Chapter 167: Council (4)

Thud! With a heavy sound, thick folders the size of a book were placed in front of the priests.

They were copies of the Research Ethics Guidelines I had submitted.

'As expected of the religious order, their copying is really fast.'

It hadn't even been 10 minutes since I submitted the original document.

I guess their know-how from hundreds of years of transcribing and printing Scriptures for the public hadn't gone anywhere.

They were able to whip up enough printed copies for the priests attending in the Assembly Hall in just 10 minutes.

Well, come to think of it, in a world where people spew fire and strike down lightning, it wasn't really all that surprising.

The priests in the Assembly Hall stared blankly at the title on the copy.

It was the Research Ethics Guidelines that our company strictly adhered to.

Originally, the ethics I had written down from memory only amounted to a single booklet.

It was my fault for not being a lawyer and failing to remember the detailed clauses.

However, after I gained access to the Library of Memory, I fleshed out each of the previously vague clauses one by one.

Judgment by an independent body prior to the commencement of research, complete disclosure of predicted risks and prior consent from test subjects, and the right to drop out and stop the experiment at any time. On top of that, mandatory records of side effects and cases of death, long-term follow-up observation... blah blah blah.

It was full of all sorts of ethics that were common sense in the 21st Century, but completely foreign in this world.

'When I fleshed out the guidelines from a booklet into a full book, the researchers and directors were appalled too.'

What did they say again?

Something about how we could ever compete with other companies while following all of these?

Of course, those voices quickly disappeared.

Because when we created Penicillin using Mold Magic, the Board of Inspection quietly let it go thanks to these ethics.

'It wasn't for nothing that the Board of Inspection left us alone when we said we were gathering black magicians.'

Even the Board of Inspection was so dumbfounded when we said we were following these Research Ethics Guidelines that they closed the inspection and cleared us of suspicion.

And after that inspection, the directors and researchers meekly followed this book.

Because they realized that these ethics weren't a shackle, but a shield.

And right at this moment.

They showed the exact same reaction as the directors and researchers did back then.

A look of dismay appeared on the faces of several high-ranking priests skimming through the document.

One of those priests studied my facial expression and spoke up.

"Lord Saint, lest you misunderstand, I must say that we did not convene this meeting out of suspicion of your goodwill."

"I am aware."

If they had been determined to brand me as heresy, they would have held an Inquisition.

And the agenda item would have been chosen as 'Does The Black Saint's use of black magic violate the doctrine?'

But I shouldn't be mistaken.

This agenda item was definitely about 'Will the religious order adopt black magic?'

As they say, it's all in the delivery; the nuance of the two agenda items was completely different.

In reality, their purposes were entirely different too.

"This Council was convened to discuss the issues that might arise if we officially acknowledge this black magic as a standard treatment method for the religious order. I reiterate, we never doubted you, Lord Saint."

"There is no need for you, Lord Saint, to willingly bear such a heavy yoke upon yourself."

"That's right. If we have to go through all these complicated procedures, the time it takes to reach the truth will be delayed."

The priests chimed in in agreement.

Most of the people speaking were from the faction where the healing priests had gathered.

They seemed worried that the treatment for the Demon Disease would be banned because of the Holy Knight Faction.

Or perhaps they were mindful of the public criticism that might arise in the future.

If not that, they might just be afraid that they wouldn't get to learn it themselves.

Either way, it was clear that they did not exactly welcome these Research Ethics Guidelines.

"You have already proven yourself through countless miracles, Lord Saint. Wouldn't it be better to allow a certain degree of discretion when it comes to your own research, Lord Saint?"

They were speaking to me.

Asking if there was really a need to go this far.

They were just that afraid of the speed of development slowing down.

I could fully understand their anxiety.

Because unreasonable and severe regulations are bound to cause academia to fall behind.

But they didn't seem to know that proper regulations and ethics actually fostered the development of academia.

'It seems necessary to teach them this fact.'

The atmosphere in the Assembly Hall also seemed to have shifted in my favor.

So I decided to have a short education session, no, a persuasion session.

"I understand your concerns. You must be afraid that these will drag us down. However, it's the opposite. I was able to come this far precisely because of these clauses."

"Lord Saint, what do you mean...?"

"To go fast, you might need to bend the rules a little. But to go far, rules are absolutely necessary."

We happened to know the perfect example of this.

"The Magic Tower of the 13th Month. They definitely advanced faster than anyone else."

