The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 349 Delinquent Priest Rufus (7) - A Delinquent and Irreverent Heresy Inquisition This entire city will be the subject of a Heresy Inquisition. At the words Rufus had spoken, the people stood dumbfounded, their minds blank. Not because they felt fear or threat, but because it was simply too absurd a claim. But being stunned by the outrageous statement lasted only a moment. Once he fully grasped the meaning, Fredrick, Mayor of the city of Boots, felt a bitter laugh slip out of him. 'A fake priest after all, just as I thought.' A priest who wears priest robes of a somewhat different color than others? That could happen. A priest who operates alone without companions? Maybe that's possible too. A priest who sets foot in a particular city without so much as a word of notice to it—well, maybe one in ten thousand might exist. But a priest who openly insults another god could never, ever exist. A priest was a possessor of Divine Power, and Divine Power was something bestowed by a god. Unless the gods of the Pantheon intended to wage war upon one another, there was no way they'd allow some mere human of the Earthly Realm to insult another god. Therefore, Fredrick shouted with confidence. "Cut the nonsense!! A Heresy Inquisition? You suspect this city of heresy? How dare a mere human insult a god's city!! Someone spouting such wild ravings could never be a priest!!" Murmur, murmur. At Fredrick's outcry, the many citizens gathered around the temple nodded their heads. In truth, there was no other way for them to react. Faith-Based Territory. Under Hasht's national structure, where the god each region must worship is fixed and even crossing into a region other than one's own is extremely difficult, nearly every citizen of this city had been a lifelong believer of Kargal since birth. Having suddenly been told, in effect, "You are suspected of heresy," how could such people possibly respond well? It was only because Rufus wore priest robes that they felt some reluctance to curse him outright—had that not been the case, it would have been no surprise for open condemnation to come pouring down on such a statement. Gazes brimming with hostile feeling. A wordless pressure. Even Raphaela, standing behind him, felt as though she could hardly breathe—yet Rufus, who had drawn every eye upon himself, remained as composed as if he were simply basking in a gentle breeze. "My, were you even listening properly? I said a Heresy Inquisition would only be necessary 'if these ruffians here are truly Wardens.'" Raphaela could understand what Rufus meant. If the ruffians who'd tried to harm the clinic were truly Wardens, then he wouldn't let whoever stood behind them off the hook either. Conversely, if they weren't Wardens but merely thugs impersonating Wardens, he was saying he'd let it pass as simply these individuals' own problem. "You wag a cunning tongue! The grave sin of daring to harm a god's soldiers, insult a god's city, and impersonate a priest!! Don't even think of seeking forgiveness or mercy!!" But the Mayor failed to grasp his intent. No, perhaps he had grasped it and simply chose to ignore it. Because negotiation was something that only happened between equals. Clank! Before anyone realized it, more than a hundred fully armed Wardens had gathered around the temple. Not only that, but even Kargal's priests, who normally didn't show themselves easily, were furtively poking their heads out. No matter how strong Rufus might be, in a situation like this it would mean nothing at all. That was surely what Mayor Fredrick was thinking. Rufus let out a low groan. "Hmm, so you're saying these thugs who tried to ruin a perfectly well-run clinic over some petty pretext are, in fact, genuine, official Wardens?" "A perfectly well-run clinic, you say! It was nothing but a spy operation leaking the Sacred State's internal information to the outside, a mere trick of heretics!" "Very well. Then there's nothing to be done about it." "Ha! It's too late to regret it now—" "In that case, I'll just go ahead and start a Heresy Inquisition on all of you." With movements so effortless, as light as if he were merely out for a stroll, Rufus took a step forward. And in the next instant, Rufus's body appeared right in front of one of the spear-wielding Wardens surrounding him. "Answer me. If the wounded and the sick are treated and can stand on their own again as warriors, is that beneficial to the god Kargal, or is it not?" "Uh, ah, huh?" "3, 2, 1. Out." Thud! Rufus struck the cheek of the Warden who'd stood there blankly, failing to answer properly, and the man spun a full 180 degrees in midair before slamming headfirst into the ground. Rufus used that soldier's own spear to string him up in midair like a dried fish, then, without missing a beat, repeated the same question to the soldier beside him. "Answer me. If the wounded and the sick are treated and can stand on their own again as warriors, is that beneficial to the god Kargal, or is it not?" This soldier, too, stood dazed and failed to answer properly, and Rufus struck him down the same way, then used his clothes and spear to hang him in midair like a dried fish as well. "Answer me." The third soldier, instead of standing dazed, swung his spear and tried to resist Rufus. Rufus simply dodged the attacks until the time limit passed, and the instant it did, he mercilessly kicked the soldier in the stomach, then hung the foaming soldier up once more. The fourth group charged at him together, but paying no mind to whether they attacked or not, he hung them up once the time limit came; the fifth turned his back and fled, but he too was beaten down and strung up all the same. The first to actually answer the question was the eighth soldier. "I-it's beneficial!!" Rufus stopped his assault. "Why is it beneficial?" "What?" "W-well, because it's a good thing when more troops survive!!" "Then can you make an effort toward this good thing?" "I will make an effort!" "So he says. Raphaela. Take him." Rufus flung the soldier in question toward where Raphaela stood. Strangely, though the soldier seemed to have been tossed carelessly, he landed right in front of Raphaela in a posture like proper sitting, apparently without taking any impact at all. Rufus went straight on to the next soldier. This time his target was a soldier who'd been on the outskirts and was trying to slip away. "Is it an act that upholds the honor of the War God, to petty-mindedly torment the weak under some absurd, forced pretext?" "W-well, that..." "3, 2, 1. Out." The soldier was beaten and strung up on the pole once more. Those who tried to flee were beaten and hung up, those who attacked were beaten and hung up, and those who failed to give the answer Rufus wanted were hung up as well. By this point, even Fredrick couldn't help but slowly begin to understand. The true nature of what Rufus called a "Heresy Inquisition." 