In the depths of darkness, a crimson gleam hovered in the void, fixated upon Fernandez.
He stood, his body rigid under a dreadful weight, barely managing to lock eyes with the ominous glow. Turning his gaze was not permitted.
—Yes, this must be a dream. A mere dream. I am in the Lord’s manor now. This is but a dream.
“Fayzash. You belong in hell.”
“Damn it. I’ve never been involved with Hell yet!”
“The mark on your soul remains indelible. Soul, essence, spirit, and nature. You are ensnared in hell.”
“I may not comprehend soul and spirit, but essence and nature are untouched by the corruption of hell! Essence and nature are fragments of the spiritual body that belong to the flesh. It couldn’t be like that yet!”
“As the soul is drawn, can the essence withstand? It’s only a matter of time for everything.”
The crimson glow flashed. Soon, the entire world ignited, people hung on stakes, and the demons screamed, setting the world ablaze.
It was not a vision conjured by demons; it was a recollection of the past.
Fayzash Wildcast — the Grand Warlcok and the highest-ranking demon summoner.
The founding chairman of the [Ashen Dawn Society] and the chief Grand Warlock of the [Calmburg Magic Academy]
One of the fifteen Evils who brought about the world’s ruin.
It was the world he had created himself.
“Shut up, shut up! There is no such thing as fate. I-I already experimented. I killed a man I never killed!”
“Your experiment, which could only be proven by killing someone, is proof of the corruption of your soul. Even if you make a single mistake, turn your eyes away just once, you will return here. And that moment is not far away.”
“Aaaaaaah!”
The sight of his son screaming as his body burst open was the last fragment of the nightmare he beheld.
* * * * *
“Damn it.”
Fernandez, lying on his bed, spat out a curse, cold sweat trickling down his face. It had been a mere week since he had returned to the past, yet the nights had become unbearably tedious.
The nightmares plagued him every night, and with each passing day, he grew more worn out.
“This won’t do. I need to do something, anything.”
Whether it was to banish sleep, dreams, or the past, one of them had to go.
Magic was currently out of reach, and potions were needed, but unfortunately, Fernandez wasn’t in a major city’s alchemical workshop, but in a run-down country fiefdom in the Dane Kingdom.
“Ugh…”
Fernandez gulped down the water from the bedside table, stood up, and made his way to his office desk. Stacks and stacks of paperwork lay unopened. A headache raced through him.
It had been a week since Fernandez took control of Baron Sernerd’s territory. Fernandez had been unable to sleep, and he had been sorting through the fiefdom’s various ledgers and management documents.
The condition of the fiefdom was terrible. Daniel was not particularly incompetent, but he was not particularly competent either.
However, the countless taxes consumed to meet the military obligations demanded by the kingdom were burning the fiefdom to the ground.
The upkeep that the Dane Kingdom was paying to the Holy Alliance had been slowly killing the kingdom for decades, and each of the kingdom’s fiefdom had slowly begun to accept its economic death sentence, with the bankruptcy of the small lords on the horizon.
Daniel, like his predecessors, was a lord who was content to pay his share of the kingdom’s taxes.
However, the fiefdom was on the verge of collapse due to the rising annual tax increases, and all the indicators in the fiefdom management ledger were pointing to the worst.
Amidst this, Fernandez had to scrape together the meager profits of the fiefdom—excluding expenses for guards, servants, and administration—and use them to purchase herbs, potions, and experimental materials for his studies.
The treasury of the Baron’s residence quickly emptied, and Fernandez estimated he could set up a laboratory within a month if things continued at this pace.
Of course, every unauthorized mage had a seemingly reasonable plan. Until they met the Inquisitor, that is.
“My Lord!!! My Lordddd!!!”
A servant came running, pale-faced, and bowed before him. Fernandez, who had been flipping through the papers for a long time, looked down at him with a look of indifference.
If it were any other time, the servant would have been scared away by that expression, but he was still in a hurry.
“I’m busy.”
“My Lord! Something big, something big has happened!”
“Did someone break the dam again? They never get tired of it. Did someone fall into the pit by the dam? Take two guards and repair it. Tell the injured person to rest at home for two days. I think we need to issue a drinking ban.”
“No! My lord, a guest is coming from the capital! A significant guest!”
“The capital? The royal family, I presume? We’ve already paid the quarterly taxes.”
Fernandez frowned.
