A New Resident (2)

Karis woke when he noticed someone had entered his cell, and I pressed a finger to my lips, telling him to stay quiet.

That said, magical sleep was deep enough that the guards would not wake up just because we spoke a little.

I simply wanted him to stay still and quiet so I could remove his chains as quickly as possible.

Karis’s eyes widened when I stuck a finger into the keyhole and opened the lock with a click.

Well, it certainly was not something an ordinary human could do.

I hesitated for a moment over how to begin the conversation, but then decided that if I was going to do this, I might as well be myself and speak honestly.

“Sorry for disturbing you so late. Good evening, Karis-san. My name is Lept, and, well… I’m a devil. I came here intending to rescue you. Would you mind talking with me for a moment?”

I might have been a devil, but I was definitely not the sort who was good at deception.

At my whispered introduction, the distrust in Karis’s eyes deepened.

Well, that was only natural.

If he had heard me introduce myself and casually replied,

“A devil, you say? And you’re here to save me? Why, that’s wonderful.”

I would not have abandoned him at this point, but I probably would have reconsidered bringing him back to our base.

Still, he had not shouted or started thrashing around, so he had not rejected the idea of talking yet.

As I thought about what to say next, Karis abruptly thrust out a hand to stop me.

“Wait. There is one thing I must ask. Devil, did you kill that man?”

Karis pointed toward the jailer I had put to sleep.

I shook my head emphatically.

“No, I only put him to sleep. You can check for yourself as long as you don’t touch him and wake him up. I don’t like killing people when I’ve come here to save someone. If it were absolutely necessary to save a friend, I probably wouldn’t hesitate, but that isn’t the case this time, so I haven’t killed anyone.”

Still wary of me, Karis moved closer to the iron bars and confirmed that the jailer’s chest was rising and falling with his breathing.

When he turned back around, some of the distrust in his eyes had softened.

“Devil, forgive me for doubting you. In the legends I know, devils are cunning and terrifying beings.”

Karis apologized with surprising formality despite remaining cautious, and I smiled and shook my head.

I had never met another devil yet, but from what I remembered Garmon-san teaching me, devils really were exactly as Karis described.

There was nothing wrong with being suspicious.

“No, it’s fine. I’m probably just unusual. I think most other devils really are like that, so you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Of course, being doubted did not exactly feel good, and having him apologize like that made me oddly happy.

The tension between Karis and me eased slightly, but this cell was still enemy territory.

Even with the guards neutralized, we did not have time to leisurely deepen our friendship.

When I got straight to the point and asked whether he would escape with me, Karis shook his head, exactly as I had expected.

“Devil, if you are willing to help me, then perhaps escaping would indeed be easy. But if I flee, my words will become lies. And the Church’s pursuit will extend to my friends as well.”

The marks of torture carved into Karis’s body were probably the result of his refusal to retract his statements, which meant he had already resolved himself to die.

And just as he said, if he escaped and disappeared, suspicion would fall on the friends who might have hidden him, and they could even be subjected to torture themselves.

But if that were enough to make me give up, I would never have come here in the first place.

I had already prepared a way to solve that problem.

“Even words of truth become nothing but lies if the people hearing them are twisted. Unless you’re foolish enough to believe without question that staking your life on your words will make them reach the hearts of the Church’s leadership—or unless you value your own life that highly—can you really say you trust their intelligence and reason?”

Karis fell silent at my words, but glared at me fiercely.

Still, I did not stop.

“Or if your words were not meant for the Church, but for your friends and students, then you’re a terribly cruel man. You’re trying to make those truthful words reach their hearts so they’ll follow after you, defy the Church, and die too.”

A drop of blood ran from Karis’s tightly bitten lip.

I did not want to say things that trampled on another person like this either, but these words were necessary.

If this were the carrot-and-stick approach, then what I had just said was the stick, a method needed to break down his resistance.

“But even so, your words were right. That’s why I came to save you. Don’t worry. I’ve already prepared a way to shake the Church far more than your death ever could, without allowing their pursuit to reach your friends.”

And finally, I offered the carrot.

If even that failed, there was nothing more I could do.

I would have to accept that Karis could find salvation only in death, and that I was, after all, merely a devil who was bad at manipulation.

But Karis stared into my eyes for a long while before finally saying,

“…Tell me what that method is.”

He took the bait, forcing the words out.

Which meant this round of negotiation ended in my victory.

“Is something like that really possible?”

Standing before the Gate Magic portal I had opened, Karis asked me that question.

I wondered which part he was uneasy about.

Was he worried about traveling through Gate Magic, about my scheme against the Church, or perhaps both?

“It’s fine. It’s possible. I am a devil, after all. You don’t have to trust me from the bottom of your heart, but there are no lies in the words coming from my mouth right now.”

Whichever it was, there was no problem.

At my confident declaration, Karis nodded once.

“Very well. I will trust you, devil. You have been sincere with me. I leave the rest to you.”

With those words, Karis disappeared through the gate.

I had sent him to the far side of the city’s outer wall.

Karis would probably want to witness what was about to happen, even from a distance, and more importantly, if I suddenly sent him to our base without accompanying him, Bella might mistake him for an intruder and start munching on him.

Now then, I should not keep Karis waiting too long, so it was time for the finishing touch.

What I pulled out of storage was a single stone tablet.

However, it had been polished to a degree impossible with this world’s technology and shaped into a perfectly accurate square.

Inscribed on the tablet, in this world’s script, were the words:

“Those who speak in My name trample upon My children. Because I love My children, so that they may reflect upon themselves and find salvation, I cast My wrath upon this land.”

Though, of course, I was the one who had prepared the tablet.

Yes, the method I had prepared was divine punishment against the Church.

Though since the one delivering it was not a god but me… what kind of punishment did that make it?

Well, it was an imitation of divine punishment.

If Karis’s disappearance became part of the miracle as well, then pursuing his friends would only tighten the noose around the Church’s own neck.

In exchange, Karis would never be able to return to this land again, but he had already accepted that condition.

This was also a trial for the Church.

If they still possessed genuine faith and repented, the Church’s authority would temporarily decline, but witnessing an actual miracle would deepen the people’s faith, so in the end it could even work in their favor.

But if they refused to repent, the next divine punishment for continuing to defy what they believed to be God’s will would be far greater.

If it came to that, the Church’s authority would probably collapse beyond recovery, and the current order would fall apart.

I left the prison, placed the stone tablet on the cathedral altar, and raised my hand toward the heavens.

This would be a fairly large-scale use of magic, but I had already calculated positions that would ensure there were no casualties.

If anyone died because of this, Karis would regret it, and having no casualties would make the event seem even more miraculous.

More importantly, there had been no lie in what I told Karis: “I don’t like killing people when I’ve come here to save someone.”

That night, several bolts of lightning struck the cathedral in the middle of the night, destroying the building without claiming a single life. Combined with the message on the stone tablet found atop the untouched altar, the event was soon rumored to be a miracle from heaven—divine punishment sent by God to correct the Church’s corruption.

The Church, however, denied those rumors and moved to suppress them, showing no sign whatsoever of reflecting on its conduct.