Chapter 375: Betrayal(1)
Chapter 375: Betrayal(1)
At Isaac’s request, Kate had gone to investigate the matter of the innocent victim.
Both the victim and the primary perpetrator behind the incident had already arrived at the temple in the Imperial Capital. This was because Isaac had repeatedly emphasized that he would personally deliver the judgment.
Public opinion leaned in that direction as well, but everyone knew that Isaac wouldn't simply show up. While an innocent victim had supposedly been claimed, there was a high possibility it was a trap laid by Demon Worshippers. Above all, the situation had grown far too large.
The Demon Worshippers' information network was much broader than one might think, so news of the event had likely already reached their ears. Thus, instead of appearing in person, Isaac chose to send Kate to represent his will.
However, there was one thing Kate hadn't expected...
"Is this how a priest is supposed to act?! Huh?! How does it make sense for a priest, someone who’s supposed to save people, to kill them instead?!"
"Please... Mother. Just calm down for a moment and try to find some peace..."
"Peace?! Peace?! Do you have any idea how I raised my boy?! Tell Lord Luminous right now! Tell him to save my child! Hurry! Do you know how hard I worked to raise him?! Waaaaah!"
A woman’s scream echoed through the temple. Even the howl of a beast that had lost its young could not compare to her lamentation.
Her wrinkled skin and hands ruined by hard labor told the story of the grueling process she had endured to raise her child. Now that her family had been utterly destroyed, it wouldn't be strange for her to resent the entire world.
"What is this 'Xenon' nonsense anyway?! Why did my son have to die because of him!"
"Mother. Please, at least refrain from saying such things here..."
"Why?! Because I might get struck by divine punishment? Why should I be punished?! Those bastards who killed my son are the ones who deserve divine punishment!!"
Faced with the woman’s perfectly logical outcry, the priests of the Order could only flounder. They wanted to escort her outside, but she was so stubborn and forceful that they couldn't manage it. In the end, they were only able to take her away after she had exhausted herself from weeping.
There was one person watching the entire scene in silence: Kate.
She had come to see the bereaved family, but she was overcome by a sense of grief that words could not describe. Furthermore, she felt a surging rage toward the perpetrator who had created this innocent victim. She squeezed her eyes shut and regulated her breathing.
The mere fact that they had ignored Isaac’s instructions was enough to provoke her anger, but seeing the aftermath in person made her blood boil.
"Cardinal Kate. Everything is ready."
A female believer approached Kate and spoke cautiously. Hearing this, Kate slowly opened her eyes and looked ahead. The victim's family was gone, but for the sake of soothing their resentment, she needed to proceed with this matter. Even if it meant facing public criticism, it was a task worth undertaking.
"I understand. Let us go."
"Yes. But are you truly going through with this...?"
"I have received permission from Lord Luminous. This matter is deeply connected to 'heresy.' It is my duty."
At Kate’s firm answer, the priestess nodded silently. This matter was indeed linked to heresy. As Kate began to walk, the priestess followed behind her.
"What is the sinner doing now?"
"He is waiting, just as you requested, Cardinal Kate."
"Does he show no remorse?"
"He is protesting that he is innocent. He claims he was merely dealing with a Demon Worshipper..."
"Hmm."
Kate nodded. On the surface, it seemed like the feared disaster had struck, but a deeper look revealed a rather complex problem. She could understand the heart of an elderly mother who had lost her only child, but what if that son truly had been a Demon Worshipper?
What if the Demon Worshippers had staged this entire incident to stop the event or to tarnish Isaac’s reputation?
If that were the case, things would become incredibly headache-inducing. If it were the latter, the perpetrators would clearly be innocent, but if it were the former, the case would fall into a complete fog.
This was why both the bereaved and the perpetrator had been brought to the temple. In the temple, one could not tell a lie.
Kate moved her legs, praying to Luminous that the case would resolve in a positive direction.
*
"I’m telling you the truth! I’m a victim here too! I just caught a Demon Worshipper! I even had a priest confirm it personally just in case!"
