I was an archbishop of an evil cult.
The Great Flame Cult was a secret society where every vice in the world seemed to have gathered.
I was born into that wicked religious organization as a disposable assassin.
But after being drawn into internal power struggles within the cult, I became the leader of an assassination unit with several subordinates under my command, and as I accumulated achievements, my position steadily rose.
Archbishop Hauzel von Agraion.
Before I knew it, I was being called by such a grand title.
It was thanks to my achievements in defeating, time and again, the Holy Knight Order of the Church of the Holy Spirit—the largest religion on the continent and the Great Flame Cult's archenemy.
Before long, my name was known throughout the entire continent.
As the spearhead of the evil threatening the world.
But.
That life was ending today.
***
“It is truly regrettable that this is how the merciless Archbishop Hauzel meets his end.”
Listening to Archbishop Gatheus's mockery, I coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“You should have kept yourself in the Grand Patriarch's good graces. You were always so full of yourself, so naturally he came to hate you.”
The reason was obvious.
I had accomplished too much.
To Aquilast, the Grand Patriarch who led the cult, I had become an increasingly troublesome presence.
He had begun to think that if things continued this way, I might grow even more powerful and set my sights on the seat of Grand Patriarch.
That was why he ordered his trusted confidant, Archbishop Gatheus the ‘Executioner,’ to purge me.
“Still, even the great Archbishop Hauzel cannot stand against this, it seems.”
“Of course not……”
My gaze went to the sword Gatheus was holding.
“Because you borrowed the cult's treasure, the Demon Sword Igzad, from the Grand Patriarch……”
Demon Sword Igzad.
One of the Great Flame Cult's greatest treasures, it was a famed blade said to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Holy Sword of the Church of the Holy Spirit.
Most of the mysterious powers described in legend had faded away, but the blade still possessed transcendent capabilities.
The sword I had been wielding was fairly renowned in its own right, but the moment it clashed with Igzad, it snapped like a wooden stick.
“To kill a monster like you, I had to bring a weapon of this caliber. Without Igzad, I would have lost even if you had been barehanded.”
“You would have……”
“Now then……”
Looking down at me as I lay there in a gruesome state, Gatheus slowly raised the Demon Sword.
“Let us finish this.”
“……”
“Do you have any last words?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Hm. You truly are unshaken. I thought you might beg for your life at least once.”
“How absurd.”
I snorted.
“I was born in a pit of evil and spent my entire life committing evil deeds. What right do I have to ask to be spared?”
“I believe you were only ever faithful to your orders, Archbishop Hauzel……”
A trace of sympathy entered Gatheus's eyes.
Not that he intended to show me mercy.
“Anyway, I understand, Archbishop Hauzel.”
“……”
“If you are ever reborn, live a different kind of life.”
A different life.
Not a bad idea.
‘Yeah. If I'm reborn…… I'll live a life different from this……’
Gatheus swung the Demon Sword at my neck.
His swordsmanship was flawless, without the slightest tremor.
Feeling the cold edge sink into my neck, I accepted death.
[Yes, I think you will do.]
[Let us begin again.]
[Together.]
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
***
The loud cries of babies snapped me awake.
“Waaah, waaah!”
“Waaah……!”
Was I in some hell where I would be endlessly tormented by the cries of babies coming from every direction?
I wanted to cover my ears, but I couldn't.
Because I couldn't move my arms and legs properly.
‘What's going on?’
After flailing for quite some time, I finally realized it.
Apparently, I was a newborn baby.
‘I'm a newborn baby?’
What in the world was going on?
After thinking it over for a while, I realized that I had been reborn.
‘Have I reincarnated? Into a new body?’
It was astonishing.
I'd never believed in an afterlife.
I'd always thought that when people died, that was simply the end.
Right before Gatheus's blade killed me, I had thought that if I were reborn, I wanted to live a different life.
But it had only been a passing thought at the very end.
And yet I had actually reincarnated.
‘Even all my memories are intact.’
I still remembered the entirety of my life as Archbishop Hauzel.
Moreover, despite being a newborn, I could think rationally like a full-grown adult.
‘Can something like this really happen?’
Whatever the case, I had to accept what had happened.
I had reincarnated while retaining the personality of my previous life. That much was certain.
‘But what exactly is going on around me?’
I had assumed I was lying in something like a cradle.
But when I shifted my gaze, I found myself inside a wooden chest that looked almost like a coffin.
On top of that, the cries of babies filled the area around me.
At least ten babies seemed to be lying nearby just like me.
‘Is this some kind of nursery?’
The surroundings were dark.
As a newborn with poor eyesight, it was difficult to make out what was what, but I seemed to be indoors.
The strange part was that despite so many babies crying, I did not hear anyone trying to soothe them.
Then a voice suddenly rang out.
“Humans are born with sin.”
It was the deep, weighty voice of an older man.
