Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Great Sin (1)
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The back alleys of the city of Berdil were a breeding ground for all sorts of criminal organizations. Under Duke Rayhem's neglect, they served as the city's underworld dumpster.
In that shadowy world closely tied to the slums, a silver blade flashed like lightning.
Slash!
"Gurk...!"
With a single gleam, one man clutched his throat and collapsed to the ground. The crude iron sword he had gripped was already broken in half long ago.
Isabel looked down at the man with cold eyes and muttered indifferently.
"I avoided the vital spots. It's not a deep enough wound to kill you outright, so if you take proper measures without delay, your life shouldn't be in great danger."
"Guh, cough..."
"In other words, if you don't get treated in time, you won't survive... Well, that's mercy enough for someone who treated people like merchandise."
Swish! She spun her glaive once and stabbed it into the building floor, then brushed off her hands.
Her white clothes were soaked with the blood that had splattered when she sliced the man's throat... but there was nothing to be done about that.
She kicked away the man crawling on the ground like a bug with the back of her foot and turned her body with an utterly icy expression.
"Hic, heek...!"
"P-Please, spare me."
Around her, people similar to the man—or perhaps a bit less injured—were sprawled messily everywhere.
All of them were underlings of a slave trader who secretly dealt in human trafficking. They had rushed in to save their boss, but the result was as plain to see.
It was impossible for mere ordinary folk to stop a cleric who had reached her level.
Isabel glanced at them with contemptuous eyes as they noticeably backed away.
Unless they were black mages in league with demons, taking their lives arbitrarily went against her beliefs as a priest, so she had spared them.
But looking at their pathetic state, she briefly considered breaking her principles and cutting them down.
Even before dawn today, hadn't she set aside her personal convictions once?
"...Hm."
By then, Isabel deliberately cut off her lingering thoughts. There was no need to dwell on memories that would only make her face flush.
This wasn't the time to comfortably reminisce about what she had done with Evan at dawn.
She recomposed her expression and retrieved her glaive with an even chillier demeanor.
In any case, if nothing happened, they would die on their own or end up as invalids. There was no loyalty or need to finish them off personally.
With that, Isabel gave them a clean glance and picked up a bundle of keys from the table where the man had been sitting moments before.
Keys divided into various numbers, like they were categorizing merchandise.
Among them were separate bundles mixed in for special treatment.
[Girls]
And their meaning was obvious.
"...Ha."
Isabel's expression froze in a terrifyingly stern chill. She turned her gaze, and the man receiving it convulsed his eyes.
He was already clutching the bleeding wound on his neck with both hands as hard as he could.
Crunch!
"...!"
And in that moment, Isabel crushed his instep under her heel—how could it not hurt?
The man's eyes bulged wide, and for a moment, his agonized screams echoed through the building.
Each scream made the wound on his neck throb and gush blood. His underlings could only tremble and stay silent.
Only Isabel, the perpetrator, trampled him with a calm expression.
Thud!
Soon, the man breathed his last. His final struggles ceased, and his heavy body slammed to the floor, falling silent forever.
"Hoo..."
Though she had impulsively ended a life, Isabel felt no particular emotion.
No regrets. If anything, perhaps a sense of relief at clearing out trash.
She gripped the key bundle tightly, as if to crush it, and spun around.
Trash was scattered everywhere, but stomping them one by one would be a hassle.
Yet after personally severing that man's lifeline, leaving them alive felt ridiculous.
Isabel gripped her glaive, and as she slowly swept through the building interior, the silver gleam flashed sharply several more times.
Each swing precisely severed the trash's heads.
It was regrettable that she couldn't inflict the same great pain as on the man, but it was an unavoidable compromise.
Slash!
"May you be reborn in your next life as a human capable of showing mercy to others."
Splat, roll roll roll...
Isabel murmured a brief phrase as she cleanly separated the last piece of trash's body from its head.
It was ambiguous to call it a blessing, but it sufficed as a farewell for their end.
She emotionlessly kicked away the 'head' at her feet and stood before the iron door. Her senses told her the foul air extended underground.
This beyond was likely the space where they kept the merchandise... the captives.
Isabel used the key bundle to easily unlock the iron door.
She could have cut it with her glaive, but since it led to an underground space, she avoided force to prevent any collapse risks.
Clank...!
The door opened. Unpleasant air brushed her cheek, and though Isabel grimaced, she promptly stepped onto the stairs leading down.
'Did Duke Rayhem truly not know about these things happening in his own territory?'
She thought of the city's lord. Could a duke really be unaware of what went on in his own land?
The guards protecting this building numbered dozens, but they were all pretenders who couldn't properly wield aura or mana.
Neglecting a criminal group of this scale due to incompetence? Vermin that could be swept away by mobilizing just a tenth of his family's private soldiers?
'No way.'
In the end, it was tacit approval. Duke Rayhem knew full well and turned a blind eye to the slave trade.
