113 – 4. Silence in the Helm (29)

29.

After the conversation with Princess Elena, everyone went down to the banquet hall to have a late meal, but I got out of there with the excuse of going to the bathroom for a while. His head was so complicated that he couldn’t just sit there for a moment.

There were dark clouds in the sky as if it were snowing, but the faces of the people walking around the cold streets were not so dark. Just twelve days before the New Year, around this time, there is a series of events in the capital.

In celebration of the upcoming New Year, there is the King’s Opening Ceremony at the central square, and after the New Year’s Ceremony, there is a festival where lotus lanterns are blown across the royal capital. In the sense of filling up, ordinary people gather with their neighbors for a day or so and set a generous table.

The coldest winter is approaching, but people are busier than usual. I couldn’t just stand in the middle of it all, so I stood with my back leaning against the back alley behind the guild building.

With a steamy breath, I trembled and crossed my arms. As I hide myself in the familiar darkness, I feel as if this one body is also melting into the world. Even so, I still can’t use magic. Still, it’s just a half-penny mimicking magic by relying on a curse inscribed by a witch. I personally cannot change anything. Like a witch, like Zenith, or…… Like her, I cannot change the world with my full power. Powerless, nothing.

“Jin.”

As I was walking around for a while and my back was freezing hard, I suddenly heard a voice calling me through the shadows. Outside in her alley, a woman with her arms crossed, her pink hair hanging down, was looking at me with squinting eyes. Mira.

“I didn’t come back even after a long time… ….”

Has it been that long? In this world, there are no mobile phones or wristwatches, so you don’t even know the passage of time. I smiled as if it was no big deal and moved away from the wall. As I tried to approach her with her usual expression, her mummy stopped me with only one step left of her.

“Jin, I know what you’re thinking.”

“… ….”

“It’s good that you don’t believe too much in what the princess said. After all, you just asked for cooperation for your own benefit, right?”

I quietly nodded at Mira’s words. I know, something like that. Princess Elena was not particularly asking for our cooperation with a sense of mission as a follower. Rather, the internal investigation is just a means to take advantage of the cathedral’s weakness and bring the guild’s interests.

I know. That kind of thing

Knowingly, I took that hand.

I know the reason, but I couldn’t attach a reason to that choice.

Haven’t I already come to a conclusion, at least that her situation is something I have no room to delve into.

A huge force called the headquarters of El-Ra’s doctrine, and the fact that no one can disobey them now that the balance of power in the royal capital has been disrupted due to the appearance of heretics and demons. I don’t know if it’s the voice or influence that an adventurer like a dragon slayer has, but even as an adventurer, I’m just blue.

But.

But…….

I know. Everything is just my lingering In any case, this time,

“You think there is no way?”

“Huh?”

I raised her head and looked at her again. The purple eyes that seem to be sucked in, the sharp nose, the sharp features, the winter-tinged face, and even the slight frown feel pretty. I am also seriously ill. I guess I’m feeling the same way at some point.

“Jin, you…… When you came to the mansion to rescue me, honestly, I didn’t think I could escape. Yes?”

“Yeah… ….”

She was not without confidence. Of course, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t fail. Because there are always variables in work.

“I think you know the answer this time too. However, it looks like he’s hesitating because the probability is so low that it’s on a different level than before.”

“Camilla, I am not as great of a person as you think.”

I’ve lived my life running away. From the witch, from the mansion, from the past, from the trauma, from everything that came my way, if at least I didn’t run away and protected it…… It’s you Since meeting you, I’ve learned not to run away. So you won’t know my nature The country she saw must have always seemed to be fighting against humans.

As if laughing at myself, Mira came one step closer to me who was self-deprecating.

“No, no.”

“Camilla, I am.”

“Look at me.”

I am watching. But she held my face so I wouldn’t run away and forced my eyes to meet her. A deep purple color that seems out of this world, and somehow resembles her.

“Really, there is no way?”

“… ….”

“Actually, to be honest, I don’t really care what the knight chooses. I have no intention of forcing you to make a choice.”

“… ….”

“However, that is…… If I go back to the inn like this, I know you’ll be moaning for a long time. That Celine is the nightmare that girl said, that she can never escape. Perhaps the reason why you didn’t leave me alone at that time was because you knew that if you didn’t do that, you wouldn’t be able to regain your peace, right?”

I couldn’t answer. There was no way I could answer. Since when did you know about my dreams? It’s surprising that they shared such a sincere story, but…… More than that, it feels like being naked on a cold street. The fact that she was looking straight at me like this.

“Jin, you love serenity. And, I love you like that.”

“… ….”

“If you can find rest, I’ll do anything. So, even if you see me, even if you see us…… Answer me.”

We were still facing each other. If you fall, exhale, inhale, and share the steaming breath within nose-to-touch distance. Passers-by glanced at me and whispered, but I couldn’t hear their voices.

There is only one road. Mira confirmed my gaze and soon let go of my face as if satisfied.

“Let’s go back for now. Alphonse and Gerald were waiting…….”

“Camilla.”

“Huh?”

I took one step closer. It narrows the distance further and makes it zero. The lobe of her ear burned like a torch, and I hugged her head and whispered.

“Let’s not go back and go on a date like this, shall we?”

“…… Really?”