"......!"

The priests flinched when I brought up that name.

"They explored life and the soul without any restraints, and thanks to that arrogance, they produced results faster than anyone else."

However, their sprint did not last long.

"What was the price of that arrogance? A great catastrophe occurred, and black magic and life research as a whole were shoved into the unapproachable realm of taboo for hundreds of years."

Their research methods became a taboo.

Their ideas were buried in the ground.

It must have seemed fast back then.

But now, hundreds of years later, compared to other Magic Towers...

'They've actually fallen behind.'

What does it matter if they flex their power in the Underworld?

From an academic perspective, their academia hasn't seen any development whatsoever.

They were merely fast for a brief moment like a cheetah, and that was it.

"If a single slip-up means that even your next opportunity is gone forever, that is not rapid development. You are simply borrowing time from the future."

Academia is a marathon.

It isn't over after one sprint.

And in order to finish the marathon, you need to establish rules to go the distance.

"Life research in this world has already spent far too long paying off the debt of that arrogance. In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, I, as the restart point, must be under the strictest of rules."

"...However, isn't it true that if the regulations are too heavy, the commencement of individual research itself will be delayed?"

One young priest cautiously raised a counterargument.

I nodded and acknowledged that fact.

"You are correct. It will be delayed."

But the history of my previous life strongly suggested otherwise.

Just because you commenced research quickly didn't mean that academia developed quickly.

"However, the true speed of academia must be judged not by how quickly the first experiment ends, but by how much the next researcher can 'trust' and build upon those results."

In science, reproducibility is important.

An experiment I pulled off should be reproducible by a scientist on the other side of Earth.

Flukes or dumb luck that others can't reproduce are not academia.

And to guarantee this reproducibility, research ethics are important.

"If we lacked these ethics, we might threaten the test subjects when the desired result doesn't come out."

For example, let's say I conducted an experiment on Erika, asking, 'How many onions do I have to feed her before it tastes like an apple?'

At first, she'd probably say it tastes like an onion.

But by the time she was on her 10th onion, Erika would likely cry and beg, claiming it tastes like an apple.

Then I would record, 'Aha! Eating 10 onions makes it taste like an apple!'

If research ethics are properly functioning, such results won't come out.

The experimenter wouldn't be able to fabricate results just because they didn't like the data,

and test subjects wouldn't end up reporting false results because they were half-threatened.

'Well, because of things like this, I didn't really cite data from the Chinese guys in my academic papers in my previous life either.'

Above all, ethics tie directly to the reproducibility and reliability of the research.

Whenever I tried to reproduce the experiments of guys who didn't strictly follow research ethics, they never worked out.

Applying them to meta-analyses always caused them to fall flat.

Something about pharmaceutical companies being involved, so they'd threaten or bribe the test subjects if they didn't get the desired data.

Well, sometimes the Chinese side would pump out academic papers of such chillingly high quality that made me think, 'Fuck, they actually tested all of this? How?'

Some clearly stated it was a simulation, but made me suspect they might have actually run the experiments.

But those were incredibly rare cases.

Anyway, the point is that academic papers that don't adhere to ethics have low trust levels and reproducibility.

"If a test subject couldn't endure the pain and spat out the answer the researcher wanted, is that record the truth? What if the experimenter hid their failure and excluded the deceased from the statistics? The next researcher would believe their senior's false records and repeat the exact same failures. That is not research; it is a cowardly act of passing one's failures onto the junior scholars of the future."

There was also the issue of resources.

Because the public's trust is also a crucial resource for research.

"If you break ethics, you might easily find test subjects for the immediate experiment. But soon, no one will trust the researchers."

Let's think about it with common sense.

A company where the participants die or end up with a disability, versus a company where the worst that happens is a fever.

If both companies were recruiting participants for a clinical trial, which one would people choose?

The latter, obviously.

'The trust in vaccine companies in the United States shattered because they didn't adhere to this.'

Because they had accumulated so much karma, I heard their clinical trial participation rates were quite low.

"Eventually, it could reach a point where we wouldn't be able to get test subjects unless we resort to kidnapping people like the Magic Tower of the 13th Month."

Regaining trust after losing it is always a difficult task.

So there was a need to regulate it strictly from the start.

As my speech continued, the atmosphere inside the Assembly Hall sank into a bizarre silence.

I did not criticize the priests directly.

Instead, I pinched their conscience.

