Chapter 430 : Hidden Faith

Conquest Sea, Summer Tree Archipelago – Main Island.

Under the cover of night, the people of Summer Tree had all long since drifted into slumber. The entire island lay in hushed stillness. Apart from a few critical locations, most of the island’s lights had already gone out.

One such important location was the sacrificial plaza beneath the island’s towering sacred tree. Though no one currently occupied it, the firelight continued to burn, illuminating the surrounding darkness.

There, in the silent sacrificial plaza, before the wooden statue of the Goddess of Abundance, a white-clad figure stood, offering a devout prayer in a peculiar posture.

Dressed in her white habit, Vania stood before the goddess statue, her eyes half-closed as she assumed a poised and graceful stance. Her breathing even and calm, she slowly began to move—turning, extending her arms—dancing in quiet reverence beneath the gaze of the statue.

In the hush of night, under the flickering firelight, the nun danced. Her movements were elegant and refined, her steps beautiful and fluid. Every gesture was executed with perfect precision. Her flowing dance was both a performance and an act of worship—an offering to the wooden goddess. Her movements were not mere improvisation; they felt like a sacred ritual.

Vania’s dance blended harmoniously with the style of the sacrificial plaza. It felt as though this was the very stage for which the dance was intended. Had she changed her attire, the scene could have been mistaken for a sacred rite.

At the edge of the plaza, Priest Anman of Summer Tree stood wide-eyed, stunned as he watched. Though he had served at this altar for decades, he had never seen a dance like this. And yet, something in his heart stirred—a feeling that this was right. That this was a part of the Goddess’s worship that he had never known. That this dance

belonged

here.

As Vania’s divine dance neared its end, subtle changes began to ripple through the ancient plaza. Around the altar depicting the dancing woman—one of the four sacred altars—tiny glowing motes of light began to rise, like fireflies. The flower buds placed in front of that altar, previously tightly closed, began to stir. A few even started to bloom—just like the ones by the altar of the Sailor.

“The Altar of Dance… it responded—it actually responded! Unbelievable… truly unbelievable…”

Anman murmured in awe, shaking his head as he witnessed this miracle. In all his years, he had only ever seen the Altar of Water respond during rituals. The other three had remained inert for centuries. While all four stood in the plaza, only the Altar of Water was ever used in ceremonies. The rest were simply cleaned periodically and left untouched. No one had ever seen any change in them.

“That nun… she really is a follower of the Goddess—just like us. A remnant of Her faith preserved by a different tradition. She’s… the inheritor of the Goddess’s dance…”

Anman stared at the fading steps of Vania’s dance, his voice filled with emotion. After seeing her movements and the altar’s reaction, he no longer had any doubt that she was a true believer. No simple gesture could achieve this. Such a dance required long years of practice from an early age. She had even awakened a response from the altar—what reason remained to doubt her?

Having accepted Vania as a fellow devotee, Anman’s guard lowered considerably. He now believed much more readily in the things she had said earlier. As he watched her dance finally come to a close, he straightened his robes and stepped forward solemnly.

“I apologize for my earlier rudeness, sister. You truly are a devout follower of the Goddess.”

He gave a respectful bow to Vania, who was still catching her breath from the dance. She turned to him and replied warmly.

“It’s nothing, Priest Anman. As the spiritual guide of Summer Tree, it’s only natural for you to be cautious and protective of your people.”

As she spoke, she gently helped Anman to stand. The old priest looked at her thoughtfully and continued.

“I never imagined… that there really existed such a way of practicing faith—worshiping the Radiance Holy Mother as the Goddess, in order to survive… That our Goddess must hide under the name of another… The thought alone is heartbreaking.”

Anman sighed deeply. Vania, hearing this, responded with calm sincerity.

“It

is

a sorrow… but in doing so, we preserved the faith. We ensured that Her legacy did not die out. We kept Her believers from being destroyed. In the current age, with Radiance’s dominance, this is a practical path of survival.”

“And I believe this same method could work for Summer Tree. Rather than clash with the Church and be reduced to ashes, this approach offers a way to protect the Goddess’s legacy—and Her followers.”

“…You make a valid point,” Anman said after a pause.

“But this path… it feels like a betrayal of the Goddess, doesn’t it?”

