The Things Most Needed in an Investigation
The Yura Kingdom, a militaristic powerhouse with a long and storied history. It was the first nation on the continent to enthusiastically adopt firearms, and its belligerent tendency to start wars at the slightest provocation had earned it friction with nearly every neighboring country. I sat aboard the train bound for that very kingdom, staring at the pigeon in front of me and letting out a deep sigh.
I hadn’t exactly expected her to keep the secret forever, but still…
[She, uh… said she would summon you soon…]
Hmm. I hadn’t expected that approach. I was a little surprised. Was this really something important enough for Her Holiness to call me in person?
My reaction must have been obvious, because the pigeon spoke again, sounding almost exasperated.
[You exorcised Amon. What did you expect?]
Ah. I suppose that makes sense. I nodded. So the problem really was that high-ranking demon after all.
‘What a pain.’
Well… it had been inevitable from the moment I got involved. There was no point complaining now.
When I immediately asked about the next assignment, the pigeon nodded.
[That’s right. There haven’t been any notable reports yet, so continue your investigation freely.]
In truth, an Inquisitor’s work didn’t stop simply because there were no denunciations. On the contrary, the primary duty was to travel across the continent and check for signs of heresy. The only reason I handled so many reports was because of my Unique Magic.
Most Inquisitors were simply assigned a region by the Church and left to patrol it on their own, investigating any potential heresy they came across.
With that, I opened the window and let the pigeon fly out.
Continue the investigation freely, huh…
‘That doesn’t sound so bad.’
Thinking along those lines, I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes for a short nap. We would be arriving in Saint Navana, Yura Kingdom, soon enough.
"That boy… well, that’s just how he is."
Greg remained utterly uninterested even after hearing the visitor’s report. His son’s fate had always been cursed with misfortune, so getting dragged into something like this was hardly surprising.
"More importantly, is it really alright for you to be here? I thought you were a rather busy man."
Thud.
Greg casually tossed aside the massive tiger he had just hunted and asked his question. Gilbert looked at the beast and let out a small gasp of admiration.
‘As expected… the Guardian Deity of Rucella.’
A faint scent of monster blood lingered in the tiger’s entrails. It had probably devoured a small monster and undergone mutation from the corrupted blood. It was not a creature that should be handled so lightly… yet this man was treating it like a stray cat he had picked up off the street.
"So? Did you come all this way to beat me up in my son’s place? Revenge for your ex-wife?"
"Hoho, that does sound rather entertaining, but…"
Gilbert looked at Greg. It was true that the intense magical power radiating from this man piqued his interest, but…
"Today I am here on official business, so let us save that for another time."
Since this was not a personal visit, Gilbert had no intention of mixing private feelings with public duty. Greg immediately understood why the man had come.
"Hmm. So it’s about that invitation from the Pope. If they were going to send an envoy from the Empire, Eldor himself would have been a better choice."
Even Gilbert could not help but be impressed by the sheer audacity of this man casually referring to the Emperor of the Empire by his first name. But to Greg, such things were completely irrelevant.
What mattered was…
"A demon… Tsk! I told that idiot not to get involved in such nonsense and to just study properly so he could inherit the family!"
It was the matter of the high-ranking demon that had been operating within the Empire. Greg was deeply displeased that his son was involved. He had sent the boy to university so he could learn to manage the family estate, yet the fool had chosen to major in theology. When Greg let that slide, the boy promptly ran off and joined the Church. And what was he doing there now? An Adultery Investigator? Damn it all! What a worthless son. Greg had a mountain of complaints about the boy.
If he was going to be despised anyway, he should at least avoid getting tangled up with dangerous creatures like demons. Why did his son’s name always come up in these kinds of messes?
"Tell them I’m not interested. However, if a demon causes trouble in this region, I will personally crush it. You can rest easy on that front."
Greg had grown tired of the Church long ago and had no desire to get involved with them again. When he refused, Gilbert shook his head.
"I’m afraid that won’t be possible."
Gilbert answered in a calm tone. Greg’s eyes grew cold.
"Then what exactly do you want?"
At the icy words, Gilbert slowly pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket.
"…It truly is unfortunate."
He calmly slipped the gloves on. The white gloves, adorned with ornate runes, emitted a magical power that even Greg could tell was no ordinary thing.
"I will have to take you by force if necessary."
