Is This Really the Church? (2)
I found a relatively quiet corner inside the church headquarters where foot traffic seemed minimal, and there I spent a long time comforting Nella.
“Hic… I told them I didn’t want to eat it, but they kept… shoving that hard baguette into my mouth until it got all soggy… hic…”
“There, there. You must have had a really hard time.”
While patting Nella’s shoulder, I narrowed my eyes and shot a glare at Lenka.
“This has nothing to do with me. Our departments are completely different to begin with. What I can say for sure is that our interrogation office would never torment a child like that. Ah, is this why they say people who have it easy at work end up with rotten hearts~?”
When Lenka spoke, I felt Nella’s shoulders shake even harder, so this time I jerked my chin at Miloshi, signaling him to do something.
Miloshi rubbed his temple for a moment, thinking, then tried changing the subject.
“Ah, um… Miss Nella, you wear your clothes in a rather unique way. Do you prefer wearing them oversized on purpose?”
“Hic… N-no… It’s because the seniors… sniff, they tore up all my uniforms… hic, and the only new one I received… was this one… so… hic…”
“Ah.”
Miloshi looked at me with a stiff expression.
That was probably his silent way of saying it was my turn now.
‘Sigh…’
I let out a soft sigh, careful not to upset Nella any further.
Honestly, I could somewhat relate to what Lenka had said.
Just thinking back to when I fled the capital and fought tooth and nail against the demon race on the remote frontier was enough.
In that place where we swam every day on the razor’s edge between life and death, where I had to protect my comrades and trust them in order to survive.
The very idea of deliberately harming a fellow soldier was unthinkable.
Of course, even in my own army, such behavior wasn’t entirely absent.
There were always those who could only feel satisfied when they proved they stood above others through sheer power.
And I had always prescribed the same treatment for that type.
Never once had it failed.
A very fast-acting special prescription.
“Guide us, Nella.”
“Hic… Y-yes…?”
“I’m telling you to lead me to those senior bastards from the Arcane Archive who did these vile things to you.”
“S-suddenly… hic… now?”
“Yes. Right now. Immediately.”
“B-but… right now it’s still… hic… before the lectures end, so… outsiders are… hic… prohibited from entering the Corridor of Knowledge… where they should be…”
“Right now. Immediately.”
“Um, Saintess? Haha… You’re obviously not thinking of doing what I’m imagining, right? Right?”
I stared straight at Miloshi without bothering to answer.
“…Right? You’re not, are you?”
Miloshi’s face gradually turned deathly pale, while Nella, who still hadn’t grasped the meaning, simply sniffled with a bewildered expression. Only Lenka, who had understood from the beginning, stood beside Miloshi puffing out her cheeks as she desperately held back the laughter threatening to burst out.
Arcane Archive.
One of the church’s highest institutions, responsible for recording, preserving, storing, and researching documents, literature, artifacts, and ruins related to the Triune Gods, as well as designating the empire’s forbidden books.
Because of the nature of their work, those belonging to the Arcane Archive tended to see themselves more as scholars or researchers than as clergy.
For that reason, they avoided contact with ordinary believers and mostly worked inside their own laboratories and workshops.
Still, their achievements were undeniable, so the church headquarters had even built them an entire building called the Corridor of Knowledge, filled with research rooms and workshops.
…And right now, uninvited guests were boldly striding down the corridors of that very Corridor of Knowledge.
“S-stop right there! This is a place outsiders are not allowed to enter freely!!”
An older researcher from the Arcane Archive, whose head was quite bald, mustered his courage and blocked the path of the intruders.
“Oh my, how admirable of you to show such courage~”
A massive woman stepped in front of him with a chilling smile and looked down.
“Y-you! J-judging by your attire, y-you must be from the Interrogation Office… w-what exactly are you d-doing here?”
“The reason? Well, if I had to say…”
Lenka’s hand moved behind her back.
Her vicious hammer was, as always, strapped tightly to her back, and the researcher witnessed it with his own eyes.
“W-wait! This isn’t right!!”
