How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Flame and Shadow (6)

The night in the village ended, and it was time for the morning sun to rise.

Lephra’s sword, swung in an instant, scattered red blood in the air.

At the same time, Werner’s body staggered, losing its center.

“……!”

There wasn’t even a final scream.

His face, clutching his neck with a rattling sound, was contorted with shock, fear, and indignation.

As if he couldn’t die so meaninglessly, Werner’s hand struggled in the air for a moment, but the futile struggle soon stopped.

Thud.

Naturally, he didn’t get up again like the knight who had been dealt with a little while ago. Werner’s body, which had collapsed after breathing his last, no longer moved.

“I, Inquisitor-nim! What is this……!”

Jerit’s voice was full of bewilderment. His face was white with shock at the sudden event. It seemed he hadn’t expected Lephra to cut off Werner’s neck.

On the other hand, I silently watched the event that happened in an instant, but which I had anticipated to some extent.

“……”

Lephra, sheathing her sword, turned and looked at me. I met her gaze for a moment and slowly muttered.

“Only heretics attack members of the Church.”

“You……!”

Lephra bit her lip. I looked at her and added a word.

“Or those who have experienced their cruelty.”

At my following words, I felt Lephra hesitate for a moment and look at me. I met her eyes, filled with complex emotions, without avoiding them.

“I think an explanation is needed.”

I’m not the type to be very interested in other people’s pasts. Therefore, my question now was not out of personal curiosity.

I shrugged as if to say, go ahead and tell me.

After all, it wasn’t me but her who had to defend her actions in a situation that could be seen as abandoning her duties as an Inquisitor.

“……”

Lephra still looked at me without putting down her sword.

The shadow created by the hood she always wore flickered on her face, illuminated by the faint light of the lantern hanging in the room.

I don’t know much about Inquisitor Lephra.

Despite being only a few years older than me, she is a talented individual who has been active as an Inquisitor for quite a long time, and she always covers herself with thick clothes.

And she hates Inquisitor Anton very much.

She, who deeply dislikes Chief Inquisitor Anton Lebecht, who first brought me to the Inquisition, also didn’t seem to like me very much, who could be considered his disciple in name.

“There was a small village called Hessen.”

After a long silence, she finally seemed to have made up her mind and opened her mouth in a somewhat heavy voice.

“And the Inquisitors burned it to the ground.”

“……!”

Jerit’s expression hardened at Lephra’s words. It wasn’t difficult to guess that the village called Hessen was where Lephra lived.

“It was to eliminate the source of the plague.”

A calm voice followed.

“They said it was the right thing to do, that it was unavoidable to prevent the plague from spreading to other villages or cities. Of course, along with the words that it was God’s will.”

She lowered her head, fiddling with the thick robe covering her.

“But I saw it. Their figures mercilessly driving the living villagers into the burning pit.”

Her expression, describing the living hell she experienced from a third-person perspective, was difficult to discern accurately due to the shadow.

“Regardless of age or sex, those who resisted were beheaded with swords and kicked into the pit. There were probably far more people who died by beheading than by burning.”

“Oh my god, how could they……!”

Jerit murmured with a pale face. He, who had left the comfortable garden of the Holy See and encountered various people with me, seemed to instinctively feel that her words were true.

It was an uncomfortable story. But I said with an indifferent expression.

“It wouldn’t have been an easy situation to survive.”

“……”

Her hand, silent for a moment at my words, slowly moved. From the sword in her hand to the hem of the robe covering her face and body.

Rustle.

With the sound of thick cloth brushing against her body, she slowly began to untie her clothes.

“……!”

Jerit was startled by Lephra’s sudden action and turned his body.

But I, who calmly watched her actions, was soon able to confirm.

Burn marks and festering scars all over her body. The wounds had healed so badly and for so long that even healing spells wouldn’t work.

“So I hid among the piles of corpses. It was possible because I was a small child.”

So that was the story.

As I looked at the wounds covering her body with my head slightly bowed, I suddenly remembered the plague case I had dealt with just before.

This must have been the reason why she came all the way to Ephesus, far from the Inquisition, to help care for the plague patients, even though it wasn’t her assigned task.

Of course, I had guessed that it would be somewhat related to her personal circumstances. Ephesus, where the plague had spread, was quite a distant and dangerous area to visit simply out of compassion or personal curiosity.

Lephra, wearing only a thin piece of cloth again, fiddled with the Inquisitor’s badge in her hand and said.

“At one time, revenge was my only purpose. But now I know that there are those who truly practice God’s will for the weak. Like you, Luciel.”

God’s will. Well, I don’t think that’s quite right.

“That’s why I applied to be an Inquisitor. To become a member myself and change the injustices.”

I tilted my head slightly at her words and asked.

“Change, how?”

Lephra answered with a determined expression filled with conviction.

“Somehow. Better than now.”

At her answer, I had a wry smile on my lips.

“You chose a rather inefficient and foolish path.”

And at the same time, I slowly raised my hand.

