35.
After that, we exchanged idle chatter now and then, and before I knew when, I had fallen asleep.
When I woke from my light sleep, Jaka was not beside me.
I pushed aside Jaka’s jacket that had been covering me and got up.
Jaka was standing pressed close to the doorway.
When I approached, Jaka’s expression was anything but ordinary.
‘What’s wrong?’
When I mouthed the words, Jaka pulled me behind him.
‘Something’s strange.’
‘What is?’
Instead of answering, Jaka opened the door ever so slightly and gestured with his chin.
There wasn’t the slightest sign of the guards.
If so, now was the best chance to slip out.
‘Did they go to change shifts?’
‘No.’
‘Then?’
‘They all suddenly rushed toward the entrance.’
Agreeing with Jaka’s reason for being cautious, I quietly clicked my tongue.
I could have conveniently assumed it was simply because dawn had broken and business was over, but,
we had come too far in to use the excuse that we had gotten drunk and taken a wrong turn.
In other words, we needed to be careful so that we would not be discovered no matter what.
It was then.
Someone came rushing frantically into the room.
With his back to the storage room where we were hiding, the man swept all sorts of documents and ledgers onto the floor, then began pouring oil over them.
The pile of books caught at once, as if flames had leapt onto it.
On top of it, the man was dumping glass bottles in a clatter.
Every time a glass bottle burst with a crack, acrid smoke billowed up.
‘The evidence!’
I had been planning to grab something that could serve as evidence when we ran, and I bit my lip.
For some reason, an ominous feeling came over me.
It was then.
From far away came a thunderous bang! and suddenly, noisy shouts and the clamor of a dozen or more people colliding as they ran poured in from all sides.
I didn’t know for certain, but it seemed the final barrier had been breached.
The situation was clear.
A battle was taking place not far from where we were.
Everyone had rushed there, which was why the corridor we were in had been empty.
I couldn’t rashly identify those who had attacked the heretics, but…….
If it was connected to the incident at the hunting festival, could it be the duke?
I decided what I had to do above all else right now.
I signaled to Jaka with my eyes.
Then I immediately opened the door and struck the back of the man’s head, who was shoving all sorts of things into the flames to burn them, with a candlestick.
The man let out a short death cry of “Urk!” and collapsed, unconscious.
There was no way there would be water nearby.
I grabbed some stranger’s coat lying around nearby and tried desperately to put out the flames.
When Jaka, who had followed me out with an incredulous look, joined in, the flames began to subside little by little.
But since quite a lot had already burned and I was in a hurry, I kicked the documents lying at the edge of the fire out of it.
The toe of my shoe burned hot.
“Ow, hot.”
Jaka glared at me as if looking at a madwoman, then picked up something like an iron skewer from somewhere and dragged out the documents that had not yet fully burned.
It was then.
Jaka’s body swayed, and he suddenly pulled me into his arms.
When I struggled, Jaka covered my mouth and nose and hurriedly retreated from the flames.
“What’s wrong?”
Jaka jerked his chin toward the glass bottles that had shattered to pieces and were collapsing in the heat.
Only then did I realize.
I had been continuously breathing in the smoke rising from those chemicals as they burned.
Even in that brief moment, the strength in Jaka’s arm around my shoulders was growing stronger and stronger.
I could feel that he was having trouble keeping himself upright.
Compared to Jaka, there was still nothing particularly wrong with me, so I held up his arm and supported him.
With my foot, I pushed the documents we had barely saved toward the wall while taking Jaka toward the entrance.
The flames rising behind my back made the back of my head burn hot.
It seemed I would have to take Jaka outside first, then come back in for the documents.
I sat Jaka down in the corridor and turned around, but a hand seized mine.
“Where are you… going…….”
“Even if we’re going to run, we have to take the evidence!”
“No.”
Jaka gripped my wrist painfully tight.
“You must not get involved with the heretics.”
“What are you saying at this point?”
Just then.
The fine hairs at the nape of my neck rose with a chilling sensation.
I very slowly turned my head upward.
Someone had a sword pointed at my neck.
“Heretics? Or…….”
It was fortunate that, upon seeing Jaka’s and my attire, he had the slightest doubt.
Just as I was about to quickly explain, Jaka, who had been lying slanted on the corridor floor, suddenly surged with some unknown strength and sprang forward as swift as a beast.
Toward the man pointing a sword at me, that is.
“Jaka!”
The man failed to react in the moment and was pushed back several steps, but he did not panic and swung his sword.
Jaka twisted his body, offering his waist to the blade at the same time as he burrowed into the man’s arms, and went straight for the man’s throat…….
“No, don’t!”
“…….”