She asked in a trembling voice. Come to think of it, I never once suggested anything like this on my part, while putting her heart on hold. It’s too late, but now the time has come to repay the debt of that heart. I let her go and said

“Yeah, eat something delicious. Let’s play late at night and come back late.”

“…… Would he be jealous?”

“He? Celine?”

“Oh, no, no. OK.”

Mira said something incomprehensible and put her arm around my waist, and so we proceeded out into the bustling street.

The Heretic Inquisitor, Carl remained silent. There is only one occasion when he, who is famous for speaking up in front of any clergyman, keeps his mouth shut. When you have to deny yourself as a priest.

The place where he was was the office building. Excuse me, it wasn’t a prison with thick iron bars. However, in terms of confining stigmatized clergymen in small cells awaiting trial, strictly speaking, it could be seen as worse than prisons where cellmates exist.

Karl looked at a priest kneeling in front of him. He is seventy years old, and for a clergyman who has not poured out his divinity upon himself, he is already nearly done with his life. He was an old man who did not know when he would die even if he did not wait to die in custody through trial.

However, Carl could not sympathize with him at all. Sympathy comes from compassion. Compassion is born by sympathizing with the fear of the target. However, the priest seemed to be just awaiting death aloof. Carl said.

“Are you okay?”

The priest looked up. He seemed to be waiting for the next word.

“As our colleagues investigated, we could not find any evidence of heresy in you. It’s annoying, but they’re sure of one skill. It is only Cardinal Paulov, that man, who indicted you and removed you from the monastery.”

If you had ears to hear, you would have paid attention to the titles of high-ranking priests. However, he never had the energy to do so. He pours out his words like a rapid-fire cannon.

“Aren’t you unhappy? Why don’t you resist? There are many ways to prove your innocence. If you ask me right now…….” “Inquisitor.”

At that trembling voice, Carl stopped pouring out his words. The bride’s words follow.

“If I resist, will the Inquisitor be able to prove my innocence?”

“… ….”

“It will be a long fight. Even my sanity, which is still intact now, will eventually wear out and reveal its ugliness. Just obey.”

Among the believers who worship the god of order, the will of a cardinal second only to the pope is absolute. Even if the swords exercised their own authority, it might only be a long fight now that the royal decree has empowered them.

“But… ….”

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Nevertheless, he asks.

“Do you really have no regrets? How could that be?”

Believing in God is not responsible for the afterlife. Even priests can have their souls corrupted. An individual’s faith does not overcome death. Carl had seen countless times how much older humans struggled ugly in the face of death, pouring holy water on them. Some of them actually succeeded in prolonging life and are still sitting in chairs hiding their full stomachs.

The answer that came before long was a little different from what Carl had expected.

“How can you have no regrets? I have one daughter. She is a daughter who doesn’t hurt even when she gets older.”

The old man and the bride smiled for the first time.

“That child possesses a pure soul that is too pure to serve the Goddess…… Compared to the mentality I have, I am going through too many trials.”

“Father.”

“I want him to have peace. She hopes not to be bound by fate. I want him to throw off all bondage and restraints and set out to find his own way.”

“You mean your daughter’s peace and your father’s death are on the same line?”

“If I resist, my daughter will resist as well as she can. She is a more caring child than I am. She is the one and only family. If that happens, I will definitely be more unhappy than before, so how can I struggle to live with this body?”

Carl shut his mouth. The old priest’s eyes still had guns.

“…… Will she be okay knowing that you gave up on life?”

“I didn’t give up. I just accept it, you know, all of this I brought on myself.”

Karl thinks about the status of a man.

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Not the humble position of being a priest in a remote monastery, but the lofty past of being an assistant bishop of the first parish. And, that he was indicted for questioning the secrets of the archbishop days of the current cardinal he knew.

“How about sticking to life a little more, even for the sake of your daughter? It might make things a lot simpler if you just let that mouth tell you a few little gossip.”

“Heretic Inquisitor.”

The priest said.

“Even so, the cardinal will never let me live knowing your secret. I wonder if my old body can withstand the long and lengthy trial. And…… In the process of resisting, if it becomes known that the child is my daughter, wouldn’t it only cause trouble for her daughter?”

Cal was undeniable. The church is tenacious. He himself is the witness. In order to break the heart of this obstinate bride, they will eventually touch those around him. The same goes for his daughter, the nuns at the monastery he runs, and the children living there.

“Former first assistant bishop, Father Daniel. Is that, God’s will?”

Karl gritted his teeth. The bride still had a benign expression on her face.

“As you know, Inquisitor, oracles are never addressed to individuals. The Goddess only answers through prayer.”

“Have you ever had any doubts? To those who abandon Shinto without even resolving this reality.”

“That is not what a priest would say.”

“At least you’re a hundred times better than us humans.”

Karl answered calmly. And the moment he turned his back and closed the door as it was, he suddenly turned his head and asked him.

“It may be meddling, but could you tell me your daughter’s name? If there is a connection, maybe someday I will be able to help.”

The priest was silent for a long time. After all, he couldn’t tell himself that kind of information as a Heretic Questioner? But he answered with his dry lips.

“…… Grace. That’s the kid’s name. It is the only blessing that has come to me in my whole life.”

“I will remember it.”

The door is closed. The door was never opened that day.

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