How a Wizard Survives (43)
How a Wizard Survives (43)
Diana, cornered inside the workshop, looked deeply frightened.
Hardly unreasonable.
Alone with a Heretic Inquisitor in a darkened shop.
If she weren't frightened now, you'd have to conclude her emotions were paralyzed.
"H-Holy Knight? The examination should already be over, what business brings you..."
"I'm not a Holy Knight. Still a squire."
I answered casually while slowly inspecting the workshop.
Cluttered with odds and ends, but it looked like she worked alone.
Apart from Diana, I saw no trace of anyone else.
"Your parents didn't visit the Inquisition branch, did they?"
"Both are at home. Since I'm the only one who comes and goes at the royal palace, they said I could be examined alone..."
"Ah, I'm not interrogating you, so please don't be too frightened."
No matter how sincerely I spoke, the Heretic Inquisitor's uniform kept her from believing a word.
Diana had also suffered plenty at the hands of Heretic Inquisitors.
"I don't know anything about my younger sister. Truly. Even after moving to Reshutal, I've been examined several times..."
"I told you I'm not suspicious. If the Inquisition genuinely suspected you, Miss Diana, you'd be dangling from a stake by now."
"..."
This time my persuasion must have sounded more sincere, because it worked.
I pulled a pouch brimming with gold coins from inside my coat and handed it to her.
It was part of the reward granted by the king... her life didn't appear impoverished, but having it was certainly better than not.
"Lady Ash is genuinely worried about you, Miss Diana."
"!"
At the sound of Ash's name, wariness surfaced again on Diana's face.
But as I'd said a moment ago—if I truly suspected her, we'd be having this conversation at the stake.
The claim that Ash was worried was true as well.
Even the cowardly Ash had permitted a meeting with her sister, which said enough.
Diana, who had been speechless for a long while, finally managed a few words.
"I-I can never forgive Ash. Because of my sister, our family fell completely to ruin..."
"That's right. That's exactly what you should say in front of a Heretic Inquisitor."
Fearing Ash might get hurt, I spoke quickly.
And without any reward for my effort, Diana, as if already regretting her words, added in a desperate voice.
"Even so, if she's alive... I hope she's happy. Even if we can never meet again!"
"...You might be able to meet someday. Until then, please take care of yourself. Ah, and as for your parents..."
"I won't tell them. The more people who know Ash exists, the more dangerous it will become."
"Clever."
I chuckled, nodded, and left the shop without lingering.
The moment Ash saw me back at the smithy, she glared and said, "Your conduct today disqualifies you as a mage."
"Does it."
"But you pass as a human being."
Ulysses, emerging from the kitchen, defended me.
The dinner that followed was exceptionally quiet.
Ash only opened her mouth again once a cup of tea sat in front of her.
"You're not even asking how it happened? My family, because of me..."
"How did it happen?"
I was actually curious.
Ash began the story the moment I asked.
She must have felt stifled herself.
Or else didn't want any unnecessary misunderstanding...
"The truth is, almost no one uses Puppet Magic the way I do."
"Well, I know that. Your puppets, Lady Ash, are on another—"
"No. You don't understand."
Ash declared that firmly, then explained the part I had missed.
"Normally, the best way to make a puppet is to use the model exactly as they are."
"Pardon? By 'use,' you mean..."
"To put it bluntly, you turn them into a corpse and recycle them. In reality, Puppet Magic is a sub-branch of Death Magic, you know?"
Good heavens.
So you make a dead corpse move as if it were alive?
As I clicked my tongue softly, Ash continued her story.
"But to the mage hiding in our territory, I must have looked like an excellent model."
"Ugh..."
"Kidnapping the lord's daughter—what on earth was he thinking."
Committing a crime like that meant he was bound to be arrested.
The problem was that it didn't happen fast enough.
While her kidnapper was away, Ash, trapped in his workshop, frantically searched for a way to escape.
But the workshop was locked from the outside only.
With her own strength, she had no way out.
Yet she never gave up, and what she finally managed to find was...