"Don't make me laugh! Aren't you the Demon Worshipper? You probably did this just to get close to Xenon!"
"Bullshit! Is that any way to talk to someone who’s read Xenon’s Life since Volume 1? Do you want me to pray to Lord Luminous and prove it? Do you want to see how sincere I am?"
"The event is about to be canceled because of you, and you don't feel a shred of remorse?!"
Shouts reached her ears even before she arrived. It seemed a heated argument was taking place while they waited. Kate hurried toward the entrance, thinking she needed to resolve this as quickly as possible.
The moment she reached the entrance, a space resembling a courtroom unfolded before her eyes. Unlike an interrogation room where work was done in the dark shadows of a basement, this was a place for judging heresy.
In the center sat the perpetrators of the current situation, side by side, while spectators surrounding them hurled criticisms. Kate watched the noisy scene, took a deep breath, and quietly asked the priestess behind her.
"Are these the ones? The ones who dared to ignore his orders?"
"Yes. That is correct."
It was a quiet conversation, but their voices echoed throughout the entire courtroom. Kate had intentionally infused her voice with mana to amplify it.
At this, the eyes of everyone gathered in the courtroom turned toward Kate. With her appearance, the courtroom that had been filled with shouting fell silent in an instant. The loudest sound was the collective gasp of admiration at Kate’s beautiful appearance.
Once the room was quiet, Kate fixed her gaze on the perpetrator sitting in the center and made her way to her seat.
"Is that Cardinal Kate? Right?"
"Yes, it is."
"Cardinal Kate! I am truly being framed! This is all a trap set by the Demon Worshippers!"
Despite the protest from the man presumed to be the perpetrator, Kate remained silent. Instead, she merely looked at him with a cold gaze.
However, the man was no pushover. An ordinary person would have been crushed by the aura Kate exuded, but he remained defiant. Kate, surprised by the man’s confidence, took her seat. She sat at the table directly opposite him.
As a Grand Inquisitor, she had the right to deliver summary judgment based on the results of the interrogation, so sitting across from him was natural.
"Name."
"Pardon?"
"State your name first."
Since nothing had been finalized yet, Kate spoke with at least a modicum of politeness. In her heart, she wanted to call him a maggot, but the situation was so complex that she had to be cautious.
The man was flustered at first, but soon let out a long breath through his nose and spoke.
"Roy. Roy Henderson."
"Are you an adventurer?"
"Yes, I am."
"You know why you are sitting here, don't you?"
At Kate’s question, the man—Roy—nodded vigorously. His attitude was confident, as if he had nothing to hide. Kate stared at him for a moment before turning her head. Sitting next to Roy was the priest involved in the incident.
The priest was a surprisingly young man, and his gentle appearance gave a general idea of his character.
"And what is your name, brother?"
"I am Baigis Hal."
"Can you explain the situation in detail?"
At Kate’s question, Baigis nodded. However, he seemed to feel that something wasn't right, as he glanced at Roy. Roy, meanwhile, maintained his upright and confident posture. His expression clearly stated that he was guilty of nothing.
Baigis hesitated, let out a deep sigh, and began to speak quietly.
"First, before I speak about the situation, I will speak as a servant of Lord Luminous. Everything I say from now on is the truth, and if I tell a lie, I will gladly accept divine punishment."
"I understand. As the sword of Lord Luminous, I will hear all of our brother's testimony."
"First, what happened was..."
Baigis’s explanation was roughly as follows: Roy was an adventurer who had been performing exceptionally well since the start of the event, and he had recently discovered a brainwashed village. Furthermore, Baigis offered a sort of defense, saying that if nothing else, Roy’s passion for Xenon’s Life was more sincere than anyone else's.
Kate listened to the defense in silence while looking at Roy, when a sudden sense of déjà vu struck her, and her expression turned questioning. She hadn't recognized him earlier because she was so angry, but she had seen that face somewhere before.
"Did you say your name was Mr. Roy?"
"Yes, that’s right."
"Your face looks familiar. Could it be...?"
"Ahem. Ahem."
