What Did You Say?

The cardinals' party had gathered inside the small cathedral that stood just before the forest where the examination was about to begin.

They each took their seats and stared at the translucent images reflected across the front of the room.

Cardinal Bianco asked,

"What are these moving things?"

Barun answered,

"They are magic tools used by the Zarkan Empire. Tools shaped like birds let us view what they have witnessed from a great distance, just like this."

"Magic, you say..."

Bianco clicked his tongue.

"How freely you make use of such remnants of the devil."

Most of the high-ranking clergy of the Holy Empire regarded magic as a remnant of the devil that stood against the Goddess Ella, and so they rejected it outright. As a result, mages within the Holy Empire were exceedingly rare, and even those who existed usually lived in seclusion.

The Zarkan Empire, however, valued national power more than the Goddess Ella. They recognized the existence of mages and actively developed them.

"Magic is merely one of the phenomena of this world. Nowhere in the Goddess's words is there any command to reject magic."

"Yet the earliest magic began with the devil."

"And it was we humans who developed it so that it could benefit the continent."

Their gazes locked for a brief moment before Barun spoke again.

"Please do not reject magic so harshly. Magic is nothing more than a tool. The thing itself is not evil."

"Hmph..."

"If you truly find magic so distasteful, then rather than watching the situation through those magic tools, why not go into the forest yourself?"

Bianco cleared his throat to paper over the moment.

"Since Cardinal Barun is overseeing this examination, we should follow his methods."

"Yes. I hope today's experience will prove useful to Cardinal Bianco's understanding."

They glared at each other once more.

"A moment, Your Eminences."

At that point the Saintess of Truth, Renika, interjected.

Barun inclined his head slightly toward her.

"My apologies, Saintess. We have shown you an unseemly sight."

"No, that is quite all right. More importantly, over there..."

Renika pointed at the images floating in the air.

"The atmosphere feels somehow strange."

The cardinals tilted their heads and focused on the projections.

The images showed the examinees' carriages and the scenery of the forest. Then, suddenly, black-clad groups flashed past through various parts of the woods at high speed.

"Are those monsters?"

At the Saintess's words, the knight beside her shook his head.

"Those are not monsters, Saintess."

"Then what are they?"

"They are humans. And they are heading toward the carriages."

The knight turned to Barun.

"Cardinal Barun, is that also part of the examination?"

"It is not."

"Which means..."

"Yes."

Barun bit his lip.

"They are enemies."

At the same moment, the black-clad groups began swarming the carriages.

The startled examinees drew their weapons and met the brigands head-on.

"Wh-what in the world is this!"

"How dare anyone disrupt a sacred examination!"

The cardinals seethed at the combat that sent killing intent and blood flying.

"Everyone, please remain calm. Right now the identity of the enemy is not what matters."

Barun responded with composure.

"The monastics are not weak, so they will not fall easily. Even so, if this continues, it is certain that many will die."

He looked around at the knights nearby.

"Leave this place and go aid them. I will contact the Papal Office through a carrier pigeon... no, through the magic tool."

"Yes."

Four knights rushed out of the cathedral in a body. The Saintess turned to her own knights as well.

"All of you, go help them too."

"But, Saintess, you—"

"Only one of the three of you needs to remain here. Even if I am not specialized in combat, I can protect my own person well enough."

"Understood."

The Saintess's knights bowed their heads and hurriedly left the cathedral.

"Th-there!"

At that moment Bianco gasped and pointed at one of the images.

It showed a carriage surrounded by twenty men. Most groups were being attacked by only two or three, yet that particular group was facing an unusually large number.

The fortunate part was that one man among them had prepared in advance, so they had not been caught completely by surprise.

"Could it be that the enemies were targeting them specifically?"

"We cannot know. They may simply have been drawn to the strongest presence by instinct."

Barun clenched his teeth.

"In any case, this is serious. It will take time for the knights to reach that location... At least half of them will likely die before then."

It was a cold, rational assessment. In both numbers and raw strength, they were outmatched by the enemy.

But then—

Shiiik!

The man standing at the very center of the encirclement vanished in an instant.

When his figure reappeared, an enemy's head was already flying through the air, trailing a spray of blood.

It was an overwhelming spectacle that seized every eye at once.

Barun, who had maintained his composure until now, shot up from his seat, while the others' eyes went wide.

Chaaak! Swaeek!

Without pause the man began cutting down the charging enemies one after another.

His swordsmanship was fluid and graceful, yet as cold as a winter wind.

The forest, which had been thick with green, was steadily dyeing itself red because of him.

"This is impossible..."

Renika murmured without realizing it. Barun nodded.

"An absurd level of martial prowess."

"How can someone so young possess such skill!"

"Hah... More than that, there is not the slightest hesitation when he kills. It is as if he has done this dozens of times before..."

"At any rate, with a fighter of that caliber present, we need not worry overly much about that group."

The cardinals each voiced their thoughts.

Watching their reactions, Renika felt bewildered.

What? Don't tell me none of them have noticed?

She too had been impressed by his strength at first. But something else had startled her far more.

Wondering if she might have been mistaken, Renika looked at the images again.

Yet she had not been wrong.

That is Holy Power!

Holy Power was a force that only those chosen by the Goddess Ella could wield.

So how was that man using it?

Wait— that is the person I met during confession earlier today, isn't it?

The sharp, handsome features revealed amid the ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scattering blood confirmed it. Looks of that caliber were never common.

Then is he truly one of the beings the Holy Empire has been hiding? Is that how he was able to take a thousand lives?

That would explain some things, yet the fact that such a man was suddenly trying to become an Inquisitor still made no sense to her.

In any case, it is clear that he is handling Holy Power.

It did not carry the pure white hue unique to Holy Power, so the others could not recognize it. But Renika, the only one here who herself wielded Holy Power, could tell.

There is no need to go out of my way to tell the cardinals, however.

Even a single casually dropped word could summon a massive storm later on.

Renika understood the terror of speech, and so she was always careful about when she opened her mouth.

In that case...

She tore her gaze from the images and surveyed those inside the cathedral.

I should simply do what I must.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

I cut down the ones charging at me, and cut them down again.

They dug for my breathing and vital points, yet they could never keep pace with me as I moved like the wind.

The team members are holding up well enough.

They had centered their defense around Bella and the coachman. They were struggling and spraying blood, but only three enemies had gone after them, so it did not look like a major problem.

Swaeek!

Just as I finished the last of the rabble, a razor-sharp blade shot toward my throat.

I twisted my neck in time, but it still grazed me.

I swung my sword in a wide arc and forced him back.

"To dodge even that... You are beyond anything I imagined."

His voice felt somehow familiar. Come to think of it, both his build and his thrusting-focused swordsmanship stirred a memory.

"The Vocal Cord Plunderer?"

His fingers twitched. I grinned.

"Got it right."

The Vocal Cord Plunderer.

A criminal famous throughout the Holy Empire for piercing the vocal cords of others so that he, with his hypersensitive hearing, could savor the silence. He was also someone I had killed in my previous life, before I ever encountered Baron Scalen.

In my past life I had a fairly hard time putting him down. Back then I had not yet reached the stage of Joy.

I said,

"Your hearing must be quite sharp."

"If you are thinking of shouting to disrupt my focus, forget it. It is not that good."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. And those sorts of people—I always start by piercing their throats—"