Interrogation (4)
My head was already a mess thanks to the heretic inquisitors, but something happened that confused me even more.
“They’ve issued an official order to open the treatment center doors! We’re saved!”
“Wow!!”
After the hardship comes comfort. An order had finally come down from above retracting the command to close the treatment center. There was nothing to be done about the patients already here, but everyone was delighted that at least the flood of new patients would slow.
We had grown used to seeing so many patients, but the exhausting work had continued day after day. Hearing that we might finally be freed from it filled us with joy.
“If the patient numbers drop, let’s have another dinner. My treat.”
“We all agreed to do it together, but I won’t talk you out of paying!”
Wow!!
“I heard you brought back a fortune from the Labyrinth, Priest. Does that mean we can have expensive, delicious food?”
“Of course. Eat until your stomachs burst. I really did earn a lot.”
I had sent most of it upward, but that didn’t mean I had returned empty-handed. I believed I deserved compensation for my labor, so I had kept a reasonable amount. Besides, this incident had involved help from many places beyond just the treatment center staff, so a dinner only for us felt insufficient.
“I’ll stop by the knight order and be right back.”
“The knight order?”
“Yes. I want to invite them too.”
“Will they even come?”
The knights had been acting extremely disciplined lately, almost rigidly by the book, so the others seemed to think they would dislike a dinner invitation.
“I think they’ll be happy to join. I’ll let you know after I ask. You’re all right with eating together with the knights, yes?”
“Of course we are.”
Now that I thought about it, I wondered what had become of the priest who used to be so interested in the holy knights. I hoped he would be pleased by the news. I asked another priest to pass the message on, then headed out.
The knight order had apparently received the same news about the treatment center reopening; the atmosphere was quite lively. The moment I arrived, a knight came running up and greeted me energetically.
“Good day, Priest!!”
Even though he must have suffered because of me, there wasn’t the slightest hint of resentment. It only made me feel more apologetic.
“Yes, hello.”
“I’ll escort you to the commander!”
Seeing how much more brisk and efficient the knight was trying to be compared to my last visit, I quickly stopped him.
“Ah! This isn’t something that requires seeing the commander. I mean it!!”
Remembering how I had accidentally been taken to the knight commander last time, I explained desperately.
“I just wanted to ask—have you heard that the treatment center doors are being reopened?”
“Yes. I’ve been informed.”
“We’ve decided to hold a dinner to thank everyone for their hard work during this time.”
“Are you inviting us?”
“Yes. Of course.”
We couldn’t possibly leave family out of such a happy occasion.
“You’ll come, won’t you?”
“I’m sure everyone will be glad to.”
“Then I’ll count on your attendance. I’ll let you know the date later. Oh, right! How was that place we visited last time?”
“You’re not planning to go there again, are you? Wouldn’t that be too expensive? This time let’s reserve a suitable restaurant. Our knight order will cover half the cost. Of course I’d need to ask the commander first, but if he refuses, I’ll pay for it out of my own pocket!”
The holy knight’s words made me smile despite myself.
“We’re the ones treating those who worked hard. We can’t accept your money. Just come as you are, with light hearts. And if anyone feels uncomfortable, please don’t pressure them. Since it’s a gathering for enjoyment, it wouldn’t feel right if someone attended only out of obligation.”
“Understood.”
Fearing they might insist on sharing the cost again, I left the knight order quickly.
Even with the treatment center reopened, it was still difficult to feel the change in the air.
“Priest. May we have a moment of your time?”
I had just finished with my patient and was about to move on to the next when the heretic inquisitors appeared, gathered together exactly as they had been the first time we met.
It didn’t seem as if they had assembled like this merely to escort me, so I asked,
“Yes. What is it?”
“Do you know anything about the current whereabouts of Bishop Saul?”
“Why are you looking for him? Isn’t Bishop Saul staying peacefully at Palmore Church?”
It looked like my master had caused a serious incident. Otherwise the heretic inquisitors wouldn’t be standing here with such grave faces asking for his location.
“We know he stopped by here and met with you. We understand you’re hiding him out of worry for your master, but that won’t actually help Bishop Saul.”
The inquisitor spoke as though he already knew everything.
Maybe it’s the job title. Being called an inquisitor somehow makes me feel pressured to confess everything I know.
Fortunately, I truly had no idea where my master had gone. He was the kind of person who could vanish anywhere at any time.