“Who are you?”
The man raised his eyebrows at me, clinging to Jaka’s back like a leech and hugging his head.
With his vision blocked because of me, Jaka staggered backward.
“We are not heretics.”
Perhaps he had an instinctive sense that he had nearly been in danger, for the man’s sharp gaze turned to Jaka, then returned to me.
Somehow…… he looked as if he knew me.
Even though I was seeing him for the first time.
Cold sweat broke out on me.
Even to my untrained eyes, Jaka’s movements had been truly extraordinary.
What would I have done if the man in front of us had actually died?
A chill ran through my heart.
“……Are you a paladin?”
“I am.”
The man who had pointed a sword at me was clad in plate armor, and beneath it, white, neatly arranged clothing without any pattern hung long.
Moreover, with the Great Temple’s emblem engraved on the hilt of his sword and the silver mantle draped around him, he was unmistakably a paladin.
“What is this man?”
“My attendant…… and bodyguard, something like my hands and feet. He acted because you pointed a sword at me, so I ask that you be lenient.”
I slid down from Jaka’s back and landed on the floor.
The moment strength entered my thigh, a dizzying pain surged up, and Jaka, noticing it like a ghost, grabbed my arm and supported me.
Even at a glance, Jaka’s breathing was uneven.
The focus in both his eyes kept blurring and returning.
“Are you all right?”
“……My lord.”
“I’m fine.”
I wondered if Jaka had inhaled a lot while making such a fuss putting out the fire earlier.
Or was the little bit of wine he had accidentally drunk earlier, though he had spat it back out, becoming a problem belatedly?
In any case, it was a blessing amid misfortune that at least I was fine.
“Baron? Are you Baron Roxan?”
“……I am.”
“Why on earth are you here……. No. For now, come with me.”
The man looked Jaka up and down, then returned his sword to its scabbard.
“Wait a moment.”
I pointed into the room, where smoke was beginning to creep out into the corridor, and said,
“This is their base. Someone came and was hurriedly burning materials and evidence, so I knocked him unconscious, but…….”
“…….”
“If the fire isn’t put out and is left as it is, everything will burn.”
The paladin looked around the room, and perhaps after confirming the documents I had moved over by the wall, the look he gave us softened ever so slightly from before.
He called loudly for his comrades, then ordered them to put out the fire in the room and preserve the documents.
“Wait. It would be best to take care not to inhale the smoke. We burned over a dozen boxes of vials containing unknown drugs along with it.”
He showed little reaction to my words, but he relayed them as they were and cautioned the knights.
Then he personally led us across the corridor.
“Where are we going?”
“……”
“My attendant… and guard is unwell. Could he receive treatment first?”
“……”
“I know that those suspected of heresy are addicting people to drugs for the purpose of increasing their followers.”
“……”
“Then the Great Temple must surely have prepared an antidote. Considering our contribution in preserving evidence, at least…”
“I have no authority. Just follow quietly.”
I had no choice but to shut my mouth.
Jaka’s condition was growing worse and worse.
It had been the same during the Hunting Festival, and I was starting to worry that he might suddenly attack someone, like that man I had seen here.
I was the one who had dragged him all the way here, yet I was perfectly fine, while Jaka, who had merely played along with me, was the only one slipping in and out of his senses. It weighed heavily on my mind.
When we descended one floor, paladins were stationed everywhere.
There were corpses visible here and there, so, not wanting to be startled for no reason, I fixed my gaze on the back of the paladin walking ahead of us.
If we failed to prove our innocence, the end awaiting us might not be so different from theirs.
After all, the Great Temple was famous for showing not the slightest mercy in matters related to heresy.
The paladin brought us before a middle-aged man who appeared to be the captain.
He was standing in front of the empty stage in the central hall, and when he turned his head and spotted us, he frowned.
“What is this?”
“We found civilians during the search.”
“On what basis did you judge them to be civilians?”
From the paladin’s hesitation, I realized he had no answer prepared.
Even if he did, it would amount to nothing more than a feeble excuse.
I quickly stepped forward.
Leaving myself aside, I couldn’t let Jaka die an untimely death in a place this dark and stifling.
When the captain’s gaze settled on me, I immediately lowered my head in greeting.
If he was the captain of the paladins of the Great Temple, then I, a mere baron, was actually the one of lower status.
“I am Baron Anastasia Roxan.”
“And?”
“We, too, infiltrated this place under orders. I ask that you make a wise judgment.”
“If you received orders, then from whom, exactly?”
I pressed my lips together, then lifted my lowered eyes and looked straight at him.
“Duke Gladineer.”
There was only one name I could invoke before the captain of the paladins.