The New Heresy Inquisitor (3)
An empty void.
Thousands upon thousands of eyes and mouths and hands.
A nightmare that had long since become part of my life.
I endured it every single night, yet the sensation of my body locking up, leaving me unable to do a thing, never grew familiar.
The Ark of Curses trait weakened the agony of the Curse of Illusion the more other curses I carried. Ever since I had taken on two more, the curse could no longer torment me outside of dreams. With three additional curses now, I could barely tell the difference — the trait's efficiency seemed to diminish with each one.
I still couldn't sleep properly, but simply being free of the illusions while awake was blessing enough.
The Goddess of the Black Swamp had told me what these phantasms truly were. Divine beings who had lost their faith, been utterly forgotten, and now drifted through the Void, unable to remain in reality. Perhaps they were the very demons the Lumenic Church spoke of. The Goddess claimed they gave birth to innate curses, and the Lumenic Church believed demons bestowed innate curses — the connection was hard to ignore.
If I weren't paralyzed by sleep paralysis, I might even try speaking to them. No — this was inside my own mind, and they had entered it. For all I knew, they could already hear every thought I had. That they still offered no words meant either they had no desire to converse, or they simply couldn't.
"Gah—!"
"B-Baron… a-are you… all right……?"
In my hazy state, I briefly thought some beautiful girl was sitting beside me. Then my mind cleared, and I recognized Alexander.
"Ugh… I already told you not to worry about it……"
Since we shared a room, I had warned him in advance that I suffered sleep paralysis every night.
"I-I'm sorry… b-but……"
"No… I'm the one who should apologize… It's still before dawn, and now I've kept you up too…… Damn it."
I tried to sit up, only to find my lower half weighed down by something heavy. Looking under the covers, I spotted a pair of wolf ears twitching.
Of course.
Just because we were at an inn didn't mean she would stay out of my bed.
"Dorothy."
"Mmm…… Master……"
"I-I woke up and… found her here……"
The men — Alexander and I — and the women — Veronica, Agnes, and Dorothy — had split into two rooms by gender. I had specifically warned Dorothy not to pull this kind of thing outside the manor, but it had been useless. Not that I had expected much.
"Somehow the bags under your eyes look even worse than yesterday, Baron."
"……I can see it too. ……Baron, are you feeling unwell……"
We were having breakfast at the church in First Parish. Agnes and Veronica asked with clear concern. Alexander, who knew my situation, fidgeted restlessly, unsure whether he was allowed to say anything.
"It's a little awkward to answer that. I'm not healthy, that's true — but today's condition is no different from usual."
"Hmm. If I'm gonna be working with you long-term, Baron, I'd better start feeding you proper. Finish that and have one of these jerky strips too."
"I'll pass."
"Our Master. This jerky. He hates it."
Agnes and Dorothy were in the middle of devouring a mountain of dried meat. We had packed a massive supply of it for their sake. The Curse of the Mad Bear and the Curse of the Lycanthrope — curses that transformed their hosts into beasts burned through life force at a ferocious rate, which they replenished through meat. I had tried a bite of Dorothy's jerky once. It was so salty and hard as stone that I couldn't force it down.
"……I really think you should eat something."
"I'm not lacking nutrition. I just can't sleep."
"H-he said he has nightmares… because of his curse……"
"……The Curse of Illusion, then."
"Is the meal to your liking?"
A young man in priest's robes approached. It was Father Daniel of First Parish. Until recently, he had been a deacon. Unlike Father Thomas, who had tried to swallow the Manfred Barony whole, this man seemed largely free of ambition. The way he lived contentedly in a small plot of land that wasn't even a noble's territory made that clear enough.
The night before, he had insisted on treating us to breakfast. So instead of eating at the inn, we had come to the church.
"Yes. Truly excellent food. I can see why you were so eager to host us."
"Haha. I'm glad it meets with the Baron's approval. While you eat, I was hoping to brief you on the mission……"
"Please do."
As squad leader, Veronica found conversation difficult, so I naturally ended up speaking as our representative. I was only a newcomer, but I was still an imperial noble.
"The missing person is a farmer. Male. He has a wife. When I heard he'd gone missing, I went to his house with the village chief and found this."
Father Daniel held out a book. I took it and flipped it open — a primer on the fundamentals of black magic.
"Black magic isn't illegal in the Empire, of course…… but a rural farmer getting his hands on something like this struck me as suspicious."
He was right — black magic was not outlawed in the Empire. So even if the man had truly committed heretical acts, there wasn't much punishment that could be levied. At most, he would lose access to the benefits the parish provided.
"May we take this book with us?"
"Of course. There was this as well."
Father Daniel produced more items — a straw doll studded with nails, and a large bone. The straw doll, just from the look of it, had clearly been used in a curse.
