Saint Lumen's Cloth
You scrub quite well.
"What the hell is this…?"
The man I'd just struck still wore a look of pure bewilderment. But he spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the floor and glared up at me.
"Is a noble priest allowed to hit a commoner like that?"
"Allowed. Depending on the situation."
I said it flatly.
"What you did was no different from a threat. And I have every right to deal with that."
"I don't recall when priests gained that sort of authority. I'll be taking this straight to the diocese office."
I folded my arms across my chest.
"Hmm. Looking at how you still can't read the room, you're definitely an idiot. Go ahead and tattle to the bishop. Tell him some lunatic priest smacked you after you tried to intimidate him."
"……."
My brazen attitude made him squint at me in confusion. Then something clicked, and his eyes flew wide open.
"You—don't tell me…"
I smirked and answered.
"Count yourself lucky it ended with just my hand."
"Why would an Inquisitor be in a shop like this…?"
"Who knows. Maybe you know better than I do. Or maybe no one does."
He seemed to decide further conversation was a bad idea and clamped his mouth shut.
"If you're done here, get out. Before my deacon comes back with my sword."
"…Excuse me."
He wiped the blood trailing from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. His companion hauled him to his feet.
Just as they were about to leave the shop—
"Hold it."
I called them back, remembering something I'd forgotten.
"…Yes?"
"Clean up the spit you left on the floor before you go."
"Me?"
"Should I do it? Wipe it with your ass or lick it up—I don't care. Just get it done and leave."
Pride clearly stung; he stood frozen for a moment.
I held his gaze steadily. Right then, Bella pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"Inquisitor, need a hand?"
I held out a hand toward Bella, who was cradling the sword scabbard in both arms.
"Perfect timing. My sword, if you would…"
"I'll clean it."
The man dropped to the floor and scrubbed furiously with his sleeve. I watched the spectacle and nodded in approval.
"You clean thoroughly. Shopkeeper, you could hire him as a janitor."
"Y-yes?"
Katrina still looked like she couldn't quite process what was happening.
In the end he polished the floor until it shone, then stood and bowed at the waist.
"I'll be taking my leave."
"Mm."
They left the shop.
Now they'd run off and report to their master that an Inquisitor had shown up here. Watching how he reacted next might prove entertaining.
I took the scabbard back from Bella and turned to Katrina.
"Well then, shopkeeper—let's settle the rest of the bill."
"…Ah. That's all right. Your help just now is more than enough payment."
"Sounded like you had debts. Take it."
I pulled a gold coin from my pocket and held it out.
"W-wait! That's gold!"
"I know. I wanted to show my deacon I know how to spend money once in a while."
I handed the clothes to Bella.
She lit up. "Oh yeah! Thank you, Inquisitor!" and hurried off to change.
"Ah, but even so…"
The sincerely troubled look on her face told me she didn't have the ambition to impersonate a Bishop-Count herself.
"If it bothers you that much, sell me some information. I overheard them say you impersonated the Bishop-Count. Is that true?"
"Ah, well…"
Katrina's story, summarized, went like this.
Someone had come demanding she prepare ten formal outfits for a noble ball, handing over a contract and documents stamped with the Bishop-Count's seal. He told her to use them to buy materials, so she borrowed money from the Marcken Trading Company.
But when the agreed pickup date came and went with no one appearing, Katrina went to meet the Bishop-Count herself.
"But every seal on those contracts and documents was fake. So precise that an ordinary person would never notice."
"……."
"The Bishop-Count did say he'd buy the outfits if they turned out well… but when I got back to the shop, the finished clothes had somehow vanished."
Katrina's brow furrowed.
"Because of that, rumors spread that I was a fraud. Customers stopped coming, and all I had left was the debt to the Marcken Trading Company."
"I see."
"I should have been more careful. I got carried away thinking my skill had finally been recognized."
I didn't see it that way.
What lunatic would impersonate a Bishop-Count? And there was nothing to gain by scamming Katrina alone.
Which means the mastermind is someone who stands to profit by deceiving Katrina.
I asked,
"So the guild master said he'd clear your debt if you accepted his marriage proposal?"
"Yes."
"But you already knew the guild master before any of this happened, right?"
"We were acquainted. He'd visited the shop a few times for clothes."
Katrina thought for a moment, then her eyes went round.
"Inquisitor… are you saying you think the guild master did this?"
"He's the only one who benefited."
Katrina covered her mouth with a slender hand and gave a faint, wry smile.
"Why would he go that far for someone like me? Getting caught would put his life at risk."
She certainly had the looks for it. The one thing a man should be most careful of in this world was a beautiful woman.
Even so, it was still an excessive scheme.
"Maybe you weren't the only target."
I narrowed my eyes. Katrina swallowed hard, tension rising.
"Then…?"
"Saint Lumen's cloth."
"……."
"That's something you, as Lumen's descendant, would possess."
Katrina's eyebrow twitched once, but she answered calmly.
"Saint Lumen's cloth? Something that precious couldn't possibly be with me."
If she kept denying it, digging out the truth would be difficult. But in situations like this, my position always helped.
"Why do you think I stopped by this clothing shop? Just a coincidence because I wanted to buy clothes?"
"……."
