Chapter 20: Nightmare (2)
Browell was a small and peaceful village. At least, that’s what it seemed like on the surface.
Whirr.
The people who saw me riding on a large black horse that was rarely seen in rural villages looked at me with slight unease and fear instead of curiosity or wonder.
It wasn’t much different from the look in the eyes of the soldiers I had seen when I passed by the lord’s castle, but there was one more emotion in the eyes of the villagers.
A faint sense of relief.
The sense of relief that the evil beings and ominous events would soon disappear now that the inquisitor had come to the village.
‘Something is definitely going on,’
I muttered to myself as I rode my horse, reading the various emotions on the faces of the villagers who were cautiously looking at me.
The setting sun was casting long shadows over the village buildings.
Soon, I arrived at a small church located in the center of the village.
“Oh my!”
A middle-aged man who was looking at me from the entrance of the church ran up to me, his necklace with the Order of Heretica’s crest swaying from side to side.
Is he the dispatched friar of this village?
“Welcome!”
He panted for a moment, catching his breath after running to me with his plump body.
“You must be tired from your long journey. . . .”
His polite greeting faltered slightly when he saw my face looking down at him from atop the black horse.
” . . . . . . “
A slight sense of disappointment could be felt on his plump face.
It was probably because I looked like someone who had only recently been appointed as an inquisitor.
Which was true.
“T, That, did you come alone?”
He tried his best to speak politely, but he kept glancing behind me, as if he was checking to see if there was another, more experienced inquisitor with me.
“Yes, but is there a problem?”
“Oh, no. A problem? I’m just grateful that you came.”
The dispatched friar said, forcing a smile.
It was understandable that he was disappointed.
In the war against demons and heretics, experience and age meant power for inquisitors who fought fiercely on the front lines.
Regardless of the severity of the incident that had occurred in this village, anyone would naturally want the solver who had come to their place to be skilled.
“I, Inquisitor. . . . . . “
An elderly man stepped out cautiously from behind the friar. He seemed to be the village chief.
I got off my horse, looking at the village chief who was hesitating, wondering what to say in this situation where he was meeting me for the first time. I didn’t need to listen to him.
Because I could see it clearly.
The worry, unease, fear, and relief on his face.
“You don’t have to worry anymore.”
I looked around at the dispatched friar of the village, the village chief, and the villagers who were peeping at us from afar, and continued speaking.
“Now that the inquisitor has arrived.”
🔹🔹🔹
The dispatch of an inquisitor is not a simple process.
When a friar or priest in a certain region makes a request to Herentica, someone dispatched from the headquarters personally visits the region to verify its validity.
And if the investigation that follows also deems that a visit from an inquisitor is necessary, then an order is finally issued from the Inquisition.
Of course, some flexibility is exercised in cases that require immediate action, but most cases go through a rather long process like this.
It was a kind of filter to determine priority.
The continent was vast, the areas where the Order’s influence extended were wide, and there were so many places where strange things happened.
“It is clear that it is related to heresy, but its seriousness does not seem to be urgent enough to prioritize a dispatch.”
That was the conclusion reached by the Inquisition. It meant that it was something that an inexperienced inquisitor could handle alone.
” . . .The village’s well has dried up, the livestock has suddenly died, a virgin has given birth to a child━”
I continued to read the papers I was holding with an indifferent expression. Some of the mission materials I had received from the Inquisition.
It contained a long list of strange events that had occurred in this small village.
It wasn’t a disaster where a powerful warlock had set his mind to it and people had died directly, but it was enough to make ordinary villagers feel terrified.
“The fact that such ominous events are happening one after another is clearly the work of the devil. We ask for the help of the Inquisition in the name of the divine Herentica. Best regards, Henrik Sidman, dispatched friar of the village of Browell.”
I looked at the friar in front of me after reading all the papers I had brought from the Inquisition.
“Did you write this yourself?”
“Y, Yes. That’s right.”
For the convenience of carrying out their missions, all inquisitors operating outside of Herentica were granted the authority of a suffragan bishop.
Therefore, Henrik Sidman’s speech was quite polite, apart from his disappointment and unease.
Crackle.
When I concentrated for a moment, the stiff paper burst into flames.
Gulp.
I looked away from the friar who flinched at the sight and fell into thought for a moment.
When a devil crosses the boundary, strange and inexplicable things happen suddenly.
A strange twist in everyday life.
Judging from that, it didn’t seem to be a very high-ranking devil, but even a minor devil was enough to ruin the daily lives of ordinary people.
If such things had happened even though the dispatched friar was staying in the village, the villagers might have felt even more uneasy.
I looked up and glanced around the room. There were various odds and ends hanging here and there.
” . . . . . . “
Were they items prepared to ward off devils?
“Salt water, large full-length mirrors, broken earthenware. . . . . . “
It’s not like they were playing a child’s game.
‘Huh.’
I couldn’t help but admire the level of knowledge of the Order’s dispatched friar. Even though I couldn’t feel an ounce of holy power, I couldn’t believe that he didn’t even know the basics.
