The Regressed Sword Demon Is a Catastrophe-Class Inquisitor - Chapter 47

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 47. Please, I Beg You….

I withdrew my hand from the communication artifact and tucked it away in my pocket.
Then I shifted my gaze toward Jacob.

“…!”

He was shouting something while clutching at his severed wrist.
But trapped within the translucent sphere, his voice couldn’t reach me.

“Release him.”
“Yes, sir!”

Only after Bella dispelled the magic did Jacob’s voice become audible.

“W-what in the world are you doing!”
“What am I doing? You’re the one who committed the crime. I merely apprehended you at the scene as a Heresy Inquisitor.”
“You were following me?”
“I was simply curious where you were rushing off to, so I followed.”
“That’s stalking… ugh….”

His words faltered as pain creased his brow.

“Does it hurt? That won’t do. Bella, stop the bleeding for him.”
“Understood!”

Bella retrieved medicinal herbs and gauze from her bag, tending to Jacob’s wrist wound.
I spoke with feigned sympathy.

“Tsk, tsk. With your hand like that, you won’t be selling anything else anytime soon. Do try to behave in custody.”

Jacob glared at me with sharp intensity.

“This is your doing…! Aaaahhh!!”
“I’m so sorry!!”

Bella must have touched something sensitive, because Jacob suddenly let out a scream.
This time, Jacob whirled around to face Bella.

“Be careful…! Ahhhhh!!”
“Yes? What did you say?”
“Ah, it’s… nothing at all…”

Jacob gasped for breath, his chest heaving as he quickly lowered his tail.
Bella was growing remarkably fast under my tutelage. She seemed capable of fulfilling the role of Heretic Inquisitor entirely on her own.

‘Excellent.’

Once the treatment concluded smoothly, I opened my mouth.

“I have one question. Where is this place that Rabek speaks of? It seems to be somewhere only you two know about.”
“….”

Jacob averted his gaze from mine and clamped his mouth shut.
Faced with his uncooperative attitude, I folded my arms across my chest.

“Deacon Bella. It appears we need to have a more… persuasive conversation.”
“Understood!”

Bella cast a sound-dampening spell around the Warehouse. Though remote, I couldn’t risk anyone hearing screams.
I fixed my gaze upon Jacob.

“You were shouting with such fervor before, as if you’d storm my Mansion itself. Yet now that we meet face to face, words fail you?”
“….”

As he continued his silence, a heavy sigh escaped me.
He truly failed to grasp the situation.

“Listen. Your conspiracy with that man to destabilize my Estate is already grounds for execution. Do you understand why I’ve kept you alive?”
“To extract the location of that place from me. Once I reveal it, you’ll kill me.”

Indeed, his silence wasn’t without reason.
There was certainly a purpose behind my decision not to kill him outright. I needed to capture the mastermind behind this scheme to ensure no future complications.

“No.”

But I shook my head and grabbed both of his cheeks with one hand.

“I have no desire to stain my hands with the blood of someone so insignificant.”
“….”

Even in my past life, I had already killed many with these hands. So handing over someone as powerless as this to the Theocracy would be more than sufficient.

“The location of that place? I have no need to discover it myself. After all, they’ll find you first without me even appearing.”

Few knew the secret hideout of the Wol Young Order.
But since it came from my lips, he would come looking for either Jacob or me directly.

“In short, killing you here would only increase my annoyance, but it wouldn’t affect my plans in the slightest. Do you understand?”

I released his face with a light flick.

“However, if you tell me the location of that place and the detailed circumstances, I swear by the Goddess that I won’t kill you with my own hands.”
“…Is that truly so?”

Jacob looked up at me with eyes full of doubt.

“But your tone of voice….”
“Y-yes, truly, sir?”

Jacob hastily corrected his manner of speech.

“Yes. Have you lived your entire life being deceived? You who have deceived others all this time.”

Jacob swallowed hard and nodded.

“…I understand. I’ll tell you everything.”

After that, Jacob revealed everything.
The truth was exactly as I had suspected—a man named Rabek had set up a fake Merchant Lord to safely profit from behind the scenes.
The place where they met was in a forest nearby. He said the exact location was marked on a tree or something.
Since Jacob offered to guide me directly, there would be no confusion about the location.

“Then let’s do it that way. I wish you’d cooperated from the start.”
“So… you’re letting me live…?”
“Of course. I’m a man who keeps his promises.”
“Ah…!”

Jacob’s complexion brightened.

“However…”
“Yes?”
“I noticed earlier that your teeth are quite well-maintained.”

