—That is Deculein. You see him too, don’t you?
A mountain range not far from Bahalla. Hidden in the highlands, Ellie scratched her head as she watched Elesol’s sign language.
“……Yes. I see him. Did something bad happen to you today—”
Smack—! Elesol struck Ellie’s arm. Ellie made a show of looking tearful.
“Ow, that hurt……”
—Does having something bad happen mean you can just make people explode and die?
“……No, but.”
Ellie looked down at the ground again.
Bahalla. A city that was quite troublesome even from the Jeokgwe’s perspective.
They were all heretics who worshiped the Altar, so Ellie and Elesol had, in fact, been dispatched to personally eliminate them.
—It isn’t the first or second time Deculein has shown such cruelty.
Elesol had built a prison of the Jeokgwe’s own beneath the desert. She intended to detain the Altar worshipers there separately.
“But there aren’t any gas chambers in Rohalak. The Professor is keeping his promise, you know?”
—……Enough. You are no different from a clan brainwashed by the Altar. For now, we return. We have already secured the leader’s person.
Elesol signed so, and Ellie looked at Bahalla’s chieftain, who had been tied to a tree and knocked unconscious.
Elesol and Ellie intended to trace the Altar backward using the information inside that man’s head. The only alternatives for the Jeokgwe’s survival were the mutual assured destruction Elesol strongly advocated, or the collapse of the Altar itself.
“Elesol. Let’s watch a little longer.”
—Why.
“……Just because.”
Far away, Ellie gazed at Deculein’s back as he walked with aloof dignity. She murmured with a low laugh.
“I want to look at him a little longer…… Ugh.”
Smack—! This time, Elesol struck Ellie’s head.
Smack—! Smack—! Smack—!
Not just once, but several times, as if beating a gourd dipper.
“Ow, ow, ah, and, and, there are a few more children we need to take with us over there.”
At Ellie’s words, Elesol narrowed her eyes and asked back.
—Take them with us?
“……Yes.”
—What children?
“Just what I said. Innocent children.”
Ellie looked down beneath that earth and let out a small sigh.
* * *
Bahalla’s resistance was dull. No, the Imperial Guard was far too excessive a force. The combat priests that had been reported in advance were half-baked, and the rest were merely religious masses worshiping the Altar.
The latter were no different from civilians.
“Professor. What shall we do with these people?”
It was the words of a knight with one star on his chest. He was asking about the treatment of the thousands of unarmed Jeokgwe taken prisoner.
All the combat priests besides them had been killed. However, unlike before, I had not exploded their entire bodies.
No, it did not work.
To apply 「Telekinesis」 to a human body meant controlling the blood flowing through another person’s veins.
Therefore, it was difficult to burst apart the body of a combat priest who had cultivated mana to some extent and even learned magic resistance. More than that, I had never wanted to do so in the first place. It was a method quite unbecoming of dignity.
“……Deculein?”
Ihelm spoke. I swept my gaze over the faces of the prisoners.
Men and women. Young people and old.
Each had a frightened face, but their composition was quite abnormal.
“How strange.”
“What is?”
I raised my eyes and looked around Bahalla’s village. It had roughly the semblance of a place where people lived. There were many small buildings such as houses, a temple, shops, and a school.
“In this village……”
At that moment, a voice rang out from somewhere, interrupting my words.
“There are no children!”
Everyone turned to look there.
A man with narrow eyes was approaching.
A lofty priest’s robe and black hair combed straight back. An impression so distinctive.
That Named’s name came to mind in an instant. Even without knowledge of the game, he was a fairly famous figure in this world.
“Men, women, the young, the old. They are all here, but only the children are not!”
His name was Roseph. The youngest son of the Mest family, the former emperor’s maternal relatives.
On the day the Empress, that is, his own elder sister, was assassinated, he devoted himself to religion. Now, even for Yukline, he was no easy Named to deal with. Through his family’s backing, he had ties to Sophien, and his own current rank was close to cardinal.
“Am I right?”
His slit eyes curved into arcs. It was a smiling gaze like a fox’s.
“…….”
Ihelm and I looked at him without a word, and he approached with his hands clasped behind his back, then examined the faces of the prisoners.
“Are you afraid?”
