Chapter 10: Fallen priest

“Yes.”

At my reply, the man in black stared intently at me.

I turned my shoulder and spoke to the man again.

“You saw correctly. I am an Inquisitor. Ah, well, a former Inquisitor, to be precise…”

The man, who had been staring at me dumbfounded by my brazen reply,

soon seemed to recall my face and silently turned to flee.

However, a mere heretic who only peddled drugs,

could never escape from me, who had found prey.

I swiftly rushed forward, roughly grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck, and threw him against a nearby tree.

Thud–!!

“Ugh!”

The man in black slid down the tree and collapsed onto the ground, face down.

I squatted beside the man’s head, patting his head lightly as I spoke.

“Hey, you don’t believe in the Goddess, do you? You’re one of those Hekanil believers, aren’t you? Those Hekanil followers are certainly good at making things that mess with people’s minds.”

“Uh… ugh…”

“Stop groaning and answer me…”

As I slapped the man’s cheeks, demanding an answer, I caught his subtle twitch.

The moment I pushed off the ground and swiftly retreated, the man scattered the white powder he held in his hand.

When his plan failed, the man scoffed and stood up, glaring at me.

It wasn’t surprising to see someone scatter powder with paralyzing and hallucinatory effects while trying to escape; I had seen it countless times.

However, what I saw on the man’s hand as he scattered the powder genuinely startled me.

A decoration I had seen many times, sickeningly many times.

“Are you a priest?”

Those dedicated to the Church all carried their own unique decorations.

Monks, for whom marriage was forbidden, wore rings, symbols of purity, on their index fingers instead of their ring fingers.

Those who baptized people carried sacred emblems used during prayer.

There were also those who wore necklaces, bracelets, or other ornaments with distinctive shapes.

As an Inquisitor, I had to conceal my identity, so I didn’t wear any decorations.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t recognize the decorations of other clergy members.

Faintly glinting on the man’s finger as he scattered the powder,

was a silver ring, much thinner than an ordinary one.

That was a decoration worn by low-ranking priests.

“Tell me. You’re a priest, aren’t you? From the looks of it, you haven’t been a priest for long, and it seems you’re working in the provinces.”

“You don’t need to know…! You, who were expelled from the Church…!”

The man stood up and spat at me.

I shrugged my shoulders and asked the man.

“You know me?”

“How could I not know you…!”

“My popularity, I swear.”

In truth, even if I didn’t carry Church decorations, there wasn’t a single heretic who didn’t know my face.

From the heretics’ perspective, Inquisitors were the ones they had to be most wary of.

And among those Inquisitors, I was the one they had to be most careful of.

Thanks to that, it was common to find drawings of my face when I cleared out heretic dens.

The man already knew my identity,

and I knew his, so there was no need for complicated explanations.

I gripped my sword and spoke to the man.

“Then I don’t need to explain anything, do I? I’ll cut you down in one swift stroke.”

“As you said, weren’t you expelled from your Inquisitor position?”

It was highly likely he already knew this as well.

My expulsion meant that a favorable environment for heresy had been created.

They probably even held a celebration among themselves, thinking their obstacle was gone.

With my hand on my sword, I gave a slight shrug.

“That’s right. I’m not here specifically to catch you as an Inquisitor; I just happened to be nearby and stumbled upon you. Your client was causing a ruckus in the village, you see. Anyway…”

“You, who are not an Inquisitor, have no right to punish me!”

The man cut me off and shouted.

To say that I couldn’t punish him, no matter what he had done, simply because I wasn’t an Inquisitor,

was such an absurd statement that I wondered if I had misheard him.

I scratched my head with my hand and asked again.

“I… have no right to punish you? What on earth are you talking about?”

“Only Inquisitors can carry out summary judgments in the Church! Others cannot execute summary judgments on anyone!”

“So what you’re saying is… I shouldn’t kill you here, but instead hand you over to the Church so they can directly decide your punishment?”

“That’s right!”

The man’s voice was brimming with confidence as he replied.

Certainly, in a normal situation, that would have been the correct procedure.

But he’s saying that, despite being caught by me while selling powder?

At his absurd reaction, I continued scratching my head and said.

“I see… Then there’s no choice but…”

‘Did you think I was going to say ‘no choice but to let you go’?’

‘I was just waiting for the powder you scattered to be carried away by the wind.’

As I dragged out my words, I suddenly gripped my sword tightly and leaped forward towards the man.

Without giving the man a chance to retaliate, I struck him between the eyebrows with the hilt of my sword.

The man, having received a strong impact, couldn’t even let out a gasp as he rolled backward and fell face down again.

“It seems you’re making a big mistake right now…”

I plunged my sword into the ground near the fallen man’s face and squatted beside him again.

“First. I didn’t become an Inquisitor for some holy purpose of protecting the Church. I just became one because I wanted to beat up bastards like you. How dare you talk back to me after doing something that deserves a beating?”

“Kuh… ugh…”

“Second. You’re carrying powder from those Hekanil believers, and you expect to go to trial? Do you really think I’d believe that? You’d probably just cause trouble with that powder again during escort to escape. Or you’d be waiting for your buddies to come help you.”

