How a Wizard Survives (44)
How a Wizard Survives (44)
The faculty and students facing the box with a hole in it couldn't hide their snickering.
To be fair, the design practically begged for misunderstandings.
"What is that box?"
"Surely it isn't one of those 'the monster inside bites a liar's hand'... things, right?"
A story famous enough that even I'd heard it.
In reality, paint was placed inside, and supposedly only the hand of someone who had lied would come out clean—or something like that?
It was almost funny that the university's own law school had produced an item like this.
"We are not primitives. One by one, you will step forward and press your palm against the bottom of this box."
Katrina gave the order without a trace of humor.
As the other Heretic Inquisitors lined up, a sense of crisis finally crept onto their faces.
"Those who have completed their turn, please sit here in order. Now, one at a time..."
"..."
Their fear was only natural.
Around Heretic Inquisitors, even the innocent could never fully relax.
But the moment I stepped forward, they stopped hesitating.
Katrina stood behind the box and operated it each time a suspect passed through.
'The leading suspects are the professor, his fellow graduate students, and some of the staff... the Demon Summoning Circle is probably a fake.'
Making a contract with a demon requires its own kind of preparation and resolve.
Unless, like Ash, you were kidnapped by a den of mages...
But this crime was most likely impulsive.
Meaning, as Angelica pointed out earlier, the details don't add up.
So one of the two is a fake.
My instincts kept shouting that the summoning circle was the fake one.
Usually, scenes left by heretics carry a heavy sense of obsession.
In this day and age, anyone making a contract with a demon ought to radiate the feeling that they'd long since thrown their life away.
But the scene earlier had almost none of that atmosphere.
Therefore, the Heretic Inquisitors, myself included, had already reached a tacit consensus.
'Someone impulsively killed a graduate student and covered it up as the work of heretics.'
Normally, if you're accused of murder, you face a murder charge—you don't call in Heretic Inquisitors...
But the people at Reshutal University didn't seem to know much about us.
It's true that we do come across as a bit ignorant and heavy-handed.
Here, the professor was the natural first suspect, but the dead graduate student had essentially been treated as his property.
So the scenario of him having personally killed the student was put on hold.
Katrina decided to investigate more scientifically, step by step.
"Wh-what is this..."
"That's everyone. Now, please wait quietly in your places. Anyone who moves from this point on will be considered a heretic."
While the people who had placed their hands in the box trembled from the strange texture.
Katrina revealed the results of the preliminary examination.
The box brought from the Inquisition Branch had been lined with paper coated in charcoal dust...
Katrina had removed and stored each sheet separately.
Namely, fingerprint collection.
By matching them against the fingerprints left on the murder weapon, the culprit would be found.
The professors, who belatedly received a rough explanation, protested fiercely.
They were probably terrified of being framed.
"F-fingerprints! I've never even heard of such an investigative technique!"
"There's no way that could be accepted as evidence..."
"Excuse me."
I stepped forward in Katrina's place.
Saying this in the middle of a law school was a bit awkward... but for the moment, I needed to calm people down.
"We don't actually need legally admissible evidence..."
"Wha—? Th-that's..."
"Mages wouldn't leave something like that behind anyway. If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll personally escort you to the gallows."
When I mimed a hanging, people finally quieted down.
Having swiftly completed the fingerprint examination, Katrina immediately identified the culprit.
"The fingerprints on the weapon... belong to you, Professor. And as for that flimsy summoning circle, you could have easily learned how to draw it at this university."
"What?"
"This is absurd! Why would the professor kill his own graduate student..."
"You may offer your detailed excuses in hell."
As I easily dragged the professor out, the faculty looked on in horror.
The professor, who already seemed resigned, shouted as if in a desperate struggle.
"W-wait! Wait! Fine. I killed him! But don't you want to hear why I killed him?"
"No, we'd rather just wrap this up and go home."
"I said... I said wait!"
While the professor was causing a scene.
The Heretic Inquisitors who had gone to the victim's room handed Katrina something like a small slate board.
It was an item used for drafting before writing on paper.
[Respected Professor,
I am writing to inform you that I have just sent my degree dissertation and accompanying documents to the Faculty of Law. I earnestly implore you to exercise mercy and expedite the certification of my degree certificate. Having already received so much kindness, I can only feel sorry if sending my dissertation directly has caused you any inconvenience.
With sincere gratitude and respect, your loyal graduate student...]
"This is... a letter. Was the victim living outside the university?"
"That's correct. It also seems the letter was sent quite a while ago. He was already preparing to graduate."
"Yes, precisely that!"
The professor's face lit up as if his personal attorney had just appeared.
As we stared at him in bewilderment, he shouted triumphantly.
"Do you know what that insolent brat said? A mere ten-year student, asking to graduate! I had intended to use him for at least ten more years!"
"Gr-graduate? At ten years?"
"Utterly preposterous! The boy was completely insane!"
The other professors recoiled as if confronted with something terrifying.
Angelica, who seemed as confused as I was, asked.
"...Isn't ten years enough?"