I grasped both his cheeks with one hand. Between his lips, which had opened like a carp’s mouth, I could see his well-kept teeth.

“That’s how you managed to scream without slurring a single syllable.”
“Wha…?”
“This won’t do. I’ll need to extract a few teeth to ensure you don’t run your mouth again.”

Jacob’s eyes widened in panic as he stammered.

“B-but you said you’d let me live!”
“I did.”

I smiled faintly at him.

“As long as I don’t kill you, the promise holds, doesn’t it?”

I was indeed a man who kept his promises so faithfully.
I brought my hand toward his straight teeth, and soon someone’s screams erupted.
But those sounds never escaped beyond these walls.

* * *

The following evening.
Jacob stood alone at the Meeting Place, his robe pulled low over his head.
After waiting a moment, a man in a dark robe emerged from the opposite direction.
Jacob bowed his head.

“Welcome, Rabek.”

Rabek paused, momentarily taken aback, and asked.

“Why is your speech slurred? I remember you speaking clearly just last night.”
“I fell on the road, sir.”
“You got like this just from falling?”
“I fell on my face, sir.”
“Hmm….”

Rabek stroked his chin thoughtfully, while Jacob’s cold sweat dripped profusely.

‘Will he actually believe this?’

Jacob had simply spoken as Kael instructed. He’d been promised a reduction in his sentence if he helped capture Rabek.
But even a plausible excuse wouldn’t be believed—and this was far too flimsy an explanation, wasn’t it?
So he’d tried to embellish it himself, but Kael’s response had been this.

– No, that’s enough.

What did he mean, “enough”?
Looking at Rabek’s piercing gaze, there was no way such words would come from his mouth!

“Well, never mind that. But did he really say it like that?”

…He’s letting this slide?
Jacob was somewhat surprised, but he composed himself and replied carefully.

“Yes. He clearly said, ‘The darkness of the moon is not dark.'”

Kael had already informed him of everything he’d discussed with Rabek.

“He wouldn’t have said it that stupidly.”
“That’s right. Do you know what it means?”
“I do. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come here personally.”

Rabek let out a long sigh. Then he looked at Jacob’s tattered sleeve.

“Did you sell off your right arm?”

I had deliberately covered it with a long robe, but it seemed he had noticed anyway.
Jacob produced the prepared answer once more.

“I fell while walking down the road.”
“….”

As silence fell, sweat pooled in Jacob’s remaining hand.
There was no way teeth and a wrist could be damaged to this extent from simply falling on the road.

“Haha.”

Suddenly Rabek let out a small laugh. Then, suppressing his smile, he muttered.

“Of all people, I got caught by a madman. Since you recognized me, I can’t play dumb now either.”
“What do you…?”
“It means both you and I have been dancing in that bastard’s palm.”

Rabek extended one hand with fluid grace.

“Fool. A puppet who’s been used until the very end.”

Mana condensed in Rabek’s hand. It transformed into flames and erupted toward Jacob.

Whoooosh!

The flames surged forward, illuminating the forest’s darkness, and engulfed Jacob like a tidal wave.

“Aaaahhhhh!”

Before his screams and the flames subsided, a figure emerged from the forest, lunging toward Rabek.
A shadow shot forth from the darkness toward him.
The blade descending upon Rabek flickered with menacing flames.
Any ordinary mage would have been too slow to respond after casting magic, but Rabek was different.

Clang!

A translucent barrier materialized, deflecting the man’s sword strike.
Feeling the formidable power behind it, Rabek sensed danger and cast another spell.

Boom!

Sharp, jagged rocks erupted from the ground toward the man’s abdomen, and he leaped backward to evade.
Rabek observed the man in the black priestly robes. Judging by the level of his attack, he was no ordinary Heresy Inquisitor.

“I’ve been waiting for this.”

The Heresy Inquisitor’s eyes gleamed coldly in the moonlight.

“Is this our first time meeting face to face?”

* * *

I assessed Rabek, who was glaring at me.

‘That was a decent ambush, but he blocked it cleanly.’

A mage capable of double casting. That meant he possessed skill comparable to Enoch, who had once been Envy of the Seven Deadly Sins.

“So you’re the eldest son who became that Heresy Inquisitor. I didn’t expect you to be this capable.”
“Fortunately, it seems I won’t need to introduce myself separately.”

Rabek let out a low chuckle.

“Did you really think I’d fall for the act of someone without hands or teeth?”
“Then why are you here if you weren’t deceived? Surely you didn’t come for a midnight stroll.”
“….”
“Or do you have a hobby of killing people during your walks?”