"If you don't tell me the truth, I can't help you. And the master of the Marcken Trading Company will keep targeting the Lumen cloth you hold."
Katrina stared at me for a long moment, then let out a deep sigh.
"Did you come for the cloth too, Inquisitor?"
"Well, it'd be a lie to say I don't want it. I'd like to obtain it if possible."
"……."
"But my offer to help you wasn't a lie either."
Katrina fell silent for a while.
In the meantime I glanced at Bella. She pointed at her newly changed outfit and whispered a small, "How do I look?"
I gave her a casual thumbs-up. Bella puffed her shoulders up with pride.
"I hate Lord Lumen."
Katrina finally spoke.
"Everyone praises him as a figure perfectly suited to Temperance among the Seven Great Goods, but to us descendants he's nothing but detestable."
"Why?"
"Because everyone coveted the cloth that held his miraculous power. My grandparents and my parents got swept up in it too."
Katrina's eyes narrowed.
"As you know, when you cut the cloth you have to use water diluted with a descendant's blood. Same for dyeing it."
Lumen had wanted his descendants to make clothes for someone precious. But once the cloth became a holy relic, things no longer went according to his wishes.
"If we refused to make something, others simply killed us and took the blood. Because of that, barely any of the cloth remains."
"……."
"I hate the Goddess for the same reason. If she hadn't blessed that damned cloth, I wouldn't hate Lord Lumen, and no one would have had to die."
Of course the Goddess had only wanted to grant Lumen's wish. Reality, however, was colder than any goddess imagined.
"Am I strange for feeling this way, Inquisitor?"
Katrina looked at me with tear-bright eyes.
Even the brightest tales of saints cast long shadows. Truths the world's prejudices prefer to keep hidden.
"You're not strange. Human greed simply shaped you this way."
I watched Katrina dab at her tears with a handkerchief, then spoke again.
"But there's one thing I'm curious about."
"…Curious?"
"Yes. If you hate Lumen and the Goddess that much, why didn't you dispose of the holy relic long ago?"
"If I revealed the cloth's existence, I'd be targeted…"
"The Papal See was always an option. They would have protected you and paid a proper price for the relic. Your debt would have been settled as well."
"……."
"You're not going to claim you didn't know that, are you?"
Katrina lowered her head and stayed silent.
Bella fidgeted uncomfortably beside me, but I had always been the sort of rude bastard who swallowed etiquette with my dinner.
"Well, I didn't ask because I needed an answer. I was just puzzled."
I knew the situation Katrina was about to face, but I didn't know Katrina herself in any depth.
So I kept my guesses to myself. The conclusion after this was something she had to reach on her own.
"Anyway, the master of the Marcken Trading Company has almost certainly guessed that you possess Lumen's cloth. That's why he's acting this way."
That much was fact. I had heard the story in my previous life.
"She's the owner of a clothing shop called 'Four Seasons.' I found out by chance during an investigation…"
Katrina asked,
"How did he even learn I was Lumen's descendant?"
"Finding an unspecified descendant of Lumen who's hiding their identity is difficult. Thoroughly investigating one person, however, is simple."
"You're saying it was a coincidence."
"Most likely."
Katrina exhaled heavily and looked up at the ceiling.
"It's cruel. I thought I'd finally escaped…"
"Life, like cloth, can't always be cut exactly the way you want."
It had been the same in my previous life.
In that life, Katrina had not stood beside the master of the Marcken Trading Company. Her shop, Four Seasons, had vanished as well.
My guess was that she had stubbornly refused his proposal until his greed finally swallowed her whole.
"Is the Inquisitor's life like that too?"
"It might have been."
I had been the same as her in my previous life.
A life where I lost everything, left with nothing but directionless vengeance and rage.
"But not anymore."
Slowly, I was changing things one by one in this life.
Right now it might look like nothing more than a single stitch, but someday that stitch would complete something that finally fit me.
"I see…"
Katrina gave a lonely little smile.
"Then… if you have the time, would you help me as well?"
"You've decided not to sell it to the Papal See?"
"Yes. For now…. Somehow I just can't bring myself to do that, so I'm going to try to hold out however I can."
"Understood. Then I'll help."
"Really?"
"Yes. But there are conditions."
I looked her straight in the eye.
"Once this is over, decide what you'll do with the cloth. Hand it to the Papal See, make clothes with it, or burn the whole thing to ash."
"……."
"My help is a one-time offer. Clear?"
Katrina swallowed hard, then nodded with solemn seriousness.
"I understand."
"Of course, I hope you'll use it to make me a new set of priestly robes."
Katrina gave a soft laugh.
"You're very honest."
"Only when it gets me what I want."
"I'll try my best as well. To figure out what I truly want."
"Good."
"But how do you plan to handle this? That the Marcken guild master impersonated the Bishop-Count is only a guess, and there's no evidence."
She was right. Unless we could prove that fact, solving the problem through ordinary means would be extremely difficult.
Especially since the Marcken Trading Company was large enough to dominate this entire city.
But…
"Don't worry. That bastard is even more of a piece of trash than you think."
I knew him.
I knew exactly what he had done, and what fresh filth he was planning next.
There was a reason he had died by my hand in the previous life.
"And right now, I have a sword."
From time immemorial, an Inquisitor with a sword in hand can do anything.