Chapter 31: Chapter 31 The Enprisoned God_1
"This time, my strategy was helpful, wasn’t it?"
"Yes, thanks to you, it was a happy ending for everyone."
In the underground Mithril prison, Aiden and prisoner 4001, the "Saint" Melifilia, were chatting while playing a game at a small table, separated by a few meters distance—the game they were playing was a simplified version of Monopoly.
This time, the success in overturning Veronica’s death sentence owed much to Melifilia’s secret plan. Therefore Aiden kept his promise and visited her again in the dungeon recently—it just so happened that Aiden had the duty to monitor her regularly.
"So, I wonder if there might be an extra reward for me?" Melifilia smirked with a smile.
"Didn’t I already spend an entire night playing games with you before?" Aiden glanced up at her.
"That’s enough to fob me off? You’re not so harsh with any other prisoner up there who opposes you."
"What, you want to go out for a stroll? You’re different from them; you’re not a prisoner of the Rose Iron Prison, and the management regulations that apply to you are different," Aiden responded coolly, "Just touching the holy nails on you is enough to get me thrown into prison."
"After all, I am a god. Don’t I get any respect in your presence?"
"In my eyes, you are just a prisoner. Since when does a prisoner have prestige?" Aiden retorted without concern, casting her a glance.
"I’d say what sets you apart from everyone else in this world is your lack of fear for the divine."
"Unfortunately for you, I happen to come from a world where gods don’t exist—or at least, that’s what I believe," Aiden focused on the game board, "Besides, it doesn’t look like people in this world hold much reverence for you either, or else, why would they dare to lock you up in prison?"
"It’s because they fear me that they locked me away, apart from you. Everyone who comes to see me, whether to monitor or worship, they all cover their faces, not daring to even breathe too loudly in my presence. Only you dare to be so brazen in front of me." Melifilia moved the chess piece telekinetically, "I’m thinking, since you’re willing to exonerate the innocent, why aren’t you willing to fight for my freedom too?"
"You?" Aiden looked up, "Are you saying you’re innocent? I have the memories of this world, and the crimes committed by your cult are too numerous to be recorded. Not to mention anything else, the very body you’re using now came at the cost of a human life."
Melifilia was found and taken into custody by the former Aiden and the elite of the Heresy Tribunal when they destroyed a cult stronghold known as "Blood Red Full Moon."
She was the deity worshiped by the Blood Moon Cult. However, Melifilia was not the name of the deity, but the name of an ordinary girl who was captured by the cultists to be used as a living sacrifice—due to certain circumstances, she descended into this world in the form of the girl named Melifilia.
And as a consequence, the memory and personality of the girl Melifilia were completely devoured by this deity.
"If you must know, it was my followers who committed the crimes, I never asked them to do anything... The same goes for summoning me to this world, I was merely a little interested in their prayers and rituals. In the end, it was I who got tired of them and turned against them to help you destroy the cult. Yet you treat me with standards much harsher than those for ordinary prisoners. Don’t you think that’s unfair?"
"Not at all," Aiden shook his head without hesitation.
"Oh, you humans always talk about equality before the law, I thought you valued justice," Melifilia exhibited a look of surprise.
"You might have a little misunderstanding, human rules, or laws, were never about equality or justice. Sometimes a nation will enact laws that harm other countries to protect its own interests, and the ruling class might use laws to exploit other classes. Law is a tool for the ruling class to maintain their interests; it can be fair and noble at times, while at others, it can be contrary to morality. But if you look at it from the perspective of all humanity, all of the rules set by humans, whether they are legal or moral standards, essentially only maintain the stable order that is necessary for human survival. And order is not always just or reasonable."
"Order?"
"Yes, there are too many humans. Without order to maintain group operations, individuals cannot survive. First answer me one question, would you be willing to obey the rules set by humans?" Aiden asked, looking into Melifilia’s eyes.
"Of course not." Melifilia answered straightforwardly, and then countered with a question, "If you find a group of ants on the ground, would you be willing to follow the ants’ rules?"
"Exactly, you wouldn’t want to follow human rules. In this world, from the perspective of the human ’order,’ you are a significant risk factor. Laws maintain order, and the existence of gods poses a great threat to human order. In other words, the mere existence of a god is a sin to mortals," Aiden expounded on his theory, "This may be against morality, but preserving one’s own survival is the first justice for any race that wants to continue existing."
"The original sin of gods?" Melifilia raised an eyebrow.
"Right, if a god appears in the human world, the safest thing for humans to do is to lock it up in prison. Only a fool would take it out for worship, unless doing so could indeed minimize the cost of preventing the deity from disrupting human order. If a god shows goodwill, does not disrupt, and even maintains human order, humans might, for cost reasons, consider not controlling it and might even hold worship out of morality, minimizing the risk in this way. But you’re clearly not that kind of god. From what I know about you, if you had a button that could destroy half of humanity, you’d probably press it just for fun. Letting out a god like you? Unless I’ve gone mad."
"Weirdly, I find myself thinking you have some reason in what you say..."
"But to be honest, I’m more worried about your followers than you," Aiden sighed deeply, "You just playfully disregard human laws, but those fanatics are out to go against the laws."
"If ’he’ finds out I’m here, he might come and break me out of prison," Melifilia said with a grin.
"Let’s hope not, I don’t fancy taking another bullet to the chest," Aiden said, touching his chest with a resigned look.
The "Blood Red Full Moon" cult had indeed been destroyed, and even the deity they worshipped was imprisoned. However, the cult’s founder was still at large, and their true identity had not been exposed.
From the memories inherited from Aiden, it seemed very likely that the former Aiden had died at the hands of the mysterious cult founder.
Aiden didn’t harbor any thoughts of "revenge." After all, he and the previous owner of this body were truly not the same person.
But he was very clear that the unknown zealot posed a threat to him in this world.
"If you’re scared, I can help you out. Just help me pull out a holy nail, and I’ll give you a little ’blessing,’" Melifilia coaxed in a seductive tone.
"My policy is not to trust prisoners easily," Aiden firmly denied, "Besides, why would you choose to help me, rather than worshipping your own followers?"
"Mortal reverence is useless to gods. Compared to ordinary pawns that only move at the player’s will, I’m definitely more interested in a piece like you that runs around the board unpredictably and I can’t foresee," Melifilia said, eyes alight with excitement.
"So this is really the reason you summoned me to this world?"
"Who knows?" As usual, Melifilia flashed a smile that was as inscrutable as ever.
