The War of the Witches—also known as the Bellum Maleficarum—took place a thousand years ago and was so violent that the archipelago that stretched out toward Tomitoa was wiped off the map. The majority of humankind vowed never to repeat this mistake. However, there were a few who thought: “If I become a witch, I can attain that level of power.”
The centuries that followed were filled with indictments and executions.
Everyone suspected their neighbor. Even the smallest seed of doubt was enough to accuse them and push them into a witch trial. Back then, executing a wicked witch was the highest honor for a church knight, and there was a worldwide ostracization of witches. It was an era that became characterized by witch hunting. Every woman was suspected and often indicted.
At that point in time, the adventurers’ guild didn’t yet exist. That was perhaps one reason no one had the power to stop the church.
Young women from villages to towns, churches to noble homes, were suspected of crimes they hadn’t committed. Without even being afforded a fair trial, they were subjected to all sorts of terrible torture and painted as witches.
Public opinion was too powerful. Even in the cases where enough objective evidence had been presented to warrant a non-guilty verdict, the woman would still be shunned by society at large and persecuted by vigilantism. Even those who passed the verdict were subject to violence with the ridiculous reasoning of “If she was indicted, why didn’t you just kill her anyway?”
Amid this atmosphere, those passing judgment found themselves unable to issue non-guilty verdicts. They bent to the shouts of the mob and abandoned justice to protect themselves. It was a hellish period for these women where many guilty verdicts were passed with the logic of: although she’s probably not a witch, it would be bad if she were one, so let’s kill her just in case.
After many years passed and everyone who’d experienced the War of the Witches was long gone, the fervor cooled down and people returned to their senses. This was about 130 years ago.
Since then, the rules regarding indictments became more strict and rigorous. Now the logic behind an indictment of a witch by the Church of Saphir of today was incredibly simple. If the one indicted was a witch, then they would be executed. If they were not a witch, however, then the one who made the accusation would be executed instead as punishment for making a false claim. If you were to indict someone, for whatever reason, and label them a witch, then you needed to be prepared to take on the accompanying risk. Once an indictment was passed onto the church, it couldn’t be retracted.
These changes were why indictments were rare nowadays. If you wanted to accuse someone, you would need irrefutable proof. There had to be a big reason if most people knew a witch was the culprit behind an affair.
“As you know, Hakura, witches have a stigma somewhere on their bodies,” Leen said.
Similar to how Spheres were an indicator of someone being an adventurer, witches also had a physical mark on their bodies called a “stigma” that identified them as a witch. In other words, even if a woman was behaving suspiciously, if she didn’t have a stigma, then she wasn’t a witch.
“As for Erifell, she has a mark on her body that indicates that she’s been cursed by a witch,” Leen went on. “This is known as an inverta. As the name implies, it is an inverse depiction of a witch’s stigma.”
“Huh, news to me.”
“News to you? Aren’t you a renowned witch hunter, Hakura? How do you not know that?”
“Well, the witches I killed had already been identified as such.”
It had been my job to dispatch witches who went on a rampage after the indictment and trial stuff had already happened. By the time I was called in, all the preliminary stuff had been checked over and locked down. This inverta stuff was worth remembering. Hm? Is it me, or did Leen’s glare get even sharper?
“Back in the old days, people thought that an inverta was the sign of a witch. Many women were sent to the chopping block due to these false accusations. We cannot let a lack of knowledge lead us to incorrect conclusions. Nowadays, there is proper protocol to verify whether a mark is actually an inverta or not,” Derg said, using the wealth of knowledge on this subject he had as a church knight to add on to Leen’s remarks.
Two marks: one that identified a witch; one that identified someone cursed by a witch. They were similar, but opposites.
“So why... Ah. Guess that makes sense,” I said.
Erifell was making moves to indict a witch and make sure she received just punishment. That meant that the witch wanted to eliminate Erifell. It was more than logical enough reason for her to be cursed. I kind of wished she’d told us about the little paper trick with the door if it was a measure to protect herself from a witch.
“Hey, Leen? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Funnily enough, I think I am.”
“Wh-What? Tell me,” Derg said, confused.
Leen chuckled and gestured to me to explain. It would be a pain, but I didn’t want to waste time by pushing the responsibility onto her only for it to be pushed back to me, so I explained the long and short of what happened today.
“So there was an adventurer who held clear disdain for Miss Erifell... Yes, that is rather suspicious,” Derg said.
Erifell had collapsed moments after Cormeca had given those suspicious and threatening parting remarks and left. It was almost so obvious that I started to wonder if I was misunderstanding something.
“Did you hear any details from Erifell?” I said.
“I was actually supposed to talk to her about it today. She had gathered the evidence and made sufficient preparations. All that was left was to call the Carbuncles. This was to be our last meeting to—”
Suddenly there was a rattling noise. The cupboards and the vase started shaking violently—similar to the shaking back on the bench. I stood up and reached for my sword on the carpet. Leen, however, didn’t seem bothered.
“Must be the wind,” she said.
“Uh, the window’s not open,” I replied.
“Well, it’s not rare for furniture to shake suspiciously.”
“Yes, it is! Why are you acting like this is totally normal?”
All the same, a minute or so went by without any further disturbances. Seeing no point sitting in silence, I turned back to Derg.
“The Carbuncles are currently stationed in Lilliette, right?”
Before we’d set off for Leston, I recalled Erifell saying something to that effect. Lilliette was a large town to the west of Esma. I’d actually had my base there before coming to Esma. Well, it’d be more accurate to say that, due to various things happening there, I had been forced to leave...
“I’m not sure if this is lucky for us or not, but the main forces are stationed there and didn’t leave even after the witch trial there wrapped up. However, if we can compile all the evidence, they can reach Esma five days afterward.”
“Which means...she’s probably with them...”