He set his empty cup in the sink and said, “Let's go, Dismar. I will explain to you about the talking baby in the car. Maybe that will help you to make it through your day, at least.”
Yes, thought Konu, I can't blame him. Not because the world is ending as I think Dismar doesn't care much about that, but another man stealing the love of his only daughter. That hurts a lot. Probably the only thing he wanted in his life was to make a family. It is the dream of every orphan, and for now, he is totally failing.
As Dismar drove, I started reading the newspaper. The first page had an article on the talking baby under a big title which read “A Prophet Sent by the Gods.” I guess they sold a lot of papers today. What news! A talking baby… this is hilarious! I should call Oina later to congratulate her or maybe to blame her for stressing Dismar. He didn't need this now with his life going a little bit sideways. I called his name and made quick eye contact with him, and he looked very anxious. I thought I’d better try to calm him down.
“Dismar, listen… This baby thing is a bad joke that our enemies are using as a test. They think they can create a religious uprising or something like that” He looked at me again through the mirror, stunned. Oina told me about her religious plan. She said she would execute something in the upcoming weeks. I didn't expect that something would be this creative. Those women created a sensational news story. We did apprehend a suspect with a biological weapon ready to use it in the same camp. No one knows, though, that all the camps in the empire are under strict surveillance with the best AI. Therefore if you want to test a new virus, you should try it in a camp on some island far away in the North Pole, not here.
We are a highly successful predatory empire that needs to be kept on leash, otherwise, we could hurt ourselves more than others. With our military armada, we could crush the world twice over, but we can also engage in meaningless wars that kill our citizens for insignificant gains. Therefore we need to be held in check.
Oina and the supervisors know that. They also know that the First Citizens have an eye on their small continent. It’s not easy to defend yourself when only one side is allowed to have bombs. The League is under a weapon’s embargo since independence. Therefore they wage their small wars with others with a different kind of weapon – conspiracy. They are exceptionally good at that. Bribing with money and sex are their favorites tools. I even can tell with certainty that some of our top commanders are controlled by them as they are afraid of scandals that could affect their families and destroy their lives. In some cases, these are scandals that could put them in jail for high treason. These are the same scandals they probably have on me through Oina. Believing that she has no plan-B in case I stop collaborating with her is naïve. Although she knows that most of those kinds of scenarios can’t affect me, as I have no family. And the threat of jail for me is the best-case scenario. I could finally rest and dedicate all my time to reading and writing. Even in the event of being tortured, I would have no problem taking my own life. In fact, I would be very content to end it all.
She knows that she can’t pressure me, as I’m collaborating with her faithfully for the sake of every soul, not for fear of a scandal or any retaliation. That makes her compassionate feelings toward me truthful. My buddy, The salamander, is still not convinced, but what does a blind, giant salamander know about passion?
Their religious plan was a failure, even if they managed to create a huge buzz. I am sure they are celebrating their genius now with cocktails. They think they just made a breakthrough, and from now on, they have a permanent countermeasure to pressure the Amians. Unfortunately, Oina and the other women did forget the first rule of a successful offensive – knowing the landscape. That is the thing she doesn't know and that no one from the League does either. They have no idea about the religious landscape. They have no clue about the constituency of a successful religion, the one that can make a slave the king of an empire. That is because the League didn't have a religion. They did have some rituals, but they are more practiced as a hobby than the doctrine of a true, strong, oppressive religion.
The little guy will explain the religion philosophy part, while I’m reading the sports news:
First, a strong religion is based on the absence of miracles. It is indeed a counterintuitive idea, but it’s a fact. History taught us that the absence of a miracle is the core of the belief, as a true believer is the one who believes in the tale of the miracle, not the miracle itself.
Because, and let's face it, even if we are living in a cartoony world and miracles do happen from time to time, for a religion to exist based on a miracle, they must happen all the time for every person to witness. Otherwise, in the usual scenario, they don’t happen at all, or, and let's be crazy a little bit, they happen to one person, the prophet, or a small core group. Usually it’s the prophet and his friends or his family. We usually call them the “first believers.” That’s all, and everybody else only hears the tale from those guys.
That is what separates them from the infidels, those who couldn't believe the tale and prefer to doubt
