Ch.158Report on the Downfall of Diligence (Complete)

The black wind pushed Kain and Maria to the outskirts of the City of Lombardt. Unable to collect himself, Kain lay on his back, looking up at the sky. A ship was flying across the moon, heading into the distance.

“Maria?”

“Kain.”

Not far away, Maria sat with a grimace on her face.

“My ankle hurts so much. It’s all swollen. I don’t think it’s broken, but still.”

“Let me see.”

Her ankle was so swollen he couldn’t even touch it. It seemed worse than just a sprain. Looking around for something to stabilize it, Kain spotted a scabbard. It was a common Imperial sword scabbard, but right now, it was a welcome sight.

Imperial swords were strictly military equipment. And proper military items always had at least one additional function. For example, the sturdy scabbard with leather straps could serve as a temporary splint.

“Maria. I need to touch your leg. Is that okay?”

Maria answered by turning her head away. Half from embarrassment, half from not wanting to show her face contorted with pain. Kain silently secured the scabbard to her leg, then staggered to his feet.

“Where are you going?”

“To find a crutch.”

Maria said nothing but flicked her finger. A bright light illuminated Kain’s path. Fortunately, there was a stream flowing beside the road and a decent wooden fence. After kicking down the fence, he returned with a suitable wooden pole.

Maria accepted it gratefully but didn’t immediately stand up. Kain likewise had no immediate plans to go anywhere. He had intended to organize his thoughts while taking necessary measures, but whether from fatigue or dejection, his train of thought kept breaking.

“If you give me your scabbard, what will you do?”

“Imperial swords are a dime a dozen. I can easily get another one if needed,” Kain answered dismissively.

“Was that knight’s scabbard also an Imperial scabbard?”

Kain searched his memory. It was similar to a standard Imperial sword but with significant differences. Standard Imperial scabbards don’t get enveloped in shadows and darkness, nor can they deflect steel swords multiple times. If you tried to strike something with a scabbard, which isn’t even a blunt weapon, the scabbard would break first.

“No. Similar but completely different. I can’t even imagine what it is.”

Kain frowned. He recalled what he had seen when his eyes were closed. In the realm of shadows, Laios was clearly gripping a sword.

The scabbard was covered in shadows and smoke as always, but a faint light definitely emanated from the gap between the hand guard and the scabbard.

That’s also why assassins obsessively wrap the seams tightly. It would be troublesome if light reflected and sparkled through those gaps.

“That’s a relief then,” Maria said, leaning back as if unburdened.

“I thought you could only… do that thing—cutting up monsters—with a sword drawn from that specific scabbard. How did you do it?”

Kain haltingly recounted what he had seen and experienced, what he had done and felt.

It was like a diary recalling an incredibly confusing day, a process of systematizing what Kain himself had learned, and also a moment to catch his breath.

Even the moon seemed interested, tilting to listen, and the insects fell silent, stopping their chirping.

“So,” Maria rubbed between her eyebrows after listening to everything.

“Those monsters—the ones with empty eye sockets, the Blind Ones, was it? They can only see hatred? And if the hatred that captured them is resolved, they become ‘calm and rational like people who have found their senses’—basically returning to their original state? Did I understand correctly?”

“I don’t know exactly either, but it seems that way. At least it’s clear that what the Black Phoenix priests are doing is emphasizing, amplifying, and exaggerating the hatred within people.”

“And you listen to that hatred by crossing swords?” Maria questioned, and Kain nodded.

“Fragments come rushing in. Their feelings, their circumstances at that time. They’re fragmentary memories, brief, some ridiculously exaggerated and some faint.

But the direction is clear. Wanting to kill. Hatred. Loathing… emotions that absolutely cannot be contained inside. Whether they stab themselves or others. Something that must be expressed.”

“Are you okay?”

Kain looked at Maria with slightly surprised eyes. Maria was looking at him sideways, with her head slightly tilted.

“All that hatred strikes your heart and passes through. I’m asking if you’re okay.”

“Well,” Kain answered with difficulty.

“I’m not sure. They’re just like waves. If I put my hand in, my fingertips will get wet, but I won’t dissolve into the waves. If the waves get too strong, I might get swept away, but I don’t think that will happen.”

“Can you guarantee that?”

Maria asked playfully. Kain smiled and nodded.

“Yes. I have something I need to do. And I know why I’m here. At least regarding the Blind Ones, I have something to say.”

“What is it?”

