The Goddess of the Black Swamp (1)
Several days had passed since the incident in the baron's study — the day Priest Thomas had nearly died at the hands of the Manfred family.
Today was the day the heresy inquisitors were scheduled to arrive.
We had arranged to meet them at Thomas's church. There was no need, he had said, to bring them into the castle and treat them as honored guests.
Even if he hadn't said so, I had no intention of doing that anyway.
According to Thomas's explanation, the people visiting the barony were not the heresy inquisitors infamous for their burnings at the stake. They belonged to something called the Heresy Inquisition's Special Task Force.
I didn't know exactly what the Special Task Force was. Heresy inquisitors did appear in Luke's Biography — the Lumenic Church's elite forces, arrayed against the Demon King's army. But no subordinate organization by that name had ever shown up in the game.
"…Is something wrong with everyone?"
"Haha… Nothing in particular on my end…"
The atmosphere in the church was stifling. Even when I tried to break the silence first, nothing changed.
Paulo and Brenden — two massive men — sat glaring at Priest Thomas. Thomas was doing his best to look unbothered, but sweat kept beading on his forehead.
The heresy inquisitors hadn't wanted the VIP treatment, and a whole procession of Manfred family members showing up at the church would have looked strange. I'd offered to go alone with just an escort. But the baron, determined to keep me protected, had sent not only Brenden but Paulo as well — the barony's second-in-command, the man who ordinarily assisted the baron himself.
"Father. It's rather dull sitting here. Why don't you tell us more about this 'Special Task Force'?"
"As I mentioned before, it's an organization composed solely of people afflicted by curses. People like… well, like you, Lord Karl — those born with them. Beyond that… I'm not sure. I hear it was founded fairly recently, so I don't know much myself."
An organization made up entirely of people in circumstances like mine. That alone told me they were very different from ordinary heresy inquisitors. At the very least, they weren't coming to burn me. If they had been, the baron himself would have gone out to meet them — not here, but at the fortress, where the defenses were solid.
"You said they're coming to see me. What business do they have?"
"They've requested your assistance, Lord Karl."
"Assistance? What help could I possibly be?"
"You've handled matters related to curses with considerable skill, so… in that regard…"
"…And how exactly do heresy inquisitors know about that?"
"Did you go around spreading word that there's a noble here who knows his way around curses?"
Paulo asked in a low voice, and Brenden piled on.
"Ah, well, that is… I sent a letter saying that Lord Karl was handling things so well here that the Church's assistance wasn't needed."
"Hmm…"
It was true enough. But had he really sent a letter to the Church with that content? This was the same priest who, until recently, had been looking for any excuse to get the Lumenic Church involved in the barony. Hard to believe.
"Master!"
The church doors opened and Dorothy came in, Andy trailing behind her. It had been the wolf girl's mealtime, and Andy had taken her out to feed her meat. The wolf girl looked oddly flushed.
"They're here!"
"The heresy inquisitors?"
"A bear!"
"…A bear?"
I stepped outside and immediately understood that Dorothy hadn't been lying. There really was a bear.
A rather large one. A black bear, wearing armor, pulling a carriage toward us at a run. Well — if a bear was pulling it, could you still call it a carriage?
Every time those massive paws hit the ground, the earth rumbled as if from an earthquake. I could understand Paulo, Brenden, and Andy looking ready to drop their jaws to the floor. But Thomas was reacting the same way. You're the one who's supposed to explain this to us.
— GROOOOAAAR!
The black bear reached the front of the church, let out a single roar, and then its body began to shrink. That was when I understood what this black bear was.
"The Curse of the Mad Bear."
A curse similar to the Curse of the Lycanthrope that Dorothy carried — the difference being that it turned you into a bear instead of a wolf. This had to be someone from the Special Task Force, the cursed ones Thomas had mentioned.
Where the black bear had been, a young girl now stood. Like Dorothy, she had beast ears perched atop her head. Strangely, the armor she'd worn in her black bear form had shrunk right along with her and was still fitted to her body. Dorothy could use a set of armor like that.
"Hey there! How's it goin'!"
"Hello."
Her build didn't look much different from Dorothy's, but that rough, Brenden-like way of talking made me think she was older than me. I was the only one who returned the greeting. Everyone else was still too stunned to speak.
Then the carriage door opened, and the people riding inside stepped out. Three of them in total.
A middle-aged man in priest's robes, like Thomas. A woman with black hair and red eyes. And someone whose form was completely hidden beneath a black cloak.
The one in priest's robes spoke first.
"Well now! You must be Priest Thomas, the one assigned to the barony! You've been working hard!"
"Yes… and your name…"
"Ah! I'm Priest Patrick, of the Papal Office! I serve as the escort officer for the Heresy Inquisition's Special Task Force!"
"Priest Patrick, is it. But when you say escort officer…"
"We'll get to that later! Would the young master here be Lord Karl Manfred?"
"Yes. That's right."
Priest Patrick approached me.
"A pleasure to meet you, Lord Karl! I've heard a great deal about you. You were at the Statia mental hospital, weren't you?"
