Only God
Chapter 77 - 69: God is Not Moral

Chapter 77: Chapter 69: God is Not Moral

Facing Dertulian’s silence, those judging him revealed victorious expressions.

King Yarlessto, who sat on the King’s Throne, was also watching the silent Dertulian, though no one could see the King’s expression.

What the crowd could see was that Dertulian had fallen into a trap.

Bolan stared at Dertulian, his accusations severe, as he had anticipated.

No matter how Dertulian defended himself, Bolan was confident in his ability to refute each point.

"You are right, I have violated morality."

After a long while, Dertulian spoke.

The crowd was taken aback, suspecting he would have a more vigorous objection, but Dertulian remained silent.

He stood in the center of the palace, as if accepting the crowd’s verdict.

"You did not only violate morality, you also sought to kill morality.

God granted the Logos people reason, and they used this divine reason to construct morality.

Thus, to kill morality is to kill the reason bestowed by God.

This is doubtlessly blasphemy.

Dertulian, what more can you say?"

Bolan pressed his advantage, seeking to definitively secure Dertulian’s guilt.

"Yes, I am trying to kill morality, and our glory will crumble with its destruction."

Dertulian’s words were seen by the crowd as an admission of his errors, and they shifted from uproar to excitement and joy.

This challenging struggle was finally coming to an end, as Dertulian, after much resistance, ultimately admitted his sins, and he was about to be executed under the charge of blasphemy!

"But,"

"Is God ultimately the God of morality, or the God of mankind?!"

Dertulian raised his head, as if lifting his own noble soul, his solemn gaze sweeping over everyone present.

The crowd instantly felt timid under his gaze, doubts arising from deep within.

God...isn’t morality?

Unbidden, this question arose in their hearts.

"If God is the God of morality, wouldn’t that mean if morality changes, God will change, and isn’t that God then ruled by morality?!"

Dertulian’s interrogation thundered powerfully, shaking the nobles to their core,

"You tell me, when the end of days comes, is it God who saves us or morality that saves us?

Is it morality that performs miracles, or God that performs miracles?!"

Pausing for a moment, Dertulian faced everyone,

"If morality seeks to destroy mankind, then mankind must kill morality!"

Everyone was trembling in shock.

The crowd was caught in a tempest of astonishment, including Bolan, who had thought that Dertulian would argue within the framework of morality, not realizing that the latter had leapt out of that frame and even sought to demolish the existing moral standards.

Bolan, esteemed as a Sage, struggled desperately to calm himself, his back soaked with cold sweat, he dug his fingernails into his palm, blood dripping, striving not to lose direction.

"If God is not morality, then what exactly is God?"

Bolan used almost all his strength to issue the most powerful of challenges.

No matter how Dertulian responded, Bolan was prepared to use Dertulian’s own words to confirm his blasphemous guilt.

At that moment, Dertulian clasped his hands together, as if making a final prayer.

"Logos people,

God has departed, our faith is immensely tested, our future dark and uncertain.

You ask me what God is?

I must say:

God is absurdity."

The nobles, having recovered from their shock, heard this answer and immediately displayed incredulous looks, the flames of victory flickering in their hearts.

This man actually declared "God is absurdity."

This man’s answer was so profoundly absurd!

"Ridiculous! Sophistry!"

"Execute him! Execute him!"

"Execute this grossly irreverent man."

A torrent of insults and roars sought to overwhelm Dertulian, to drown out the prophet’s son.

Dertulian was fearless.

He solemnly and earnestly said,

"Why would God love us? How could there be love without reason?

Absurd!

Why would God grant us reason? How could there just be such gratuitous gifts?

Absurd!

Why would God perform so many miracles, creating something so vast and splendid from nothing?

Absurd!"

"This does not conform to logic, nor to rules, nor to morality.

Isn’t this utterly absurd? It is the epitome of absurdity!"

Dertulian refused to be swayed by threats or intimidation.

The only point he wished to clarify in his argument was:

"With so much absurdity, with so much unreasonableness...

Is God morality, or is God absurdity?

Are we ultimately rational, or are we believers?"

Dertulian spread his arms wide, addressing both the accusing nobles and his brother on the King’s Throne.

"God, and the love of God,

That cannot be measured by human reason or morality, the moment you measure God with our reason and morality, you will see that God does not conform to our reason, nor does it fit our morality.

To humans,

God is not about morals; God is absurd."

He made his final proclamation,

"Because of absurdity, we believe!"

Dertulian’s proclamation was over.

In this trial, all his defenses had come to an end.

Dertulian also heard the response of the crowd clearly.

The powerful nobles considered themselves beyond redemption, wishing to die then and there.

Thus, he said,

"Go ahead and kill me,

you can kill my flesh, but not my soul.