“But it’s not a bad choice.”

Whoosh!

Flames shot up in front of me. Not on the heretical Inquisitor who violated the doctrines, but on the body of the Brother who lost his life to her.

Whooooosh.

The flames that shot up in an instant burned the body of Brother Werner.

The body was instantly reduced to ashes by the flames, which were not ordinary flames but contained the fuel of holy power.

“……!”

“I, Inquisitor-nim!”

Lephra and Jerit’s faces were filled with shock at the sight. It was a feeling of bewilderment, but not a negative one.

Soon after, the bright light flickering as it burned the Brother’s body completely cleared away the shadows remaining on the face of Lephra, who had thrown off her thick robe, and the room.

🔹🔹🔹

The Pain Kingdom was a country with its own history and size.

Of course, it wasn’t comparable to the Cravassia Empire, which had a vast territory and enormous military power, but it was quite large among the surrounding small and medium-sized countries.

However, a large territory didn’t always bring only good things. Especially in turbulent times like these.

The area of conflict marked in red on the Inquisition’s map. A significant part of the Pain Kingdom’s territory was included in that ominous area where the war between heretics and the Church was taking place.

“Yawn.”

On the outskirts of the kingdom. A soldier standing guard on the wall yawned widely. He seemed completely unconcerned about the suspicious events happening throughout the kingdom.

That was understandable, as this was a peaceful place completely unrelated to strange incidents or battles, and the guards were accustomed to it. Occasionally, a wolf or two that lost its way from the distant forest and threatened livestock was the biggest incident.

The fight between the Church and the Catacombs was fierce even at this moment, but as always, people tended to be indifferent to things that weren’t directly related to them.

Even when the news of the plague in the distant city called Ephesus faintly reached them, the villagers’ reaction was only,’Oh dear, is that so?’

Therefore, it wasn’t strange that Glenn, who was lost in thought about having a glass of sweet apple wine at the tavern after finishing his guard duty, didn’t notice the stranger approaching the gate first.

Knock, knock, knock.

Glenn, who was leaning against the stone wall, scratched his head and slowly got up at the sound of knocking on the small gate.

“Yawn.”

He yawned and began to turn the pulley, carelessly putting on his discarded helmet.

Creak.

The old gate slowly opened with a creaking sound.

“Who is it at this hour?”

He grumbled softly and turned the pulley handle with all his might, his face full of annoyance. Since the gate wasn’t that big, he could open it alone, but turning the stiff pulley all the way required some effort.

Of course, there was no one to blame.

It was because he had closed the gate early in hopes of changing shifts sooner, even though the sun hadn’t completely set yet.

In front of the open gate, a man stood silently looking at him.

“Who are you? A traveler?”

Glenn, holding his spear casually, walked out through the open gate and said.

“……”

No answer came. The pale-faced man still stood still, gazing at the village visible through the open gate.

“Are you coming in or not? After sunset, according to the kingdom’s decree, entry is not permitted except for residents of the village.”

Glenn said to the man standing still, as if annoyed. The man, who was quietly looking at him, slowly moved his thin lips.

“I’ll go in.”

Glenn nodded at the man’s words and began to ask formal questions.

Identity, purpose, origin, armed status, and so on.

But his mind was filled with thoughts of the tough roasted wild boar, which had recently raided the village’s fields but was now smoked.

Glenn, the guard, smacked his lips at the thought of having roasted wild boar with apple wine, and unconsciously asked the man in response to his words.

“Ah, where did you say you came from?”

“Harnhell.”

“Harnhell? I’ve never heard of that name.”

Glenn, who knew quite a bit about the large and small cities of the Pain Kingdom and the neighboring countries, tilted his head.

Judging by his appearance, it didn’t seem like he had traveled a long way. Was there such a city nearby?

Well, whatever. Glenn, who shrugged, heard the man’s murmur.

“It’s a bit small, but not bad for making a’lair’.”

“……?”

Glenn, who was about to turn around at the words he couldn’t understand, looked back at the man with a puzzled expression.

His gaze was still fixed inside the village. With an unknown feeling of eerieness, Glenn carefully examined the man and realized that the man’s eyes were a little, no, very strange.

Pupils slit vertically. They weren’t the eyes of an ordinary human.

“……!”

Glenn, startled, repositioned his spear. But the pale-faced man, ignoring the spear pointed at him, took something out of his pocket.

What he held in his hand was a dark red jewel. Seeing it, Glenn’s face turned white.

He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he could clearly feel the indescribable ominousness emanating from the jewel.

I have to run away.

He hurriedly ran inside the gate he had opened. Or rather, he tried to.

“H, Hick!”

But his feet wouldn’t move as if they were nailed to the ground. It wasn’t confusion or an illusion due to fear.

Glenn’s feet were literally stuck to the ground and wouldn’t budge. The man’s voice echoed in his ears.

“Let’s see if the Hesterica bastards can be arrogant this time as well.”

At the same time, the hissing of a snake from somewhere began to cover the city.

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