How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Inquisitor (1)

The victim’s belongings, imbued with their will until the very end, and the freshly deceased body, clearly not having met a death without regrets. And a seasoned Black Mage to boot.

Perfect conditions.

The crimson streaks formed by the blood flowing from the corpse, absorbed into the graveyard soil. Gazing at the man collapsed face-down in the crimson space granted to him in his last moments, I picked up the dagger that had fallen at my feet.

Even if it was a rural monastery, I couldn’t enter a place filled with priests while carrying Demonic Energy.

To effectively utilize the given identity, it was wise not to arouse unnecessary suspicion.

Therefore, I intended to use up all the Demonic Energy absorbed here, right here, right now.

The amount of Demonic Energy that could be extracted from a small gravesite like this wasn’t much, and most of it had already been consumed while dealing with that guy just now.

If I used a simple spell, I should be able to cleanly exhaust the remaining Demonic Energy.

Swoosh

I slowly began to form hand seals, and the little Demonic Energy remaining within my body was completely depleted as the spell activated.

Requiem.

This spell, named after the music meant to console the dead and grant them rest, was ironically used for the opposite purpose, as if to mock the religious order that first created it.

Demonic Energy, responding to the language incomprehensible to humans and the will of the Black Mage, began to slowly gather in my hands.

Then, magical power originating from the negative dimension slowly floated in the air, drawing ominous patterns following my hand seals.

After completing the hand seals in the air, culminating in an inverted pentagram, I slowly lowered my hands.

Fizzle

The dagger offered as a medium for the ritual instantly corroded and disappeared. Proof that the ritual to summon a wraith had been successfully performed.

Whoosh

A black mass slowly flowed from the lifeless corpse.

An existence halfway between the real world and the negative dimension. The wraith of the deceased.

Groan

The translucent wraith slowly floated in the air, circling around me.

“Nice to see you again.”

Since it wasn’t a powerful soul capable of retaining its ego even after death, it was impossible for it to recognize me, but I greeted the evil spirit with a small smile.

The evil spirit, gliding and flying towards me according to my will despite having just met its demise at my hands.

It wasn’t the corpse of a powerful knight or mage, and the wraith summoned with only a meager amount of Demonic Energy was too weak to even be used in combat.

However, in my current situation as a priest, I didn’t need a powerful wraith. Rather, this was more convenient for covert movement. The commands I would give weren’t that complicated anyway.

“Now, go to the one who ordered your assassination.”

Finding the person who first gave this one a command, or rather, a request. It was highly likely to take a considerable amount of time, but it didn’t matter.

It would take some time for me to regain my strength anyway. For now, it was enough to leave a small clue about the source of the potential threat that might arise in the future.

Swipe

After circling me one last time, the wraith disappeared with a whoosh into the dark forest path. Watching its retreating figure, I picked up the old lantern lying on the ground.

The smell of low-quality oil wafted sharply.

It didn’t look much different from the ones from five hundred years ago when I was alive.

According to Luciel’s memories, which were now mine, the current continent was in turmoil due to the war between heretics and the religious order.

I didn’t know the exact cause and details of the progress, but perhaps even more so than five hundred years ago when I was alive.

Click!

As I added the last trace of Demonic Energy to the dying flame, an ominous green flame flared up strongly.

And a chaotic world is the perfect environment for a Black Mage to grow.

The gloomy green light flickered, illuminating the dark forest. The shadows of the trees in the forest, mixed with the coolly shining blue moonlight and the ominously swaying green light, swayed as if they were alive.

According to faint memories, the monastery where this guy originally resided was located a short distance from this graveyard.

‘Shall we go now?’

I took one last look at the quiet graveyard and then slowly walked towards the monastery, carrying the old lantern flickering with green light.

🔹🔹🔹

Whoosh!

A thick chain imbued with holy power flew through the air.

Covered in large, sharp spikes, it looked heavy enough to be a burden for an ordinary adult male to even lift, but the man holding it showed no signs of strain on his face.

No, he even seemed to be wearing a somewhat pleasant expression.

Crack!

The man expertly retrieved the chain, which had ground the people in front of him into pieces, scattering blood in the air.

Mounted on a large horse, the man who had displayed almost acrobatic movements scratched his chin as he gazed at the carnage he had created.

“He, Heeeek!”

One man, who appeared to be an ordinary shifting cultivator, survived the carnage and was trembling, half out of his mind.

The man stared silently at the peasant, who was trembling like an aspen leaf, having lost the will to resist or flee, and then slowly opened his mouth, pointing to the path ahead.

“Which village is down this road?”

“S, Save me……”

The man looked at the terrified peasant who couldn’t give a proper answer for a moment, then flicked his hand, and a small light emanated from it.

Swoosh

“Aaah……!”

The bright light seeped into the trembling peasant’s body, bringing him back to his senses.

Seeing this, the man asked his second question.

“Which village is down this road?”

“P, Please spare me! I had no choice but to do it to survive! I never had any blasphemous intention of going against the Church─”

The man looked at the peasant with cold, sunken eyes as he desperately poured out excuses as soon as he regained his senses and asked his third question.

“Which village is down this road?”