“I will listen to your words. Speak to me. The Blind Ones are desperate to express their feelings. That was fine for them. But Laios… he refused even dialogue.”

Maria shrugged.

“I wasn’t going to say this, but that guy seems more and more like a child. I don’t know about his body, but what’s inside that tin armor seems like a boy who hasn’t even finished puberty.”

“Huh?”

“That’s how teenagers are, right? They don’t want to talk to anyone, but actually, they want the world to talk to them and acknowledge them. They want confirmation of how significant they are in the world.

Then when they realize the world doesn’t care about them, and wonder if anyone will notice when they walk away, they’ve already become adults.”

The usual Kain would have been dumbfounded. But having already met Elisabet, Kain couldn’t say anything in response to Maria’s words. How childish the mother had been, lagging behind her daughter.

“You’re the only one who would talk about the Knight of the Scabbard like that.”

“Half-baked adults need a good smack,” Maria’s voice was cold. “And you know. How many adults act like children in strange ways. At least the elderly in the upper echelons of Magdeburg did. When a child with power throws a tantrum, how many people get exhausted?”

A light laugh. A long silence. Kain reflected on the words Laios had left.

“Maria.”

“Yes?”

“This is a secret from Lily.”

“What is it?”

“What I’m about to tell you.” Kain sighed softly. “I never understood why Lily regretted not being able to spar with me. Remember how she kept asking for a match whenever she had the chance?”

“How could I forget that?” Clear laughter adorned the night sky. Kain tried to guess where Valhalla Castle might be. Probably beyond those tall trees.

“I realized later. That was Lily’s way of expression. Something she couldn’t convey through words or gestures, but something she wanted to communicate. To put it nicely, a kind of dialogue.

But sparring requires that the person receiving also be of similar skill to the person initiating, right? At minimum, they need to be at a level where they can handle it. So Lily deliberately held back her skills. To… match me.”

“Who told you that? That prickly old lady?”

“Astrid the High Executor might be a bit fussy, but she was quite decent.” Kain glossed over it.

“Anyway, keep this a secret from Lily. Lily was thinking of me in her own way…”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. You two handle your own business.” Maria waved her hand dismissively. “But why are you telling me this story?”

“Laios is trying to speak to me in the same way.”

Maria looked at Kain with surprised eyes.

“You said he was like a teenager. I think you’re right. He really entered the Crusades at fifteen or sixteen.

With his hometown sweetheart of the same age. Then he died horribly in the wasteland, only to be revived recently. If that’s the case, his body might be our age, but the mind inside is still that of a child.”

Maria’s breathing became rough.

“I don’t know. Whether that bastard is fifteen or twenty-five. When I think of the countless people caught up in his atrocities, I can’t possibly forgive him.

Among them were completely innocent people. Is it because his life is precious and his loss noble that the ordinary people of an ordinary era can be crushed by the scabbard without a second thought?

The Heroes? I’m not defending them. They should be burned at the stake upside down too. But that doesn’t mean Laios gets absolution.

Kain, I don’t understand how one revenge takes precedence over another, or how one hatred is more justified than another. It’s just revenge and hatred, no matter what adjective you put in front of it.”

Maria fumed for a long time. But her ankle hurt too much to keep venting her anger, and she was exhausted. Because of this, Maria let out a long sigh like an extinguished chimney.

“…I can’t help it. I’m a cleric.”

Kain recalled Anna’s lesson.

‘The Two-headed Eagle Faith points to what people should strive for. The Empire’s laws push people so they don’t fall behind.’

According to the teaching, Maria can naturally speak that way. No, she must speak that way. She is, after all, an Inquisitor.

She is someone who presents the right path for people to follow, and there must be no wavering in that belief. So it’s natural and proper to be angry at deviations from the right path.

“What about you? Do you think Laios is right?”

“No.” Kain shook his head firmly.

“I too cannot accept what Laios is doing. I am an Imperial official, and the Empire’s greatest principle is to protect people. But.”

“But?”

“Laios is also the Empire.” Kain lowered his head.

“The Empire failed to protect both Laios and Ismene. The Empire also abandoned them to their fate. So, I…”

Kain looked at the northeastern sky. The moon had already completely passed. It seemed like the sun would rise soon. Yet the world remained dark.

“I need to hear that voice. The words that a boy who was buried in the ground and rose through death has kept in his heart for a lifetime. If he tries to harm the innocent, I’ll stop him desperately. If he uses others as his tools, I won’t tolerate that either. But I want to hear what Laios wants to convey.”

