Irreversible (3)
The heresy inquisition stretched past midnight.
Not everyone belonging to a temple could wield Holy Power, and that was why the later stages of the investigation had bogged down to a crawl.
There was nothing to be done about it. If someone whose rank required Holy Power turned out unable to use it, that would have been grounds for interrogation — according to the setting, the god stripped power from anyone who committed corruption, a conveniently tidy bit of lore — but you could hardly brand someone a criminal for failing to wield a power they had never possessed in the first place.
In the end, the only option was to interrogate them one by one and dig out the truth by hand.
And there was no world in which that process was going to be short, easy, or entertaining. Worse still, I had no relevant skills, so I was stuck hanging back out of the way.
If not for the logout problem, I would have been bored out of my mind. Yes — if not for the logout problem.
"……."
Half a day by game time. With no next quest and nothing left to help with, I at least had room to think.
The hypotheses I managed to settle on were only two: either I had miscounted the days, or I had failed to account for time the system skipped over — sleep, for example.
The second one wasn't pure wishful thinking, either. In any game, when a player sleeps, the clock jumps forward. Time folds in on itself like a shortcut through space.
So of course the full-dive logout would run late by however long I had slept in this world. Strictly speaking it wasn't late so much as I had lived through a skip — but still.
"Thank you for waiting so long."
Talking myself down like that settled my nerves a little. The Inquisitor returned at exactly that moment.
"The remaining judgments will be carried on by others. Until the heresy inquisitors dispatched from the Great Temple arrive, the city will take full responsibility for managing them."
Oh. I had expected this to drag on for days. If we were washing our hands of it here, that was perfect.
Interrogating heresy inquisitors, bishops, and senior priests had at least offered the fun of enemies potentially popping out. Once it shifted over to ordinary people, it was nothing but talking and prodding — pure dead air.
Even if I hadn't had the mental bandwidth to feel fun in the first place, dead air was still dead air.
"Everyone — you have all worked hard."
Ba-bam!
The quest-complete BGM rang out right on the heels of the Inquisitor's words.
A level-up on top of it was just gravy.
"Is that really all right?"
But while I was checking my level, the thief — why he still hadn't left, I had no idea — cut in with a pointed question. The words themselves were understandable enough.
If the group the perpetrators belonged to was the one judging those same perpetrators, anyone would react that way. There's a reason people say blood is thicker than water.
"Collaborators, yes — but every last one of them is a civilian. Not beyond what a trained force can keep under control. And within a week, the judges sent by the Order will arrive. The chance of trouble is low."
"Does that sound like what I was asking?"
"Then what were you asking?"
The Archmage and I both understood what the thief meant. Unfortunately, our brick wall of a companion did not.
She had almost certainly heard it as a question about whether the city garrison could handle the watch.
"Hmm. If you are hoping I will take charge of them myself, that is impossible. I too would wish to see this through to the end, but……."
The Inquisitor trailed off for a moment, then finished with firm resolve.
"I have a mission of higher priority."
The thief's face went blank with disbelief — the natural next step. He looked over at me, then pointed a finger at the Inquisitor. I had no idea what he was saying, but I got the gist.
"…The ones coming this time had better not be the corrupted."
"If that is your concern, set it aside, Demon Knight. In light of this affair, the Order will conduct a thorough purge of its own ranks."
"Ha. Sure they will. Who's to say they won't just cover for their own kind, corrupted or not?"
"…I will tolerate no further insult, criminal!"
And the way the Inquisitor treated me versus the thief was funny in its own right.
"Ahem. More to the point, my friend. I have been meaning to ask…… how did you find those who fled?"
The Archmage tossed out a question to change the subject. The thief shrugged.
"I'd already heard there were collaborators in the temple…… and the way things looked, the purge wasn't going to be slow. So the second I got back to the alleys, I grabbed my people and posted up around the temple. Caught the runners one by one as they bolted."
I'd thought he was just a snowball that had rolled into our path, but he even had a backstory that fit his character attributes.
If not for the bugs, this really would have been a god-tier game. Damn that logout.
"Ah — and don't go thinking I'm trying to make peace with you lot. I was just repaying a debt to the knight, that's all."
"……."
Separately, I still couldn't tell whether this thief had any sense of fear at all. He got scared just fine, and still picked fights just fine.