Lenka’s hand swiftly pulled something from behind her and thrust it toward the researcher’s face.
“Kyaaaaaaa… a… a… ack?”
And nothing happened.
What she had pulled out from behind her back was instead—
“H-hello…?”
Nella.
Nella, who had been forcibly carried on Lenka’s back.
“M-Mamlad?! What on earth is…!”
“You. Do you know who this child is?”
Lucie casually sauntered over beside Nella and asked the researcher.
“A-and who are you, exactly?”
“No. That wasn’t what I asked.”
Lucie’s shining golden eyes glared at the researcher like a predator encountered at night, as if ready to devour him.
“Hiiik… O-of course I know her! She’s the outstanding child who even received an award at this year’s Arcane Academic Conference…!”
Then, as if it had never happened, Lucie’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as she looked at Nella dangling from Lenka’s hand.
“Oh, so you really are quite sharp, aren’t you?”
“Uwaaa… Everyone in the Arcane Archive is going to see me like this…”
It seemed Nella wasn’t even registering Lucie’s words.
“Anyway. If you know this child, then you must also know about the ones who usually torment her, right?”
“T-torment? W-well… our Arcane Archive strictly prohibits disputes or harassment among members…”
“Ah yes, of course you do. Naturally.”
Lenka cut off the researcher’s words and continued.
“But what should we do? There’s a victim, yet no perpetrator. I happen to know an absolutely perfect way to resolve situations like this~”
Lenka’s eyelids slowly lifted, revealing the snake-like green eyes hidden within as they looked down at the researcher.
“The Purifier’s way.”
Sweat beaded on the researcher’s bald forehead, and he seemed to have forgotten how to stutter as his mouth refused to open. Moreover, because Lenka had spoken her last words so clearly and emphatically, even the onlookers who had gathered around began turning pale.
“Well then, Miss Nella. Shall we go find those perpetrators? By the way, it doesn’t really matter to me if you point at someone else!”
She then pointed at a random nearby researcher and asked.
“Is it this person~?”
“N-no…”
Although she denied it, Nella muttered very quietly, ‘He just accidentally ate my snacks a few times…’
“H-hey! When did I ever—”
The pointed-out researcher, seeing the ice-cold expressions on Lucie and Lenka’s faces, used his quick-witted brain to come up with a better idea than making excuses.
“Ah. I know where those guys are right now.”
It seemed the lecture hadn’t started yet. Researchers from the Arcane Archive were scattered about, taking their seats.
“Hey, hey.”
Among them, a male scholar with brown hair and a face full of freckles approached a female scholar with blonde hair and a hooked nose whom he seemed to be friends with, tapping her arm as he asked.
“Did you see that moldy girl actually scream ‘Ack!’ in the grand corridor about an hour ago?”
“No. I had a lecture on bibliography at the time. But wasn’t today the day she was supposed to meet the Saintess who’s getting canonized?”
“Exactly! And she pulled that crap right in front of the Saintess!”
“What? Ahahaha, is she crazy? That’s fucking hilarious.”
“After that, she got so embarrassed she started bawling again right in front of the Saintess.”
“Seriously, I don’t know why our Doctor Mamlad cries so much. It just makes you want to bully her more.”
Between their sneering, ugly laughter, the sound of the lecture hall door being violently thrown open cut through.
Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned toward the entrance.
There stood a blonde girl in shabby clothes, a giant female inquisitor, a small creature clinging to her back, and a young man with a serious expression muttering, ‘What am I even doing here? I shouldn’t have followed.’
“…What is this? It reminds me of some kind of animal marching band?”
Unlike the freckled researcher who was still sneering because he couldn’t read the room, the sharp-eyed hooked-nose researcher noticed something was off.
“Wait. That thing being carried on the big inquisitor’s back… isn’t that Mamlad, that bitch?”
Unfortunately, her voice had been a little too loud. The four members of the animal marching band all turned their gazes toward her.
“Found you.”
There was no way they could block the golden flash flying toward them with leg strength that no ordinary person could possess.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaack!!”