“You want to understand Laios?”

“If I were younger, I might have said that. But no. People can’t understand other people. They just pretend to understand by imagining. Whether it’s Laios or anyone else.

I don’t want to sympathize, and I don’t want to empathize. Those are too cheap labels. Once those are attached, people think, ‘Ah, now I know everything. What else is there?’ and push it aside.

Above all, I don’t know much about Laios. I don’t want to speak so easily about something I don’t know. But I want to listen to him pour out everything inside. Because then…”

“Because then?”

“Only then can we have a real conversation.”

Maria pursed her lips. Eventually, she nodded as if understanding. Twice, three times.

“Kain. If Laios is ready to listen, what will you say to him?”

The sentence just lingered on the tip of his tongue. Words floated in his mind. If Laios appeared before him. If he faced the boy trapped in that dark armor, who had only grown physically.

At that moment, a beam of light rose from the east. The outline of the city, asleep in darkness, faintly emerged. Smoke was rising, perhaps from diligent people preparing meals.

The beginning of another ordinary day. Something some people let pass without ever being conscious of, while others desperately long for such ordinary days.

The sun showers light on all of it. Before he knew it, the light had reached Kain’s feet. Recalling the faint light between the dark scabbard, Kain answered.

“That you weren’t abandoned. That I won’t give up on you.”

After finishing his words, fatigue washed over him. That was it. Just that. It’s so difficult to say those words. It’s so painful to convey that one sentence. It’s even hard to reach out.

Then the morning sun breathed courage into him. The sunlight on his face was warm. It penetrated through clothes soaked with sweat and blood, embracing him warmly.

“Just that.”

That’s all.

Kain stood up. He carefully lifted Maria and handed her the pole he had brought as a crutch. It was enough for her to stand somewhat steadily.

“One thing is certain,” Maria whispered. “Laios won’t come unless the shadow ritual takes place. Even the heroes can’t find him without such a ritual. But for that…”

“We need to round up all the heretics.”

“And purge them,” Maria replied, struggling to maintain her posture.

“If what Hans said is true, there needs to be a massive interrogation of the Eastern Holy Grail Knights, the Mercy Knights, and the clergy.

How far his evil has spread, what he was doing around here… or what he was hiding. Maybe the clergy near the Black Forest were tolerating heretics.

Kain, if we investigate together, we might find something.”

Maria looked up at Kain with hopeful eyes. But Kain was looking toward the city where the sun was rising. More precisely, at the river flowing through the city, and beyond that river.

“I think I need to go east.”

“East?” Maria’s eyes widened, then narrowed again. “If you mean an Imperial city further east from here…”

“No. Further east than that. The United Nations.”

“…Why?”

“Leonardo of Charity is in the Eastern United Nations. Since it’s confirmed that he regularly traded with Hans of Diligence, we need to secure him quickly. Before news of Hans’s downfall reaches his ears by ship.”

“Ah.”

Understanding the situation, Maria bit her lip. Then she looked down at her swollen ankle.

“Why at a time like this…”

“I’ll be back soon. It’s… bright there.”

Maria threw down her crutch and hugged Kain tightly.

“…Come to the White Blood Knightly State, to Valhalla. There’s a parish there too. I’ll be there when this is over. At least we can share memories of Lily.”

“Want to bet? On who gets there first.”

“As if I’d be slower than you.” Maria playfully pinched Kain’s side.

“Really. Take care of yourself.”

“You too.” Kain carefully bent down to pick up the crutch again. Maria smiled brightly, as if trying to hide her reddening eyes, she laughed cheerfully.

“Ah. But come to think of it, you need to go to the city, right? That’s good.”

“What is?”

“I didn’t like that place. I need to turn it upside down. I’ll show them exactly how an Inquisitor causes a commotion. The city of sin will be engulfed in purifying flames, leaving no shadow behind.”

Kain laughed, shrugging his shoulders. He easily understood Maria’s meaning. While Maria was causing a commotion, he should board a ship heading east.

“But are you really okay without an Imperial sword?”

“If I go there with that, I’ll be beaten to death. And… I can always get a new Imperial sword.”

“Really. Come back. I have absolutely no desire to give this to Lily as a memento.”

“That won’t happen.”

“…Anyway, I’ll use this for now. There’s a carriage coming.”

“What are you planning?”

“Have you ever seen a holy flaming sword? It’s quite impressive. Let’s start with that.”

Maria flicked her finger.