Chapter 6

5. Religious Trial (2)

“Please, make yourself comfortable.”

“Hmm…”

On the surface, it looked quite impressive, but in reality, it was a shabby room without any useful tools.

In truth, a magic or alchemy workshop of this level wasn’t much different from a kitchen or a pharmacy.

This room only had utensils and drainage pipes. There were no reagents or materials to speak of, just an abundance of cheap herbs that grew nearby.

“You seem quite knowledgeable about medicine?”

“Just a little, picked up from watching over shoulders.”

“No, it’s quite precise.”

Marco slowly lifted a bottle containing a green transparent liquid. It was a completely ordinary liquid, with no trace of magic or heresy.

He opened the lid and sniffed the scent.

“Is this something you recently made?”

“Yes… Well, I mixed various things to help with insomnia or nightmares.”

“Quite impressive, isn’t it?”

“It’s just boiling some common herbs that everyone knows about.”

It was a transparent liquid brewed from herbs with sedative and tonic properties. Beside it was a letter that seemed to be a research journal.

Marco unfolded the letter and read the notes written inside.

*

– Delia Herb 3T

– Clear Water 25Oz

– Boiled Purslane three times, then cooled solution 10Oz

*

“Hmm.”

“Is it heretical?”

“It’s hard to judge as such.”

The most recent research material, diligently recorded in the research journal, was clearly a sleep-inducing agent to anyone who saw it.

Moreover, it wasn’t toxic; it was just a mix of good herbs and sedatives without any harmful substances.

‘If I drink this, I’ll probably just feel relaxed.’

Marco slowly scanned the workshop. It was mostly like this.

There was no trace of anything magical or heretical. This workshop was closer to an ordinary pharmacy.

‘Really, a promising talent.’

“Then, how can I be acquitted?”

“If you were a heretic, I would be very disappointed.”

Marco looked at Fernandez and laughed.

– The talent to become a heretic or an Inquisition Officer.

Heretics follow demons, and Inquisition Officers chase demons. It’s just a thin line between them.

“You have the ability to use magic and are quite intelligent. Moreover, your knowledge of medicine is advanced for your age. So why have you been suffering all this time?”

In other words, this was the final test of the Inquisition Officer. With such abilities, why did you just endure without acting?

‘As if I wanted to.’

Fernandez smiled bitterly. Now was the time to explain.

“It’s easier to hide one’s abilities than to flaunt nonexistent ones. From the day I turn sixteen, I will restore my rightful inheritance of this territory. Wasn’t the night before I turned sixteen the most suitable time for me to act, Bishop?”

“Hoo…”

Marco stroked his beard and looked at Fernandez.

Patience, planning, decisiveness, and will.

Moreover, a territory with no remaining nobles to inherit.

Whether looking at Fernandez personally or his background, it was quite impressive.

‘If we bring this child into the Church, this territory will belong to the Church.’

Greed flowed from Marco’s eyes.

As an Inquisition Officer in charge of taxation, personnel, and accounting, Marco couldn’t help but recall the Inquisition Office’s shabby and weak financial state.

“This is the last.”

“Huh?”

“Before being formally tried, this is your last chance.”

“Do I have any other charges?”

“If you are a heretic, your territory will be ownerless. It will fall under the Church’s influence. You must prove that you have greater value than your territory.”

Marco smiled and untied the old wooden rosary hanging around his neck. A rosary with a finely engraved cross sword pattern. It was the symbol of the Vaitas Church.

He handed the rosary to Fernandez and said,

“Pray.”

“Pray… you say?”

“To any god, with any words. Sincerely.”

‘What an obvious trick.’

Fernandez frowned. Praying to a god was, in terms of spiritual structure, the easiest way to unconsciously open a spiritual barrier.

Even if he refused, it would only prove suspicion without any physical evidence.

Therefore, this act was nothing more than a ritualistic formality of the Inquisition Officer. ‘My judgment isn’t wrong, you can’t pray, so you must be a heretic!’

But what was more annoying was that there was no reason to refuse. In front of an Inquisition Officer who would obviously lower the spiritual barrier and manipulate things behind the scenes. He slowly knelt down.

If he started to be suspected now, his future life would be tough.

He tightly gripped the rosary handed by the Inquisition Officer, clasped his hands to his chest, and knelt. Slowly, a prayer began to be recited from his mouth.

And time stopped.

*

A rough, desolate, dry wind brushed past Fernandez’s ears. A green field stretched beyond the horizon, with countless military flags fluttering above.

In the high blue sky, starlight flowed. Each star was a spiritual being with powerful energy.

Fernandez barely managed to exhale and tried to shake off the oppressive energy. The energy in the sky swirled and concentrated at one point. A huge tent came into view.

‘No way.’

Through the open door of the huge tent, a man sat half-leaning on a broken throne, glaring at him.

‘Oh come on…’

He had fallen into a world with a completely different spiritual density.

He had been forcibly summoned into the domain of a divine being.

Fernandez swallowed slowly and thought.

‘The last thing I touched was the Vaitas rosary…’

That man was Vaitas.





So, it seems like…?

Fernandez is currently facing Vaitas, whom he had never seen even during his time as the High Dark Mage Faijashi in his previous life.