The prisoners remained silent, but a small hope took root in their eyes. It was probably because of Roseph’s priestly robes.
A vague and worthless expectation that perhaps a fellow religious man would be different, that perhaps he might save them from these barbarians wielding swords and magic.
“Even as you tremble in such fear, the hearts with which you have hidden away the children are admirable to me.”
At those words, one of the prisoners unconsciously nodded. Roseph did not miss it and smiled brightly.
“Yes. There are children.”
Roseph murmured so and looked at me.
“Search them out.”
The prisoners’ bodies trembled violently.
His face was always filled with a smile, and his tone and voice seemed to imitate benevolence itself, but what lay within him was impossible to know—a sinister man.
The most exclusionary religious man on the continent.
Roseph was that sort of Named.
“Ah. Do you intend to take all these prisoners with you? I think it would be better to kill them quickly and bury them underground.”
Underground. At that word, one prisoner threw himself flat as if in a seizure.
“Please, please, at least the children……! The children have done nothing—”
“They have.”
Roseph cut him off gently.
“You made them so.”
His voice was still full of warmth.
“You bear the sin of having bewitched children with false faith. False faith is more wicked than having no religion at all, and thus, merely believing it becomes a great sin.”
Sentences that continued as if in baptism.
“You passed that sin down to your children. And your children, too, will pass that sin on to future generations.”
The prisoners looked up at him with dazed eyes.
“I have a duty to cut off that inheritance of evil.”
In an instant, a dagger surged out from Roseph’s sleeve. The blade pierced the throat of the prisoner who had been saying, “Please forgive the children,” and—
“Ghk!”
The prisoner collapsed with a death rattle. Roseph turned back to the knights.
“What are you doing? Did I not say there are sinners beneath the ground?”
“Ah, yes.”
The knights each pressed their ears to the ground. With their keen senses, they would be able to identify the location of the hiding place from even the slightest vibration.
“Stop.”
I restrained them. Roseph and the knights blinked and looked at me.
“Stand up.”
One by one, the knights rose. Ihelm, too, tilted his head with a strange expression.
“……Professor?”
Roseph asked back. I glanced sidelong at him and bent one knee.
I placed my hand on the ground. The advanced 「Iron Man」 clearly felt the presences trembling underground.
I infused mana through it.
“Hey, Deculein. What are you planning to—”
─────────!
I shook the crust. I dug through the gaps between plates and plates, fragments and fragments, and collapsed the core.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwang──!
The result was a great earthquake akin to a bombardment.
With a thunderous roar of pillars and foundations being smashed apart, all of Bahalla’s facilities collapsed. Houses, shops, the school, farmland, tents, wells, stables…… all of them were swallowed beneath the earth, and in barely a minute, they turned into a devastated wasteland of dust and rubble.
“This should be enough.”
I looked at Roseph.
“…….”
He blinked blankly. After looking around at Bahalla, now reduced to chaos, he gave a small nod.
“……Yes. Indeed, a sight befitting divine punishment. The children, too, must have departed peacefully while bearing their sins.”
“You——!”
At that moment, one of the prisoners lunged as if in a fit. Of course, he could not take even a single step. A guard knight cut off his head.
Thud—
The man’s head rolled limply. A face twisted with despair and rage.
Roseph looked at that face, still smiling, then clapped.
“As expected, Professor, you are just as I heard. A model for the generation. One who eradicates apostasy—”
I cut off his words and turned my back on Bahalla.
“We return. There is nothing more to do in this filthy land.”
* * *
On the road back from Bahalla. It was late at night, and we stopped for a while in a large city called Makan.
“This place never changes whenever I come here. Don’t you think? Back when we were at the academy, we came here on a field trip.”
I simply ignored Ihelm’s chatter.
He clicked his tongue and changed the subject.
“Hey, but doesn’t that bastard kind of creep you out? What kind of priest uses a dagger?”
Roseph. That man, who had joined us as if he were part of the group and was naturally following along, was walking while greeting every resident he met with a clear smile.
“We will be seeing him often from now on.”
The closer we drew to the latter half of the main quest, the more entangled we became with the Jeokgwe and the Altar.
In some quests, he was a man who slaughtered ten thousand Jeokgwe at once.
