TRSDICI 12

Chapter 12

You Need a Beating

“Th-That’s impossible. How can a bastard like you use divine power…?”

Right now, there were only seventeen people in the Holy Kingdom who could use divine power.

The Twelve Holy Knights.

And the five Saintesses.

Including me, there would probably be eighteen now.

That was why Mordin looked so shocked.

“How can a reckless brat who doesn’t even know proper holy procedures use divine power?!”

He kept talking so loudly that I cleaned my ear with a finger.

“Who knows. Maybe the Goddess cares more about faces than personality.”

If possible, I also wanted to ask the Goddess something.

Why had she given divine power to someone like me, who walked a completely different path?

But the Goddess only handed me divine power. She never gave me an answer or a wish.

As if she was leaving everything to my own choices.

“Haha! This is ridiculous. Ella gave divine power to someone with such disrespectful behavior?”

The way he reacted so violently started to annoy me too, so I glared at Mordin.

“It was the Goddess’s choice, so what do you want me to do about it? At least I’ll send bastards like you to heaven, so I’ll probably help bring some peace to the continent.”

“Haha, peace to the continent?”

Mordin sneered.

“Isn’t that just the perspective of the weak? Humans who die even while standing still? I—”

“Ah, I don’t want to hear such predictable nonsense.”

I raised a hand and cut him off.

“You’re going to say people must become strong enough not to die from sickness or accidents if they want true peace. I’ve already heard that story enough times to get sick of it.”

“……”

“Still, I agree with some of what you said. But the moment you dirtied my family and ruined the people’s farms, your words lost all meaning.”

I pointed at him.

“In short, the moment you became a demon, everything you say became bullshit. Understand?”

“You were born strong. You could never understand.”

“What do you mean I don’t understand? I spent a long time close to death. I’ve heard the words of dying people more than anyone else, and I survived among piles of corpses.”

Everywhere I went, there were always corpses and bloodstains.

The screams of despair still echoed in my ears.

I wandered for only about three years after my family fell, but those three years felt longer than any other time in my life.

“Wait. Now that I think about it, this is all your fault.”

Suddenly anger surged through me, and I glared fiercely at Mordin.

“This won’t do. You need a beating. I’ll let you taste the sword that returned from hell.”

“Crazy bastard…”

“You’re the one who made me crazy, you mixed-blood bastard!”

I kicked off the ground and charged like the wind.

Soon, my storm-covered sword clashed against his massive body.

Mordin’s monstrous strength was dangerous even to me, so I focused on avoiding his attacks while slowly injuring him.

After all, I had already given him a huge wound in the chest earlier, so the situation favored me greatly.

Because he feared my divine power, Mordin no longer exchanged injuries recklessly like before.

Booom! Boom!

Blood splattered everywhere as the church began collapsing from the fierce battle.

Of course, the blood flying through the air belonged to him.

Like a buzzing fly around his head, I focused more on dodging than attacking, waiting for his stamina to fall.

“Catch me if you can!”

Mordin gritted his teeth while watching me move around.

Right now, I wasn’t happy. I was filled with rage.

Yet I could still freely use the Sword of Joy.

Once someone reached that realm, they could use the swordsmanship without being consumed by the emotion itself.

Swoosh! Slash!

Then did that mean I could control joy after reaching the Realm of Joy?

In other words, could I become free from the emotion called joy?

‘Should I test it?’

I remembered the moment I reached the Realm of Joy in this life.

A quiet garden covered in grass.

There, I watched Aren’s swordsmanship, light like the fluttering wings of a sparrow, and chatted with him casually.

Then, when I looked up following Aren’s gaze…

Instead of blood, a sky dyed red by the sunset greeted me with a cool breeze.

“……”

And now, crimson sunset light was pouring through the broken ceiling above us.

Was it coincidence?

Or was it an illusion caused by joy?

Either way, the wind dancing around my blade felt good, so a light smile escaped me.

Swoooosh!

At that moment, my sword path became even sharper than before.

Even without drowning in joy, I could still use the Sword of Joy.

But naturally, the happier I became, the stronger it grew.

“Ahaha.”

I swung my sword with a faint smile.

Mordin’s red blood scattered like flower petals, and pieces of flesh fluttered like butterflies.

Slash! Slash!

Before I knew it, I was pressing Mordin like a dog that had found prey.

