My Sweet Deceiver

Chapter 46

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Mathieu Briem was on his way out after work. Around the corner, he could see the familiar Briem mansion, and there was something unusual about it.

A group of people surrounded the mansion, and the lights in the mansion’s rooms were all lit up.

“What is this? Huh?”

Mathieu hurried out of the carriage. Then the man, talking to the men dressed as Holy Knights, turned his head, plodded up and stood in front of Mathieu.

A large body with an intense look, thorn bushes and snakes embroidered on the chest in a white priest’s robe.

He was a heretic inquisitor.

With a stern expression, the heretic inquisitor stepped forward and spoke to him.

“Mathieu Briem.”

No one has been so blunt to him, who had lived as a noble all his life. The heretic inquisitor already spoke as if he had branded the Duke a heretic.

“You must go with me to the temple now.”

“What?”

“We’ve been informed there is a heretic in the Duke’s mansion.”

“In my house?”

Unable to understand, Mathieu looked around him with a puzzled expression. He needed an explanation of what was happening, but no one came forward. All the users were looking at the ground.

The most normal-looking of them was the butler.

“Let me explain.”

Just as the butler was about to speak, the holy knights bound the Duchess and escorted her.

“Honey!”

Upon seeing his wife bound, Mathieu ran out and tried to separate her from the holy knights.

“What should I do, honey?”

When he saw his tearful wife, Mathieu came to his senses. He ordered the chief of the Knights.

“Fernan! Hold on to the wicked.”

“Go!”

As Fernan beckoned, the knights behind him drew their swords in unison.

Then the holy knights pulled out their swords without losing. It was a ferocious atmosphere as if there would be a war soon. The Knight Commander of the Holy Knights shouted.

“Duke Briem! Are you really trying to fight against the temple? Drop your weapon and surrender!”

Meanwhile, the Duchess was put in a convoy wagon.

“Honey! Honey!”

There were two convoy wagons, and one of them was covered with cushions on a sitting chair, so the Duchess and the Duke of Briem seemed to ride with the holy knights.

The other was a wagon that could load several people at once, and it was a big one. A wooden plank chair was attached to the wall, and the people of the mansion were carried there.

After all the users in the wagon had entered, the castle driver closed the wooden board door and locked it with a lock.

Heretic Inquisitor said to Mathieu.

“The evidence of pagan worship was found in the mansion. The Duke is also suspected of being a heretic and needs to be interrogated. Get in.”

The Knight opened the back door of the divided carriage. The Duchess was in the front, and Mathieu was in the back.

He could hear Anne crying and complaining in front of him.

The Knight winked at Mathieu as if to get in the carriage.

At his attitude, Mathieu said, glaringly.

“I’ll have to meet the Pope and hear what he says.”

“The Holy Father is not idle enough to care about these things.”

“Then, I’ll go after meeting the King.”

Then the Paladin laughed.

“Don’t you know that the temple and the royal family don’t interfere with each other’s affairs? Heresy interrogation is the exclusive right of the temple. Even the King cannot escape.”

“Then, if you can give me a few days…”

The Paladin did not respond to Mathieu’s words and signalled at the open door. It seemed to mean ride, not to talk bullsh!t.

“…”

No Pope, no King.

First of all, should he listen to what they say?

Mathieu stared at the Paladin without a word in front of the door.

“We must find out what this is all about. If my innocence is proven, I will surely make you regret having treated me like this, the Duke of this country.”

The Paladin snorted and nodded as if he would see.

There was no way that the Duke himself could get out of this where the users were already captured.

Mathieu got into the wagon.

The door was closed.

Mathieu couldn’t get rid of the idea that he had fallen into a trap.

The Holy Knights dragged him into the dark underground, deep in the central temple.

The knights who put him down locked the door and went out.

Individual interrogations seemed to take place.

One desk and two chairs.

The unventilated basement created a damp and filthy feeling.

A dark room with no light coming in.

Then, he heard someone strolling in. Every time it walked, there was a terrible sound.

The door opened, and a long shadow appeared.

The man walked around and turned on the gas lamp.

Suddenly exposed to the bright fire, Mathieu frowned.

At one point, he couldn’t see well.

He forced one of his eyes open and looked in front of him.

A man with a stern expression with a long scar on his left eyebrow.

He was a heretic inquisitor.

The Inquisitor pulled out his chair and sat in front of Mathieu.

“How are you, the Duke of Briem? I’m an interrogator, Priest Brodell.”

Fortunately, he was a priest who introduced himself like the most normal person he met today.

“Interrogator? Let me know what’s going on with this. I am innocent.”

The priest snorted at Mathieu’s words.

“I’ll tell you whether you’re innocent or not. If you answer my questions correctly, you should be able to get out safely.”

It was the warning not to enter the tip of his sword.

“Did you know that there were heretics in the mansion?”

“Pagans? That’s ridiculous. I’ve been faithful all my life serving Nate…”

“Only answer the questions asked, Duke.”

“…I didn’t know.”

“Has the Duchess never acted suspiciously?”

“You mean my wife? She’s a coward, so she usually goes outside the house only when-”

“Duke, answer the question.”

The priest’s words were getting shorter and shorter.

