The Triune Council (2)
The Triune Conference proceeded in a way that completely defied my preconceptions. In other words… it was surprisingly ordinary?
Triune Conference in session.
“Didn’t I say from the very beginning that we shouldn’t put that idiot in charge of the Southern Interrogation Office?”
Flamena slammed both hands on the table with a resounding bang, her voice thick with fury.
“You did.”
When Ohen answered in that same flat, emotionless tone, Flamena’s face twisted dramatically.
“Then why the hell did you clench your teeth and leave that bastard in the position until he nearly blew up the Southern Relic Vault!”
“The explosion was, strictly speaking, an accident.”
“An accident? An accideeeent? Sure, of course it was an accident. But who caused that accident?”
“Brother Pedro.”
“Exactly! Inquisitor Pedro of the Heresy Interrogation Office! So whose fault is it?”
“To blame a string of bad luck on a single person…”
“Aaaaaargh!!”
Flamena ruffled her messy red hair in pure frustration. Of course, that didn’t make Ohen’s expression change or force him to back down. Throughout the previous agenda items, his face had remained completely impassive.
“Now, now. At this rate we’ll only hurt each other’s feelings. Everyone, please calm down.”
Popelan, who had been watching their argument with an easy chuckle, finally stepped in to mediate.
Ohen immediately nodded.
“Understood.”
The person who actually needs to calm down is someone else, so why are you the one answering?
“However, even from my perspective, Brother Pedro’s mistake this time was far too great. Flamena, what level of disciplinary action do you desire?”
Flamena flopped back into her seat, leaned against the backrest, and answered curtly.
“Dismissal.”
Popelan kept smiling amiably even as he stroked his beard with a troubled look and turned to Ohen.
“Ohen, how about we temporarily strip Brother Pedro of his position as administrator of the Southern Interrogation Office, summon him to the capital, and conduct a fitness review?”
Flamena naturally pouted and shook her head, but she stopped there and didn’t voice any further complaints.
“I consider that a good solution. No objections.”
Surprisingly, Ohen accepted without resistance and turned to the next page of the thick stack of documents he had been holding throughout the meeting.
“The next agenda is…”
Ohen, who had never hesitated while presenting any previous item, suddenly froze. He slowly set the bundle of papers down on the table.
“…It concerns the incident in which an experimental subject that escaped from the underground engaged in combat with Lady Lucie.”
The heads of the Three Holy Offices all turned at once toward me, who had been sitting casually on the floor beside the table, watching the proceedings.
“How is it that they invited me here themselves yet not one of them thought to prepare an extra chair?”
My joke drew a small snort of laughter from Flamena, who had been scowling the entire meeting.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s been so long since we invited a guest here that we forgot our manners.”
“My apologies, Lady Lucie. We will prepare one next time.”
I was about to tell Ohen it was fine but decided to simply keep my mouth shut. Somehow, that felt like the wiser choice.
“Since the nature of this agenda is what it is, we should probably change locations.”
At Popelan’s suggestion, the three heads of the Triune Offices rose from their seats. I, who had been sitting on the floor, slowly stood up while reading the room.
“I’ll leave it to you, Flamena.”
Popelan asked Flamena for something, and—
Snap—
The moment she responded by snapping her fingers—
“…What the…?”
I found myself standing in an entirely new space once again.
Damp stone walls glistening with moisture, flickering torches that gave off a faint glow, a corridor lined with thick iron bars, and the constant sounds of dripping water and rattling chains echoing through the air. A cold, eerie atmosphere permeated this abyss.
“……”
While I gathered holy power in my palms, ready to summon my axe at any moment, the others all looked perfectly relaxed, as if this place was familiar to them.
“This way, Lady Lucie.”
Popelan picked up a lantern that had been left in the corner and took the lead. Ohen and Flamena immediately followed him. I deliberately kept a measured distance behind them.
“Where exactly are we now?”
“The catacombs.”
Ohen answered shortly, offering no further explanation.
“There was a place like this beneath the imperial capital?”
“No. This is a space passed down through the Secret Archives Chancellery’s traditions. Even I don’t know exactly where it is. It may not even be located in this world at all.”
Flamena noticed what I was worried about and added helpfully.
“At the very least, it’s not beneath the imperial capital, so you can relax.”
“I see…”
A place that might not even be in this world. And they suddenly dragged me here and told me to relax? What the hell did that even mean?
“Oh, and don’t get too close to the dark areas near the walls. Something might jump out.”
“What?”
Just then, the sound of rattling chains came from quite close by.
“Grrrrr——Kwaaaang!!”
A massive wolf-like snout burst out of the darkness and began savagely biting at the iron bars.
“Whoa, what the hell is that!”
“Heh heh, I told you…”
I quickly hid my right hand—which had been closest to the bars—behind my back and swung my left hand, smashing the insolent wolf pup right on the nose.
Thud, thud—
“Yelp—whine… whine…”
After confirming that the wolf had retreated with its tail between its legs, blood pouring from its nose, I finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Whew, that startled me.”
“……”
Flamena stared at me with an expression that clearly said she had a lot she wanted to say.
“Are all these monsters properly restrained?”
“They are.”
