The Goddess's Wrath
I beseech thee, I beseech thee….
I pulled my hand away from the communication magic tool and tucked it into my robes for the moment.
Then I shifted my gaze to Jakob.
“……!”
He was shouting something while clutching his severed wrist.
But trapped inside the translucent sphere, not a sound reached me.
“Release it.”
“Yes, sir!”
Only after Bella dispelled the magic did Jakob’s voice finally come through.
“W-what in the world do you think you’re doing?!”
“You’re the one who did something. I merely caught a crime in progress as an Inquisitor.”
“You followed me?”
“I was just curious where you were rushing off to in such a hurry.”
“That’s still following… kuh….”
He broke off mid-sentence, brow furrowing in pain.
“Does it hurt? It really shouldn’t. Sub-deacon Bella. Stop the bleeding for now.”
“Understood!”
Bella pulled herbs and gauze from her bag and began treating Jakob’s wrist.
I spoke with feigned pity.
“Tsk tsk. With a hand like that, you won’t be selling anything again. Better take better care of what’s left.”
Jakob glared at me viciously.
“You did this…! Aaaagh!!”
“Ah, I’m so sorry!!”
Bella must have pressed somewhere tender; Jakob suddenly screamed.
This time he whipped around toward her.
“Be careful…! Aaaagh!!”
“Pardon? What was that?”
“N-nothing… never mind….”
Jakob panted roughly and hastily lowered his tail.
Bella was growing remarkably fast under my wing. At this rate she could handle an Inquisitor’s duties on her own.
Excellent.
Once the treatment finished without further incident, I spoke again.
“I have a question. Where is this place Labek mentioned? Seems only the two of you know about it.”
“…….”
Jakob averted his eyes and clamped his mouth shut.
At his uncooperative attitude I folded my arms tightly.
“Sub-deacon Bella. Looks like we need a longer conversation.”
“Aha!”
Bella layered a sound-blocking spell around the warehouse. It was an isolated spot, but it would be troublesome if anyone overheard the screams.
I looked at Jakob.
“Earlier you were shouting like you were ready to storm the manor, yet now that we’re face-to-face you can’t get a word out?”
“…….”
When he still stayed silent, a long sigh escaped me.
He had no grasp of the situation at all.
“Listen. Just colluding with that man to throw the territory into chaos is more than enough for a death sentence. Do you know why I kept you alive?”
“To learn the location of that place from me. If I talk, you’ll kill me.”
So he hadn’t been silent for nothing after all.
True, that was one reason I hadn’t killed him on the spot. I needed the mastermind behind him to prevent future trouble.
“No.”
I shook my head and grabbed both of his cheeks with one hand.
“Because I don’t want to dirty my hands with the blood of trash like you.”
“…….”
I had already killed more people than I could count with these hands in my previous life. Someone this powerless could simply be handed over to the Holy Empire.
“The location? I don’t need to dig it out of you. Even if I never showed up, they would come looking for you first.”
Very few people knew the Moon Shadow Group’s code phrase.
Since it had come from my mouth, either he or I would be sought out directly.
“In short, killing you here only adds a little inconvenience for me. It changes nothing about my plans. Understand?”
I released his face with a light shove.
“But if you tell me the location and the full details, I won’t kill you with my own hands. I swear it to the Goddess.”
“…Is that true?”
Jakob looked up at me with eyes that couldn’t quite believe it.
“Though the way you speak—”
“I-is that really true, sir?”
He hurriedly corrected his tone.
“Yes. Have you lived your whole life being deceived? A man who’s spent his days deceiving others.”
Jakob swallowed dryly and nodded.
“…Understood. I’ll tell you everything.”
After that, Jakob spilled it all.
The inside story matched what I had guessed: the man named Labek had set up a fake merchant-guild master so he could safely skim profits from behind the scenes.
Their meeting place was in the nearby forest. The exact spot was marked on a tree, or so he claimed.
Jakob wanted to live badly enough that he offered to guide us himself, so there was no risk of getting the location wrong.
“We’ll do it that way, then. Things would’ve been so much better if you’d cooperated from the start.”
“Then… you’ll spare me?”
“Of course. I’m a man who keeps his promises.”
“Ah…!”
Jakob’s face brightened.
“However….”
“Yes?”
“I noticed earlier that your teeth are remarkably neat.”
