My Childhood Friend Became an Inquisitor

“Let’s play with the other kids too. If anyone says anything, I’ll get angry for you.”
“But, I’m fine with just Louis…”
*

“Wh-Who’s there?”

A low, gravelly voice that made me wonder if this is how real demons or heretics would sound. For a moment, I trembled, thinking perhaps an evil god had really whispered to me, seeing my despair.

Should I consider it fortunate? The other was human. At first, I thought it might be Anne or other guards like the Inquisitors, but.

Without my noticing, the scenery beyond the bars had changed, now reflecting a space identical to mine, like a mirror image. Bars made of silver instead of iron, a room so frugal it was shabby.

In the middle of it, leaning askew, was a man like a statue of a pagan god.

His loose hair almost covered his upper body, and the rags he wore were the same as what I was wearing, but half-torn. Especially the part where the cross was engraved had been scratched raw.

Just from that, I could immediately tell that the man was in the same situation as me. A heretic imprisoned in the re-education center, forced to repent.

“Haha. Who. Who, you say! It’s been a long time since I heard that word. Boy. Since you seem to have not been here long, let me give you a piece of advice.”

“Y-Yes?”

“What’s important here isn’t names or status. It’s what you did.”

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

The bearing of a ruler ingrained in his body, eyes that naturally looked down on others, his manner of speech was that of a ruffian from the back alleys, yet it didn’t feel vulgar.

“It’s the same for an imperial prince, a great noble’s heir, or a cardinal’s daughter. Before the judgment seat of the noble God, petty earthly status means nothing.”

From his words, I could sense a deep contempt and hatred for the Church, and by extension, for faith. If he had been locked up here before me, it wasn’t incomprehensible.

Will I become like that too?

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

As if he had been waiting for those words, the man grinned.

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

It was a gloomy exultation. Like an old, washed-up mercenary who had lost both his strong physique and lifelong earnings, with only the scars on his body left to boast about.

“I showed mercy to the servants and children by beheading them quickly. The rest, hehe. I killed them by driving needles into their urethras and impaling them with stakes through their anuses, then carefully skinned them alive and pickled them to death by coating them with honey, and the last one to survive, I stuffed into the chimney along with the pile of corpses and crushed them to death.”

In stark contrast to the dignity I felt at our first encounter, what poured from his mouth was a nauseating, slimy, and foul-smelling feast of death.

In the sensation of rising nausea, I newly realized where this place was and who the person in front of me was.

“Then I waited blankly in the empty mansion, and after a while, knights came and started yapping.”

“…Urgh.”

Excluding death, the lowest point those who have abandoned God can reach.

“What’s with that expression? As if you’ve seen something disgusting.”

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

It was my first time facing such evil (惡) like him.

Having lived in a rural village all my life, how bad could bad people have been? It was the same for Anne. Even while slaughtering so mercilessly, Anne still pretended to be kind.

In contrast, this man was flaunting his own evil heart (惡心) as if showing off. It was even more repulsive because it felt genuinely sincere, not just clumsy bravado.

“Kyahahaha!”

But at my rebuke, the man burst into laughter. I frowned and covered my ears at the bizarre and sharp laughter that sounded like scraping metal.

“A masterpiece. Truly a masterpiece! Someone facing me in this place dares to talk about shame? Tell me. What did you do to end up here?”

“Nothing.”

I gritted my teeth and retorted.

“I didn’t commit any evil acts.”

I’m just an innocent scapegoat. Thrown into this hell-like place by Anne.

I felt foolish for even momentarily fearing that I might become corrupted like that guy. Of course, I didn’t think of myself as a great person or a saint, nor did I particularly have an indomitable will or noble spirit.

Nevertheless, don’t humans have a minimum level of goodness? No matter how low one has fallen, how, just how.

I spat out, just as he had done. It had been a long time since I had spoken such unfiltered truths.

“Disgusting.”

