In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church organised many Crusades. Most were to the Holy Land, where the Crusaders' swords were pitted against the Saracens' scimitars. However, one crusade much closer to home is not so well-known, in which Christians fought against fellow Christians. This was the Albigensian Crusade, also known as the Cathar Crusade, initiated by Pope Innocent III between 1209 and 1229 to eradicate the Cathars in the Languedoc region of southern France. Beziers was one of the first cities in the Languedoc to suffer at the hands of the Crusaders, where as many as twenty thousand were slaughtered and the city destroyed. Of the twenty thousand, only around two hundred and twenty were Cathars - the rest were Catholic, many of whom were slaughtered when taking refuge in the Churches of Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Jude, including the Catholic priests.

本作が描くのは、聖地ではなく同胞へ向けられた剣の悲劇、アルビジョア十字軍という歴史の深淵です。ウィル・ロバーツは、信仰が狂気へと変貌する瞬間を容赦ない筆致で描き出し、ベジエの虐殺という史実を通じて正義の名の下に行われる暴力の本質を問い直します。善悪の境界が崩壊する様を刻んだ、魂を揺さぶる叙事詩です。 読者は、信仰か命かという極限の選択を迫られる人々の葛藤に息を呑むでしょう。組織が個人の尊厳を蹂躙する不条理と、その暗闇で灯る人間性の残り火。ページをめくるたびに、現代にも通じる不寛容の恐ろしさが浮き彫りになり、歴史の教訓を血の通った痛みとして追体験することになります。