Awakening (2)
Viscount Alec, hard at work in his office, was suddenly confronted with an entirely unexpected situation.
"My Lord Viscount. You have guests."
"Guests? No one should be calling on me today."
His immediate reaction was suspicion. In the noble world, swindlers and opportunists swarmed like flies, so Alec's brow furrowed in displeasure.
"...It appears they are emissaries from the order."
"What?"
At those words, the Viscount's face lit up instantly.
"Yes! They have finally recognized my devotion! Show them in at once!"
For so long, Viscount Alec had devoted himself body and soul to the faith, sacrificing everything in service to the cult. The moment when his steadfast piety finally bore fruit had undoubtedly arrived.
Broad smile in place, Viscount Alec stepped forward to welcome his guests—only to find individuals who appeared no older than adolescent youths.
Quite young. But age means nothing. After all, even the Prophet still wears the guise of innocence. What truly matters is...
There was the boy who seemed to be the leader, and a step behind him stood a girl. Yet the Viscount's gaze locked onto neither of them; it settled entirely upon the lone swordsman lingering a discreet distance behind.
The paladin cherished most by the Prophet... A revered figure whose mere presence is kept under such strict secrecy that even contact within the order is forbidden... and he came here in person?
Dietrich, Paladin of Eden.
Alec could not harbor even the shadow of a doubt toward the two youths before him. With the order's most definitive living emblem trailing them like an escort, these youths had to occupy an unimaginably lofty echelon in the cult's hierarchy—far beyond anything he could fathom.
"Disappointing."
"Pardon...?"
The boy's opening remark struck the Viscount dumb.
Disappointing?
After all the boundless devotion he had poured into the faith? To be met with outright condemnation the instant they stepped through the door made a bitter wave of indignation surge from the depths of his chest.
"However, as it was the Prophet's personal design, voicing grievances would be premature."
"I-Is that so?"
A conversational trick designed to keep the listener dangling.
Viscount Alec could barely suppress the grin tugging at the corners of his lips. He was recognized. Acknowledged, no less, as a piece of the Prophet's grand design. Alec was dancing entirely on the palm of the lead youth's hand—thoroughly swayed by Yohan's every word.
"You, wait outside the door."
"..."
At Yohan's command, Dietrich bowed silently and stepped out into the hallway.
Watching that unmistakable hierarchy play out, Alec felt another spike of nervous tension tighten in his throat.
He bosses around a Paladin of Eden?
Just who on earth was this boy, and what terrifying authority did he wield? Viscount Alec found himself bordering on reverent awe.
Right on cue, Yohan made his move.
"You must wonder who we are. After all, you have never seen our faces within the order."
"Y-Yes, that is true..."
"Count yourself fortunate. We are the order's Heresy Inquisitors. Under ordinary circumstances, crossing our path would spell utter disaster for you."
And so, Yohan's performance began.
When impersonating someone, your best bet is to claim an obscure, shadowy department within the target organization. Naturally, claiming such an elusive division can raise eyebrows in its own right, but it is far easier to pull off than mimicking a well-known branch, and it leaves far fewer loopholes to trip you up.
"And this one beside me is the Chastiser under my command. Mind your manners before her—unless you fancy having your skull crushed, heheheh."
"..."
Viscount Alec swallowed dryly.
Dropping a sinister, half-joking threat like that worked far better than acting grimly serious the whole time; it erased any suspicion of a staged act. Honestly, the moment I hauled Dietrich along as an escort, the odds of him suspecting us of impersonating Eden's upper brass dropped to near zero anyway. Still, if you're going to commit to a bit, you might as well do it thoroughly. It makes things proceed far more smoothly.
"Curious why we've come?"
"W-Well..."
"Save your breath. Racking your brains for an answer you'll never find will only give you a headache. I'll cut to the chase: we are here for the Paladin's Trial."
"...The Paladin's Trial?"