Since it’s unlikely that a common piece of wood contains some dimensional relic, this must mean that Vaitas wants to have a conversation with him, right?

Fernandez slowly but confidently straightened his back and stood before him.

Vaitas. Once intensely hated, but now only a faint ember of that feeling remained at the mention of his name.

Rather, he felt a sense of self.

At this point, the sins he had committed were, in name, only revenge for long-standing abuse and assassination attempts.

And Vaitas is the god of “Justice, Execution, Law, and War,” isn’t he?

-And if he had wanted to kill me, there would have been no need to summon me to this place.

“Long live the great Vaitas. The beacon of the abyss and the sword of radiance. The god of victory in war and honor!”

[Your worshiping posture is quite satisfying, Faijashi.]

“Hmm…”

Fernandez straightened his deeply bowed back and looked at the bronze throne.

A man clad in battered and repaired plate armor, covered in dents and cracks, was leaning slightly on the throne, looking down at him.

“Spirit parasite.”

[Dog of demons.]

“Shiny clown.”

[Loser.]

“Ah, no. You lost more. I destroyed the world, didn’t I?”

[It’s quite amusing how you think you did it all by yourself. You’re just a puppet of demons.]

“Ah, right, right, right. Your puppets. It was fun when I caught and locked them up.”

[That’s true. It must have been fun. My cute children. Yes. Faijashi Wildcast. The servant of the Great Demon. That will be your purpose.]

“What?”

It was clear that Vaitas remembered everything about Fernandez’s world before his regression.

If so, it’s highly likely that he was involved in his regression, which suggests that unless he desires the world’s destruction again, the flow of the world could change.

Fernandez frowned and stroked his chin.

All the recent experiments over the past few days were all for nothing.

I should have just prayed once. Just as a test…

[At least the revenge itself was meaningful. I didn’t particularly like those guys either.]

“Is reading thoughts without permission a hobby of the gods in the Temple of the Gods?”

[A warning? How amusing. Your ability is too pitiful to hide your thoughts from me in my domain.]

“Alright, fine. Go on. What’s the purpose?”

Vaitas smirked and swung his left arm.

Four military flags flew to his side and embedded themselves into the ground.

Old and tattered tapestries hung from decayed wooden poles.

Fernandez also recognized the emblems.

Vaitas’s four archangels… the commanders of the legions of war and hope. Their symbols.

“Right. Speaking of which, where did those guys go?”

[To the Material World. They sacrificed their divinity and, in return, sent you back to the past.]

“Completely insane. There were more suitable candidates to revive, weren’t there? Dian Shrike, or even her nine disciples would have been decent. Reviving Xiao Mei or Parian Detrican would have been a good idea too…”

[At that point, they were all dead or corrupted. All the heroes. In the timeline you destroyed, Faijashi Wildcast. You were the only human.]

“Hmm… I don’t remember causing the ‘extinction’ of humans…?”

[The only ‘human’. A purely distilled human soul with no impurities in the spiritual structure. It was possible because of your obsession with humanity.]

“Uh…”

What a joke.

At that time, to survive in the atmosphere corrupted by hellish magic, all humans had to strengthen their own souls.

In the process, impurities were mixed into their spiritual essence as humans.

But ironically, it was Faijashi, who was obsessed with spiritual purity due to the trauma of his son’s death, who had the right to regress.

[Razerial. Soareldel. Pieranel. Sardiel… my four daughters. My first forged weapons and my soldiers. They willingly gave up their divinity and chose human lives for you, Faijashi.]

“Well, so you want me to feel truly sorry and grateful… and repent or something?”

[No. You must save them all. No need for repentance. Only purpose is needed.]

“You want me to reflect on the past and, what, serve humanity? If you’re serious, that’s a ridiculous statement, Vaitas.”

Vaitas cut him off.

[Your son’s soul.]

At that moment, Fernandez couldn’t speak or think.

My son’s soul? His heart, which had been beating normally, instantly turned cold.

Feeling as if all his organs were being dragged down, he stared blankly at Vaitas with a pale face.

[I will save your son’s soul. This is not a request or persuasion. It’s a threat and a deal.]

“Can, can that be? If my soul returned to the past and became ‘me,’ then my son hasn’t even been born yet! His soul would just be ether dissolved in the vortex of the second realm’s souls…?”

[No. The world you originally came from is not a vanished history. Wildcast, don’t you get it? If I had turned the entire dimension’s [Great Wheel] backward, would I have remembered you? In the first place, would such a feat be a power allowed even to gods?]

“So you’re saying…?”

[Your guess is correct. Your world has been destroyed, and by now, your son’s soul in that timeline has fallen into hell. It’s obvious what the angry demons will do with your son’s soul.]

“Horizontal world theory? Then what meaning does saving this world have for me or you?”

[Make this world peaceful under my name. And with the power my children sacrificed by abandoning their bodies, I will overlay this perfected world onto the original timeline.]

To the astonished Fernandez, Vaitas declared majestically.

[Thus. If this world becomes whole, your son will naturally be saved as well. I have also learned from your case. Faijashi Wildcast. No, Fernandez Sernerd.]