Did he not understand how important this conference was? The Pope himself was presiding over a gathering of the continent’s most distinguished representatives to discuss the demon problem. The man who had received an invitation to that glorious occasion from Rucella was none other than Greg Abnaigel, the Guardian Deity of Rucella. For one of the continent’s three great mages to be absent from such a meeting was simply unacceptable.
Gilbert was not a particularly devout follower of the Goddess Yuno, but he was not so lax as to allow someone to skip out on an event of this magnitude.
"Force? How convenient."
Crack. Crack.
Greg smiled and lightly loosened his wrists. Though he had aged considerably, his muscular body still rippled with power.
"I was thinking the same thing. Talking with fists is much easier than using words."
This man, too, had always preferred settling matters with strength rather than speech.
My father always used to say that if something was troubling you, it was better to charge in with your body than to sit around worrying. I had interpreted that as meaning it was better to do something than nothing at all… but now I understand the true meaning was closer to ‘If your body is strong enough, you don’t need to use your head.’
Father had solved most things in his life with brute force. When enemies invaded, when agitators sparked a rebellion in the territory, even when Mother was kidnapped. Instead of using his head, he simply used his strength.
When the enemy army came, if they outnumbered his forces ten to one, he simply killed all ten times as many soldiers himself. When a rebellion broke out, he suppressed the rebelling citizens and hung the agitator’s head in the public square. When Mother was kidnapped by bandits during a trip before trains existed, he flew in alone, slaughtered the entire bandit group, and rescued all the hostages.
Father rarely ever used his head. He simply destroyed, killed, and protected.
That is why, although I do not particularly like my father, I am well aware of how important his very existence has been to my homeland of Rucella.
And… honestly, I never wanted to resemble him.
Humans possess intellect. Why would anyone choose to solve problems with their body when they could use their mind?
But…
‘How depressing.’
Depressingly enough, I was still his son. When push came to shove, I ended up solving things with force anyway.
Just like this.
I looked down at the gang that had once ruled this city, now sprawled across the ground before me, and made my declaration with a solemn expression.
How did things end up like this?
To explain that, we would have to go back about twelve hours.
Approximately twelve hours earlier.
Saint Navana, Yura Kingdom.
The first major city one encountered when crossing from the Empire into the Yura Kingdom. As a gateway city, it was a bustling metropolis where all sorts of people gathered. It had once served as a supply base during the wars between the Empire and Yura, so traces of those conflicts still remained, and public order was not particularly good.
"Aigoo…! Aigoo!"
In the middle of that city, a man with a black eye and a broken arm was sobbing pathetically. Everyone looked at him with pity but continued on their way. Then one man approached him.
"Sob, sob. This is so unfair I can’t even live like this. Please, someone help me. I beg you."
The man wiped the crying man’s tears with a handkerchief and used holy magic to heal his bruises and broken arm.
"P-Priest, sir."
At the sight of the holy magic, the man’s tears stopped instantly. Even a child knew that not many priests on the continent could use holy magic of this caliber.
"W-Well, you see…"
The man explained the situation in a trembling voice, clearly furious. The priest simply nodded quietly as he listened. Perhaps moved by his calm demeanor, the man’s voice gradually stabilized.
"I see."
The story was roughly as follows.
The man’s name was Roze Bernard. He was an ordinary butcher who ran a shop in this city. He had a rather beautiful wife and one daughter, and they had lived happily together. But that happiness had not lasted long.
It turned out his wife had been the lover of Johnson, the boss of the Kabla gang that ruled this city. She had approached him with the intention of taking over his butcher shop. The moment she became his wife, gave birth to his child, and two years had passed—securing her legal property rights—she had taken the deed to his shop and disappeared.
‘A marriage scam.’
The priest roughly understood the situation. The man’s butcher shop must have been quite successful in the city for a gang to invest so much time in stealing it. In fact, the laws of the Yura Kingdom granted property rights to a wife who had borne a child and lived with her husband for two years after marriage, so legally there was little that could be done.
Surprisingly, this was a matter that could not be judged under the kingdom’s law.
However…
"T-They even kidnapped my daughter. I begged them to at least return my daughter, but…"
The priest gently patted the sobbing man’s back and spoke kindly.
He took out his inverted cross rosario and showed it to the man, smiling gently with his soft green eyes.
There was no need to worry. While this matter could not be judged under the kingdom’s law, it could certainly be judged under the Church’s law.
The priest—Jenkinson Beckett, the Adultery Investigator—decided to take on this case.
After all, one of the reasons Inquisitors existed was to save and comfort the faithful who suffered from such injustices.