In a world where the gods demand pain as tribute, Yuda has served as the Great Shrine Maiden of Asterion for over a century—a Regeneration-blessed tool of the state, burning and healing without end, never permitted to die. She has long since stopped believing in the voice she speaks for.
But when a northern village is reduced to ash by a rogue flame-blessed, Yuda is dispatched to investigate. What she finds is a young man consumed by fire that will not kill him, cradling the charred body of a g
Fire Punch: Flame of Atonement - Bureau Management Division, Seventh Floor — The Hero's Justice and the Shrine Maiden's Lie
The sky over the royal capital of Vermina lay buried beneath gray clouds heavy with snow.
Wind poured down from the Ice-Rim Mountains, freezing the cobblestones of the city's seven tiers. Down the spiral staircase that wound from the great temple of Asterion at the summit toward the lower levels, two figures descended in silence—a priestess draped in white vestments, and a boy wreathed in flame.
Yuda held the chain.
A chain of special alloy. It ran from the iron collar around Aguni's neck to her right hand. A month ago, in a cave in the Ice-Rim Mountains, the key she had clutched had gone unused. Her hand, trembling in the morning light, had chosen duty. As the nation's tool—just as it had for a hundred and thirty years.
Down one step, then another.
Yuda's footsteps were quiet, as though holding their breath. The hem of her white vestments brushed the stone stairs; her long white hair swayed in the wind. Her blue eyes, the color of a glacier's depths, fixed straight ahead. Beneath her cloak, the wing-shaped brand on her back gave off a faint heat.
Behind her walked Aguni.
No—was made to walk. That was more accurate. His arms were bound behind his back, and the chain from his collar left his movements to Yuda's hand. The undying flame that wrapped his whole body evaporated the snow falling on the cobblestones, sending up white steam.
A ceaseless hiss, hiss, hiss.
Each time Aguni's bare feet touched the stone steps, the stone cracked from the heat. In his wake, blackened footprints trailed in a dotted line. His short, dark brown hair was singed and curled by the flame's heat; his amber eyes glistened with pain. Beneath skin that charred and healed, healed and charred again, his muscles convulsed without pause.
Partway down the spiral staircase toward the seventh tier, the two were exposed to the eyes of the people.
"That's... the Great Priestess."
"White vestments... a true priestess. Bow down."
Beside the stone steps, a man who looked like a merchant dropped to his knees. Next to him, a young woman bowed her head deeply. An old peddler, still clutching his basket of wares, crouched where he stood. Everyone saw the majesty of a god in Yuda's white vestments.
Yuda let their gazes wash over her, expressionless.
For a hundred and thirty years, she had grown used to those eyes. The people who prostrated themselves. The looks of worship. As one who heard the voice of God, as the Great Priestess, she had always been the one looked up to. But today, for the first time, those gazes pierced her skin with a heavy weight.
(I am not escorting a traitor of the state.)
The thought formed in her mind.
(I am escorting a young man whose sister was burned.)
A woman beside the stairs caught sight of Aguni and let out a small scream.
"Eek—wh-what is that?"
She shrank back from Aguni's charred body and his flame-wreathed form. The man beside her wrapped an arm around her shoulders, shielding her. The gazes around them shifted from worship to fear. The reverence directed at Yuda drew a strange contrast against the terror directed at Aguni.
(The people bow before the priestess.)
(But they recoil from the boy burned by flame.)
(What is this difference?)
Yuda put just a little more strength into the hand that held the chain.
Aguni kept his head down and said nothing.
Within the flame, his lips moved faintly.
"...Luna..."
The voice was all but drowned by the roar of the fire—barely reaching Yuda's ears alone.
(This boy is still calling his sister's name.)
(Since a month ago. All this time.)
(On the night we sat around the campfire in the cave, on the days we walked through the blizzard.)
(The only words from his mouth were ever his sister's name, or words of revenge.)
Yuda kept descending the spiral staircase.
At the entrance to the seventh tier stood a checkpoint of the Blessed Persons Administration.
An iron door. Two armed bureau officers stood to either side. On their gray uniforms, the bureau's emblem—a silver crest shaped like a flame—gleamed at the breast. Above the checkpoint hung a stone plaque carved with the words: "Blessed Persons Administration, Seventh Tier Entrance."
"Halt."
The young officer raised a hand to stop them.
"Great Priestess Yuda, who is this you bring?"
"An unregistered flame blessed one."
Yuda's voice was flat and emotionless, the same as when she read out an oracle.
"Apprehended in the northern village cluster. I hand him over to the bureau as a target for elimination."
The officer peered at Aguni.
A boy wrapped in flame. Charred skin. An iron collar. Arms bound behind his back.
"So this is... the one."
The other officer pulled out a notebook and began writing something.
"Confirm the blessed one's brand. Show me your left arm."
Yuda tugged the chain.
Aguni slowly extended his left arm. A flame-wrapped arm. On the skin, a burn scar carved with his sister's name—the characters "Luna"—stood out clearly. And beneath it, the brand of a blessed one glowed red.
Officer B confirmed the brand and wrote it down.
"Flame type, danger rank A. Unregistered. ...No mistake."
"Transport him to bureau headquarters. Take him to the interrogation room on the seventh tier."
Yuda nodded silently.
(Danger rank A.)
(This boy.)
(Recorded as one of the most dangerous blessed ones to the state.)
(And all I can do is watch.)
The iron door opened.
Yuda pulled Aguni's chain and stepped into the seventh tier.
The headquarters of the Blessed Persons Administration stood at the center of the seventh tier.
