The Serpent Church (3)
The Serpent Church (3)
The half-wrecked merchant company was thrown into chaos all over again. It was bad enough that they had taken dirty money; once their collusion with heretics came to light, the inquisitors moved quickly.
"I-I truly didn't know!"
"I only thought we were skimming goods...!"
"This is unjust! I'm telling you, I knew nothing!"
I worked the bastards over alongside the inquisitors. They had taken the money and were still claiming they knew nothing.
Does that make any damn sense?
"Shut your mouths, you bastards. Shut them."
"Aagh!"
"You gobbled up every bribe you could get, and now you’re trying to back out? If you hadn’t taken the money and had come through the proper route, would your goods have been stolen in the first place?"
I'd been getting sick of only beating on Beverick, so this worked out nicely.
I kindled Ember in my hand with a whoosh and pummeled the bastards with my flame-wreathed fist.
"You filthy heretics!"
Hoo.
Ahh. That felt good.
The inquisitors were impressed.
"He’s barely been in the church, and he can already use such aggressive Holy Arts!"
"He’s better at teaching with a beating than with words!"
"To think he was born with such a talent for inquisitor work...!"
I know that place is basically a sweatshop. I have no intention of changing career paths.
I went around kicking people without hesitation. For the ones who occasionally looked down on me for being young, I personally bestowed the grace of burning off every last hair on their heads.
"Aaaaagh!"
"A-Anything but bald...!"
"You idiots! You really are heretics—you can’t even grasp the deeper meaning behind my actions!"
"Brother Zahard. Does that have some meaning?"
"Of course."
I casually showed the inquisitor a worker whose scalp had been shaved bare and left bright red.
"This gleaming smoothness... what do you think?"
"It's just a bald head..."
"We are servants of the Sun God Ra! When her grace shines down from the heavens, what part of us does it touch first?"
"...The head?"
"Exactly! That’s why I shaved all their heads! So these wicked bastards can at least receive Ra’s grace directly!"
Inside my head, Ra cut in flatly.
-That's bullshit.
"Couldn't it be true?"
-I'm right here, aren't I!
"...Ra... you’re not some fake Ra, are you?"
-Aaaagh! Because of you, I've been taking sleeping pills these days...!
I went around stirring things up. The situation was wrapped up immediately. The inquisitors acted quickly, and it didn't take long for the workers who had fled to be taken into custody.
The problem was that there weren't enough people to manage the prisoners.
"If we request help from a nearby church branch..."
"It’ll take them quite a while to get here. Radatok, what do we do?"
Inquisitor Radatok was weighing the options. The possibility that the Serpent Church bastards had fled with the goods, and the fact that the longer they delayed, the more likely they were to lose them.
The conclusion came quickly.
"Except for a few, everyone will go to the Ice Cliff."
"But if we do that, we'll be outnumbered..."
"Ra's sun does not set."
Radatok looked at me.
"Brother, it would be safer for you to remain here."
"I'll follow."
"...Pardon?"
"There are obvious heretics before my eyes, and you tell me to cower? I'm going with you!"
The inquisitors murmured among themselves.
"Even so, bringing a child along is..."
"But he shows the makings of a future inquisitor..."
"Radatok, what will you do?"
Radatok looked down at me. His bear-like eyes held nothing but coldness.
Ring out. My likability! Konjac jelly! Show me your power!
"......"
Radatok opened his mouth.
"If combat breaks out, can you swear to hide somewhere safe?"
Yes!
"Of course!"
"Good. Brother, come with us. You seem better suited to inquisitor work than anyone. It would not hurt to experience the real thing in advance. See the heretics with your own eyes and learn what kind of people they are."
I have no intention of going that far.
I grinned. A tactless inquisitor whispered to Radatok.
"Even so, bringing a child... if we were to lose by any chance..."
"We will not lose."
Radatok said it as though it were obvious. The greatsword at his waist looked tremendously heavy.
"I am Radatok."
"As expected of Radatok of Iron Blood...!"
"O-Our captain...!"
"I told you not to call me by that strange name."
"We're sorry!"
I glanced toward the Ice Cliff: a massive white mountain with countless cliffs spread out below it.
It's a place where you die if you fall. But I didn't care.
I’ve already been here several times! I still remember the routes!
"Let's go. Iron Bear!"
"Brother."
. . .
Goods were piled like a mountain inside the frozen cave, but even so, Serpent Church priest Isabella had nothing good to say.
"You moronic little shits!"
"P-Priest!"
Isabella beat the Serpent Church followers senseless. While she had been away for a moment, the bastards had forced the issue, and the whole operation had gone to hell.
They had stirred up a merchant company that didn't need stirring up, and a battle had broken out because of it. If it had ended there, it would have been fortunate, but as if that weren't enough, something had awakened.
In an instant, the entire Ice Cliff was swallowed by a blizzard.