“It was as usual.”

“Didn’t you know that the Duchess set up a pagan altar?”

A pagan altar?!

Mathieu jumped up and shook his hand.

“Not at all! I never knew.”

Mathieu wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

“Hmm…”

The priest had a dissatisfied face.

“If you say you don’t know everything, this won’t work. You’ll be in prison for a while until you get your mind straightened out.”

“What do you mean prison?!”

Already that priest was questioning him as a pagan. It was the first time he had heard all of this, so he wanted to know what was happening.

When the priest went out, the big men came in and took him somewhere. It looked like the prison the priest said. It was a dark, gloomy, and humid place.

A stone floor with no chairs. 

Trapped in prison, Mathieu was on the verge of going crazy.

Mathieu, who was imprisoned, said to the guard.

“Let me meet someone. I mean, I’m innocent!”

However, the guard did not budge at Mathieu’s call. He was already old and had never been treated so harshly before, and he lost his energy in an instant.

“Cough!”

After staying up all night in prison, the priest he saw yesterday came to revisit him. Mathieu said while holding the priest’s hand.

“Please get me out of here. Please?”

“Would you like to make a statement, Duke?”

“Oh, of course.”

Eventually, after being released from prison overnight, Mathieu was reunited with Brodell, the heretic interrogator priest.

Mathieu asked in a polite tone.

“Sir. It’s disgusting, but… I can only ask for one thing. Exactly what was found in my house…? It’s definitely the first time I’ve heard of it…”

The priest nodded his head, took a few photos from the file folder and threw them at Mathieu.

Mathieu politely reached out his hand and looked at the picture the priest had thrown at him.

In the blurry picture, something like a podium was visible. There were all kinds of things on it, and there was a red liquid that looked like blood.

“…”

Mathieu swallowed his dry saliva and looked at the other picture.

The following picture was taken of an open book in an unknown language. The cover of the book was somehow familiar. 

It was the book the Duchess had read in bed before. 

“Hah…”

There were a few more photos behind them, but they were similar. 

Unidentified clothes, canes, animal skulls, etc.

There was nothing more to see.

There were pagans in his house.

Mathieu was well aware of the punishment of pagans. It’s because he had sent his political opponent to silence, accusing them of being heretics on several occasions.

Death.

The only end of paganism was death.

There was a verse in the doctrine of Nateism that apostates should be punished with death.

Seeing Mathieu’s pale face, the priest took the pictures.

He then said it as if it were a bummer.

“Can you answer me properly now, Duke?”

“…I will.”

Although Mathieu answered bluntly, inwardly, he shook his head fiercely.

At that time.

Elliot was welcoming guests.

“Do you mean a report has been filed?”

Eliot said, bringing a cup full of golden liquid to his mouth.

There seemed to be no expression on his face.

Indifference, that was all.

Again, the person sitting in front of him looked more anxious.

“That’s right. As you know, the pagans…”

“It is only death.”

Having said that, Eliot put down his glass and looked at the Bishop sitting in front of him.

“Is there any evidence?”

“…The fact that a pagan priest is in the palace seems to have spread. And in the Duke of Briem’s mansion, there were a lot of pagan worshippers.”

The Bishop added things that Eliot did not ask. 

Then Eliot frowned and said,

“Everyone is interested in the King’s private life. There has never been more than one woman in my palace.”

Elliot remembered Sherazad, who had run away. He treated her so well, but it had been several days since she disappeared without a word.

In disgrace, he downplayed Sherazad, a pagan priest. As if she was on the same level as the women who warmed the bed for the night

“And what did I have to do with what happened to the Duke of Briem?”

The Bishop frowned at the sight of Eliot drawing a line with the case of the Duke of Briem.

“I heard that the pagan priest in the main palace instigated the Duke’s people. Don’t you know?”

Elliot shook his head without changing his expression.

“…I don’t know anything about it. There’s a woman I’ve been looking for lately, but she’s gone.”

The Bishop said with suspicion.

“Your Majesty didn’t make her disappear, did he?”

It was a question of suspicions that he had dealt with her before becoming a source of trouble.

“No way. I am innocent before Nate.”

Elliot said that far and stroked his chin. 

The Bishop looked at Eliot and said. “First, hand over the handling of the missing pagan priest to the temple. Then we will take care of it.”

“That’s right. She had made me quite happy, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“…”

The Bishop drank the tea without answering. 

He had no desire to hear the King’s nightlife.

The Bishop thought only how much he would ask the King for the cost of disposing of the heretics.

How can he say that without disturbing the king’s feelings…?

“It’s been a long time since I made a sacrifice to the temple. As I get older, I keep forgetting.”

The Bishop replied with a smirk.

“It doesn’t even matter. You still look young like a boy.”

“No way. I’m all old now, and I’ll have to stay healthy until Julien comes of age.”

The King shook his head. For a moment, he looked like an ordinary father, not a King of a country.

If this was acting, it was clear that Elliot was a great actor.

“So, I am going to offer prayers to the temple for the health and peace of the royal family.”

“How much is enough?”

As expected, the King was the King.

The Bishop smiled broadly and offered the king the sum demanded by the pope.

(To be continued in the next episode)

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