Chapter 7: 6: Humanity

6: Humanity

Murphy’s view

It’s weird to think about how I ended up in this position. A commoner, becoming head of the town guard. It’s not something I ever thought would happen, yet ultimately, it’s because of that god’s death… Heh, others would call me a heretic for not referring to them as the Evil God or the devil, but ever since that day, I’ve really begun to doubt the church. 

Everyone knows about the voices. The suggestions and ideas that come unbidden. Voices of the gods it is said. They never tell you anything you don’t already know, they just make suggestions on what course of action to take. It can be as minor as a temptation to eat the last cookie before anyone else can, or as major as murder. In the past, when someone committed a great evil, it was said they fell to the temptations of the devil. 

In my own life, I found that one voice was helpful, and one wasn’t. The one that wasn’t offered such foolish advice (that I foolishly listened to when I was young), that I had long assumed it to be that voice of the devil people warned against listening to. This led me to pity those foolish enough to sin, and when I became a member of the guard, I sought to help people get onto the right path.

Then one day, that helpful voice vanished. All that was left was the admonitions of the fool I’d always ignored. This left me horrified. Thankfully, my own troubles were not noticed by others, as this shift led to a time of turmoil in which many many people suddenly found themselves only hearing one voice. One foolish voice, with no counter argument to temper it. One foolish voice telling me to speak my mind for the sake of honesty. I’ve seen people die for doing that. A commoner doesn’t speak their mind to a noble. They shut up and obey.

Thus, all my competition ended up suddenly disappearing. Either they lost their job or their lives in the turmoil. Tact seemed to entirely disappear. God of good my ass. If this insanity is what they create on their own, then they are clearly incompetent. A little polite dishonesty is what keeps society functional. Case in point: if I voiced this opinion out loud in public, I’d be flogged for it, and that would be if I was lucky enough to not just get killed by an angry mob. It’s better for everyone if I just keep my mouth shut, and do my job quietly.

As for my job? I spend most of my time mediating disputes. Merchant A complains about Noble B not paying what was promised for goods delivered. Noble B insists the goods were not of the quality that was promised, and refuses to pay full price. To solve this issue, I’ve begun demanding everyone draw up contracts if they want proper enforcement, then I can adjudicate based on what’s written. Doesn’t please everyone, but it makes the job a lot easier. Just find out who’s followed the letter of the contract best, and that’s that.

What does the last remaining voice have to say about all this? They complain I’m not pursuing justice. Pursuing justice is what created this mess in the first place! Everyone thinks they are right, and I’m sick of it. I no longer care who’s right. I’m just going to enforce the damn rules, and let god worry about “justice”. If there isn’t a rule yet, then I’ll make one!

Strangely, people seem to like my methods simply because they are clear and easy to understand. 

Oh, there’s one final detail that’s really the most depressing thing of all: Evil clearly still exists. While most murders are clear cases of revenge or anger, in which people truly believe their actions are justified, there are still occasional reports of the much more sinister sort. Such as the latest report of young women disappearing. 

In the past, this sort of thing was blamed on the voice of the devil tempting people into doing evil. It was claimed that with their death, such evil would be gone. Yet, it’s not gone. Thousands have died in the quest to kill the evil god, and the demon lord it had created. Yet evil persists.

So now I, a person who has become convinced that the church’s teachings are full of lies, is in a position where I have to work with the church every day, just for the sake of keeping the peace. It really wears on my patience. I need a way to relax.

***Author Note***

I was originally planning to avoid side character viewpoints like this, but decided it was the best way to fit in a bunch of exposition, and a way to provide some hints of what’s going on in places the main character doesn’t know about. Also: I totally just hijacked the setting from another story of mine: . That story is now a prequel of this one. Which also means this is a setting where servants of the gods actively try to sway human behavior, and the good god has gone a little bit mad, and the evil one is dead/missing. The main character might be a replacement for the missing god, but she’s not a true god yet, and doesn’t yet have that level of influence or power.

One of the more interesting parts of writing this chapter for me was thinking about how such divine influence would affect people. I concluded that most people would get so accustomed to the voices, that they’d be terrible at thinking things through on their own, and end up really messed up when one of the voices suddenly goes silent.

P.S. in case it isn't clear: the angels have a problem with suggesting honesty to the point of stupidity. Meanwhile the demons tend to offer advice that is greedy and self-serving, which can be very helpful to anyone in a bad situation... wait, did I just create a world where both supernatural advisors are bad teaching teamwork? ... this world probably wasn't in too great a shape even before the balance broke.

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