"It's a pleasure."
Thomas's report alone hadn't been enough to explain why they'd come looking for me by name. So they'd known from further back than that. They probably even knew I'd found the dark mage hiding among the priests.
"Shall we continue this inside?"
"Thank you. Special Task Force, everyone — let's go in!"
The detailed discussion, they said, needed to be between the Special Task Force and me alone. So the two priests — Thomas and Patrick — went with the others into a separate room. Paulo had insisted I couldn't be left alone, but I told him Dorothy would be enough.
Myself and Dorothy. The woman with black hair and red eyes. The armored girl under the Curse of the Mad Bear. And the figure wrapped in a cloak. Just the five of us remaining.
All of us born under curses, then.
"Is the young lady the captain? I am—"
The moment I opened my mouth, the red-eyed woman gave an uncomfortable little smile, as if something had soured her mood, and held a finger upright to her lips — a quiet signal to stop talking.
Had I made some kind of mistake? Even so, it was a rather rude gesture to make in front of a noble.
The woman began rummaging through her pockets, and the cloaked figure beside her spoke.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… Our captain's curse is a bit unusual… I'm sorry…"
"Ah. My apologies."
If that was the reason — as someone who suffered under an innate curse myself — I could afford to be understanding.
The woman who was their captain held out a silver ring to me.
"Young master! Put that on when you talk, if you don't mind! It's been consecrated!"
The armored girl said, and I took the ring. A pendant, a dagger, and now a ring. The number of silver objects I owned kept growing. Was the Lumenic Church actively promoting superstitions about silver?
The only finger it fit was my ring finger, so I put it on my right hand. I wondered if ring placement carried meaning in this world as well.
"…The discourtesy was mine. …Anyone who speaks with me is afflicted by a curse that makes them feel pain."
Just as the captain said, I could feel the silver ring trembling every time she spoke. The consecrated ring was offsetting that pain.
"…I am Veronica, captain of the Heresy Inquisition's Special Task Force. …I look forward to working with you."
"Karl Manfred, second son of the Manfred baronial house."
My wariness toward her spiked sharply. Veronica was a character who had been scheduled to appear in Luke's Biography — not as a member of the Lumenic Church, but as a high-ranking officer of the Demon King's army, like Dorothy. She was supposed to debut in the next expansion pack, after the demon-worshipper Karl had died.
I didn't know the details, but I at least knew what curse she carried.
The Curse of Severance.
A curse that caused pain when conversing. But it wasn't a curse that inflicted pain on others. Which meant this woman, like me, had altered her curse and made it her own power.
"Are you all right yourself, Lady Veronica? You must feel the pain as well. An object like this wouldn't be able to block the suffering of the person actually bearing the curse."
"…You know a great deal about curses, just as I heard. …I'm used to it."
To hold a conversation while enduring that pain — her mental fortitude had to be extraordinary. The way she paused before speaking was probably because of the pain.
"…I've heard about what happened at the Statia mental hospital. …You found a dark mage who had been hiding as a priest. …It was a great help to the Church."
"It was pure chance. She was someone who'd always treated me well. We were close."
"…That must have been quite a shock."
"It was."
Jeina, the Curse Eater. The only person the original Karl had relied on at the mental hospital, before I possessed him. If he'd learned she was a dark mage who played with corpses, the shock would certainly have been severe.
"While we're on the subject — what became of that dark mage?"
"…I'm sorry, but I don't know. …It wasn't under our jurisdiction."
Tampering with corpses was a grave desecration of the dead, but Jeina hadn't killed anyone. It probably wasn't enough for a heresy inquisitor to burn her at the stake. She was likely locked up somewhere, passing the time under a moderate amount of torture.
"By any chance, do you know someone named Maria Caligosa? She was the one who found the dark mage with me."
"…Ah. She was discharged as well. …About a week after you left, Lord Karl. …There's been no further word since."
So she really had been discharged. Maria was an illegitimate daughter of the Caligosa ducal house. Unlike me, she wouldn't have been welcomed back by her family.
"…May we move on to the main subject?"
"Of course."
"…We've come to investigate the Goddess of the Black Swamp."
The Goddess of the Black Swamp. A local folk faith that had taken root in this region back when the Manfred Barony was still lawless territory.
"The Lumenic Church denies the existence of every god but the One. And you've come to investigate something like that?"
"…We have."
"There are books written about it. Shall I show you to the archives?"
"…We already possess that level of knowledge."
"I don't know anything beyond that myself. It doesn't seem there's much I can help you with. The residents who actually worship the goddess would know far more."
"…Forgive me, but please don't talk in circles. …As you can see, the longer a conversation goes on, the more painful it is for me."
"…"
"…I trust you understand what I mean, young master."
"You intend to enter the Black Swamp."
Veronica quietly nodded.
If you're going, go by yourselves. Why drag me into this?
The Goddess of the Black Swamp was real. She appeared in Luke's Biography — a being of immense power, fully worthy of the title of goddess. And with her came the strange rumor that everyone who entered the Black Swamp became one with the goddess.