Chapter 131: The Nun Is Suspicious – 4

Chapter 131: The Nun Is Suspicious – 4

“A report?”

“Yes. The Mother Superior filed a report. She said there were suspicious circumstances, Saintess-nim.”

“……I don’t understand what kind of suspicion would lead to this, for me, who hasn’t even been in the Holy Kingdom for a day?”

“…Several cardinals also agreed to this matter. Comply. It’s an order.”

The inquisitors, who had been using a somewhat submissive tone with the Saintess, changed to a cold tone the moment they spoke to me.

No, rather than cold… it was something closer to contempt.

The instinctive contempt that emerges when speaking to something utterly insignificant.

The inquisitor commander I met before, perhaps because he was a captain, managed to hide such vulgar emotions well, but these guys didn’t seem capable of it.

“You don’t have to openly drip with hostility; it’s already obvious you don’t like me, you know?”

“…Tsk, first, we’ll have to fix that mouth of yours. Saintess-nim? We request your cooperation.”

“……Are you sure?”

“Of course. If there’s any misunderstanding in the report, we will immediately return her to you, Saintess-nim.”

The inquisitor answered, but the Saintess’s eyes and mouth were directed squarely at me.

…Whether it was a question of if I was okay with being dragged away by the inquisitors, or if I was okay with what would happen after being dragged away,

Or even… if it was a question of whether it was okay not to beat up those inquisitors, the answer was that any of them were fine.

……Hmm, I feel a strong urge to smash that inquisitor’s face with a greatsword, the one who’s acting like he’s some big shot, but anyway, I’m fine.

‘Ria, if I cause a ruckus here, how far can I go?’

*’With you now… well? Unless the Pope and the Hero, or their personal guards, step in, you’d probably effortlessly crush all the order’s forces?’*

‘……? Me? No, I expected to be stronger, but that strong?’

*’Until now, potions were generally for individual combat in terms of range or power, but now they clearly have enough power to affect even strong individuals, and a range effective enough for large-scale battles.

Imagine dropping meteors here, several at once. Do you think these guys could handle it? Even the Hero felt her life threatened, and the Holy Sword was forced to lend its power, you know?’*

‘I’m really confused now about whether the Hero and the Holy Sword are that amazing…’

*’……I deeply sympathize, but anyway, you’re now clearly entering the ranks of the strong in terms of combat power in this world. But why are you asking?’*

Why else? If things go wrong, I’ll have to cause a ruckus, smash this cathedral, and make a run for it.

Even so, I doubt they’d kill me, being the Saintess’s direct nun whom she first summoned… but if such a situation, or one equivalent to it, arises, I will unhesitatingly destroy the cathedral and escape.

I’m sorry to the Saintess, and to Christie, who will be waiting in the Holy Kingdom at my request… but that’s that, and my life is precious.

‘But, setting aside the inquisitors, why some cardinals…?’

That obnoxious inquisitor clearly said that several cardinals also agreed to my arrest.

However, according to what the Saintess told me, there was only one cardinal involved with the inquisitors.

…So, why the others?

“Oh, by the way, Saintess-nim must be very distressed. A nun you just brought in is receiving an heresy report.”

“…I believe the report must be mistaken.”

“Of course, the Mother Superior cherishes you, Saintess-nim, so it might just be out of over-caution… but that will be confirmed soon enough.”

……To my chagrin, the inquisitor blabbered out the obvious answer.

The cardinals also disliked the Saintess.

However, unlike the Mother Superior, who, though crude, hated the Saintess based on her own religious logic, these guys were simply dissatisfied with the current situation where the Saintess didn’t listen to them.

Anyway, they were rotten in various and diverse ways.

“I’ll be right back, Saintess-nim.”

“…Be careful, in many ways.”

The Saintess’s voice trembled slightly.

……It seemed she was worried about me in many ways, just as she said.

I guess fighting and imprisoning the inquisitor commander in an imperial prison had been quite intense.

Receiving concern, yet feeling strangely detached from it, I followed the inquisitors down to the interrogation room in the basement.

***

In the musty, gloomy underground interrogation room, a faint scent of blood lingered.

Since the inquisitors wouldn’t be so tired as to be bleeding from their noses everywhere, it was clear at a glance that this was a place for torture.

Indeed, the miraculous alchemy of creating heresy where none existed seemed to require quite a bit of blood.

“Ugh.”

“As much as I’d like to get right to work… but since you’re a nun personally designated by the Saintess, I’ll give you a little time.”

I was scoffing at the scene, which was clearly unholy and openly screamed ‘I’m a torture chamber,’ when suddenly my body shot up into the air and then dropped to the floor.

…Meaning that inquisitor had simply thrown me to the ground.

