A small girl in a war

God is unhappy.

Creating humans from dust, bestowing them with knowledge and wisdom, he treated them quite fairly according to his perfect sense of justice and morality. Requesting only mere faith, he protected them from disasters that could wipe out their whole race and occasionally answering the prayer from the faithful.

It has all gone according to his majesty plan, with humans increasing in number every day and their civilization prospering, their advancement is certainly surprising to even being like him. With religion forms around the teaching he has given, miracles he performs, the faith he receives has slowly increased every day.

Yet, the same couldn't be said in recent human history. The coming of peace and wealth has lead humans astray from their creator. More and more humans begin to question their faith and even his existence despite the miracle he has performed over their period, one particular example is a certain ' knowledgeable' philosopher.

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

― Epicurus

How dare he questions his existence! Through ashes and dust he created them, yet they hold no gratitude towards him. He had protected them from extinction and from total chaos, giving knowledge away without a cost. All these should be enough to satisfy them already, yet what's wrong with them!?

Hmm? What is his answer to Epicurus's question?

You will call me God, whether you like it or not. Because I'm 'God'.

Ahem, coming back over here. The faith he receives is getting less and less each day, so an experiment is required to investigate the causes. At an experiment on a faithless human, a certain unlucky man catches his eyes.

Questioning his power, his existence, even refusing to address him as God, this man is the perfect subject for this experiment. He wanna know, if humans were to come into a disastrous and hopeless situation, will they be able to develop faith just like the old-time? Are disaster and poverty really require to make mankind obedient

And thus with a flick of his manifest body's thumb, the man is transferred to another world that is also under his control. Reincarnating into a female baby, he also tested if sexual desire affects the development of faith too as some extra spice added to it.

A world that is undergoing political chaos, where conflicts will escalate into war, where men slaughter each other for priceless resources and profit. A perfect world for this experiment.

Looking at a small female baby who has just been born into this world, he observed silently while occasionally manipulating some crucial factor, but letting her have her freedom for most of the time. Merely making her parents comes into a financial crisis and resort to abandoning their child, sending her off to a church. He expected her faith will increase due to this harsh treatment and experience, and perhaps the teaching of the church will develop her faith too.

Yet, her mind and though didn't flinch a bit, that he didn't sense any increase of faith from her.

Watching her till today, he is a bit irritated by the progress. Too slow, far too slow, something must be done. Coincidentally, a unique soul seems to have arrived just a few days ago. Thinking for a bit again with his omnipotent mind, he begins to manipulate some factor again…

.

.

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"May the Lord's light continue to shine upon us." A nun who is in her twenties is praying in front of the altar, her beautiful face with light shining upon her makes it a beautiful and holy image forming here.

"May the Lord's light continue to shine upon us." And when the nun finishes her sentences, a group of small children behind her begin to repeat it again with different speed of speech, making it sounds chaotic.

"And the devil does not tempt us away from his righteousness." Praying in a serious tone, she hopes the children behind her will grow up well under the teaching of the Lord.

"And the devil does not tempt us away from his righteousness." Hungry for lunch, many children's minds are filled with the thought of their lunch later while attending the prayer.

"Amen." Ending the prayer, the nun looks at the orphan with eyes of kindness, hoping there will be peace in this now bloody world.

"Amen." Unwillingly praying, among the group is a cute girl with blonde hair and blue iris which opens her eyes from the troublesome prayer.

"Alright children, lunch is ready, remember to wash your hands before eating them!" Noticing the prayer has ended, another much older nun calls the children inside for their lunch. as children tend to eat a lot for their growth after all.

"Tanya! Come in too, aren't you hungry already?" The young nun noticing one of the girls called Tanya who is still standing urges her to come in for food. "Your body is too small! You need to eat more, you know?"

"Oh, sorry sister Anna, I'm just thinking about something just now." Realizing the nun's concerns, Tanya raises her face and fakes an angelic smile while speaking in a cute voice, maintaining her usual perfect image in the church. "I will be there right away!"

My name is Tanya Degurechaff, I'm a former Japanese salaryman reincarnated by a stupid being that calls himself God into a world similar to my old one who is undergoing world war 1.

Walking into a small canteen and forcing myself to eat the terrible tasting baked potato and some vegetables while acting like I'm enjoying it, I've been living in this church for about a year ever since my parents abandoned me in a night of cold winter at the church.

And right now, I need to find a household to adopt me as fast as I can before the war affected me.

Finishing my terrible looking and tasting lunch with a prayer of thanking the Lord, I help some other lazy kid to wash their dishes, gaining the chance to eavesdrop on the nun's conversation.

