Esdeath had been taught the law of the jungle since childhood, and her experiences and environment were unusual.
Zeroy didn't believe a few words would truly change Esdeath overnight.
Or rather, change wouldn't come that quickly.
It's not that Esdeath could break the contract at will.
It's that Zeroy wanted Esdeath to accept and practice her ideas from the heart.
Even if in the end, Esdeath's warped thinking remained—still clinging to survival of the fittest—that would be acceptable.
Zeroy could tolerate whatever thoughts a person held; bound by contract and constrained by Zeroy's power, Esdeath would have to behave. That fact wouldn't change.
However, a genuine inner conviction was better.
So Zeroy took Esdeath along during the great purge.
She had little time or energy to tutor Esdeath directly; albeit, having the girl by her side to learn by example, to absorb by sight and ear, and to receive the occasional admonition would do.
As for a way to make Esdeath stronger—the universal little idols!
Not only could people approved by Zeroy borrow the power of faith through them, they could truly become stronger.
Like the skeletal root-trees and the flocks of crows, infected by the power of faith, they quickly gained real supernatural strength.
People were the same.
...
"Way of Tranquility?"
After liberating another small town, Zeroy heard an interesting name.
Compared with other places, the number of pests in this town was noticeably lower.
And it wasn't just this town—nearby villages and other small towns showed the same pattern.
In the mouths of the people, Zeroy learned the name Way of Tranquility.
It was a religion with a large following, preaching that many good deeds would bring happiness and longevity, and it had grown into a significant force on the east side of the Capital.
It seemed the presence of this Way of Tranquility had influenced the surrounding area.
Zeroy's opinion of religions was not high, even though she herself had spawned a cult of faith.
After all, she had seen far too many religious jokes and evils in her life.
She hoped that the Way of Tranquility was truly as the people said—harmless, perhaps even beneficial.
She would be pleased to find such a force and people amid land full of pests.
Anyhow, she stayed skeptical.
Having learned the name, she didn't rush to investigate.
She continued her sweep according to plan.
Anyway, her speed was fast.
She swept through in H.A.M.P with Patchouli and Esdeath in tow.
When she encountered crowds, she cast teleportation magic to separate pests from innocents, brutally slaughtered some of the pests, and left others for the innocents to deal with.
To save time, she stopped speaking and had Patchouli use magic to directly imprint her intended meaning into people's minds.
There was an even faster method: gather all the pests and clear them in one go.
But that would defeat her purpose.
She had three aims: clear the pests, save the innocents, and deter the innocents so they would not become new pests.
All three were indispensable.
Conveying her will by magic—an act beyond common sense—also helped people attach the concept of "god" to her image, enhancing deterrence.
Before leaving, she planted seeds of Hellfire inside some pests' bodies; those pests left for the people to deal with would otherwise suffer too little pain.
To address that, Zeroy developed the use of Hellfire seeds.
At the instant the pest died, the Hellfire would erupt and burn their souls.
Inspired by this, Zeroy planned next to develop a method for Hellfire to persist long-term within people.
And to exist widely, so that when people committed evil, the Hellfire would automatically erupt—either punishing them or burning them to death.
The effect would be similar to Zeroy's earlier idea of using AI to monitor everyone.
But this was more difficult. Hellfire's standards differed subtly from hers.
Handled badly, it could cause collateral damage and create a tyrannical law.
During the sweep, Zeroy also heard rumors of the Revolutionary Army—people gathered to resist the Empire's tyranny.
Both the Way of Tranquility and the Revolutionary Army caught Zeroy's interest.
Between the two, she first encountered the Way of Tranquility.
After all, she had already cleared areas near its sphere of influence.
She cast teleportation magic to sort everyone.
Here, most people were categorized as innocents; pests numbered only about ten percent.
Among the innocents, Zeroy noticed many clergy wearing the Way's vestments.
That sight made Zeroy smile—rare during her purge.
For the first time in a while, she felt moved.
Family… who would understand?
Since crossing over, what worlds had been matched to her?
In a normal world—at least by her standards—the violence and violent crime rate would be under one percent, sometimes under 0.5% in better areas.
That meant, if she acted, she'd kill maybe one percent; with her stricter standards and no one able to hide under her gaze, the number would never exceed five percent.
Not all crimes warranted death.
Minor offenses with no severe consequences wouldn't be labeled pests by her.
But how many did she kill in the first two worlds? In the Black Bullet world, it was in the hundreds of millions.
Were her standards too strict? No—the pests were simply too many.
Now, at last, she had encountered a relatively normal situation.
And she had even found a religion that truly guided people toward good rather than plotting mischief behind their backs.
Although among the pests there were a few wearing religious garb—even one in distinctly non-ordinary clerical attire—those numbers were small; the occasional pest was understandable to Zeroy.
...
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