I glanced at the charred corpse. Rabek furrowed his brow in protest.

“You intended for me to kill him.”
“That’s nonsense. Don’t pin your crimes on me. It’s distasteful.”

When I responded seriously, Rabek exhaled a long breath.

“More importantly, how do you know that secret code? There’s no way he could have figured it out.”

It seems to refer to the Wol Young Order’s secret code.
I knew of it from my past life, but there was no way I’d reveal it directly.

“The Goddess told me.”
“…I see.”
“Why don’t you pray to the Goddess too? After death, you’ll live righteously, so ask her not to send you to Hell.”

Rabek looked me over, then let out a derisive snort.

“Shouldn’t that be something you do? In any case, it seems unnecessary for me.”
“Hmm, I disagree.”
“Above all, I don’t believe in the Goddess from the start. And I despise the Theocracy that worships her.”

Most clergy of the Theocracy don’t view magic favorably.
It’s a means of attack used by demons, and they see it as a miraculous power outside the Goddess’s domain.
And the Wol Young Order is a group composed of mages persecuted because of that.
In a way, it was only natural that the Wol Young Order would deny the Theocracy itself.

‘But that doesn’t justify what they’re doing.’

A sin is a sin, nothing more. Just as I was in my past life.
I simply sever that sin with my blade before it spreads to the innocent.

“Oh my, the listening Goddess must be grieving.”
“I wish she grieved, even a little. Over the fact that there are foolish people who reject mages simply because they’re mages, despite being human like everyone else.”

I’ve agreed with that sentiment since my past life.
Many who could have lived righteously like Bella were rejected by the Theocracy and became villains.
But at least this man was cut from different cloth.

“Knowing that, why do you still harm the innocent?”

This man manipulated the Merchant Guild from behind, causing suffering to the residents and even to me.
Those who know pain typically don’t commit such acts.

“I needed money and power for the greater cause. And I didn’t harm the residents’ lives, did I? Their lives were simply difficult for a time.”
“That’s not a greater cause. It’s your personal greed—wanting to bring down the Theocracy.”

I pointed my flaming sword at him.

“Mages like you are exactly why society’s perception of magic continues to deteriorate. Indiscriminate hatred only feeds the flames of prejudice.”
“Ha, so you’re telling me to simply watch? To accept this nation where people are cast out merely for possessing magical talent?”
“No, I won’t simply watch either.”

I answered with absolute sincerity.

“I will change it myself.”
“…What?”
“Of course, those who despise mages will continue to do so. But I will ensure that no one loses their very life simply for being a mage.”

This was something I had failed to accomplish in my previous life. Though truthfully, what had I ever accomplished besides accumulating sin in that past existence?
Regardless, this was also the future Bella yearned for—a matter I would continue to grapple with.

“In that sense, I believe you require divine punishment from the Goddess.”

I muttered while fixing him with an unwavering glare.

“I beseech thee, I beseech thee…. Goddess, strike down this foolish wretch with thy divine wrath….”

Rabek’s eyes widened in bewilderment before he let out a hollow laugh.

“Are you jesting now? So your words just moments ago weren’t sincere either.”
“I beseech thee, I beseech thee….”

I paid him no mind, gripping my sword tightly as I kept my focus on Rabek.
Rabek’s expression darkened, his brow furrowing with irritation.

“I was foolish to engage in conversation with a madman. If you truly intended to strike me down through prayer alone….”

That was when it happened.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion erupted from the forest, followed by a torrent of flame.
Rabek, startled, whipped his head to the side. As an enormous inferno crashed toward us, he hastily erected a stone barrier.

CRASH!

The flames that struck the rock wall began to dissipate in a fan-like pattern.
Though the inferno was fierce enough to sweep across the entire area, the rock wall was solid enough to withstand its force.
The flames, which had continued to pour forth their scorching heat, ultimately failed to breach the stone and faded away.

Whoosh!

But I had not remained idle during all this.
In a flash, I closed the distance to Rabek and brought my flaming blade down with devastating speed.

“…!”

Under normal circumstances, he would have defended himself with magic.
But caught off guard by the ambush, he could not muster a response to my attack.

Slice!

One of his arms was cut. Had he not twisted his body, his head would have been severed clean from his shoulders.
I repositioned myself to close the distance once more, but before I could, sharp rocks erupted from the ground, forcing me to widen the gap between us.
He clutched at his bleeding shoulder, his expression one of shock.

“What is this….”

I met his gaze and answered with unwavering conviction.

“The Goddess’s wrath.”

(To be continued in the next chapter)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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