Ohen answered shortly once again, without elaboration.
“…Then that means Marek—no, that snake monster—also escaped from here?”
“Correct.”
“…Sorry, but is there anyone who can explain this in more detail?”
“Haha, allow me.”
Popelan, who had been walking at the front, set the lantern on the ground to adjust its light and pulled out some kind of device from his robes, fiddling with it.
“Unlike the other demonoids imprisoned here, that snake-shaped demonoid possessed extremely high intelligence and was even capable of communicating with us. However, at some point he began refusing to speak with us…”
“No. What I’m curious about isn’t how he lived here.”
“Then…”
“I want to know how he transformed from a human into something like a demonoid. That’s what I’m curious about.”
“I see… so you already knew about that fact.”
Popelan glanced sideways at Flamena, who was walking beside him. Realizing the old man’s gaze was on her, Flamena pretended to adjust her glasses and flipped him the middle finger.
“Ahem… then this will go much faster.”
Popelan, who had been leading the way, stopped walking. At the end of the corridor stood a door. Flamena stepped forward briefly and channeled mana into the door handle with her fingertips. With a soft click, the door slid open, revealing a room inside.
It was a fairly spacious chamber that resembled an alchemist’s laboratory—somewhat messy, filled with vessels and tools whose purposes were difficult to guess. Yet there were things inside that radiated such overwhelming presence that everything else seemed trivial by comparison.
“Are the things inside those… alive?”
Inside enormous glass containers filled with blue liquid—whether they were tanks, jars, or bathtubs—demonoids of various shapes were submerged. Most had their eyes closed, but a few had them open, their gazes filled only with emptiness.
“They are all alive. They are simply asleep.”
“If my guess is correct, are all of them the same… kind of demonoid as that snake?”
“As far as we have been able to determine, yes.”
In other words, all of them had originally been human. Setting aside how such a thing was even possible, the fact that so many of them existed was…
“How exactly did you capture them? From the outside, they would have been indistinguishable from ordinary humans.”
Ohen, who had been quietly listening to my conversation with Popelan, finally spoke.
“They possessed several distinct characteristics.”
“Characteristics…?”
Ohen explained that they called these humans who had transformed into demonoids “demonoids.” For some reason, they tried to enter human cities and towns, and within those specific settlements, they did not attack humans first. Finally, he told me that their numbers had noticeably increased starting about twenty years ago.
Among those facts, I focused on the last one.
“If their numbers increased noticeably twenty years ago, couldn’t you use whatever event happened at that time as a basis for investigation?”
Flamena let out a derisive snort.
“You don’t think we wouldn’t have thought of that, do you?”
“Hmm…”
She had a point.
“…The problem is that the evidence is too clear.”
“How could that possibly be a problem?”
Instead of answering, Flamena frowned and lightly kicked Popelan’s leg with the tip of her foot. The old man let out a reluctant sigh before asking me,
“Lady Lucie, do you happen to know about or remember the Great Purge that occurred twenty years ago?”
The Great Purge twenty years ago.
Twenty years ago would have been when His Imperial Majesty—my father—was still alive. At that time, I had fled the capital and was engaged in a desperate struggle for survival against demonoids on the northern border.
I had heard that the political strife within the imperial palace was already unbearably vicious back then, so it wouldn’t have been strange for a Great Purge to have taken place. The only thing that bothered me was… if it had been significant enough to earn the name “Great Purge,” news of it should have reached even the border. Yet I had never heard of any such event.
“I’m not familiar with it.”
So I shook my head at Popelan.
“I see…”
Popelan closed his eyes as if rummaging through his memories, then opened them again after a moment and began to speak.
“Twenty years ago, a bloody wind was blowing through the imperial capital. In a short period of time, many people became blinded by the throne and desperately sought to sit upon it.”
…? Twenty years ago, my father should still have been healthy and strong.
“Purging had already been ongoing before then, but after the last emperor of House Granes was assassinated, the imperial capital became a literal hell on earth.”
……?
“Every day a new emperor would ascend the throne only to be assassinated immediately. The factions that supported the dead emperor and their families would be purged, then another faction that had assassinated him would put forward a new emperor, only for that one to be executed for treason in turn…”
What is this…
“The imperial prisons and detention centers became full. Even though people were losing their lives on the guillotine and gallows every single day, there weren’t enough execution facilities. So the powerful came up with a truly horrific solution.”
What the hell are you saying?
“Instead of executing political prisoners, they sent them on expeditions to the demon realm. They offered the condition that if the prisoners brought back the head of a demon king army corps commander, their death sentences would be waived.”
What is this crazy old man even talking about?
“Thus, many people were sent across the border into the demon realm. To the powerful, the demon realm was nothing more than a garbage dump that conveniently disposed of anything that displeased them.”
“……”
“…Lady Lucie? You’ve been silent for a while… are you all right?”
“…Popelan.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“The ‘last emperor of House Granes’ you mentioned… what was his name?”
“Ah… His reign was so tragically short that not many people remember him. But this old man remembers it clearly.”
Popelan’s lips formed a name I had never once heard from anyone else’s mouth while living as Lucie.
“It was Emperor Agilien Yanska Granes.”
Something inside me felt like it had snapped.