Chapter 20 - Bishop Valtes and the Abandoned Heretics
It's possible.
I don't know this castle, so it's possible those people committed a great crime.
Franc was friendly, but she was young, wasn't she?
There could be a great wrong we don't know about.
I wasn't a fool who judged a person based on a single cold facet of their personality.
In fact, I was someone who believed that a cold side was necessary when it came to important matters.
It's just that the image Franc had shown me remained like an afterimage, bothering me.
At times like this, it was best to be certain.
"Who are those people, and why are they being dragged away?"
"Vile apostates. Heretics who have defiled the goddess's will. There is no place for apostates to stand in this land, which is maintained solely by the will of the goddess."
"Apostates, that's interesting. I've never seen one before. Did they worship another god?"
"Haha, you say frightening things. If that were the case, they would have died on the spot. They were caught stealing. A very vile crime. For those who have broken the divine law, all that remains is execution. In the plaza, for all to see."
'Theft…'
Theft was certainly a crime.
Moreover, a crime needs no sob story.
The fact that they were shabby and had starved for a long time didn't justify theft.
Not everyone who is hungry steals food.
But there was just one thing I was curious about.
What were the rules of this land?
In Korea, starving was a personal problem.
You could at least afford to eat if you got a part-time job.
But it wasn't an entirely personal problem either.
I had been alone since I was a student.
There were many restrictions that followed when I tried to get a part-time job, and even when I found one, I was often treated poorly.
If one were to say that was entirely my fault, then it would just be my fault, but Korea didn't say it was entirely my fault.
It gave me rice to live on, and money to guarantee a minimum livelihood.
Even if it was old rice, to me it was precious and valuable, and though some might call it a small amount of money, it was the precious money that allowed me to survive.
Did such a system exist in this land?
Or did they just attribute it to an individual's lot and focus only on the execution?
I didn't argue with Valtes about it.
Valtes, perhaps thinking his will had reached me, spoke excitedly.
"Oh, will you be going to see the execution? Executing the apostates before a hero of the goddess will serve as a good example."
"When and where will the execution take place?"
"Is there any need to drag it out? It will be carried out tomorrow, in the plaza."
It was the very place where they had tried to kill Mosilian.
"It should be a good show."
Of course, I don't know for which side.
We finished our simple meal and were assigned a room.
It was a better room than any I had stayed in so far.
'It's even better than the room I lived in back in Korea.'
That Valtes bastard seemed to have a lot of money.
"Hero, are you really just going to leave those people be?"
The moment we entered the room, Mosilian grabbed my trouser leg.
"He said they were stealing. What can I do?"
"But they were obviously in a bad state. They might have stolen to survive..."
"Still, what's wrong is wrong. The person they stole from also has to earn money and has a family to feed. If you say their theft is justified, who would work hard? Everyone would just steal to live."
"But..."
Mosilian looked up at me with teary eyes.
She seemed to believe that I could solve anything, somehow.
"Mongshil-i. In this world, no one will solve your problems for you. If you want to change something, you have to step up yourself."
"Th-that's… I understand. Then I will go to Bishop Valtes and ask him to release them."
"That'll go over well."
"What? Then what do I do?"
"You have to find a way to make it work. To do that, you need to know how to approach the problem."
The bishop, Valtes, was a devout man.
The reason he had imprisoned the thieves was because they had gone against the goddess's 'rules.'
First, I had to find out about those rules.
"Could I ask for a holy book? I need to teach this one about the greatness of the goddess."
"It would be an honor, Hero."
I immediately went out of the room and requested a holy book in which the goddess's rules were written.
Since a servant was always on standby, the holy book was brought immediately.
"Read this. Find out what kind of rules there are."
"Yes!"
"...You're not just going to read the whole thing, are you?"
"You told me to read it."
To think she was going to read that entire thick book.
It gave me a headache.
"Phew, you need to find the parts you need and read them! Look for content about bestowing charity on the pitiful, or about helping the starving. So that we can use it."
"Aha! So you are going to help them after all? You really are a hero, Hero."
"Ugh, don't call me that. Just call me Jin-woo. When you call me that, it feels like I'm actually doing the right thing."
"But you are doing the right thing..."
"Tsk!"
"Ahaha, just kidding. So where are you going, Hero… I mean, Jin-woo?"
"I have to check. The humans who were captured earlier might be dirtier than I think, right?"
In truth, leaving them alone was the right thing to do.
This place had its own laws.
It's just that it bothered me to see them so emaciated at such a young age, without proper clothes or food.
Because they looked just like me.
'Damn it...'
They say that humans spend their whole lives wanting to give to others what they were so sad not to have received as a child.
I never thought that would be me.
I quietly slipped out of the room.
The servants were still guarding the front of the room, but they couldn't notice me leaving.
I headed in the direction they had disappeared.
