familiar feeling from before... had come again.
"Then what about magic, and mages?"
Tales tried hard to recall his original intent and steer the conversation back toward the subject that interested him:
"These things that disappeared from history for so long—what status do they truly hold in your eyes?"
"Victims? Perpetrators? Puppets of the Path of the Youngest Son, or soil and cradle?"
"What was it that drove the prohibition and suppression of magic?"
Megan pondered for a moment.
"Historically, in the eyes of certain traditional and conservative brothers among the clergy, magic was the culprit, deserving universal condemnation and death a thousand times over."
Tales nodded as if to say, just as expected.
But Megan turned her head and smiled:
"But in my view, perhaps that was not the case."
Tales grew curious again.
"Though they rebelled against and disrespected our God, and though arrogance and conceit brought disastrous consequences, many mages—even those unfortunate practitioners of the Path of the Youngest Son—were still admirable warriors and pioneers. Their existence was also immensely significant."
Megan