By Zephyria 
I was stunned by the system message.
What, hypnosis?
“…You seem surprised.”
“Pardon?”
“What are you surprised by?”
I racked my brain as fast as I could.
I had to pretend I didn’t know a thing.
“No, I think I just saw something wrong, but it felt like something flashed before my eyes.”
“Be specific.”
“I mean, even if you tell me to be specific… I don’t know anything other than the fact that something flashed.”
Maybe it was because your helmet was too shiny… and the sunlight reflected into my eyes? I answered awkwardly.
The knight let out a small sigh and continued.
“I just verified whether you are truly a ‘common serf.’”
“Pardon? You did something?”
With that flash just now?
I did my best to put on a face that knew absolutely nothing.
I don’t know.
I know nothing!
I have no idea what you’re talking about!
I am just an ignorant serf who knows nothing!
“The fact that you are unfazed is proof in itself.”
“That means….”
“It means you were born with a Blessing.”
Being born with a Blessing meant possessing a trait.
‘Wait, he just jumped straight to hypnosis just to check if I have a trait?’
What kind of nonsense is this.
What if I didn’t have mental resistance?
What was he planning to do with hypnosis? A confession?
Was he going to apply various status ailments one by one after that? Until he figured out what trait I had?
It was absurd, but I did my best to act like a naive serf who knew nothing.
“Is that true? I just thought Lord Antonio was saying that to encourage me….”
“Has anyone ever spoken to you?”
“Pardon?”
“I am asking if you have ever heard a voice telling you where to go, or explaining things you didn’t know.”
“No, no. I haven’t.”
“Then why were you planning to leave this place before winter?”
“That was in a dream….”
“Right. In a dream. Did someone in a dream not tell you to come here before winter?”
“…No.”
‘Is he trying to dig into which god’s Revelation I received?’
The Main God, Loclem, rarely sends Revelations through dreams, but the subordinate gods who serve the Main God often send Revelations through dreams containing their symbols.
‘It’s the desperate marketing of a small business.’
For the Main God, Faith Points roll in even if he does nothing, but that’s not the case for subordinate gods, so they have to work hard to gather faith.
Like telling a village with a dried-up well where a new vein of water is, giving directions to a lost person, or waking someone up with an ominous dream just before they are assassinated.
And they tended to leave a clear symbol so that another god wouldn’t swoop in and take the credit for their hard work.
‘And if you fabricate such a symbol, you’re in big trouble.’
If an apostle serving that god thinks, ‘Our Lord has recruited another believer,’ and takes an interest in me, only for the god to go, ‘Huh? I never did that,’ then I’m screwed.
That’s why I made up a vague dream—whether it was a Revelation or just a random dream—without any symbols….
“…A Revelation without a symbol.”
Cold sweat poured down me at the knight’s mutter.
‘I’m screwed.’
I had judged that if a serf with no traits and low divine power had a dream without a symbol, he would just think it was a random dream.
But what if someone with a special trait had such a dream?
‘I’m really screwed.’
Divine beings who hide their symbols are usually the ones with shady motives.
‘Am I going to be dragged off to the Heresy Inquisition just like this?’
“Is something… wrong?”
I asked, pretending to be scared.
Actually, I wasn’t pretending. I was genuinely terrified.
“How much of the Sacred Script have you learned?”
“I-I’ve learned almost all of it, except for the words that don’t appear often, which are hard to memorize.”
I feel like if I had just one more week, I could memorize even the words that only appear once….
At my uncertain voice, the knight let out a surprised “Ho.”
“You said it’s been a bit over six months since you started learning?”
“Yes….”
“You really are a genius.”
What is he talking about.
I heard there are people who can read it in a week.
“It is known that only those who have received the Blessing of Order can read the Sacred Script.”
“Then, the fact that I can learn it….”
“No, I mean that those who receive the Blessing of Order can read it without needing to learn.”
Hardly anyone learns it without a Blessing.
At the knight’s words, my head filled with question marks.
“Pardon? But Lord Antonio….”
“He contacted me saying there is a ‘blessed one’ who cannot read the Sacred Script.”
What… did he say?
Antonio, who seems to be a resident of a God-World Genre….
“I am Nasir, a Heretic Inquisitor of the Order Sect.”
With a shring sound, a longsword was drawn.
“I have come here to verify if you are a seed of heresy.”
Antonio reported me to a Heretic Inquisitor…?
[
SYSTEM:
Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ the status ailment ‘Hallucination’ is nullified.]
[
SYSTEM:
Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ ‘Bloodlust’ cannot be felt.]
Pop-ups appeared one after another, but I was in no position to read them.
Because the knight had swung his sword at me.
Slash.
My legs gave out, and I collapsed.
A straw hat with a sword cut in it fell over my collapsed legs.
‘If it had been off by just a little, my face would have been split in half.’
I felt around my face and neck.
In [Die Heretic!], a Heretic Inquisitor only reveals their name right before using an instant-kill skill.
“…Are you surprised?”
No, damn it, of course I’m surprised!
“D-did I do something wrong? Heresy…. There’s no way I could be a heretic,”
“That is what we shall find out from now on.”
