5. Bread and dagger (16)
The interrogation went smoothly.
As promised, I did not ask Avian for key elven secrets. The location of the elven settlements and the number of troops were the same.
My questions have always been plain.
He only asked about the whole story of Avian before undergoing body modification surgery.
Even so, Avian still had a hint of hesitation.
Even though she was young, she was chosen as one of the top elves among the elves.
Even if the elves couldn’t afford it, they would have finished their basic education. There is no way that the possibility of betrayal is not taken into account, so kinship must be considered particularly strong.
So Avian had no choice but to be afraid.
I did not know when even information that was considered trivial would turn into a lethal weapon. That was the potential of humanity that the elves had experienced over the past years.
So I never crossed the line.
My question only aimed at Avian’s ability to regenerate. Other than that, I didn’t even pay attention.
Of course, it was only a temporary reprieve.
Someday, the day might come when even the secret circumstances of the elves were needed. Elves were enemies of the Empire, and I was a member of the Empire.
But for the sake of that time, it was better to restrain yourself now.
The important thing was to gradually break down the psychological resistance line.
This was the so-called “frog of boiling water” operation.
If you start revealing information one by one while saying this much, it becomes easier to reveal more important information. I don’t know if it’s a professionally trained agent, but the opponent was just a kid who had just become an adult.
Seeing how he couldn’t take off his stupidity, this strategy seemed to be effective.
And there was an unexpected fact that I found out during the conversation.
It was the fact that Avian did not voluntarily undergo body modification surgery.
On the contrary, she even felt aversion to the procedure.
It was an elf-like mindset that loved harmony and nature.
The magic of the Dark Church usually distorts the natural order. It seemed that body modification surgery was no exception.
Avian said to me as if in remorse.
“Sa-jiao!”
“… … society?”
It was a word that came out of nowhere.
I inadvertently returned the half-question.
The Dark Church deserved to be called a ‘cult’. However, Avian did not seem to know anything about the Dark Church.
Rather than the clear designation of ‘Dark Church’, it was clear just by looking at the term ‘cult’. Avian was unable to connect the ‘cult’ and the ‘dark cult’.
I had no choice but to do that.
The Dark Church has been in hiding for thousands of years.
Their misdeeds were now only a myth.
Nothing was known about what the Dark Church was specifically doing and what methods it was using.
Rather, I was the exception.
I’ve had several conflicts with the Dark Church so far, and thanks to that, I was somewhat aware of their tactics.
That’s why he was convinced as soon as he saw the ugly lump of flesh planted on Avian’s body.
There must be a conspiracy of the Dark Church lurking in the north as well.
This was the realm of intuition, not reason.
Unless it was me and my colleagues, it was only natural that the possibility of the ‘Dark Church’ could not be easily imagined.
However, Avian’s hatred of the ‘xie jiao’ seemed genuine.
The blue eyes of the girl testifying against him were burning. Blood seemed to be leaking from his chewed lips.
In the first place, the expression ‘xie jiao’ itself had a negative perception. Unless Avian was a meticulous swindler, I couldn’t help but think that his heart was sincere.
As I swallowed my saliva in my thoughts, Avian raised his voice and spoke passionately.
“That, too, is all concocted by humans! In the end, even the village elders go over it… … !”
Avian’s trembling face was sad.
I was so angry that I forgot my existence for a moment and vomited against humans. Of course, I had no intention of blaming Avian for that much.
My priority now was information.
He was not inflexible enough to point out his pride as a human being.
Thanks to that, Avian was able to continue talking in a more comfortable atmosphere.
“We elves respect all life.”
It was a word that broke his momentum and uttered it.
I was silent with my arms crossed. In fact, it was a testimony that was completely different from the rumors I had heard.
Elves conduct guerrilla warfare in coniferous forests.
Even so, the barren place was the northern part. Of course, there were not many resources to be given to the immigrants who came unexpectedly.
In particular, the food problem would be serious.
I heard that the elves started eating meat after they moved to the north. If they were to the point of giving up vegetarianism, which they believed in as a religion, I could guess what the situation would be like.
