The next morning Aldis and the others decided to visit a man named Elmer, with his twin brother and sister as their guide.

　Din, who was leading the way, took them to a large building near the center of the village.
　It was a tall, single-story building that, while a bit more meticulously constructed than the houses inhabited by the residents, did not give the impression of simplicity.
　It's not just a matter of time before you'll be able to get your hands on a new one.

''Mr. Elmer, are you here?''

'Oh, that voice is Dinh. What can I do for you?

　A male voice answered Din's question from the back of the building.

'Good morning, Mr. Elmer. I've brought a visitor here to talk to you.

Go ahead. Come in.

　Din heard the reply and went straight into Zukazuka.
　At Karina's urging, Aldis and the others followed behind her.

The guests are the people who came to the village yesterday?

　The owner of the voice appeared.

　He was a short, old man.
　He has a round face full of wrinkles and a pure white mustache, and his eyes tend to droop slightly and are so thin that they would disappear if he smiled.
　The robe he wears is not flashy, but it has a long hem that looks like a ceremonial robe.
　The atmosphere looked both like a teacher and a clergyman.

''That's right. Those mercenaries that me and Carina brought yesterday.''

　Aldis opens his mouth following Din's words.

'It's Aldis. 'You'll hear from someone called Elmer,' Sailor said, 'and you're this Elmer?'

'Yes, as you say, I'm Elmer. By the looks of it, you have twins with you, is that an introduction to the jig?

No, apparently brother Jig has nothing to do with it.

　Din answers the question of the old man who calls himself Elmer from the side.

'That's it: ......'

　Then a line came out of the old man's mouth that Aldis couldn't hear.

'It must be the goddess' guidance.

Goddess!

　At that moment, Aldis's expression changed drastically.
　While being stared at, the old man responded with a calm expression.

''Hohoho. Please don't look so scared.''

　I'm going to be able to say that I'm not going to be able to get the best out of it.

I see now that I understand what your emissary wants from me. I know what the messenger wants, and I have no intention of harming you without being alarmed. I fully understand your feelings, but if you listen to me carefully, we can clear up any misunderstandings. Now, come in.

　He tells her and turns around and the old man walks to the back of the building.

　Din follows the old man, and Carina stops suddenly as she tries to follow him.
　She looks at him curiously and then notices that Aldis is still standing there and calls out to her.

'Aren't you going?'

...... Yeah.

　Muttering a short reply, Aldis follows Elmer and the others with Carina.
　They are followed by Filia and Liana, Nere, Char and Rona.

　Even though it's a large building, it's still a remote village.
　It wasn't very deep, and soon the wall at the end of the building came into view.
　In the center of the room is a single passageway leading from the entrance, with poorly made chairs lined up in a haphazard fashion on either side of it.
　At the far end of the center of the room, which was raised a level, there was a single statue carved slightly larger than life size of a human being on the wall.

Please take a seat wherever you see fit.

　Elmer, who stood in front of the statue and turned around to look at it, uttered that, but I don't know if it reached Aldis's ears.
　Because Aldis's eyes were glued to the statue behind Elmer.

'Nere ......, or is it Sailor?'

　The figure of the statue in Aldis's eyes is a perfect match for Nere and Sailor.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a great deal of information on this.
　You can find a number of different types of shoes for you to choose from.

'It's a long story. Please take a seat.''

Just sit in your seat.

Oh, you'd better not be in that chair, it's a bit dirty.

　After being encouraged by Elmer again, followed by his twin siblings, Aldis finally sat down in the chair at hand.
　Filia and Liana took up positions on either side of her, with Nere sitting diagonally behind Aldis and Charu sitting a little further away, closer to the entrance.
　When Rona huddled at their feet, Ardis couldn't wait to ask the question, "What is that statue?

'What's that statue?'

　Elmer's answer to that was a simple one word answer.

'It's a goddess.'

'You think that's ...... a goddess?'

　The statues of the goddesses placed in the churches of Thoria and the royal capital take on the appearance of a hated enemy to Ardis.
　How many times have you been tempted to smash that figure with your sword when you saw it in the church that you were forced to go to for the sake of your request?

I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work for you," he said, "but I'd like to say that ...... is actually a denial on your part, so for now it's just what I and the rest of the village believe. I have no intention of imposing that on you, so please rest assured that I will not be imposing it on you.

When you say "himself," you mean Sailor?

Yes, the errand boy.

　At Elmer's hesitant answer, Aldis looked at the statue again and thought of Sailor's face from yesterday when he looked at the statue.

'She's the goddess?　You don't sound like the goddess I know at all.

There's a lot of things I need to tell you to clear up those questions.

　Turning to the confused Aldis, Elmer sits down in a chair himself and opens his mouth, "First of all, let's talk about the church as it once was.

'We don't know how long ago the belief in the Goddess has been practiced. However, it is said that the church was established about seven hundred years ago. There are few surviving records of those days, and most of them are based on oral traditions of uncertain authenticity, but it seems that they were quite different from today's doctrine.

