#015

A priest who has bugs crawling under his skin, carries an obsidian knife, and pours his own blood into the open flesh of others.

No matter how you look at it, isn’t that just a bizarre cultist?

Just looking at him felt immediately unpleasant and repulsive—the kind of sight that would make your SAN value (Sanity) plummet!

That twisted sense of common sense, committing such horrific acts while believing he is doing a good deed!!

‘How the hell am I supposed to not be disgusted by that!’

Even among the Apostles of the Othergod, there aren’t many this gross!!

How is this not heresy!!

‘You bastard, Nasir!! If you were going to warn me, you should have warned me properly!!’

It’s so horrific I could faint just by looking at it!!

No, in the first place, it wasn’t even a terminal illness; he shouldn’t have suggested I undergo such a gruesome healing process for mere muscle pain!!

“Your complexion isn’t great… you seem to be anemic as well.”

“I shall specially provide double the Sacred Vessel for you, brother.”

Agnes uttered those horrific words in a gentle voice.

I took a half-step back.

‘Fuck, how do I escape naturally?’

Nasir had clearly told me that if I felt ‘discomfort,’ I shouldn’t make it obvious and should tell him first, but right now, Nasir was….

“Father Agnes.”

“Yes, what is it?”

Nasir, who had appeared at some point with a supply bag slung over his shoulder, subtly stepped in front of me.

“Thank you for granting the Blessing of Healing so early in the morning. Thanks to you, we will be able to depart without further delay.”

Agnes blinked once, somewhat unnaturally, then wore a soft smile.

“…There is no time too early to grant a blessing. It is only natural for one who serves Ledeia.”

“I am grateful for Ledeia’s grace. May all that regenerates prosper under Order.”

“May the correcting hand be present where Order looks down.”

Agnes made the sign of the cross and packed away the tools he had brought.

It looked as if he were tidying up after the treatment had already finished.

‘He hypnotized him!’

Nasir!! I knew I could count on you!!

You came to save me!!

Of course, you’re the one who put me in this situation in the first place!!

“Fabio. The days have grown shorter, so we must hurry.”

Nasir turned to me and spoke.

Originally, we were planned to leave slowly after lunch, but it seemed he had changed his mind.

‘Well, if I stay too long, I might actually commit an act of rudeness.’

If Father Agnes suddenly spoke to me from behind, I might jump out of my skin and scream every profanity known to man.

That’s how disgusting and creepy he was.

‘Ugh, just thinking about it makes my skin feel itchy.’

How can everyone else treat that as if it’s normal?

I rubbed my goosebump-covered arms, lost in thought.

‘Is it because people here see healing priests often, so they’re used to it?’

No, no matter how often you see it, it should still be unpleasant.

Even if some lunatic spammed GIFs of a maggot-priest on a forum every day, you’d still swear every time you got baited; it’s not something you just get used to.

‘Above all, healing priests aren’t people you see that often.’

Searching through Fabio’s memories, he had only seen one about twice in his life.

However, the narration hadn’t mentioned him nearly vomiting in shock the first time he saw a healing priest.

‘…Could it be that healing priests are always emitting some kind of mental wave that makes people not find their appearance repulsive?’

And that was nullified for me because of [Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme]?

‘I can’t be sure since no System window popped up, but that seems the most likely.’

Was the reason Nasir warned me because he knew I had a blessing that nullifies ‘hypnosis’?

As I pondered this, it was already time to depart.

Which meant it was time to get back on the horse.

‘Fuck, my muscle pain is still severe.’

But when I thought about the Blessing of Healing, I felt like I could somehow overcome mere muscle pain with sheer willpower.

I climbed onto the horse, pretending to be as nonchalant as possible while trying my best not to look at Father Agnes, who had come out to see us off.

Nasir glanced at me once, then departed without a word.

* * *

“Fabio.”

Nasir spoke after we had been riding for about two hours, far enough from the village that the bells of the clock tower were no longer audible.

While I was wondering whether it would be blasphemy for Ledeia’s priests to eat rotten fruit swarming with maggots—since maggots were the symbol of the god—or if throwing them in a trash can would be the blasphemy, I turned my head a beat late.

“Yes?”

“Were you very surprised when you saw the healing priest?”

…’Surprised’ isn’t a strong enough word for that.

“How did it feel?”

I was frantically trying to figure out how to phrase my answer creatively so I wouldn’t say anything too harsh, but Nasir spoke first without waiting for my response.

“Didn’t it feel nauseating, repulsive, and so chilling that you felt like fainting?”

To the point where you’d rather die than receive such treatment.

‘What? Did he read my mind?’

Do Heretic Inquisitors have a special ability to immediately detect blasphemous thoughts?

Feeling that I was screwed, I tried to make an excuse.

“I, uh, not to that extent….”

