The Heresy Inquisitors
"...!"
Lucia did not answer immediately. However, the royal guards who overheard the exchange began drawing their swords halfway, the atmosphere rapidly deteriorating.
"I will ask you once more. Are you the Saint of Water who has been running around healing people with the power of heresy?"
"H-heresy? I am merely using spirits to heal..."
"Seize that wench at once!"
At Lucia's confession-like response, the Heresy Inquisitors charged forward.
The royal guards drew their swords and blocked their path.
"Take one more step, and we will deem you enemies and take your heads."
"How dare you defend a witch wielding heretical power and point your blades at the Heresy Inquisitors, the messengers of our Goddess..."
"Whether it is the Heresy Inquisitors or the Goddess herself, we are only here to protect Lady Lucia under the Princess's orders."
"To lose your souls to a witch and forget your place... What pitiful lambs. Tsk, tsk..."
The priest clicked his tongue and gestured to the surrounding Heresy Inquisitors.
They all drew their swords, surrounding and closing in on the knights protecting Lucia.
"Listen, Saint of Water. Much blood has already been spilled because of you."
"Spilled...?"
"Was the refugee camp in the Erupe Kingdom not enough? Do you wish to drive these knights and refugees to their deaths as well?"
"What do you mean by that... Are you saying you killed all the refugees in the Erupe Kingdom?"
Lucia, gripped by a suffocating dread, questioned the priest once more.
Seeing the sheer turmoil written all over her face, the priest gleefully recounted what had transpired in the Erupe Kingdom.
"Indeed. They witnessed heretical faith, and since they were tainted by it, they could never enter heaven. If you come with us now to face the Inquisition, we will grant the others here a chance to repent."
"There were young children there who couldn't even speak properly... Are you saying you killed them all?"
"In the eyes of heresy, there is no distinction between adult and child."
The faces of the children who had chosen to stay behind with their parents instead of following the Hero's party flashed before Lucia's eyes.
Watching her crumble, the corners of the priest's mouth curled up even higher.
"Lady Lucia, do not believe a word they say! The guards have gone to fetch the Hero, so please wait behind us for just a moment."
"Because of me... they're all dead... Everyone..."
The royal guards tightened their perimeter, trying to keep Lucia from falling apart.
Meanwhile, the Heresy Inquisitors exchanged silent signals and began closing in on her.
"Now!"
At the priest's command, the inquisitors lunged at the knights.
Outnumbering the guards significantly, they swarmed them, with at least two inquisitors tackling each knight.
The area around Lucia, where the sick had gathered, instantly devolved into a chaotic battlefield.
While the knights were locked in combat with the inquisitors, the priest crept closer to Lucia, muttering under his breath.
"When those possessed by demons approach the Goddess in prayer, the Goddess cries out to the demons: those who have bewitched my lambs shall not live upon this earth, but shall cast themselves into the fiery pits of hell to repent for eternity."
The priest's sword, glowing with a bright white light as he chanted scripture, drew closer.
Lucia, distracted by the surrounding chaos, failed to notice his approach until the last second. Belatedly spotting him, she cried out a familiar name.
"Elra—"
Whoosh!
Before Lucia could even finish the name, a massive pillar of water erupted, and a woman emerged from within.
Instead of her usual form made entirely of water, Elraim appeared as a woman wearing a blue dress, possessing hair and eyes strikingly similar to Lucia's. The pillar of water gradually dispersed around her.
"Whew... I wondered why my sweet Lucia was in such a state of panic today... It was your doing, wasn't it?"
"W-what are you?! A-a demon?!"
Elraim, who looked like a much more mature and breathtakingly beautiful version of Lucia, slowly stepped toward the priest.
The priest raised his sword, which was already coated in divine power, trying to threaten her.
"D-don't come any closer! I-I am an Inquisitor, a messenger of the Goddess!"
"Hmph. What do humans who have never even seen the Goddess's face know... Tsk, tsk."
"How dare you blaspheme the Goddess!"
Though terrified of the approaching Elraim, the priest stopped backing away at her blasphemous words, steeling himself to fight back.
"From what I heard earlier... you killed the villagers in the refugee camp whom my Lucia worked so hard to heal?"
"Y-yes! Only death awaits those who have witnessed and heard heretical beliefs!"
