A Baby?

Demon.

The interpretation varies depending on the faction, but most use it in a negative sense.

“…I don’t know if demons really exist, but if such things do exist, I feel sorry for that person called Arian.”

Celia expressed her thoughts to Joseph, who mentioned that existence.

“If she was really possessed by a demon, it’s essentially no different from eliminating a hostage along with the villain while calling them a collaborator.”

“It’s not punishment. If it’s judged that there was no free will, we should protect her until she’s completely purified. It’s a response that clearly falls under humane management.”

“It might be humane. But for a religious person, acknowledging being possessed by a demon is no different from a death sentence.”

A muttering continued in a stiff voice.

Joseph’s gaze, who stopped his steps at that voice, gradually began to turn towards the sky.

The sky as gloomy as his eyes.

“…It seems you don’t like our policy, Setsuha-san.”

“Personally, that’s right. I’m someone who thinks that things that can’t exist in this world simply can’t exist.”

It wasn’t just because she had been oppressed by the order.

Her husband was also religious, but more than that, he had a strong identity as a doctor.

“…That’s natural.”

“Yes, it’s really natural.”

Not being able to comprehend something that exists is simply because one doesn’t understand its principles.

As her husband’s theory was that everything in the world can be interpreted mathematically, she, who loved him, was also following that teaching.

“But religious people often try to deny that obvious thing, don’t they? While affirming unbelievable things in myths, they try to deny without logic what’s happening right in front of them…”

“……..”

“…Judging by your silence, it seems you’re aware of it.”

A statement that anyone would be careful with, considering it blasphemy.

But she felt no hesitation in uttering those words.

Because even congenital disabilities that were known as curses because they couldn’t be treated with divine power were realized to be treatable through drugs or surgical procedures.

Even what’s happening now might be a situation that can be logically explained, yet they thoughtlessly consider it the work of a demon.

Isn’t it truly abominable from the perspective of someone who was the target of their oppression?

“…Setsuha-san.”

Joseph, who had been silent as if deep in thought about her opinion, quietly opened his mouth.

It was after much time had passed.

“Do you think that if it’s the truth, anything should be revealed?”

“…What do you mean?”

“I asked if you deny the necessity of lies that contain good intentions.”

Lies with good intentions.

It might be a contradictory phrase, but the one uttering it was none other than a clergyman.

“…It would depend on whether that good intention elicits sympathy from many people.”

“Yes, that’s right. And the society we live in can be said to be maintained while weighing that point and mixing truth and lies.”

Sometimes shocking truths can cause not only social confusion but even the collapse of the leadership.

Therefore, even if one tells a lie, if there is a ‘greater cause’ in it, an implicit rule is formed where forgiveness can be received from the public.

“Lagrid too… We don’t hesitate to conceal truths or tell lies to maintain order.”

Moreover, religion is premised on the worship of illusions from its very foundation.

For those who have already achieved results by claiming falsehoods as truth, staying away from lies themselves would be nothing but hypocrisy.

If not other believers, he, as an inquisitor, had such awareness.

“…You take on that role, is that it?”

“That’s right, because not every believer needs to be prepared for such things.”

Those who believe in God must believe themselves to be noble, both to the public and to themselves.

Inquisitors were those who were prepared to walk the opposite path to protect the light of such people.

They even acquire impure knowledge to punish the impure.

Furthermore, they are beings who don’t hesitate to do any dirty and cruel thing to set an example.

“…Let me recite a past record for a moment.”

What follows from now on.

It was a story about an incident that became the catalyst for worshipping lies for someone who decided to become such a ‘necessary evil’.

---

“Ten years ago from now… At that time, I was working as an attendant, helping with the expedition team that was making pilgrimages to various parts of the empire.”

Even during war, there’s a need to appease the uneasy public sentiment.

Especially since Lagrid was designated as the state religion of the empire, that role could be said to be very important.

“Then, when we stopped at a certain village, I came across a strange piece of news. It was news that one of the virgins in the village had conceived a child.”

“…Just like now?”

