Beautiful. Just beautiful. There I stood, in front of the local church of Sol, where my very own work of art was almost complete. I had some trouble deciding how to go about the burning in the beginning; I mean it couldn’t just be simple after all. It’s my first genuine heretic burning! Sticking them on a pyre just won’t do. It needed to be artistic. A spectacle for the crowd. The result of course, was this beauty.

Before me lay the elf, eyes full of pain as she teared up and let out gasps in agony. Tying her up wasn’t enough, so I decided to impale her above the fire that was about to be lit. Straight through the intestinal region. Some may think, ‘but wouldn’t that just kill her?’, well no, no it won’t. I made the tip of the stake especially sharp! With decent anatomical knowledge, it was easy to avoid piercing any organs; I just pushed them all to one side. Although it wasn’t an easy task with all that wriggling and panicked shrieking in addition to avoiding causing too much damage. She’d even managed to draw a crowd before the event had begun. People sure are eager for these kinds of things, huh?

Normally, if one was to see someone shoving a large stake through a limbless elf lady and then planting it in the ground for the world to see, they’d probably try to stop said person, or call the authorities. However, I was dressed back in that boorish white uniform. Can’t interfere with an inspector doing his job; Plyan may be on the borders of the kingdom of Sol, but they’re still under the church’s jurisdiction. It’s been a while since I’d worn these clothes. To be honest, after wearing that set that Serenity picked out for me back in Sol city, the uniform felt a bit stiff and awkward.

Anyway, back to the display. In the end, I decided to use her limbs as decorations, and impaled them with smaller stakes, planting them in the ground around her, so as to try to line them up with her stumps. I’d also made sure to rip off all of her clothes for the event. The poor clothes don’t need to be burned, only the heretic, plus I thought it might rile up the crowd a bit; despite not having limbs, her body wasn’t bad. But then again, they couldn’t go and get too excited, so I added a small bit of mutilation here and there.

The main feature was ‘heretic’ etched across her chest, so now when her assets draw the gaze of the men, everyone will understand the situation, hehehe. I used my tools for it; I began by heating up a small scalpel to rather high temperature, and then slowly sliced away her flesh, scrawling the word heretic into her. The screams were nice, but it got a bit boring when they turned to whimpers. It’s understandable though, I was taking my time to get the detail right. If it was poorly written, then some may not be able to read it; can’t have that! I also have to say, I didn’t mind the smell of burning flesh. Oh, just thinking about it gives me the chills.

I couldn’t have done that back at the inn of course, so I found a nice back alley somewhere nearby and began my work. I had Melissa stand guard. She really is becoming quite useful. After everything was done, that was when I took the naked, mutilated elf to the front of the church. All the necessary straw and firewood was piled up nice and neatly underneath the heretic, just waiting to be set alight. I’d also made sure that the elf was just far away enough from the fire to suffer for the longest possible time. I looked up at the heretic and let loose a grin at the elf, who was still gasping for breath and had a face contorted with pain. Must be hard to breath with a massive wooden stake through you.

I turned around to see the crowd that had gathered and was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire yard was filled to the brim with a variety of residents. Some had faces filled with shock, some with pity, some with anger, and even some with glee (guess those are the true believers in Sol). No heroes or companions had arrived. They were probably still moping around after that dungeon incident back at the inn. They should learn from me and just live life to its fullest regardless the circumstances! I kind of wanted to see their reactions to the display, how would they look? Shocked? Scared? Angry? I wonder… Well, they wouldn’t recognise me if they came so that’s all fine; I took precautions and came with a mask!

I ran my hand over the mask, feeling the features once again. It wasn’t anything special, just something I’d quickly bought at one of the nearby stands. It was the face of a man in pain, home to the biggest grimace one would ever see, quite the contrast to myself. It was just a blank white colour, matching my outfit, and was apparently supposed to represent some spirit from a local legend in the area. The spirit got betrayed by humans and ended up in agony, or something like that. I don’t really care, well as long as they don’t go calling that spirit a God.

Speaking of spirits being called gods, Serenity had decided she’d opt out for the event. I tried to convince her that it would be fun, but for some strange reason she was adamant on not coming to the burning. It was a little hurtful; this was almost like a coming of age for me, and to have someone close to me refuse to come… It hits hard. Oh well, she’ll just be missing out on all the fun. I’d sent Melissa back to the inn, since she probably wouldn’t enjoy the scene, and I also can’t just babysit her while I’m trying to hold an event. I turned to the crowd.

“Good people of Plyan, it is good that you’ve gathered here today. You will witness something truly great, something truly beautiful! I will take on the task of sending this heretic to our beloved Sol, the one who rules over all of us. She will travel to his palace and be judged for her heresy, and whether her soul be burned or her sins cleansed will depend on the sincerity of her repentance.”

I gave the crowd a moment to digest the words, some ended up mumbling in the back about something or other, and the ones closer to the front had started to get a rather feverish look in their eyes as they shuffled around excitedly, eyes glued onto the heretic. Those fellows are certainly true followers of Sol! I decided after a few moments of silence to continue.

“All of you, look carefully at the fate of those who stray from the correct faith, no, stray from the correct way of life! Despite not being centrally located in the kingdom of Sol, you should all be devout followers to the faith of our kingdom. You should devote yourselves entirely to Sol. Even if you were to have your life threatened, stay true to this faith. Even if you were to have the lives of your family threatened, stay true to this faith. Do you know why you should do all this?”

