Ch.202EP.45 – The Knight Get Autumn Blues (8)

“Is it true that you’re hoping to join the History Department, Ms. Heize Roche?”

At the examiner’s question, a blue-eyed woman with short golden hair that suited her perfectly nodded immediately.

“To be precise, I’m very interested in theology. I dream of following the miracles of the great Light of Radiance and tracing the footsteps of when the divine manifested. And I believe the History Department, with its long-established faculty and vast historical documents, is the perfect place to achieve this dream.”

“Ohh.”

The history professor serving as the first interviewer let out an exclamation of admiration.

In archaeology, where passionate juniors are always welcome, enthusiasm is an important factor.

Inwardly, he wanted to give her bonus points and even ask if she’d consider becoming a “graduate student.”

However, interviews alone can’t reveal everything.

So.

“Let’s see you at the debate.”

“…Thank you!”

Unlike the Swordsmanship or Magic Departments, practical exams for academic students are mostly evaluated through debates.

In other words, she had passed the first interview, and she wore a happy smile.

“Personally, I hope you’ll receive good evaluations in the practical exam as well.”

Originally, the practical exam should have been conducted first, but this year, unusually, the first interview was held before the practical exam.

Well, since the content and order of the exams change every year, it wasn’t particularly strange.

After encouraging this potential future graduate student, the professor left first. The girl, with a bright smile on her face, couldn’t hide her happiness as she exited the interview room.

She then naturally headed to the bathroom, and soon.

“—That was easy.”

As if she had never smiled, the expression disappeared from her face.

A cold countenance.

It was a face full of mockery, and she felt things were going better than expected.

‘I thought the Royal Academy would be more thorough and cunning, but they’re surprisingly normal and naive.’

In fact, she had prepared an enormous amount.

Yet things were going smoothly without her needing to use any of it, which made her quite pleased.

However, there was something that concerned her.

‘I didn’t expect to encounter a Level 1 person of interest so soon…’

Heize Roche recalled the knight standing on the platform.

The knight who, just by standing still, exuded an intense aura that overwhelmed a crowd of 30,000.

‘…Ihan Turtle.’

Most of the information about him was engraved in her mind.

[Age thirty.]

[Born in a rural village between the central and western regions. After his parents sold him to a slave trader when he was still young, his whereabouts were unknown for 15 years.]

[When he reappeared in the world, he had joined a small mercenary group in the southern continent. Shortly after joining, the mercenary group was annihilated due to the betrayal of a noble family from Britain, with him being the sole survivor.]

[After reporting his survival and the betrayal to the mercenary union, the treacherous noble family was wiped out. He then settled in Pendragon and became a soldier, but war broke out not long after.]

[He is one of the few soldiers who survived the Southern Integration War, said to have caused the most casualties among wars in the past 300 years. He must have accumulated considerable military achievements, as he was directly appointed as a knight by <The Superhuman Baltar Grace>.]

[Information about him during the three years after becoming a knight is extremely limited, but according to recent investigations, there’s a possibility he is the same person as <The Heart Destroyer>, known as the South’s greatest ‘Wizard Hunter’ and ‘Slave Trader Hunter’.]

[However, even if he is not the Heart Destroyer, he is judged to possess extraordinary power just for having stood against the demon king-level monster Gwiwang.]

[Among the 10 levels of dangerous individuals, he is designated as Level 1. It is important to form a friendly relationship if possible, and if an adversarial relationship is formed—.]

‘…It is strongly advised to [flee], huh.’

“Ha, it wasn’t an exaggeration.”

Heize let out a hollow laugh.

Recalling the information provided by the organization, she had to agree.

The man she saw in person was indeed a dangerous individual.

A monster beyond compare.

‘Even at the temple, I haven’t seen such a monster… ah!’

…No. Come to think of it, there are some.

However, ‘those people’ aren’t scary because they’re on the same side.

But having such a monster among the enemy makes her shudder.

