The atmosphere at the Holy Land was completely different from Purple Lake City. The people here weren't confident in the way those who had absolute faith in their cause would be. Instead, they seemed sharp and tense, markedly different from the Goddess Cult followers he'd seen before.
That didn't mean they weren't true believers. Rather, their state of mind said a lot.
Aside from changing God's Birthday, the beliefs of the Holy Land's followers had probably been purged from top to bottom.
Normally, changing the date of God's Birthday wouldn't be all that important.
The Goddess's arrival had begun a long time ago. By now, strict bloodline distinctions had faded, and most people might well carry the genes of that lame girl. The Divine Envoy's standing in the Goddess Cult was already unrivaled; citing "ancestral records" would have been enough. There was no need to change God's Birthday as well. For one thing, not every follower would accept it. For another, faith built up and reinforced over a long time might waver if corrected too rashly. It would be a poor trade.
So why had the Divine Envoy done it? Aside from consolidating his own position and brainwashing ordinary followers, he had even been willing to shake the foundations of the Goddess Cult to erase its original heroic ancestor. The only explanation was that a serious conflict had broken out among the cult's upper ranks.
The Goddess Cult's upper ranks consisted of the Divine Envoy, the Saintess, and a group of Players.
Since the Saintess, who represented the heroic ancestor, had been pushed aside, she and the Divine Envoy must have come into irreconcilable conflict. It had reached the point where one had to crush the other.
That made it plausible that the Holy Land knew nothing about the Saintess's