“Is that so? Well, I guess he is still His Majesty’s relative. Even if he cut ties with his family.”
As we walked along the road like that, I noticed a potbellied man in the distance. The nameless potbellied man approached the front of our group, pointed at me, and said that he had something to tell me.
Afterward, a guard knight came and relayed it to me.
“Professor. That person says he has something to say. Shall we send him away as is—”
“No. Tell him to come. The rest of you go ahead.”
“Yes.”
The group entered the hotel first, and I remained alone to face the potbellied man.
The man smiled while dripping sweat. I looked him over from his face down to his feet.
“What is it?”
“……I have something to report.”
“Speak.”
“Yes. There is a mansion in this city hiding a group of Jeokgwe.”
Sure enough, he seemed to be an informant.
* * *
“This is the place.”
In the middle of the city, a not particularly large mansion. There was a shop on the first floor, and only the second floor was a residential space.
It was the place to which the potbellied man, who introduced himself as Jack, had guided me.
“I will go in first.”
“Yes, yes. Of course, haha.”
I examined the exterior, then walked slowly. I did not enter the building, but instead chose a small passage at the back.
“…….”
Beyond the passage was a cramped lawn. A worn doll, a ball rolling along, and an old dog running toward the ball.
Pant, pant, pant—
The dog stopped going toward the ball, changed course, and approached me. It seemed to like people, but perhaps because it was sick, even breathing looked difficult for it.
Then.
“Relin~ You have to bring the ball…… Huh.”
A small, pretty voice.
I turned to look there, and the child there saw me and stopped in surprise.
“…….”
The child was ordinary. Though she might grow up to be beautiful far in the future, right now, she was simply as ordinarily cute as an ordinary child her age.
However, the child turned deathly pale upon seeing me.
Perhaps it was because of the many medals plastered all over my uniform, and because my face had already been circulated as much as it could be.
“Is that dog yours?”
I asked first. The child broke into a cold sweat and answered haltingly.
“N…… no. Um…… the landlord……”
“Do you live here?”
“That’s……”
“Is the dog’s name Relin?”
“……Yes.”
“It suits him. If he grows fatter from here, it will suit him even more.”
I looked at the child. A small child who did not even reach my chest. In her arms was a book.
“Do you like books?”
“……Pardon? Ah…… yes……”
“Do you know me?”
“……Yes.”
I nodded.
It was not a very pleasant thing to be an object of fear even to a child like this.
“How many people live inside?”
“……Pardon?”
“How many people live here?”
I looked at the child’s face again. The child opened her mouth, gaping.
“……Five, six……”
“Tell me honestly.”
Tears gathered around her eyes. Her legs were already trembling, and her bangs were already damp with sweat.
She was in midsummer all by herself.
“Ten…… eight……”
“Nineteen people live in this small mansion.”
“…….”
This child was probably Jeokgwe. I did not know why she had come outside.
Whether she was worried about a dog old enough to be nearly dying, or whether she thought there would be no questioning here.
However, this child had not been brainwashed by the Altar. There was none of the Altar’s unique magical doctrine or spell upon her.
……If there had been even the smallest trace of the Altar, would I have killed this child?
“Nineteen, is it.”
I looked at the mansion again. It was far too cramped for nineteen people to live in.
“N-no. Not nineteen…… nine people.”
I looked at the child, who belatedly corrected herself, then let out a faint sneer. The child trembled.
“Do you like books?”
"……Yes, yes. This is…… a diary."
"A diary."
I watched the child from afar. If I approached, the child would only be frightened.
I gave the ball with Telekinesis and tucked a book into the child's arms.
"Ah."
"You appear to have a talent for magic."
"……Yes?"
Talent is something that can be seen even with the Naked Eye. It is the simplest application, and this child's magical talent is clearly visible.
Above all, since the child is keeping a "diary."
"Go inside. There will be a blood test soon, so it would be best not to come outside for a while. It would be better to burrow underground, if anything."
"……Yes?"
I turned around without another word. I could feel the child's gaze, but I did not look back.
"Ah, Professor. Did you verify?"
Jack, who had been outside, waddled into the alley.
I nodded.