And, as his own idea of consideration, he said he’d give me time to confess, ‘I am a heretic.’

*’Strictly speaking, aren’t you a heretic? You have no faith in God, let alone disregard all the laws He created.’*

‘…Are you really making jokes in this situation?’

*’Why not? All that guy’s torture involves is using divine power, and it doesn’t really work on you anyway.’*

*’Tsk, tsk… Since when did those who should judge and decide with solemnity according to God’s command become those who fabricate testimonies… Tsk, tsk, tsk.’*

……Leaving the Holy Sword, whose old-man instincts seemed to have flared up since coming to the cathedral, behind, I chewed on Ria’s words.

…They weren’t exactly wrong.

As long as these guys were using divine power, it was truly difficult for them to pose a threat to my life.

Therefore, I simply stared back at the inquisitor without saying a word.

“……It seems it won’t work just like that, will it? It looks like we’ll have to resort to ‘re-education’ to make you listen.”

“That ‘re-education’ isn’t, by any chance, that shoddy divine power whip you just made, is it? I hope not?”

Of course, I didn’t deeply consider whether it was truly shoddy, nor did I deeply analyze it, but anyway, it was shoddy.

Why?

Because it was obvious it wouldn’t cause any real harm to this body anyway.

……Of course, if I were hit by it, my mood and dignity might suffer a slight injury.

“If it is, I’ll commend you for having extorted so many false confessions with it.”

“…Huh, are you insulting us now?”

“Why? Since your captain disappeared, your power has weakened, your influence has waned, and what you can get has decreased… so you needed some achievements, didn’t you?”

“That’s ridiculous. Was she not a nun, but a delusional patient?”

“Isn’t it true? You can tell just by the scent of blood emanating from this torture chamber disguised as an interrogation room.”

“……Ugh, since she’s directly under the Saintess, we can’t beat her to death like the others…”

Even after that, the inquisitor denied, and I cleanly ignored his denials, and the conversation continued.

The more it went on, the tighter the inquisitor gripped the whip he held.

Of course, he only gripped it and didn’t strike. Though I didn’t know the detailed circumstances, it seemed difficult or reluctant for him to openly treat me, the Saintess’s person, harshly.

Oh, as I talked, I found out that this guy, who had a peculiar taste for wanting to whip a beautiful girl like me, was, despite his rank, the inquisitor vice-captain.

*’Ugh. Calling yourself a beautiful girl is a bit much. No matter how cute you are…’*

‘……Shut up. I’m regretting it too.’

…Anyway, the important fact was that the inquisitor vice-captain, tired of discussing the same topic with me, finally uttered the words I wanted to hear.

Did the inquisitor vice-captain speak because he agreed with me? No, that wasn’t it.

However……

“Alright, alright, what do you want to gain by going this far?”

“Hmm… your captain’s location?”

“……What?”

“Tell me what you’ve been doing and what you intended to do to me. Then I’ll tell you where your captain is.”

The inquisitor commander was officially a dead man in the Holy Kingdom.

Of course, the Pope, to whom the Saintess directly reported the mission, would know that he was actually imprisoned in an imperial prison, but unless the Pope spoke of it, even the cardinals wouldn’t know this information.

Therefore, it was natural for that vice-captain’s eyes to tremble.

“…That’s ridiculous…”

“Why? How do you think I became the Saintess’s direct nun? Do you think the Saintess isn’t gathering information about the order’s situation?”

“……You, who the hell are you…?”

“Who knows? The dark side of the order, the matter the Pope is currently obsessed with, and your captain’s location… Oh, and the truth about the ‘self-proclaimed’ Saintess?”

The inquisitor vice-captain’s composure, which had been maintained somewhat until the previous part, shattered at the last truth I mentioned.

Ah, well. This was something unknown unless you were a cardinal or held a high-ranking position below them.

Even some who had become cardinals relatively recently didn’t know about it.

“……The information, it’s reliable, right?”

“Who knows? It depends on how accurate the information you tell me is, doesn’t it?”

“…Hmph. Just a moment, I’ll tell you after a moment.”

“As you wish?”

Time? It didn’t matter how long it took. I just… needed them to tell me what the inquisitors were planning and what they had done.

After all, that’s why I came to the Holy Kingdom in the first place.

Originally, the plan was to gather evidence, and for the Saintess and Hero to expose it, but it seems there’s no need to specifically gather physical evidence.

Because, conveniently, I have a recording device of the highest reliability at my waist.

‘Alright, listen carefully and remember from now on, because you’ll have to be a witness later.’

*’……You’re probably the only one who uses the Holy Sword as a recording device.’*

Ah, this is the legendary recording device, ‘Holy Sword,’ guaranteed by God himself.