Chapter 765: Fighting Poison with Poison

The next morning, Duanmu Huai went to the town again, but this time, his outfit was completely different from before.

"Look at what I wear?"

Duanmu Huai stood in front of Mashu, proudly showing off the clothes he had the Fulvegi family make overnight. In short, this is an ordinary priest's outfit, with a long robe and a cross, it looks no different from a priest's uniform.

But...

"Uh... I think... it's okay?"

Mashu looked at Duanmu Huai and was speechless for a moment. This outfit looks like a clergyman on a clergyman, but when Duanmu Huai wears sunglasses, he looks like a gangster boss in the movie.

"But MASTER, do you really want to do this?"

This is also the result of Duanmu Huai's discussion with the other three people last night. It is not easy to dig deep in such a small town to find the core of this singularity, but Duanmu Huai can do the opposite and intensify the changes in this town, just like when a washing machine rotates, the vortex will drain the water to the sides to expose the bottom below. Accelerating the transformation can also make this town produce a similar reaction, so that the core will be exposed actively.

This is naturally not an easy task, but... Duanmu Huai is familiar with this method!

Just kidding, who is he? He is the chief inquisitor of the Tribunal. The target of the Tribunal is heresy, aliens and demons. Duanmu Huai has been fighting aliens and demons for most of this time, and rarely encounters real heretics. But this does not mean that he does not know how to deal with heretics and judge heretics.

And this is what Duanmu Huai is going to do in this town.

He will initiate a heresy trial in this town in the name of the church.

That's right, witch hunting and heresy trials can be said to be one up and one down, the two magic weapons for stabilizing society in the Middle Ages. In fact, unlike what people think, witch hunting is mainly born in the folk, and the religious court basically doesn't care much. This is why Duanmu Huai mocked that if the witch really had the ability, she would have killed all the farmers long ago, because most of the witches were burned by civil courts, except for Joan of Arc, which involved high-level politics.

And heresy trials are the main business of religious trials.

After all, heretics are more hateful than pagans.

Compared with the more "simple" witch hunting, in fact, heresy trials are more terrifying and have a wider range of attacks.

Witch hunting is first limited to women, and there must be empirical evidence, just like those farmers who accused Mashu before, saying that their children had a high fever after contact with Mashu. Simply put, this is like a criminal case. No matter how incredible it is, you always have to have a victim to prove the existence of witches.

In other words, witch hunting is more or less about evidence. No matter how unreliable the evidence is, at least you have to have it, instead of just accusing others of being witches.

However, heresy trials are completely different.

Because the heresy trial judged thoughts and words, it did not care about physical evidence. As long as you spoke, it was evidence.

What is heresy? Heresy is a view that runs counter to mainstream thought. Then the question is, how do you know that you run counter to mainstream thought?

In fact, believers are often no different from those fans. They always have their own thoughts and opinions on the stories explained by religion. Whether it is a shepherd, a miller, or a beggar on the roadside, they have different views on the same story.

In fact, it is normal. In modern times, everyone has different understandings of a movie, a novel, or a comic. It’s just that now there is the Internet, so it can be spread. In the past, the circulation was narrow and it could only be circulated locally. Then the question is—how does a farmer in a remote rural area of ​​Italy know what the mainstream thought of the Roman Bishop’s Court is?

Of course, he came whatever he thought and felt reasonable.

There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people. To put it in an extreme way, all these thousand Hamlets are heretics.

Especially since the people in this town are particularly devout, the problem becomes even more interesting. Most people think that fanatics are puppets, but in fact, the more devout the believers are, the more they have their own ideas. On the contrary, those who are not so devout in their beliefs will follow the mainstream ideas - after all, it doesn't matter what they say, and they don't care.

On the contrary, fanatics don't recognize this. They are just like this fanatic in anime. As long as you don't understand the background setting to their liking, they will accuse you of being a heretic, a novice, and an idiot who knows nothing and can only follow the trend.

After all, no one knows XX better than them, right?

Even fans will quarrel with each other, and the quarrels are even more fierce.

The same is true for religion.

If religion is compared to an animation, then most believers are passers-by fans, and fanatics are die-hard, fanatical and brain-dead fans - and they are the kind that will take action offline.

This is why heresy trials basically end in massacres. You can change a person's behavior, but it is difficult to change a person's thoughts. Especially for this kind of religious fanatic, his belief is equivalent to his life. If you can change his mind, it is basically the same as killing him.

So there is no need to waste time, just burn it directly. Simple, convenient, fast and pollution-free... Well, it seems to be a little polluting.

