Chapter 31: Witch Hunt (5)
Inquisitors are the hidden daggers of the Church, the sharpest weapons. They are the ones who head to the front lines alone in the war against heresy.
“Ha……”
And Jerit was realizing just how foolish he had been to doubt the opinions of such individuals, even for a moment.
Jerit let out a deep sigh, giving up on pulling on the wooden door of the silent cabin that still wouldn’t open.
Wooong.
He tightly gripped Rokellan’s Requiem Rod, which was still trembling faintly.
The stain at the end that had appeared when thick darkness filled the interior had disappeared completely, but the faint tremor continued.
Perhaps it was because the witch somewhere in this place hadn’t completely breathed her last.
The interior of the cabin, now that the darkness had lifted, was a mess, just as he had first seen it.
Simple furniture and walls made of gleaming wood. A sight you could see in any house, but somehow it felt a little chilly.
Perhaps it was because he had seen the true form of that woman, Laila.
The injured, modest appearance he had first seen in the prison, and the chilling curse she had shouted as she burned at the stake.
‘She really was a witch.’
He could still see her cackling, singing a song with a creepy melody in a wicked voice.
When did Inquisitor Luciel-nim know?
‘Perhaps he noticed from the moment he first saw her.’
Come to think of it, before making his judgment, he didn’t show any sign of examining the woman’s house or the problematic potion, or calling in the villagers who had spread the rumors for cross-examination.
The Inquisitor’s judgment was not hasty or emotional, but rather swift and accurate.
Rather, it was he who was hasty and emotional. Jerit, with a gloomy expression, once again carefully examined every nook and cranny of the cabin.
Of course, he felt nothing.
“……”
The feeling of the floor suddenly collapsing and falling from a height was still vivid. The fierce and rapid exchange of attacks that followed, which he dared not intervene in, and then the witch suddenly disappearing.
And Luciel, who followed her, melting into the void just the same.
It had only been a few minutes since the two of them had disappeared, but the thought of being trapped alone in this desolate place made him a little uneasy. Perhaps the witch, not the Inquisitor, would suddenly jump out from behind him.
Whoosh, whoosh.
Anxious, Jerit waved his hand in the air and even tried to take a big step into the air like Luciel. But of course, nothing changed.
And then.
Dddddddd.
“……Huh?”
Jerit raised his head at the sudden vibration.
Dddddddddd.
The entire cabin was shaking.
Crash!
Heavy furniture and household items shook violently and fell to the floor with a loud noise. It was as if an earthquake had occurred.
“Uh, uh……!”
Jerit hurriedly ran to the entrance and roughly pushed against the door with his body once more, but as expected, the door didn’t budge.
Bang! Bang!
The beams supporting the ceiling began to fall. The entire small cabin was shaking violently.
“G, God!”
A desperate cry erupted from Jerit’s mouth.
Thud!
Another heavy wooden plank fell next to him.
“……!”
Clatter, clatter.
Jerit, desperately shaking the still unopened door, finally let out a curse.
“Inquisitor-nim! This damn! Save me!”
Such a futile death.
If he had known this would happen, he should have gotten a lover!
“You’re not cursing at me, are you, Jerit?”
“Eek!”
Jerit, who was banging on the door, turned around in surprise at the voice coming from behind him.
“Huh?”
He felt the vibrations that had been shaking his whole body disappear completely. And the appearance of the cabin had changed.
Not the somewhat rustic and normal interior, even though it was messy and collapsing, but a rotten and crumbling, foul-smelling appearance.
The house, which looked like it had been built for at least a hundred years, was like a ruin, with puddles of foul-smelling water and piles of bones scattered everywhere.
And in the middle of it all stood Inquisitor Luciel, alone.
“I, Inquisitor-nim!”
Rustle.
“……!”
Jerit looked down at his hand in surprise at the unfamiliar sensation.
The solid wooden handle he had been holding until just now was gone, replaced by an entrance made of decaying wood and an unidentified leather.
“What is this……!”
To the bewildered Jerit, Luciel’s calm explanation came.