'S-so, if you don't agree with what he says, you're a heretic!?' It was tyrannical to a horrifying degree. Whether judged logically or procedurally, there were far, far too many problems with it. Fredrick raised his voice to denounce Rufus. "Y-y-you arrogant wretch!! Are you now daring to claim your own will as the will of a god!! And with nothing but that petty violence of yours!!" Rufus answered. "Yes." And having tossed out just that one word, he went right back to beating down the soldiers one by one. "?" Fredrick, who had been bracing for some plausible justification or a logical counterattack, found his mind grinding to a halt once more at Rufus's behavior. Fredrick shouted urgently. "Just who do you think you are! By what right do you dare judge a god's will as you please!" "Now that's an odd thing to say. A god's will was always meant to be patched together however suits humans best. If a god has an objection, he'll strike you down with divine punishment, won't he? In other words, if no divine punishment falls, that means the god has agreed to it." "......." It was such an outrageous statement that even Raphaela, who couldn't be called a devout believer by any stretch, couldn't help but be horrified by its irreverence. The shock felt by proper believers, then, must have been far greater still. But the delinquent priest's words showed no sign of stopping. "Did a god command that an elder grown so old he can barely move be made to kneel on the bare ground and offer prayers for hours on end?" "A soldier who, given only treatment, could take up arms and fight fiercely on the front lines. Some high-and-mighty city official who will never once set foot on the front lines. Did a god command that the latter be treated with priority over the former?" "Did a god command that innocent soldiers be broken by every manner of cruelty, unreasonable orders, and abuse dressed up as self-discipline, and that those who couldn't endure it be cast aside for lacking personal ability?" "I don't believe so, would you?" This city was a place that existed not for human convenience, but for the convenience of a god. That much is technically true. But there's one point that must be addressed here. To begin with, gods didn't take that much interest in humans, not to that extent. More precisely, so long as faith kept flowing in steadily, they were satisfied with that and didn't intervene in every detail of how it was managed. At most, they might involve themselves a little in matters within their own particular interest. In other words, while it might be the god who benefited from the irrational structure of a Faith-Based Territory, it was not the god who had designed its concrete structure. It was merely the upper class, who had twisted the structure into something grotesque in order to slip their own interests in alongside the god's. That was precisely why Rufus spoke as he did. "I can't fathom why you'd pretend not to, when you yourselves have patched together, distorted, and interpreted a god's will however suited your own taste, quite skillfully at that." What was the difference between what he was doing and what they had done? In the end, all this talk of heresy and inquisition was nothing but a pretext. In practice, wasn't it the same thing—crushing whatever displeased you with sheer force and forcing everyone to accept a predetermined answer? Fredrick found himself at a loss for words. He wanted to object, to ask how the two could possibly be the same. He wanted to mock that absurd argument to his heart's content, then crush it head-on. He wanted to make Rufus understand the difference in power, using the Mayor's authority, the pressure of the collective, armed force, violence, and every other means available. But it was impossible. Not a single one of the methods he had used countless times before worked on this man called Rufus. He disregarded authority derived from power. He scoffed at the pressure to conform exerted through the collective. He turned the violence of armed soldiers back against them. Had Fredrick possessed genuine faith, or had he armed himself with painstaking study and theoretical grounding in doctrine, perhaps things might have turned out differently. But if Fredrick had truly been that devout a believer to begin with, he never would have done something as foolish as targeting the clinic just to line his own pockets with bribes. All the while, Rufus had strung up every last soldier or tossed them over to Raphaela, and Fredrick, his face frozen in bewilderment, likewise failed to answer Rufus's question, standing dazed, and ended up in the exact same state as the soldiers before him. Rufus cracked his neck with a series of pops. "Well now, it seems the soldiers and a few of the notable figures are all taken care of, so I suppose I should move on to the next round of the inquisition." At Rufus's low murmur—one that, strangely enough, carried perfectly clear to every ear—the ordinary believers gathered around the temple turned pale. The reason their faces merely paled and went no further than that was simple. Having watched with their own eyes how Rufus targeted fleeing soldiers first and crushed them all the more thoroughly for it, the equation of "flee equals become the priority target" had lodged itself in their minds, leaving them unable to even attempt to run. More than that, it was doubtful whether fleeing would even mean anything. After all, Rufus had clearly declared he would begin a Heresy Inquisition against the city itself. You'd think it impossible for a single individual to interrogate the countless people living in a city? Then was it somehow possible for a single individual to smash every last Warden and overturn the temple itself? It was in that very moment, with every last resident frozen in fear, that it happened. "—That's enough now, please. Priest." Raphaela stepped in, blocking Rufus's path.