The Inquisitor Is Dangerous
The Inquisitor Is Dangerous
"Water..."
A voice barely leaked from my cracked throat.
My throat was burning.
What I saw when I opened my eyes.
A rusted iron ceiling.
Flickering lights.
A fishy smell that stung my nose.
And.
Chains tightening around my limbs.
"What the hell is this?"
I tried to move my body, but.
It didn't budge.
My whole body ached, and above all, my head...
"Feels like it's going to split open..."
My last memory. I got off the Logos and waved at the Southern Cross soldiers, and dozens of gun barrels were aimed at me all at once.
I think someone said something while I was being dragged away.
'Send him to the Holy Inquisition.'
Holy Inquisition.
Being well-versed in the lore, I know how that place runs. Crazy fanatics who would even cripple the core knights of the Southern Cross just to boost their own performance records...
I'm screwed.
Click.
Just then, the door opened. A middle-aged man in a gray uniform with a scar under his left eye pulled up a chair and sat down.
"Are you awake?"
I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but.
"...Yes."
I was too scared to do that.
"Good."
The man opened a file folder.
"Name."
"Huh?"
Thwack.
When I stared blankly, the man slammed the file folder into my head.
I was momentarily stunned by the sudden violence.
"Name."
Having been swept up in the Inquisitor-nim's pace like that.
"Kim Min-ho..."
I ended up answering honestly.
The man nodded and said.
"Origin."
"Republic of Korea."
...
For a moment, the man's hand stopped.
His head slowly lifted.
"Again."
"Republic of Korea."
I said it clearly this time.
The man smirked.
It wasn't a nice laugh.
"Republic of Korea, huh."
"Is there a problem?"
I answered honestly, so what the hell is the problem?
"You expect me to believe that?"
"It's the truth."
The man closed the file folder. I could see his patience running out.
"The Republic of Korea is a nation that vanished two thousand years ago due to the Great Collapse."
"...Ah."
What a stupid mistake. Damn it, I got swept up in the atmosphere and was too honest.
Korea, America, China, Japan, etc...
The countries we know don't exist in this world.
This world. The world inside <Apocalypse Core> has a setting where all existing nations were destroyed two thousand years ago by an Isomer attack after abusing divine miracles. It's like a suspected terrorist in 21st-century South Korea claiming they came from the 1st-century Roman Empire.
Just as I was blaming myself, the man's voice cut in, as if to deny me even that luxury.
"So."
"Which branch of Kyungdanryeon do you belong to?"
In this worldview, East Asians only live in Kyungdanryeon, which rules most of Asia. So, their view of me, a Korean, as a Kyungdanryeon spy might be reasonable... No, even so, I saved Earl Grey's life, this is too much.
"Huaxia? Tenkei?"
He forced a confession out of me by naming the major corporations that make up Kyungdanryeon.
However.
"I don't know."
I'm not a Kyungdanryeon spy in the first place.
I don't even know the language.
I don't have much information to spill either.
But the man snorted, seemingly thinking my innocence was just a disguise.
"As if you wouldn't know."
The man moved his quill on a new document.
Tap. "Kim Min-ho."
Tap. "Originating from the Republic of Korea."
Tap. "Hijacked an Advent at the time of discovery."
Tap. "Attempting to kidnap the Saint-nim."
Tap. "Identity verification impossible."
He looked straight at me.
"A classic disguise for a Kyungdanryeon operative."
"Wait a second, this is a misunderstanding..."
"Then speak."
"I'm really Korean..."
Thwack.
A fist flew at me.
My head snapped to the side, and the taste of blood spread in my mouth.
"Enough with the games."
"Ugh..."
Why the hell am I getting hit?
It's unfair.
I saved Earl Grey.
I should be getting a reward, not this.
To be tortured because of my race.
"You still haven't come to your senses."
"Hnggg..."
I feel like crying.
"What's your mission?"
"I don't have one."
"Who's your superior?"
"I told you, I don't have one."
"Codename?"
"I told you, I don't have one!"
Thwack.
This time it was my abdomen.
My breath was knocked out of me.
Question, denial, fist.
Question, denial, fist.
It repeated endlessly.
Finally, my patience reached its limit.
"I'm really Korean!"
"I live in Mapo-gu, Seoul!"
"Junior in the Business Administration department at HY University!"
"I can even recite my resident registration number!"
"You crazy bastards, untie me right now!!!"
As I screamed at the top of my lungs in desperation.
The interrogation room went quiet.
The Inquisitor-nim stared at me, then looked back at his subordinate.
"...What is he saying?"
"I don't know."
"Is it a Kyungdanryeon code?"
"That is highly likely."
...
I slowly closed my eyes. I get it. These guys have assumed I'm a spy from the start. No matter what I say, their minds won't change.
Then, that's enough explaining. My brain, which had been searching for a way out, started calculating something else this time.
They aren't interested in the truth. So, trying to prove the truth is a stupid thing to do. What I need to be interested in isn't the truth, but why they are doing this.
I swallowed the blood and slowly opened my mouth.
"Inquisitor-nim."
"Are you ready to spill it now?"
"No. Instead, let me ask you one thing."
I lifted my head and looked him straight in the eye.
"I rode an Advent and saved the Saint-nim from the Kyungdanryeon attack."
"Without proper enhancement surgery. I piloted the machine with insufficient aptitude."
"You're saying I'm a spy, even though I risked my life to fight against Kyungdanryeon's elite Advents?"
"Do you genuinely believe that?"
The man's quill stopped.
"You guys don't want to uncover the truth."
I laughed.
"This is politics."
"...What?"