At this rate, I didn’t know what I might do if I became fully consumed by joy, so I pulled back my happiness.

And then I realized something.

‘I see.’

At last, I had become free from the emotion called joy.

I could feel happiness whenever I wanted.

And when I needed to suppress it, I could do that too.

Now, Joy had become a sword fully under my control.

“……”

Strangely enough, once I suppressed my happiness, anger immediately began rising instead.

That was because I had not yet reached the Realm of Wrath.

“Because of you!”

But instead of suppressing it, I pulled out memories from the past and brought my sword down.

“Because of you, I wandered the world like a madman!”

Then Mordin, who was barely blocking my attacks, spoke.

“No, you were originally—”

“Shut up! Shut up! Die!”

I slashed violently, and with the final horizontal strike, Mordin flew backward while spraying blood.

Booom!

With a loud crash, Mordin’s huge body collapsed onto the floor.

I stepped on his torn chest.

“Go ahead. Keep talking.”

“……”

Mordin could neither answer nor stand up.

Both in my previous life and in this one, I had won.

The difference was that this time, my family remained safe.

That made this a perfect victory without flaws.

“Nora…”

At that moment, Mordin stared at the sky and muttered weakly.

“I’m sorry, Nora…”

Actually, I already knew why Mordin joined the Akseo Society.

I had asked him before killing him in my previous life.

Mordin had a younger sister who had been weak since birth, and she died young because of illness.

After that, Mordin came to hate weak humans and began pursuing strength.

And after hearing his story, this was my answer.

Stab!

I drove my sword into his heart.

“Don’t apologize. You don’t even deserve that.”

Blood burst from his mouth.

“If a world for the dead truly exists, then you two will meet briefly.”

I pushed my face close to his eyes.

“But you’ll soon be separated again.”

“Y-You…”

“Why? Because you abandoned being human.”

I smiled coldly.

“Your sister will look at you drifting away and scream, ‘Brother? Brother!! Where are you going?! That’s hell!’”

Despair slowly filled his eyes.

Seeing that, I grinned.

“Now disappear.”

I twisted the sword hard, and blood quickly spread across the floor.

As the light faded from his eyes, Mordin spoke with difficulty.

“Your family…”

“……?”

“It wasn’t only because of my personal greed…”

Mordin lost the last of his life and lowered his head.

I wanted to hear more, but he was already dead.

‘Was he trying to say there was another reason he targeted my family?’

That seemed likely.

But there was no way to know whether it was true or not.

Most importantly, he had never said such a thing in my previous life.

‘Did he just say random words to leave me with questions?’

I couldn’t be sure of that either.

Still, there was no way to learn the answer now, so I decided to leave it for later.

Right now, enjoying this victory was enough.

Even so, my desire still burned fiercely.

Mordin was only the beginning of the disasters to come.

There were still many bastards left who would destroy my home and devour this continent.

‘Then now…’

I quietly clasped my hands together.

There was one way for a Holy Knight to become stronger quickly.

That was to hunt demons and offer them to the Goddess.

‘Goddess Ella, accept this. I don’t know if you’re truly the one who sent me back in time, but if you are, then consider this my small offering.’

At that moment, black energy slowly rose from Mordin’s body.

It was demonic energy, the source of a demon’s power.

The dark energy gradually turned white, as if purified, and suddenly rushed toward me.

“……!”

I was startled by the massive divine power spreading inside me, but quickly calmed down and controlled it.

After circulating it for a moment, the divine power completely became mine.

“Whew, that scared me.”

The reason I was surprised was simple.

This normally wasn’t how it worked.

As far as I knew, the Goddess usually took the demonic energy from a demon and purified only part of it before granting it as divine power.

‘But this time, it feels like she purified most of Mordin’s demonic energy and gave it to me…’

Because of that, I now possessed divine power comparable to the mana I had when I defeated Mordin in my previous life.

Even if my mana back then wasn’t too different from my divine power before this, it was still an enormous amount.

I looked up at the sky.

“Is this your answer? Are you telling me to use this power?”

Naturally, no answer came back.

“But I will use this power however I want. In other words, I won’t follow your wishes.”

I continued speaking.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll take that as permission.”

“……”

“Good. Then this power belongs to me now.”

Honestly, I was nervous.

What if she actually answered?

