Pilgrim
"Alright. Everyone, come out."
After saying that, Miriam gestured to the people standing behind her.
Rumble...
The ones who stepped forward at Miriam's signal were citizens of the Holy Kingdom.
A blacksmith, a banker, a butcher, a lumberjack.
Ordinary people working in all kinds of professions.
"N-no, th-that...!"
"You brought in unauthorized people?! This violates the laws of the Holy Kingdom...!"
As the situation took a strange turn, the priests immediately tried to stop them.
But at that moment—
"The faithful are trying to enter a church, so who the hell are you bastards to decide whether they're allowed in or not?"
"T-that is..."
At her single remark, the priest who had been arguing could only kneel back down in silence.
"N-no way... those people are...?"
Meanwhile, the priests' curiosity only deepened as they looked at the thirty people standing in the center of the tribunal.
"Ahem!"
The one who spoke first on their behalf was the middle-aged man standing at the very front.
"My name is Checker Westcott. I am the eldest son of the Viscount Westcott family."
The courtroom fell silent at his declaration that he was an imperial noble.
"The Viscount Westcott family...?"
"Aren't they the owners of the Westcott Merchant Company?"
The priests who recognized his family swallowed hard.
Because his appearance was that of a plumber working in the sewers.
There was no way anyone would believe he was a noble.
"And eight years ago, I escaped from the Kripel Heretic Reformation Center and lived under a different name."
"W-what?!"
Starting with Checker, who revealed his identity like that,
dozens of people stepped forward one after another and introduced themselves.
"My name is Yoon Gerdan! I was a mercenary of the Southern Alliance!"
"I'm Lily Mayan. I was Bishop Chen's mistress—the bishop of the Filisian Diocese."
"Bestin! I was a peddler transporting goods under imperial orders!"
People from all walks of life gathered from every corner of the continent.
There seemed to be no common point among them.
Status, occupation, hometown.
Everything was different, yet as the priests listened to their testimonies, their expressions gradually darkened.
What they cried out toward the religious order were the stories of their lives.
Because within them, there was one undeniable thing they all shared.
"Bishop Chen sent me and my children to the reformation center to hide his affair."
At the mistress's cry, one of the clergy seated on the platform lost consciousness.
"They told us to subjugate monsters, but they weren't monsters! They were children!"
A mercenary imprisoned in the reformation center for refusing slaughter.
At his scream, the clergy lowered their heads.
"While transporting goods to the Paulwyvern territory, one crate overturned. My entire merchant group was imprisoned in the reformation center because of that!"
After hearing the words of the last surviving member of the merchant company, they could no longer raise their heads.
The thing all of them had in common—
was that every single one of them had escaped from Kripel.
And rather than leaving the Holy Kingdom, they had continued living there under different names.
"You said you could not trust Father Garrison's testimony and mine."
I spoke while looking at the Pope seated at the very top of the platform.
As though driving a final nail into the coffin with the rapid-fire testimonies pouring out before him.
"Then will you deny their testimonies as well?"
Their eyes were fixed on the Holy Kingdom, the religious order, and the clergy.
And with Sister Miriam standing there protecting them,
the priests seated in the tribunal could no longer deny Kripel's existence.
"Grrgh...!"
"The Order... the Order committed such a heinous atrocity...!"
Some priests trembled in fury at their own sins.
"Didn't you say you eliminated them all?! Then why are they...?!"
Those who knew the truth behind the reformation center hurriedly tried to shift the blame onto one another in panic.
"This time, your side has lost, Palliman."
"...."
When the Pope spoke with only the movement of his lips, Palliman lowered his head.
"My deepest apologies."
"Do not be discouraged. There are plenty of replacements."
A master covering for his disciple's sins.
Watching it made a hollow laugh escape me.
"As the hand of Kersias, I hereby declare."
How long had that heavy silence continued?
After a long while, the Pope finally spoke while looking over me and the others.
"With sufficient testimony regarding the Kripel Heretic Reformation Center secured, I order the facility to be fully opened and command the regional dioceses to conduct an investigation."
At those words, despair appeared on the faces of the priests aligned with the Pope, while satisfied smiles spread across the faces of the priests from the regional dioceses.
"Those who cooperated, those who supported it. Capture every last one of them and place them upon the pyres. Let the entire continent know that justice has not died in this land."
"We shall obey Your Holiness's command."
Even though everything had been done under his orders, the Pope acted as though it were someone else's affair.
'Even if they're the opposition, they can't touch the Pope.'
The Pope of the Holy Kingdom held a lifelong position.
Once chosen, his authority lasted until death.
'So wait for me, Brigante.'
Watching the Pope issue detailed commands, I made my vow.
'I'll kill you with my own hands.'
The Emperor of the Empire. The Pope.
The names of powerful figures in my mental death ledger kept increasing.
"However, sinner Klein Leinrant."
Then,
the Pope called my name and spoke.
"Even if the corruption of Commander Ben, who accused you, has been proven, that alone cannot invalidate the charges against you."
You gained nothing from this trial, so the accusations against you will remain.
That was what the Pope was telling me.
"Then how do you intend to prove your innocence?"
As the Pope addressed me, the other priests' gazes focused on me as well.
'Right. This is how you should come at me.'
The logic that the truth of Kripel and my accusations were separate matters.
As if convinced by that reasoning, the eyes of the priests looking at me gradually turned cold.
'Looks like they don't intend to let me go easily.'
Unless the Pope approved it, the shackles on me would never disappear.
