- Visiting hours are for 30 minutes.
- Yes. I know.
- There are others who have applied after you, so please adhere to the ti.
Creeak—
The tightly shut iron door opened, and a familiar face entered.
“Yo.”
“……”
“It's been a while, Eliya.”
As I raised my hand in a friendly greeting, she furrowed her brow, looking displeased.
“Is this really the ti for jokes?!”
“……”
“I told you that you could stop going out as a Penal Soldier! The Orc Mountain Range isn't so backyard hill. Why is it that every ti I try to schedule a visit, I'm told you're out on a Penal Soldier excursion?”
“...From a feng shui perspective, it might be a bit big, but it's still technically a backyard hill. The Olympus Republic is situated in a propitious location with a mountain at its back and water at its front, after all—.”
“Hero!!!”
Unable to quietly listen to the second joke, she shrieked.
“Ugh. My ears are going to fall off. I can hear you just fine even if you speak quietly. Lower your voice.”
“I've told you dozens of tis. You don't have to do things like being a Penal Soldier until the appeal is over.”
“……”
“Your sentence isn't even finalized, so why do you keep volunteering for danger?”
The cri of Hero Slaying.
Just as Louis had said back on the Shandong Peninsula, I had been charged with Hero Slaying, with the prosecution demanding the death penalty, and was sentenced to a ‘suspended execution.’
It was a cri against the Commandnts, one that would normally warrant the ‘death penalty’ without question. However, the court took into account the circumstances and the fact that it was only an attempted cri, reducing the sentence to a suspension of the execution for a certain period.
Of course, Eliya couldn't even accept the suspended execution and imdiately filed for an appeal. The appeal trial was still ongoing, without a conclusion.
That was why she was angry as soon as she arrived. She couldn't understand why I would volunteer for the Penal Soldiers and take such risks when my sentence wasn't even final.
“...You don't listen to a single word I say, so why are you so obedient to that ridiculous verdict? Don't you feel it's unfair?”
“……”
“We can definitely get an acquittal. It's not like you attacked first, Hero….”
She was even arguing for a full acquittal in the appeal. I didn't know the exact legal principles, but the point of contention seed to be whether the 2-Star Hero I fought had his Hero status revoked ‘before’ or ‘after’ I cut off his arm.
“I don't know. I'm just doing it because I can.”
“...Hah.”
“And I know you'll handle the trial just fine.”
Sighing at the sa old answer, she shook her head and muttered, “I must have sold out my country in a past life…”
Pfft—
Considering her perspective, unaware of my true intentions, her reaction was understandable.
I later heard from her that until we arrived at the Shandong Peninsula, she had been making plans assuming I would receive the ‘fastest Hero Investiture.’
It was no wonder she was boiling with rage at the sight of being branded a criminal with the title of ‘Hero Slayer.’
I couldn't explain everything, so I just let it be. But I did feel sorry for her about that.
“Don't worry too much.”
“……”
...However, it wasn't as if I had co here without a plan.
Of course, it wasn't that my actions were devoid of emotion when I cut off his arm, but receiving the title of ‘Hero Slayer’ had been part of my plan all along.
“...Because I'll probably be getting out soon.”
* * *
The allotted visiting ti ended and Eliya left the room, but I didn't get up from my seat.
The reason was simple. Eliya's visit was indeed over, but she wasn't the only one who had co to see today.
“Yo.”
“……”
Not long after Eliya left, the person who opened the iron door was also a familiar face.
Leonardo Louis Button.
“...You look rather carefree, Mr. Seo U-jin.”
“Long ti no see.”
The man who had personally escorted from the Shandong Peninsula to The Order, and the one designated as a witness in the ‘Hero Slaying’ case, had requested a visit.
A visit between a witness and a defendant wasn't exactly common, but it wasn't that strange either.
While it was true he was a witness in this ‘Hero Slaying’ case, he was also the one who had notarized my innocence back in the Gateway Zone.
Clank—
After closing the iron door on his tiptoes, Louis scurried over and hopped onto the chair.
“……”
“……”
For , the setup was familiar enough to feel like déjà vu.
『Open your eyes, Mr. Seo U-jin.』
『…….』
『I know you're awake.』
The finer details were naturally different, but there were more than a few similarities to the situation right after I left the Gateway Zone.
...Judging by his expression, he seed to be recalling a similar mory.
He was the one to break the brief recollection and speak first.
“...Are you getting by alright?”
“Yeah. So-so.”
Shrug—
“They feed well and I have a place to sleep.”
“...I see.”
After an exchange of pleasantries so bland it felt lacking for a visiting room, I cut straight to the chase.
“What's your business?”
“……”
“Don't bother with unfitting pleasantries just because it's a visit. Let's just do things our usual way.”