“The witch’s magic broke when she died. So, you could say we’re back to reality now.”
He said, pointing with his chin at the corpse at his feet.
“……Huh.”
Jerit’s gaze turned to the corpse in rags.
The black blood oozing out of it was the collapsed figure of a shabby and hideous witch, completely different from the fresh appearance he had seen before.
‘……This is her true form.’
Jerit’s expression darkened as he tightly gripped the Requiem Rod, which had now completely stopped moving. To him, Inquisitor Luciel spoke calmly.
“Now that this horrifying sight has been revealed, do you still believe this person is innocent?”
The Inquisitor’s question. Jerit couldn’t answer.
To Jerit, who remained silent, his words continued.
“I didn’t punish this witch because she was a heretic.”
Luciel pointed to a pile of bones in the corner. Judging by their size and shape, they were clearly human. Too small to be an adult’s, though.
“I punished this person because they committed a terrible, unforgivable sin and harmed innocent people, Jerit.”
“……!”
“Of course, I myself am not that innocent right now……”
To Jerit, who was looking at him with a face that seemed to have realized something, Luciel’s words continued.
“Don’t follow the will of other beings, but do what you believe is right.”
Luciel’s face, as he spoke to him, held an unfamiliar seriousness, along with a somewhat playful smile.
“This is advice from a human, not an Inquisitor.”
🔹🔹🔹
The cleanup didn’t take long.
The witch’s cabin, which had been hiding its true form, was filled with horrific traces that were impossible to miss.
Not only Jerit, but even the mage Romain and the elf Elinas, who hadn’t seemed entirely convinced by my words until the end, lowered their heads after seeing this place.
Of course, that didn’t mean that Priest Dayer had immediately seen through the witch’s true nature.
Perhaps even if the woman named Laila had been truly innocent, they would have burned her just the same. Because the truth wasn’t that important to them.
‘Anyway, she was a pretty bold witch.’
To settle down in Sitdria, where the execution grounds were located.
Well, if it hadn’t been for me, she wouldn’t have been caught in the first place.
After the execution, she would have either moved to another place or stayed here and continued her evil deeds in a different form. She was a witch that ordinary soldiers or low-level priests couldn’t catch in the first place.
‘She was at a decent level, though.’
She was certainly not a Grand Witch who presided over the full moon gatherings of Mount Brucia, but she was definitely at a pretty good level. Perhaps even more so by today’s standards.
‘Hmm.’
And that decent level meant that she had some useful things.
A considerable amount of Demonic Energy absorbed by the Artifact of the Rift.
In addition, a few suspicious glass bottles filled with a sticky, greenish-gray liquid, a short black candle that could be used to summon high-ranking demons, and a bone ornament containing a spell that could summon multiple shadow beasts.
Not a bad harvest. These were things that could be used quite effectively until the next Legacy was found.
“Um, it’s a little late to ask now, but……”
It was the elf Elinas who hesitantly approached. What she asked me was, of course, how I had figured out she was a witch at a glance.
Since it was a created doppelganger, it didn’t emit any separate Magi, so she seemed even more curious. What was needed to distinguish a witch’s doppelganger at a glance was a vast amount of experience accumulated over a long period, a bit of insight, and extensive knowledge, but……
Instead of listing all those facts, I looked at the elf and said with a straight face.
“God whispered in my ear.”
“……”
At my brazen answer, Priest Dayer had a moved expression, Mage Romain a contemplative one, and the elf Elinas a dubious one.
“……Anyway, thank you for solving the city’s problem.”
Ultimately, the result wasn’t very helpful to their cause, but they had caught an evil witch, after all.
I looked at Elinas, who bowed her head slightly. She was quite adept at human behavior.
“Thank you for broadening the horizons of this foolish mage. I know you’re busy, but please visit our Blue Magic Tower when you have the time. The Tower Master will be very pleased.”
At Mage Romain’s words, I smiled faintly and nodded.
They were seekers of knowledge. The pure curiosity and respect shown to a mage, not an Inquisitor.
“Yes. If I have the time, I’ll visit the Blue Magic Tower and the Great Forest.”
