The Demon Hunting Method of the Regressed Inquisitor

Agee Foris (3)

“Hey, are you asleep?”

“I’m not sleeping.”

“When will you sleep?”

“I’m not planning to sleep.”

“You can’t do that! Humans need to sleep to relieve fatigue.”

“How can I sleep when nightmares are guaranteed?”

Did I lose my brain when I became undead? The nightmare in the next room is talking nonsense.

Knowing full well that it will rummage through my mind and make me have nightmares while I sleep, why would I agree to such a proposal?

I will hold out as long as I can.

“By the way, why are you gathering information under Duke Foris?”

“Because it lets me eat nightmares?”

“You proudly admit to doing dirty work for mutual benefit.”

“I don’t know, I like it, and Agee likes it, so isn’t it good for both of us?”

It’s amazing that you can call the Duke’s name so lightly.

Well, who knows how old the monster inside is, despite the voice that comes through.

“And anyway, Agee won’t give up until he gets something from you, right? You’ll be trapped forever?”

“That’s true.”

He is someone who would do that.

“So, let’s sleep?”

“I’m not sleepy now, maybe later.”

“Ah, why!”

I’m sure I lost part of my brain when I died.

I confirmed that.

And even during such conversations, I cast a holy spell on my mind to protect it without the other party noticing.

With this, it won’t matter if they try to enter my dreams at will.

“By the way, what’s your name? I haven’t asked, have I?”

“Call me Lost.”

“Lost? It sounds nice!”

“Isn’t that right?”

“Yes! I like it because it has a name similar to ours.”

“Since you say that, I can’t just be happy about it. What exactly is similar?”

“We are also lost ones.”

“……”

Oh dear, Bella also realized that I used an alias like Agee Foris. Was it too obvious?

No, even so, it’s not a non-existent name. It’s just that the two of them who could think that far from just hearing the name are not in their right minds.

As I was thinking that, I started to feel drowsy.

“Hey, Lost. Are you asleep?”

“Not yet… I’m not asleep.”

“Really? Sleep well.”

I didn’t expect such an obvious trick.

Did she think she wouldn’t get caught? It’s so unnatural.

Anyway, I have cast holy magic.

If I fall asleep like this and she only checks the memories I show her, this confinement will soon be over.

Since this interrogation is to uncover my suspicions, it’s better to show and erase the doubts here.

Seeing and confirming directly is better than a hundred words.

“Have a good dream.”

The voice of Nightmare that reached my ears was particularly eerie.

*     *      *

“Asleep? Are you asleep?”

“……”

“You are asleep!”

Bella grinned at the sound of even breathing coming from the next room.

Finally, it’s meal time. Recently, Agee Foris hadn’t brought any prisoners, so it had been boring.

How wonderful it is to satisfy both curiosity and hunger at the same time.

“Hehe!”

Bella lightly passed her head through the wall to check on Lost.

As expected, Lost had fallen asleep as if struck by Bella’s trick.

“Wow! I’m not dead yet!”

Bella was already a dead being, but that didn’t matter.

She cast a sleep spell, inducing conversation to lull her opponent to sleep.

How perfect this is!

Bella nodded repeatedly, intoxicated by her own perfection.

Of course, her plan was nothing more than a crude trick that would only work if her opponent didn’t know her true identity.

“Well then.”

If the ingredients were ready, it was time to cook. Bella placed her hand on the head of the sleeping Rost.

Then, from her fingertips, a sticky black light emerged and began to burrow into Rost’s mind.

In response, the whites of Bella’s eyes turned black, as if her pupils were being stained.

Eyes that see dreams, not reality.

Now it was time to fulfill her contract with Age Foris while satisfying her curiosity and hunger.

Thus, Bella delved into Rost’s mental world.

And then…

“Gah?!”

Bella withdrew her hand from Rost as if she had been repelled.

Floating in the air, she fell on her backside as if terrified and couldn’t get up.

“What the…?”

It was good that she had looked into Rost’s dream. It was a strange dream, as if there were holes in it, but it wasn’t unusual if the opponent had been defeated by the ＜Dreamer＞ and had their memories stolen.

But the strange thing was something else.

There was something in Rost’s dream that even he didn’t know about.

A black lion with red eyes. The monster, draped in mist, was watching Rost from afar.

Bella had to flee the moment she made eye contact with that being.

If she hadn’t, she would have died.

Even though she was a being made of only spirit without a physical body, she felt annihilation just from meeting its gaze.

“How on earth…?”

Bella knew what it was. She had never met it directly, but she had heard of a being with such power.

“How did you meet it and survive…? No, more importantly, how did you even meet it?”

＜The Corruptor＞

Untouchable

Among the ten trials, the monster recorded in the first was watching Rost.

*     *      *

When Bella entered my mind, I was aware of it.

And when she screamed and escaped from my dream, I could wake up with her.

The aftermath of the holy magic I cast.

The power I borrowed in exchange for divine power is the Eye of Horus, the sun god who prevents and watches over the unholy.

Therefore, I could sense the series of events. When I opened my eyes, I saw Bella, terrified.

“You, what are you?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

I know what she saw. I was watching her.

But I never imagined things would turn out this way.

A while ago, the saintess spoke in a dream. She warned me to be cautious of trials.

When I first encountered Belial, I thought that was what she meant.

