episode_0169

“What kind of drink do you prefer? Black tea? Or coffee?”

“Anything is fine, please give me whatever Your Grace the Bishop desires.”

“Then I’ll offer you black tea.”

“Yes.”

Unlike our first meeting, which created an oppressive atmosphere, Bishop Bianca treated me quite warmly after dragging me to the church, as if welcoming a guest.

Although things have changed a lot since the old days, the image of an Inquisitor is close to that of a human butcher, so I was very nervous while being dragged along. But this gentle atmosphere relaxed me, even if only a little.

“Here you go, please add sugar to your liking.”

“Thank you, I will enjoy it.”

Of course, I shouldn’t let my guard down as things could change at any moment, but she was personally serving me black tea with a gentle smile. Wouldn’t it be too cruel to tell me not to hope that things might turn out well?

“Slurp…”

I don’t usually add sugar, so I lightly stirred the tea with a teaspoon to cool it down and then took a sip.

“……”

Then, I quietly dropped two sugar cubes into the tea.

I don’t know why, but the tea was extremely bitter.

Black tea is originally a bit bitter, but this was beyond that level, to the point where I almost spat it out as soon as it touched my lips.

Are the tea leaves cheap?

Or are they spoiled…?

Judging from the fact that they offer sugar, it doesn’t seem to be a budget issue. Or is the first step of the Inquisition giving someone bad tea?

“Slurp…”

Even I thought it was a bizarre idea, so after completely dissolving the sugar, I wet my lips with the black tea again.

It became somewhat palatable after adding sugar.

“Haha… Your Grace the Bishop seems to have a talent for making black tea.”

Even though it tasted bad, I had been treated hospitably, so I offered a cliché compliment with a smile.

“Hehe~”

Bishop Bianca, who let out a benevolent laugh at the compliment and gently covered her lips, slightly pushed the black tea in front of her aside and said,

“To compliment me after tasting it and then adding sugar, you’re not very good at lying.”

“I just wanted sweet black tea belatedly.”

“That’s unlikely, wasn’t it incredibly bitter?”

“……”

I didn’t know what she was getting at by suddenly saying that, so I chose silence instead of answering.

Then, Bishop Bianca gave a captivating smile and lightly shook something she took out of her robe.

“Actually, I put truth serum in the black tea. It’s so bitter that everyone spits it out if they just drink it, but you have better mental fortitude than I thought?”

“……”

My eyes widened, and I stared blankly at the teacup in my trembling hands.

They said things had gotten much better!

They said Inquisitors now respect human rights a little more!

None of it was true…

“Wh… why…”

I forced the words out while looking at Bishop Bianca with resentful eyes.

“Of course, it’s for the investigation. It’s too easy to lie when you’re sober, and the information obtained through torture isn’t of good quality. So, all that’s left is to make it impossible to lie.”

“Crazy…”

“But it’s not as strong a drug as you’re worried about. If your inner thoughts just flowed out as soon as you drank it, why would we even bother with investigation? If you have the will to not scream even when your fingernails are being pulled out, you might be able to avoid answering.”

“Isn’t that just another way of saying it’s nearly impossible?”

“There’s a world of difference between ‘nearly impossible’ and ‘impossible.’ If you’re truly innocent, then God will protect you, right?”

“……”

I feel dizzy from such a romantic treatment of a suspect.

I missed the right to remain silent and the right to legal counsel so intensely.

The right to remain silent existed even in 17th-century England, and legal representatives existed even in the Middle Ages…

“Would it be possible to bring in a legal representative?”

“If they’re well-versed in canon law, they’ll mostly be priests just like me, would that be okay? Also, people related by blood are not allowed, you know?”

I was hoping I could call my sister, but of course, it was impossible.

But if I were to call a priest, I was worried that they might evolve into Investigator 2.

“On second thought, I think it would be better to do this alone.”

“Right?”

So, I had no choice but to handle this alone, crying on the inside.

“By the way, why am I here…?”

I wanted to cry right away, but I thought the atmosphere would become even harsher if I did, so I calmed my surging emotions and asked what I had been wondering since we first met.

Being wronged is one thing, but I need to know why I was arrested.

“Ah, goodness, look at my memory, I haven’t told you about that yet.”

Bishop Bianca, as if packing a forgotten lunch, lightly flicked her fingers and got up from her seat. She walked over to the bookshelf set up on one side of the room, took out various things, and placed them on the table.

Then, she picked up the stack of papers on top, flipped through a few pages, and raised her eyebrows as she began to recite the phrases on the paper one by one.

“Disturbing public morals, using wicked sorcery, collaborating with anti-social organizations, denying doctrine… Creating life? You’ve managed to pick up every rare charge.”

“I don’t remember any of that…”

Each and every one of them was absurd.

Disturbing public morals is something that can be disputed depending on the viewpoint, but the rest were truly incomprehensible charges, so I felt the emotions I had barely suppressed surge up again.

“These charges seem too preposterous to us as well. Usually, so many charges mean there’s a high possibility of being framed.”

“Then why…”

“But that doesn’t mean there’s a high probability that all the charges are innocent. Especially disturbing public morals, don’t you think you have nothing to say about that?”

“Well… I think I gave cause for misunderstanding on that part.”

“Misunderstanding… We’ll talk about that in detail later.”

Bishop Bianca chuckled, put down the paper, and rested her arms on the table, looking at me in a posture that seemed to be forcing me to ride a giant purple robot.

“First, let’s talk about collaborating with anti-social organizations.”

“I’ve never done that.”