With that question, murmurs became increasingly loud, and the devout followers at the front were practically frothing at the mouth, waiting for the burning (they were actually starting to creep me out a bit), while the majority looked on with complicated expressions. Time to give them the answer.

“Because, the consequences of losing your faith are far direr than losing your life or your family.”

And with that I sent a spark to the hay and firewood piled up beneath the heretic, and in an instant the entire thing went up in flames. The fire wreathed around, giving off tremendous heat as it crackled and its flames began to lick at the sturdy poles impaling the heretic (and her limbs). Then the screaming began.

The few at the front of the crowd started cheering, while some let out gasps from the back. Of course, I couldn’t allow there sounds to interfere with the screams. I raised my hand, signalling for silence, and luckily the crowd complied, otherwise I would have had to take other measures so that I could enjoy the sounds. The shrill shrieks of the heretic then began to spread across the yard, likely reaching far beyond. She certainly has a pair of lungs on her. I couldn’t help but smile.

Soon I began to whistle that tune. That beautiful tune. Some of the crowd turned their gaze towards me, with frightened eyes. What are you guys doing looking over here? The real show is the still screaming elf woman. Just look at that blistering, peeling skin. Just look at how the tears are flowing down her face. Just listen to the increasing hoarseness of her screams. Is this paradise? It certainly might be. Next thing I knew the screams stopped.

The heretic was lifelessly hanging from her impaled position with an arrow stuck through her skull… Why? Who would do such a thing? Interrupting such a momentous occasion! It was stuck straight through her left eye, leaving a trickle of blood that quickly dried up from the heat of the fire. Damn it! Who did that!? I violently turned around to the stunned crowd, all looking blankly at the heretic who had been killed far too quickly. Doing this was basically an affront to Sol, so who dares be branded a heretic? Those who interrupted the event can take the elf’s place.

My eyes scanned through the crowd, trying to pick out the perpetrator, but unfortunately the masses made it difficult to spot the individual. Luckily for me, an arrow flew in my direction, aimed at my chest. That’s a rather accurate shot, and the power behind it is solid. B ranked? Yeah, it would be an attack from a B ranked fellow by adventurer standards. Had such a lowly sneak attack been directed my way before meeting Serenity and creepy contract man, it would likely have killed me.

I caught the arrow between my thumb and forefinger, giving it a little twirl between my fingers before snapping it and turning my gaze to the direction from which it came. An interesting sight made it sway before me. It wasn’t just one fellow, it looked like a group. They were dressed in dirty brown leather armour with faded cloaks and were equipped with worn looking equipment, not to say that it wasn’t good, just that those swords and bows had likely seen their fair share of battles. They had the air of veteran fighters about them.

Let’s find out why they decided to interfere, and depending on their answers, the severity of their punishment may change somewhat. No, who am I kidding, they’ll die painfully anyway. They cut off the screams, and my tune after all. I felt my eye twitch with irritation as I looked at the cloaked fellows, who were momentarily frozen in place after my casual display earlier. They weren’t running away, which was quite strange in itself. Weren’t they afraid that the guards would come? Before I could begin questioning them, they began a little speech. A fellow stepped forwards, with a lithe and powerful looking figure. The lower half of his face was covered by a scarf, but from the wrinkled eyes, he was likely an older fellow.

“Why are you here? We made our message clear to the church! We don’t need filth like yourself coming into our home city and spouting nonsense whilst torturing innocent people!” shouted the leader, his tone angry and passionate.

Wait! I remember this now: Plyan had some issues with rebellious factions, didn’t they? What were they called again? Hmmm…. Ah! It was something rather corny… Honesty, wasn’t it? (Never really understood the name; how isn’t the church honest?) These fellows had caused quite the ruckus from what I’d overheard, killing inspectors left and right in these parts. I really do forget such important details sometimes. In the end the church didn’t want to waste any more resources on them and just decided to deploy only holy knights and priests to the area. They seem fine with those two professions. That’s discrimination! These vile people, with their prejudice on others based on their life choices. Truly despicable; the fact the church let these people remain is astonishing! They obviously aren’t very good people. They interrupted the burning, and even called me filth. These scum have no manners.

“I understand the situation now. It would seem that you fellows have something against punishing heretics? Well, interrupting so rudely just goes to show how uncouth you people are. I wouldn’t so much as give you the time of the day, let alone listen to your angry ranting.” I said. I then turned to the crowd.

“You poor citizens have no doubt been under such tyranny from these fellows, but worry not for Sol is on your side, and in his name I will free you from such bad influences.” I continued.

I then drew my blade, ignoring the blank looks on the citizens’ faces and turned to face my assailants. No doubt this group is deeply rooted into this city, so it’ll take some time to completely wipe them out. Well, luckily for me Yuki is bedridden, so I’ll have plenty of time to save this city from the clutches of evil. Soon they will once again walk under the light of Sol, without this organisation pulling them from the right path.

I’ll have to leave a few alive to interrogate later. Oh, this is going to be fun! First I need to find the rats, then lure them out of their holes. After that the fun truly begins. But how to lure them out… Well, maybe these fellows now running towards me will have some useful snippets of information. It would be perfect if I could find their families; being the direct relations of a heretic will put you under suspicion after all, and I doubt these heretics will just lie around doing nothing while I ‘question’ their spouses and children, hehehe. Well to start with, I need to take out these fellows. With that I ran towards the group, weapon ready and a smile widely plastered across my face under my mask. Fun times; looks like I’ll be putting down some heretics with revolutionary ideas for the next few days!