“Please let me know if there’s anything uncomfortable during your stay!”
The eyes filled with overwhelming kindness seemed to put pressure on him, and the Inquisitor responded in a stiff, curt tone.
“Yes.”
I couldn’t learn much about this person, but I didn’t think she would speak up if something bothered her.
‘She seems like the type to just endure discomfort.’
People like her need us to pay extra attention and check in on them. That way, we can recognize if something’s wrong and address it.
Some might find such behavior frustrating, but I didn’t want to criticize personal differences in character. The temple, which had been noisy due to the arrival of the Inquisitor, became busy with patients entering, causing a different kind of noise.
“Today, I’ll be working in the temple all day. Sister Melody, what will you do?”
The meaning was clear—if I stayed near him, I would just kill time, possibly yawning out of boredom, so I should take some personal time.
“I’ll look around a bit.”
“Yes. There’s a cafeteria in the temple where you can eat. If you’re not planning to eat outside, please use that.”
“Yes.”
At first, I gave a long response because there were many new people, so I thought it was polite. But the longer the conversation went on, the shorter her answers became.
‘So, speaking more was a kind of effort on her part.’
Anyway, she’s a peculiar character.
When the Inquisitor stepped out to look around, the priests, who I thought were busy tending to patients, came one by one to speak to me.
“Wow, her charisma is incredible.”
“Of course, she’s an Inquisitor. Every word she says is heavy!”
I was surprised by her first imposing entrance, but unlike me, others seemed to find the Inquisitor quite intimidating.
Let’s just say, “charismatic,” but it really meant “scary,” didn’t it?
That kind of fuss would become easier to bear after seeing her face more often.
After lunch, when I was feeling drowsy, something unexpected happened.
“Ahhh!!”
“?!”
“!!”
Screams in the temple were not uncommon. They were usually the screams of patients in pain, but this scream was different.
“That’s Sister Tune’s voice, right?”
“I think I heard that too.”
The scream sounded familiar.
I hurried to the source of the scream.
“What on earth is happening?”
The treatment room lobby was in chaos, covered in blood.
It was a place where a lot of blood was already shed, so it wasn’t just blood that caused the scream.
Following the gaze of the people, I could see the cause of the incident.
“Sister Melody?”
“Sorry for causing such a ruckus.”
“…What on earth is this…”
Could it be that what she was holding in her hands…?
It seemed that Sister Tune, a nurse priest, had screamed because she saw something horrifying.
The Inquisitor, who had said she was going to look around calmly, had dragged a bloodied man into the treatment room.
The issue was that the man, now covered in blood, was the result of the Inquisitor’s actions.
“Can I ask for treatment?”
“From the looks of it, there don’t seem to be any injuries on him. It seems you want us to treat him?”
Instead of the priests who were hesitating to approach, I stepped forward.
“Yes.”
“From the looks of it, it seems Sister Melody is the one who did this to him.”
“That’s right.”
“Looking at the wounds… it seems like he was tortured.”
“Yes.”
I had heard that most Inquisitors were out of their minds… But seeing her calmly speak about torturing someone made my head spin.
“Why did you do this? Did this person commit a grave offense?”
“I can’t tell you as it’s part of the investigation.”
“…….”
The wounds from monsters are horrific, but the wounds from torture were enough to make one feel dizzy with shock and fear.
“Why go this far…”
I know this is for the Church’s sake, and I also know that this person must have done something wrong.
But still.
Looking at his frail body, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of repulsion.
‘Is this why Inquisitors are not just anyone?’
Inquisitors, despite being priests of light, have to swim in the darkness to protect the world. It is because of their efforts that we can live peacefully, and we should definitely remember that.
‘Even though they’re not people who don’t understand that, the way they look at her shows that it’s definitely a tough job.’
Since I couldn’t expect the other priests, frozen in place, to step forward, I thought I should move myself.
‘Their expressions are still indifferent, but who can say if their true feelings are just as indifferent?’
Seeing the request to save someone they tortured, it seemed they hadn’t extracted everything they needed yet.
Even though I knew that no matter how much I treated him, he would likely be hurt again, I couldn’t refuse her request.
“We need to lay the patient down first.”
“Since he’s a dangerous person, I will handle it.”