“The person at that time wasn’t a clergy, but it was said that her belly had swollen even though she hadn’t had relations with anyone.”

As weight gradually crept into his words.

Joseph continued his reminiscence in the rain-soaked street.

“Honestly, I didn’t believe it at first. Unlike a convent, the place where she was wasn’t closed off, and meetings with men were free. As there was no circumstantial evidence to prove that her claim of not having had relations was true, the order members didn’t take her desperation seriously.”

Conceiving a child is only possible through intercourse between a man and a woman.

That’s a fact proven even by medical cases that began to gain attention during the war, and Joseph, who had free access to knowledge as an inquisitor, was also confident that this at least was absolutely correct.

“Yes, the purification ritual that took place at that time was a kind of rebuke towards a woman who had committed impurity, and was used as a pretext for evangelism.”

The purification ritual wasn’t anything special.

It just gathered the people there, surrounded the target person, and infused divine power…

The aim was to show everyone there that the impurity of that person was being purified by receiving holy power.

“…Even though you’re religious, you perform showy rituals?”

“Even if it’s showy, we did it sincerely. We hoped that the woman who was seriously denying her sin would repent, and that the people watching her would see the light we held and gain faith in Lagrid.”

What does it matter if it’s just a shell?

Even that, if done sincerely, becomes faith, and by shaping it, one can grasp the miraculous power that cures all diseases.

“Yes. Sincerely… I hoped that everything would be resolved well with that ritual at that time.”

It’s not a lie.

Even at this moment, he believed without doubt that everyone there, including himself, had prayed with an upright heart at that time.

“Without knowing that her words were true.”

Not knowing how such sincerity would be distorted.

“…It was true?”

“Yes, looking back, there was no lie in what she said. I know this because we investigated the village after the ritual… There were almost no traces of men in places she might have gone.”

She lived a life mostly confined to her home because she was supporting her sick father, and the only person she encountered was her mother who went out to work.

Her father, whose lower body was already paralyzed, was in a state where he could barely manage his body.

Nevertheless, there were no traces such as hair or footprints, including those of family members, in the house.

“She was essentially someone who had never been with anyone, but why did her belly swell? And why did her belly, which had accepted divine power, gradually start to swell?”

“It swelled…”

“Yes, there was something in her belly that responded to divine power.”

Yes, from the moment the woman accepted divine power, she began to express pain.

The religious people who didn’t know the reason just kept infusing divine power.

The more they did, the louder the screams grew, and what existed in the woman’s womb became more agitated.

“And in the end, it came out into the world. Tearing its mother’s belly that had conceived it…”

Celia’s body trembled with a start.

“Tearing, the belly? A baby with its own hands?”

“A baby?”

Eyes wide open.

The blood vessels, faded with fatigue, were dyeing those eyeballs a pale color.

“No, that wasn’t a baby. No one there could consider it human.”

There’s no way a perfect creation made by God would look like that.

“Bones were protruding from various parts of the blood-soaked body. There were legs where arms should be, and ears attached where legs should be. Something like a heart was pulsating in the groin, and the whole body was even covered in hair. Where there should have been skin, black-dyed hair was sprouting thickly.”

Joseph remembered everything he had seen at that time.

The horrific monstrosity that revealed its presence before them, wriggling its body covered in blood and black hair…

Something so ugly and filthy that he had never seen before.

“But the most hideous thing was the sound that came when what was presumed to be a mouth opened. A scream like the death throes of a goat…”

-Kkaageukgeukgeuk, geugeukgeuk, geukgeuk

“Such an ominous sound echoed among the frozen crowd.”

Rain still pouring down heavily.

At the same time, light flashed through the wind blowing in, and his face, wet with rain, began to be clearly illuminated.

“Everyone watched speechless as something writhed on top of the mother’s belly. Even the clergy with noble hearts were at a loss for words and terrified at the hideous sight they had never seen before.”

Sunken cheeks on a haggard face with wide-open eyes. Breathing that felt rough despite attempts to control it.

All of these combined to create an emotion that could clearly be called fear.

“At that time, someone cried out.”

As this recollection accompanied by such emotions was coming to an end.

