Ch.5959. Bone Fragments

Gwon Heejin, the human who was once the Hero, burned for a full two hours.

Executions by fire typically take a long time.

Moreover, now the clergy were working in shifts, pouring holy power into the flames.

Even those who had been hurling insults at first were now just blankly watching the flames intermingled with holy power.

“Not yet…!”

Only the priests continued to emit holy power with their bony arms raised to the sky.

Gwon Heejin himself had likely died long ago, but some inexplicable force was keeping his body intact.

…What thoughts might the Goddess, the being worshipped by virtually all of humanity, have while watching this scene?

‘Of course, not all of humanity has turned their backs on the Goddess.’

Honestly, even in the imperial capital, if you went to districts where the poor lived, many people wouldn’t know what Cordana was and would ask, “What’s that?” This wasn’t dismissiveness but reality.

Throughout the Empire, there were likely still many praying for the well-being of the Goddess and the Hero.

In my experience, residents of villages with fewer than a thousand people had no way to access current information except through rumors spread by occasional traveling merchants or adventurers. This was true even for villages less than half a day’s journey from a lord’s castle.

Even that “current information” was often highly unreliable.

When I was young, I used to hear about the Hero’s exploits in the Demonic Land and cheer for the Hero’s party. I even tried to predict whether the Saintess or the elf would end up with the Hero.

‘Later I found out that during that time, there was temporarily neither a Hero nor a Demon Lord.’

Apparently, a civil war for the throne was underway in the Demonic Land at that time, and the Hero I had been cheering for had long since returned to his original world.

It might sound foolish, but in terms of population, such people might be the majority. Those people would still be looking for the Goddess and the Hero.

But that fact probably wouldn’t comfort the Goddess. The foundation of faith was crumbling in the Papal State, her most beautiful child.

The Goddess might feel wronged in her own way, but the Papal State had now lost even the minimal material foundation needed to maintain faith.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t understand why holy power had grown stronger, but it seemed there wasn’t much time left to witness those splendid abilities.

Crack.

The body of Gwon Heejin, which had somehow maintained its form in the flames, finally began to crumble into ash.

A young bishop (who had been part of the Hero pursuit team) standing in front of the stake desperately tried to manifest holy power one more time, but—

“Let’s stop now.”

Someone muttered quietly.

Though it wasn’t a shout but merely a murmur, it rang clearly in everyone’s ears.

With that, the execution was concluded.

Shortly after, the extinguished site held only charred remains, and the stake had collapsed, unable to maintain its form.

Everyone stared blankly at Gwon Heejin’s remains, especially his skull.

Even excluding those who had fainted from crying and those who had staggered away after Gwon Heejin’s movements ceased, nearly two thousand people remained at the scene.

They didn’t look particularly attached; they seemed to be waiting for someone to order them to disperse.

The only person with that authority was the Emperor, but he had already left.

‘Well, it must be troubling.’

I couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking about his son, who had been Gwon Heejin’s associate. No matter how much his son was an accomplice who brought crisis to the Empire, it couldn’t be easy to cast aside his own flesh and blood.

After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to step forward myself.

It wasn’t that I craved attention, but someone needed to bring closure to this.

I had no intention of collecting Gwon Heejin’s remains to bury them in a sunny spot.

‘There’s no need to leave any trace.’

I needed some tool for the bone-crushing work.

Looking around, I suddenly noticed my old colleague Selin.

Tanned skin with blonde hair. She had lost a lot of weight in the past few months. She stood with her mouth agape, seemingly entranced by the fire.

I wasn’t trying to reconcile with Selin in this situation; I just noticed the warhammer at her waist. It was the secondary weapon she used to crack the heads of miscellaneous monsters.

“Let me borrow this for a moment, Selin.”

“Huh? Oh… sure.”

Selin promptly handed me the warhammer.

Good weight, good length, comfortable grip.

I channeled aura through the hammer.

With an eerie sound, milky white aura enveloped the hammer, and the imperial guards made the dazed onlookers step back.

The greatest characteristic of a Master was the ability to draw and use aura even with weapons that had no magical properties. Of course, I was still only at the beginning stages, but I had more than enough ability to pulverize charred remains.

I aimed the hammer precisely at Gwon Heejin’s skull lying on the pile of ashes and swung.

Crack!

Gwon Heejin’s skull was completely crushed without offering any resistance, sending ash and embers flying in all directions.

I repeated the same action several more times.

Striking, and striking again.

When the work was done, Gwon Heejin’s remains were completely shattered beyond recognition, mixed with the pile of ashes.