Isabel ground her teeth. Of course, she knew well as a noble that there were 'evils' one had no choice but to tolerate when running a city.
But there had to be a line. Slave trading was a clear felony under imperial law.
Even selling girls not yet of legal age as slaves? It was obvious how those children would be used.
Isabel's eyes blazed with clear murderous intent, glowing a deep sunset hue.
In that moment, Dietrich Aulos Rayhem was added to her kill list.
The instant she confirmed the auction house situation, she would raze the entire city. She possessed more than enough power for that personally.
Bang!!
Her harbored fury naturally showed in her actions. At the bottom of the stairs, Isabel violently flung open another iron door.
"...You're insane, Duke Rayhem."
And at the vast scene revealed, she couldn't hold back the cold sneer that escaped her lips.
Rusted iron bars everywhere, clustered with all sorts of people inside.
Male or female, old or young—it didn't matter. By eye, there were easily several hundred.
Selling this many as slaves? The scale was excessive.
At this point, it might not be just deviance within the city. Naturally, no single criminal group could handle numbers like this.
Perhaps it was connected to the auction soon to be held in the city center.
With that reasonable guess, Isabel carefully surveyed the area.
And pondered deeply. Freeing them all now wouldn't be hard, but could she handle the aftermath?
'If Duke Rayhem is definitely involved... there might be no way to safely return these people at all.'
Releasing them without a plan to send them back would be irresponsible.
The more she thought, the more her head ached without a clear conclusion. It was then, as Isabel touched her forehead with the hand not holding the glaive.
"...?"
A certain iron-barred cell caught her eye. It stood out oddly, exuding a heterogeneous atmosphere all its own.
The other cells were categorized by purpose. Adult men for labor, beautiful women, girls, boys for toys, and so on.
But that one, in the deepest part of the underground space, held a jumble of people without any clear classification.
What was the criterion? Isabel narrowed her eyes, trying to grasp the strange sensation.
"... "
No way?
Her expression hardened in an instant. The moment judgment formed, she leaped forward, crossing the wide underground space like lightning and landing before the bars.
Thud!
"Heek...!?"
"Uh, ah...!"
Without warning, just a light breeze, and suddenly a person appeared—small wonder they recoiled in fear in various ways.
"...This metal."
But Isabel couldn't afford to consider their reactions right away. She was just as confused as they were.
The bars emitted a faint crimson-black glow. A material distinctly different from the other cages.
Unmistakable demon metal, the natural restraint perfect for suppressing clerics.
The moment Isabel realized the bars' purpose and covered her mouth in shock.
"...Are you an Inquisitor...?"
"...!"
A woman inside the bars spoke up. Her gray eyes, filled with fear yet holding hope, looked at Isabel.
Despite her emaciated state, she was a beautiful woman whose innate grace could be inferred.
'...A priest?'
And at the same time, her pristine white clerical robes revealed her status.
Isabel nodded with a groan.
"Special Inquisitor Isabel Sedent of the Hespania Mountains. And you are...?"
"Ah, aah... I'm Anna Promel, a nun at Berdil Central Church. It really, truly is you, Lady Isabel..."
The woman who introduced herself wept weakly. She said she had once seen Isabel from afar in the imperial capital, and tremblingly wiped her eyes with her hand.
Isabel asked her in a voice mixed with confusion and gravity.
"Miss Anna. I know you're startled, but I have a few questions. It seems you're the only one here we can talk to..."
There were others beyond the bars, but they all eyed Isabel warily.
Or perhaps some couldn't even manage that, seeming out of their minds.
Isabel noticed they all, without exception, possessed divine power. She looked at Anna with a troubled heart and asked.
"The slave traders upstairs... what were they planning to do with you all, gathering you here?"
"... "
Why gather only divine power users in one place? What special slave purpose required such treatment?
Anna didn't answer immediately, but Isabel recognized it as her organizing her thoughts.
So she waited patiently, and soon Anna spoke with a weary expression, her words laborious.
"I don't know exactly. But from overhearing conversations of the guards who occasionally came down to manage us..."
"... "
"...Probably... to offer our bodies and divine traits as slaves to high nobles who wield divine power."
Anna concluded. Her tone lacked confidence, as if not fully certain.
But really, what else could be the reason for gathering only divine power users?
She had vaguely suspected it before hearing it. She just wanted confirmation from the source because she didn't want to believe it.
"... "
Isabel silently raised her head. The crudely stone-plastered ceiling was dimly lit by low-quality lamps flickering faintly.
How deep was this excavated underground? Due to the soil layers, even her senses struggled to gauge the distance to the surface.
Soon, she closed her eyes slightly.
The worst great sin a cleric could commit, forbidden by the Sun Church's canon law.
'To elevate the rank of divine traits, do not suppress another's body and will.'
There were sinners defying the Goddess here.
Isabel quietly gripped her glaive tight.