"When a treatment failed, did you track the cause to the very end?"

"......"

"When a patient passed away earlier than expected, did you leave a record of it as an undeniable failure case of treatment?"

Silence.

"Or, have you never covered up the records by claiming 'everything was God's will'? Have you never glossed over your failures by saying the caster's faith was lacking or the patient's faith was shallow?"

At my question, the Assembly Hall fell dead silent.

See.

They couldn't say it never happened.

This is why I say proper research ethics are important.

Without them, you end up distorting the experiment results.

Eventually, the priests lowered their gazes to the floor in shame.

And they began to read through the copies of my Research Ethics Guidelines meticulously.

A researcher must constantly doubt their own desire and pride.

They must accept outside inspection.

They must openly confess their failures and side effects to the whole world.

An old priest reading down through those contents muttered in a trembling voice.

"...This is practically closer to Ascetic Precepts."

A murmur began to spread from the Commandment Faction, the area where the priests who researched doctrines were gathered.

"To adhere to every single one of these clauses, one would have to completely kill off their own desires."

"How is this any different from the bone-grinding asceticism of Old Testament Style clerics?"

It wasn't to that extent, though...

I was about to say that, but because the atmosphere was flowing far too favorably for me, I couldn't open my mouth.

Soon, a remark carelessly thrown out by someone spread like wildfire among the priests.

"If this is black magic created while adhering to all of these commandments, wouldn't the principle itself be no different from primordial Old Testament Style Healing Magic?"

That remark drew the agreement of countless priests.

"That's definitely true."

"Furthermore, if you look closely at the black magic treatment method runic formula Lord Saint submitted, it contains the safety measures of thorough objective self-awareness and compassion."

"Then aside from the source of the power being different, wouldn't the essence be no different from Old Testament Style Divine Magic?"

"If that's the case, we wouldn't even need to establish a completely new doctrine."

"Expanding the existing healing doctrine to cover the black magic runic formula should be sufficient."

The Council was a place for changing doctrines.

Was that why?

The priests began to passionately debate over the black magic treatment method.

Soon, at the words of a Cardinal (whose name I didn't know) sitting in the seat of honor, the priests nodded in unison.

"We might as well use a different name to distinguish it from existing black magic to cause less confusion. How about Life Magic instead of black magic?"

"That sounds good. Frankly, attaching such a derogatory term to such noble magic didn't look good."

"Chairman. We first propose changing the name."

"I will accept it."

And just like that, the meeting flowed in the direction I desired.

The Black Magic Healing Arts would be reclassified as Life Magic,

and Life Magic research would proceed under the condition of strictly adhering to the Research Ethics Guidelines I had submitted.

Before long, the atmosphere in the Assembly Hall had completely shifted to my side.

Adopting black magic as an official treatment method already seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

"Finally...!"

"Will we be able to learn this if we go to the Meyer Infirmary?"

"Archbishop? What are you saying? Are you saying you will throw away your Divine Power?"

"Ahem! If we can cure the Demon Disease, what does that matter!"

"You can't! That means we'll lose a High-rank Healer!"

Although I occasionally saw people squabbling.

It didn't seem like something I needed to care about.

And so, the meeting proceeded in the direction I wanted.

Soon after, Knight Commander Matthias, who had been silently watching me, slowly rose from his seat.

And then he bowed his head to me politely, and as deeply as he could.

"...You did not try to prove your own goodness, Lord Saint."

His hoarse voice rang out in the Assembly Hall.

"Instead, you have bound yourself so that you could not harm the weak, even if you were to lose your goodness. If you have been bearing such harsh commandments all on your own, it is no different from the asceticism of the Old Testament Style priests. Only now do I slightly understand the reason why the gods bestowed such miraculous wisdom upon someone who doesn't even possess Divine Power."

Oh my, such embarrassing praise.

Of course, he could praise me even more.

Because when it comes to praise, the more the better.

Matthias fell silent for a moment before letting out a self-deprecating smile.

"I have seen far too much of how malice wears the mask of goodness to deceive people in The West. But it seems what I saw today wasn't a mask... but a true face."

He said while looking at my Crow Mask.

Listening to those words, I thought it was a good thing I came wearing a mask.

Otherwise, I would have failed my facial expression management and showed people my twitching lips.

Bang, bang!

Following Matthias's remarks, the Chairman struck his gavel.

