Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World - Chapter 41: Father Brown

The priests of the New Church who came to see me looked around nervously, unable to settle down.

They appeared as though they were afraid of something, much like a person standing before a gun barrel that reeked of gunpowder.

Considering that they were clergy who would usually remain calm even in the face of a gun barrel, it was quite puzzling.

“Uh, I don’t quite understand the situation. What is it that you are asking to be scolded for?”

“We have sinned.”

“Excuse me?”

“We will explain slowly. The sins we have committed….”

* * *

A priest of the New Church Knight Order.

Ignatius was originally a noble with a promising future. As the eldest son of a central noble family, renowned even in the empire, he chose the path of priesthood solely because he had been chosen by the Lord.

A spiritual experience.

One day, he woke up after being called by an angel in a dream and realized that ‘blessing’ had descended upon him.

Defying his family’s opposition, he threw himself into the monastery, learned theology, and received the sacrament to become a priest.

Due to his background, he was different in character from other priests who had been deeply immersed in religion since childhood.

Because of this, he did not get along well with other priests. It was not so much that other priests shunned Ignatius, but rather that Ignatius himself kept his distance from them.

Like all priests, he had a particular pride in having received his priesthood directly from the Lord.

“In fact, all the priests of our New Church Knight Order were those who did not fit in with the priests of the existing church. We felt a bit proud of that deficiency. The duty of a priest is to devote oneself to the Lord, and thus any personal relationships that do not aid the Lord are useless. Saying this, we immersed ourselves even more in theological activities. When we became members of the New Church Knight Order, we were very pleased to be able to spread the gospel, free from the old church’s customs.”

“I understand to some extent. For those who believe that trials are the privilege of heroes, wouldn’t they take pride in themselves even while being swept up in harsh trials?”

“As expected, Venerable Homer, you are wise. Yes, but now we have realized how arrogant we were. No, even saying this might sound arrogant. So, um, we realized that we actually knew nothing.”

“What happened?”

“So, well, an agent of some noble… I mean, quite an influential noble, came to us. I’m not sure where they heard about us, but they invited a priest from our ‘New Church’ to their mansion. They requested a baptism for an illegitimate child. We accepted the request. Ah, this doesn’t mean we received money or any promises from the noble. It was purely out of the belief that even an illegitimate child should have the blessing of the Lord.”

Illegitimate child. And a baptism.

The baptism of a child born to an unmarried mother was quite a controversial topic in this world. Often, illegitimate children did not receive baptism because they were not born within the sanctity of marriage.

In this world where God exists, it practically meant they were not treated as ‘people’.

Just like the beastmen. The priests of this world often treated illegitimate children like beastmen, refusing them baptism.

“After that, more people began to seek out priests of our ‘New Church’ for various requests. They were people who were discriminated against by what we considered the ‘old customs’ of the ‘Church’. A widow who had lost her husband in the war asked for a new marriage sacrament with her new husband. I accepted this request. I believed that the new relationship that had come to the woman who had been in the depths of sorrow deserved to be blessed. So, she received her second marriage sacrament.”

Ignatius, who had spoken up to that point, couldn’t continue and only moved his lips.

Then, covering his face with both hands as if in despair, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself before he barely managed to continue.

“Then, a noblewoman who had divorced her husband requested a marriage sacrament with her new husband. This is where ‘our’ opinions began to diverge.”

Ignatius and the priests of the ‘New Church’ standing behind him looked at each other.

They were the most moderate and lenient among the church. However, not all of them shared the same standards of ‘leniency’.

“As a result, the noblewoman received her second marriage sacrament. Some priests said this was wrong, but not many priests were needed for a marriage sacrament. The priests who agreed to the marriage sacrament cited the example of the ‘widow’, saying that the Lord’s blessing should be fair to everyone, while the other priests said this was a betrayal of the Lord’s blessing.”

Ignatius continued to talk about the various ‘requests’ they had received after that.

He spoke of how many people had been discriminated against by the church’s traditions and how diverse the opinions of the ‘New Church’ priests were regarding them.

There were so many examples that it took nearly an hour to recount them all.

Contraception, illegitimate children, homosexuality, tradition, unmarried mothers, widows, prostitution…

Some examples were excessively trivial and personal, while others were universal enough to be topics of constant debate and divergent opinions within the church.

