My Childhood Friend Became an Inquisitor

“Oh, oh no. Louis… This is Mother’s favorite bowl…”
“I broke it.”
“Huh?”
“Tell your mother that’s what happened.”
*

The steps leading out of the re-education center were heavy.

Anne sighed deeply as she walked. In the end, they had fought. After not seeing each other for so long, there should have been too little time to exchange only good words after meeting again.

While she could understand Louis’s behavior, she couldn’t help feeling hurt on the other hand. I, I have…

“…I shouldn’t think like this.”

Anne shook her head as she walked, trying to shake off the delusion clouding her heart. Didn’t Ailim say that one shouldn’t expect compensation for devotion?

Of course, Anne was ready to devote herself willingly without compensation.

Even if the other party was ignorant of her devotion, or even misunderstood it. It’s okay. They’ll understand someday.

Right now, their eyes are just temporarily blurred by darkness, but they’ll return to normal. Surely. Anne recognized at a glance that even though Louis had changed, his essence remained unchanged.

She was an Inquisitor, knowing better than anyone how humans break and crumble.

And of course, she was aware that she was blinded by love. She knew that Louis wasn’t an outstanding warrior or a specially trained agent, and in terms of willpower, he was no different from an ordinary person.

Nevertheless.

‘I didn’t do it.’

The words he stubbornly uttered even when he was barely more than a half-corpse.

Usually, by that point, people couldn’t even scream, let alone speak, only letting out meaningless groans. The strength that didn’t break even under such severe trials, unbelievable for an ordinary person, gave certainty to Anne’s anxious heart.

Sweet lovers, kind parents, good neighbors. Anne had seen countless times how good people fall into heresy and corruption, pushing their loved ones into the pit of hell with their own hands.

Cases of truly reforming heretics were extremely rare. There weren’t enough people to just judge the heretics spreading like mold, and those who crossed the line once transgressed taboos more easily. Cases of those believed to have been successfully reformed falling again were piled up like mountains in the Church.

But Louis is different.

Just as she didn’t doubt God, Anne thought this as an absolute proposition. Louis is different. Louis can be reformed, and once he returns to the light, he will never go back to darkness.

On what grounds? How is Louis different from other heretics? Anne suppressed such doubts.

Even if you were bewitched by another woman, it’s not your fault. Because I wasn’t by your side. Being evil, they must have bewitched you or used vile and coercive means to force you to cross the line.

So, all the actions you committed are not your sin. It’s all because of that witch of a fiancée or whatever.
Without realizing it, her hand fumbled at her empty waist as if to grasp a mace.

‘It will never happen again.’

Soon, Anne neatly folded her hands. As if praying, or swearing.

‘Because I’ll always be by your side now.’

Anne’s goal was simple yet clear. Protect Louis. From what?
From heresy and evil gods, corruption and sin, taboos and the Church… from everything.

Anne was of course a devout believer, but the priority in her life had never changed even once.

Knock knock.

“Who is it…? Come in.”

Anne pushed the door open and entered.
It was the first time. Visiting Cardinal François’s office twice in one day.

Unlike before, this was a scheduled meeting. That’s why when the door opened, François, who had been engrossed in paperwork, widened his eyes at the figure that suddenly appeared.

“Anne…? No, Sister Anne, what brings you here?”

For some reason, François seemed more surprised than usual at the unannounced visitor. Whether it was because it was extremely rare for Anne to come on her own, or if there was another reason she didn’t know.

She didn’t care. That wasn’t what was important now.

Anne naturally pulled out a chair and sat across from François, even though he hadn’t told her to sit. Right now, she was here to do something less important than taking care of Louis.

Even steel, if not tempered, can be bent. Just thinking about how you started trembling slightly as I left, though you tried not to show it, breaks my heart.

‘Wait just a little, Louis.’

All of this is for you.
It might be painful now, but eventually, you’ll understand too.

“Your Eminence Cardinal François.”

In the Church, it is emphasized that we are all brothers and sisters under Ailim, in a horizontal relationship. Therefore, even for high-ranking clergy, the usual form of address was simple.

Brother or Brother, or if showing more respect, Vito, an archaic word meaning ‘brother’. If she was so fixated on formality, there was only one reason.