So Heize wondered if she should flee immediately as instructed from above.

No matter how she thought about it, he seemed beyond her ability to handle.

Of course.

‘At night, things would be different.’

If she could properly utilize the [mystery] that the organization had “blessed” her with, few could defeat her at night.

Especially men.

“Phew.”

Heize continued her deliberation for a moment but quickly made a decision.

‘I need to continue the mission.’

Given the nature of her mission, she absolutely needed to pass the exam.

‘Fleeing is removed from the options; I’ll continue with the exam.’

While fleeing wasn’t a bad option, if she fled now, she would lose everything and likely be treated as a useless woman by the organization.

For her, being deemed worthless and “discarded” was worse than death, a terrifying future.

‘No matter how suspicious that knight might be of me, he can’t do anything to an applicant. …Surely.’

Heize was convinced that because he was a knight who knew honor and bore the duty of an instructor, he could never harm her.

She was certain—.

—Click.

“……”

“I’m going to ask you some questions now. I’ll ask, and for every second you delay in answering, I’ll pull the trigger without hesitation. Don’t worry. You won’t die immediately. After all, you possess the ‘Succubus Factor,’ don’t you? …Extracted from me.”

“Y-You are…”

“Succubi don’t die easily from bullets. Well, let’s begin.”

Click.

Though outwardly calm, a closer look would reveal a woman who had slightly lost her rationality.

Judia Pierre aimed her gun precisely at the back of Heize’s head, her eyes gleaming with a dangerous light, and Heize broke into a cold sweat.

“T-This will only cause trouble for you, Sister Pierre.”

Though visibly flustered at first, Heize quickly regained her composure and spoke boldly.

The fact that she could speak her mind even with a gun pressed against the back of her head showed she was quite strong-willed.

But.

“You don’t know your place.”

Bang!

She had chosen the wrong opponent for a battle of wills.

Inquisitor.

They don’t engage in meaningless emotional battles or compromises.

They are the temple’s assassins, thoroughly trained to eliminate everything that opposes the Light of Radiance.

The trigger was pulled without hesitation, and Heize’s head seemed about to explode.

“Kuhuk!?”

…However, while it seemed like it would explode, her head didn’t actually burst.

It’s not that the gun lacked power. It’s simply that a gun alone cannot penetrate a ‘succubus’s’ head.

“A succubus’s body is like a liquid. It seems to have substance, but it’s as if you can’t touch it—a mysterious constitution.”

“Grrrgh!”

“That’s why most physical attacks are reduced, and they don’t die from ordinary attacks.”

Click.

Judia Pierre calmly explained the information about Heize’s power, but despite her calm tone, her eyes blazed with fury.

She had good reason, as she knew that power was created through experiments that tortured her.

Recalling the painful years she had thought forgotten, or rather forcibly ignored, Judia Pierre’s anger only grew.

“But while you may not die from physical attacks, you still feel the pain. Especially the bullet lodged in your head is coated with poison. The pain will probably double.”

“!!”

“Do you feel it now? Good. The more intense the pain becomes, the more you’ll understand your place.”

“Aaaagh!”

“Want to reduce the pain? Then stop showing that pathetic bravado and answer my questions honestly. Where do you belong, how did you obtain that power, everything. If you do that.”

Click.

“—I’ll kill you without pain.”

The maximum mercy Pierre could show.

Indeed, if an Inquisitor set their mind to it, they could inflict all possible pain on a living being.

So Pierre’s offer was truly merciful.

However.

“H-Heh, don’t talk nonsense! Y-You call that an offer, now!?”

Unfortunately, Heize, experiencing an Inquisitor for the first time, didn’t recognize this as mercy.

Writhing in pain but still wearing a sneer, Heize gritted her teeth.

“D-Don’t make me laugh! Y-You dare treat me like this! B-Betraying even your benefactor Bishop Rafael! You human butcher who’s nothing but a hunting dog…!”

