Indulgence
"Good grief, this place is ridiculously grand."
Having arrived at the Central Diocese, I muttered that while staring at the great cathedral stretching high into the sky.
The Holy Nation of Kersias.
True to its reputation as the headquarters of the Holy Order, its scale far exceeded imagination.
"It feels at least five times bigger than our family estate."
Centered around the great temple in the middle, the entire structure extended outward in the shape of a cross.
As I looked at the countless holy towers supporting it, a thought crossed my mind.
'Rather than a cathedral, it's more like a palace.'
Countless golden ornaments and glowing patterns.
I was walking through a space far too luxurious to be called a mere religious facility when—
Clank!
The Holy Knights surrounding me suddenly stiffened, several of them reaching for the weapons at their waists.
'What now, an attack?'
I was thinking that while watching the Holy Knights abruptly enter a combat stance.
"So this is Young Master Klein?"
A deep voice spoke my name.
'What? Who's this?'
I narrowed my eyes toward the source of the voice.
A thick beard.
Muscles that looked ready to tear through his priestly robes.
And even the flail hanging from his waist.
At first glance, he resembled the inquisitors from the reformatory, but the atmosphere he gave off was entirely different.
Most striking of all was the red galero draped over his shoulders.
The moment I saw the red sash embroidered with golden threads, one of the Holy Knights called out his name.
"Cardinal Paul."
A cardinal.
One of the 128 high-ranking priests who possessed the authority to elect the Pope.
"We are currently escorting a criminal. My apologies, but—"
"I asked whether this man is Young Master Klein."
The moment he spoke in a hardened voice, tension filled the Holy Knights' eyes.
"Y-yes…"
After glaring briefly at the Holy Knights, the man strode toward me and asked,
"Is what Father Garrison said true?"
"Uh… pardon?"
No, what kind of question was that to throw out the moment we met?
As I debated whether I should answer or not, he pressed further.
"I asked whether the inhuman atrocities committed at the Kripel Heretic Reformatory are truly real!"
As he spoke and tried to seize my shoulder, the Holy Knights blocked him.
"C-Cardinal Paul!"
"You must not interrogate an escorted criminal! Please…!"
"Stand aside! If you are members of the Holy Knights, then you too should seek the undeniable truth…!"
As Cardinal Paul and the Holy Knights began struggling with each other—
my mind rapidly filled with speculation and assumptions.
'If one of the cardinals is openly saying things like this in the middle of the cathedral, then unrest has already spread inside the Order itself.'
And if I wanted to increase the value of my testimony, I needed to provoke their psychology.
"What do you think?"
"...!"
Having reached my conclusion, I raised my voice toward Cardinal Paul.
"Does Father Garrison seem like the kind of man who would lie?"
"W-what…!"
"Do not speak carelessly, Young Master Klein!"
Enraged by my sudden action, one of the Holy Knights hurriedly gestured to the others.
"Silence him! Take him to the confessional! Quickly!"
The Holy Knights immediately grabbed both my shoulders and began dragging me away with rough force.
"Think carefully! About what Kripel truly was! About the kind of man Father Garrison is!"
Ignoring their interference, I shouted loud enough for the cathedral to tremble.
So that as many people as possible could hear my voice.
If my assumptions were correct—
then what I had just done would become extremely important in the upcoming trial.
****
"Your guilt has not yet been formally determined, so you will not be sent to prison."
Was Miriam's warning working?
Or was this merely an attempt to placate me?
While considering that, I arrived before an iron door inside the building.
"However!"
The Holy Knight staring at me deliberately strengthened his tone.
"His Holiness's mercy extends only this far, so do not act rashly!"
Having said that, the Holy Knights shoved me through the iron door.
Boom—!
The place they confined me in was a confessional chamber located in the upper levels of the Central Diocese.
Once the door was locked, it could function perfectly well as a prison cell.
"For all that threatening…"
I briefly commented while looking around the surprisingly spacious chamber.
"This room is rather luxurious."
It looked more like a guest room at an inn than a confessional chamber.
"Surely they didn't actually get scared of Sister Miriam."
I muttered that while recalling the nun threatening the Holy Knights.
As the reincarnation of Archimond, I was considered a top-tier religious criminal within the Holy Nation.
Under normal circumstances, I should have been imprisoned in an underground dungeon.
And yet they were giving me this kind of treatment, which meant there was a reason for it.
"There's no way the Order suddenly decided to treat me like a duke's son."
If that had been the case, they would never have sent Ben after me in the first place.
"Then why is it that, unlike before, they can't handle me recklessly anymore?"
The corner of my mouth slowly curled upward as I muttered that.
"While I was staying at the orphanage, discussions must have started inside the Order."
Given Garrison's personality, there was no way he would quietly overlook what happened at the reformatory.
'Which means the Acting Executor effectively exposed the corruption of the reformatory. Of course chaos broke out.'
Just because the Pope and the Holy Nation distributed Holy Blood didn't mean every clergyman was involved.
If they all were, there would have been no need to secretly hide the laboratory inside the reformatory in the first place.
Priests with no interest in politics.
Opposition factions that outwardly bowed to the Pope while secretly waiting for opportunities behind the scenes.
The truth Garrison exposed about the reformatory had become perfect bait for them.
'So this was the real reason Sister Miriam protected me.'
With Garrison exposing the truth behind the reformatory and controversy erupting over Holy Blood and the experiments—
I was no longer merely a criminal.
I had become the only witness capable of proving Garrison's claims.
"Before I knew it, I became the center of a faction war inside the Order."
I smiled bitterly, though my mood itself wasn't bad.
For me right now, this situation was actually a tremendous opportunity.
'Until the trial begins, the Order can't kill me carelessly.'