Unlike Kripel, this time they held complete control over the situation.
And yet, despite that, my expression remained bright.
'I already have a plan.'
Bringing down Kripel had merely been venting my anger.
The biggest reason I came to the Holy Kingdom was for this very moment.
"It's simple."
As I said that, I raised one hand and pointed toward the sky.
"I'll settle it directly with the person involved."
The moment I said that, the priests looking at me began to stir.
"The person involved?"
Meanwhile,
the Pope rested one hand against his chin and asked me back.
'Looks like life's returning to his expression.'
My first impression of him had been one of boredom and lethargy.
But now he was different.
Curiosity and interest.
The Pope was now enjoying this verbal exchange with me.
"Then are you saying you intend to hear the divine oracle of Lord Kersias himself?"
As the Pope seemed to realize my intentions, the horrified priests immediately raised their voices.
"Your Holiness! What are you saying?!"
"Such blasphemy! How could a mortal possibly receive the Lord's oracle...!"
If he already understood, there was no need to drag things out.
I immediately looked at the Pope and recited a passage from the scriptures.
"Amid the ashes of the world, Kalain, the carpenter of the desert forest, lit the beacon at the eastern edge."
What I spoke was from the Book of Genesis of the Kersias Order.
Its opening passage.
"And thus enlightenment descended upon the body of the carpenter Kalain, and spoke unto my confidant and my herald."
The first Pope, Kalain I.
He was the man said to have slain the Three Monsters and brought the sleeping Kersias down upon the continent.
'Or rather, that's what the Order claims.'
Swallowing my sarcasm inwardly, I continued.
"To those who seek my voice, stand before the brazier. I shall bestow my sacred words upon you and let you shine beneath the sun."
A passage every believer of the Holy Order encounters the moment they open the scriptures.
The phrase that heralded the beginning of the Order.
"The Pilgrimage of the Sun Road."
Hearing my words, Pope Brigante muttered as he stroked his chin.
"Are you saying you intend to depart on a pilgrimage and receive the stigmata?"
Stigmata.
At those words, even Miriam looked at me in shock.
"Yes."
My answer was a simple affirmation.
But the reaction of everyone present was anything but simple.
"A pilgrimage? Isn't that a tradition forgotten since the Archimond Incident?"
"It's impossible. The holy sites scattered across the continent have already been destroyed by the war...!"
"Burned down or damaged beyond repair!"
When I asked them that, several priests clicked their tongues in irritation.
But unlike them, I knew of the hidden holy sites the Order had concealed.
"Eastern Felician. Crescent Isle."
"Wh...?!"
The moment that place name left my mouth, the composure vanished from the Pope's expression.
"The place where the holy relic that brought Lord Kersias down upon this land—the 'Primordial Beacon'—rests."
Not only the location,
but even the name of the relic sleeping there.
"Y-Your Holiness...?"
"Is what he's saying truly real?!"
Even the high-ranking priests could not determine whether it was true or false.
Meanwhile, the Pope's gaze toward me became increasingly blatant.
"No, more importantly... how does that man know the location of the holy site...?"
Looking at the priests, who were visibly shaken, I thought to myself:
'It'd be stranger if I didn't know.'
The Great War I started two hundred years ago.
The war in which the entire nation was ravaged by necromancers, and Prahan—the Pope of that era—fled south.
The greatest humiliation in the history of the Holy Kingdom, and a trauma they never wished to experience again.
"I will receive the stigmata at the holy site and prove my innocence."
"..."
"If I fail, then you may kill me without hesitation."
Hearing my words, the Pope sank into thought for a moment.
'Now that I've quoted the scriptures, he can't act recklessly like before.'
The Holy Order was the kind that would throw a ducal heir into a reformation center over mere rumors.
Invoking the laws and authority of the continent meant nothing to them.
So if I wanted to corner them, I had to strike the opposite side.
With their language.
With their laws.
I would pressure them using the Order's own laws and traditions.
'And I've studied these scriptures since before any of you were even born.'
There was no one who knew the Order's scriptures better than I did.
And that was not mere empty boasting.
To destroy the Holy Order, I had to understand them.
To utterly annihilate them, I had to uncover everything about them.
That was why I had read, interpreted, and studied these scriptures dozens, hundreds of times.
"As the final authority of this trial, I hereby deliver my judgment."
After a long period of contemplation, the Pope finally spoke.
"Klein Leinrant, second young master of House Leinrant."
After calling my name, the Pope continued immediately.
"You sought to restore justice to the Order by exposing the corruption of the Kripel Heretic Reformation Center."
"...!"
"Ghk...!"
The Pope himself had acknowledged the tragedy of Kripel.
The faces of the witnesses who heard it brightened, while the priests' expressions darkened.
"As the First Hand of Lord Kersias, I acknowledge your contribution."
After a few brief ceremonial phrases,
the Pope immediately raised his staff and pointed it at me.
"Therefore, the charge that you are the reincarnation of Archimond shall be temporarily suspended, and the status of Pilgrim shall be granted unto you."
Having declared that, the Pope lifted his staff toward the sky.
"When you have completed all assigned trials, all your sins shall vanish."
The staff raised toward the heavens struck the ground.
Thud—. Thud—. Thud—.
The heavy sound rang out three times in succession.
And with that sound, the trial aimed at me came to an end.
'Good. With this...'
Now I could leave the Holy Kingdom and head toward my next destination—Felician.
And once I got to Felician—
'I'll hunt down every last member of the Archimond Order and crush them all.'