"Is this bone a black magic tool as well?"
"I don't know. It simply didn't seem like something one would normally keep in a house, so I brought it along."
"Understood. And there was mention of a monster as well."
"Ah. According to the wife, the farmer said he was going into the forest and never came back. A few of the young men went looking and fled after spotting a monster."
"Have you seen this monster yourself, Father?"
"No. I only learned there was a monster near here at all because of this incident."
Father Daniel also handed over a rough map of the village, marked with the forest where the farmer had vanished and the location of his house.
"Is there anything else you need?"
I glanced at Veronica. She shook her head. The priest told us to call on him anytime, then left us alone to talk among ourselves.
Veronica stared at me intently. Unable to read her intent, I wordlessly passed her the items the priest had given us.
"……For a newcomer, you handle yourself rather well."
"No kidding. Not a scrap of that rookie cuteness on you."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"……This bone. ……Did you sense it too, Baron?"
"Yes. It's a curse catalyst."
Strangely enough, the straw doll — which anyone would have sworn had been used for a curse — gave off nothing at all. But the bone unmistakably registered as an object that had served as a curse catalyst. Veronica must have had considerable knowledge of black magic herself, to recognize it from touch alone.
The black magic tome, however, contained nothing about curses. We lacked any real clue as to what kind of curse we were dealing with.
"That farmer was definitely up to heretical crap inside the parish!"
"……We can't say that for certain. ……But heretical objects did turn up, so we'll need to investigate at least somewhat."
"W-we'll have to check… both the forest and the house… Squad leader… should we split up……?"
"……No. ……We'll visit the farmer's house first. ……We need to hear what the wife has to say about these things. ……Any objections, Baron?"
"None."
A curse had definitely been used, so figuring out the curse took priority over everything else. And if the farmer had truly gone into a forest that harbored a monster, the odds of finding him alive were slim anyway.
"Those all belonged to my husband… I really don't know anything about them……"
The farmer's wife looked unwell — unsurprising, given her husband's disappearance. Unkempt hair hung over her face, and her clothes were wrinkled as if she hadn't changed them in days.
"D-do you know where your husband… might have gotten these……?"
"I don't know… I didn't even know things like this were in the house……"
"Th-then… why did he go… into the forest……?"
"I don't really know that either… He just said he was going to test something……"
Alexander handled the questioning. Agnes had been posted outside to stand guard. Apparently, when faced with someone who kept saying "I don't know," she tended to lose her temper and start causing a scene.
Veronica, Dorothy, and I were searching the interior of the house. Things weren't where they belonged, and the place was a mess overall.
"……Strange. ……It looks like a house where no one bothers to tidy up, yet there's no dust built up."
"Meaning it only got this chaotic recently."
"……Her husband vanished without warning, so she hasn't been able to manage daily life properly."
"Master. This. Animal food bowl. Smell. Not people food."
Dorothy held out a dish that had been rolling on the floor. Food scraps still clung to it.
"A pet? Is it hiding somewhere?"
"Cat smell. There is. But. Not here now. Not in the house."
Dorothy kept sniffing the air, swiveling her wolf ears this way and that. With senses that sharp, she was perfect for reconnaissance. Agnes could probably do the same, but her personality would make it difficult.
"Master. Down there. Secret room. There is."
Dorothy pointed at a fur rug spread across the floor. Pulling it aside revealed a trapdoor.
"Madam, would you mind if we took a look down here?"
The farmer's wife frowned at the sight of me lifting the rug. But when her eyes fell on the baronial medal hanging on my chest, she answered reluctantly.
"My husband never let me go in there… I don't even know how to open the door……"
"Ah. No need to worry about that."
Dorothy drew the greatsword from her back and drove it into the trapdoor. Wood splintered with a sharp crack as the entire door was ripped free of the floor. The farmer's wife looked thoroughly stunned by the frail-looking girl's overwhelming strength. I assured her we would cover the damages without fail.
A ladder leading underground was visible, but the darkness below was so complete that nothing else could be seen.
"……We'll need a lamp."
Veronica drew a silver lantern from her own shadow and lit it with a match.
"……I'll take the lead. ……I doubt there are any traps, but I have the strongest defenses."
Physically, Agnes and Dorothy were the toughest of us — but Veronica had altered the Curse of Severance so that she took no damage at all. She climbed down the ladder first. Dorothy followed, and I took hold of the rungs last.
"Master. Smell is awful. Here."
The walls were covered in bloodstains. On the floor lay a black magic circle painted in blood. At the center of the circle stood an altar built from stacked bones.
"……More often than not, these things turn out to be nothing once you actually look. ……But you've hit the real thing on your very first mission."
Atop the altar, bound in place, sat a nail-studded straw doll much like the one Father Daniel had given us. No matter how you looked at it, this could only be a black mage's lair.