After Matthew Priem finished his work, he was on his way to leave the palace.
At the bend in the road, his home looked familiar, but something wasn't natural about the atmosphere.
A group of people surrounded the palace, and the lights burned brightly in all the rooms of the house.
"What's going on?
Huh?!"
Matthew got out of the carriage hurriedly.
The person who was speaking with a group dressed as Holy Knights turned to him and took heavy steps to stand in front of Matthew.
A huge body, condescending looks, a white priestly robe, and embroidered thorns and snakes on his chest.
He was a heretic investigator.*
•|Heresy is the deviation from an established doctrine, especially in religion, by introducing new beliefs or denying their basics, and is known as “religious heresy” in Christian contexts.
The investigator of heretics with a stern face came forward and said to him:
“Matthew Priem.”
No one in his entire life, living as a noble, had dared to speak to him so impudently.
The Inquisitor of Heretics spoke as if he had already branded the Duke as a heretic.
“You have to accompany us to the temple now.”
"What?!"
“Information has been received that there is a heretical believer in the duke’s palace.”
“In my house?!”
Matthew didn't understand anything, so he stared around in amazement.
He needed an explanation of what was going on, but no one took the initiative.
All the servants were looking at the floor.
The butler seemed the most composed of them all.
“Man, explain to me what’s wrong.”
At the moment when the butler was about to speak, the Templars tied up the Duke's wife and transported her.
"My dear!"
As soon as Matthew saw his wife tied up, he rushed to try to snatch her from the hands of the Holy Knights.
“What should I do, my love?!”
When he saw his wife sobbing, Matthew suddenly woke up.
The knight commander ordered:
“Fernan!
Catch those insolent ones.”
"Yes!"
Fernan nodded, and the knights behind him unsheathed their swords simultaneously.
The Templars responded by unsheathing their swords as well.
Soon there was a tense atmosphere as if a battle was about to break out.
The Templar commander shouted:
“Duke Priem!
Do you really intend to confront the temple?
Lay down your weapons and surrender!”
Meanwhile, the Duke's wife got into the carriage.
"Dear!
Darling!"
There were two carriages, one of which had seats and was furnished with cushions, and seemed to be intended for the Duke's wife and the Duke of Priem to ride with the Templars.
The other, as if to transport several people together, was open like a pigsty.
There were wooden benches fixed to the walls, and palace servants rode on them.
After all the servants got into the carriage, one of the Templars closed and locked the wooden door.
The Inquisitor of Heretics said to Matthew:
“Evidence of pagan worship has been found in the palace and suspicion surrounds the Duke himself as a heretic, so we need to question you.
Ride, please.”
One of the Templars opened the back door of the divided carriage.
The Duke's wife was to ride in the front, and Matthew in the back.
He heard the voice of Anne, who was in front, crying and complaining.
The Holy Knight motioned for Matthew to hurry into the carriage.
Matthew looked at him sharply because of his behavior and said:
“I have to meet the Pope myself to find out what is going on.”
“His Holiness the Pope is not free enough to care about these matters.”
“Then, I will go after I greet His Majesty.”
The Holy Knight laughed mockingly.
“Don’t you know that the temple and the royal family do not interfere in each other’s affairs?
Heresy investigations are the exclusive jurisdiction of the temple and even the king cannot evade them.”
“So, give me a few days...”
The Holy Knight did not respond to Matthew's words, but merely gestured toward the open door.
It seemed to be saying: Stop chattering and get on.
He cannot meet the Pope, nor the King.
First I have to listen to what these bastards have to say.
Matthew stood in front of the door, staring at the Holy Knight silently.
“I will definitely reveal the truth about this matter and if I am proven innocent as a result, I will definitely make them regret treating me, the Duke of this kingdom, like this.”
The Holy Knight replied with a sarcastic laugh in agreement.
With the servants also being captured while they were there, it was impossible for him to escape himself.
Matthew got into the carriage.
The door was closed.
Matthew couldn't shake the thought that he had fallen into a trap.
The Templars took him deep into the central temple, into the dark basement.
After they took him down, the knights locked the door and went out.
It seems that the interrogations will be individual.
One table, two chairs.
The air of the unventilated cellar was damp and felt hideous.
A dark room with no light entering.
Then, he heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching.
A rattling sound with every step.
The door creaked open, and a long shadow appeared.
The man walked with heavy steps and turned on the gas lamp.
Matthew frowned at the sudden bright light.
For a moment, he couldn't see clearly.
He opened one eye forcefully and looked ahead.
A man with a stern face and a long scar above his left eyebrow.
He was a heretic investigator.
The detective pulled out a chair and sat down in front of Matthew.
“Welcome, Duke of Priem.
I am Inquisitor Priest Braudel.”
He was the priest who presented himself as the most normal of those he met today.
"Detective?
Tell me what this is.
I'm innocent."
The priest brushed off Matthew's words without batting an eyelid.
“Now we will find out whether you are innocent or not.
If you answer my questions correctly, you will be able to get out safely.”
It was too sharp for a knife blade.
“Did you know there was a pagan in the palace?”
“A pagan?
This is unbelievable.
I have lived my whole life serving the temple faithfully...”
“Just answer the question, Duke.”
“…I didn’t know.”
“Have you noticed any suspicious behavior from your wife?”
