My Childhood Friend Became an Inquisitor

“Actually, Louis likes it too.”
“……”
*

“…is! Louis!”

In the space distorted by the white horizon, outside sounds shouldn’t be heard well, but the sound of hurried footsteps and the name calling for me desperately easily pierced through the veil of silence.

At the unmistakable voice, my head lifted unconsciously. My foggy mind suddenly cleared, and even though her figure hadn’t appeared yet, I immediately detected her arrival.

How urgently must she have run? Despite being the owner of a superhuman body, Anne was emitting a faint sweet scent.

“Huh…?”

“What?”

“Wasn’t someone here? I heard you talking to someone.”

She must have thought I was being tortured again and overexerted herself. As if moved by that sight, my heart rang deep inside.

Yes, I know I’m strange too. Even in this situation, still, I.

“Teacher.”

“Teacher?”

“That’s what they said to call them. You know, the priests you said were originally here.”

I can’t abandon you.

Like a baby bird’s imprinting, the absolute standard didn’t know how to change even if the world turned upside down.

“What did they look like? You weren’t harmed, were you?”

“I don’t remember well, but they had black hair. They didn’t do anything special, just talked for a bit and left, I think.”

The reason for the slight ambiguity at the end was because I wasn’t sure myself. Hmm, thinking about it, I don’t remember their appearance when they arrived or left.

I didn’t think much of it since it could easily happen here, if not elsewhere. This place is said to be a distorted space, after all.

“I’m glad if nothing happened.”

The vague doubt was soon buried by Anne, who stepped through the bars and grabbed my hand. The girl, who still looked delicate in appearance despite being fully mature, smiled brightly without a trace of worry.

“I have good news!”

An attitude as if certain that I would be happy to hear this story.

“I got permission from the Church. From now on, I’ll be in charge of this re-education center. They said it’s temporary, but until you can get out of here!”

“R-Really?”

And it was indeed good news.

Setting aside the emotional aspects and looking at it rationally, Anne wouldn’t torture or harm me like other Inquisitors. Also, with her by my side now.

I wasn’t hearing hallucinations and had recovered enough to communicate properly. When I was alone, I felt like I had lost everything, but at least now.

For someone who’s lost everything, I’m acting quite normal, aren’t I?

“What do I need to do… to get out of the re-education center?”

Moreover, Anne even promised that ‘next’.

Recalling that it was also Anne who put me in this place, this was a comedy that wasn’t even funny. Even if I got out, the village I used to live in had already been reduced to ashes. By your hand, no less.

Nevertheless, I had no choice but to cling to the goal you presented. If I let go of even this, the only ending left for me would be to rot in a corner of this cage.

I wanted to escape from this space filled with eye-straining light right away, but it was obvious that you wouldn’t listen to my pleading even though you’re smiling so gently now.

“You need to wash away the ‘darkness’ inside you.”

“What…? What on earth does that mean?”

In the end, you too were just like the others, a damn fanatic.

There was no room to delve into the logic of religious people who seemed to live in a different world from me. Not because it was the truth and right, but because they didn’t try to listen to others in the first place.

Even the hardest shield would wear down and break someday, but how can you break something that doesn’t even collide?

Well, they would say it’s because it’s the truth and right. Disgusting blindness and stubbornness.

“Hmm. It seems difficult to understand, so I’ll explain it simply.”

If there had been some noticeable change according to the representation of darkness they speak of, I might have at least tried to understand, but no matter how much I thought about it, I was still just as much myself as ever.

Me, who neither followed pagan gods nor was devoured by evil.

“It’s like this.”

Anne lightly swung her arm as if to explain.

Swoosh! And the next moment, the swung arm flew precisely towards me. Faced with a strike that even created a slicing sound with a human body, I instinctively shrank back even knowing it was meaningless-

-The hand stopped exactly in front of my nose.

“See, Louis.”

…I can be certain. If Anne hadn’t stopped, that strike filled with ridiculous superhuman strength would have killed me outright, or at least caused significant injury.

In the end, is Anne trying to subdue me with force just like the others? No, you’ve never been ‘different’ to begin with. You’ve been forcing me with power from the start.

