The Serpent Church (2)
The Serpent Church (2)
There were three major churches representing the northern part of the Empire.
The Church of Ra, an ancient and venerable church within the Empire, worshiping the Sun God Ra.
The Church of Isis, a newly expanding religion worshiping the Goddess of Life Isis.
The Church of Iskandar, god of warriors, was widely worshiped by the northern barbarians.
And there was one church that could not join their ranks.
Something that could hardly even be called a church—the reason people of faith had come to say that everyone hated snakes.
The Serpent Church.
'Naga'.
A pack of crazed fanatics!
"If it’s them, that’s a different story."
Radatok's expression turned grim. As his brows drew together, his already bear-like impression grew even more intense.
"We’ll retrace their trail. The merchant company will come with us. While you’re traveling with us, however, you’ll follow my orders. I won’t hear any objections."
"Th-thank you! Priest! Thank you so much!"
No, hold on.
That's not it. I get that the merchant company got robbed, but I have a shitload of things to do, you know?
I need to hurry up and wreck Beverick and scrape up all the northern Hidden Pieces, don't I?
"Heretics... so they were heretics..."
"The Serpent Church..."
"Heh heh... Perfect timing. I was just starting to get stiff."
The inquisitors rose like zombies. The way their eyes flashed was utterly chilling.
"Um, excuse me?"
No way!
If this gets delayed, my whole plan goes off track!
"Inquisitor, wouldn’t it be a problem if chasing these heretics made us late for the Divine Trial?"
"If they are heretics, the Judge will understand."
"...Then how about sending us ahead first?"
"There has been an attack nearby. Splitting up would be dangerous."
Radatok fixed me with a chilling stare.
"...Do you perhaps dislike the idea of pursuing the Serpent Church, Brother Zahard?"
I shot to my feet.
"These filthy heretic bastards!"
Throw away all the favor I'd painstakingly built up?!
No way in hell I'd waste that!
"The inquisitors and I, Zahard, will go!"
"As expected of Brother Zahard!"
"Spoken like the man who demanded a Divine Trial!"
"You'd be perfect as the next inquisitor!"
Ah, fuck it. Whatever.
Let's just wreck them as fast as possible and move on!
. . .
The merchant company head spoke.
"We were attacked at the Ice Cliff."
"The Ice Cliff..."
The merchant company head pointed at the map. I poked my face out from among the inquisitors.
The Ice Cliff? Hold on... if it's there...
Isn't that one of the places I was planning to visit later?
"Merchant company head."
Radatok's expression hardened.
"Are you hiding something from me right now?"
"W-what? H-how could I possibly hide anything from you, Priest?!"
"Where did the merchant company depart from?"
"From the city of Lukaba..."
"Your destination is Ainkad, same as ours, yet you came from Lukaba..."
Radatok pointed at the map. He drew a line with a sweep.
"Neither Lukaba nor Venelda, the city we departed from, requires passing through the Ice Cliff to reach the destination. Why did you insist on going through the Ice Cliff?"
"Th-that is..."
Radatok flicked his hand. One of the inquisitors handed him documents.
"...So you weren’t originally the one running this merchant company. If you only recently became its head... is this your first trading run?"
Wait. He had only just given the inquisitors an order, and they already came back with that information?
What a terrifying man!
"Th-that's right."
"As I understand it, merchant companies under a church receive its backing for their trading runs, but in exchange they must offer part of their goods to the church as tribute."
"Y-yes."
"Unlike the recorded ledger, the number of wagons is high. I imagine the amount of stolen goods is far greater than what is written in the ledger. You falsified the ledger."
Radatok set the documents down.
"Were you trying to embezzle the tribute meant for the church? Using the fact that people rarely visit the Ice Cliff?"
"Th-this is a misunderstanding!"
"Then explain the ledger."
"Th-that is..."
The merchant company head squeezed his eyes shut like a cornered rat.
"That is... that..."
I raised a hand. Listening to an excuse he couldn’t even get out was a waste of time.
"Inquisitor Radatok. May I take a look at those records?"
"...You’d like to see the records, Brother?"
"Something’s bothering me. It’ll only take a moment."
I skimmed through the documents. Thanks to all the favor I'd accumulated, the inquisitors didn't stop me.
Good lord. All sorts of things are written in here. They really squeezed people dry. They even have the company head's entire past?
"...Huh?"
Hold on.
What's this?
"This bastard was a piece of shit too."
"Wh-what?"
"Company head. You've visited the Ice Cliff more than once or twice, haven't you?"
Radatok let out a sigh.
"Brother. I saw that, and I..."
"No, but listen. Isn't it a bit iffy to call it advance scouting?"
"What do you mean?"
"No, it's obviously suspicious. They say people don't even set foot on the Ice Cliff, right? If it's got 'ice' in the name, that says it all. It means it's no place for people to live... and the Serpent Church just happened to show up in a place like that? Knowing the merchant company would appear? Isn't that too perfect to be a coincidence?"