I seized both of his cheeks again with one hand. Between the lips that parted like a goldfish’s, a set of well-cared-for teeth gleamed.
“That’s how you managed to shout so clearly without a single slur, isn’t it?”
“W-what…?”
“Can’t have that. I’ll have to collect a few of those teeth so you never run your mouth again.”
Jakob’s eyes went wide as he babbled.
“Y-you said you’d spare me!”
“I did.”
I looked at him and smiled faintly.
“So as long as I don’t kill you, that counts, doesn’t it?”
I was, after all, a man who kept his promises so well.
I reached for his straight white teeth, and someone’s scream soon rose.
But that sound never escaped outside.
The following evening.
Jakob stood alone at the appointed place, his hood pulled low.
After waiting a short while, a man in a dark robe emerged from the opposite direction.
Jakob bowed his head.
“Pleathed to meet you, Lord Labek.”
Labek looked momentarily bewildered.
“Why is your pronunciation like that? You were fine until last night, as I recall.”
“I fell down on the way here.”
“Falling does that to you?”
“I fell really hard.”
“Hmm….”
Labek stroked his chin while Jakob broke out in cold sweat.
There’s no way he’ll believe this!
Jakob had only said what Cael told him to say. If he helped catch Labek, his sentence would be reduced somewhat.
But even a plausible excuse would have been hard to swallow—this one was just lazy.
He had offered to come up with a better story on his own, yet Cael’s reply had been:
—No. That’ll do.
What part of it “did” anything?
One look at Labek’s piercing gaze and that answer would never come out!
“Well, fine. More importantly—did that man really say that?”
…He was letting it go?
Jakob was rather surprised, but forced himself to answer calmly.
“Yeth. He clearly thaid, ‘The thadow of the moon ith not dark.’”
Cael had already told him every detail of the conversation he was supposed to have had with Labek.
“He wouldn’t have phrased it that stupidly.”
“That’s right. Do you know what it meanth?”
“I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come here in person.”
Labek let out a long sigh, then glanced at Jakob’s tattered empty sleeve.
“Where’d you sell your right hand?”
He had deliberately covered it with a long robe, yet of course Labek noticed.
Jakob produced the answer he had prepared in advance once more.
“I fell down on the way here.”
“…….”
Silence stretched. Sweat gathered in Jakob’s remaining palm.
No one ended up with missing teeth and a severed wrist just from falling.
“Haha.”
Suddenly Labek let out a soft laugh. Then he wiped the smile away and muttered,
“Of all people, you had to get caught by some madman. Since you recognized me, I can’t exactly play dumb now.”
“What…?”
“It means both you and I have been dancing in that man’s palm.”
Labek gracefully extended one hand.
“You fool. A puppet used until the very end.”
Mana condensed in Labek’s palm, then transformed into flames that blasted toward Jakob.
Whoosh!
The fire lit up the dark forest and swallowed Jakob like a wave.
“Gyaaaaah!”
His scream and the flames had not even fully died when a figure shot out of the trees toward Labek.
A sword descended upon him, flames coiling threateningly along the blade.
Any ordinary mage would have been slow to react right after casting, but Labek was different.
Clang!
A translucent barrier canceled the man’s sword strike.
Even so, the force was unmistakable. Sensing danger, Labek cast another spell.
Boom!
A sharply honed rock spear erupted from the ground toward the man’s abdomen; he leapt backward to evade.
Labek fixed his eyes on the man in black priest’s robes. Judging by the level of that attack, this was no ordinary Inquisitor.
“I’ve been waiting.”
Moonlight fell across the Inquisitor’s eyes, making them gleam coldly.
“Is this the first time we’ve spoken face-to-face?”
I studied Labek as he glared at me.
That was meant to be a surprise attack, yet he blocked it cleanly.
A mage capable of double-casting. At the very least, he was on a level comparable to Enoch, who had once been Jealousy of the Seven Deadly Sins.
“So you’re the eldest son who became an Inquisitor. I didn’t expect you to be this capable.”
“Fortunately, it seems I don’t need to introduce myself.”
Labek gave a short laugh.
“Did you really think I’d fall for a man missing a hand and half his teeth?”
“Aren’t you standing here precisely because you did fall for it? Or did you just come out for a midnight stroll?”
“…….”