"Shouldn't we be moving already? The Empire army is already retreating from the French's border. This place will soon turn into a battlefield!" With a worried voice, sister Anna expresses her concern over their safety. "I hear the people living near the border have already been terrorized by the French, we can't stay here any longer!"

"Brother Anthony isn't willing to give up the church, he says that the Lord will protect us from harm." Shaking her head, the older nun speaks with disappointment as she clearly doesn't believe in the priest's blind faith. "Let's hope the French will be civilized when they come over here, that there are still orphan over here"

'Damn it, it's been this bad huh?' Thinking in my mind, I diligently wash the dishes just like any other obedient small girl. Washing the dish through water, I try to think of ways to escape from here.

'I could sneak out from the church at night when everyone is sleeping or during the outdoor playing time...But where could I go? The plan of getting adopted by someone isn't going well, but running to nowhere won't help either. I still need food to survive after all.'

'But leaving my fate to other people's mercy? I would rather resort to eating grass than doing that. Alright, I will run away tomorrow then.' Nodding to myself, I finished my chores and walked away from the still chatting nuns.

"Oh Tanya! Doing the other's child chore as usual huh? You should give some time for yourself too, your friend has been too lazy recently." And suddenly, a deep calm voice enters my ears which is from brother Anthony, an old priest of this church. Already in his sixty, he wears a white robe for the priest while handling the affair of the small church. Proceeds to kneel down with his already weak leg, he puts his wrinkled hand upon my hair, messing it up a bit. With a hair of white, he represents the typical old stubborn priest in the church.

"You are too kind Tanya, you should treat yourself a bit better too!" Brother Anthony with a smile advises the most lovable child in the Church. Obedient, kind, respectful and with a strong faith in the Lord, she is an angel on Earth. Too bad no one wants to adopt her, she deserves better than this.

"Oh, don't worry Brother Anthony! I'm having fun with it too. Plus, helping others make me feel happy." Faking a blush on my face, I pretend to be a bit shy from his praises. "The Lord did say to love our neighbor after all, so I'm happy to do it."

"I guess so, but still you should treat yourself better." Finish patting Tanya's fluffy hair and messing it a bit. With a smile, Brother Anthony dismisses Tanya to let her continue her daily task. "Alright, the class is starting soon. Work hard today too alright?"

"I will Brother Anthony! And may the Lord's guidance continue to be with you." Smiling and waving hands to Brother Anthony who refuses to move the church, I curse him with the darkest word I can think of as revenge for putting myself in such danger. Risking lives for this stupid old church! I should have burned it down the moment I came here to force them to relocate.

Sighing a bit, I act as energized as I can and walk to a cruel-looking classroom that is still devoid of people. The children are still playing outside at the playground, while the teacher hasn't arrived here yet.

Opening my notebook and my bible, I seemingly begin to write down notes about many stories from the bible. My learning from them, and how I will become a better person through it. Writing paragraph after paragraph, I write till Sister Anna come into class and prepares her material

"Oh Tanya, diligent as always huh? You should rest sometime too." Realizing my existence here, she walks towards me softly and gently patted my hair again, I can't help but wonder why everyone likes to do that.

"It's just that I want to learn more about the Lord every day through his word and wisdom, and taking notes helps me with that." Again with the fake smile, the notes were actually a plan of my escape route according to the intel I have gathered so far. Using some characters in the bible as code and symbols, I make sure that no one can understand my notebook for security reasons.

Not long after, the other children begin to unwillingly enter the class under Sister Anna shouting, as the long session about how the Lord is merciful and gracious will start again. Standing before the clearly old blackboard, Sister Anna ignoring the sleeping kid in the class tries to convey the knowledge to the one who is willing to listen, especially to Tanya who is taking down notes with every sentence she says.

"Ah, as long as I'm teaching Tanya, it will be alright." Sister Anna comforting herself with Tanya's attitude on learning decides to spend some time with her tonight as reward for her diligence and paying attention to her. Maybe she will sleep with her tonight and cuddle together, prepare some small dessert that the church rarely gives out due to their poor financial situation. The government funding has been cut down recently sadly.

Meanwhile, I'm writing and planning the escape route while Sister Anna is teaching. The Eastern route is the quickest way to safety, I know that there is a village nearby for me to perhaps resupply with food and water for my journey to safety. With the money I've saved over this year, I should last at least a month before I had to resort to begging on the street. But if I could save time taking the dirt road to the south…

"BANG!" With the sound of a rifle shooting followed by the scream of women, I accidentally dropped my pencil as to my body's natural reflex. With the children in the class screaming and Sister Anna rushing out to check what happened, I can't help but have a feeling.

F*cking being X is playing with me again.