Chapter 317: 167. Heresy Inquisitors -1 (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

**

Laurence, who had been abducted by the devil worshippers, finally regained consciousness, and urgently took a look around himself.

Just where was he now?

He seemed to be inside some kind of a cave. He could only see darkness ahead of him. His feet were standing on something wet and soggy, while bizarre screeches and hisses were coming from seemingly everywhere.

Laurence picked up a rock from the floor. This would have to do as his make-shift weapon for now.

He recalled the events that had taken place just before he ended up in this strange cave. He went to speak to the village chief, and had learned that some of the villagers were devil worshippers.

But then something hit him in the head, causing him to lose consciousness. By the time he woke back up, he had already been imprisoned in this dark cave.

Panting heavily away, he tried to heighten his senses as much as possible.

‘Dear, please wait for me a little while longer. I’ll survive this situation and return to your side no matter what.’

His eyes shifted around this wide-open space until they came to a stop in front of him. There it was, a flickering but bright-enough light over yonder.

Could that be a lit torch? Yes, it was!

Now that he thought about it, wasn’t there someone else who got dragged in here just like him? Indeed, there had been a bound and naked man in the middle of the devil worshippers, hadn’t there?

Laurence hurriedly ran towards where that light was coming from, but his running steps came to an immediate stop.

That was because the torch was rolling around on the floor, casting its amber light on the darkness of the surrounding cave.

The illumination revealed a place filled with bones and bits of rotting flesh. All sorts of weapons and equipment were scattered around, but no living humans were using them.

All Laurence could see were corpses… corpses of people, their dead faces filled with terror and tear stains rolling down from their lifeless eyes. Plus, some monsters were busy devouring those corpses.

“…G-ghouls?”

The walking dead featuring hideously-melted and disfigured faces, spindly arms and legs, plus super-sharp claws on both their hands and feet…

The ghouls were greedily devouring the intestines of a corpse. But even more horrifyingly, the corpse itself began writhing about as its eyes rolled around.

It had become a zombie.

‘Oh my goddess… Maybe this place is Hell?!’

Laurence began stumbling back, only for his foot to trip on an old bone, cracking it. A small but audible noise echoed inside the previously-silent cave.

The ghouls twitched simultaneously. They turned their heads and glared at Laurence.

He turned around to flee while yelling at the top of his lungs, “Ah, aaah! G-goddess Gaia! Please save me!”

The ghouls chased after him.

He breathlessly panted away while squeezing his eyes shut. ‘Just… just wait for me, dear! A little bit longer! I, I’ll survive this somehow and go back to you!’

**

(TL: In 1st person POV.)

I was riding in the Frants Royal Family’s carriage.

Our travelling group went past countless villages and towns, eventually leaving the Empire’s border altogether.

First, we travelled past the Kingdom of Lome that was regaining its stability little by little after the end of the civil war. Next up was Aihrance. We kept travelling northwest.

I was jolted awake from my nap at the sound of our carriage clunking away from the rough road surface. Wanting to get some air, I opened the window pane.

The members of the Order of the Crimson Cross were riding escorts to us outside the carriage on their horses.

“Thank you for coming with us like this.”

I turned my head at that voice and looked opposite me.

Seran was sitting there, while the twins were resting their heads on her lap from either side of her, peacefully dozing away.

She gently brushed the twins’ hair before looking back at me. “Don’t worry too much about the Theocratic Empire. My mother chose to remain, after all, and surely First Brother Luan and First Sister Hilda will properly oversee everything. Ah, and let’s not forget about our father, too.”

Seran chose to mention our father dead last, huh.

“I’m not worried, actually. Honestly, this is an excellent opportunity to cool my head at least a little bit, so it’s all good for me,” I replied to her, and leaned my back against the seat cushion.

My complicated thoughts were gradually cooling down while I made this short journey.

“But, is this fine? Not bringing your escort? You sounded really obstinate back then.”

When Seran asked me that, I ended up recalling Charlotte. She wanted to come with us, but I firmly dissuaded her. She had to work together with Harman to train the army, after all.

I replied, “Well, she has another task to handle, you see.”

Seran smiled happily, then pointed outside the window. “We’ve arrived, Allen. Welcome to the Duchy of Ariana.”

I followed her finger and shifted my gaze outside the window. The first thing I saw were rolling green hills, then a road stretching along a gentle hill.

As for the city itself, there was no outer wall surrounding it. There were several large and small villages in the vicinity of the city, and beyond them were scattered farmland.

That was the territory of Ariana, as Seran had introduced just now.

**

I entered the Duchy’s citadel.

Well-trained knights were standing at every corner of the castle’s corridors, while servants and maids were moving about busily here and there.

While walking through the corridors, I continued to scan the contents of the documents Seran handed over to me. “Two to three people going missing every week? That’s quite a considerable loss, isn’t it? You must be deeply worried about your subjects.”

A bitter, helpless smile formed on Seran’s face. The twins walking alongside her yawned at length, as if they hadn’t fully woken up yet. “We are doing our best, but we have nothing to show for our efforts at the end of the day. Our subjects have to suffer in silence, that’s all. Not only that…” She then handed over the next set of documents.

I perused its contents before frowning deeply. “…Wait, what? Even Paladins got abducted?”

“Yes. They were out patrolling.”

“…”

“These bastards are getting bolder with every passing day,” swore Seran.

I pointed out the village that had been affected the worst so far as denoted in the reports. “It seems that the incidents happen most frequently in this village called Venia.”

“Yes. We believe that’s the likeliest hiding place for the Farmer, as well. However, finding where the devil worshippers are hiding isn’t easy at all.” Seran helplessly shook her head. “There are no traces of magic being used, and the villagers living there show no signs of having learned magic, either. In fact, most of them are devout believers who attend the local church diligently. We even tried to search the houses of the suspects, but we couldn’t uncover any evidence, only earning the citizens’ ire, instead…”

Did that mean our quarry was being extremely cautious?

As we chatted away, we finally reached the citadel’s audience chamber. The doorway to the simple and plain chamber opened up, revealing a man seated on the throne and a young man standing next to him.

By using my [Mind’s Eye], I figured out the man on the throne was the King of Frants, who must have come to visit the Duchy of Ariana. He was in the later part of his forties, while a set of crimson hair and an unkempt, abundant beard covered his face.

As for the young man next to him providing assistance to the king, he seemed to be one, maybe two years older than me. His name was Marcus Ariana.

And yeah, he was also my older brother.

It seemed that they came to the Duchy after receiving the news of me heading here.

“Welcome to the Kingdom of Frants, Your Majesty Holy King Allen.”

King Zayner Frants got up from the throne, placed his hand on his chest lightly, and bowed slightly to greet me. Marcus stood next to him and assisted his king, then bowed as well.

They had the apathetic eyes of someone who didn’t have much of an impression of me.

I also bowed a little to greet them back, as per established decorum. However, I still whispered softly at Seran, “Is he not feeling well?”

Seran bowed while standing next to me to greet the king, but whispered her reply to me at the same time, “It happened sometime ago. While leading a vampire hunt, he ended up getting cursed. Although the curse itself was undone, a little bit of its after-effects still linger and affect him psychologically.”

Psychologically, is it…

If it was a physical problem, then I was confident of fully healing a patient about to cross death’s doorstep, but even I had no way of treating a psychological problem.

The King of Frants, Zayner Frants, looked at me and smiled politely, “It must’ve been taxing to travel so far, Your Majesty.” He then glanced at Seran next to me. “I hope dear Seran here has explained the situation sufficiently to you.”

“Yes, Your Majesty King Zayner. Not only did I hear it, I even got to see it, as well.”