A belief that has already been abandoned can be abandoned again.
It was also around that time that the elves began plundering the settlers in the north. It was because the Yurdina family had been fighting the war against the elves.
Those who kill others for their own lives respect all life.
It was a funny declaration, but I didn’t bother to put it into words.
He just waited silently for Avian’s words to follow.
She glanced at me, and when she didn’t say anything, she pursed her lips again.
“At first, I thought I was a human being caught up in a war with no luck. He called himself a priest of the Celestial Church, and he seemed to adapt well to the village.”
“… … A priest of the Celestial Church?”
“Yes, a priest of the Celestial Church. It’s obvious that you’re still using divine power.”
It was an interesting story.
Priests of the Celestial Church use divine power based on their faith. This was a distinguishing feature from the power of evil spirits that could be obtained through contracts.
And as the heavenly and evil gods were in charge of the light and darkness of the world, respectively, the authority of the two gods was also different.
Even an outsider could tell them apart with the naked eye.
If so, it meant that the ‘priest’ still maintained his faith in the heavenly gods.
I was dumbfounded and had no choice but to laugh.
“Still, ‘Xie jiao’?”
“Yeah, that’s right! If you don’t call it a cult, what else would you call it?”
Avian cried out in tears at my distrustful reaction.
It was definitely a little odd.
Avian seemed to have normal thinking abilities, albeit clumsy. Isn’t she even someone who has lived in human society for more than 10 years?
He wouldn’t be stupid enough to denounce the Tenshinkyo as a xie jiao.
In the end, I had no choice but to ask the question again.
“Why?”
Now it was Avian’s turn to keep his mouth shut.
Even after hearing my direct question, Avian couldn’t shake his hesitation. It was a reaction that was the opposite of the way he had been criticizing xie jiao without hesitation.
However, the conflict that was arising in that face seemed to be of a different kind.
Rather than feeling that he didn’t want to betray his own people, he had an expression that he couldn’t bear to speak about the fact that he had to vomit was so terrible.
So I had to ask again with stronger questions.
“First of all, is it true that the ‘cult’ remodeled your body? How does a priest of the Celestial Church have such a skill? I’m sure it’s a ‘xie jiao’ because he’s doing something again… … .”
“We elves love our people.”
It was a declaration made like an excuse.
Of course, this was nothing more than a self-defence for the testimony to follow. Avian seemed to harbor a strong resentment for what his people were doing.
I tapped on the table with my index finger.
After spending a little more time, Avian finally confessed the reality of the ‘xie jiao’.
“However, cults eat their own people.”
My fingers, which were about to tap the table again, stopped.
For a while, it felt like the accident had stopped.
Accidents flooded in like stones thrown into a full bucket of water. The brain, which had exceeded its daily capacity, directed a reflexive question.
“… … what?”
“It is literally.”
It was a melancholy tone.
Avian’s voice, which had been spitting out hot tea in the quarter just before, had subsided. Those blue eyes had long since lost their light under the sad shadows.
It meant bringing up painful and painful memories.
So I had no choice but to look at Avian more devastatedly.
Literally? whatever?
The answer came back shortly after.
With brutally clear facts.
“The elves are eating elves. Although it is limited to those who believe in a cult…”
I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it again.
There was a fact that could be known just by looking at Avian.
The enemy on the outside causes solidarity on the inside. In particular, the fraternal love of the elves, who had gone through a long period of persecution, was terrifying.
Look at Avian, who cried out that he would not abandon his people even in the face of violence and death.
It was an unimaginable harsh reality.
Feelings that I don’t know the meaning of, I’m going to have a good time, I’m going to have a good time.
“You’re just looking at it? Of course you have to stop it…!”
“It’s crazy.”
With an empty smile, Avian declared that.
“……We are going crazy, we elves.”
With the hopelessness of office work.
I suddenly remembered Mitram’s words.
Did you say that the Dark Church exists for those who have been abandoned by the world?
At the end of that persecution and discrimination, the elves were preying on their own kind.