“……”
“You must be a busy man, after all.”
Faced with such a blunt question, he might have frowned in the past. But now, as if he'd grown sowhat accustod to it, he simply nodded without complaint and posed a question.
“Mr. Seo U-jin. Do you know what quality an Inquisitor must possess?”
“...A quality?”
“Yes.”
Tilting my head at the unexpected question, I replied.
“Strength?”
“……”
“Money?”
“……”
“Or power?”
“...That's enough.”
Deciding that waiting any longer was pointless, he let out a sigh and gave the answer himself.
“The most important quality for becoming an Inquisitor is ‘experience.’ Not all priests have experience in judgnt, and sacrificing the innocent in the process of rooting out Demonic Species is sothing that must be avoided at all costs.”
“……”
“...I didn't originally intend to reveal this much, but to lend credibility to my explanation, I'll tell you a little about myself.”
Fiddling with the necklace that symbolized his status as an Inquisitor, he began his story.
“Before my investiture as an Inquisitor, I perford various duties in The Order's judiciary.”
A story from before he beca an Inquisitor.
From the very beginning of this cautiously broached topic, I sensed sothing unusual.
It wasn't just the sincerity in his tone or the gravity of his voice. Rather...
‘…….’
The very fact that he was bringing up his life before becoming an Inquisitor caused a faint picture to automatically form in my mind.
It created a sense of ‘anticipation’ that perhaps Louis's ‘business’ for this visit was what I had been waiting for.
“My tenure was by no ans short, and thus I served in various judicial positions within The Order with a degree of expertise.”
“……”
“Adjusting statutes, researching and analyzing legal principles, actual adjudication, assisting the judiciary... Among those was the position of a researcher who handled the legal principles of special cases, like yours, Mr. Seo U-jin.”
And the ‘anticipation’ created by that faint picture...
“So?”
“...So, if I may indulge in a bit of so-called ‘showing off what I know’...”
...turned into ‘certainty’ with his next words.
“...The sentence that will likely be handed down to you in the appeal, Mr. Seo U-jin, is the ‘Underground Prison Sentence.’”
The Underground Prison Sentence.
Soone unfamiliar with this punishnt might think, ‘Is that all?’
After all, just from the sound of it, it seed much milder than the ‘suspended execution’ sentence from the first trial.
But Louis's voice was heavy.
The reason was simple.
While The Order's ‘Underground Prison Sentence’ was a lesser punishnt than the ‘death penalty’ or the ‘suspended execution,’ which rely postponed the date of death, if you excluded those two, it was the most severe punishnt The Order had.
“Do you know what that ans?”
To his added question, I nodded without a second thought.
“...How could I not?”
...There was no way I wouldn't know.
It was no exaggeration to say that the reason I took all these risks to beco a ‘Hero Slayer’ was precisely because of that ‘Underground Prison.’
...So might say, what’s so special about being sent to an underground prison? How could it possibly compare to the ultimate legal punishnt, the ‘death penalty’?
But the ‘Underground Prison’ in the ‘Underground Prison Sentence’ did not refer to the gloomy, iron-barred penitentiary one would normally imagine.
The Darkest Dungeon.
It referred to a labyrinthine underground dungeon, an unknown quarantine zone managed by The Order since ancient tis, where countless dangers lurked.
“...I don't know how much you know about the Darkest Dungeon, but it is likely beyond anything you can imagine, Mr. Seo U-jin.”
“……”
“It is not a place where ‘danger exists,’ but a place where ‘nothing but danger exists.’”
Just as Louis said, the Darkest Dungeon was not a place that could be explained in ordinary terms.
The general laws of the Upper Plane did not apply there, it was ho to countless unidentified Magical Beasts and Mutants, and it was ‘another ecosystem’ where nurous Hero-class individuals who had committed heinous cris worthy of death were imprisoned.
The Darkest Dungeon was a true wilderness where the law of the jungle—the survival of the fittest—was the only rule.
The fact that even The Order, which established and controlled the order of nurous church territories, had never managed to gain control over it was proof of the Darkest Dungeon's imnse wildness.
“……”
Having said his piece, Louis paused, fiddling with his necklace.
And.
With his eyes fixed on the necklace, he asked .
“Do you happen to rember?”
“...?”
“What you said to , Mr. Seo U-jin.”
...It was an incomplete question, one that didn't specify a ti or place. Nevertheless, I could recall what words he was referring to.
『Later, soday, when I'm in trouble, I'll ask you to help once.』
『…….』
『Then, I'll think about it. About joining the Exorcists.』
The words I had said in the Sevens Door after finishing the Gateway Zone, rejecting his offer to join the Exorcists.
That was the only conversation it could be at this timing.
“...Let make you a proposal.”
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