"Indeed. As you have likely deduced, our companion is the one most cherished by the Prophet. Yet he has not fully awakened to his divine strength and true calling. We are merely the guides sent to shepherd his path."
Fabricating a plausible pretext was essential. While Dietrich served as our living, breathing Eden membership card, dragging him along without an explicit objective would actually invite suspicion.
"S-Surely you don't mean to use me as...?"
"Ha! You honestly think a wretch like you could serve as his trial? The Prophet sees the future. You are holding a fugitive holy knight captive here, are you not?"
"Yes... is that an issue? Ah! Could it be that you intend to use him as the subject of the trial...?!"
"Incorrect."
A true fanatic of Eden through and through. He didn't feel a shred of guilt over kidnapping and detaining people. Treating human lives like vermin was practically a baseline prerequisite for this crowd.
"Then why seek him out? Surely you aren't ordering his release...?"
"Hardly."
Our true objective was indeed Jeff's liberation, but demanding it outright would be foolish. Coming across as a one-sided demand would put Alec on edge, and once suspicion flared, every detail would look crooked to him.
"Under Chain will make a move to retrieve him."
"Pardon...?"
"Attackers will arrive shortly. It is a future foretold by the Prophet, so there is no doubt."
"Why would Under Chain...?"
"I see you were oblivious. That knight was attempting to collude with Under Chain. We deliberately left him free in order to track down their tail, but your reckless meddling has thrown a wrench into our plans."
Always take the opposite stance. We weren't here begging for Viscount Alec's cooperation; we were here to clean up the mess his blundering had caused. But humans are wired such that if you relentlessly reprimand them, their instinct is to desperately clear their name.
"No matter. In the end, we've still cornered their tail."
"Ah, y-yes..."
"Keep in mind, therefore, that you are not to disrupt the Paladin's Trial with any misguided ambition for glory."
"Understood."
Viscount Alec blinked rapidly and gave a meek, reluctant nod.
Now, the groundwork was laid. It was time for the advanced course: capitalizing on the very pretext we'd so carefully constructed.
"I shall ask in advance. Are there any areas we should avoid?"
"O-Of course not! Please, feel free to roam wherever you wish."
"You fail to grasp my meaning."
"Excuse me...?"
"The Paladin has yet to receive Eden's holy baptism. As such, he still clings to the petty, secular prejudices of the common world."
My implication was simple.
"Let me ask again. Can you truly stand blameless before the eyes of the world? Bear this in mind: this inquiry is an act of mercy on our part."
"...Please avoid the western annex, the second floor of the main manor, and the central tower."
"So we shall."
The western annex, the main manor's second floor, and the central tower. Jeff and the kidnapped children were kept in those three places. Excellent. I had wrung every necessary piece of intel from him. All that remained was the signal flare to kick off the show.
"M-My Lord Viscount!"
"Insolent fool! Whose presence do you think you are barging into?! We have vital guests!"
"B-But the Judge has appeared in the streets!"
Mmm, great timing.
"She completely obliterated the western avenue and is heading straight for the manor!"
Mmm, not so great.
Come on, destroying civilian neighborhoods is a bit much, isn't it?
"U-Um..."
Having roared at the messenger who had burst into the room, Viscount Alec now turned his anxious gaze back toward us. To be fair, when a monster like the Judge shows up, ignoring it is out of the question. Then again, throwing a colossal wrench into his affairs was precisely why we'd selected her in the first place.
"Pay no heed to us. Tend to your business as you see fit. Merely instruct your men not to cross our path."
"Y-Yes, of course... Then muster every available soldier in the estate and stall for time at once!"
"That's suicide, my Lord!"
"Did I pay you all that coin just to loaf around?! Who asked you to kill the Judge?! Go out there and buy time! Are we supposed to just sit back and watch that lunatic tear my domain to pieces until the Imperial Knights intervene?!"
