A Dark Fantasy Spy

---

The sharp scent of harsh disinfectant fills the air.

Upon opening my eyes, once again, I’m greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling.

The pungent aroma seizes my nostrils, and I feel pressure all over my body.

Is that a bandage?

“…….”

I want to check my condition, but I don’t have the strength to move my fingers. The sensation of the blanket wrapping around my fingertips is all too clear.

Just as I began to move my throbbing head to look around, I heard Lucia’s voice beside me.

“…You’re awake.”

With great effort, I turned my head to meet her blue eyes. Exhaustion etched onto her face and a gaunt expression completed the picture.

Lucia, looking unlike her usual self, was staring at me with a weary gaze, lying right next to me.

—

Episode 12 – The Strongest Magician in History

—

This is an unfamiliar room I’ve never seen before. I find myself lying alongside Lucia.

It feels surreal. Is that what you’d call it, a lack of reality?

Confusion and an inexplicable unease buzzed around in my head. I can’t even grasp the situation properly.

I attempted to push the blanket off and get up, but the pain in my abdomen froze me in place.

“Ugh…”

Rebounding, I lay back on the bed as Lucia scolded me.

“You are seriously injured. Please lie still.”

“…Where am I?”

“In the Cathedral.”

This was the Cathedral. So, the Cathedral of Saint Basil.

Lucia, who had settled at the edge of the bed, began to explain in a weary voice.

“We were going to shift you to the intensive care unit, but due to the many eyes watching, I had to bring you to my room. Also, Rebecca Priest requested confidentiality regarding this incident.”

“Priest…?”

“Priest Rebecca.”

Upon hearing the name of Priest Rebecca, I began to understand the situation to some extent.

I had engaged in a confrontation with two Inquisition Officers and a suspected heretic, only to lose and end up injured. It seemed that Priest Rebecca and the Inquisition Officers, arriving late, had brought my unconscious self to the Cathedral.

So, the operation was a failure?

“How long have I been lying here…?”

“Approximately six hours. Since you lost consciousness as you arrived at the Cathedral, it’s likely much longer in reality.”

“…….”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“…No.”

“…You truly remember nothing?”

Lucia asked with a worried look, and suddenly, fleeting memories overwhelmed me, leaving me momentarily speechless.

Bullets lodged throughout my body, piercing through my brown tunic. The pursuing gaze of the Inquisitor. The white beams of light pouring down from the sky. An indescribable power gripping my legs. The sound of a longsword slicing through the misty dust. The blade extending ominously from the staff’s grip.

Memories surged over me like a river swollen by monsoon rains.

“…….”

Silently lying there, Lucia observed me quietly.

“It seems something has come back to you.”

“…….”

“You don’t have to speak if you don’t want to. Right now, you need to rest.”

Lucia muttered casually, yet her worried expression betrayed her nonchalance.

She chose silence for the sake of mental stability, and I in turn asked her about my condition.

“Is it really that bad…?”

“…It would be quicker to tell you what is good than to list the bad.”

It’s that severe, huh?

As I lay there staring at the ceiling, Lucia explained just how serious the situation was.

“You have several stab wounds in your abdomen and chest. Judging by the nature of the wounds, it seems they were inflicted by weapons like longswords, sabres, or rapiers. There are penetrating wounds in your right thigh and lower abdomen—if the blade had moved even a few centimeters, you could have lost your life. The bleeding was severe, and we had to rely on the hospital for a blood transfusion.”

“…….”

“You’re lucky to be alive. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a miracle.”

Lucia’s tone was calm, yet her face was steeped in worry.

“What about Priest Rebecca?”

“As soon as she entered the Cathedral, she had a meeting with the Archbishop, and now she’s busy informing the Inquisition of the situation.”

“Is everyone safe?”

“…….”

Instead of answering, Lucia chose to remain silent. Her tightly sealed lips showed no signs of parting.

However, from her silence, I understood one fact.

“…It seems someone isn’t safe.”

I quietly asked Lucia.

“What happened?”

“…….”

“Saint.”

“…Some have gone to be with the divine.”

There were fatalities among the Inquisition Officers.

“How many?”

“Four.”

Four dead. Two Inquisition Officers who first engaged in battle and the ones who rushed in to support them.

Depending on the nature of the operation, there could be variations in military protocol, but generally, a standard operational team from an intelligence agency usually consists of five members or fewer.

I had three subordinates under me and I was leading a group of five. Though I didn’t know the structure of the Inquisition, based on the Information Command, one operational team had been wiped out.

I grasped my throbbing forehead with my palm.

Lucia’s voice pierced my ear.

“…Now is not the time to worry about others. Your condition is the most critical.”

What do you mean by that? Removing my hand from my forehead, I looked at Lucia.

