Ch.232Sentencing

The interrogation didn’t take long.

Whatever pleasures Isabella had promised Robert, they apparently weren’t enough to overcome the pain he now faced.

Actually, “faced” might be the wrong word. Robert no longer had eyes.

Only empty sockets remained, with melted fluids dripping out.

“That concludes our first purification ritual. You’ve become a more honest person now. Are you ready to confess your sins?”

“Uuugh… Ughhhh…!”

Robert nodded frantically, his expression half-crazed.

Understandable. That “purification ritual” was brutal even from my perspective.

I didn’t know this before, but apparently body parts focused with healing power can burn and regenerate simultaneously?

A strange stench filled the corridor.

Robert’s eyes burned for about five minutes as holy fire clung to them, melting and regenerating in cycles.

That was more than enough time to completely break a person’s mind.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Lord Valkers, would you please prepare?”

“Yes, gladly.”

Valkers handed Lacy the paper and quill he was holding.

They had retrieved these items from a nearby room while Lacy was interrogating Robert.

“Now, Robert. Even if you cannot speak, you should be able to move your right hand that I’ve healed. I’ll give you a pen and paper, so record all the crimes you’ve committed. If you’re truly repentant, I believe you can fill at least one page.”

Lacy crouched down and kindly placed the quill in Robert’s right hand, then guided it to the paper.

She looked like Anne Sullivan teaching a blind girl to write, but there was nothing gentle about this scene.

“Uugh… Uuugh…”

Robert’s fingertips trembled. Two kinds of fear collided in his mind, and his hesitation was visible.

The fear of the burning pain he had just experienced, and the fear of what would happen after his confession. Either way, it would be utterly horrifying for him.

Well, why did he commit heresy in the first place? He should have been like me and not believed at all.

It’s not like hesitating now would change the outcome.

“Can’t you remember how to write? Or perhaps you don’t have the strength left to write?”

The quill slipped from Robert’s hand.

Lacy took the pen and smiled gently, as if soothing a child.

“Let me help you.”

The ink droplet on the quill tip scattered and sparkled.

“GYAAAAAAHHH!”

A piercing scream echoed off the ceiling.

Robert convulsed like a madman, beating the floor with his broken limbs like drums.

Feathers were growing from his empty eye sockets.

Lacy flicked her wrist.

Like an orchestra conductor performing a symphony—uninhibited and full of passion.

“KEEAAAHH! GUHEEEK! HYAAAAAHHH!”

Robert proved he had talent as a soprano.

Though he was too old to become a castrato.

“It seems your strength has returned. Let’s try a little harder, shall we?”

The sharp quill tip scraped and tore through the melted optic nerves.

Dark red ink tattooed the inside of the eye socket. Robert foamed at the mouth as he shed crimson tears.

“There. That should be sufficient. I’ve engraved the method of writing directly into your eyes, so I trust you’ll remember it well.”

Lacy pulled out the quill and placed the bloodstained pen in Robert’s right hand.

“If you still find it difficult to write, I’ll have no choice but to engrave it in your other eye as well.”

That wasn’t necessary. Robert, having finally made his decision, began writing his confession at a furious pace.

Perhaps this is what they mean when they say the pen is mightier than the sword.

—-

“Consorting with a witch and indulging in pleasures at her gatherings. Offering young priestesses as sacrifices for the feast and violating them, then secretly burying vigilant believers to keep your secrets… Even setting aside your countless financial corruptions, this is more than enough to pass appropriate judgment upon you.”

After reviewing the confession with Robert’s fingerprint, Lacy pronounced her final judgment with a contemptuous expression.

“Robert. By the authority of Elmaine, I pronounce your excommunication. All positions and rights granted to you are revoked as of this moment.”

Having finished his confession, Robert hung limply with a blank expression, giving no response.

He looked like someone who had lost all hope. Or rather, like someone who just realized there had never been any hope to begin with.

“You are no longer the Imperial Prince-Elector and Archbishop of the Church, but merely a heretic. You know the punishment for heresy, don’t you?”

Burning at the stake, I suppose.

Or crucifixion.

“I should show some mercy considering you confessed your sins willingly… but your sins are too heavy and deep. So, I have no choice.”

Lacy calmly delivered the final sentence.

—-

That day, nine crosses were erected in front of the cathedral.

The heretic Robert and his close associates. According to Lacy’s judgment, they were all sentenced to death.

Purification Baptism.

A punishment where nails are driven through the wrists and ankles to mount the condemned on metal crosses, then oil is poured on their heads and set aflame. They would be burned like this for at least three days.

“KEEAAAHH! IT’S HOT! IT’S HOOOT!!”

“MY BODY! MY BODYYYY! GYAAAAHH!”

The burning sinners screamed in high-pitched voices, creating a chorus.

Healing priests stood beside them.

They poured healing magic generously to ensure the sinners wouldn’t die before their sins were fully purified.

Although the trial had been forced through, no one now objected to the verdict.

There was a good reason for that.