"Then regarding the introduction of Life Magic, does anyone have any objections?"

"......"

No one raised their hand.

I thought someone might declare a filibuster, but the First Agenda seemed to be concluding just like this.

"Then we shall take a short recess to conduct a final review of the runic formula and Research Ethics Guidelines of The Black Saint, Yulian Nihilrit Schnabel."

Bang, bang.

With the sound of the gavel, the Council went into a short recess.

***

During the recess, I sipped on some coffee in the Waiting Room.

'Oh, the religious order's coffee is delicious.'

Was it because it was a place bathed in sunlight?

I should ask them to pack some up for me before I return to the Academy.

Or buy a whole bunch so I can enjoy it for a long time.

As I was sipping and having such thoughts, someone's shadow suddenly approached me.

When I raised my head, I saw Cardinal Wendras.

He was the Director of the Meyer Infirmary.

"Lord Saint. Excellent work."

"Only the First Agenda is over, is it not?"

"Thanks to the speech you just delivered, Lord Saint, the Second Agenda is practically as good as over as well."

"Is that so."

Cardinal Wendras said as he took a seat next to me.

He took a few sips of his coffee before speaking again.

"May I ask you a question?"

"Please do."

"Ever since you announced Life Magic, Lord Saint, I had every intention of immediately including it in the Infirmary's official curriculum. Yet the religious order is holding such a complicated meeting, claiming they must be cautious, are they not? Are you not disappointed?"

"Is there any reason to be disappointed? Changing a doctrine is inherently a complicated matter."

No matter how awesome of a surgery someone developed, it always took a long time for it to be introduced to academia.

But that wasn't because academia was lazy.

It was because they were being cautious.

If you blindly accepted something just because it was good, a major accident could happen later on.

"You could say this is quite similar to the nature of my research guidelines. Even when I make a new discovery, do I not take time before applying it to clinical practice?"

"...You are merciful, Lord Saint."

Cardinal Wendras nodded.

"As expected, I've felt this ever since you transcended the Sects, but your very bowl is different from ours."

"......"

"May I ask one more question?"

I checked my watch.

Since there was still time left before the meeting resumed, I nodded.

Only then did Cardinal Wendras speak.

"About black magic... I mean, Life Magic. Why entrust it to the religious order of all places?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are there not black magicians already? You could have cooperated with the Empire to establish your very own Magic Tower and nurture your own disciples. Is it perhaps because of the taboo regarding the revival of the Magic Tower of the 13th Month?"

Ah, so that's what he was curious about.

I shook my head.

"This has nothing to do with the taboo."

In fact, the Imperial Military showed a stance like they were ready to support me right away the moment I completed Life Magic.

The Magic Management Bureau did too, and so did my Teacher.

But during my consultation with Teacher the other day, I reached the conclusion that it wouldn't work out.

— "Mages won't be able to handle that Black Magic Healing Arts formula right now."

— "What do you mean, Teacher?"

— "The symbols used in this are talents required for healing priests."

— "Pardon?"

A Lightning Mage has the talent to feel the symbol of arrogance.

A Flame Mage has the talent to feel the symbol of passion.

Like so, a Mage has their own unique talent.

— "Compassion, and Mercy. It's the talent possessed by healing priests, meaning Mages who wield Divine Power."

Intelligence is important for a Mage, but this unique sensory talent is just as crucial.

To put it another way,

— "Even if you teach this to Mages, only a minority will be able to wield it. They lack the talent. Like me."

— "But haven't I been able to handle it? I didn't feel any such sensation."

— "It seems the way you have lived your life up until now has become a symbol of Mercy and Compassion."

— "How do you know that?"

— "Before you arrived, I tried using this runic formula over and over, but it didn't work. Yet the moment you arrived, it activated perfectly fine. So I tore the runic formula apart... and came to this conclusion."

In other words, according to Teacher's words, I was a walking symbol of Mercy and Compassion.

I don't know why it turned out that way, but anyway.

So while people could use Life Magic if I was nearby, the magic would misfire if I wasn't around.

...That was the conclusion.

— "It's fine for you to just consciously think of Mercy and Compassion, but that's not the case for other humans. You can't exist everywhere in the world at once, so wielding this magic will at least require the talents of priests."

— "Does that mean..."

— "They say priests honed through Old Testament Style asceticism usually awaken to such senses. I'll have a discussion with the Holy Emperor about it."

At the time, Teacher smacked his lips in disappointment.