There, a narrow spiral staircase, just wide enough for two people to pass while brushing shoulders, led downwards.
'A dungeon at a glance.'
As I descended the long, long spiral staircase, I heard people's voices.
"They will be executed tomorrow, so guard them so no one can visit. Especially if the hero of the goddess comes, you must absolutely not open the door."
"Yes! Understood!"
It was Gilbert.
Gilbert, with a face that wouldn't bleed even if you stabbed it, led the prisoners.
The prisoners, exhausted from crying, listlessly entered the iron cage.
They weren't the only prisoners.
There were already several people locked up in the dungeon, and all of them looked like vagrants.
'Time to make my move.'
I waited for Gilbert to get far enough away.
Gilbert was a pretty strong knight.
There was no need to confront him.
Only after Gilbert had completely disappeared did I stab the two soldiers.
I didn't kill them.
I just paralyzed them with paralysis poison and kindly knocked them out.
"Wh-what in the world."
"Ta-da."
I appeared wearing my mask so they would recognize me.
They fainted as if they had seen a ghost.
"Shh. Be quiet if you don't want to die. More importantly, I'd like to hear what crime you're here for."
Among the several prisoners, I questioned the ones who looked like they were the worst at lying.
Three people younger than me.
They still didn't seem to understand the situation, but I didn't have time to just wait around.
I did my best to convey my words warmly.
"Keep thinking about it. I don't know what the other soldiers will do to you when they return. Since the crime of knocking out those people will be added on."
"B-but we didn't do that!"
"Try telling them that. See who believes you. Now then."
"Wait a moment!"
"Lizi!"
"Don't stop me. It was over the moment we were caught anyway. Now we have to grab onto anything we can."
The vermilion-haired girl called Lizi looked at me with eyes burning with determination.
"You're a hero of the goddess, right? Please save us. From that goddamn hypocrite."
"How about you answer my question first. If you want my help."
To repeat, I am not moved by some cheap sense of justice.
Hearing words like that just feels like a hassle.
Right and wrong just follow one's own interests; there is no absolute.
"Bread! We were caught for stealing bread."
"Bread? Is that all?"
"Yes! Just a single piece of bread. We were caught for that. Damn it."
Lizi suddenly lifted her clothes.
I was startled and turned my head, but what Lizi was trying to show me wasn't her naked body.
It was her emaciated, exposed bones.
"You..."
"I know. Stealing is a wrong that the goddess strictly forbids. But then how are we supposed to live?"
"What work can you do?"
"Work? Us? Ha! Who would give us a job?"
Lizi laughed.
A very gaunt sneer.
"Your limbs are intact."
"That's right. I can do anything. But people don't see me that way. They just put me in a place where they can't see me and leave me there. Then, if I commit even a small wrong, they catch me like this. Countless kids have died so far."
"Seems there are still more of you."
"Yes, there are more. A lot more."
"Lizi!"
"Why did you say that? They'll kill us all."
"We'll all die anyway if we can't bring back food. You know that."
Lizi glared at me with venomous eyes.
"You asked if we couldn't work? See for yourself. How we're treated. Why we had to steal. Whether we are the real apostates who broke the divine law!"
"Alright. Let's see for ourselves."
"What?"
It was a crazy act.
An act that went against all rules and norms.
An act that would even turn Shita Castle, where I had to stay for the time being, into an enemy.
If Bishop Valtes saw this, he would surely try to kill me.
But I didn't feel guilty.
As long as I didn't get caught, it would be fine, and I wouldn't get caught, so what did it matter?
More than that, I wanted to confirm.
A castle I could enter without any enemies.
An extremely friendly Valtes.
And on the other hand, people who were starving to death without a single meal.
What was the secret hidden in this castle?
And did these kids really have to die alone without any help?
"You're going to open this?"
"Why? You said you wanted out. But not all of you. I need to check first, so only you will follow me. Can you do it?"
"Of course."
Lizi steeled her resolve.
Escaping the castle was simple.
I took off my mask and confirmed a safe path first.
Then, all Lizi had to do was quietly follow the path I had confirmed.
"Thank you, thank you."
Lizi, who had been distrustful and wary at first, looked at me differently once we were out of the castle.
"Why do you trust me so easily? What would you do if I was actually taking you to Valtes?"
"Someone like you would never call that hypocrite just 'Valtes.'"
"Smarter than Mongshil-i…"
"More than anything, you're trying to help us. Those eyes. It's the first time I've seen eyes that don't look at us with disgust."
"You must have lived a damn rough life."
"We were heretics from the moment we were born."
"Enough. Talking about that will only make things heavy. Let's move."
Lizi obediently led the way to their base.
"This place is..."
"It's a run-down area, isn't it? It's just a little further in."
As expected, the place they led me to was the same spot where I had first met Franc.