“Kyahaha! That’s right. While you’re in the same prison as me?”

“Don’t treat us the same! I, I…! I was brought here by force!”

A mind already pushed to its limits. It howls fiercely like a wounded beast at the slightest stimulus.

I lost everything overnight. All that remained was self-defense that I was just an innocent scapegoat, and a gloomy sense of superiority that I was better than those like him.

How much time has passed? A few days ago, or a few hours ago. After the past had stolen my present, the reason I was still holding onto a shred of sanity was, ironically, because of faith.

Yes, faith. Though I wasn’t a devout believer, it was the natural faith in Lord Ailim that I had held since birth and throughout my life.
Good is rewarded, and evil is judged-

“You say you were brought here without committing any crime?”

“That’s right! Without even knowing…”

“The one speaking without knowing is you, boy.”

But regardless of my emotions, the man consistently maintained a mocking attitude. There’s probably nothing more foolish than expecting empathy and understanding from that demon in human skin.

“Who put you in here? The Twin Cross Knight? An Inquisitor? The Sword Tongue of the Gospel Guardian?”

“…An Inquisitor.”

Names I didn’t know, despite priding myself on my broad knowledge, came out of the man’s mouth. I reflexively responded to his words.

“Kuheh. They say groups that seize power are bound to become corrupt, but if that’s true for the Church, how could they still remain the spiritual pillar of the whole world? Even you, don’t you still occasionally pray to Ailim?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“The Sword Tongue might become corrupt since it’s customary to bring in outsiders. But a Holy Knight who’s been isolated in a monastery and received near-brainwashing education for a lifetime turning traitor? Are you saying an Inquisitor with a part of God dwelling in their body can go against the Lord’s will?”

The man’s words were long and verbose, but it wasn’t difficult to grasp their meaning. Despite being confined by their hands, the man was defending the Church.

“The re-education center isn’t a place for just anyone. Lesser heretics receive lighter punishments, and greater heretics receive the most merciful punishment.”

The most merciful punishment, in other words, death.

“Only heretics who are too powerful to be killed, or those who deserve to die but can’t be killed for some reason, are confined here.”

Which category did this man fall into? I couldn’t tell, but either seemed plausible.

“Which are you?”

And the man had the same question about me.

“You don’t look evil or powerful enough to be unkillable. You don’t seem to be of noble birth either, lacking both grace and knowledge. Why on earth are you here?”

“I don’t know. I’ve told you repeatedly.”

Despite his wickedness and cruelty, the man was the only one I could have a conversation with in this situation. In Anne’s case… one-sided notifications couldn’t be called a conversation.

So even while despising the man, I found myself opening up to him about what I had experienced. If I distanced myself from him, only the bare walls of the prison would be my audience.

“…Hmm, I see.”

There wasn’t much to tell in the first place. If I were to detail everything, it would go on endlessly, but I wasn’t a talkative person by nature.

Moreover, in this situation, I couldn’t help but become even more taciturn. Just recalling those moments made my heart ache.

That I had reunited with my childhood friend who had returned after a long time. And that she, an Inquisitor, had suddenly changed after learning about my engagement and massacred the villagers.

“Just in case, let me ask, you’re not from the Church, right?”

“No.”

“An Inquisitor raised outside. Although the possibility is low… then she might prioritize her own will over the Lord’s.”

For the first time, words affirming the other’s corruption flowed from the mouth of my only conversation partner, but for some reason, I couldn’t be purely happy about it.

It’s probably because Anne was still precious to me. How painful must her life in the city have been for you to become such a twisted monster?

Even in this dire situation, I still.
I couldn’t fully hate you, nor could I not hate you.

“But boy. You should consider one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Even if I believe your biased words, even if the Inquisitor really mobilized the Church’s army and swept through the village for personal reasons.”

The man seemed skeptical to the end, but all of it was clearly what I had experienced.

“Do you think those principle-obsessed old fogies would give you a place in the re-education center without any reason?”