“He’s someone who can disappear to any place at any moment. He’s not the type to report his destination to me in detail.”
“You really don’t know?”
“No. It’s not a lie—I genuinely don’t know. I don’t understand why you’re looking for him, but you’d probably make faster progress searching for traces than standing here detaining me. He appears suddenly and disappears just as suddenly.”
Even though I spoke sincerely, they didn’t readily believe me.
“But why exactly are you looking for Bishop Saul?”
“He has kidnapped Prince Loras.”
“…Pardon?”
“To be precise, it’s still at the level of suspicion, but we believe with high probability that it was him.”
“Why on earth would Bishop Saul kidnap Prince Loras?”
“If you know anything about this matter, please tell us. If he kidnapped Prince Loras and then finished him off, it will create complications in many ways.”
“I really don’t know anything.”
I had no information whatsoever about his whereabouts.
“Even if he did kidnap Prince Loras, wouldn’t it be to verify whether he is a heretic rather than to harm him? Would that still be a problem?”
The stubborn higher-ups would never have left Prince Loras alone. They must have been planning to do something—would it really be wrong for my master to handle it instead?
“An uncommanded individual intervened.”
“Whoever it was, the important thing is exposing that Prince Loras was entangled with heretics. Doesn’t the outcome matter more than the method?”
“……”
“Still, I admit it could cause problems, so if I hear from him I’ll try to pass on a message.”
Whether he had truly kidnapped Prince Loras, what he had done with him, whether he had clearly proven the prince was a heretic—there were so many questions I wanted to ask.
What if he lost his temper and hit him once and Prince Loras just collapsed?
I didn’t know how much of my master’s hidden strength from his prime remained, but I doubted the still-young Prince Loras could withstand it.
He wouldn’t have done something like that without a plan. He must have thought it through.
“Tsk. No plan at all.”
My mouth tasted bitter. I had acted without much thought, yet the matter had spiraled far beyond what I expected. Who could have guessed that the prince I assumed was being manipulated by the heretics was actually the mastermind commanding them like his own limbs?
How did he hide it so well?
I really must be getting old.
“Damn it. I ruined myself trying to look after my disciple in my twilight years.”
Having retired with my body still whole, I had thought I could at least avoid becoming a burden to anyone until the day I died. I believed I would be able to grow old gracefully and pass on, but the situation had completely overturned that.
Still, I was relieved my disciple hadn’t had to face someone like this. In my case it had ended with one arm, but for him the encounter could easily have cost his life.
“Where did my arm fall?”
I scanned the area, thinking I might retrieve it and reattach it. Rummaging through a battlefield ruined by a demon with only one arm was hardly a dignified sight, but it was still part of my body. How inconvenient it would be to live without an arm.
After searching for roughly an hour, I finally located what remained of it.
“The arm… it’s been torn to shreds.”
Having spent an hour carefully searching only to find it damaged beyond repair, all the strength left my body.
“They don’t know how to respect their elders…!! I’m already miserable about being old, and now this.”
They had probably done it on purpose. After a hard-won battle where my life had been at risk, they must have worried I would simply reattach the arm and return. Of course that was their concern; from my perspective it was simply infuriating.
“Who would believe this? What if they dismiss it as the ramblings of a senile old man?”
I needed evidence of how Prince Loras had become a demon—no, more precisely, a demon contractor—and how he had concealed the power of the heretics, but I had failed to obtain it.
“A demon…”
Ever since the Labyrinth opened, all sorts of things had been crawling out. I needed to recall exactly what a demon was in this context. A demon was a being born from receiving the blood of the Evil God—in short, it could be considered the child of the Evil God.
People casually called immoral villains demons, but a true demon was nothing so trivial.
The real problem was how skillfully Prince Loras deceived others.
“We may have to kill him even if it means war with the Deltrack Empire…”
The one silver lining was that he still could not wield the demon’s power fully. That was proof the contract had been formed only recently.
The only unusual event connected to Prince Loras lately was the Labyrinth.
“I’ll have to go ask my disciple.”
Things would probably stay quiet for a while. I had lost an arm, but he had barely escaped with his life. He would avoid showing himself until his body recovered. Having seen it clearly with my own eyes, I could easily predict that the Holy Empire’s attempts to capture him would only grow more intense from now on.