The merchant company head flinched. Would you look at this bastard’s reaction.
Dead giveaway, huh?
"Isn’t this bastard their inside man? This looks staged... If we strip him down, wouldn’t we find a Serpent Church Sacred Mark somewhere on his body?"
"H-how could that be?! This is slander! I-if that were true, I wouldn't have fled from them!"
"Only one way to find out. Who knows? Maybe they cut you loose."
The inquisitors whispered among themselves.
"True..."
"It's too much for a coincidence..."
"It is strange for the Serpent Church to suddenly show up at the Ice Cliff."
"They're human too. I don't think they'd live there."
The inquisitors cracked their knuckles.
"Company head. Will you cooperate for a moment?"
"N-no! If you want to inspect my body, at least have an inquisitor from the church headquarters...!"
"That's us."
"...What? No, are you insane?! Why?!"
"Strip him."
"N-no! I said no! Stop! I said stop!"
"Hold still!"
"You'll get hurt if you thrash!"
The merchant company head thrashed with his face slammed against the desk. Once they stripped all his clothes off, one thing stood out.
A small snake tattoo stamped on his chest.
"A heretic! This bastard!"
"How dare a heretic take the position of company head?!"
"How far has the church fallen?!"
"We must report this to the Judge immediately...!"
"Quiet!"
Radatok shouted. The inquisitors who had stepped back immediately formed up in perfect order.
The company head had been beaten senseless in the chaos. I casually kicked him in the shin.
Crack!
"Aagh?!"
"Wake up, inside man."
"D-damn it... of all people... to run into..."
"The Serpent Church."
Radatok placed his hand on his sword.
"Did you set a trap and try to ambush us?"
"I have nothing to say to you people...!"
Whoosh.
"Aaaagh! I-I'll tell you everythingaaagh!!"
After a few minutes of being worked over, he started babbling and spilled everything. Maybe that was just how inquisitors operated.
They did not hesitate for a second when it came to wrecking someone. Hm. So that was how they tortured people. I should learn what I could.
"Th-that is..."
The information he spat out was nothing much.
"...That's how it happened."
To summarize, it was simple.
The company head was a follower of the Serpent Church, and he had infiltrated a merchant company of the Church of Ra to handle the work of embezzling a portion of the tribute.
A high-ranking priest of the Serpent Church had apparently slipped some dirty money to members of the merchant company and told them to cooperate.
Officially, the pretext was embezzling tribute.
In reality, it meant feeding the Serpent Church with the Church of Ra’s money.
"But why did you flee?"
"Th-those bastards broke their promise! Unlike the agreed amount of goods, they tried to take everything! So...!"
Hm. Right.
Losing part of it and losing everything are two very different things. Of course. Lose every item under the merchant company’s care and go back to Church of Ra headquarters?
Not only would his hard-earned record disappear, the company head would be held responsible. It would take only a moment for his head to go flying.
The Serpent Church bastards had gotten greedy over the goods and screwed up. They could have kept this racket going for ages, and they ruined it with their own hands?
Well... I guess that could happen. There are plenty of idiots in the world.
Just look at Beverick. Exactly.
"Even so, I don't understand."
Radatok conjured fire in his hand. A beautiful Ember. He handled such a low-tier Holy Art that well. I guess experience really did show.
"If everything was taken from you, you would have stayed at the Ice Cliff. Why did you bother fleeing from there?"
"Th-that is..."
The company head squeezed his eyes shut.
"Because of the fighting... something happened at the quiet Ice Cliff. That bizarre roar set off a snowstorm. We ran for our lives."
"What was it?"
"W-we don’t know! But one of our men who’s from this region... said it looked like the sleeping Snow Demon had awakened..."
"Nonsense."
It's not nonsense.
It is the Snow Demon. Inquisitor Radatok.
It's one of the ones I was targeting. It's the one that brings blizzards, so it fits perfectly.
"We didn’t even have time to grab the goods. Some of our fellow believers... fell from the Ice Cliff."
"It was just a coincidence. A simple natural disaster."
"B-but everyone there heard it! The voice of the Snow Demon! W-we fled to survive. And then we ran into you priests... to somehow avoid responsibility..."
"You sold out the Serpent Church?"
"M-more than faith... I wanted to live..."
"You sold your faith. Even if it is the Serpent Church, faith is faith."
Radatok looked at him coldly.
"You are the type I hate most."
The sword flashed. I flinched. The slash was too fast for my eyes to follow.
The company head howled in pain. He clutched his severed right arm and sobbed.
"I-I told you everything...!"
"I will spare your life. You will need to go to the church and testify with your own mouth."
Radatok turned to me.
"We must recover the tribute. Thank you for your help, Brother."
"Not at all. It's only natural for a priest to do this."
I was actually pleased. Now I wanted to urge the inquisitors to just go.
The Snow Demon, huh. Well, would you look at that.
If I play this right, I could get the Hidden Piece even sooner than planned.