Snow piled up at a frightening rate, falling so thickly that she could barely see in front of her. Isabella felt cheated. Who could have known the opportunity she had barely won within the church would be ruined like this?
"These... useless... aaah... aaaaagh!!"
Isabella snapped. She beat every follower she could see. One of them clung to her leg.
"P-Priest! Please calm down!"
"Calm down? You shit, do I look like I can calm down?!"
"B-But didn't we take all the goods?!"
"Goods? Right. Good point. So you think stealing the goods means the job is done?"
Isabella dragged him along. She thrust his face out of the cave.
"What do you see? Huh?"
"S-Snow..."
"Right? Snow, isn't it? So. Answer me within three seconds. Do you think you can move all this cargo through that blizzard?"
"I-If we have the manpower, somehow..."
"Somehow my ass! Say it with your own mouth! And on top of that, you crazy bastard! Didn't you see what's crawling up from below the ice cliffs?! If they catch the scent of people, shit! Those giant tentacles with suckers crawl right up!"
They weren't in this frozen cave for nothing. The situation outside was a mess. Roars continued, and giant tentacles that had belatedly slithered up from below the cliffs devoured some of the followers.
The Snow Demon. Faced with a situation straight out of that old tale, Isabella felt like she was going insane. It was no longer simply a matter of the goods; it had become a matter of survival.
"The Black Scales... I dragged this abandoned paladin order all the way up here... and now this..."
Ah.
Her blood pressure shot up.
Isabella collapsed with a thud. The church paladins who had rushed out in alarm surrounded her.
"Isabella!"
"Get a hold of yourself!"
"S-Someone bring warm water!"
"I'm not dead, so save the firewood! We don't know how long we'll have to stay here, so do you think we can burn through it freely?!"
Isabella lay down and let out a sigh. Most of the goods were food, and they were breaking up the ruined wagons to use as firewood for the time being.
The problem was that no one knew how long the Snow Demon out there would keep up its rampage.
"...Will help come from the church?"
"......"
None of the paladins could answer. Isabella let out a hollow laugh. Right. Of course no one would come.
The Black Scales, one of the Serpent Church’s paladin orders, had practically been discarded. Calling them an unwanted child would have been more accurate.
No support was coming. This had been an independent operation from the start. It had been a mad gamble to earn merit, so if the church heard the news, they would surely pretend not to know.
"This... shit..."
Isabella's blood pressure spiked again. She glared at the paladins.
"You... didn't even try to stop them... and instead you encouraged the fight...?"
"Th-That was..."
The paladins broke out in cold sweat.
"We know how hard Commander Isabella works..."
"We thought we could earn merit if we secured just a little more goods..."
"A-And besides, aren't they the goods of that damn Sun God Church anyway!"
"We thought that if we took all the goods, we'd deal them a blow and earn high regard from the church...!"
"Do you think those crazy old bastards would rate me highly over something like this?! There's no way, you blockheaded little shits!"
She had raised them herself, and now she regretted it. The bastards had gotten strong, but they had also become empty-headed blockheads.
Isabella's vision went dark. So she simply closed her eyes.
"...First..."
She forced herself to make a plan.
"First... let's stay here... hide ourselves... and when the Snow Demon quiets down, we'll slip out then..."
"Th-That sounds good!"
"Albus."
"Yes?"
"If you don't shut up, I'll sew your mouth shut."
"Y-Yes, ma'am."
"Damn it."
"......"
Isabella raked a hand irritably through her black hair. Right. Maybe this was for the best. They had rushed here too quickly, so taking some time to regroup was not a bad idea.
Anyway, the blizzard was pouring down, and the Snow Demon was rampaging across the ice cliffs.
There was no way anyone would come looking, so for the time being it was actually safe...
"Someone is coming."
"What?"
Isabella sprang to her feet and glared into the blizzard. Thunderous crashes and flames filled the storm. Strange figures were fighting the swirling snow and the giant tentacles.
Those were not magical flames. An unpleasant holiness clung to them instead. There was only one kind of flame like that.
The Church of Ra. The flames of the Sun God Church.
"Are they insane?! They chased us through this blizzard?! It hasn't even been two days since those bastards turned back?!"
"C-Commander!"
"All hands, battle stations!"
Amid the people scrambling around the cave, Isabella focused Sacred Power into her eyes. With her enhanced physical abilities, she stared out at them.
Burning eyes and gazes that were somehow unhinged. Isabella's expression crumbled as she confirmed the face of the one at the front.
"Th-The bear?! Shit?! Why is the brown bear here?!"
"If you mean the brown bear... are you talking about Radatok?"
"Yes. You bastard!"
As if things weren't bad enough.
On top of that, even the ceiling came crashing down.
"Why the hell is that inquisitor bastard here?!!!"
Isabella's world collapsed as well.