Chapter 54: A Crime of Passion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 54: A Crime of Passion
As soon as day broke, I threw on some clothes and headed for the city. After Margaret transported me there, I went straight to the church's training ground.
I had my reasons for insisting, almost childishly, that my teacher let me become a church instructor.
‘I have to change the system.’
An individual is weak and powerless. It was impossible to resist the system of witch hunting that the church had built up over nearly two thousand years. The same was true even for a witch.
I had to destroy that system, but even that was no easy task. This era's dependence on religion was beyond the imagination of anyone from the modern world.
I had to change them slowly, little by little, like a fine drizzle soaking through your clothes. So slowly that they wouldn't even realize they were changing.
And so, I had to make it so humans would stop hating witches of their own accord. Training apprentice holy knights was the perfect position for that.
‘A year or two would be nowhere near enough, and it might even be impossible in a decade…’
But if I bet my entire life on it, I might be able to change things, just a little. For my teacher, who would live on long after I was gone.
For all the witches who would be born in the future.
For now, I needed to bend a little.
I finally arrived at the training ground.
Several people were already gathered at the training ground.
Men and women, all together.
As I was trying to estimate their numbers by eye, I met the gaze of the trainee on the far left.
“Number.”
“…Y-Yes?”
“You look spaced out. Number!”
When I shouted at the trainees, they quickly caught on and started calling out their numbers. After hearing the final number, seventeen, I nodded and looked them over.
“I am Yohan, and starting today, I will be your instructor.”
“Nice to meet you, Instructor!”
“I’m not.”
At my words, the trainees tilted their heads in confusion. These clueless bastards were so pathetic that if Ludwig had seen them, he would have scowled and sighed in exasperation.
A whole bunch of them were gathered here, with no awareness of what they were trying to become, nor any pride in being a holy knight.
“You are all probably here because you have exceptional faith, some talent, or a desire for revenge against witches. Is that right?”
“Yes, sir!”
“But about half of you will give up on becoming holy knights. I’ll make sure of it. If you’re ready, you there.”
“Y-Yes!”
“Run.”
“Huh?”
With a blank expression, I pointed to the track inside the training ground.
“I said, run.”
The one who’d pretended not to understand made a dumbfounded face, then immediately took off running.
Following him, the other sixteen trainees also started to run. Watching them run hard, I leisurely fell in behind them.
‘First, I’ll drain their stamina.’
A healthy mind comes from a healthy body.
In other words, if you exhaust the body, the mind becomes exhausted too. I would wear them down just enough to make them perfectly susceptible to being brainwashed into thinking witches weren't so bad.
How many hundreds of laps had they run already?
They were residents of a medieval fantasy world, trained to a degree incomparable to modern people, but that alone wasn't enough to keep up with someone who was truly disciplined.
“Is this all you've got?!”
“Gasp, haah! Hah! Haaah!”
“Any bastard who collapses, I'll strip of their holy knight qualifications on my authority. Run. You can run slow, but do not stop!”
Of course, I had no such authority. It was a simple scare tactic. But the clueless apprentice holy knights had no way of knowing whether it was a bluff or not.
Even the naturally smart ones had their bodies so wrecked they couldn't think straight. A body that uses all its energy on running is incapable of useless brain activity.
“Stop.”
“Haaah! Gaaah!”
“P-Please, save me…”
“Water…”
As soon as I gave the signal to stop, the apprentices collapsed to the ground, panting. Looking at them, I began their mental training without giving them a moment's rest.
“Like this, how do you expect to protect anyone?”
“W-We can do it!”
“Oh? Then get up and run.”
“…S-Sorry!”
“Don't just spout empty words. The most important thing is to think and judge for yourselves. Don't just blindly follow what others do. For example… you there.”
“…Yes.”
At my call, Trainee #14 got to her feet. She was a busty trainee with blonde hair tied back that swayed as she moved. Her appearance wasn't exactly good for the male trainees' focus.
As she stood up, her chest swayed, and the panting trainees all gasped in unison.
“If a witch were in front of you, what would you do?”
“Kill her.”
“Wrong.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Always think first. Why is the witch here, are there any hostages, is she a witch who harms people?”
“There are no witches who don't cause harm.”
She answered, shaking her head firmly. But that wasn't the answer I wanted. Even if that might be true, they couldn't be allowed to think that way.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because… witches have always caused harm.”
“How can you be sure all witches are like that? Have you seen and confirmed it with your own eyes for every single witch?”
“There's no need. Just as chickens can't fly, it's common sense that witches are harmful.”
“Right, and I'm asking how you confirmed that 'common sense'.”