"The method to contract with a demon."
"That's right."
"Even so, there are barely any mages who've managed to summon and contract a demon in half a day. Ash is secretly brimming with talent, honestly."
"Hey, what do you mean 'secretly'? Frankly, I'm overflowing."
Ash gave a bitter smile at our praise.
It was the first smile she had shown all day.
"Getting praised for talent by you two doesn't feel like being praised at all."
"So... you used magic to kill him?"
"Yes. The Puppet Demon must have judged me more valuable than him. That's why it deliberately contracted with me."
"An exceptionally wise choice."
Ash whipped her head around at Ulysses's comment.
From there on, I understood the rest without even needing to hear it.
Unfortunately, the head of House Walter... Ash's father, that is... had already summoned the Heretic Inquisitors.
There had been no time to explain the circumstances to Ash.
The Inquisitors, who only found the mage's workshop after she had fled, would have grasped the situation immediately.
The evidence of the incident would have remained intact inside the workshop.
And Heretic Inquisitors granted no extenuating circumstances.
Whatever the situation, Ash had ultimately become a mage.
The rest is what we all know.
Having finished her story, Ash brought out wine and poured a glass for everyone.
I kept her company for a suitable while, then collapsed into bed as if passing out.
Last night, Ash had been particularly merciless.
When I woke up suffering from a mild hangover and saw Ash in my bed, I clicked my tongue softly.
"What on earth is going on..."
Fortunately, we were both fully dressed.
It seemed she'd followed me right into bed and drunkenly rambled.
When I hurriedly threw on my uniform and burst out, tumbling with a clatter, Ulysses cleared my hangover with magic.
"It's the first time I've seen Ash that drunk."
"She must have wanted to be drunk last night. I'm not late, am I?"
"That's not it... Someone from the temple came by earlier. They said to report to Reshutal University today."
"Th-The university?"
'Report somewhere other than the Inquisition branch...' was not a very good sign.
Usually, in cases like this, it meant something had happened during the night.
And Reshutal University, no less.
Given their nature as places that pursue all manner of knowledge, universities often engage in fairly risky activities.
So normally, it's a principle that Inquisition branches do not interfere with a university.
Though it was true that the university, which even conducted research on mana and demons, was an irritation...
That was because their research provided no small benefit to humanity.
"Ah, I'd better get going quickly."
"Take care."
I hurriedly donned my armor and ran toward the university, and just then I spotted Angelica emerging from the manor.
She greeted me with genuine delight and fell in beside me.
"Why are you late today, of all days?"
"I slept in a little... Did you hear we're to report to the university today?"
"Yes. It seems something unusual has happened."
The precise reporting location was the Faculty of Law at Reshutal University.
Even within the historic university, it was the building belonging to its oldest department.
At the university entrance, Katrina and the other Heretic Inquisitors had already established a perimeter.
"Jaeger, you're late."
"My apologies. I didn't realize the reporting location had changed..."
"Did you cross paths with the messenger? Understood. Let's go inside."
The incident did not appear especially serious; neither Reinhardt nor his adjutant Marcus was in sight.
Apparently, Katrina's unit alone was considered sufficient.
As she walked briskly, she gave us a brief briefing.
"The reporter is a professor from the law college. An act of property damage suspected to be the work of a Heretic Mage—"
"...Property damage?"
"You'll see."
The students cleared the path the moment we entered the university building.
A middle-aged professor with a pallid complexion guided us directly to the crime scene.
The location was the professor's own research office.
When I saw the blood seeping out from under the closed door, I clicked my tongue softly.
"Property damage, you said? Isn't this a splendid homicide scene?"
"..."
We soon stepped inside, where a single corpse lay in the middle of the room.
Judging by how the blood had all dried, a fair amount of time had passed since death.
The crime must have occurred late the previous night.
Moreover, blood had spattered all over the room.
"The deceased is..."
"S-Someone has murdered my graduate student!"
"A moment. But how does this constitute the work of heresy?"
"Look closely at the floor! Do you not see that evil emblem?"