Of course, there was no way that a proper priest would be dispatched to a rural village like this.
‘Tsk.’
I clicked my tongue and looked around the room.
Unlike the houses where the villagers lived, it was quite comfortable and spacious.
It wasn’t anything new. Selling faith for money had been going on five hundred years ago.
‘But I don’t think it was to this extent.’
If paladin Laozir, who had chased me all my life and finally cut off my head as he wished, knew about this, he wouldn’t be able to hold back a sigh. The Order was a bit more innocent back then.
Suddenly, the image of the paladin swinging his glowing holy sword at my neck came to mind, and I missed him a little. . . not really.
I stroked my neck and looked at the dispatched friar, Henrik Sidman.
I hadn’t expected any proper support in the first place. All the competent inquisitors, priests, and paladins would have been dispatched to major areas where the war against heresy was taking place, including large towns.
This much was enough for me to handle on my own.
“Tomorrow, at daybreak, I’ll have to look into all the places where the reported incidents occurred.”
“I, I understand.”
All kinds of contracts and actions of devils always left traces.
And I knew that better than anyone else.
🔹🔹🔹
An intangible sense of unease slowly eats away at people’s daily lives.
Strange things that were initially thought to be coincidences began to happen in succession in the small village, and an inquisitor who exorcised evil visited the village as the sun was setting.
” . . .Has a devil really appeared?”
“That woman must be it! Did you see her red eyes? Now the inquisitor will surely find out!”
“Shh! Keep your voices down!”
” . . . . . . “
Leaving behind the villagers who were murmuring with unease and strange anticipation, I searched for the places written in the report.
A well that had dried up and was giving off a stench. Livestock that had been thrown into a deep pit and were rotting. Strange footprints left in the fields.
‘It’s clear.’
The villagers and Henrik Sidman, who didn’t possess even a bit of holy power, wouldn’t have noticed, but there were clear traces of weak demonic energy remaining in the places throughout the village.
“It is clear that it is related to heresy, but its seriousness does not seem to be urgent enough to prioritize a dispatch.”
It was just as the Order’s report had said.
But I could read something hidden beyond that.
This isn’t all.
“Where is the last place?”
And.
“H, Here it is.”
A small warehouse where a woman who had been locked up by the villagers was being held.
According to the dispatched friar Henrik Sidman and the villagers, she was a virgin who had given birth to a child. In other words, this was where the woman who had colluded with the devil was.
“I, It’s definitely the cursed Devil’s doing!”
“I saw it too, inquisitor. T, Those red eyes!”
The villagers who seemed to be vigilantes, holding torches even in broad daylight and guarding the building, jumped back in surprise when they saw me and stepped aside.
The arrival of an inquisitor in a small village was definitely a big event, and soon, the villagers gathered in groups of twos and threes, murmuring behind Henrik Sidman and me.
I silently looked over the vigilantes in front of the building and the villagers gathered behind them. Most of the residents had a different air about them than they appeared to have.
” . . . . . . “
I glanced at Henrik Sidman, who was looking at me with an anxious face, and opened the door of the small wooden building without hesitation.
“I’ll check it out alone.”
“W, W! Stand back!”
Henrik Sidman hurriedly began to push the villagers away at my curt words.
Thud.
It became dark when I closed the door. It was because all the windows of the small wooden building, which had no entrance other than the front door, were covered with wooden planks.
Crackle.
I lit a small fire in my hand.
” . . . . . . “
What I saw was a woman. She looked like she had just barely become an adult.
There was nowhere to hide in the room. The open door and the fire in my hand.
She seemed to have come to her senses after being suddenly exposed to the light, and she began to writhe and moan.
” ━lease. . . . . . “
Her voice was hoarse, probably because she hadn’t eaten or drunk properly while she was locked up here.
” . . .lease give me some. . . . . . “
I smelled something foul, but I approached her calmly.
“Please give me some water. . . . . . “
At least she was an ordinary human being. I looked down at her, muttering in pain, with an indifferent expression.
Of course, the villagers, who were terrified by the events that had occurred in the village, wouldn’t have given this woman anything.
“For the baby, some water. . . . . . “
Only then did I see the small bundle wrapped in her arms. I thought it was just a pile of old clothes because I couldn’t tell if it was a rag or a rag, but it was a newborn baby.
“Please. . . . . . “
I silently looked down at the baby that she held out to me.
She must have been so exhausted that she couldn’t even tell that I was wearing black clothes with the crest of an inquisitor.
If she had been able to regain her senses even a little, she probably wouldn’t have done such a foolish thing as to hand me the baby.
” . . . . . . “
Crackle.
I raised the flame in my hand a little higher, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
The woman groaned in pain from the sudden light, but I silently looked at the baby in her arms.
The baby’s eyes, which were wide open even though it had been left alone for a time that would have been unbearable for an adult woman, were a jewel-like red that could not be found in humans.