“I told you I lived in the desert until I was thirteen.”

Nasir ignored my words and continued.

“Until then, I was raised as a pagan. I received the Baptism of Order when I was fifteen.

Because of that, I vividly remember my life before the baptism.

Those born into baptism wouldn’t understand. What it feels like when the world looks different the moment you are baptized….”

‘Suddenly we’re in a theatrical monologue?’

“…What I just said were the thoughts I had while looking at a healing priest before I was baptized.”

‘Thank god. I thought he was going to slash me in some secluded spot for having blasphemous thoughts, even while he was trying to overlook my heresy.’

“At that time, my right arm was so badly injured that the bone was exposed, and I was told I’d never hold a sword again if I didn’t get treatment, but I stubbornly refused. I said if my right arm became crippled, I’d swing with my left. I wailed and cried that I’d rather die than undergo that disgusting treatment.”

Nasir continued in a low voice.

“By then, I had already converted. So, I didn’t refuse because of a belief that such treatment would defile my body or contradict religious doctrine. It was simply because it was unbearably repulsive.”

I thought all the Imperials who viewed such things as normal were insane.

I nodded inwardly, empathizing strongly with Nasir’s words.

‘Exactly, these people are all crazy!’

“Yes, I certainly thought so. But after receiving the baptism, I realized something.”

Nasir looked toward me.

“Fabio. Do you know the phrase, ‘Under Order, all things are beautiful’?”

It was a phrase impossible not to know.

It was a sentence repeated exhaustively in the Order Sect’s prayers and hymns.

“What do you think that phrase means?”

“…Doesn’t it mean that things in an orderly state are beautiful? I thought it meant that where Loclem looks down, disorder and chaos vanish and Order is established, making the sight pleasant and beautiful.”

Nasir chuckled upon hearing my answer.

“You think too complicatedly. That phrase is not a metaphor.”

“Not a metaphor…?”

“Under Order, all things are beautiful. This statement is a truth, and a law.”

And a law personally proclaimed by Loclem.

Nasir said,

“To those who have been baptized, the gods and their priests belonging to Order appear beautiful. After my own baptism, I found my past self, who refused treatment, to be strange. I have the memory of feeling intense loathing, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot recall that feeling of disgust. It’s like having a strange memory of once being afraid that my skin would melt if I touched cold water.”

‘What?’

“…To say that all things under Order are beautiful means, conversely, that those outside of Order are exempt from that law.”

‘Fuck, so if you find it creepy, you’re confirmed as a heretic?’

Listening to Nasir, my back became damp with cold sweat.

Isn’t this heresy verification test too difficult?

I’m supposed to stay composed while seeing bugs crawling under someone’s face?

I’m supposed to be fine while maggots are poured into my sliced-open skin?

‘How is that even possible!’

I felt wronged.

Because I’m not actually a true heretic yet.

I don’t have the Divine Power of an Othergod, nor can I use it.

I just have a few bound traits.

‘Great power is supposed to come with great responsibility!’

I have no power, yet I’m only getting the responsibility!

While I was screaming internally, Nasir spoke.

“…Actually, I suspected as much when you looked into my eyes and were unfazed.”

“Your eyes?”

“Golden eyes are one of Nephiton’s divine symbols.”

Fuck, who the hell is Nephiton now.

I quickly searched my memories, but nothing came to mind.

Probably just one of those nobodies Loclem killed.

“…Nephiton is a guardian god of the desert who died without entering under Order.”

‘Definitely a nobody.’

“Therefore, those under Order cannot help but feel an instinctive aversion to golden eyes.”

Some say they get used to it, and many have disciplined their minds enough to control such instinctive reactions, but….

Nasir spoke with an inscrutable smile.

“Seeing your reaction today, I know. Your lack of reaction back then was truly your genuine emotion.”

‘…What does he mean by that?’

My mind raced.

Since I failed two heresy tests in a row, am I now a confirmed heretic and headed for a heresy camp?

“I wonder. To a being outside of Order, how do my eyes feel?”

‘……? My life is currently fucked, do you really think I have an opinion on your eye color?’

It would be like a death row inmate, trembling not knowing when they’ll be executed, forcing down rations without knowing the taste, only for the guard to ask, ‘How’s the tie I wore today? Does it suit me? Maybe it doesn’t match my personal color?’

‘I want to say “Who gives a fuck, you bastard,” but….’

I’ll endure it because I’m the weaker one!

It’s a huge misconception to think that once you become a death row inmate, you’ll become detached from everything and be able to act bold because you’re going to die anyway.

Especially in the Middle Ages.

Do you know why the medieval executioner was a high-paying profession?

It’s because prisoners and their families offered massive bribes out of fear that the executioner might kill them painfully.

‘Even if I’m executed as a heretic, it’s more profitable to keep building Affinity until the very end.’