At the fact that a new horizon of magic had opened up, but he couldn't use it as he pleased.

So I had to be stuck by Teacher's side and act as a Totem for a while.

Watching as Teacher chewed, tore, tasted, and enjoyed the magic.

Anyway, it was because of this background that I entrusted the management of Life Magic to the religious order.

The people who had awakened the talent to feel the symbol, but failed to awaken the crucial Divine Power.

Because those were the people who could handle this.

Whether it would be the Old Testament Style priests who failed in their asceticism, or the healing priests who threw away their Divine Power, I didn't know.

But it was certain that such people gathered within the religious order.

"That's how it turned out."

It seemed this information hadn't been relayed to the Cardinals yet.

I guessed the Holy Emperor purposefully hadn't relayed it to the Cardinals to build up the setup.

Since they first had to acknowledge Life Magic through doctrine before deciding who to teach it to.

Hearing that background, Cardinal Wendras nodded.

"In that case, the Old Testament Style priests who failed in their asceticism will end up handling this Life Magic."

"It's too early to give a definitive answer, but I also suspect that's how it'll turn out."

Many priests aspired to become healing priests.

They could feel the rewarding sensation of treating people, earn money or honor, and it was advantageous for taking a high position in the religious order.

For these reasons, priests hoped to become healing priests if the opportunity arose.

The problem was that the Awakening of Divine Power happened randomly.

"The Old Testament Style asceticism method can induce artificial awakening, but it always carried the problem of having a low success rate and thus not being preferred."

Of course, you could artificially awaken if you engaged in Old Testament Style asceticism from a young age.

However, this method had the issue of having an extremely low probability of success, just like in the era of the Primordial Saintess.

Therefore, the Awakening of Divine Power usually referred to random awakening without any asceticism.

Because this was far more realistic compared to Old Testament Style asceticism.

But there was something peculiar here.

It was that even if the probability of the Attendant Priests awakening their Divine Power through asceticism was abysmally low,

the probability of them blooming the talent to feel the symbol was incredibly high.

Thus, priests who became capable of feeling the symbol often walked the path of a Professor instead of a healing priest.

They would stay by the students' sides in the Seminary or the Department of Healing Arts, helping them learn Divine Magic.

Because even if they couldn't activate the magic themselves due to a lack of Divine Power, they could still teach the know-how and theories of feeling the symbol.

However, a method for those people to become healing priests had now appeared.

"It seems there will be no need for existing healing priests to throw away their Divine Power."

If that happens, wouldn't the application rate for Old Testament Style Attendant Priests also increase?

Since they could just shift their Career Path toward Life Magic even if they failed.

"Hoh..."

Hearing those words, Cardinal Wendras let out a sigh of admiration.

"What do you think about perhaps changing your title?"

"Pardon?"

"In the sense that you lead the priests who failed in their asceticism, the title 'Saint of the Lowliest' is..."

"That's a good suggestion, but this Council is not the place to discuss such things."

"I apologize, Lord Saint."

Cardinal Wendras muttered as he said that.

"As an agenda item for the next Council of Cardinals..."

"......"

Personally, I was against it.

Because I was already used to The Black Saint, and I liked it too.

But if they were just adding a title instead of getting rid of The Black Saint title, I wasn't against it.

Because it felt like I was farming achievements.

As we were chatting like that, the recess time eventually came to an end.

The Cardinal and I returned to our seats.

By the time we returned, the Chairman and the other priests had already finished their resolve.

Bang, bang!

The final conclusion was, 'Conditional Official Approval'.

Only Life Magic developed in full compliance with the Research Ethics Guidelines would be acknowledged as a legitimate Healing Act by the religious order.

The clause stating that any violation of the guidelines, even a single one, would result in it being treated as black magic instead of Life Magic was a bonus.

The declaration fell along with the heavy sound of the moderator's cane.

"Under the premise of strict compliance with the Code of Ethics presented by The Black Saint Yulian Nihilrit Schnabel, the religious order acknowledges the Life Magic runic formula as an official Healing Act!"

Matthias and the other priests of the Holy Knight Faction also bowed their heads and accepted the voting results without any objections.

It was the same for the other factions.

Both the Commandment Faction and the Healing Priest Faction.

Everyone bowed their heads and accepted the result.

"Then, we will now begin the discussion on the Second Agenda."

And the meeting regarding the Second Agenda began.