What if the stewards had embezzled or misused the collected taxes before handing them over to the tax collectors? That would be a significant problem. Baron Sernerd was now penniless and had no extra funds to pay the overdue taxes.
“No, no, no! This, this, this…”
“Is it a tax inspection? Don’t worry. Sernerd is beyond reproach. Haha, he probably has nothing hidden, judging by the dual accounting system.”
“N-no! This…!”
The servant struggled to speak as if uttering the words alone invoked a curse, punishment, or some dreadful future. Fernandez stared at him with an irritated expression.
“Would you like a drink of water?”
“Inquisitor!!! Gulp! Huk! Gulp! Yes, the Inquisitor, the Inquisitor!”
“Hmmmm.”
The Inquisitor. Fernandez looked at the servant with cold, icy eyes. The servant trembled, covering his mouth and drawing a cross.
“Wha- what should I do?”
“What can you do? We’ll all face the stake together. Besides, it seems faster than I expected.”
In his past life, those guys were so slow-moving, so why are they here now? Fernandez frowned.
Well, around this time in his past life, he would probably have been chased by bandits or wolves. It was no wonder that he hadn’t anticipated the arrival of the Inquisitor to come to the Barony of Sernerd.
Or perhaps, had he done something attention-grabbing in the past week?
‘I have no idea.’
Where did the rumor come from? The potions and other alchemical materials seemed more like items from alchemy than heretical practices.
If it were the time when he ruled the world like before, then it would be fine, but now Fernandez is just a young lord of a small territory. Catching the tail would be an impossible feat.
Many foolish lords were obsessed with alchemy and had the ambition to revive their territories by making gold.
“Burning at the stake??? Really bad··· Great Beythasus, please protect us. Is the rumor that you made a deal with the devil true?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Ah, ah, the devil taught my lord magic….”
“Huh?”
Fernandez stared blankly at his servant. The servant looked back, eyes filled with fear, drawing crosses and reciting prayers.
Magic? Could it be flint?
Flint was nothing more than a trick that anyone could use if they knew how. It couldn’t ignite beyond 1.5 meters, couldn’t create a small organic fire on the skin, and certainly couldn’t produce a large blaze.
It was just a trick used when starting a fire with dry leaves. Literally, a ‘flint.’
“Hah!”
‘Is it because of Flint that I’m being accused of heresy?’
“Hahh!!!”
Fernandez was dumbfounded. Magic was a rare skill, but at the end of the day, it was just a skill.
However, the rural peasants in this small fiefdom had never seen magic beyond the pages of a fairy tale!
‘If I didn’t have anything to hide, I’d rather be proud, but this is crazy.’
* * * * *
It was nothing short of a miracle that Alejandro’s servant had found the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor was usually found if he wanted to be found.
By chance, the Inquisitor, Marco, was camping in the vicinity of Baron Sernerd’s estate. It had been almost a week since the servant heard rumors and set out to find him.
“Oh, oh! It’s true! It’s really true!”
“Halt. Identify yourself. If you approach any further, you will be subject to summary execution under religious law.”
As Marco’s guards unsheathed their swords and blocked the servant, he knelt down with a face of gratitude.
As soon as the heretic appeared, the Inquisitor visited our estate. This must be Beythasus guiding us!”
“Who are you?”
“I, I am the servant of Baron Sernerd!”
As the stern voice echoed through the guards, the servant replied, trembling.
“No. ‘Heretic’, you mean.”
With that, a man stepped out from among the guards. The servant looked up cautiously. The Inquisitor’s agile authority was evident. The servant spoke carefully.
“The former Baron’s bastard… Fernandez Sernerd! He killed my master and young master with magic!”
“Sernerd… Sernerd… Daniel Sernerd, who is now the Regent, is that Sernerd?”
“D, Daniel Baron died by Fernandez’s hand!”
“And his child died too.”
“Yes, yes!”
Above the servant’s head, the Inquisitor laughed.
“If this bastard truly bears the mark of ‘heresy,’ then the bloodline of Sernerd must be eradicated.”
“Yes…? Uh, yes.”
“Lead the way.”
The servant, caught in the strong grip on his arm, couldn’t gather his wits. The guards forcibly raised him, supporting his unsteady form.
“Go and set the heretic ablaze, execute justice.”
“Glory to Beythasus!”
Inquisitor Marco smiled, contemplating.
Indeed, if Fernandez is the heretic, the Barony of Sernerd will become the possession of the Church.
(End of chapter……… Thank you for reading…………)
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