37 Choosing a Musical Instrumen (1/2)
Chapter 37: Choosing a Musical Instrument
Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion
Joel was still not at home when John and Lucien were talking, and Auntie Alisa was busy preparing dinner. Their youngest son, Iven, was still playing on the streets with his friends.
“You can never imagine what we found down there,” John said seriously, “There was a demon hall!”
“What?!” Lucien was more than surprised, “They built a hall down the sewers? Has Lord Venn questioned the heretics yet?”
Shaking his head, John sighed with disappointment, “No, Lucien. We didn’t find anyone there. All of them were already gone by the time we arrived.”
“…It’s impossible, John. I didn’t tell anyone else about this except you.” Lucien started feeling worried. What if the demon followers somehow found out it was him who exposed and denounced them?
“Lord Venn told me that information about our actions might have been leaked by a knight. We don’t know who did this yet, but if it’s true, the knight should be of a relatively high level.”
Lucien thought about the possibility that the heretic power had infiltrated into the upper class. However, it was astonishing to imagine that the evil power had corroded some of the noble knights.
“What about Aaron’s Gang?” Lucien asked.
“The leaders escaped, including Rosan Aaron. The rest of the gangsters know nothing about the heresy. They can’t lie in front of the divine power of the inquisition.” John’s eyebrows frowned, “Even though they know nothing, all of them will be sentenced to death by the judges.”
Facing heresy, the church never showed mercy. And Lucien believed that the way the church treated sorcerers would not be any better than that.
One of the books from the library that Lucien read recently was called Hunting Sorcerer, which was written in the year 392 of the Saint Calendar, or say, 423 years ago. It was an instruction for sorcerer hunters and night watchers telling them how to identify the sorcerers, how to track them and even how to torture them. Lucien remembered some of the paragraphs, which sounded ridiculous and cruel to him:
“If a suspect lives in an unsociable or eccentric way, the chance of him or her being a sorcerer or a sorceress is high. However, even if a suspect is always sociable and passionate, the possibility still could not be ruled out, because he or she might just be pretending.”
“If the person you suspect panics when he or she knows who you are, the person is a sorcerer. But if the person does not, don’t lower our guard, because all the sorcerers are experienced liars.”
“If your divine spells cannot help you make sure the identity of the suspect, inflicting sacred punishment on the suspect can be useful: If the person rolls eyes when facing the punishment, that means he or she is trying to communicate with demons to seek for power; If the person’s eyes glaze fearlessly, that means he or she has got the protection from devil power and thus you must torture the person in a more severe way; If the person dies, it is because the demons took his or her life in order to keep their secrets safe.”
“If you have tried them all but still cannot be sure, leave the suspect to our almighty God. Burn the suspect. A sorcerer would burn down to ashes, while God would protect the person safe and sound in the fire if he or she is innocent.”
Lucien was grateful for still being alive. If Lucien had lived four hundred years ago when the book was written, he would have been burned to death thousands of times. The church had been dominating the whole continent for so many years; thus they were now paying more attention to the heresy in the north, instead of going all out hunting scattered sorcerers and sorceresses.
“Then did you find anything in the demon hall?” Lucien asked with curiosity.
Bad memories made John’s eyebrows frown even tighter, “We knight squires didn’t go in there. Knights and pastors led by Lord Venn, Lord Verdi and the cardinal of Salvatore searched the hall. Lord Venn never told me what he saw there, but I saw his face when he walked out… He looked very serious.
“I was guarding outside of the gate.” John’s eyes looked down at the ground and Lucien could tell the bad memory still disturbed him, “When they opened the gate, I saw the ground was covered with blood. And I saw hearts…. living throbbing hearts on the ground. They said that those were hearts extracted from people’s chests when they were alive.
“Lucien, I’ve heard many stories, poems and rumours saying how horrible and vicious the heresy is, but today I finally realized how hateful and inhuman it can be.” John raised his head and looked at Lucien, speaking with great determination, “I hate them, the heretics. I can never forget what I saw there. I want to grow stronger and eliminate the demons completely.”
Looking at his serious face, Lucien smiled, “This is the justice you’re looking for, isn’t it, John?”
John nodded, but then shook his head, “I still don’t clearly know what kind of justice I’m looking for, Lucien. All I know is that I not only want to protect my families and friends, but I also want to protect more people and fight against the dark powers.”