There was a hint of unease in his voice. But Vania quickly responded with firm resolve.

“The Goddess taught us to cherish life. Though we may not know Her current state, no matter what, She surely wouldn’t want to see Summer Tree drenched in blood. For the sake of everyone’s lives, I believe She would be forgiving. What the Goddess wants is for us to live well—not to die a meaningless death in Her name…”

With a devout tone, Vania continued speaking to Anman. And finally, her words moved him.

“Yes… you’re right. The Goddess desires abundance, for all living things to thrive, for life to persist. If Summer Tree were to be reduced to ashes by Radiance’s wrath, She would surely grieve… Compared to betting everything on a bloody confrontation by taking Radiance’s people hostage, your path really is the more viable one.”

As Anman spoke, Vania’s heart stirred with hope. She realized that the priest before her had finally been persuaded. And that meant it wasn’t just herself and the other pilgrims who might be saved—perhaps all of Summer Tree could be spared. This was the outcome she had hoped for, one she had once thought impossible—yet now, it was becoming reality.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“Miss Vania, I want Summer Tree to follow the same path as you—to take the Holy Mother of Radiance as the face of our Goddess, and through that, gain a chance to survive under Radiance. But I still have concerns. Can Radiance really be deceived so easily? Can we truly conceal our faith in the Goddess?”

“You must understand, Summer Tree has many rituals tied to the Goddess. Some of them involve large public gatherings—these rites are essential to us. Can they really be hidden?”

Anman asked, his voice tinged with unease. What they sought was not simply a self-deceiving conversion, hypnotizing themselves into believing the Holy Mother

was

the Goddess and abandoning all Abundance rituals. They wanted to conceal their practices within the appearance of Radiance orthodoxy—substituting the Holy Mother for the Goddess while still keeping the old rites alive, however secretly.

If what Vania meant was merely discarding all the rites of Abundance in favor of the Holy Mother, then it would be meaningless—a false conversion that only fooled themselves. But if they retained too much of the old faith too visibly, the Church would surely uncover it.

So then—what

was

the correct way to fake conversion? How could they genuinely disguise the Goddess as the Holy Mother? How could they carry out their rituals under Radiance’s watch? These were complex questions with no easy answers.

“Don’t worry. We have experience with this sort of thing and can provide detailed help. All you need to do is gather all the information on Summer Tree’s rituals, your religious texts, and historical records—give them to me, and I’ll pass them to our priestess. She will formulate a proper plan based on our experience.”

Seeing Anman’s worried expression, Vania spoke earnestly. Her words implied that, somewhere far across the sea, there was indeed a people who had preserved their worship of the Goddess in secret under the guise of Radiance—and that she was one of them. Given what Anman had already witnessed—her dance, the altar’s reaction—he had no reason to doubt her.

Seeing the confidence in Vania’s eyes, Anman visibly relaxed. He let out a long breath and said.

“Very well… I’ll entrust it to you. The documents concerning the Goddess’s worship in Summer Tree are sacred legacies passed down through generations of priests. Many are extremely valuable. How much do you need?”

“As much as you can give,” Vania said plainly.

“Though we worship the same Goddess, our traditions differ after being separated for so long. Even our priestess will need to fully understand Summer Tree’s faith before creating a proper plan. So please, as much as possible.”

Anman frowned slightly.

“As much as possible…? But Miss Vania, many of those texts contain what you call ‘cognitive poison.’ They can’t be viewed without preparation. Are you sure you need that many?”

“Cognitive poison? That won’t be a problem. Our priestess has ties to the Historical Scripture Department within the Church. We’ve developed efficient methods for defending against that kind of contamination—so you don’t need to worry.”

“Lord Anman, just let me access those texts for a little while. I’ll use mystical means to transmit their contents to our priestess. Once she has a plan, she’ll send her response right away.”

Vania’s calm assurance seemed to put Anman at ease. He nodded.

“Very well. In that case, all documents related to the worship of the Goddess in Summer Tree will be made available to you.”

“Also—time is of the essence. Since I’ve decided to follow your path and feign conversion to the Holy Mother, the next step is to inform the other important elders of Summer Tree. I’ll convene an emergency meeting immediately. If all goes well… then by tomorrow morning, we will send word to the Church declaring our willingness to convert and to release the hostages.”