"……Then you must know. Those brats are definitely Jeokgwe—"
"How did you know?"
I cut the man off and asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Identifying Jeokgwe by appearance should be a gamble. Did someone tell you?"
"……Ah, n-no. No. It's just suspicious. Why would they hide—"
"How did you know they live in hiding?"
News of Betan's invention of blood magic has not yet been made public.
"That is…… I……."
I looked at the man's face, his expression, the movements of his pupils and irises.
"I found out through my own investigation…… but they are definitely Jeokgwe. Don't they look like it?"
He is lying.
"Is that so."
"Yes. That is correct!"
I pointed to the holster at the man's waist.
"Is that a revolver?"
"Excuse me? Ah, yes. I used to do some vigilante work, you see."
I drew the revolver with Telekinesis. Opening the cylinder, live rounds were loaded inside.
Click—
I pulled back the hammer and asked.
"What do you want by reporting Jeokgwe?"
"What I want is, well…… haha. Ah, it's fine. Actually, I am currently preparing to run in the city mayoral election……."
I looked around.
Thanks to this man coming into the alley, there were no prying eyes.
"You said your name was Jack."
"Yes."
"I will ask just one thing."
I cast Silence magic over the area. So that no sound could leak out.
"Do you worship the Altar? Did the Altar speak to you?"
I asked thus. For an instant, Jack's eyes trembled violently.
"Haha…… how could that be."
The man laughed, denying it, but his body spoke the truth.
There was no need to hesitate.
I pulled the trigger.
——.
The bullet, fired without a sound, pierced between the man's eyebrows. His bulky body scraped against the wall and collapsed, and I placed the revolver down beside him.
"Worthless worm."
Since the trash had been properly disposed of, all that remained was to leave.
…….
"…."
Ellesol stood with her mouth blankly agape. Somewhat confused, she sorted through the sequence of events she had just witnessed.
Deculein.
He had arrived at the mansion where several Jeokgwe children were staying, through a report from some fatty. There, he had met a child.
Indigo hair and dark skin. A child born with characteristics befitting a Jeokgwe.
Though no one who saw them would think them Jeokgwe, it was a child who would undoubtedly be subjected to a Jeokgwe inspection if they caught Betan's eye.
But did Deculein think the child was not Jeokgwe?
Or did he let the child go, knowing full well, in order to capture them all at once?
He exchanged only trivial conversation with the child…… and rather gave a book as a gift before leaving, while instead killing Jack, who had reported them.
"…."
Unconsciously, Ellesol moved her fingers. It was an instinctive act of sign language.
Such was how questionable the situation was.
Just then.
"What are you doing?"
Elli, who had appeared at some point, placed a hand on her shoulder. Ellesol flinched like a cat.
Then she glared at Elli and moved her hands.
—Do you want to die. Where were you.
"I went to get the kids."
—The kids.
Ellesol furrowed her brow, and Elli smiled brightly.
"Yes. The kids."
—Where.
"Where else. Bahalla."
—Bahalla.
"Yes."
At that, the furrow between Ellesol's brows twisted into a grimace.
—Didn't Deculein kill them all.
"No. Kill them all, you say."
Elli answered softly and shook her head.
"They were covered in quite a lot of dirt, but the children are safe."
—…..
It was another unbelievable statement.
Anyone who had seen the earthquake Deculein caused would have thought the children underground were dead—even a passing dog or pig would have thought so.
—How.
"The Professor always keeps his word once spoken."
—…..
"The Professor told me that children, above all, are without any sin. So, there was no need to kill them. Because they are without sin."
At that, Ellesol turned her head.
Down that alley. Deculein was already gone, but Jack's corpse lay sprawled there.
Ellesol pointed at it.
—Elli. Dispose of that corpse.
"That corpse?"
—Yes.
"Where…… ah. Yes."
Elli strode over using Gait and was just about to move the corpse when.
Suddenly.
She discovered a certain note placed beneath Jack's feet.
"…."
Gazing at that sentence, Elli blinked. Strangely, her chest felt hot, and the area near her eyes grew moist.
Like when she had cut an onion wrong.
[Elli. I still remember your name.]
The reason for it, Elli still does not know.
Because to her, something called 'emotion' is faint.