It was a demand for the devil's proof. Since you can't prove something didn't happen, modern law operates on the principle of presumption of innocence.
At my words, the trainee shut her mouth tightly. It seemed she had plenty she wanted to say, but she had no choice but to keep quiet in the face of her instructor's authority and unbreakable logic.
Looking at her, I continued.
“In the first place, is it even just to execute a witch simply for being a witch? I question that very premise.”
“…Are you doubting the church? That's blasphemy—”
“Yes. I reject this system itself. This system of executing and ostracizing all witches. What the hell have we gained from this? Have we actually gained anything at all?”
“We were able to kill cruel witches.”
“No. The ones who died weren't witches, but holy knights, and the common people caught up in the magic of enraged witches. This system antagonizes even the witches who would have done nothing if left alone, ultimately turning every last one of them into an enemy—it's because of this damn system that this country can't develop.”
The trainees' eyes widened. Not because they were moved by my speech, but because they were shocked by the blasphemy they'd never even dreamed of uttering.
There would probably be some who would write to Sister Elesis today, accusing me of being a witch sympathizer. But they would soon realize it was useless, and if I continued this kind of training, they would start to realize something was wrong on their own.
‘Little by little, I have to change things.’
At this moment, when so many holy knights have died, if the new recruits filling their ranks began to question the very system that antagonizes witches…
And if they rose to high positions—then in the distant future, it might be possible to change this system that demonized all witches, even just a little.
Imagining that future, I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
“Break time's over. Now, run.”
“Yessssir!”
The trainees shouted energetically and started running again.
Evangeline was gloomily sipping her tea, feeling the emptiness left by her disciple. It was a feeling she hadn't experienced during the hundreds of years she'd been alone.
You never know what you have until it's gone.
She should have spent more time with her disciple—she didn't have time to waste on things like teaching holy knights…
Whether her disciple knew this or not, he had heartlessly left for the church.
‘Yohan, Yohaaaaan…’
Just as she slumped over the table, she heard footsteps. They had appeared suddenly behind her, without any prior presence.
Only Margaret could pull something like that off. Realizing she had returned, Evangeline turned around with a bright smile.
Whoosh-! As she turned, Margaret, who had been standing alone, looked at her in surprise.
“Wh-What the!?”
“…Where's Yohan?”
“He's still at the church. He said it might be dangerous for me to be alone, so he told me to come get him later.”
“Aha—so you're saying you left Yohan all alone at the church. Is that it?”
Hearing Margaret's words, Evangeline grinned and shot blasts of magic power at her. Margaret, who erased the magic orbs flying at her with spatial magic, scowled at the irritable Evangeline.
“Don't use magic inside the house.”
“Heeeh—this is my house. Are you trying to act like you own the place now?”
“…That's not what I meant.”
“Right, you think you can just run away with Yohan if things get tough? Ahh—what if I just killed you right here, right now, so you can't do that, hmm?”
“You've completely lost it. Just because Yohan chose me and not you.”
In response to Evangeline's prodding, Margaret held her head high and stepped forward. Evangeline may have been the strongest witch she knew, but Margaret wasn't that far behind.
The curse of a space isolated from the world was, in other words, the same as being safe from all attacks, and even now that the curse was gone, she could artificially recreate it.
Since they were both certain their attacks wouldn't work on each other, they could afford to bicker and trade insults.
“Yohan chose you? Wrong. Do you think picking up a stray cat off the street is a choice? It's just pity.”
“Ahaha—sure. The loser who wasn't chosen can think whatever she wants.”
“You—you're really going to die.”
“Try me.”
In that moment, Evangeline's hand clawed at Margaret. Margaret used spatial magic to refract the hand so it couldn't reach her.
At the same time, a dimension-slicing spell was fired. Evangeline saw it and rejected everything that tried to touch her body.
Like two north poles of a magnet meeting, they watched the hand and the magic repel each other. The two women stood still, facing off.
As such, it was exceedingly difficult for them to harm each other with their magic. However, Margaret possessed a spell-like incantation that was guaranteed to wound Evangeline.
“Why are you so sensitive today? Are you on your period or something?”
“…What's that got to do with being a witch? And you say that as if you don't get one.”
“I don't.”
“Aha—so you're already that old…”
“I got a shot that stops periods. I'm not scheduled to have one for the next ten months, you see.”
It wasn't something to be brought up so suddenly, so Evangeline stared blankly at Margaret, unable to understand what on earth she was talking about.
But it didn't take long for her to understand, and her face darkened.
“You, youuuu…”
“He was amazing, your disciple.”
“—Die!”
Evangeline said, activating her magic.
A sun descended upon the earth.