“After that, I’ll show you everything related to our faith. What happens next… I leave in your hands.”

So spoke Anman, with the solemnity of one carrying the fate of an entire people. As the chief priest of Summer Tree, his words would carry the authority needed to push the decision forward without delay.

“Thank you, Lord Anman. We will do all we can to help Summer Tree survive this crisis.”

With sincere resolve in her voice, Vania bowed. Anman let out a deep sigh and turned to leave the sacred plaza. Vania followed closely behind.

The night was not over. There was still much to be done.

…

“Whew… Finally, that’s the first phase done. This Summer Tree, really…”

Late at night, in a hotel room in Telva, Dorothy let out a long breath as she lay sprawled on the sofa in her pajamas, muttering to herself. With Adèle’s help, she had finally succeeded in having Vania earn the trust of Summer Tree’s priest and get him to agree to their plan.

“Thankfully, Darlene’s spiritual legacy left to Adèle included a wealth of her knowledge as a Priestess of Abundance—not just ritual gestures, but even the divine dances. Without all that… there’s no way we could have gained that Summer Tree’s priest’s trust.”

Still lying on the sofa, Dorothy whispered to herself. In Darlene’s notes, Dorothy had once read descriptions of an Abundance ritual site—nearly identical to the one on Summer Tree. The only difference was that at Darlene’s old site, all the altars except the one for dance were destroyed. At Summer Tree’s site, three of the four were still mostly intact, though unused. The moment Dorothy saw the altar for the dancer at Summer Tree, she came up with the idea to have Vania pose as a devout follower of Abundance and use Darlene’s dance to win the priest’s faith.

Just a while earlier, Dorothy had approached Adèle and asked her to transmit her knowledge of the Abundance rituals directly into her mind via an offering to Aka. It was thanks to this information that Vania had been able to present herself as a “devout believer” of the Goddess of Abundance and be accepted as a “fellow kin.”

“This time, I really owe Adèle one again… I’m starting to feel like I’ve racked up quite a bit of debt with her. I should find a way to repay it somehow… I wonder if any of the religious texts Anman sends over will be useful to her?”

Glancing at the Literary Sea Logbook beside her, Dorothy reflected. She hadn’t helped Summer Tree escape being “purified” by the Church out of charity. All of their documents on the Abundance faith—she intended to collect every last one of them. She’d been running low on Chalice-related materials lately; this Summer Tree windfall might help replenish her reserves.

Of course, Dorothy wasn’t just acquiring Summer Tree’s texts for her own spiritual enhancement. She fully intended to fulfill the promise Vania made to Anman—drafting a practical “guide for feigned conversion.” She was serious about helping Summer Tree create a way to preserve their worship of the Goddess under the guise of Radiance’s Holy Mother.

And the reason she had such confidence that she could create this “conversion guide” was because she had rich references to draw from—provided by none other than the Wolf Blood Society of the Afterbirth Cult.

Yes, back when the Wolf Blood Society had attempted to infiltrate the Church in Tivian, they had somehow obtained a series of mystical texts designed to blur the lines between the worship of the Mother of Chalice and the Holy Mother. They used these texts to corrupt Vania’s superior in the Historical Scripture Department, Cork—turning him into a heretic who couldn’t distinguish between the two goddesses, secretly worshipping the Mother of Chalice while outwardly serving the Holy Mother. Cork had even planned to use these texts to corrupt the entire department, but was eventually thwarted by Vania, who was under Aka’s protection.

Vania had read those texts, and Dorothy had once asked her to pass them along. When Dorothy decided to help Summer Tree, she remembered this and had Vania transmit the mystical manuscript to her via Aka. The text contained detailed references on how to overlap deities, blur devotional practices, and simulate false faith.

Of course, Dorothy knew that relying on this single text wouldn’t be enough to produce a fully tailored conversion plan for Summer Tree. But because she had never extracted spirituality from the manuscript (which remained stored with Vania), she was still able to use it as barter material—to exchange for knowledge from other worlds on similar religious adaptation strategies.

Dorothy took that mystical text, along with everything she had once read in the Royal Crown Library about comparable religious systems, and ran it all through her system’s exchange mechanism.

In return, she received two results. “The Secret Code of Vodou” and “The Hidden Scroll of the Amakusa-Style Remix Church.”