When I tried to use ＜Morpheus’s Dream Fragment＞ to drive him away, I doubted it.

And when I finally decided to use Necropolis to shake off the evil, I had a lot of concerns.

But it seems…

“…I’m a bit unlucky.”

The trial the saintess mentioned must have been inside me. Given the gravity of the situation, my mouth feels quite bitter.

I hadn’t even noticed the thing that was eating away at my body.

I had already thought that I needed to resolve it urgently… but it seems I should hasten my plans.

“So, senior? When do you think you can arrange a meeting with ＜The Wanderer＞?”

“I don’t like you…”

“A promise is a promise.”

“If you promise not to do anything strange to our king…”

“I swear.”

“Sigh…”

Bella sighed weakly and rolled into her room.

It was a different kind of quietness compared to the noisy chatter from earlier.

Is that why? Other sounds became more sensitive.

Snap!

The sound of something hard hitting the stone floor.

Snap!

I could tell who had come by the sound that echoed at regular intervals, like a person’s footsteps.

It wasn’t the warden.

“How was your sleep? Any pleasant dreams?”

“Haha, that’s a mischievous question, Duke Foris. Showing me nightmares and then asking such a question?”

“So you know. Did that loose-lipped fellow blab again?”

“I knew from the start, you idiot Age!”

Bella’s retort came from the next room. It was quite a familiar tone.

“You knew? How?”

“Well, I’m not the only one who comes and goes from this room.”

“I thought I killed them all?”

“……”

“I’m joking.”

No, he was probably serious.

Anyone who made it this far was surely dead.

No one could enter here unless it was something extraordinary.

“So? Did you notice anything suspicious, Bella?”

“I can’t remember well because my memory has holes, but it seemed like he just came down from living in the mountains. Oh, and be careful, he’s been eroded.”

“Eroded? That erosion?”

“Yes, well. That’s what they say.”

At those words, Age Foris’s poker face crumbled instantly.

Of course, it would. It’s already a trial near the territory, and if someone who got poisoned by that trial came looking for him, how creepy would that be?

“It’s not contagious.”

I said in advance.

If I got killed because of some unfounded suspicion, I wouldn’t be able to rest in peace even in death.

But Age Foris asked as if it didn’t matter.

“Am I seeing a ghost right now?”

“He’s right next door, so you can see him.”

“Judging by your mouth, you’re alive… Can the priests purify such a deadly poison?”

“It’s not impossible. It’s just that very few people can do it.”

“…….”

In reality, before my regression, I had been afflicted by ＜The Corruptor＞, but I was able to endure it with the help of the Holy Lady.

Perhaps the Pope could manage it too, and a few of the Cardinals might be able to as well.

Of course, complete detoxification is impossible. At best, it can only extend one’s life.

If that creature had not died after ravaging the empire, and if the effects of the corruption had not disappeared, I would have long walked the path to the afterlife.

“This is quite severe, so if you ever encounter that creature, Duke, it would be best to just run away.”

“Of course, I should run away.”

“Even if that monster heads towards your territory?”

“That won’t do. Well, what can I do? I am the lord of this land.”

“Seeing you uphold your responsibilities as a noble. It’s admirable.”

Honestly, I expected him to say that.

Because I had actually seen him act that way.

Age Foris challenged the trial, ＜The Corruptor＞, and was utterly defeated.

He couldn’t even stop its footsteps. That’s how monstrous it was.

And that is the most pressing issue. Belial began to rampage in earnest after Age Foris died.

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

“Yes, I’m worried that someone as excellent as you, Duke, might get hurt.”

“You should worry about your own life.”

“That’s why I’m doing this. I’m flattering you.”

“You’re insane.”

When you do this kind of work a lot, people tend to go mad.

How could they not? There’s a monster breathing deep within my body.

Either I endure until it dies of natural causes, or I don’t.

Those are the only choices left to me. It’s practically a death sentence.

If I can’t withstand the corruption until it dies, I will die.

“Then tell me. Who are you?”

“I’m Lost.”

“Anything else?”

“As you can see, I’m a priest. Also an inquisitor.”

“They say there’s no such name in the Pantheon? How did that come to be?”

“Oh my, you’re quick.”

That was what made me uneasy when I made a deal with Shade.

If it was revealed that I wasn’t affiliated with the Pantheon. But this time, the scale is different.

Isn’t there just the right material?

“You should have asked someone you know.”

“…Yes, there are few people in the Pantheon who know of your existence? Do you know who I asked?”

“Roughly one of the bishops, I suppose?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

It’s not strange for a duke to have connections with such people.

Regardless of whether Agee Foris dislikes priests, there are temples and churches in his territory.

But not all bishops are the same. Who would he think of when I hinted at that?

“Hmm…”

I have the material.

The material that I am being eroded by the ＜Eroding One＞.

Agee Foris knows what it means to be alive after encountering that thing.

Isn’t it evident just by asking if it’s something that can be purified?

Agee Foris knows the ＜Eroding One＞. In such a situation, there is someone who suppressed that power. Then who could that person be?

– It’s not impossible. It’s just that very few people can do it.

The material is ready. It’s not difficult to piece together what kind of dish will come out when you see the ingredients.

If you have flour and eggs in front of you, and an oven nearby, what would you think of?

“…I interfered in a troublesome matter.”

Nine out of ten would think of bread.

As expected, Agee Foris assumed I was something directly under the Pope.