Chapter 7

“Let’s play with other kids too. If anyone says anything, I’ll get angry for you.”

“But, I only need Louis…”

007

Another Perspective (Part 1)

“Who, who is it?”

A low, rough voice that made me wonder if there really was a devil or heretic nearby. For a moment, I trembled, thinking a demon might be whispering in my ear, but it was just my despair.

Luckily, it was just a human. At first, I thought it might be Anne, the Inquisition Judge, or some other guard.

Without realizing it, the scenery beyond the bars had changed, reflecting a space that looked like a mirror image. Bars made of silver instead of iron, a room so frugal it was almost shabby.

And in the middle of it, leaning casually, was a man who looked like a statue of a pagan god.

His disheveled hair covered most of his upper body, and the tattered robe he wore was similar to mine, but half-torn. Especially the part where the cross was engraved had been scratched off.

From that alone, I could tell he was in the same situation as me. A heretic imprisoned in the reformatory, forced to repent.

“Haha. Who? Who indeed! It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that word. Kid, you must be new here, so let me give you some advice.”

“Y-yes?”

“What matters here isn’t your name or status. It’s what you’ve done.”

He was like a beast in a cage, yet there was a certain dignity about him.

The demeanor of a ruler, the natural way he looked down on others, his tone was that of a street thug, yet it didn’t feel vulgar.

“Even the emperor’s prince, the heir of a great noble, or the daughter of a cardinal—it’s all the same. In front of the divine judgment, earthly status means nothing.”

His words carried a deep disdain and hatred for the religious order, and even faith itself. If he had been imprisoned here before me, it wasn’t hard to understand.

Would I end up like him too?

“Then, what did you do to end up here?”

As if he had been waiting for that question, the man grinned.

“I killed people. No, should I say ‘people’?”

It was a melancholic pride. Like an old, worn-out mercenary who had lost his strong body and lifelong wealth, with only the scars on his body to boast about.

“I showed mercy to the servants and children—I cut their throats in one stroke. The rest, hehe. I stabbed their urethras, impaled their anuses, skinned them alive, smeared them with honey to let them rot, and the last one I stuffed into a chimney with a pile of corpses to suffocate.”

The dignity I felt at our first meeting was overshadowed by the disgusting, slimy, and foul-smelling death that poured from his mouth.

In the midst of a rising nausea, I realized anew where I was and who was standing before me.

“And then, alone in the mansion, I waited. After a while, the knights came, shouting.”

“Ugh…”

The bottommost pit where those who have abandoned God and death itself can reach.

“What’s with that face? Like you’ve seen something disgusting.”

“Don’t you feel any shame? You… demon.”

Facing such evil was a first for me.

Having lived in a rural village all my life, the worst people I knew couldn’t compare. Anne was the same. Even after such a brutal massacre, she still pretended to be kind.

But this man flaunted his malice as if showing off. It wasn’t some clumsy bravado—it felt genuine, making it all the more repulsive.

“Kahahaha!”

But at my accusation, the man burst into laughter. A bizarre, sharp laugh that made me grimace and cover my ears.

“A masterpiece! Truly a masterpiece! You, standing face to face with me in this place, dare to talk about shame? Tell me, what did you do to end up here?”

“Nothing.”

I clenched my teeth and retorted.

“I committed no evil.”

I am just an innocent victim. Thrown into this hellhole by Anne.

For a moment, I was afraid I might fall like him. Not that I consider myself a great saint or possess an unyielding will or noble spirit.

But still, isn’t there a minimum of goodness in humans? No matter how far you fall, how, just how…

I spat it out, just as he had. It had been a long time since I spoke such unfiltered truth.

“Disgusting.”

“Kahaha! Right. And yet you’re in the same prison as me?”

“Don’t treat me the same! I, I…! I was dragged here against my will!”

My mind, pushed to its limit, screamed like a wounded beast at the slightest provocation.

I had lost everything overnight. All that remained was the self-defense that I was just an innocent victim, and a gloomy sense of superiority over those like him.

How much time had passed? A few days, or maybe just hours. Since the past had stolen the present, the only reason I still clung to a thread of sanity was, absurdly, faith.

Yes, faith. Though not a devout believer, the natural faith in Lord Ailim that I had held since birth.

Good is rewarded, evil is judged—

“You were brought here without committing any crime?”

“Yes! You don’t even know…”

“It’s you who’s speaking without knowing, kid.”

But no matter how I felt, the man remained mocking. Expecting sympathy or understanding from this devil with a branding iron was the height of foolishness.

“Who threw you in here? The Twin Cross Knights? The Inquisition Judge? The Sword-Tongue of the Gospel Protector?”

“…The Inquisition Judge.”

Names I had never heard before, even with my broad knowledge, spilled from the man’s mouth. I reflexively responded.

“Keh. Powerful groups inevitably corrupt, but if the religious order is like that, how can they remain the spiritual pillar of the world? Don’t you still pray to Ailim often?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“The Sword-Tongue recruits outsiders, so they can corrupt. But a knight who’s spent a lifetime isolated in a monastery, brainwashed with education—can they betray? Can an Inquisition Judge, who carries a part of God within them, defy the Lord’s will?”

His words were long and rambling, but their meaning wasn’t hard to grasp. Despite being imprisoned by their hands, the man was defending the religious order.

“The reformatory isn’t for just anyone. Lesser heretics receive lighter punishments, and greater heretics receive the most merciful punishment.”

The most merciful punishment—in other words, death.

“Those too powerful to kill, or those who deserve death but can’t be killed for some reason. Only such people end up here.”

Which one was he? I couldn’t tell, but either way, it didn’t seem strange.

“Which one are you?”

And the man harbored the same question about me.

“You don’t seem evil or powerful enough to be unkillable. No dignity, no knowledge, so you’re not of noble birth either. Why are you here?”

“I don’t know. I’ve said it many times.”

Despite his cruelty and malice, the man was the only one I could talk to in this situation. With Anne… it was more of a one-sided announcement than a conversation.

So, while I despised him, I found myself telling him everything I had been through. If I pushed him away, only the empty walls of the prison would be my audience.

“…Hmm, I see.”

There wasn’t much to tell anyway. If I went into every detail, it would drag on endlessly, but I wasn’t much of a talker to begin with.

And in this situation, I had even less to say. Just recalling those moments made my heart ache.

Reuniting with a childhood friend after so long. And then, the Inquisition Judge, upon learning of her engagement, turned and massacred the villagers.

“Just to be sure, you’re not from the religious order, are you?”

“No.”

“An Inquisition Judge raised outside the order. It’s unlikely, but… if so, she might prioritize her own will over the Lord’s.”

For the first time, my only conversation partner acknowledged the possibility of her corruption, but for some reason, I couldn’t feel purely happy.

Perhaps it was because Anne was still someone precious to me. How painful must city life have been for you to become such a twisted monster?

Even in this situation, I still…

I couldn’t fully hate you, nor could I not hate you.

“But kid, there’s one thing you should think about.”

“What’s that?”

“Even if I believe your biased story, that the Inquisition Judge used the order’s army for her own desires and swept through the village…”

The man still didn’t fully believe, but everything I said was true.

“Do you think those principle-obsessed old fools would just give you a spot in the reformatory for no reason?”