And they had no standard to discern what was ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

This was because they were the New Church. They had forgotten the Pope’s words, the ancient laws, and the doctrines of the councils, and they spread the gospel solely by the light of the Lord’s words.

“It was only then that we understood why the foolish stubbornness we considered ‘old traditions’ existed. We realized that faith and the word alone were insufficient to illuminate a world with so many shadows. Only belatedly did we comprehend the vast diversity of these shadows and the depths of those pits. By the time we came to our senses, we found ourselves repeating the outdated practices of the ‘Church.’ Instead of praying for wisdom from the Lord, we were blindly following the traditions we had so despised in the past.”

“I understand.”

“No. No, you do not. Author Homer, you can’t even begin to imagine how wickedly we have changed.”

With eyes tightly shut, Ignatius confessed like a sinner before a priest.

“We refused a woman’s last rites. She died without even the hope of finding solace in the Lord’s embrace. …We had become even more rigid and conservative than the ‘Church.’ We were no different from the law scholars in the Bible.”

“‥‥‥.”

“If this continues, the ‘New Church’ will be nothing but a record of abject failure. Therefore, I must make a request of you, Venerable Homer, the creator of ‘Father Brown.’”

Then, he bowed his head like a sinner asking for penance.

“Please rebuke us. And bestow your teachings upon us.”

Their gazes were no different from those of apostles looking upon their savior.

In their eyes was a mix of reverence and fear, as if they believed lightning from heaven would strike and judge them at any moment.

“…I am merely a writer. I don’t think I can be of much help.”

“No. Venerable Homer, have you not received the miracles of the Lord?”

“To me, it was just my work.”

“You wrote Don Quixote, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Little Prince, Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, and Father Brown.”

“‥‥‥.”

“Didn’t you also give speeches reading the Bible to those who followed you?”

“Yes, I did….”

“You made greedy tycoons feed the children of the orphanage, made nobles obsessed with worldly riches support orphams, and ensured that all children could receive an education.”

“Yes.”

“How could such things be possible with human wisdom alone?”

Indeed, they were not possible with human wisdom alone.

The works I wrote were plagiarized from masterpieces that had been beloved on Earth for the longest time, my speeches were plagiarized from those that had moved the most hearts, and my projects were plagiarized from the most successful marketing strategies.

These were the accumulated wisdom of many people over many years, not the wisdom of a single person.

“We are certain that you, Venerable Homer, have received wisdom from the Lord. Therefore, we wish to

borrow your wisdom.”

“…I don’t know much about doctrine. I’ve read the Bible, but I’ve never studied theology.”

“That’s alright. Please, we ask you to lend us your wisdom.”

“‥‥‥.”

I wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do.

I wasn’t the savior they thought me to be, nor was I a visionary with great inspiration.

I was merely a plagiarist who had stolen the ‘history’ of my past life.

So…

“Alright. Since you advised me while I wrote Father Brown… it’s only fitting that I take on the role of advisor as well.”

“…Thank you!”

If they wanted to seek advice from the ‘history’ I had stolen,

then I would simply plagiarize once more.

* * *

“If they seek the words and true meaning of the Lord, who am I to judge them? I must continually reach out to lead them on the right path, but if they remain devout and truthful in their faith without changing, then that is their role to play.”

I plagiarized the words of Pope Francis.

“Have you heard of civil unions?”

I plagiarized systems from my past life.

“When a child torments their parents, it’s not because they are possessed by a demon but because they are hurt. I think it would be good to create guidelines for ‘parenting education’ for parents.”

I plagiarized from Teacher Oh Eun-young.

Thus, I discussed various moral discourses from my ‘previous life’ in this world.

In the process, the New Church also encountered a devout and sincere beastman named Grey.

That was the story of how Grey came to receive baptism.

* * *

[“Father, if I have any sin, it would be that. Do you intend to impose penance as atonement for that sin?” Bulnoi cautiously spoke up.]

[“I will not impose any penance.” Father Brown, with a mischievous expression, gathered his hat and umbrella. “I am here to absolve you of the penance you might have faced.”]

[“Then, what penance have I fortunately escaped?” Bulnoi asked with a smile.]

[“It was the gallows.”]