Annihilate my body, cut off my breath, just as my father once received an answer from God, let my spirit live on forever!"

After he had spoken, the crowd still did not cease their curses and insults; they saw the king’s brother as a disgrace to the Logos people.

When the tidal wave of furious insults had ended, people turned their attention to the king of the Logos people— the Prophet’s eldest son, Yarlessto.

His figure, along with his face, remained cloaked in shadow throughout, with no one able to approach his throne or catch a hint of his emotions.

As the ultimate arbiter of the entire trial, King Yarlessto had remained silent throughout, never leaving his throne, whether during the accusations or defenses.

Now, at the trial’s conclusion, King Yarlessto finally stood from his throne, stepping out of the shadows that enveloped the King’s Throne, and slowly walked towards Dertulian.

Everyone held their breath, awaiting the king’s final judgment.

Just a word from Yarlessto and the peril of the kingdom would be eliminated, and the crisis would finally be suppressed.

King Yarlessto walked step by step; people were too far away to see his expression.

No one could know how much King Yarlessto was struggling during this trial.

When he reached the center of the palace, only Dertulian could see his expression clearly.

Yarlessto’s expression was so complex that no words could describe it.

Yet the traces of tears on his face were profoundly simple and pure.

"I once told my father,

’I will regard the hawk as my brother; I love my brother.’

Dertulian, to execute you is to execute my own life.

I forgive you."

King Yarlessto handed down the final judgment of this great trial,

and at the same time,

he was bidding farewell to this man destined to depart,

"I forgive you,

for we are brethren,

I forgive you all,

for the Logos people are children of God."

Dertulian looked at Yarlessto in amazement, as the latter’s whole body trembled, having grown much thinner after severe injuries, uttering these words seemed to drain all his strength.

King Yarlessto’s hand trembled but remained suspended in mid-air, finally unable to embrace Dertulian.

...............

...............

King Yarlessto’s forgiveness marked a full stop on this trial.

Along with Antion and the other rebellious slaves, they were released by King Yarlessto’s forgiveness.

Not one noble opposed King Yarlessto’s judgment, and they no longer wished to call Yarlessto the Wise King, even instructing their poets to write of King Yarlessto’s foolishness.

However, the fierce opposition from the nobles did not change King Yarlessto’s decision.

King Yarlessto forgave all rebellious slaves, firmly demanding the nobles restore the slaves’ freedom, and he sent people to instruct Dertulian to keep these men in line.

He did not abolish slavery, but he had done his utmost.

And Dertulian, since the trial ended, had busied himself with building ships, to fulfill the needs of the thousands who sought to sail in search of God.

Thirty years blinked by.

Dertulian finally led the craftsmen to build a total of sixty oar-sail ships, these basic sea vessels, each only able to accommodate sixty people, but sufficient to meet the needs of the Logos people.

Over the past thirty years, numerous problems arose within the kingdom, chaos permeated the entire kingdom, and countless Logos people harmed themselves or even committed suicide due to God’s departure.

Ultimately, almost all Logos people placed their hopes in Dertulian and those who set sail to seek God.

They were the only hope.

The Logos people held boundless expectations for them, and on the day before they set sail, thousands offered sacrifices at the altar in the mountains, and countless others knelt throughout the kingdom praying for God’s blessing of their safety.

Dertulian was about to embark on his journey, a changed man, no longer the confused soul he once was. He understood much now, especially the value of familial bonds, yet he could not bid farewell to Yarlessto.

Yarlessto neither wished to see him nor bid him goodbye.

Over the years, the Logos people could see that King Yarlessto was aging much more after the severe injury, as if the king’s life was cut in half seemingly out of nowhere.

Yarlessto, originating from a priestly background, appeared extremely frail, even his seated figure on the throne lacked its usual vitality.

The day of departure arrived swiftly.

Beneath Dertulian’s feet was the crowd seeing him off, his sixty oar-sail ships, accompanied by five unicorns, boldly departed from the Logos Kingdom.

King Yarlessto had already informed these Logos people of the direction in which God departed, as he was one of the witnesses of that sacrifice.

The Prophet’s second son looked towards the distant palace, aware that within the stone-made palace, Yarlessto sat upon the throne.

They had become a pair of warring brothers.

Dertulian had long understood that Yarlessto’s forgiveness thirty years ago was a sorrowful farewell, and the descendants of Al were to be separated from this day forward, as the prophecy foretold that two great nations would rise upon the earth.

Dertulian sat on the mast, his customary reticence left him wordless, only the sad tears fell into the sea.

When the autumn wind blows, the trees will shed their leaves, and the leaves too shed the trees.

Just as the leaves flourish and decay,

the story of the Logos people also rises and falls with each generation.

Thus,

Yarlessto left him behind, and he too left Yarlessto behind.