What's the doctrine?

''Yes. ....... For example, the evil god Grace, who is said to have come into conflict with the goddess Aesera in the Divine World War.

　Aldis's expression grew slightly stronger when she heard the name.

It's that evil god, but it's only in comparatively recent years that his name has come to be written down. It is not mentioned in old books, and there is no mention of Grace's name, nor is there any mention of the events of the Divine World War in the first place. Naturally--

　Elmer glanced at Filia and Liana.

'And the existence of the twin demons who allegedly harmed the Goddess as a spire of the evil gods.

　The platinum blonde's head twitched on either side of Aldis.
　Feeling uneasy, the twins huddled closer to Aldis.

'Of course, there is no such thing as an abhorrent trend for twins, and from what I've found out, there was even a story of twins who lost their parents and were taken in by the church to raise them.

How do you know that, which is very hard to believe given the current doctrine?

I used to be a priest in a church, but I failed and fell off the career path. "I used to be a pastor of a church, but I had to leave the church because of a mistake. I was reassigned from my church in the middle of the country to a cold village in the middle of nowhere - a reassignment that was called a left turn. He was reassigned to a remote village in the middle of nowhere with no other clergy but himself. Well, it was a deserted village in the middle of nowhere, but it was a good village. The people were poor, but simple, honest, pious, and full of compassion for others.

　Elmer, who had been looking far away, huffed and realized something.

I'm sure you're not the only one. As I get older, I tend to reminisce a lot. ......

　He smiles apologetically and then goes back to the story again.

'I spent my days praying to the Goddess in a building so decayed that it's not even worthy of being called a church. In the midst of all this, I found a piece of literature written about six hundred years ago.

Literature?

'Yes. I found this statement in the book. "Eicera's hair shines like the moon.

Moon ......?

　Aldis gave a quizzical look at Elmer's story.

　The appearance of the goddess currently conveyed by the church matches the appearance of the woman Aldis should hate.
　Her hair color was supposed to be a deep crimson.
　Describing it as the color of the moon was strange by any stretch of the imagination.

'Yes, the moon. You would find it strange, wouldn't you?　I felt the same way at the time. After that, while doing my work as a priest, I studied old documents and went to places where the Church had not had much influence and listened to the stories that had been handed down. As I did this, I learned something.

　After a breath, Elmer continues.

It was around five hundred years ago that the church's doctrine and image of the Goddess changed drastically. The doctrine of the existence of evil gods and the abhorrence of twins, as I mentioned earlier, were also beginning to be described in the literature around this time. Five hundred years ago corresponds to the time when the Goddess whom the Church worships today is said to have descended to the earth for the first time. Do you understand what this means?

　Indeed, if the goddesses actually showed up on earth and taught, it might be natural to assume that the previously disparate teachings of the goddesses and churches in different parts of the world were wrong, and that they would be unified in the same form and doctrine.

　But Aldis knows.
　That the goddess was a mere mortal, living in the same other world as herself.

　So Ardis does not say, 'The goddess corrected her previous mistakes,' but replies.

'The goddess who appeared five hundred years ago is not ...... the real goddess.'

　Elmer nodded slowly.

'How did you come up with that answer just from what you've told me so far? It took me, for example, four years to get there.

　He continued his own thoughts with a bitter smile and uttered his own thoughts.

'Some people might think that the Goddess who descended five hundred years ago corrected the mistakes that had been made. However, as far as I have found, there is not a single document that mentions that the Goddess had red hair more than five hundred years ago. However, there are only a few surviving documents that are that old: ......

　Elmer stands up.

'That's where I felt uncomfortable at the time, too. And after some thought, I came to the same conclusion as you. Could it be that the goddesses that people have followed since ancient times and the goddesses that the church follows now are different entities?

　He turned his head to the goddess statue installed at the back of the room and said.

'Of course, the goddesses that the church believes in are indeed beings beyond human knowledge. The miracles that have been handed down in the church tell us that they are the handiwork of God. However, it would be uncharitable to say that human twins are all an abomination just because they are twins of the evil God's sentry who once opposed them. Goddess is not supposed to be so narrow-minded. She must be able to receive and encompass everything and be merciful. That's what it means to be the existence that sits at the top of this world. I'm not sure I've ever been able to get away with it, but I have to admit that the doctrines of the Church are a bit of a misnomer since I realized that. ...... But I used to have no doubts about the doctrine that abhorred twins.

　He added that in a voice that sounded as if he was mocking himself, and then turned his head back to Aldis and the others again.

'But the church must have thought that it would be unwise to have such an idea spread around. After that, I was not only excommunicated from the center, but I was hunted as a heretic. I couldn't go anywhere as a heretic being chased by the church. When I was wandering in the wilderness, the angel gave me a helping hand. It was about thirty years ago.