"Bah! What on earth can you learn in a paltry ten years!"
"Do you think the study of law is so simple!"
Well, even blacksmith apprentices are worked to the bone for five or ten years just to eke out a single skill...
How much worse must it be for graduate students?
Now understanding the full circumstances, the faculty began pleading for leniency for the culprit.
"Heretic Inquisitor! Surely a case of this scale doesn't warrant the death penalty..."
"...It seems you haven't properly grasped the situation. This man's crime is not murder."
"Wh-what..."
While the faculty froze, unable to comprehend Katrina's true meaning.
She gave me an order.
"Jaeger, a hanging won't do."
"Yes, Lady Katrina."
She was right.
Apparently, the graduate student was treated as university property...
So the man's crime was destruction of property.
And even for a commoner, simple destruction of property almost never leads to execution.
The professor caught the implication and looked expectant.
Katrina gave a more detailed order.
"Prepare the pyre immediately."
"Th-that cannot be!"
"Stop this! I shall petition His Majesty the King!"
"The professor is from a count's family..."
"Enough."
At Katrina's short word, the Heretic Inquisitors could no longer hold back and leveled their weapons.
To be this incapable of reading the situation.
It seemed we had been a bit too considerate of the university up to now.
"Who the professor killed is irrelevant. What matters is that he drew a summoning circle."
"Wasn't that a shoddy fake that didn't even work!"
"So, did the Inquisition seem easy to you? Or does heretical activity feel like some kind of prank?"
There's exactly one thing the Inquisition loathes even more than heretics themselves...
And that was treating heretical acts lightly.
Even if a single mage kills a great many people, it amounts to a few dozen or a few hundred at most.
But ideology that takes heresy lightly can drive all of humanity to extinction.
Exercising her last ounce of patience, Katrina warned the faculty.
"Anyone with an objection, step forward now! For any reason whatsoever, attempting anything resembling a contract is unforgivable!"
"..."
Unfortunately, no one else stepped forward.
I punched the thrashing professor once, then dragged him outside the university.
Perhaps because he himself had grievances, the King's permission came down at lightning speed.
Thanks to that, we were able to clock out on time while smelling burning flesh.
Standing next to Angelica, who had turned pale, I chuckled softly.
"Like I said, it's always the right move to burn the whistleblower first."
"I really hate Reshutal..."
As we returned to the Inquisition Branch while trading jokes, we were greeted by a messenger bearing the royal standard.
Had the King changed his mind already?
As we tensed, the messenger handed over a letter with an unexpectedly amiable manner.
It didn't seem to contain anything overly rigid.
"An invitation from Her Highness Princess Alina."
"Th-thank you."
Even while gauging Katrina's reaction, I knelt on one knee and accepted it.
But then, Angelica objected from beside me.
For whatever reason, Katrina's expression wasn't great either.
"Passing over Lady Katrina... to send it specifically to Jaeger, a squire?"
"M-my apologies. I merely followed my orders..."
It seemed to be a matter of protocol.
They seemed to think my liege, Katrina, had been slighted.
After sending the unfortunate messenger away, I opened the invitation... Fortunately, Angelica and Katrina were formally invited as well.
"Mm, there's no issue with the invitation itself."
"This... do we absolutely have to go?"
"It's an invitation from Her Highness the Princess. Besides, it seems the event has grown considerably larger than planned."
Originally, I thought it was meant to be a modest gathering with just Princess Alina and a few high-ranking nobles...
But the King couldn't wait and inserted himself in that short time.
From the looks of it, Reinhardt and other Holy Knights had been invited as well.
After leaving work in an uncomfortable atmosphere, I silently exhaled and returned to the smithy.
This matter was crucial.
Currently, there were roughly three obstacles interfering with Ulysses and Ash's plan.
It might sound like many, but for a plan of this scale, it was remarkably few.
The first of those was the demons and the Demon Thralls.
Like the Transformation Demon Thrall that had appeared before, those who actively tried to obstruct Ulysses's plan.
But because they didn't know the plan with perfect precision, they weren't that large a threat.
Reshutal was not their territory.
The second obstacle was the foreign nobility.
Even if Reshutal alone called for war against the demons, no one would listen.
We needed powers that would readily back us up when we raised our voice.
Still, I understood that Ulysses was already handling this one.
And the third and final one. The biggest problem at present...
Was Princess Alina.
An unidentified entity that had infiltrated the royal palace.
She sat at the center of the plan, so there was no way to work around her.
My current mission was to investigate Princess Alina's true nature, as carefully as possible.
First, we had to know what exactly she was before we could covertly eliminate her, or win her over.
This banquet was a precious opportunity to learn about Princess Alina.
I absolutely could not afford a mistake.
Recalling her face, I steeled my resolve.
'The princess passed the Contractor Test, so she definitely isn't a contractor or a Demon Thrall.'
The remaining possibilities were two.
Awakened One, or Demon.
Either way, it would be just as troublesome.
But I had no intention of backing down now.
I waited for the banquet with a mix of worry and anticipation.