‘Find out what, you bastard.’
How are you going to find out?
The Order Sect’s way of identifying heretics is usually to smash their skull with a Divine Hammer first.
‘Wait, is he really a Heretic Inquisitor?’
If he were the Heretic Inquisitors from Heretic Slayer, he would have cut me down without hesitation the moment he confirmed I was a possessor of an unknown Blessing.
‘Why didn’t he cut me down in one blow?’
As I chewed over the question, it suddenly occurred to me that the current time is set before the events of Heretic Slayer.
‘Is it because the world hasn’t gone crazy yet?’
The background of Heretic Slayer is a point where followers of Othergods are overflowing and the world is falling apart.
To put it in a metaphor, it’s like a drug cartel has become an armed group large enough to kill the president, and 80% of the population has become drug addicts.
Compared to that, in the present where Concluders haven’t even been born, drug-related criminals are just guys secretly growing hemp in their backyards.
Since the situation is different, the method of suppression couldn’t be the same.
‘Come to think of it, in the early stages of Conclude, Units weren’t killed immediately even if they were caught by Heretic Inquisitors.’
If they were dragged to the Order Sect, the connection with the Unit was simply severed; it didn’t show up as a death.
Since you’d lose the Unit anyway, the meta was always to make them commit suicide so you could gather more points through martyrdom.
‘Then maybe nothing too bad will happen even if I’m dragged to the tribunal?’
While I was racking my brain, the knight pointed the tip of his sword at me.
“Name.”
“Pardon?”
“Give me your name. Or I will cut you.”
“Fa-Fabio.”
“Age?”
“Twenty-three!”
“Young. Parents?”
“B-both of them passed away….”
“How did they pass?”
“My mother died of an illness when I was young, and my father slipped off a cliff….”
I trembled as I recited Fabio’s personal details.
“I see… it must have been very hard.”
The knight nodded, still pointing the sword at me.
‘Why is he empathizing with me?’
How can someone with such a weak mindset, pitying a story like that, be a Heretic Inquisitor?
Even if someone played the sympathy card saying their parents touched the forbidden to revive a sick child, a Heretic Inquisitor’s job is to say, ‘Disgusting. What you did to the child was not salvation. You pushed them into a hell they can never escape from,’ and send all three to hell together.
‘Is that why his name is unfamiliar.’
With a mindset like this, he would have died long before the game started.
While thinking this, I immersed myself in the act of Fabio, the terrified serf.
“Have you ever witnessed any unusual phenomena? Picked up an object that felt mysterious, or eaten a mushroom of a strange color?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that.”
“Any changes in your diet? Like starting to enjoy raw meat?”
“Pardon? Meat should be cooked.”
“Have you had any unusual dreams since then?”
“No, not really….”
‘Is asking this kind of thing how it’s done?’
What if I answer with a lie?
“What do you think of Lord Antonio?”
“Lord Antonio is the priest I respect the most.”
“Do you know what kind of person Lord Antonio is?”
“He’s a bell ringer, isn’t he?”
“I am talking about the time before he became a bell ringer.”
Before he became a bell ringer?
How would I know that? In Fabio’s memories, Antonio was always a bell ringer.
‘But he must have been someone of higher rank.’
The knight called Antonio “Lord Antonio.”
That means Antonio was in a higher position before.
‘He was originally in a high position, but he abandoned it because he didn’t need power and lived as a bell ringer.’
Then this question is likely to find out if I approached him knowing Antonio’s past to get some crumbs of benefit.
‘Of course, I am a naive serf who knows nothing!’
I answered with an unconfident attitude.
“I don’t really know. I haven’t heard anything separately from Lord Antonio….”
“Guess, even if you don’t know.”
“He… said he has a daughter, so he must have been married? Since he is highly educated, perhaps he was a professor or a scholar? Or a scribe?”
“…The reason you picked him as the priest you respect the most?”
“Because Lord Antonio is the person who practices Lord Loclem’s teachings best among all the priests I’ve seen.”
The knight snorted upon hearing my answer.
“The best among those you’ve seen. How many priests has a serf seen in his life to say such a thing?”
How many was it? Maybe five?
‘First place out of five is still first place.’
“Have you ever seen a Cardinal… no, even a Bishop in your life?”
“When I was in the Earldom, I saw a Bishop once from a distance on the day of the Harvest Festival….”
“Then did it seem to you that the Bishop was less capable of upholding Lord Loclem’s teachings than the bell ringer of this remote village?”
“I only saw him from a distance, so I do not know how he upholds the teachings.”
“You don’t know because you didn’t see? The position of Bishop was granted by Loclem. Is that not enough?”
‘This guy is like the one who asks if my parents have more money than Bill Gates when I write them as the people I respect.’
I was appalled, but I maintained my composure.
“That may be so. But I didn’t say Lord Antonio was the most wonderful priest. I said he was the one I respect the most.”
“I believe it is more logical to respect someone more wonderful.”
“No, that is not the case. Because Lord Antonio did something that no other wonderful priest could do.”
“Ho. What is that great thing?”
“He changed me.”
“…What?”