“……”

“Ah, come to think of it, you’re not even human, are you? You’re just a manufactured personality, right? Isn’t that so, Sister Pierre…?”

Bang, Bang!

The sound of gunfire echoed repeatedly.

It wasn’t that Pierre fired out of rage.

Simply.

“You don’t know your place. You must have been raised comfortably in the temple.”

“Aaaaaaagh!”

“Such a reaction to this level of pain… You weren’t trained as an assassin, were you?”

“W-Who’s an assassin! I-I’m going to be a saint! I’m going to be a saint… eh?!”

Suddenly, Heize’s eyes widened in shock.

……Why did I say that?

“The drug seems to be working.”

“!?”

“Some misunderstand Inquisitors as mere killers, but an Inquisitor’s true duty is to eliminate those who threaten the temple and extract information from them. I have dozens of truth serum recipes. What I injected into your body is a slightly stronger one. You might find it difficult to lie for the rest of your life.”

“T-That’s a lie…!”

“Think of it as a lie if it makes you feel better.”

Pierre threatened Heize as if toying with her, and Heize’s eyes were bloodshot.

She’s tough.

The poison and pain must still be tormenting her entire body, yet she remains so stubborn.

‘Brainwashed, or rather, someone convinced they’re a chosen one.’

Pierre knows such people well.

She must have been indoctrinated by the temple’s education to believe she’s truly a ‘special person.’

It’s a common tactic used by heretics, and Pierre inwardly clicked her tongue.

‘Those heretics!’

Pierre was furious at the realization that there were more heretics within the temple than she had thought.

Just then.

“Y-You’ll regret this. I-If anything happens to me, ‘they’ are set to move…!”

“They?”

“T-The [Holy Knight Family] that cooperates with the temple! Y-You must have heard of them?”

“……”

Due to the truth serum, she spilled everything, and at the mention of the Holy Knight Family, Pierre recalled one particular family.

A family that has produced holy knights since ancient times and is more loyal to the temple than to royal orders.

“Lohengrin…”

The Lohengrin Count’s family.

One of the founding contributors of Pendragon who is said to have served the King of Knights.

Pierre’s expression hardened at the fact that they were now inside the academy.

“N-Now do you understand? Y-You’ve messed with someone you shouldn’t have!”

Heize now spoke as if making threats.

She was relentless.

Even in pain, she exuded a persistence to destroy her opponent, making it seem as if everything she said would come true.

……However.

“Lohengrin, huh? Are they invading from the east?”

“…H-How?”

“Is that so? Then that’s good. I see why he headed in that direction.”

“??”

“Heh.”

For the first time, a cheerful smile, not a sneer, appeared on Pierre’s face.

The situation seemed quite amusing to her.

The opponent seemed to have prepared the best moves they could, but they were powerless before an [individual] with senses superior to a beast’s.

“Foolish apostate, know this clearly. In this academy…”

—A monster resides.

* * *

Crack!

“?”

Ihan suddenly felt his ear itch, and his nose bridge also tingled.

Is he catching a cold?

“That can’t be? I rarely catch colds…?”

Then is he feeling the autumn blues?

Well, he had been experiencing seasons in a strange order this time.

After struggling through winter’s blizzards, he was now experiencing autumn weather.

Perhaps his body had weakened a bit from experiencing the seasons in reverse order.

“Aging is so scary. In my 20s, I was flying around.”

Crack—!

“Sigh, take good care of yourselves when you’re young. Don’t mess around or you’ll be in big trouble.”

“……”

“Well, this impudent one is an exception.”

Above Ihan’s head, the waist and back of a man boasting a height of 3 meters were being bent.

Argentine Back Breaker.

It’s a wrestling technique where you grab the opponent’s thigh and neck and press down on them from your shoulder. If asked about the advantage of this technique, it would be none other than.

“I told you I’d fold your spine when I take out the trash, didn’t I?”

Crack!

It’s a technique perfectly suited for pulling out the spine.

Ihan was a man who always kept his word once he gave it.