As I watched the sinners burning like torches, I recalled what had happened an hour earlier.

It was right after Lacy had sentenced Robert to death, when we were leaving the cathedral with his limp mass of flesh.

—-

“Drop your weapons and surrender immediately!”

What awaited us as we exited through the cathedral’s back door was an encirclement of numerous clergy and knights.

Forces that had gathered while Lacy was taking time interrogating Robert. It seemed too many to break through while protecting Lacy, even if I were alone.

“Surrender? As if we were criminals?”

Lacy stepped forward and looked at them with calm eyes.

“Do you deny the crime of damaging the Extrashafel Cathedral? Even a Holy Maiden candidate cannot be forgiven for such sacrilege!”

“The damage to the cathedral’s main entrance is regrettable… but it was unavoidable to capture the heretic and apostate, former Archbishop Robert, who betrayed Elpinel. I’m sure He would understand.”

At Lacy’s gesture, Valkers threw down Robert, whom she had been dragging, in front of them.

“A-Archbishop Trier?! How could this…!”

An old man with empty eye sockets oozing pus and all his limbs shattered.

Everyone was shocked at the miserable state of the core clergyman of the Imperial diocese, who had even been an Imperial Prince-Elector.

“He is no longer an Archbishop. He’s merely a heretic who betrayed the Church by joining hands with a witch, indulging in luxury and pleasure while sending his brothers to their deaths. The apostate Robert has already confessed everything after trial, and I have secured evidence of his financial corruption as well.”

Lacy held up the paper filled with Robert’s confession.

“This cathedral was built by human hands, but his sins were against Elpinel. If we let someone who betrayed Him escape from His holy place for the sake of preserving mere human achievements, wouldn’t that be truly sacrilegious?”

“You expect us to believe that? That you destroyed the cathedral and attacked the Prince-Elector, obtaining a single sheet of paper through torture?”

Indeed, Robert’s limp figure was enough to convince anyone that severe torture had been applied.

Perhaps our approach was too heavy-handed.

“That’s right! The Archbishop, a heretic? How could that be!”

“But still… if Lady Elmaine says so…”

“She’s only nineteen, even if chosen by Elpinel!”

Despite the Holy Maiden candidate calling him a heretic, people’s eyes were full of doubt and confusion, and not many seemed to believe her statement.

“Right. She’s still young and must have been deceived by that Ka’har cannibal…! I’ve heard rumors that he’s in league with witches!”

What’s with this guy? I’ll remember his face.

“Eek! The cannibal is trying to kill me!”

As soon as I glared at him, he screamed and disappeared into the crowd.

Seriously, that bastard?

“Even if he truly committed heresy, this matter should have been reported to the Church first, and a proper religious trial should have determined the verdict! Not this oppressive method!”

“We would never have caught him that way. When evil people sense a threat, they hide away like rats. As Elpinel’s faithful servant, I have the responsibility to protect His children and destroy His enemies… I acted according to His will that dwells in my heart.”

Lacy looked up at the sky.

The clear, bright blue expanse above.

“Elpinel is always watching over us, so if I had gone against His will, He would surely punish me.”

“With such sophistry…!”

– CRACK!

A noise from above silenced the knight.

A sound like a huge rock splitting in two. Everyone’s gaze turned toward the cathedral wall behind Lacy.

“Wh-what…?”

“Wait, that’s…!”

The clergy pointed upward in shock.

A black shadow descended like the night sky.

Something massive was falling toward us, blocking the sunlight.

The golden cross that had decorated the cathedral’s outer wall.

Perhaps due to the impact that hit the main entrance, the cross had been torn from the wall and was plummeting toward the ground like a catapult projectile.

Hundreds of kilograms of mass. The momentum was too overwhelming to even think of blocking it.

“Lacy!”

I turned around urgently, calling her name.

We had to dodge somehow…!

“It’s all right.”

Lacy murmured calmly, hugging her cross spear and closing her eyes.

Before I could do anything, the golden meteor struck the ground.

—-

A thunderous roar shook heaven and earth.

The crushed ground rose up as if flipped over, and the shockwave whipped through our hair.

Some clergy lost their balance and fell from the earthquake-like vibration.

Single screams erupted from various parts of the crowd.

Those who remained standing looked at the rising dust with trembling eyes.

And then,

“My God…!”

“Elpinel…!”

As the dust gradually cleared, the result of the collision was revealed to everyone.

The golden radiance reflected the sunlight and gleamed vividly.

Many priests knelt and made the sign of the cross.

Even the knights could only stare blankly at the scene before them, at a loss for words.

“Urrrgh…!”

On the overturned, broken ground, Robert groaned with a dying voice.

His lower body was completely crushed into a pulp.

The cross that had plummeted toward the ground had hammered his lower half like a sledgehammer.

Without causing even the slightest injury to anyone else, it had struck only Robert.

Everyone present thought of the same word.

Divine punishment.

“It’s divine punishment! Elpinel has delivered divine punishment to the heretic!”

A paladin shouted loudly.

No one could deny it.