The Culprit (2)
“How did you manage to escape?”
“I’m quite confident in my ability to run away.”
After receiving my treatment, he seemed a little calmer. Sipping warm soup to soothe his startled heart, he spoke.
“There were things that became possible because of those people. It’s only natural for them to look down on people like us. After all, they could kill us with a mere flick of their wrist.”
The man trembled as the memories resurfaced. Even as he sniffled, he gathered the courage to recount what had happened to him.
“I was tortured. Their goal wasn’t to extract information from me. It was simply to inflict pain. They didn’t ask me anything.”
“That must have been horrific.”
If the purpose of the torture was to torment the victim, there was no way to know when it would end. That made it all the more agonizing.
“They left me alone in a dark place and occasionally came in to torment me. And whenever they thought I wasn’t in enough pain, they’d bring up my family to torment me further.”
“Your family too?”
“They gave me a choice. The first option was to endure five minutes of water torture and rest, but one of my family members would have their leg broken. The second was to endure an hour of water torture, but my family would remain unharmed.”
“Those bastards.”
I couldn’t help but curse. What kind of monsters were they?
“How could I possibly choose to have my family hurt? I’m already in this much pain—how could I let them suffer the same… *sob*…!”
“Are your family members safe?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea how they’re doing. I’m afraid that if I go to see them, I’ll get caught by those people again….”
Every word he uttered was something only someone who had experienced it firsthand could understand—the heartbreaking dilemma of worrying about one’s family’s safety yet being unable to go to them.
“Coming here was the right decision. If you’d been caught again, no one would have known. I’ll ask the holy knights to look after your family. If possible, I’ll have them brought here.”
“Thank you so much. You’ve already saved my life….”
Tears streaming down his face, he carefully took my hand. The trembling I felt from him was filled with sincerity. Even Sister Melody, who had been suspicious at first, seemed to have let go of her doubts this time.
The man, looking emaciated to the bone, pleaded with all his heart for us to save him.
“I’d better go check right away. I’ll head out now. Sister, please stay here. I’ll be back.”
“…Understood.”
Normally, she would have insisted on going herself, but perhaps thinking it risky to leave me alone with this man, she chose to stay. At least the inside of the temple was safe.
“Excuse me. I’ve come because there’s something I’d like to request.”
“Priest Arthur?”
“Huh… yes?”
It wasn’t strange that the knight recognized me immediately, given my fame here.
“This way, please! I’ll call the commander!”
“No, no, no! There’s no need to call the commander. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Or was it? Maybe it was.
“Well, there might be a bit of combat involved?”
“…In that case, it’s appropriate to call the commander. Please wait a moment.”
In the end, the knight left to fetch the commander. While I’d worked with the holy knights on various occasions, I’d never been this deep inside the order before. As I looked around, taking in the sights of the knight order, the knight returned with the commander sooner than expected.
“What brings you here?”
The commander seemed to think some grave incident had occurred, based on whatever he’d been told, which made me flustered.
“Ah… I came because I have a favor to ask.”
“Please, speak.”
“It’s nothing that warrants everyone’s attention like this….”
The problem was that the commander hadn’t come alone.
“Ah! My apologies. We were all together when we heard you were calling for the priest, so we all rushed over.”
“It feels like I’m wasting your precious time over something trivial.”
“Not at all. Precious time? Our usual work is just swinging swords around.”
The commander’s interest was burdensome, but it was far better than indifference.
“What would you like us to do?”
“I’d like you to bring a certain person’s family here and protect them safely.”
“Requesting protection means they’re currently in an unsafe situation, correct?”
“There might be people detaining them or secretly watching them.”
“Is your goal to eliminate them?”
“No. It doesn’t matter if it becomes known that the destination is the temple.”
If they were Loras’s subordinates, they’d quickly figure out where these people had fled. So there was no need to try hiding it.
“Tell us the location, and we’ll move immediately.”