For Duanmu Huai, he came to turn this town into a crematorium.

"Then, I'll go."

"Please be careful, MASTER."

The previous two actions were all caused by Fiore or Matthew, which triggered the witch trial, so of course Duanmu Huai could not take her with him this time. Only Medea and Irisviel, who can transform into spirits, follow Duanmuhuai, while Matthew is responsible for supporting outside.

Walking into the town again, everything here looked completely the same as before. People were still busy working, but in Duanmu Huai's eyes, they were like NPCs in those towns in sandbox games. When the player enters the town, they are also walking around, giving the player a very prosperous feeling in the city, but in fact where did these NPCs go...

That depends on whether the production team really does their best.

Duanmu Huai raised his eyebrows, then withdrew his gaze, followed the street to the central square at the intersection, and then walked into the church door.

"Hello Stranger."

Entering the church, the pastor in front walked over. He was the pastor who led the team last night, but looking at him now, it seemed as if he didn't know Duanmu Huai at all.

"What can I do for you?"

"I am the Inquisitor from the Inquisition."

As Duanmu Huai spoke, he walked forward and took out a letter of appointment from under his cloak - of course it was a forgery. For a magician, it would be no problem to forge a letter of appointment from hundreds of years ago. .

"The Inquisition received a report that there is a heretic hiding here, and I was ordered to come here to investigate the matter."

This kind of thing was actually very common in the past, because communication and transportation were not developed at that time, so going to the church to file a complaint required capital. To put it simply, no one would risk the danger of bandits and bandits and travel countless kilometers to the church to have fun. Unlike now, anyone can call and report a false police report, so generally such a report would not be heard by the church. They will all be taken seriously.

"heresy?"

Sure enough, when he heard this word, the pastor suddenly panicked.

"Lord Judge, I assure you, here are all loyal believers, we..."

"That's for me to decide, not for you."

Duanmuhuai glared at the pastor coldly.

"Pass this message on and I will immediately begin investigating and collecting evidence."

"……………yes……………"

The priest could only remain silent. After all, he did not want to be regarded as an accomplice of the heresy.

Very good, it seems that the rules of this place are indeed formulated this way.

Duanmuhuai breathed a sigh of relief when he found that the priest in front of him was obedient. According to Irisviel and Medea, every step of any magician's ritual has its own inherent meaning. Since this town is imitating a religious belief, they must be consistent with the imitated religious belief in every aspect.

If this is the case, then Duanmu Huai's appointment letter will not be opposed or overturned. On the contrary, it can also help Duanmu Huai "integrate" into this running ceremony.

It now appears that their advice was correct.

"Dang...Dang...Dang...Dang..."

As the bell rang, busy residents in the town also gathered. They came to the church door and formed a circle, watching Duanmuhuai and the pastor uneasily. Under the gaze of the residents, Duanmu Huai took a step forward, stared at the people in front of him, and then spoke.

"Lambs of the Lord! You must listen carefully. I am Duanmu Huai, the great judge from the Tribunal. There is only one reason why I am here, and that is that the church received a report claiming that in this small town, There are heresies that blaspheme the glory of the Lord!”

"………………!!"

Hearing Duanmu Huai's words, the people below were in an uproar. Everyone was shocked and looked at each other uneasily. Duanmuhuai stood in front, staring at them.

"The glory of the Lord cannot be blasphemed! Any heresy will eventually be completely destroyed! If your belief in the Lord is still extremely devout, then tell everything you know! Remember, heretics are cunning and evil! They will use Sweet lies wrap up the evil in your heart, and you will use high-sounding words to hide your blasphemous thoughts! The heretics are among you! I will immediately start investigating and find those who blaspheme the glory and majesty of the Lord!”

"……………………"

After saying this, everyone below fell silent, while Duanmu Huai snorted coldly.

"Anyone who has clues can come to the church to find me and report to me. Remember, it doesn't matter even if it's just a few clues. The sooner the heresy can be found, the sooner the town can be restored. The gift and glory of the Lord!”

After saying this, Duanmuhuai turned around and walked into the church.

Everyone stared at Duanmuhuai's back, and after he left, they dispersed in whispers.

"What should we do next? MASTER?"

Back in his room, Irisviel's voice emerged from Duanmuhuai's ears, and Duanmuhuai sneered.

"It's very simple, just find the heretics."

"But it doesn't necessarily happen?"

"It does not matter."

Duanmu Huai waved his hand.

"Whoever I say is a heretic is a heretic."

Speaking of this, Duanmuhuai showed a ferocious smile.

"Believe me, the Inquisition is professional in this regard."