“You mean my wife?
She's such a coward that she usually doesn't even leave the house...”
“Duke, answer the question.”
The priest's words were gradually getting shorter.
“It was as usual.”
“So, you didn’t know that your wife set up an altar to paganism?”
An altar to paganism?!
Matthew jumped in panic, waving his hands.
"Never!
I don't know for sure."
Matthew wiped the sweat drops on his forehead with a handkerchief.
“Hmm...”
The priest's face was dissatisfied.
"prison?!"
That priest was questioning him as a true pagan.
He was hearing all these accusations for the first time, to the point that he himself wanted to know what was happening.
After the priest left, large men entered and took him somewhere.
It appears to be the prison the priest mentioned.
It was a dark, dank, damp place.
Stone floor without a single chair.
Imprisoned in the cell, Matthew felt like he was about to go crazy and jump out.
Matthew said to the jailer while he was in the cell:
“Let me meet anyone I'm wronged with!”
But the jailer did not move in response to Matthew's screams.
Matthew was old and had never been subjected to such harsh treatment before, so he lost his energy in an instant.
“Kh, kh!”
After spending a whole night in the cell, the priest who had seen him yesterday visited him again.
Matthew took the priest's hand and said:
“Get me out of here, please.
Huh?”
“Will you give a statement, Duke?”
“Oh, of course.”
In the end, after only one night, Matthew emerged from prison and sat once again before Braudel, the heresy-investigating priest.
Matthew asked politely:
“Priest, I apologize for being so bold... but allow me to ask one question: what exactly was found in my house... this is the first time I have heard of it...”
The priest shook his head disapprovingly, then took out some pictures from a file and threw them at Matthew.
Matthew politely extended his hand and looked at the pictures the priest had dropped.
In the blurry image, something resembling a platform appeared.
There were different things on it, and there was a red liquid that looked like blood.
Matthew swallowed dryly and looked at the other picture.
The next image was of an open book written in an unknown language.
The cover of that book looked somehow familiar.
It was the book that the Duke's wife was reading in bed earlier.
Which he underestimated.
“Ha…”
There were more pictures, but they were similar.
Unidentified clothing, stick, animal skulls, etc.
There was no need for more.
There were pagans in his house.
Matthew knew well the punishment that the pagans received.
He himself had sent some of his opponents on charges of heresy before.
Immediate death.
The end of the pagan is death alone.
There was a paragraph in the church doctrine that said: Apostasy shall be punished with death.
When the priest saw Matthew's pale face, he retrieved the pictures.
Then he said as if to say: Look now.
“Are you going to answer correctly now, Duke?”
“…I will.”
Matthew answered quickly, but inside he was running his mind furiously.
At that moment
Elliot was having a guest.
“So, I heard there was a report.”
Elliot said as he brought the cup filled with golden liquid to his mouth.
His face seemed to express nothing.
Indifference, just that.
The person sitting in front of him looked even more worried.
"Yes.
You know, the only fate for heretics is…"
“Death alone.”
Elliot said, then put down the cup and looked at the bishop sitting in front of him.
“Is there evidence?”
“…It seems that the news of the presence of a pagan priestess in the palace has spread and many pagan worshipers have appeared in the Duke of Priem’s palace as well.”
The bishop added things that Eliot had not asked.
Elliot frowned and said:
“Everyone seems to be interested in the king’s private life.
The number of women I brought into my palaces was not small during this period.”
Elliot remembers Scheherazade who escaped.
He had treated her so well, but she had disappeared without a word and it had been days since then.
Feeling insulted, he belittled Scheherazade, the priestess of the pagans.
As if she was just one of those women who warmed his bed for one night.
“And what does what happened in the Duke of Priem’s palace have to do with me?”
The bishop furrowed his eyebrows at Elliot's behavior, which drew the line between the events of Priem Palace and him.
“It is said that the heretical priestess in the main palace was the one who incited the people of the Duke’s Palace, you really don’t know?”
Elliot shook his head without changing his expression.
“…these are things I never knew I had a woman I liked recently, but she disappeared.”
The bishop looked at him suspiciously and said:
“Wasn’t it Your Majesty who made her disappear?”
It was a question that carried a suspicion that he might have gotten rid of her before she became a nuisance.
“No way, I’m innocent.”
After Elliot said that, he patted his chin.
The bishop looked at Elliot and said:
“Anyway, we have handed over the authority to deal with the missing heretical priestess of the temple.
We will take care of it afterward.”
“Well you made me so happy, that's sad.”
The bishop drank the tea without answering.
He did not want to hear the details of the king's nightlife.
The bishop was only thinking about the amount he would ask the king for the costs of getting rid of the heretics.
How to speak without disturbing the king's feelings...
“It's been a long time since I made offerings to the temple and as I get older, I always forget.”
The bishop responded moved:
“No, not at all.
You still look young as a boy.”
"Impossible.
I've also grown old.
I have to stay healthy until Julian reaches adulthood."
The king shook his head.
For a moment, he looked not like the king of a country, but like an ordinary father.
If this was an act, then Elliot must have been a great actor.
“That's why I say for the health and safety of the royal family, I want to ask the temple to offer prayers.
What is the appropriate amount for this?”
The king remains king.
The bishop smiled widely and offered the king the amount requested by the Pope.