Chapter 1: He is a heresy judge.

“For that reason, Inquisitor Deron, we have decided to expel you from the Church.”

I had somewhat expected it, but hearing it directly from their mouths made me let out a hollow laugh.

After all I’ve done for them, they’re just going to expel me without a second thought?

I wanted to immediately scoff and ask if they were out of their minds,

but I suppressed my rising laughter and retorted.

“You’re expelling me? Seriously, not some idiotic joke?”

As soon as my sarcastic words left my lips, a sharp female voice immediately rang out from the side, as if she’d been waiting.

“Show some respect, Deron! Do you not know where you are?!”

‘Of course, I know. This is the meeting room of the esteemed Church officials.’

The Church building, constructed from luxurious stone, and within it, a massive meeting room.

Seated around the large, wooden round table were nearly twenty people, including myself,

and everyone else, besides me, was an esteemed official of the Church.

Including that annoying woman who was yapping at me, Meria, the Head of the Inquisition Department.

“I know, so what?”

“If you know, how can you be so rude?!”

Meria, Chief of the Inquisition Department.

A woman with black hair tied back and clear brown eyes.

I knew her body was beautiful with slight lean muscles from her diligent exercise,

and that her bound chest was larger than it appeared,

but I also knew she only did that to show off how hard she was working.

When in reality, she just sat at her desk all day and never showed her face in the field.

“Even if I wanted to show respect, if you’re going to act like this, I have no intention of doing so.”

“You truly are incorrigible. Do you really not understand that this behavior is one of the reasons for your expulsion?”

“Alright, let’s hear those esteemed reasons again.”

I crossed my arms and brazenly crossed my legs.

Meria was still glaring at me with a displeased expression,

but that was only possible because she was my direct superior and saw me often;

the others were flustered, unable to even meet my gaze properly.

And why wouldn’t they be? If I put my mind to it, smashing the heads of everyone in this meeting room would be simple.

The Church guards in the meeting room?

Meria, my direct superior?

‘They’re all nothing; I could crush them alone.’

Could I defeat guards armed with weapons when I was called into this meeting room without any?

‘Even if they all attacked at once, I could take them down with my bare hands.’

Indeed, I was the strongest person in the kingdom.

I had personally defeated demons summoned in a corner of the kingdom,

and I had cut down all those who occasionally dared to plot rebellion.

All those tasks were more enjoyable than difficult.

I’m incredibly curious about the reason they’re expelling someone like me.

I tilted my chin towards the Bishop, as if telling him to speak quickly,

and the Bishop, avoiding my gaze, began to speak, looking at the contents written on the paper in front of him.

“Firstly, there have been many opinions regarding the continued existence of the Inquisition Department in a situation where there is no longer a threat from heretics. It is also difficult to judge whether it is right for a Church serving the benevolent Goddess to interrogate and judge people.”

The sheer nonsense was already making my anger surge.

I wanted to immediately yell at them to stop spouting such idiotic rubbish,

but curious how much more nonsense they would ramble, I just twitched my toes and listened.

“In addition to these internal and external issues of the Church, your personal attitude, Deron, has also become a problem. We frequently hear that you disrupt the maintenance of internal order within the Church, and there are many testimonies from outside that you display excessively violent or radical behavior.”

As soon as I heard that, a certain person came to mind, so I turned my head towards Meria,

and Meria was glaring at me as if asking if I was wrong.

‘Ugh, I really want to punch her.’

“Furthermore…”

The Bishop continued his long-winded explanation,

but it was such idiotic talk, completely out of touch with reality, that listening to it felt like a waste of my time.

“…Considering these reasons collectively, we have determined that while it is difficult to abolish the Inquisition Department immediately, it is more beneficial to protect the Church by expelling Inquisitor Deron. That concludes my statement.”

After the Bishop finished speaking, I remained in my crossed-arms, crossed-legs posture and slightly nodded.

Perhaps because my reaction wasn’t bad,

or perhaps because they genuinely believed they were right,

most of those in the meeting room nodded like me.

At that sight, dumbfounded, I instantly slammed my fist onto the table in front of me.

“Damn it, are you seriously calling that talk?!”

As I raised my voice, the Church officials who had just been nodding all flinched,

and the guards drew their weapons, aiming them at me.

But I didn’t even care, continuing to speak clearly.

“No heretics, you say? Do you know why that is? It’s because I’ve been hunting those heretics down and beating them into submission. You might not see them, but if you step outside right now, you’ll find heretics squirming everywhere!”

“No. That is not so.”

Meria refuted me as if she were a hero fighting injustice.