As the nurse-priest tried to get closer, I stopped her and laid the man, who she had been holding, on the medical bed.
The man, still groaning as if he were alive despite his violent movements, seemed to be on the verge of death.
“Since he’s a dangerous person, we can’t have him near other patients. We should move him. Is that alright?”
“Yes.”
As expected, her response was short, and she began to move the medical bed herself.
“Where should we take him?”
“Could you check for an empty hospital room?”
“Ah! This way, please!”
The nurse-priest, who had been a bit dazed, quickly regained her composure and led us to an empty room.
After moving him to the hospital room, I quickly summoned divine power to deal with his increasingly labored breathing.
If left as is, he might actually die.
Then, it happened.
“You don’t need to treat him fully.”
“Pardon?”
The Inquisitor, who had just started treating the man, spoke in a voice that drained all the energy from the room.
“Just treat him enough so he doesn’t die.”
I understood that she was trying to be considerate, knowing that no matter how much I treated him, he would eventually get hurt again through torture.
However, this time, I couldn’t hold back and spoke in a stiff voice.
“It’s impossible to treat a patient half-heartedly. I was never taught to disregard life in the theology I learned as a child.”
“……”
The Inquisitor flinched at my words, nodded, and stepped back.
It seemed like she meant to show respect for my words.
Even though the divine power I used for treatment would soon be useless, I wouldn’t hesitate to treat the patient in front of me.
That was something I always tried to uphold in my profession.
“The treatment is finished.”
Looking at the patient sleeping with a peaceful face, I couldn’t relax.
While treating him, I could see in detail how and where he had been injured. I had seen clearly how this man had been tortured.
‘How can a person do such terrible things to another person?’
What sin could this person have committed?
Could it be an unforgivable sin?
“When will he regain consciousness?”
“He’s probably asleep because he’s exhausted. He’ll likely sleep for 7 or 8 hours.”
Unless there is some external stimulus, of course.
The Inquisitor, hearing my words, suddenly lifted the patient with ease.
Though tall, her frame was small, and it was surprising to see her lifting an adult man so easily.
“I’ll take him back.”
“…No, that’s… not necessary.”
I couldn’t stop the Inquisitor from doing what she intended.
The Inquisitor seemed to be waiting for me to say something, but when I hesitated, she looked at me in surprise.
“If he needs treatment again, call for me. I’ll take care of it.”
Since he was brought here because of me, I thought it was my responsibility to take care of it.
“…Yes.”
Once again, the Inquisitor answered shortly, and then disappeared with the man.
For the man, the fact that all his wounds were healed might have felt like a disaster.
‘Is it going to be another round of torment from zero?’
Torture and treatment, torture and treatment.
If that cycle continued, even the toughest person wouldn’t be able to endure it.
After leaving the hospital room, I noticed that the Inquisitor was no longer around, and the priests quickly gathered around me.
“What happened?”
“Is the patient fully treated?”
“Did you ask why he was tortured?”
Honestly, I would have been curious about this too if I were them.
I understood the priests’ feelings, but I couldn’t say anything about what the Inquisitor was doing.
“Please, let’s just pretend we don’t know anything about this. After all, this is the work of the Inquisitor.”
“Of…”
“I understand how shocked you all must be, and I know you have a lot to say. But please think about this: we are able to live peacefully and freely, studying the teachings of the light, because there are people who take on these unpleasant tasks in the darkness.”
It seemed my words were quite persuasive.
The priests, who had been greatly disappointed with the Inquisitor, quickly recovered and became calm, some even deep in thought.
Perhaps some even felt guilty, fidgeting their feet.
“As much as we feel discomfort with such matters, the person performing them probably feels the same way. Even if they try to hide it, they must have been hurt too.”
“…What should we do? I found myself looking at him with a critical gaze.”
“I even screamed.”
I said to the priests, who looked dejected:
“When you meet her again later, just greet her first and apologize without feeling awkward. If you have the courage to admit your mistakes and apologize, I believe you can be forgiven.”
I didn’t know if an apology would mean anything to her, given that she hadn’t wavered despite all the criticism.
But I thought there was nothing worse than pretending nothing had happened.
I also needed to apologize to her.
Though I tried not to show it, I had felt disgust while treating the man’s wounds, which had been made a mess by torture.