"…Belated as it is, I will express my gratitude for that. I still cannot condone criminals like you…… but it is true that I received your aid."
Still, the Inquisitor was an NPC who knew how to give credit where it was due.
"Thank you. Because of you, we were able to purge the seeds of evil that had been parasitizing the Order."
"…Spare me the gratitude that doesn't suit you. I told you — it wasn't for your sake. I was repaying the knight, nothing more."
Which meant I got to watch the thief fluster, turn his head, and squirm. He looked like a man who had just seen a ghost — even if only his ears and lower face were visible.
"That said, gratitude and turning a blind eye to crime are separate matters. If you simply whisked away the demon contractor you took—"
"Damn it, of course you people wouldn't just say thank you and leave it."
"My gratitude was pure and sincere!"
"Yeah, yeah."
The thief dug at his ear and answered half-heartedly. The Inquisitor's fingers twitched as if she meant to take hold of her mace — then she clenched her fist instead and let it pass.
Unexpected. I had been sure she would draw. I hadn't even planned to stop her.
"I didn't spirit him away, so don't worry. Just in case, I brought the body too."
Still, the Inquisitor's brief patience had gotten her what she wanted. The thief snapped his fingers. Around then, a presence brushed against my ear.
"Deathbringer, reporting as called."
Wow, without the enemy-detection skill active, finding people is such a pai— ughhh!
"You heard her. The temple wants the body collected."
And there was the reason I always remembered this thief's advanced class.
Deathbringer…… Everyone else got cool, stylish class names, and only the thief's was so cringeworthy that I could never forget it.
Probably because the word "Death" just didn't sit right with Korean sensibilities…… Anyway, that was how it became both the least-played class and the one everyone remembered most accurately.
For reference, the class people mispronounced the most was Inquisitor. One look at the incident boards and you would see every mangled variation imaginable — Inquiziter, Inquitter, you name it.
"…Confirmed."
Anyway — while my thoughts had wandered, the thief…… hmm. Calling him "the thief" would get confusing with the others, so since the name had come up, I might as well use that. But I didn't have the confidence to keep saying Deathbringer out loud, so I would shorten it to Dev.
Yes. Dev and another thief had the demon contractor's corpse inspected.
At first he just held out a sack, so I wondered what it was — until he opened it and a savagely butchered body tumbled out. Judging by how the thief-NPC who opened the sack still had fire in his eyes, that one was his handiwork.
"…More than that, mind if I ask something too?"
"What is it you wish to know? If it is a question I can answer, I shall."
"That bit about the Hero."
But Dev had suddenly pulled out a completely unexpected word.
"Is it true?"
"…Ah. Yes. You did overhear."
The Archmage paused as if choosing his words carefully. Then, blinking eyes pickled in exhaustion, he gave a weak nod. His gaze looked like iron that had been dropped on ice.
"It is true. The Inquisitor is the Hero. Chosen by the god."
…Hey, is the Archmage all right? That old man looked like his fatigue was maxed out.
Well — even I, with high Strength, Stamina, and Agility, was starting to hit the danger zone, so an intelligence-dumped build not being at max fatigue would have been stranger. He had only held out this far because the Shagi race had high base physical stats to begin with.
"…For real?"
"For real."
"No way……."
The thief's lower face twisted. He clearly did not want to believe the Inquisitor was the Hero. The Inquisitor herself, who had always found the title of Hero excessive for someone like her, accepted the assessment — and still looked somehow wounded and resentful about it.
In any case, those two NPCs made an entertaining combination when left together.
Shff.
Not that I particularly wanted to stick around and watch. I straightened from where I had been leaning against the wall and took a step forward.
The quest was done. I had heard how the collaborators would be handled. I had confirmed that the one the thief took had been dealt with.
Whether I considered my character concept or myself as a player, I had no further reason to remain.
"W-where are you going?"
I did not want to sleep at the temple. I would just pick any old inn and crash. Why did this damned game have to implement fatigue and actual drowsiness?
Earlier, the tension had kept me from feeling it much — but now that I had eased my anxiety about logging out and finally had some room to breathe, the exhaustion was no joke. I wanted to rest.
"Are you headed for Tatara?"
But why did that misunderstanding have to pop out?
"Tatara…… isn't that the city we were in before?"
"…And the place where the Meyble Merchant Guild is located."
Ah. Right.
"……! The Meyble Merchant Guild……."