Whenever I think about you, as if I’ve been brainwashed, all my thoughts flow in a positive direction.

“I’m sorry for startling you.”

The unchangingly kind voice intensifies the confusion. Undoubtedly, it wasn’t pretense but pure sincerity. She was worried about me and felt sorry.

Despite having swung her hand as if she was about to beat me to death just a moment ago!

“But I had to show you. This is the biggest proof that you’ve been stained by darkness.”

“…What?”

Moreover, even that worry and apology were twisted in a way that ordinary people could never understand.

“You’re afraid of me.”

It’s overwhelming to follow the logic that skips several steps and makes leaps. Feeling goosebumps all over my body in the face of the incomprehensible, I weakly protested against the death that had passed by like a joke.

“T-That’s… natural…”

“Natural, you say?”

“You… just now. You really almost killed me…”

Even if her holding back wasn’t by chance but due to perfect control of her strength, I wasn’t brave enough to cross the line of death with a smile.

To begin with, before all this happened, I was just a country boy who had lived a life far from violence. The path I used to walk was even protected by the Church.

The god and religion that protected me now threaten me.

Without even realizing it’s a threat, with the same innocence and naivety as when I was young.

“Kill you? Me? That’s impossible! Louis, how can you say such harsh things?”

She pushes as if her actions were just light teasing, and my words were some terrible insult. It was even more aggravating because I could feel that her hurt expression was entirely sincere.

“You know. How much I love you.”

I thought I knew.
From the day we parted after exchanging our last promise, until now.

“And Louis, I know too…”

Anne firmly grasped my chin as I unconsciously tried to avert my gaze. Her slender fingers completely entangle and block me.

“…How much you love me. How much you trust me.”

Unable to diagnose my own heart, I might still be in love with you.

But one thing was wrong. I didn’t trust you. I thought our love might just be a one-night dream, and that you, blinded by the city lights, might forget about someone like me and never return.

Even if it wasn’t certainty, from the moment distrust bloomed, a gap formed in my heart.

“So, even if you’re trembling now.”

On the other hand, there was still no gap in Anne’s heart. The solid and flawless love was making me look shabby in its light.

Even after knowing that I had changed, your faith remained unchanged. For a truly simple reason. Because it’s all the fault of darkness that I’ve changed, that I’m bad, that I’ve closed my eyes.

‘I’ am not at fault. It’s all because of the darkness.
An extreme logic that even I, who was being defended, couldn’t accept.

“In the end, you’ll return to your original self. Right?”

A gentle hand brushed my cheek.

I could only accept your touch without showing any reaction, like prey before a predator. I couldn’t say don’t, couldn’t refuse, or even savor the caress. I couldn’t do anything.

There is no ‘original’. I’ve always been me.

“…Yes.”

But, I was too tired.

A mind already pushed to the limit, a heart broken and shattered. Bent and broken, in the end, I utter the words the other wants to hear.

Because I want to believe Anne’s words. If all this isn’t my fault, if all this judgment and punishment is because of someone else’s sin that I know. Because I can’t even think it’s unfair anymore.

I just wanted there to be even a tiny corner to lean on so that my heart wouldn’t completely collapse.

“Good boy, good.”

Contrary to what she had said earlier, this time Anne praised me in a kind voice and kissed my forehead.

Smooch. Lips as soft as butterfly wings press and cool my chilled skin. The slate-blue eyes smiling at such a close distance that made my heart flutter were as clear as the sky in my memories.

Is all this really the fault of that incomprehensible Rowe? If so, why must it be my share to hurt and suffer?

But there had been too much swallowed silence to raise such ‘obvious’ questions to the world. The village being massacred, being kidnapped and locked in a re-education center, suffering sadistic torture, all were the height of irrationality.

What does it matter if one more irrationality is added?

“Even if the light is withdrawn, I’ll be by your side then.”

I squeezed our clasped hands tightly. Though it would hurt an ordinary girl, Anne’s smile doesn’t even flinch. Rather, you also apply strength and hold back even more strongly.

Yes, that’s enough.