At the man’s question, laced with an unsettling tone, the peasant desperately searched his mind for the direction of the road and the names of the surrounding villages before finally answering.

“It’s a village called Koselburgh!”

“Koselburgh?”

“Y, Yes, Lord Inquisitor. Please, spare my life……!”

After hearing the answer, the man turned his gaze away from the peasant and muttered to himself.

“I’ve come too far, preoccupied with hunting heretics.”

Inquisitor Anton Lebecht scratched his rough chin.

He seemed to be pondering for a moment which way to go, with the road splitting into two paths ahead and behind.

“Hmm.”

After a brief moment of contemplation, the man seemed to have decided on a direction and grasped the reins with one hand. It was because he remembered the existence of a small monastery located in the village called Koselburgh.

‘That’s where the Lumineger bastard was abandoned, if I’m not mistaken.’

The large black horse slowly began to move under the man’s skillful handling of the reins.

Clatter

Just as it seemed he would pass by the peasant, still trembling in fear,

Without turning his body, which was facing forward, the man casually opened his mouth as if he had suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, thank you.”

Thud!

Along with his reply, the flung chain sliced through the air, and the peasant’s head cleanly detached.

“May you repent of your sins and find peace in God’s embrace.”

After offering a short prayer for the corpses scattered around and observing a moment of silence, the man slowly rode his horse towards the winding path ahead, not the straight path he had come from.

🔹🔹🔹

Although ordinary people might not think the term”Black Mage”suits me, I considered myself to be a rather positive and cheerful person.

Of course, the countless individuals who suffered at my hands wouldn’t think so.

‘An apprentice priest of the Herentica Church, huh.’

It wasn’t exactly to my liking, but it was far better than being reincarnated as a strange monster due to a magic mishap or a body on the verge of death.

Some of the pedantic Black Mages from the secluded schools in the Poison Fog Mountains in the northeastern part of the continent would have reacted with something like,”As a master of sorcery who has dedicated his life to the study of Black Magic, I cannot tolerate a body touched by the detestable hand of God!”

Of course, I’m not that kind of old-fashioned, narrow-minded stubborn fool, at least in my own opinion.

In these turbulent times, having the status of a priest could actually be a reliable background.

“God said, faith is what illuminates these dark times and defeats the wicked heretics……”

The monotonous prayer continued from the front.

Most of the priest trainees sitting around me were already dozing off to the old priest’s tedious words.

It had only been one night since the boy named Luciel, or rather, I, had been away, and fortunately, there hadn’t been any problems.

Except for the minor incident of burying my blood-and-soil-stained clothes in the forest and stealing a new set of priest robes.

“Killing heretics is not a sin─”

Although I had lost all my powerful abilities in exchange for returning to life, I wasn’t disappointed.

Because I had become the owner of a body with unlimited potential, free from the countless shackles that had bound me in exchange for power.

I would build up my own power, solely mine, without making contracts with those damned gods or those cursed devils.

Slowly. Secretly and surely.

For now, adapting to this new body was the priority.

And to do that, I needed to perfectly and safely blend into the background of this boy named Luciel Lumineger.

Luciel Lumineger.

It wasn’t surprising that this boy, who had unexpectedly died, wasn’t from the streets.

The Ritual of the Lion’s Return was a grand magic that I had meticulously prepared over a long period. The person who would become the new vessel wasn’t randomly chosen, of course.

Exceptional potential that was hard to find, young age, and a clean and healthy body.

In addition to that, the death had to be clean enough to be regenerated with magic. I couldn’t be reincarnated into a body with its head chopped off, after all.

Considering that the ritual would only be successful if a person who met all these conditions appeared, the five hundred years or so it took for my resurrection wasn’t that long.

The sudden death of a bastard from a noble family far away from here.

‘I understand.’

It was likely the intentional result of another member of the family, most likely a sibling.

That meant it wasn’t wise to visit the Lumineger family to exploit their status. Not until I regained a certain level of power, anyway.

In any case, the most important thing to me right now wasn’t some petty noble status.

‘Retrieving the legacies.’

The arrangements hidden throughout the continent.

The legacies I left for myself, prepared in advance for my return.

Of course, it wasn’t power I could obtain right away. Because I didn’t know what kind of body I would be reincarnated into, I had taken precautions to prevent other petty thieves from using them carelessly.

It would probably require some time and effort.

The old priest in front was still reciting the utterly absurd doctrines.

“Therefore, eradicating those evil and cunning heretics from this land is what we offer to God in these chaotic times─”

A world that had become even more chaotic than before.

Listening to the Church’s doctrines, which had become even more harsh than five hundred years ago, I fell into deep thought.

To effectively retrieve the legacies and build up new power, I needed to be able to travel freely across the continent. Of course, it would be even more convenient if I had a status that allowed me to maintain ties with the Church while doing so.

Then.

I needed a definitive situation. A situation where I could leave this small monastery openly and decisively without abandoning my status.

“A, Abbot! I think you need to come out right now!”

“What’s the matter?”

“I, It’s the Inquisitor. No, the Chief Inquisitor!”

And thankfully, that situation arrived sooner than I expected.

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