“…Until Lord Nasir told me, I did not know that I was someone who had not received the Blessing of Order.”

“Hmm?”

“I believed in Loclem, whom Lord Antonio serves; I wanted to believe, I tried to believe and learn, but when I heard that Loclem, who looks down upon everyone, actually does not look after me, it felt as if the sky were collapsing.”

Nasir looked as if he were thinking, ‘Why is he suddenly saying this instead of answering,’ but he didn’t interrupt me.

“And through this incident, I realized that I am outside of Order, which made me very depressed….”

I paused intentionally, looking at Nasir’s slightly puzzled expression.

“But I’ve realized there is one good thing about it.”

“…What is that?”

I gave a smile so faint it felt poignant.

“That I could look into Lord Nasir’s eyes and think that they are a truly beautiful golden color.”

‘Be dazzled by the 21st-century flirtation!’

“It must be very easy for Heretic Inquisitor Nasir to find beings outside of Order. You only need to find the people who cannot take their eyes off that beautiful color.”

“…….”

“I have never heard of a god named Nephiton, but he must have been a god of beauty. That is why such a beautiful color became his symbol.”

“…….”

“The gold of the desert… when I heard that, I thought it sounded wonderful, but I also wondered. Shouldn’t gold be called the eye color of the desert?”

Nasir, perhaps experiencing culture shock from a culture ten centuries ahead of his own, froze without a reaction.

“Lord Nasir?”

“…Is it truly that beautiful? My eye color?”

‘What is this bearded old man saying, how creepy.’

But if looking only at the iris color, it could certainly be called beautiful.

If a beautiful woman had that eye color, she wouldn’t have been able to be a billboard model. Because drivers unable to take their eyes off the billboard would cause traffic accidents.

“Yes. Even real gold would lose its luster before Lord Nasir’s eyes; they are that beautiful.”

“…Where did you learn to speak in such a manner?”

“Eh? Are there people in the city who teach how to speak?”

Is it different if you learn it separately?

At my question, Nasir suddenly snapped his head away.

‘Ah, his ears turned red.’

I said it to build Affinity, but it felt a bit weird that his Affinity actually went up.

‘Looking at the situation, this is exactly the cliché where [a beautiful girl with a serious complex about something trivial falls helplessly in love the moment she realizes the male lead thinks it’s fine or even likes it].’

Of course, the fact that he’s a Heretic Inquisitor and I’m a serf suspected of heresy puts me about a billion years away from that cliché.

“…I have never heard such words before.”

“Pardon?”

“You are the first person to tell me that golden eyes are beautiful.”

‘Fuck, why does he keep saying lines that sound like they’re from a cliché beautiful girl, and why is it so unsettling.’

He even had a look as if he were about to cry, which made me feel even more awkward.

“W-was it not the case even before you were thirteen?”

“…Everyone in my clan had golden eyes, so no one bothered to mention the color. At the time, I thought everyone had eyes of this hue.”

I see….

“After coming to the Empire, I only heard that if I didn’t cover my disgusting eyes, they would be gouged out….”

‘Wow, so this is medieval racial discrimination.’

The truly scary part was that primitive medieval people wouldn’t just stop at words; they’d actually act on it.

“There was even a bishop who said that if I truly came to believe in the Lord, I would have stabbed my own eyes—which symbolize heresy—and that he would only grant baptism if I came to him blind.”

‘That’s one way to say they won’t let you convert.’

What absolute pieces of shit.

And these people serve a god?

They should have just prayed that he’d be born in the Empire in the next life and smacked him with the Divine Hammer.

Such pointless mockery….

“…That is why Captain Casimir truly gouged out her eyes and received baptism while blood was dripping.”

‘……?’

“And when she regained her sight through Ledeia’s blessing, she chose to have silver-gray eyes.”

‘…Captain… Casimir?’

Lord Antonio, just what kind of person did you take in as a stepdaughter?

“But I was a coward, and I could not pluck out my own eyes.”

No, in any scenario, the person who actually did that is the weird one.

“I was a traitor to those with the same eye color as me… an unsettling presence to those with different colors, and a pathetic coward whenever I looked in the mirror.”

A single tear dropped from Nasir’s eye.

“But….”

[

SYSTEM:

‘Heretic Inquisitor Nasir’ is deeply influenced by your words!]

]

‘What’s this all of a sudden.’

“So these eyes were a color that someone could find beautiful.”

[

SYSTEM:

An anecdote is added to the achievement of ‘Miracle of the Silver Tongue’.]

]

[

SYSTEM:

Affinity has increased very slightly.]

]

‘…I stumbled onto something.’

I hadn’t said anything particularly grand, so it felt subtle that he was so deeply moved, but since it seemed to help his psychological therapy, I decided to consider it a win-win.

Chapter 16