"If it came from a demon contractor's mouth, then something is surely already underway there as well……."
I had meant to move only after the interrogation results came in, but the incident had branched off sideways and I had completely forgotten. The problem of the Meyble Merchant Guild was still outstanding.
"One would think you would wish for a little rest, yet your sense of duty is something I simply cannot match."
…I had completely forgotten about it, but there was no particular reason to clear up the misunderstanding. Without stopping, I started thinking through where I could get a means of transport.
By the clock, I would probably log out somewhere on the road to Tatara — and that was fine in its own way. As long as I could log out, what did anything else matter?
"However, I do not believe departing at this moment is a wise decision. Your stamina will not hold."
That…… was also true.
"So what you are saying is that we should gift time to those who, even now, may be plotting who knows what?"
But when it came to demons, logic did not work on my character concept!
"It is a matter of efficiency. If we leave at once, we may shorten the time, yes. But when you arrive in Tatara having driven yourself with a whip, will you still have the strength left to deal with them?"
"Do not foist your own weakness onto me."
"I concede the point. Unlike me, you may still have strength to spare. But is that truly so? If you set out in this condition, taking short rests under the open sky along the way, can you truly draw out your full power once you reach Tatara?"
I…… could, right……? Fatigue would pile up, sure, but that was just a number that dropped when you slept.
And system-wise, sleeping at an inn versus sleeping rough only differed in how fast the fatigue fell. Factor in that the game might shut off, and there was no real need to manage it at all.
"Listen. Failing to help others when you have the power to do so is indeed indolence. But if you drive yourself into the ground in order to help others — is that truly diligence?"
And somehow, from a line spoken for that reason, a maxim worth applying to real life came back at me.
"It is because I exist that the world exists. Only by standing firm oneself can one support others."
No — if this were reality, I would have agreed with every word. But hearing it in a game……
"So. Are you preaching at me?"
Neither the player nor my character concept was listening.
"Not preaching, but……."
"If that is how you wish to live, then live that way, Sage. Conduct yourself by the truths you have grasped, and breathe in the direction you deem right."
Of course. This was a character whose setting was that he hated demons so much he would push even people trying to kill him down to second priority the moment a demon appeared. In other words, demon-hunting came before his own safety.
Would a character like that put demons second because his body was a little tired?
"I shall do the same."
Absolutely not! If he did, that would be character collapse. That, above all else, I could never allow.
∎ Travel to Tatara
"Live like that and you will collapse someday."
"Not my concern."
The player wasn't going to collapse, so there was nothing to worry about — and more pressingly, where the hell was I supposed to get a horse? Buy one at the trading post? I didn't think I had enough money for that.
Tch. Put in a request at the Adventurer's Guild…… yeah, right. What was I supposed to do now? I had nailed the cool factor, and now I was stuck. This was why you needed pocket money coming in.
"…Uh."
Just then, Dev raised a hand.
"I can arrange the fastest horses in this city for you. Better stock than what they raise at the temple, even."
…You little— I like you! But I barely have any cash……! What if the money doesn't work out? Ahhh. I should have taken the five hundred thousand gal from killing the Draugr! Or at least the reward for solving this case!
"But it'll take at least two — no, three hours. Maybe longer depending on the horses' condition. Hmm. That all right with you?"
"……."
It would take time. But I had no way of getting a horse on my own, and he had guaranteed the fastest ones available — so that much was a compromise I could live with.
"The price."
Only the cost was the problem……!
"…The price, well. I'll figure something out."
I nearly welled up with sudden emotion. Was this Mount Heaven's grace?
"In exchange…… let me ask just one thing."
"Speak."
"…There's clearly nothing in it for you. So why devote yourself like this?"
If a single answer would settle the score for a horse, I would answer as much as he wanted. Waiting for the question with that in mind, I got something rather odd.
"No wealth, no honor will follow. So why……."
So the cross between system exploitation and staying in character looked like devotion through NPC eyes…… Not that I had been aiming for that.
The behavioral principle I had settled on was self-abuse born of self-loathing. Not some lofty devotion or sacrifice.
"Do you need a reason to crush a bug?"
Well — there was no need to spell all that out, so I tossed it off lightly.
"I simply cannot tolerate the existence of vermin that gnaw away at the world."
For reference, I also clamped my right arm when I said it. Wahaha.
An immersion chance like this? I could never pass it up!