Saint's Prison - Chapter 63

The God Who Does Not Worship

During the break between Mass, I sneaked into the library to look for a book.

It was to explore the legend of the dragon slayer that Sophia had mentioned.

“Saint George, Saint Martha, Saint Margaret…”

Reading the “Legenda Sanctorum,” a collection of Christian saints’ biographies I found in the library, I was able to find saints who had slain dragons or managed to tame them. However, neither of them seemed to have anything to do with Stonehurst or be worshiped here.

However, there are some points of interest.

Elements of proselytization and conversion are clearly included in the dragon slaying.

Saint George demanded that the people receive baptism, in other words, convert, as a condition for dragon extermination.

Saint Martha, who visited France for missionary work, tamed the evil dragon Tarasque through faith.

Saint Margaret repeatedly resisted apostasy and managed to survive by tearing open the belly of the devil, who took the form of a dragon, through her faith in God.

These legends can be said to play a role as a kind of propaganda for the propagation of Christianity. They stimulate faith by telling stories in an easy-to-understand way and with a storyline.

In Christianity, the dragon is the embodiment of the devil. Also, it exterminates or tames this dragon and carries out conversion against non-Christians. Then, is the dragon a symbol of the anti-Christ?

This might be a stretch, but what if the beings considered dragons, and hence devils, were originally gods or similar beings worshiped by pagans, or the people who worshiped them? If you think about it that way.

In other words, dragon slaying is a conquest of religion.

It’s a tale of eliminating, violating, and eliminating ancient beliefs. The legend of the dragon slayer remains in Stonehurst because there was a background of indigenous belief… the existence of paganism.

Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that the legend of the dragon slayer was created after the village was burned by knights. The story was created to justify the act itself and to conquer faith with faith.

The dragon as a symbol of paganism.

The story that humiliates, humiliates, and eliminates the gods of indigenous beliefs.

In the end, dragon slaying is nothing but god slaying.

Not all faiths were treated in this way, I think. There must have been faiths that were conquered and incorporated into Christianity. However, what would those who were conquered, the people, think of it?

Gods who do not worship.

People who do not worship.

Those who lost their way and wandered.

And the pagan relic I saw back then, the stone circle. The forest, considered a different world separated from the secular world. The crawling things that operate in it. Those who can only exist there.

That was the kind of thing I had thought about before.

We are one. One is us.

Yes, become one.

The unworshiped one told me that.

The reason I was called to it was because I was a foreigner myself.

Yes, because I was an unworshipping one. Therefore, I was thought to be a being that should become one with them.

I suddenly thought about it when I thought about it.

On the way back from visiting Amal’s room to look for parchment, I was lured into the chapel as if I was being manipulated. It was just like when I was called to the stone circle.

Could it be that the chapel is… not a place to worship Christ?

The unworshiped god, or being, can interfere.

Such a place lies dormant in the depths of this monastery.

…No, wrong. Rather, one should consider it as a place that prevents their main bodies from going out. If so, this monastery is rightly a prison.

Yes, guarded by holy ones and constantly watched, this Stonehurst Monastery, separated from the secular world, is appropriately called a “Holy Prison.”

The reason this monastery was deliberately built on the site of a village that was conquered and burned because of its pagan faith might be something like that.

The Amal who offers prayers in that chapel every day is…

A chill ran down the back of my neck.

At the same time, my thoughts became dull as if a haze had been cast over them.

I feel like I’m being watched.

…Ah, by what?

By the unworshiped god, or by the unworshiped one…

I couldn’t think any further.

Anyway, I wanted to get away from this place.

I quickly left the library.

I can’t stop shaking.

The daydreams are getting shorter and shorter.

The sensation of melting, of becoming one with something.

Have I completely sealed myself off?

…What am I becoming?