Demon Hunters

The Inquisitor XI

"Lead me to the village. I will settle things."

The villager raised his head and looked at the inquisitor with suspicious eyes. However, when he saw Lucas's expression, he must have become at least somewhat trusting of the man – that, or he was simply too desperate to care. Slowly, he got up.

"Will you help us? Will you take your men away?"

"I will. One way or another."

"I'll help you," Matthew added.

However, Lucas did not approve of this decision.

"No. I will take care of this. By myself."

"What do you mean? Surely, you don't think you can handle all of them by yourself?" Matthew asked, taken aback by Lucas's reluctance.

"I know that I am more than enough. How many inquisitors are alive?"

"S...six, sir. I mean, there used to be seven, but, well..." the villager sputtered.

"You killed him?"

"It was an accident! They were trying to rob the alderman's house, and someone grabbed a pitchfork..." the villager insisted, in a somewhat defensive tone.

"I take it that this is what caused the harsh retaliations you spoke of?"

The man lowered his head. Lucas did not need to wait for an answer.

"It is as I thought. But back to the matter at hand: six is not too much for me to handle. I can, and will, do this by myself."

"By why must you? Not that I doubt your ability, it just seems foolish to go by yourself..."

Lucas crossed his arms and glanced at Björn. Throughout the whole episode, the old shaman had kept quiet, observing the inquisitor closely. His expression was inscrutable, so Lucas had no way of telling what was going through the man's head. Lucas sighed and looked back at Matthew.

"Because this village needs you, its shamans. But me? I'm an outsider. Besides, with your bear-spirit wounded as it is, I am the only reasonable option."

"That doesn't mean that you should risk your life, and the lives of the villagers, so haphazardly!"

Lucas grunted in annoyance. He was already getting ready for what lied ahead and didn't want to get caught up in pointless arguments. Of course, what Matthew was proposing was reasonable – the two of them would probably have an easier time of the mission. Still, he did not want that.

"Look. Your master here looks like he doesn't have long to live. If you die, then all the secrets he has taught you will be lost – perhaps forever. And if there is no one to succeed you as his pupil, what happens?"

"Lucas, I do not understand what is going on here. Certainly, I would risk death by joining you. But so do you, and if this were to fail, the village would have to suffer even more reprisals. Is that what you want?"

Suddenly, a look of understanding came over his face. He stepped backward, shocked.

"You can't... This is just a twisted way of getting redemption by dying a martyr, isn't it!?"

Lucas averted his gaze. He could not deny the fact that a heroic death did hold significant allure over him. However, he had another reason for his insistence on going alone.

"Listen... What you have done is open my eyes. For my whole life, the only thing I've been doing is blindly following the word of the church, never questioning what I had to do even when I realized how rotten the whole system is. Now I finally see the world, and my actions, for what they truly are. I am finally capable of making my own decisions – and what I want to do is to fix the mistakes I've made - personally."