“Looking at Lord Antonio, I wanted to know more about Lord Loclem, and I wanted to become wiser. He never persuaded me to do so, but he changed my heart simply by setting an example first.”
The knight burst into laughter, as if he found it absurd.
“That’s such a great thing? Changing the heart of one serf?”
Did someone tell you that you were destined to be a great person? That you are the Messiah who will save this world? Hahaha, it seems you’ve been possessed by some great ghost. The knight spoke in a mocking tone.
“When did I say he did a great thing? I said it was something other priests could not do.”
“I suppose so. Bishops or priests wouldn’t have time to come to such a secluded village.”
“Would it change anything if they had the time to come?”
“…Are you saying your heart wouldn’t have changed if you had seen someone other than Lord Antonio?”
“Pardon? No. I was genuinely asking. I wondered what would have changed.”
I don’t know other priests or bishops, but since the Heretic Inquisitor seems to know, I asked.
At my words, the knight let out a hollow laugh, as if he were appalled again.
“Right, certainly. I doubt there is another priest who would spend so much time on a serf.”
“Is that so? Then it was truly great luck that I was able to meet Lord Antonio.”
I beamed.
“…Why are you smiling?”
“Am I not allowed to smile?”
“Usually, people don’t smile while a sword is pointed at them.”
“Is that so? Then I shall not smile.”
“No, it’s not that… ha.”
The knight looked at the sky for a moment and then lowered his sword.
‘Success.’
I smiled triumphantly inside.
Once a forced serious atmosphere is broken by a laugh, it becomes awkward to pretend to be serious again.
The fact that he let me smile means he has let his guard down.
Once he thinks, ‘What kind of guy is this,’ the likelihood increases that he’ll just brush it off as ‘there he goes again’ even if I spout nonsensical sophistry.
‘…Then even if I change my words hastily because of a contradiction during interrogation, he won’t find it strange.’
“Is that really all? The reason you respect Lord Antonio?”
“Yes. Is that not enough?”
“Right. It’s not enough, so give me another reason.”
“Another reason?”
I don’t have any.
I intentionally blinked my eyes wide.
“Even if the Heretic Inquisitor thinks it’s not enough… I am not the Heretic Inquisitor.”
“…….”
“That is the best answer I can give, and it is my sincere feeling.”
It cannot be helped if the answer of an ignorant serf is not to your liking.
What answer can you expect from a bug that has never left a single tree when asked about the forest?
As I said this, I put the sword-cut straw hat back on my head.
“Is there anything else you wish to ask? I will answer to the best of my ability!”
“…What do you think the current situation is?”
“Am I not being investigated by the Heretic Inquisitor because I am suspected of being a heretic?”
“And?”
“Pardon? Only if I do my best in this investigation will it be revealed that I am not a heretic. That’s why I’m trying my best….”
“Why did your attitude change?”
“Pardon?”
“When I revealed I was a Heretic Inquisitor, you were clearly deeply shocked.”
Especially when you heard that Antonio had betrayed you, you had a look of total unexpectedness, the knight said.
“But now you are incredibly calm… and especially when I asked you to speak about Lord Antonio, your words were too smooth.”
As if you were fabricating fake emotions.
As the knight spoke, he pointed the sword at me again.
“Even if you truly respected him until then, if that person reported you as a heretic, you should at least feel a sense of betrayal first. Is that not so?”
‘He’s surprisingly observant.’
I slightly revised my evaluation of Nasir.
But this too was within my expectations.
“Why… should I feel a sense of betrayal?”
“What do you mean ‘why’,”
“Of course, I was surprised at first. Because I had never once thought that I might be related to heresy. I was afraid and terrified. For a moment, I wondered why Lord Antonio hadn’t pointed out such strange things to me….”
I paused for a moment.
“But I know that the Lord Antonio I know is someone who would not do anything to harm me. So I decided to trust him. He probably didn’t tell me because that was the best for me as well.”
“…So you just decided to believe blindly and stopped thinking for yourself?”
“Pardon? No. This is a conclusion I reached after thinking hard.
Lord Antonio could have called the Heretic Inquisitor early on when he found out I couldn’t read the Sacred Script, but he didn’t. He must have wanted to protect me.
Putting aside my surprised heart and chewing over that fact, I thought about how grateful I was that he cared for me so much, even though I didn’t receive Lord Loclem’s Blessing.”
“…And that’s why you became calm?”
“Yes. To repay the grace of such a person as Lord Antonio, shouldn’t I first prove that I am not a heretic?”
I will cooperate to the best of my ability. As I said this, I gave him a look befitting a ‘passionate, naive serf.’
The knight remained silent for a moment, then soon let out a long sigh and sheathed his sword.
“I’m going to get scolded by Lady Casimir for this.”
“Pardon?”
“Actually, I came here today on Lady Casimir’s orders to scare you so that you wouldn’t even dream of leaving this village….”
The knight gave a small smirk and reached out a hand toward me.
“But I’ve come to think that it’s a waste to leave someone like you stuck in a mountain village like this.”
‘After the God-World Genre, is it a shonen manga now….’
12 – Chapter