“Ugh…”

The man only groaned in pain and gave no proper answer.

Displeased with his reaction, I stood up slightly and kicked the man’s head with my foot.

From the impact, the man rolled a couple of times to the side and was thrown.

“Cough! Ugh…”

“Lastly, third. There’s no need for that. What you’ve been doing is so clear that it’s faster and simpler for me to just kill you here and then explain the circumstances.”

“You, who are not an Inquisitor… do you think… killing a priest… will be easily forgiven…?”

To cling to the words “Inquisitor” even while bleeding,

was truly remarkable obsession, but it had no substance.

‘What if I’m not forgiven?’

I raised my sword and approached the man.

Just as the man tried to scatter powder towards me with all his might, I pierced his hand with my sword and pinned it to the ground.

“Agh…!”

“Is it really so unfair to die at the hands of someone who isn’t an Inquisitor? Well, then there’s no choice. I’ll just have to kill you as an Inquisitor.”

“You… were already expelled…”

“That’s right. But from what I’ve seen, their actions aren’t exactly orthodox either. So, I have no choice but to directly serve the Goddess all by myself. It’s a true Church serving the Goddess, even if I just founded it. I am the prophet, the leader, the saint, the priest, and the Inquisitor, all at once.”

This wasn’t said seriously; it was more akin to teasing him before killing him.

Fortunately, those words seemed to have gotten under the man’s skin.

“Nonsense…!”

Seeing the man glare at me, I twisted the sword still impaled through his hand.

“Aghhhhhh!!!”

The man screamed as if his breath would give out at any moment.

I pulled out the sword and placed its tip against the man’s throat.

“As an Inquisitor, I shall punish this heretic.”

When I uttered my usual words, the man began to spew curses as if in a fit.

“Slaves of the filthy b*tch! The sun will soon set, and terror will descend! You will freeze in the chill of the night and be devoured alive…”

“Ah, you’re chattering to death; it’s annoying.”

I moved my sword and ended the man’s life.

He’s a heretic, but perhaps because he’s a priest and not a combatant, he’s too weak.

It feels like I just wasted time pointlessly without even getting a proper fight.

As I pulled out my sword and wiped off the blood with a grim expression, a familiar voice came from behind me.

“Master?”

“What are you doing here?”

Hearing Raylin’s and Sei-lin’s voices, I froze for a moment.

Although I had delivered justice to a Hekanil follower,

to someone unaware of the circumstances, it would appear as if I had killed a priest.

I hurriedly turned my head towards Raylin and Sei-lin, intending to explain the situation.

“No. Listen to me. This guy is…”

However, contrary to my expectations, Raylin and Sei-lin showed no surprise at all.

Rather, judging by their sparkling eyes directed at me, they seemed impressed.

“As expected… filthy heretics cannot escape Lord Deron!”

“To find and deal with him in such a short time, it’s truly amazing.”

Raylin and Sei-lin spoke in turn.

Unable to believe it, I asked the sisters.

“You knew it was a heretic I dealt with?”

“Lord Deron would never kill an innocent person.”

“Even though I’m no longer an Inquisitor?”

“That was something the Church arbitrarily decided, so it doesn’t mean much.”

Raylin and Sei-lin were truly showing me boundless trust.

Far from doubting me, the atmosphere suggested that I had once again done something righteous,

and that they liked me even more because of it.

I let out a sigh of relief and turned my head towards the man’s corpse.

“Could you two go home first?”

“Do you have more to do?”

“If I leave the body here, it might be troublesome if the guard finds it, so I’m going to take care of it.”

“Yes. We’ll go first. Tonight’s dinner is fish, so don’t be late.”

Raylin turned to leave,

then slightly turned her head back, looked at me, and smiled.

“Prophet, leader, saint, and priest, Lord Deron.”

‘Damn it. They saw everything.’

‘No wonder they seemed to know he was a heretic.’

Feeling 괜히 embarrassed, I clenched my hands so tightly they felt like they would burst.

Raylin and Sei-lin smiled at my reaction and left.

****

It was time to end the day and lie in bed.

I was thinking about the heretic I had met that afternoon.

The guards probably wouldn’t find the body and narrow down their investigation.

Since I had carved the symbol of Lonnek, a god worshipped by another cult, onto his corpse with my sword,

even if it were found, it would look like a Hekanil follower who sold powder was murdered by a Lonnek follower.

No matter how foolish those Church guys were, the body was openly carrying powder.

If it wasn’t found, wild animals would just devour it.

However, I couldn’t help but be surprised by the fact that he was a priest, even if low-ranking.

Although I was an Inquisitor, I focused more on exterminating external enemies than on cracking down on internal personnel.

And I truly hadn’t known that even priests were being corrupted by heresy.

In fact, this made it clear.

The Church had already lost its power and was collapsing,

and more and more corrupted individuals would cause trouble.

Perhaps not even 10 years, but just 5 years, and the world would be in chaos.

Thinking that it would be too late to regret and shed tears then,

I smiled, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

In conclusion, my prediction that the world would fall into chaos in about 5 years was wrong.

Because the world became a mess in less than 2 years, let alone 5.