Thankfully, the Goddess seemed shy.

Just as I relaxed and lowered my head—

“……!”

I sensed something and quickly jumped to the side.

Something white fell from the sky.

It wasn’t holy divine power.

It was filthy bird poop.

If I hadn’t dodged, it would have landed perfectly on top of my head.

“No way… right?”

Cold sweat rolled down my back as I looked upward.

“Surely not. A noble Goddess wouldn’t do something like that.”

The sky was red from the sunset, and somehow it looked as if the Goddess herself was blushing.

“Haha… bad luck. Right, I was just unlucky.”

Smiling awkwardly, I cleared my thoughts and pulled the sword from Mordin’s chest.

Mordin had already returned to human form.

Normally, when a demon’s corpse was offered to the Goddess, it disappeared like ashes.

But because Mordin had originally been human, his body remained behind.

Or perhaps the Goddess had forgiven even someone like him.

“Are you alright?!”

At that moment, knights burst through the church doors.

It seemed the situation outside had already been settled.

“As you can see.”

“A-As expected of you. He was clearly a terrifying enemy, yet you’re barely injured…”

Roban, who had guided me here earlier, spoke in admiration.

He was right.

Mordin was strong.

If I hadn’t been able to use divine power, I would have struggled for a long time against his regeneration.

“What’s the situation outside?”

“Everyone else has gathered together. Cardinal Bianco is the only death. The injured are receiving treatment, and the remaining Cardinals are waiting for news from here.”

“I see. Then leave the cleanup here to the others. Roban, guide me to where everyone is.”

“Yes, Young Master Kael.”

Roban silently guided me after giving a respectful bow.

Following him, I found everyone waiting in a wide clearing inside the forest.

Renika noticed me first and approached.

“You’re safe, Brother. Thank goodness.”

“Didn’t I tell you before? I’ve killed many demons and humans.”

“I see.”

Renika covered her mouth and laughed softly.

“But your way of speaking has returned to how it was when we first met.”

“Ah, my mind goes back and forth sometimes. I’ll be careful.”

“No, no. I actually prefer this side of you. Besides, you’ll probably become someone of priest rank like me soon enough.”

“I see.”

I nodded, and Renika smiled bitterly.

“Still… I feel like I’ve finally faced reality. Things like this will keep happening in the future, won’t they?”

“There’s nothing wrong with staying forever in a flower garden filled with sunlight.”

“But flowers wilt if there’s only sunlight. Flowers bloom fully only when darkness exists too.”

Renika’s blue eyes remained steady as she looked at me.

Someday, all five Saintesses of the Holy Kingdom would die in different disasters.

Well, after the Holy Kingdom itself fell, it wasn’t as if others had much better fates.

Still, at this rate, Renika probably wouldn’t break from ordinary storms.

“So you’re calling yourself a flower?”

“Huh?”

Renika quickly waved both hands.

“N-No, that was only a metaphor…!”

“I’m joking.”

“Ah… I see.”

After coughing awkwardly once, Renika regained her calm and holy expression.

I chuckled lightly and looked toward Varun nearby.

“Cardinal Varun, I’m back.”

“Yes, as expected, you returned safely.”

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

“You’re asking what will happen to the Inquisitor exam, correct?”

“I’ve noticed this for a while now, but you really are quick-witted, Cardinal Varun.”

“Khehe… thank you.”

Varun continued speaking.

“I was actually about to explain. After all, the attack happened before the Inquisitor exam could even begin.”

“Then will there be another test later?”

“No. Thinking about it now, I believe the test has already been completed sufficiently. Today, all of you directly fought against heretics.”

Varun looked around at the other participants.

“Forgive me for saying this, but the other Cardinals and I lack combat ability, so we observed your battles through magic tools. We watched how you responded to the attack and whether you possessed enough strength to defeat heretics.”

The participants swallowed nervously.

“Therefore, from this moment on, the other Cardinals and I will discuss and choose the new Inquisitors. Including the deacons as well.”

Varun began walking toward a large carriage.

“So everyone, please rest comfortably. It won’t take long.”

The remaining two Cardinals followed Varun toward the carriage.

As Varun passed beside me, I spoke quietly.

“I’ll be expecting good results.”

Varun let out his usual laugh and secretly muttered,

“Yes. You have earned that right.”

(To be continued)