“Yes, so we closed the case with no charges.”

“What?”

It ended so anticlimactically that I frowned and glared at Bishop Bianca.

Why did she even bring it up if that’s how it was going to be?

“Anyway, a report came in, so we’re asking about it. We need to leave it on record that we conducted a thorough investigation. You might not be able to see it, but recorders and observers are watching us from beyond that wall.”

“Ah, yes…”

She secretly fed me truth serum, yet she’s progressive in strange areas.

It would have been nice if they had invested a little more in human rights with this kind of dedication to record-keeping…

“By the way, Your Grace the Bishop, what exactly is an anti-social organization?”

“We were curious about what an anti-social organization was, so the church conducted its own investigation. It turned out that they were calling witches anti-social organizations.”

Witches have a bad reputation, but it’s not to the point of being an anti-social organization.

I also looked into it because I was worried something big was happening.

Witch friends are obsessed with yard pounds, live in remote places like deserts or swamps, and pursue their own sorcery and magic, so they’re gloomy friends, but they’re not heretics.

Rather, they each have a cross in their house, attend church, and think of spirits as God’s help for manifesting sorcery. They’re church-friendly people.

Of course, the witches who regarded spirits as gods rather than phenomena are already dead.

Framing me alone is one thing, but insulting the witch community is something very different.

Openly calling a community that has assimilated well over many years anti-social?

Furthermore, witches are a group capable of using force. If things go wrong, another Fritz Haber or Oppenheimer from the Middle Ages could appear.

“Everyone can see that it’s a 100% frame-up, so we’re investigating the madman who made this absurd report with the cooperation of the Empire. If there was nothing that could be confused with being anti-social, that person will be punished for defamation.”

“Is that so…”

I looked at Bishop Bianca with pity, as she had to come out to investigate even such ridiculous reports.

But Bishop Bianca squinted at me and raised one corner of her mouth.

“You’ve only gotten past one, are you already relaxing? There are still four more charges left, you know?”

“I think I can sufficiently explain the rest as well if they’re all forced accusations like this.”

“You’re full of confidence, I like that.”

“Because I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Then, shall we talk about posting pornography in the Imperial Capital for a month?”

“That’s my fault.”

“……”

The expression on Bishop Bianca’s face, which had been full of composure and smiles, crumbled for a fleeting moment as I admitted to a topic that could never be refuted faster than light.

And the hand that had been propping up her chin, with her elbow on the table and her hand covering her mouth, fell to her forehead as she furrowed her brow.

“You crumbled too quickly for someone so confident.”

“I didn’t expect an issue that had already been punished under the laws of the Empire to be brought up…”

There’s no right to remain silent in this world yet, but the principle of double jeopardy is perfectly observed, so I really didn’t expect it.

“Wait, you’ve already been punished?”

I could tell just by looking at Bishop Bianca, who was visibly flustered and hurriedly flipping through the documents.

“Are you sure you’ve been punished?”

“Yes, all four cases were closed after paying fines. The Knights should have the relevant data, so you can find it if you look. Or, I have the fine invoices, so I can submit them if you need them.”

“Hmm… Then please submit the relevant documents later. If it’s certain that you’ve been punished, we’ll drop this.”

“Yes.”

The second one went over pleasantly as well.

It’s at the level of ‘the ads are lewd,’ so it’s fine even if I don’t get over it pleasantly as long as I do some volunteer work and confess, but the initial momentum is more important than anything else when doing something like this.

Because the testimony tends to get strangely twisted the moment you get flustered.

“Ahem… Then let’s move on to the next one.”

“Yes.”

Bishop Bianca cleared her throat a few times, collected her crumbling expression, and took her eyes off the documents to look me in the eyes again.

“We’ve concluded that the next item, the creation of life, is not guilty. The act suspected of creating life, promoting pregnancy, does not constitute the creation of life.”

“Yes…”

“But whether this promotion of pregnancy is wicked sorcery or not is a slightly different issue, so we discussed it. Opinions were quite divided, so the debate continued for several days… After a long debate, we concluded that pregnancy promotion magic is not a problem.”

“Yes…?”

What is she talking about?

Weren’t the church believers in natural pregnancy?

I was sure there would be a problem…?

“There were not a few views within the church that were displeased with the artificial intervention in the sacred and holy process of conceiving life, but first of all, the person suspected of being the beneficiary is a married couple, and it was taken into account that it only provided a little help to facilitate pregnancy rather than artificially conceiving life. Anyway, it’s certain that it was conceived through normal carnal desire.”

“The church’s perspective is interesting, but I don’t know such magic, I can’t use it, and I’ve never used it.”

“Yes, we confirmed that too. There was nothing wrong with the clothes that were claimed to have been cursed by sorcery or magic.”

“Hoo…”

I got through this smoothly as well.

Then did I get through most of it well?

I don’t know what denying doctrine is, but I can assert that I have never opposed the church’s opinion even once.

I’m not crazy enough to risk my neck over clothes.

“But you know.”

“…?”

As I was smiling slightly with a slightly relieved heart, Bishop Bianca smirked and took something out of the pile of papers and held it out in front of me.

There were several photos attached to the paper, all of which were clothes that I had designed and spread.

“There are many unsightly things among the clothes made by you and your employees. These are clothes that seem far from the chastity and abstinence that we value…”

Bishop Bianca pointed at each photo with her finger and glared at me with sharp eyes.

The atmosphere suddenly becomes heavy.

“Do you have anything to explain about these clothes?”

“……”

Finally, what was coming has arrived.