“Thank you. I’m counting on you.”
Having heard that there might be combat, the commander ordered all idle knights to assemble. It seemed there were more knights resting than I’d thought.
“You’re taking this many with you?”
“We’re just taking the ones who were slacking off, so don’t feel burdened. They were getting bored anyway.”
With the promise that they would definitely bring back the family I mentioned, the knight order set out.
Watching the knights leave the temple from behind, I prayed that they would return with good news.
“The targets of their frustration were probably a few soldiers who caught the prince’s eye. Especially those who received treatment here at the temple were all captured. I was the last one… No, there might have been more kidnappings after me. Anyway, at some point, people started disappearing one by one. I thought it was strange. I should have trusted my instincts and escaped earlier, but it’s my fault.”
Upon hearing that the knights had gone to rescue his family after his treatment, he seemed relieved and began earnestly sharing what he knew.
Through his story, we could confirm that Prince Loras was kidnapping people to vent his frustrations, torturing them, and then disposing of them. Of course, to fully trust his words, we’d need to investigate separately on our end.
“You’ve done well. Rest here until your family returns. Loras’s subordinates won’t be able to reach this place.”
“Thank you so much!”
After leaving the man in the hospital room, we felt the need to discuss how to respond to this incident.
I should probably inform Master about this as well.
The information that Prince Loras, who was suspected of being connected to heretics, was killing people was quite significant.
What heretics love most is offering people as sacrifices.
That was also why we could find heretics. There were always heretics wherever people died in excessive numbers without reason.
Heretics weren’t fools. Why would they repeatedly engage in actions that risked exposure? It was because, despite the danger, the act brought them tremendous benefits.
This is also why the repercussions would be enormous if someone as powerful as Prince Loras began cooperating with heretics.
For example, imagine Prince Loras deliberately starting a war. To create sacrifices for the Evil God. Thousands of soldiers would be sacrificed in the war, and mass deaths in war zones were natural, making it easy to avoid suspicion.
This is truly dangerous.
I didn’t know what conclusion Master would reach upon his return, but given Prince Loras’s suspicious actions, it seemed unlikely he would be proven innocent.
“Priest Arthur.”
Two days had passed since the knight order set out. It was enough time for a round trip to the man’s house, and the knights brought unfortunate news to him.
“By the time we arrived, no one was there.”
“No! No!! It’s my fault!! I shouldn’t have tried to save myself…! *sob*!!”
The man, who had barely been holding himself together, collapsed again upon hearing of his family’s disappearance. Unfortunately, I had no way to heal someone who had fallen due to mental shock. Unless his family returned, it would be impossible for him to recover from the shock.
The knights actively involved themselves in the case, saying they would listen more carefully to the man’s story, find out where he had been kidnapped, note the kidnappers’ appearances, and conduct an investigation.
“However, there’s one decision you must make before we proceed.”
“I’ll do anything if it means I can save my family!! Anything!!”
“You must decide carefully. It will change the rest of your life.”
“Wh-what kind of choice…?”
“Becoming a citizen of the Holy Empire.”
“!!”
“If you remain a citizen of the Deltrack Empire, the knight order has no justification to act. It would be the Deltrack Empire’s soldiers, not us, who should investigate this incident.”
But if the man pledged allegiance to the Holy Empire, it would create justification for the holy knights to move. The problem was that changing nationality wasn’t easy.
“I’ll change my nationality.”
Perhaps because his family’s lives were at stake, the man decided too easily to change his nationality.
“When a member of the imperial family is trying to kill me, how could I possibly live comfortably in the Deltrack Empire? After something like this has happened, I have no intention of returning there.”
Knowing that it was Prince Loras who had done this, it seemed his patriotism had long since vanished. Thinking about it, it was only natural to lose affection for one’s country when a member of the imperial family was trying to kill you. The empire was the emperor, and having been betrayed by his son, the prince, there was no way any patriotism could remain.