"The Saint-nim was exposed to an attack while defenseless. The Southern Cross allowed it. Or perhaps, they wanted her exposed."
"But then an outsider popped out of nowhere and saved her, so your pride was damaged, right?"
At my words, the man's fist tightened.
"Who benefits from framing some guy with an ambiguous background as a spy?"
"You guys who need performance records? Or..."
"Shut your mouth!"
The subordinate slapped my cheek, but I didn't stop talking.
"The prestigious family of the Southern Cross. The Twining family, who left Saint-nim Earl Grey unsupported when she was driven to the brink of death?"
The man's eyes wavered.
It was a bullseye.
"Whatever the interests involved, this isn't something a faithful Inquisitor-nim would do."
I stared directly into those wavering eyes.
"Mister, you know, don't you?"
Grab.
My collar was grabbed.
"An outsider running his mouth recklessly."
His voice trembled as he said that.
This man's pride was shaken. A proud Inquisitor-nim who roots out enemies of the Southern Cross. He must have felt ashamed of wagging his tail for politics and crippling an innocent person.
And to compensate for his wounded pride, he chose a crueler path.
"The interrogation moves to the next stage."
The subordinate in the corner approached holding something. A thin, long metal rod. A faint blue light leaking from the tip.
...That thing.
I've seen it in the game. Neural Stimulator. A tool that extracts statements by directly scorching the subject's nerves. In the game text, it was just a two-line setting with a few lines of explanation added.
<Extracts statements by incinerating the examinee's nerves.>
<Low survival rate when used for interrogation.>
...Low survival rate.
Those four words rang especially loudly in my head.
"...That is."
"Rest assured. The output is set so that even if your nerves are scorched, you won't die."
...Won't die. That was even scarier. Because in the game lore, not a single person who got hit by that came out unscathed.
Bzzzzzt.
Blue energy flashed at the tip of the rod. If I got scorched by that, brain damage was guaranteed.
"I will begin."
It was that moment.
BOOM!!!
With a deafening roar, the door was slammed into the wall. Everyone in the torture room turned their heads at the same time.
Standing in front of the door. A woman was standing there. A woman with messy ivory hair, breathing heavily. Barefoot, with a cloak hastily thrown over a patient's gown...
...Earl Grey.
Her gaze quickly scanned the room. Then, the moment it reached me.
Pause.
...It seemed like she was trying to confirm who I was for a moment.
A face covered in blood. She confirmed the facial features of an Asian, which are unfamiliar in this land.
Then, my eyes met hers.
In an instant.
"...You are."
...She recognized me.
Only then did she seem to realize. What kind of state the person she saved was in right now. Split lips. Bruised cheeks. A shirt stained with blood. Her eyes slowly scanned my appearance.
And her expression turned cold and hardened.
"S-Saint-nim?"
The Inquisitor-nim hurriedly bowed his waist. The subordinate also hurriedly lowered the stimulator. But Earl Grey didn't look at them.
She just walked straight over, knelt in front of me, and wiped the blood off my face with the sleeve of her cloak. The soft fabric touched my cheek.
I froze right there.
It was a very surreal feeling. Because my favorite character was caressing me.
"Inquisitor-nim Farid."
Earl Grey lifted her head.
Her voice was soft, but no one in the room could answer.
"Is this the interrogation method the Order speaks of?"
"Saint-nim, this person is a Kyungdanryeon operative..."
"And?"
"...I judged that interrogation was necessary."
"Interrogation, you say..."
She slowly looked at the Neural Stimulator.
"I learned that the Order exists to protect humanity."
"...Did I learn it wrong?"
"..."
"Please untie his chains."
"But, he might be a spy..."
"Whether he is a spy or not."
Her voice became firm.
"This person is also a child of God, and above all, he is the person who saved me. Is treating such a person like this God's law?"
At those words, Farid's head dropped. She looked delicate, but being strong against the injustice others suffer was the charm of that character.
The Inquisitor-nim called Farid couldn't answer. He couldn't refute it. And he squeezed his eyes shut and said.
"...Untie the chains."
With those words.
Click. Click. Clack.
The chains binding my wrists and ankles were undone one by one. My body, having regained freedom, tilted forward. I don't know how long I had been hanging. There was no strength in my legs.
At that moment, someone grabbed my shoulders.
"...Be careful."
It was Earl Grey. An unfamiliar body temperature was felt over my shoulders.
"Can you walk?"
"..."
No answer came out. So this is what it feels like to see my favorite character in reality. My legs trembled with emotion. She looked at me and sighed softly.
"You're hurt a lot."
She was indeed a kind person.
Supported by her, I slowly left the torture room. The hallway was long and dark. Leaning halfway on her shoulder. I took one step, then another.
"Um... you know I'm not really a spy, right?"
The words that barely came out were pathetic. Because if even she suspected me of being a spy, my heart would break.
Earl Grey smiled faintly at my words.
"I know."
"..."
Her appearance was so beautiful that I was speechless for a moment.
"Because there is no one who would risk their life to ride the Logos knowing they would die."
'You die if you ride the Logos?'
I was momentarily flustered, but I was so happy about Earl Grey's acknowledgement that I immediately forgot that information.
Now, light was coming in from beyond the end of the hallway. Too many things had happened in a short time since I fell into this world.
"By the way, what is your name?"
Name, huh. I wouldn't be able to use the name Kim Min-ho here. My face alone makes me suspicious, and if my name is like this too... It would be hard to clear the spy charges.
"...I don't remember it well now."
At my words, Earl Grey looked at me with eyes devoid of any suspicion and said.
"Then, would it be alright if I gave you a name? Because you are my precious Apostle-nim who has given me new meaning!"