DKFTI 123

A brown haired child was asking for help. Sibel got startled and ran toward the place where the child was, and Aizen also followed him.

When they turned around the corner of the alley, there were people wearing armor. They were dragging a middle aged man out of an ordinary looking house.

“What’s going on?”

Sibel asked the people in armor. One of them looked at Sibel and Aizen.

“We are carrying out official duty. Don’t mind us and go. Grab the child first.”

“Yes.”

The child who had fallen on his backside hid behind Sibel’s legs with a terrified face. Sibel’s body stiffened when the child’s trembling hand touched his leg.

“For what reason are you taking such a young child?”

The Holy Kingdom looked so splendid and beautiful that he had mistaken it for paradise. The situation he faced now was shocking.

“We are holy knights of the order. Don’t interrupt what we do.”

So he is a very stubborn person. But this tone, he heard it somewhere before. Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel good. Does the order have a manual for using annoying speech?

“Even if it’s official duty, there’s no need to be this violent. Especially in front of the kid…”

“They are heretics. Don’t interfere. If you keep disturbing us, you won’t escape trouble either.”

Heretics. They turned people into criminals just because they denied the god they served. How can they be this violent?

“But…!”

Sibel tried to raise his voice, but Aizen grabbed his arm. He slowly shook his head to say they shouldn’t create any more uproar.

Of course they needed to avoid drawing attention, but…

“What are you going to do with him once you take him?”

“We will question him and judge him based on the severity of the crime.”

Sibel frowned. He whispered to Aizen standing right beside him.

“What kind of judgment?”

“It can be anything from a fine to forced labor depending on severity.”

As expected of this unpleasant Holy Kingdom.

“Move.”

The man who had used that annoying tone pushed Sibel’s shoulder with his hand and walked past.

“Let go! I said let go!”

A knight picked up the child, slung him over his shoulder, and walked out of the alley without any concern. Sibel stared at the retreating figure and then met the eyes of the struggling child.

“We didn’t commit any crime! My father only earned money by painting!”

The child’s cries were heartbreaking. The gaunt middle aged man had his wrists tied and was dragged away. His steps moving obediently without a trace of resistance.

“Move!”

A commotion started and people gathered around.

“That painter ended up like this after all.”

“Why’s that?”

“He drew heretical propaganda pictures to make a living, they say. It’s a pity. He must have done it so the kid wouldn’t starve.”

Through the open doorway, Sibel caught a glimpse inside the child’s home. The old and shabby interior was covered with paint and paper the man dropped while being dragged away.

“Even so, is it necessary to take the kid too?”

“The kid is innocent, so he’ll be released soon.”

“If a frail man like him gets dragged to a mine, won’t he die?”

He heard people clicking their tongues here and there. It had nothing to do with him, but strangely, it made his heart ache.

For a moment, a thought suddenly occurred to Sibel.

This world really doesn’t change at all.

Even if people no longer felt hunger or couldn’t die, could their desires ever be satisfied? Does paradise really exist?

“Let’s go.”

Aizen grabbed Sibel’s arm, pulling him away as Sibel stood and couldn’t take his eyes off the scene.

“Ah, yes.”

He needed to do what they came here to do first.

Trying to fix someone else’s problems was something the Sivalren of the past would do.

Sibel steeled himself and hurried his steps.

***

When he thought about it, ever since he was reborn in this world, he had lived far too closed off. Maybe he had gotten drunk on the comfort of living happily with the Demon King’s castle family and lost interest in the wider world.

Honestly, life had just been too hard for him to take care of anything beyond his own survival.

His heart was still aching from the earlier incident.

“Are things like that common here?”

Sibel asked Aizen.

“Well. I don’t think so.”

Even though Aizen spoke that way, he actually wasn’t very interested in how things worked inside the Holy Kingdom unless it was something happening on the front lines.

“It is strange for sure.”