The Acting Executor himself had already stirred up the issue.
If they killed me rashly now, suspicion would only grow stronger.
'In that case, the only useful move left for the Pope's side would be…'
Just as I continued piecing together my thoughts—
Knock knock.
Together with the sound of someone knocking on the firmly locked door, a voice called out.
"Young Master Klein Leinrant."
The door opened, and an unfamiliar man revealed himself.
Dressed in neat priestly robes, the man looked more like a martial warrior than a clergyman.
"And you are?"
If he could open the confessional chamber this freely, he was probably someone from the Pope's faction.
"Allow me to introduce myself, Young Master Klein Leinrant."
As expected, the man politely bowed his head toward me and revealed his name.
"My name is Birken, aide to His Holiness the Pope."
The Pope's aide.
After staring at him for a moment, I picked up the dining knife resting on the table and asked,
"Is it acceptable for the Pope's aide to address a criminal with honorifics?"
"Hahaha, a criminal? What a hurtful thing to say."
I asked mockingly, but he showed no sign of agitation.
"This is merely an unfortunate misunderstanding between the reformatory and House Leinrant."
"A misunderstanding?"
"Yes. A misunderstanding."
Locking a three-year-old child underground.
Forcing him to live an entire life under contempt.
And now they called it a misunderstanding.
"His Holiness the Pope has also expressed great regret regarding this unfortunate incident."
As if unaware of my twisting expression, Birken pulled something from his robes and held it out to me.
[As the representative of the Lord Kersias, I absolve the sinner ___ of his original sin.]
Words written in red ink upon parchment.
And beneath them was the seal of the Pope himself—Brigante.
"An indulgence…"
The intention behind it was painfully obvious.
Alongside my mocking laughter came a wave of disgust that twisted my insides.
The accusation that I was the reincarnation of Archimond.
The Order was now trying to use that burden as leverage to bring me under control.
"If you simply sign it, we will take responsibility for your treatment afterward. The trial will also be handled summarily."
Oh, I'm sure it would.
The longer the trial dragged on, the more questions there would be about the reformatory and Holy Blood.
"So, once you sign, Young Master, regarding the reformatory and the things that happened there—"
"You want me to keep my mouth shut about it."
The moment the harsh words left my mouth, Birken flinched slightly and fell silent.
"… I'm glad you understand so quickly."
But only for a moment.
At his polite reply, I twisted my lips into a sneer.
"If you wish, the Order can also reexamine the accusations against you—"
"The hell you are."
Cutting off Birken's continued words, I rose from my seat.
"You locked me in the reformatory and even sent an inquisitor to kill me."
Filled with disgust and hostility, I leaned my face closer toward his.
"And now you think I'm going to trust you people?"
"Well now, I'm not sure what you mean."
My expression warped at his shameless response.
"The actions of a few extremists do not represent the will of the Order as a whole."
Every time I heard that phrase, it made my skin crawl.
That same old "a few individuals."
That constant scapegoating.
Were these really priests, or just worms rotting in a sewer drain?
"But man, this is awkward."
The instant I spoke those words, Birken's expression hardened.
Riiip—!
The indulgence in my hands tore cleanly in half and fell to the floor.
Grinding the Pope's seal beneath my foot, I spoke forcefully toward him.
"I have no intention of colluding with you bastards, so get lost."
"H-haha…"
Apparently shocked by my actions, Birken let out a hollow laugh and covered his face with one hand.
And then, the next moment—
Boom—!
Holy power erupted from him, heavily crushing down upon the confessional chamber where I sat.
"So it seems you're under a very serious misunderstanding."
Craaack!
Unable to withstand the pressure, the wooden wine cup split apart, spilling wine across the floor.
"Do not misjudge which side is holding the hilt of the sword, Young Master Klein."
His tone had now shifted completely from persuasion to threat.
He realized I wasn't someone who would yield to sweet words.
"I did not come here to negotiate with you, nor to strike a deal."
As he said that, Birken strode toward me and immediately grabbed me by the collar.
"If you wish to keep your life, then quietly obey our instruc—"
"Hand."
I cut off his threat midway.
"What?"
The moment he frowned and asked back—
"Take your damn hands off me, you little shit."
The instant I said that, I swung the knife I had been holding.
Slash—!
The cutting sound came a beat later.
I had sliced through the wrist of the hand gripping me just moments ago.
"G-ghaaaagh?!"
Blood from the aide Birken splattered across the floor of the confessional chamber.
The blade had dug deeply into his wrist and severed the artery.
Blood burst from the wound like a fountain as he clutched at it.
"W-what happened?!"
"What's going on?!"
As screams echoed through the cathedral, horrified Holy Knights rushed toward me.
Overcome with agony, Birken collapsed to the floor, drooling and crying.
"B-Brother Birken?!"
"His artery's been severed! Call a healer!"
"Young Master Klein! What have you done?!"
Several knights hurried off to fetch help, while the remaining Holy Knights interrogated me with pale faces.
"What, did you people start thinking the ducal house was a joke just because we stayed quiet in the North?"
I casually brushed off the wrinkled clothes Birken had grabbed and looked down at him sprawled on the floor.
"How dare some insignificant priest lay hands on a son of House Leinrant?"
"...!"
"W-what did you just…?!"
An Imperial Duke possesses authority equal to that of a king.
And yet why had the Order been able to treat House Leinrant so carelessly?
'Because we were weak.'
Because the branch family stole our interests.
Because the Empire stole our influence.
Because House Leinrant had been slowly collapsing.
'But not anymore.'
Helian had fallen, and the branch family was now in my grasp.
Maybe they thought they could shove me back into the reformatory and keep me in check.
But honestly—
'They're already far too late.'