As Kate’s voice trailed off, Roy cleared his throat. He glanced at the spectators and answered in a much more cautious voice than before.
"I don't know if you remember, but... I’m the one who received an autograph from Xenon last time."
"Ah. That person?"
Only then did Kate remember, letting out an "Ah" of realization. At the same time, the prejudice she had held until a moment ago almost completely vanished. A person so fanatical that he would risk his life for a single autograph would never have ignored Isaac’s instructions. There had to be a reason.
While Kate was thinking this, Roy checked the surrounding reactions again. As expected, as soon as they heard he had received Xenon’s autograph, the spectators began to whisper among themselves.
"Just in case, what’s going to happen to my belongings? They won't be confiscated or anything, will they...?"
"That will depend on the outcome of the trial. However, seeing Mr. Roy’s character, I expect there must be a reason for what happened."
"Thank you. I say again, I truly only caught a Demon Worshipper."
Kate responded positively to Roy’s words, which were filled with a sense of injustice. However, this made the elderly mother’s situation even more tragic. To her, he was a perfectly kind and precious son, but in reality, that son was a Demon Worshipper who had helped drag the world into a pit of evil.
Considering the increasingly pitiful situation, Kate shifted her gaze to Baigis. Despite the situation seemingly resolving well, for some reason, Baigis still had a look of uncertainty on his face.
"Brother. Is there anything else you wish to say?"
"Well... there is. There is, but... Sigh..."
Baigis let out a long sigh as if something was weighing on him. Kate looked at him with a puzzled gaze. Eventually, Baigis looked at her and emphasized once more.
"...As I’ve said repeatedly, there isn't a single lie in my words. I hope you understand that."
"I’m becoming more and more curious. What on earth is it?"
"First, the best way to identify a Demon Worshipper is to use divine power. But that has its limits. A priest’s divine power might be insufficient, and it has no effect on a Demon Worshipper whose soul hasn't been corrupted yet. That’s why we usually conduct interrogations in the interrogation room."
Divine power was not omnipotent. Depending on the circumstances, one might or might not be able to identify a Demon Worshipper. To put it another way, if Kate injected divine power, a Demon Worshipper would turn to dust, but they could easily withstand the power of an ordinary priest. Because of this, the majority of Demon Worshippers pretend to be fine on the outside, and as seen in the case of the Fallen Cardinal, their expertise in deception has been building for a long time.
"And Lord Isaac said that it is better to let ten Demon Worshippers go than to have one innocent victim."
"I am keeping that in mind. That’s why we also interrogated the Demon Worshipper Mr. Roy caught. Based on the circumstances, he was definitely a Demon Worshipper. He was a slave trader involved in human trafficking and was connected to a major player. But..."
Baigis hesitated for a moment, then spoke in a voice that sounded like he couldn't believe his own words.
"I only barely touched him."
The testimony that followed from his lips was:
"And he died instantly."
"...Pardon?"
It was a truly nonsensical story. Just as everyone was wearing expressions of disbelief at Baigis’s testimony—
"C-Cardinal Kate! Cardinal Kate!"
A woman’s urgent voice echoed into the courtroom. At that sound, everyone’s eyes, including Kate’s, turned in that direction.
The person who had shouted was the priestess who had followed Kate earlier. Her face was as pale as it could possibly be. Anyone could see she was in a state of extreme urgency. Kate stood up from the table and asked the priestess.
"What is the matter?"
"The, the victim's mother...!"
"The mother? Don't tell me...?"
Kate was about to panic, thinking the woman had fallen into a critical condition from the shock of losing her son.
"No! She has fled the temple!"
"What? Fled...?"
She hadn't just left; she had fled. The moment Kate heard those words, she felt the blood in her entire body turn cold.
Baigis’s testimony—he died from a mere touch. A person never dies from that little impact. But what if the soul had already left the body? What if he had given up his own life just to create this situation?
And finally, what if that soul had attached itself to something else? Since necromancy existed, there was no reason possession couldn't exist either.
"The mother, too...!"
At the priestess’s following words:
"S-She’s a Demon Worshipper!"
Kate ran outside without looking back.