“What do you mean, ‘no’? What does a woman who just sits at her desk all day, wasting time, know to spout such nonsense?!”

“I am doing various tasks that you do not understand. Among those tasks is collecting and analyzing information on inquisitions from various places.”

“So, that’s the conclusion you reached from your grand analysis? That there are no heretics?”

I wonder what confidence she has to spout such bullshit.

If she actually went into the field, she’d realize she was wrong in less than a day.

“No one else has as many successful inquisition records as you do. Rather, incidents keep occurring only where you go.”

“Is it my fault that others do their jobs like idiots?”

“Rather, the possibility that you fabricated charges for your own achievements cannot be ruled out—”

Unable to listen any longer, I slammed my fist onto the table once more,

and the table in front of me finally collapsed with a resounding crash.

The guards approached right next to me, threateningly aiming their weapons,

but my enraged eyes couldn’t even register such things.

“Hey, do you think what you’re saying makes sense? Even if someone else said that, a superior should cover for them, but you’re leading the charge in slandering me! Does that make any sense?!”

“I am merely speaking based on information.”

“It’s blind information that knows nothing about the field. What you’re doing right now is fabricating charges against me. Is this what I get for working like a dog for you people?”

“The others will think the same.”

Meria looked around as if seeking agreement,

and naturally, none of the other Church officials refuted her.

‘No, of course they wouldn’t know, since they’re not part of the Inquisition Department.’

‘Why are you asking them, you idiot?’

‘Conversely, would you know if the kingdom’s taxes are reasonable?’

Honestly, at this point, I didn’t even want to talk anymore.

No matter what I said, these people would rationalize everything with all sorts of absurd statements.

If they were people who could be reasoned with, they wouldn’t have brought this up in the first place.

There was a reason why these people, these so-called high-ranking Church officials, ended up like this.

Decades ago, the kingdom, which included the Church, succeeded in unifying the continent,

and subsequently, it also succeeded in driving out not only forces daring to challenge the kingdom but also all demons.

Furthermore, for several years after driving the demons back to the Demon Realm, there were continuous bountiful harvests, so no one starved,

and people lived peacefully, praising the grace and mercy of the benevolent Goddess.

It was, in other words, a period of great peace, a peaceful era.

However, no matter how peaceful the world, if left alone, it would begin to rot from one corner.

Unbeknownst to many, scum were secretly plotting in one part of the world.

From those who sought to extort money by creating cults,

to those who tried to seize paltry power by entering the royal family.

This was unavoidable, as it was human nature, regardless of the era of great peace.

The best one could do was to prevent such people from emerging as much as possible,

and if such people were seen, to quickly cut them off at the root.

However, the Church refused to acknowledge or understand such human nature.

They merely repeated the fundamental stance, blind to reality, saying that it was due to lack of faith,

and that such wickedness could be repelled by offering prayers to the merciful Goddess.

‘Perhaps it’s because they’ve never personally gone to war,’

‘and never personally seen how wicked demons and heretics truly are.’

But I fought on the front lines and personally witnessed that wickedness.

I personally saw how much suffering that wickedness could inflict on others.

So, even if it was troublesome and dirty work, I did it silently.

Of course, the fact that this was the field where I, a battle maniac, could be active in an era where war had ended, also played a part.

And this is the result of all that activity.

Church idiots whose heads are completely in the clouds,

and that b*tch of a superior who is part of the Inquisition Department but slanders the inquisitor who worked the hardest.

Thinking about it again, there was no answer, and I could only sigh.

“Nevertheless, we do not believe your merits are entirely nonexistent, so we have decided not to excommunicate you. This alone is sufficient consideration for you.”

Another Bishop chimed in,

and I abruptly stood up and spoke to everyone.

“Do as you please. Well, it’s not that I don’t believe in the Goddess, but seeing the Church, I can’t help but have doubts.”

“Are you going to commit blasphemy, Deron?”

“It’s not blasphemy, I’m insulting *you* people, but I guess that’s too high-level for you, isn’t it? Fine, I’ll leave as you wish. But…”

I extended my arm to the side and grabbed a sword that was aimed at me.

While the guard was completely flustered, I squeezed my hand, easily crushing the sword, and warned them.

“If you don’t appreciate me leaving and bother me again, then you’ll really be in deep trouble.”

Even though I had tried to phrase it mildly, seeing the Bishops trembling was pathetic,

so I simply walked out.

It wasn’t that there were no signs this would happen, but being expelled still felt much worse than I had expected.

As I muttered all sorts of curses under my breath and walked out,

I heard someone running up behind me, calling my name.

“Deron, let’s talk for a moment.”

Meria, that b*tch, still had something to say, it seemed.