Indeed.
At the crime scene, there was a trace of something drawn in the victim's blood.
Human corpses and blood are materials commonly used in Demon Summoning.
In fact, they had been used to summon Chainfist during the royal palace incident last time.
But this Summoning Circle felt far cruder and shoddier than that.
It was questionable whether a summoning could even be performed with such a thing.
To my eye, it looked like a layman's clumsy imitation.
"Ah, it's such a mess it's a little hard to make out... This wasn't the work of a very skilled mage."
"Nor a skilled killer. They stabbed from behind with a knife but failed to finish the job in one blow."
Katrina began investigating the crime scene with remarkable proficiency.
For all our reputation, the investigative capabilities of our Inquisition are the highest on the continent.
The problem is just that we rarely exercise them properly, or honestly...
The professor reacted with visible distaste, as if he found our systematic forensic examination unreliable.
I understood that reaction.
When ordinary people summon the Heretic Inquisitors, they tend to expect torture, screams, and the like.
Grabbing everyone and squeezing until the culprit emerged was the traditional investigative method.
"Wh-What are you doing right now?"
"Walking through the scene from the culprit's perspective. Please stand back for a moment."
"Can you not forgo all that and simply do things the usual way?"
"I doubt you'd like that..."
When I replied with a shrug, the professor, who didn't seem to like my attitude, insisted on pressing the point.
"I would prefer if you at least made an attempt—"
"No, normally we just burn everyone... the reporter included."
Despite how we might look, we were sincerely extending every courtesy to Reshutal University.
Upon hearing my answer, the professor promptly clamped his mouth shut.
Angelica, who had been standing back, simply squeezed her eyes shut.
She had personally experienced a case where the reporter had turned out to be the culprit.
Meanwhile, Katrina turned the body over herself and pieced together various details.
"The murder weapon was a dagger. And the victim likely knew the culprit. They exposed their back despite sharing the same space. Additionally, the office was locked."
"B-But that window over there is open... Could the intruder not have entered through there?"
The professor made a clumsy attempt to mimic us, but Katrina's response was cold.
"The window was opened later. You can tell from the bloodstains. They may have escaped through there. Jaeger, examine the outer wall."
"Yes!"
I slipped out the window quickly and inspected the outside, but...
Nothing resembling an escape trail was found.
"So the culprit was indeed known to the victim."
"Professor. Please gather all the university's faculty and students. Prioritizing those acquainted with the victim..."
"R-Right."
Perhaps because he had realized the culprit was among them, the professor's face grew even more ashen as he assembled everyone in an empty lecture hall.
In the meantime, Katrina had ordered a unit member to retrieve investigative tools from the Inquisition branch.
"Good heavens, a heretic among us..."
"If we stay quiet, won't we all end up hanged?"
While everyone at the university trembled at our infamy.
Katrina, having borrowed another lecture hall, shared information that hadn't been disclosed earlier.
"The investigation indicates the crime was impulsive. You two, go to the victim's quarters and bring back anything that might be useful."
"Understood."
"Impulsive...? Doesn't that contradict everything?"
When Angelica spoke, Katrina nodded.
Looking at the magic circle at the crime scene, this murder appeared to be a ritual to summon a demon...
Yet for that, too many things were sloppy.
At this point, I had a rough grasp of the situation.
Meanwhile.
The squad member who had gone to the Inquisition branch presented something resembling a large box.
The box, with a small hole bored into its top, was not the kind of investigative tool Angelica had been expecting.
"What, surprisingly ordinary."
"What kind of thing did you expect them to bring?"
"Mm. Like an awl to shove under fingernails, or a coffin lined with spikes..."
Those aren't investigative tools—they're torture devices.
I thought, but still played along.
"I'll show you those next time."
"Th-Those actually exist?"
"Jaeger. Don't tease her too much. Now, let's get this over with."
When Katrina picked up the box and headed for the neighboring lecture hall, Angelica pummeled me wildly.
I'm sorry to say, but her soft fists didn't hurt a bit.