“It’s a demon, a demon has parasitized that woman’s body. Son born of heaven, followers who follow him, please purify that blasphemous thing.”

The thunderclap that followed resounded with a boom, shaking the entire city.

Yet, not a single tremor was visible on his body.

It would be the same even if lightning struck that body. No shock could compare to the moment when he witnessed the demon tearing out of its mother’s belly.

“…That being.”

Still in the pouring rain.

The man, just recalling helplessly the time of despair, continued speaking.

“Afterwards, just by exposing it to light for the purpose of purification, it convulsed as if in pain and eventually stopped moving.”

“That…”

“Yes, because it was exposed to holy light. Everyone there at the time believes without doubt that it was purified. But I still recall it repeatedly even now.”

Yes, he too had been keeping that in mind.

“Was it really a demon?”

Maybe it wasn’t really a demon, but just…

“Was it just ‘a being that came into the world incomplete’?”

Just a being that had been dormant in her body for some reason, just an unfortunate existence that wasn’t recognized as life.

The bizarre cry it let out at that time…

That it was due to the pain arising in the process of moving towards completeness because it was born imperfectly.

“…Whatever it was, everyone at that time was confused.”

But such truth doesn’t matter.

No, rather, acknowledging the truth itself is no different from denying what they’ve believed until now.

“Everyone wanted someone to clearly sort out what that thing was, and as soon as it was defined as a demon, everyone unanimously followed. Just by considering that being as something to be denied and rightfully eliminated, peace came.”

Even just by denying, confusion arises, someone , someone gets angry.

Thus, without even having the leisure to explore the newly arising questions, those who couldn’t understand each other even prepared for conflict…

What such people who have given up on understanding the world need is not a process proven through countless words, but a concise answer.

“…So it can’t be helped. This.”

Still, someday it will get better.

Even the inquisitors who used to hate heretics now have open minds towards external cultures.

“Someday, even that will be accepted… but not now. The people of this era are not yet prepared to handle what I saw.”

The only frustrating thing is that it won’t be realized in his generation.

-Splash.

Joseph, having finished the conversation, drooped his tired face and continued walking the path he was about to take.

A very shabby and pitiful… powerless appearance that’s hard to see as an inquisitor who habitually carries out cruel punishments.

Celia, who had been quietly staring at that figure, then began to follow behind him with her arms crossed.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t they say it was 5 years ago that the modifier “heretic” was removed?’

Surely there must have been those who insisted on maintaining it at that time, and it’s obvious that many sacrifices must have followed to suppress the opposition.

Although it doesn’t show on the surface, the inside of the order must be in a precarious state.

In such a situation, a believer who conceived a demon in a virgin body, just like in the past, has appeared. Isn’t it a situation where even the most noble believer wouldn’t find it strange to think that ruin has come?

‘Is even the order that oppressed us so much gradually crumbling?’

Isn’t it funny?

Even that order, which was no different from being a minion of the tyrannical emperor, is gradually crumbling, unable to withstand the passage of time.

Nevertheless, is it because they consider such a path a trial, or is it just lingering attachment?

“Bishop Joseph.”

At least one thing was clear.

Whatever it is, at this moment, it’s not just one person walking the path of ruin.

“As you said, the investigation of this area is complete.”

“…Good work. Let’s exchange information and depart immediately.”

With this brief exchange, they arrived at a plaza.

Under the dark sky still pouring with rain, nearly a hundred shadows were gathered there.

People all wearing rosaries with stakes nailed to crosses.

“Believers of Lagrid. Fear not sin.”

The one leading them quietly began to recite a prayer.

“Our master ascended to heaven embracing all original sin, so we too, following that path… will embrace the sins that someone must bear, and erode the chaos of this world.”

In the dawn hours when everyone is asleep.

In the cold streets without a point of light, the radiance shining from their bodies begins to illuminate the plaza.

“Everything is to pass on the name of the noble saint to future generations… We will be prepared not to be saved.”

So shabby that it could be swallowed by the lightning filling the sky.

Nevertheless, lights that could be called faith.