“Or do you have a hobby of murdering people while out walking?”
I glanced at the charred black corpse. Labek frowned and shot back,
“You intended for me to kill him.”
“What nonsense. Don’t pin your crimes on me. It’s unpleasant.”
When I answered seriously, Labek exhaled a long breath.
“More importantly—how do you know that code phrase? There’s no way that fool figured it out.”
He clearly meant the Moon Shadow Group’s signal.
I knew it from my previous life, of course, but I had no intention of saying so.
“The Goddess told me.”
“…I see.”
“You should try praying to Her yourself. Ask Her not to send you to hell after you die, since you’ll live virtuously from now on.”
Labek looked me up and down and let out a derisive snort.
“Shouldn’t that be you? I don’t think I have any need for it.”
“Hmm. I disagree.”
“Above all, I never believed in the Goddess to begin with. And I despise the Holy Empire that worships Her.”
Most clergy of the Holy Empire did not look kindly on magic.
It was a tool of demons, and a miraculous power that did not come from the Goddess.
The Moon Shadow Group was a faction of mages who had been persecuted for that very reason.
For them to reject the Holy Empire itself was, in a way, only natural.
That doesn’t justify what they do, though.
A sin is a sin. Just as it had been for me in my previous life.
I simply cut those sins short with my sword before they could spread to the innocent.
“My, the Goddess must be sad to hear that.”
“I hope She’s at least a little sad. Sad that there are fools who ostracize people for no reason other than being mages, even though we’re all human.”
On that point I had agreed since my previous life.
There had been far too many who, like Bella, could have lived upright lives yet were driven into villainy by the Holy Empire’s rejection.
But this man was of a different cut entirely.
“Knowing that, why do you still target the innocent?”
He had manipulated a merchant guild from the shadows, harming the residents—and me as well.
Someone who truly understood pain usually didn’t do such things.
“I needed money and power for the greater cause. And I never touched the residents’ lives, did I? They just had a temporary hard time.”
“That’s not a greater cause. That’s your personal desire to drive out the Holy Empire.”
I pointed my flaming sword at him.
“People like you are the reason mages have an even worse reputation. Indiscriminate hatred only becomes more firewood for contempt.”
“Ha—so we’re just supposed to sit back and watch? A country that ostracizes people simply for having magical talent?”
“No. I won’t sit back either.”
I answered with complete seriousness.
“Because I’ll change it.”
“…What?”
“Of course some people will keep hating. But at the very least, no one will have their life stolen just for being a mage.”
This was one of the things I had failed to achieve in my previous life. Then again, what had I achieved besides evil deeds back then?
In any case, it was also the future Bella hoped for, so it was a problem I would keep wrestling with.
“In that sense, I think you need the Goddess’s divine punishment.”
I locked eyes with him and murmured,
“I beseech thee, I beseech thee…. O Goddess, bring down heavenly punishment upon this foolish man….”
Labek blinked blankly, then let out a hollow laugh.
“Are you joking? Looking at it now, even what you just said wasn’t sincere.”
“I beseech thee, I beseech thee….”
I paid him no mind, gripping my sword tightly as I watched Labek.
His brow twisted sharply, as if his mood had soured.
“I was an idiot for talking with a madman. If you really thought you could bring me down with a prayer—”
That was when it happened.
BOOOOM!
An explosion of flame erupted from the forest with a deafening roar.
Labek flinched and whipped his head to the side. The massive fireball was already rushing toward him; he hastily raised a wall of rock.
CRUUUNCH!
The flames smashed against the rock wall and began to fan out and dissipate.
It was a blaze that could have swept the entire area, yet the rock wall was solid enough to withstand it.
The fire continued to belch heat for a while, but in the end it failed to break through and died away.
Whoosh!
But I hadn’t just been standing there watching the whole time.
In an instant I closed the distance and brought my flaming sword down in a swift arc.
“……!”
Normally he would have blocked it with magic.
But caught by the surprise attack, he couldn’t react in time to mine as well.
Slash!
One of his arms was severed. Had he not twisted his body at the last second, his head would have gone flying.
I readied myself to close in again, but a sharp rock spear erupted from the ground, forcing me to leap back and open the distance.
Labek clutched his bleeding shoulder in shock.
“What is this….”
I met his eyes and answered with devout sincerity.
“It is the Goddess’s wrath.”