There had always been a stance against heresy, but it wasn’t common for them to seize ordinary people like this. Unless a group caused a major social problem, the order usually didn’t need to step in.

Maybe that painter had been unlucky and taken a job from the wrong crowd, or maybe he really was dangerous in a way they hadn’t seen in that brief moment. But everything was only guesswork. As outsiders, they couldn’t understand everything about their circumstances.

“Demons and humans are both complicated creatures.”

Sibel agreed with Aizen’s words.

“Let’s hurry and get the holy water.”

The more his mind became cluttered, the more he wanted to erase his memories quickly. The more he felt disappointed with the world, the more the memories of his past stabbed into him painfully. Good and evil, light and darkness, trust and betrayal, realms he could never reach.

These complicated and profound thoughts didn’t feel like him at all.

“We’re almost there.”

They had moved quickly, so they reached their destination soon.

A huge temple with white pillars and walls stood proudly in front of them. The temple was white and glossy, as if it had been carved from polished ivory. Crowds of people filled the area in front.

“What kind of day is it?”

“It doesn’t need to be a special day for there to be a lot of people. There are always a lot of believers here.”

Aizen answered monotonously. Whenever the crowd grew this big, Sibel looked around like a country mouse seeing the city for the first time.

“But how are we supposed to steal it once we get inside? There will be guards, and probably locks too.”

There was no way the Holy Kingdom’s relic storage would be managed as carelessly as his castle’s treasure room.

“We’ll think about it then.”

“You only have violent methods in mind, right?”

Aizen didn’t dodge questions because he hadn’t thought things through, but because saying it in advance would only earn complaints. Sibel had figured that out quite early.

“When did you get so smart? Is that because of your new memories too?”

Aizen didn’t like Sibel’s new memories. It was natural. He wouldn’t be in a single moment of those memories, so he wouldn’t like them.

“We came to steal, so why are we talking about morals?”

Sibel looked at Aizen, who spoke shamelessly, and thought that this man would have succeeded no matter what he became. He always charged forward toward any goal.

“But how long do I have to carry this? It’s ridiculously heavy.”

If they had known they would reach the temple this fast, they probably wouldn’t have needed such a huge load.

“You said you packed things that would help break locks.”

“You prepared tools from the start, so why am I the only one getting scolded?”

Sibel avoided Aizen’s eyes. This man seemed to hit the mark more often these days.

Sibel felt his heart thump as he walked toward the temple. Among the people gathered to pray for blessings, Sibel also pictured a hopeful future while walking forward.

But then something happened.

He heard people murmuring. Soon hooves struck the ground, wheels scraped against dirt, and metal clattered. Naturally, their eyes turned toward the same direction as the crowd.

“Clear the way.”

A knight in a familiar uniform pushed through the crowd toward the temple. They were the same people they saw in the alley earlier.

Behind them walked people whose hands were tied with rope. Every one of them looked filthy, as if they had rolled in dirt, and they all had injuries or swollen parts on their bodies.

“……”

He heard people whispering. They gathered in groups, calling them sinners who had fallen into heresy and throwing unpleasant looks. Some even cursed or threw stones.

Among the sinners was the child they had seen earlier. The child trembled and clung to his father as he walked slowly.

With so many hostile eyes on him, he couldn’t help but be afraid. But the knight didn’t care and shoved the child’s shoulder roughly.

“Ah…!”

The child stumbled forward and fell. The knight next to him grabbed the child’s arm with an annoyed expression.

The whole scene was violent, yet no one around them pitied the child. They only looked at him as if he were disgusting.

Again, memories of the past suddenly came flooding back and turned his stomach. He felt nauseous.

“Move faster!”

“But my knee hurts… ugh!”

The knight tugging the child’s arm clicked his tongue in irritation, grabbed the child by the collar, and forced him to stand up. The child’s feet dangled in the air for a moment.

Sibel saw the terror in the child’s eyes. Something snapped in his mind. His hands and feet were already moving to strike out.

But someone moved before Sibel did.