A massive stone building. Few windows, its outer walls darkened with soot. Before it, a flag bearing the bureau's crest fluttered in the wind. Passing through the gate, one found a wide courtyard, and beyond it, the entrance to the interrogation room.
Yuda crossed the courtyard.
(A month ago, in the cave, I clutched that key.)
(If I had handed it over then, this boy would not be here.)
(But I chose duty.)
(As the nation's tool, I made the right choice.)
(Right?)
She turned the word over in her mind.
(What is right?)
(Is it right to bring this boy here?)
(Or would it have been right to let him go?)
No answer came. She stood before the door to the interrogation room.
From beyond the door, a voice reached her.
A calm voice, carrying well.
A courteous tone, like that of an educator.
A cold thing ran down Yuda's spine.
(This voice—)
She opened the door.
The interrogation room was larger than she had expected.
Stone walls. A high ceiling. A long table sat at the center of the room, with several bureau executives seated around it. Along the wall, two recording clerks stood ready with quill pens.
And at the head of the table—
Doma was there.
Thirty-eight years old. Hero of Behemdolg. Flame blessed one. Educator.
His short-cropped, graying hair was neatly groomed. Calm, light-brown eyes. On the back of his right hand, the brand of the flame blessing glowed red. He wore not the bureau's gray uniform but a silver-white cloak permitted only to heroes, and he was reading through reports spread across the table.
A man who never let his gentle smile fade.
A man beloved by his students as a good teacher.
That man raised his head.
"Oh, Great Priestess Yuda. It has been some time."
Doma's voice set the air of the room trembling.
Yuda looked at Doma, her face expressionless.
(This man burned the Ashen Village.)
(This man killed Luna.)
(This man burned forty villagers of Aguni's village to death, on the grounds of cannibalism.)
"It has been a while, Doma."
Her voice was, as always, without emotion.
"Today I have come to report on the incineration mission in the northern village cluster. I am here to formally report the mission's completion before the Director of the Bureau and the assembled executives."
Doma rose and gave an elegant bow toward the bureau executives.
"One of the northern villages—commonly called the 'Ashen Village.' That village had a custom of eating human flesh in order to survive the winter. They captured travelers, killed them, and used their meat as food."
Yuda listened to Doma's words without expression.
(A custom of eating human flesh.)
(It's true that some villages in the northern cluster are like that.)
(But the Ashen Village was different.)
(The villagers did not eat travelers.)
(They were eating Aguni's flesh.)
(The flesh of a blessed one who regenerates.)
(A boy's body that heals no matter how many times it is consumed.)
(So that they would not starve to death.)
Doma continued his report.
"A village that permits cannibalism has no right to live. They cast aside human dignity with their own hands. I burned that village and purified it. This is education. I taught them, with flame, what right conduct is."
The bureau executives nodded, murmuring agreement.
"Well done, Doma. You have purified a stain upon the north."
"Truly the hero of our nation. Cannibalism is the height of barbarism. Such a village deserved to perish."
"Doma's justice is the state's justice. His flame is the order of Behemdolg itself."
Yuda listened to the executives in silence.
(They are praising him.)
(This man's one-sided judgment.)
(Without knowing the truth of the village.)
(Simply because it aligns with the logic of the state.)
(They praise him as a hero.)
Doma turned his gaze toward Yuda.
"I hear the Great Priestess also went to inspect that village. Do you have any observations?"
Yuda met Doma's eyes.
Light-brown eyes. A gentle light. But behind them, for just an instant, something sharp flickered—the look of a man appraising his prey.
"...Nothing."
She answered briefly.
"It is as written in my report. I found an unregistered flame blessed one and apprehended him. That is all."
"I see. Then you have my thanks for your efforts."
Doma smiled.
"And this unregistered blessed one—would he be the survivor of that cannibal village?"
Yuda did not answer.
"One born in a village that permits cannibalism, raised to take it for granted. That such a one should harbor the power of a blessing—truly lamentable. To use God's grace for the deeds of beasts—that must never be."
Doma's voice remained gentle throughout.
"But rest assured. I shall take charge of that one's education. I will instill in him, with flame, what right conduct is."
At that moment—
The door of the interrogation room flew open.
Two bureau officers entered, hauling Aguni between them.
A boy wrapped in flame. Restraints. An iron collar.
Aguni's amber eyes wandered the room.
Then they caught sight of Doma.
—In that instant.
The flame over Aguni's whole body erupted.
WHOOOOSH!!!
"...Ah... aah..."
A beast-like growl leaked from Aguni's throat.
"...This... voice... this... smell..."
His body began to tremble violently.
"...You... it's you...!!"
Aguni's voice tore through the air.
"You did this... to the village... to Luna...!!"
The restraints creaked.
Special alloy restraints. Things that should not break easily, even with the power of a flame blessed one.
But the flame surging from Aguni's whole body began to burn them from within.
Crack, crack, crack...!!
The metal screamed.
"UOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
CRAAAASH!!!
The restraints shattered to pieces.
"Wh-what!?"
"The restraints...! Impossible, those are special alloy!?"
The officers shrank back.
Aguni freed both arms and charged at Doma.
Flame spread through the room.
The table, the documents, the walls—everything in Aguni's wake caught fire.
"I'll kill you... I'll kill you...!! You, at least... I swear...!!"
Aguni's right arm swung down toward Doma's face.
A fist wreathed in flame.
That fist touched Doma's face—
Just before.
Doma, still smiling, raised his right hand.
"Oh, how rough."
On the back of Doma's right hand, the flame brand glowed red.
The next instant—
WHOOSH.
White flame rose from Doma's body.
Aguni's fist touched that white flame.
—The moment it touched.
The white flame ran up Aguni's arm and engulfed his wh
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