"Whew... It's been a long time since humans have managed to make me this angry..."
Elraim, who had been walking toward the priest, turned back to Lucia. She leaned down and whispered softly into the ear of the dazed girl.
"Lucia? Just for a moment..."
The moment Elraim finished speaking, Lucia collapsed onto the ground and fell fast asleep.
Elraim tied her long hair back into a single ponytail and glared at the priest.
"Alright. Keep talking. Let's hear the rest of it."
"W-what?!"
"I've been holding back because I didn't want to show my Lucia anything cruel... but today, I just can't take it anymore."
Elraim knew Lucia's past pain better than anyone else.
The agony she must have felt as a child, fleeing to the sea while watching her villagers get slaughtered...
Those were the very first memories Elraim had peered into after rescuing the young Lucia floating in the ocean.
And just now...
She had felt a similar pain radiating from Lucia, who was now her summoner.
Startled by this, Elraim had manifested in the human realm before Lucia could even complete the summoning ritual.
In human form...
And specifically, in the form of the person Lucia loved and missed the most.
"Judgment of the Goddess upon the demon!"
At that moment, seeing Elraim approach the priest, one of the inquisitors raised his sword and charged at her.
"You don't even know who the real demon is..."
As Elraim spoke, the charging inquisitor's body froze mid-air, as if someone had hit pause.
"W-who are you?!"
"I have no reason to explain myself to mere humans... but since I am about to kill you, you might as well know. I am Elraim, the Water Spirit King who governs all the waters of the world."
"A S-Spirit King...? That's... that's impossible..."
"Impossible? Then watch this."
Elraim gestured in the air. The frozen inquisitor's body began moving back and forth, puppeted by her hand movements.
Controlled effortlessly at her whim, the inquisitor performed bizarre, contorted movements, horrifying the priest.
"Did you know? Seventy percent of the human body is made of water. While I can manipulate it freely like this..."
Splat!
"...I can also extract every single drop of water from your body."
With a flick of Elraim's wrist, clumps of blood burst out of the suspended inquisitor's body. The shriveled, mummified corpse fell to the ground with a dry thud.
"A-a demon! It's a demon!"
"I told you, I'm the Spirit King Elraim, not a demon."
Splat!
With another wave of her hand, the blood of another inquisitor standing near the priest was completely drained. Terrified out of his wits, the priest collapsed to the ground, his face pale as a sheet.
"It's too early to be scared."
Next, the inquisitors who had been fighting the knights froze in place. They all began marching toward the priest in unison, like mindless puppets.
"Watch closely and see what happens when the spirits are angered..."
My bad feelings were always spot on.
Upon receiving the report from the guard stationed at the refugee camp, I focused all the mana in my body into my legs and sprinted.
Arriving at the camp at a speed several times faster than a galloping horse, I was left speechless by the bizarre sight before me.
A woman who looked like Lucia...
No, she looked strikingly like Lucia, but slightly older. She was currently waterboarding the few remaining Heresy Inquisitors.
Rather than killing them outright, she seemed to take pleasure in watching them writhe in agony.
Whenever an inquisitor was on the verge of drowning, she would pull them out of the water just in time to let them catch their breath, only to plunge them back in.
"What in the world is... Lucia!"
Staring at the woman and the numerous corpses scattered around, I spotted Lucia collapsed behind her and rushed over.
"Lucia! Wake up! Are you alright?"
When Lucia failed to respond despite my shaking, I glared suspiciously at the woman who resembled her.
"Don't worry. I'm the one who put her to sleep."
"Who are you...?"
"Who else? I'm Elraim."
"Elraim?"
The Elraim I knew was a figure made entirely of water.
Yet, there was not a single trace of that watery form left. Instead, she looked so much like Lucia that anyone would believe they were close relatives.
"Anyway... this guy is the one who tried to kill Lucia, and these guys are his lackeys."
Elraim tossed the inquisitors aside one by one as if they were ragdolls.
Among them lay Priest Josef, whom I had met back in the Eryther Empire, curled up on the ground like a half-crazed man.
"Bury these corpses yourself."
Elraim kicked the mummified corpses aside as if they were mere pebbles on the street.
"How did these people end up like this... and Elraim, why do you look like that?"