Well, he wasn't wrong. For a cultist, he ran his territory with surprising competence. Standing armies and private knights were hired at exorbitant cost specifically for crises like this, not just to look pretty on parade.
"Then pray excuse me for a moment."
"Proceed."
Perhaps because the crisis was so dire, Viscount Alec scurried off immediately, leaving us entirely to our own devices. I'd put on quite the performance to dodge suspicion, but honestly, having the Judge pop up seemed ten times more effective...
I rose from my seat and headed toward Dietrich, who was dutifully waiting outside the door.
"The western annex, the second floor of the main building, and the central tower. Those are our suspects. And if you run into anyone who looks like an Under Chain operative along the way, play along and trade intel."
"Pardon? But aren't Under Chain just as vile a den of criminals as Eden?"
"They're actors I hired. Fakes designed to look like the real deal."
"Aha!"
He actually bought that. Well, it spared me the headache of a drawn-out explanation, so I wasn't complaining.
"As expected of you, Senior. Setting aside the prior preparations, how did you pinpoint all the suspicious locations in just a few minutes...?"
"Well, I have my ways."
I sold your name, buddy. Sold it for a hefty price, too. And I'll probably keep selling it in the future. It's not like a reputation wears out just because you pawn it off, right?
"Alright, let's split up from here. We'll search the central tower, so you check the western annex first."
"Pardon? Wouldn't the second floor be faster? You said there was something in the main manor as well."
"I already have a rough idea of what's there. But if you're really curious, check the western annex first, then loop back."
"You must have a grand plan in mind, Senior. I'm on my way!"
"Right."
Once Dietrich dashed off, Yuna—who had kept her mouth firmly shut to play the role of an enigmatic, dangerous woman—finally spoke up.
"Quite the actor, aren't you? You didn't leave an opening for me to chime in at all."
"Who knows? Things might have gone even smoother if you'd backed me up."
"Puhuhu! You think so?"
Jokes aside, Yuna had fulfilled her role admirably. Normally, suspicious figures showing up out of the blue like us would have been turned away at the front gates. But Yuna's striking looks and commanding presence made the haughty noble disguise utterly convincing. The moment we secured a face-to-face meeting with Viscount Alec, the game was already won.
"Let's get moving, then. I'm betting Jeff is locked up in the tower. The structure screams 'prison,' doesn't it?"
"It certainly does."
The kidnapped children were too numerous to keep in a cramped space, so they were likely in the annex. And when it comes to keeping an abducted adult hostage, a tower is the quintessential cliché.
"By the way, what's on the second floor of the main manor? You said you had an idea."
"Ah, that?"
In truth, putting two and two together wasn't difficult at all. The prime location of the main manor. The desperate anxiety Viscount Alec had displayed before the Marquis Ereticus estate. The fact that he possessed a wish so desperate he would cling to a cult for salvation. And, most crucially...
"He's a married man."
A minor tidbit of personal information.
Viscount Alec's wife was almost certainly in a comatose state. And he loved her. Loved her enough to sacrifice everything in this world if it meant saving her life.
"Clinging blindly to a single sliver of hope and following like a zealot is a flaw in itself, but..."
I turned my head toward the swinging door of the office. Through the closing gap, my eyes caught sight of a framed portrait resting atop the desk.
"...the one exploiting that desperation is an incomparable piece of human filth."
Cult possessed the power to heal anything so long as the breath of life hadn't fully left the body. There were lives that could be saved merely by him reaching out a hand. Of course, I didn't believe he was morally obligated to save everyone. People being people, grant them an inch and they'll demand a mile; I could understand not playing savior to every single soul.
Yet this was a completely different matter. Refusing to help was one thing. Weaponizing someone's deepest, most agonizing grief and dangling hope like bait—that was sheer villainy.
"...Yeah. Cult definitely needs to die."
That bastard had crossed the line long ago. It wasn't up to me to dictate the ending of this game, but... if the choice ever fell to me, I wouldn't be showing him a shred of mercy.