Official business where the hierarchy needed to be clear, with heavy weight.

“I, Inquisitor Anne, have come today to confess the sin I have committed to Your Eminence.”

“Sister Anne…?”

“Please withdraw your words. We are all born under the same hand, but before punishment, even blood ties must be temporarily severed, mustn’t they?”

Having spent most of her youth in the Church, Anne’s manner of showing respect was so perfect it was hard to believe she was the same girl who had been whining just moments ago.

François was no pushover either. Despite the situation being sufficiently bewildering, he didn’t show his inner thoughts, masking his face with a vague smile like spring before the last cold snap has passed.

“You speak correctly, Inquisitor Anne. Although I have also been ordained as a confessor priest, if you’ve come to the Cardinal rather than a priest, you understand the meaning of that as well, don’t you?”

“Yes. I will not run away from the yoke I must bear.”

It meant that she would not evade through the trick of confession but take appropriate responsibility for her actions and accept the consequences of what she had done.

François asked in a still gentle, but slightly colder voice.

“Inquisitor Anne. What sin have you committed?”

And Anne brought out her prepared answer.

Of course, she couldn’t say she was harboring a heretic. If she directly told the people of the Church that she was protecting Louis, it wouldn’t work and would rather backfire.

So Anne intended to show her will through action rather than words, even if it might leave some room for criticism.

“Unable to overcome my personal feelings, I used violence against my brother.”

Whoever touches Louis will not meet a good end.

The Church preaches mercy, but what Inquisitors, the Church’s weapons, learn is judgment and punishment. In the face of great evil that even mercy cannot penetrate, the task of tearing down the castles they have built.

“Who…?”

“Inquisitor Berdo.”

That’s not enough.
Going further, using the fallen ruins as an example, repaying harm with tenfold harm, and instilling fear in the enemies of the Church so they dare not even think of opposing.

Anne was just doing her routine work. Only this time, not for the Church but solely for herself. For the person she loves.

“Inquisitor Berdo damaged my achievements, the only lead to pursue the ‘fiancée’. Because of his hasty intervention, we almost lost the connection that could have caught the evil culprit.”

Although, she would have to keep her true intentions hidden forever.

“…What is Inquisitor Berdo’s condition?”

“He’s not dead.”

Anne reported briefly.

It’s not a lie. Because she hasn’t done anything yet.

Even the shrewd François couldn’t see through her true intentions with just these clues. To let him see her true will, Anne decided to throw in one more piece.

“Although he provided the pretext, I was blinded by anger and my actions were excessive, so I intend to suspend my Inquisitor activities for the time being and practice self-restraint.”

Inquisitors are dispatched all over the world to strike down heretics. Saying she’ll stop that means she intends to stay stuck in the temple without going to distant places.

No matter how much Anne brandished shields like achievements or fiancée, in the end, she couldn’t fool everyone’s eyes. François’s eyes sharpened as he guessed her true intentions.

“Then what do you intend to do during your self-restraint?”

“As a form of service and penance, I will lend my meager help to the re-education center.”

A blatant intention. It would be dangerous to be directly caught and excommunicated, but short of that, Anne had no intention of hiding her will.

Not only assaulting a colleague because of one heretic, but also quitting her original job to stick by that heretic? If it were another Cardinal and Inquisitor, a hearing would be held the moment such signs were shown.

But they are different.
The relationship between Anne and François is ‘special’.

“Is that heretic… such a precious existence to you?”

A pair of eyes, different yet clearly resembling each other, stared at each other, and Anne spat out as if chewing her words. Without any clumsy pretense.

“Yes.”

Before joining the Church, Anne’s full name was Anne Ailard.

The meaning of that surname, also called Aileno or Halard depending on the region, is ‘child of Ailim, or Ailam’. However, as all things in the world were naturally born from His breath.

Ailard is the surname of children without a surname to inherit, the surname of orphans and illegitimate children.

“…I understand.”

Therefore, he had no choice but to push her back even though he knew Anne was running towards destruction.

“Inquisitor Anne. For the crime of being swayed by emotions and assaulting a colleague, I sentence you to service in the re-education center.”