Lacking the strength to properly speak, I just stared at her, but Lucia quickly understood the question hidden in my silence.

“…….”

With a gentle rustle, the sensation of the blanket pressing down on me vanished.

Lucia’s hand pulled the blanket lower, allowing me to finally see our conditions.

To my surprise, Lucia was almost bare. Hidden beneath the blanket, I hadn’t realized she was only in her undergarments, lying on the bed with me.

More importantly, I was in a similar state.

The outfit I had brought from Debok was nowhere to be found. I was clad in only undergarments, lying beside Lucia.

Being a foreigner, sharing a nearly naked state with a Saint in bed was shocking, yet I felt no panic or urge to cover myself with the discarded garments.

More precisely, I couldn’t even think of doing that.

Only after the blanket was pulled away did I finally understand the state I was in.

“…….”

I saw numerous grotesque lacerations covering my body. Signs of significant surgery, as if I had been sewn up with hundreds of needles. Various unknown wounds were just extras.

Yet, what was more concerning was the fact that the skin now bore a dark hue.

“…W-what on earth is this?”

Forgetting the pain, I inspected myself, unable to conceal my shock, and Lucia delivered the grim news that felt like a death sentence.

“Your flesh is rotting.”

—

The operation had failed.

I had fainted, only to wake up and find the mission was a failure, with fatalities among the Inquisition Officers.

I bore lacerations all over my body.

And now, apparently, my flesh is succumbing to decay.

“No. The necrosis of the skin, the speed—this doesn’t make sense….”

Stammering as I gazed at my darkened skin, Lucia began to explain in a calm tone.

“It is indeed necrosis. What you see is a stark reality.”

Skin necrosis. Necrotizing skin infections are more common than you’d think.

Bacteria that infiltrate through wounds can spread along the fascia, deep within the skin. If the injury is not properly managed, one can easily fall victim to it.

I’ve experienced it a few times, especially in the Middle East and Africa, where I’d carelessly stitched up wounds without getting proper antibiotics.

But the current situation…

Something felt off.

“First, we’ve administered antibiotics via injection. There are also oral antibiotics available. These are officially prescribed medications, so you can take them without worry, but…”

As Lucia gazed at the decaying skin, her words trailed off.

“I can’t guarantee their effectiveness.”

Skin necrosis doesn’t progress within hours. Normally, bacteria infecting the skin causes redness at the wound and entails pain and fever over several days.

Yet these wounds had only appeared hours ago.

I looked at Lucia with astonished eyes.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

Lucia replied bluntly in a calm voice.

“Even the physician said they’d never encountered such symptoms. This is a phenomenon modern medicine cannot explain.”

I stared at Lucia, bewildered. She lay next to me, carefully lifting her upper body to alternate her gaze between my decaying skin and my face.

“You’re experiencing symptoms that are difficult to explain with either modern medicine or the Healing Arts of the Church. That’s why I had no choice but to intervene directly. As you can see, that did not go well.”

“…….”

“What on earth happened to you?”

Lucia’s blue eyes, filled with questions, were fixed on me.

Though her expression bore serious concern, her eyes conveyed a resolute determination to hear my response.

“Four Inquisition Officers died. Priest Rebecca seems to be investigating something; she mentioned a similar situation not long ago. This has clearly gone beyond normalcy.”

“…….”

“Please tell me. What did you go through?”

Though Lucia’s voice sounded the same as usual, it felt strangely detached.

She seemed angry, worried, perhaps even to be indignant.

Though I had no way to grasp why she wasn’t pleased, I had no choice but to speak the truth. Considering how things had spiraled out of control, I couldn’t just leave it unaddressed.

So I spilled everything.

A child caught using sorcery in the village.

Information about a suspicious Inquisitor obtained through interrogating the child.

How I had gone to investigate the village where the child lived.

The Inquisitor I encountered there.

All the things the Inquisitor did and how the villagers treated him.

Moments spent quietly surveilling to embed divinity into the amulet.

And the ensuing battle with the Inquisitor and the Inquisition Officers who caught onto my presence.

While I omitted the details about Hormoz, that was enough for now.

Lucia, lying beside me and listening intently, closed her eyes for a long moment as if deep in thought. Suddenly, she opened them and sat up straight.

Draping her discarded clothing over herself, she declared tersely.

“I must see the Archbishop. Please wait here.”

“What for?”

“This is not something Inquisition Officers can handle. Didn’t you realize who that Inquisitor was?”

“Isn’t he a heretic? Who on earth….”

“The stench of a corpse emanating from a living body, potent fragrances used to mask it, the stark sensitivity to divinity to even catch the faint divine essence within the amulet, and the ability to counterattack even after absorbing an Inquisition crackdown.”

“…….”

“That Inquisitor is not human.”