“It is not the sin of the individual, but the sin of mankind, and every human bears sin from the moment of birth. Therefore, all of human life can be called a journey to wash away this original sin.”
I listened closely to the solemn voice.
What he was saying…… was the doctrine of the Church of the Holy Spirit.
“Children like you are still too powerless to wash away your sins yourselves. That is why we wash away your sins with water imbued with the blessing of the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism.
Also called the Purification Rite, it was a ritual of the Church of the Holy Spirit meant to cleanse a believer's sins.
According to the scriptures of the Church of the Holy Spirit, all humans were born with sin.
Therefore, unless one's sins were cleansed through baptism, one had to continue living as a sinner.
Of course, it did not end with a single baptism.
Apparently, one had to keep cleansing one's sins through a life of faith.
‘Is this the home of a devout believer of the Church of the Holy Spirit? No, but if this many babies are gathered in one place……’
I did my best to figure out my surroundings.
But it was not easy.
There were limits to what I could do in the body of an infant that could not even hold up its own head.
“In the name of Ianus Ares, I shall cleanse you of your sins.”
At the name that suddenly rang out, I sucked in a breath.
‘Ianus Ares!’
I knew that name well.
It was a name I could never forget.
‘The head of the Holy Knight Order…… the pride of the Church of the Holy Spirit!’
The Holy Knight Order.
The ‘holiest blade’ that protected the Church of the Holy Spirit.
Ianus Ares was the commander of the Holy Knight Order.
He was also the head of House Ares, the family that controlled the order.
To Archbishop Hauzel, who had clashed with the Holy Knight Order many times on behalf of the Great Flame Cult, he was nothing less than an archenemy.
‘Then is this House Ares's traditional mass baptism?’
I had heard of it.
Once every year, House Ares gathered the newborns of the main family and its branch families together and conducted a mass baptism ceremony.
‘Then this coffin-like thing I'm lying in……’
I sensed someone nearby.
Then water began pouring into the wooden chest I was lying in.
‘Right. They pour water in until half the baby's body is submerged. That's how the Church of the Holy Spirit performs baptism.’
At last, everything made sense.
I had been reborn into House Ares and was now being baptized.
‘Did I really get reborn into a family of holy knights? Me, a former archbishop of the Great Flame Cult?’
I had thought that I wanted to live a different life.
But I never expected to start from circumstances this completely opposite.
‘But……’
Feeling the lukewarm water wet my body, I realized something was strange.
‘Isn't there too much water?’
At this rate, it was going to cover my face.
I expected it to stop just before that point, but it did not.
‘This isn't how I remember it…… Is the person pouring the water looking somewhere else?’
Before long, the sloshing water began spilling into my mouth.
Soon, my entire body would be completely submerged.
‘Are they trying to drown me?’
The Church of the Holy Spirit was also known for fierce internal power struggles.
I did not know whose child I had been born as, but there could be someone trying to take my life during the baptism ceremony.
‘This is a problem.’
Right now, I was a newborn baby.
No amount of flailing my arms and legs would get me out of this situation.
‘The other babies around me are crying too. Even if I cry, no one will pay attention to me.’
At this rate, I was going to drown immediately after reincarnating.
After finally getting a new start under different circumstances, I was going to drown without being able to do anything at all……
‘That can't happen.’
I could not die like this.
But what could I do?
What could I possibly do with the body of a newborn that could barely even flail its limbs?
‘All I need is Sword Aura.’
Sword Aura.
A technique that drew out mana—the body's vital energy—and shaped it into a blade.
Usually, it was infused into a physical sword to increase its power, but a master of my level could produce Sword Aura even from something as small as a fingernail.
But there was no way a body this young had enough mana.
Using Sword Aura with this body was impossible.
[Do you need Sword Aura?]
Immediately after that.
I felt a strange energy surge up from deep within my body.
That energy gathered at the tip of my finger.
“……!”
By then, my face was already completely submerged.
I had no time to figure out what was happening.
I unleashed Sword Aura in a daze.
***
CRACK—!
In the middle of the solemn baptism ceremony, a strange sound suddenly rang out.
“To think a baptismal wooden chest would suddenly split apart.”
Ianus Ares saw it.
With a flash of light, the wooden chest split apart, and the holy water inside burst upward.
People rushed toward the wooden chest in great alarm.
Nothing like this had ever happened during a baptism ceremony.
“Whose wooden chest is that?”
“It belongs to Young Master Sion, son of Sir Kurt, a Heaven-Rank Knight.”
“Sion?”
Sion Ares.
The son of Kurt Ares, the youngest of Knight Commander Ianus's children.
Which meant……
“So he was my youngest grandson.”
Ianus studied the grandson who had been receiving baptism inside the wooden chest.
Despite the sudden accident, the child appeared unharmed.
Moreover…… he lay there perfectly still with a calm expression, without letting out a single cry.
“An extraordinary little fellow.”
A smile formed on Ianus's lips.