Disposing of the traces was also quick, thanks to the mages who stepped forward on their own. It wasn’t something we had agreed upon beforehand; everyone just moved naturally.

Professor Weaver and several other mages used earth magic to turn over the ash-covered ground, and afterward, they even repaired the broken cobblestones on the spot. They also used magic to remove the surrounding soot.

Shortly after, the stake that had been set up in front of the chapel completely vanished. Along with it, all traces of Gwon Heejin, the human who was once the Hero, disappeared as well.

“It’s all over.”

Only after hearing my declaration did people slowly disperse.

***

A few hours after the execution, the Prince used his personal funds to host a banquet.

At first, I thought it was tactless. I figured that if a member of the royal family offered to treat everyone during times like these, it would be difficult to receive positive reactions.

Unlike the investors who had been wiped out, the imperial family was still wealthy.

The Prince alone had assets worth tens of billions under his independent management, and for the Emperor, it was meaningless to even count his wealth. This became even more apparent when considering who paid the salaries of the enormous number of officials and soldiers working in the imperial capital and direct territories.

But listening to what the Prince said at the banquet, I realized I had been mistaken.

“…I only recently learned that after the first market crash, not a single banquet has been held in the imperial capital. We didn’t even hold the harvest festival, nor were there any jousting tournaments or gladiatorial matches for entertainment. All the actors and singers are suffering from the recession.”

Was that so?

Come to think of it, I had felt that entertainment had vanished from the imperial capital for quite some time.

Today we had watched Gwon Heejin’s one-man show, but before that, everyone had been immersed in bleakness.

Somehow having become regarded as one of the Emperor’s confidants, I had once prepared for a jousting tournament. If I had performed well, tremendous applause and generous rewards would have awaited me. Now it feels like an incredibly long time ago.

Soon after, the banquet began.

It was somewhat modest for a banquet. It was just sharing warmed wine and food in the palace banquet hall.

There was no music, no dancing, no beautifully dressed noble ladies. Still, after eating only dry rations on horseback for so long, having warm food made me feel less tired.

‘One day should be fine.’

At that moment, an elderly priest sitting nearby stared at me and spoke.

“Inspector, what do you plan to do with Gwon Heejin’s companions?”

“…?”

I couldn’t understand why he was asking this.

Thanks to Gwon Heejin responding to my script and abandoning his party members, they had gained some sympathy. They couldn’t escape the stigma of being “Gwon Heejin’s women,” but at least they wouldn’t have to worry about being stoned in the streets.

“Elder Priest, I apologize, but I have many other matters to attend to.”

Actually, during the execution, there had been a report from the intelligence agency.

News had come that several prostitutes and dancers (who were relatively famous in their regions) had disappeared around the same time from three small fiefdoms far from the imperial capital. Moreover, one of them had shown suspicious behavior recently.

They might be succubi. It could be nothing, but as someone who had wiped out the Demon Lord’s army’s money through short selling, I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

I should check that first…

However, I couldn’t coldly refuse because of what the elder priest added next.

“For the sake of the next generation’s Hero, we shouldn’t treat them as mere trash. Considering precedent, the Goddess will… ah, the Goddess shall send us the next Hero.”

He was saying that given the current atmosphere, even if the Goddess summoned a new Hero, no one would readily join him. Of course, Gwon Heejin was a disastrous existence incomparable to any previous Hero, but the wound left by that one person was enormous.

“If you don’t do this, Inspector, who will?”

I was about to offer some humble response but decided to keep quiet.

Right now, Elder Edin, who was being treated like the leader of the Papal State despite being an ordinary priest, was sitting across from me, so no one was approaching me.

However, I could see people watching from a distance, waiting for an opportunity. Noble ladies with bloodshot eyes from watching the fire in the cold winter were whispering among themselves, and lords were loitering around for no reason.

In this situation, saying “I don’t have the authority to decide” would be pretentious.

“Yes, I understand.”

Fortunately, Saintess Claire said that the Papal State had already decided on her disposition. They planned to demote her to a nun and send her to a territory not affected by Cordana. She still had some holy power, so she could help with fundraising.

‘Fundraising, huh.’

Something suddenly occurred to me. After thinking for a moment, I carefully suggested to Edin:

“In that case, how about relocating the confined former Pope’s subordinates to the Lancarth border territory? It’s a place I have connections with.”

That would give the imperial palace a justification to provide financial support to the Papal State.

At this proposal, the elder priest’s pupils trembled left and right. A reaction that seemed to say, “The Pope? Really?”

But before long, he appeared to agree. He even let out a light exclamation. Thanks to that reaction, I also got a sense of how to handle the Hero’s party members.