“……The entrance to the Great Forest is no longer open to humans.”
When the Great Forest was mentioned, the half-elf Elinas spoke in a slightly lower voice. It seemed something had happened after all.
I looked at her and smiled faintly.
“Well. Perhaps not for me.”
🔹🔹🔹
A few days later.
The report on the incident in Sitdria was sent to Hesterica, and as Jerit and I had gotten enough rest, I was thinking it was about time to leave the city.
“Um, if the next mission hasn’t been decided yet……”
Priest Dayer, who had been hovering around me uncomfortably for days, looked at me and cautiously began to speak. He probably wanted me to stay in Sitdria a little longer.
If I, an Inquisitor with the authority of an Assistant Bishop, continued to stay here, the Magic Tower and the Merchant Representative’s faction would be able to maintain their unilateral advantage.
Regardless of my inner thoughts, Dayer seemed to have unwavering faith in me after this incident. In his eyes, I seemed like the person who had rushed to the city and crushed the evil heretics.
‘……Ah.’
Come to think of it, that was true.
I smiled slightly at Dayer, who was looking at me with eyes that were almost uncomfortably bright, and expressed my humble refusal.
“There are still many evil forces in the world that inflict pain on innocent people. My place is not within the safe walls of the city, but out there.”
“Indeed……”
Dayer nodded, looking deeply impressed once again. He seemed to accept that he couldn’t hold me back any longer, and asked with sudden curiosity.
“But may I ask where your next destination is, Inquisitor-nim? If there’s anything I can do to help─”
“Hmm.”
Actually, unlike the grand words I had just spoken, my next destination wasn’t firmly decided.
Of course, the place where my next Legacy was hidden was my top priority, but I needed a little more preparation to head there right away. I needed to accumulate more Magi, or perhaps Holy Power.
‘Then, for now, after returning to Hesterica……’
Just as I was about to open my mouth to make an excuse, Jerit’s voice rang out.
“Huh? Inquisitor-nim. Look over there!”
Dayer and I simultaneously looked up in the direction Jerit was pointing.
“……!”
“That’s……”
A single bird was flying directly towards us.
Its appearance wasn’t particularly special. Except for the fact that its entire body was made of shining light.
I immediately recognized the identity of the shining bird.
‘It’s Holy Magic, cast by someone of quite a high level.’
Interesting magic. I carefully examined the wavelengths created by the Holy Power that made up the magic.
Flap.
The bird, which had been circling above our heads, slowly began to descend.
“Oh……”
Exclamations escaped from Dayer and Jerit’s mouths.
A bird made entirely of light.
After looking at me for a moment and rubbing its head against my chest as if to show affection, the bird flapped its wings vigorously.
Rustle.
Then, light powder fell from the bird’s wings.
The sparkling fragments of light formed letters in the air.
It was a complex sentence written in the Holy Tongue, but I had no trouble reading it. It was a message for me.
“Uh…… So……”
Jerit, standing next to me, furrowed his brow and read the sentence made of sparkling light, stumbling over the words.
“Come…… Some? No, all. Hmm…… Kingdom…… And this is……”
It seemed that he couldn’t immediately interpret it because it was written in the Holy Tongue and somewhat jumbled in a way that was common among the Inquisitors of Hesterica.
Rustle.
The sparkling sentence melted away before Jerit could finish reading it.
“Ah! I haven’t finished reading it yet!”
Flap.
The bird flapped its wings teasingly at Jerit, who cried out urgently, and then flew back up into the sky with a whoosh.
“……”
“……”
Dayer and Jerit blankly stared at the back of the bird as it flew away.
As if they had promised beforehand, they both looked at me at the same time.
Their eyes were filled with curiosity and faith.
I smiled slightly at the sight and slowly opened my mouth to recite the message from earlier.
“All Inquisitors who receive this message are to come to the capital of the Ashitan Kingdom immediately. I, the Chief Inquisitor, will also join you there after finishing the purification in Kerot. Destruction to the heretics. Chief Inquisitor Anton Lebecht.”
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Translation-(COMPLETED) – How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥《⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐》!!
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