Kuro no Maou

“That reminds me, I hadn’t really thought about it at all before but do the people who don’t become apostles in the republic not receive the divine protection of the White God?”

“...You mean, although not as strong as apostles, do they receive somewhat strong protection?”

Yes. Exactly.

Because there are many Black Gods, their protection’s abilities include a lot of different areas. Starting from real fighting skills to a clergy’s healing skills, a blacksmith’s finesse—there’s even one that specializes in farming, making crop harvests more abundant.

Although the strength and weakness differ, there’s quite a lot of people in Pandora continent with divine protection. There’s at least one in a farming village, and every one of Spada’s knight probably has it.

But, what about the White God and their monotheism? Do the 12 apostles only receive powerful protection? At the very least, I haven’t seen anyone use power like the White God’s protection apart from the apostles.

“Hmm, it’s not exactly divine protection, but there are many who receive a special ability or talent from the White God.”

“....As I thought.”

Otherwise, the Crusaders would evidently be at a disadvantage in terms of protection. There’s no way the Crusaders expanded their territory to half of Arch continent with just the strength of the apostles.

I had guessed before that they have people like us who have received a unique ability other than the apostles, but it has now been proved.

“In other words, a blessing from the heavens. They receive blessings from heaven mostly right from the moment they are born, but there are also priests and knights who go through intense training to receive the power.”

“I see, so the White God alone is more or less covering everyone’s protection?”

“That’s right. And the special abilities they receive from the White God are called this—Providence, or—”

White magic.

Fiona said.

“White magic, eh... that’s the exact opposite of my black magic.”

And they probably do have complete opposite properties as well. I use black mana. In contrast, the apostles use white mana. That’s what surges out from them when they get serious.

“Did you see any white magic user other than the apostles, Fiona?”

“Yes, just one. I have seen them use it several times, and I have also been on the receiving end of it.”

“Oi, are you alright?”

“I am fine, it was a classmate after all.”

I don’t really understand her ‘it is okay if I receive it from a classmate’ logic but, well, since she can nonchalantly say that with a sleepy face, I guess it was no biggie.

“What kind of magic was it?”

“It is called Sanctuary—defensive magic. It broke after receiving one of the attacks.”

I see I guess it won’t be much of a problem even if she gets hit by defensive magic. I went ahead and imagined Lily’s beam-like attack.

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Or rather, this person—or classmate, probably of Elishion magic academy, are they alright?

“However, by the time they graduated, they had more mana than me, so I am not sure how they would be now.”

“That’s quite a lot. A prodigy, no, maybe this is within the blessings of their God as well.”

To be honest, it would be hard to distinguish between whether that’s that person’s own talent or the blessing of God.

In the first place, people of the Sinclaire republic think that they are made by the God, so their talent or abilities are of God himself, so they probably don’t even think of it as receiving or not receiving the blessing. It’s all the God’s meritorious deed.

“Then, do they also become unable to use that white magic? Just like our protection disappears.”

This might be a bit late, but now that we all have divine protection, I tried researching up on it a bit. It was during the time we were preparing for Lich subjugation.

The Spada adventurer guild went close to the Pandora shrine for the first time. Well, all we did was get close and didn’t really do anything else.

The divine protection verification ceremony costs 150,000 clans. The certificate after the service costs another 20,000. Caution—there are times when the divine protection isn’t identified even after the ceremony. In these cases, please understand beforehand that there will be no repayment–

After looking at the charges, I immediately left the shrine cursing them in my heart, those cheapskates.

As expected, it seems like religion and money have an inseparable bond.

Either way, leaving the useless Pandora shrine aside, there are two things I was able to find out about the divine protection.

First, divine protections do disappear. Second, religious protections can change.

“There are stories of people who have become unable to use it, so it’s probably the same.”

A classic example of the disappearance of divine protection can be seen in people who obtain divine protections by leading abstemious lives. In short, the conditions needed to receive divine protection are incredibly high. Starting from fundamental things such as not missing any prayers to the God one believes in, there are also strict commandments that ascetic monks follow like ‘do not drink alcohol’, ‘do not eat meat’ or ‘give up women’.

The priests of the Pandora shrine receive divine protections such as ‘Houten Priest Amadeus’, ‘Shoutenjou Claris’ or ‘Pure Priest Ishran’ by following such strict restrictions.

Well, I just heard these famous Gods’ names and memorized them—I don’t know any of their grateful teachings or virtuous legends.

Anyway, most of the disappearances are related to divine protections like those.

“Those parts aren’t very different from the Crusaders, huh?”

“As I thought, is it also strict for priests or sisters?”

“There was this priest who said that the commandments exist for the feeling of guilt you get after breaking one.”

It seems rotten clergymen exist in pretty much all the worlds, huh?

“That’s quite the outrageous fellow, huh?”

“Yes, I heard that he went around eating the cute children of the church as well.”