Chapter 419

After a thorough interrogation, Heinz, who had transformed into a half-human, half-insect form, answered all the questions as diligently as an ant.

The organization structure and members of the Dream Paradise Society, their headquarters, the identities and whereabouts of their executives—everything.

“K-Kist-nim left Holon with the leader… I don’t know where the other two went, but… probably somewhere below…”

The information was similar to what Dermont had provided, but it was several times more detailed.

The Dream Paradise Society was originally a faction-like organization of the Menes Church Order, but due to their independent doctrine, they were branded as heretics and disbanded.

Their core belief was that dreams and hallucinations were essentially the same, and by inhaling hallucinogenic drugs, one could welcome Menes.

…Those addicted to LSD seemed to be seeing different gods, mostly goddesses.

Anyway, their ultimate goal was to fill the world with drug addicts, as their doctrine claimed that this would create a foundation for Menes to descend by overlapping the dream world with reality.

They believed that the dream god, once descended, would transform the world into a paradise.

…Clearly, they were heretics who deserved to be killed.

In fact, the Menes Church Order had personally stepped in, condemning them for blasphemy and beating them to death.

They claimed it was brutal oppression by a massive church order, but considering the number of people they turned into addicts, their complaints were utterly shameless.

—

The headquarters of the Dream Paradise Society was located in a truly astonishing place.

[An underground facility? I never expected that. Even the Archbishop didn’t seem to know about it.]

‘They must have dug it secretly… or maybe they repurposed an undiscovered dungeon. Only they knew about it.’

A massive underground facility, much larger than the entire slum area.

This was the true headquarters of the Dream Paradise Society and the reason why the Paladins’ searches kept coming up empty.

The production facilities for the new drug, LSD, were also underground.

…Dermont didn’t seem to know about the underground facility.

He was probably more of a hired hand than a proper member.

Anyway, whenever the Paladins came, the true members of the Dream Paradise Society would hide in the underground facility and wait quietly until they left.

It wasn’t hard to find out the search schedules.

Thanks to bribing a few priests with the money from selling drugs, the Church Order’s information was leaking like a sieve.

Heinz, now a friendly informant, gave me the names of some of them.

He didn’t know exactly how many priests were bribed, but he recognized three or four faces.

If Gwinnel found out, he’d be so excited he’d probably open a butcher shop.

—

[So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to go down and search the underground?]

‘Do you think I have the time to search that place alone? Why bother when there’s a much more efficient way?’

With all the chaos, the Dream Paradise Society members must have fled deep into the underground facility.

Hunting down each rat one by one would be too much trouble, and Gwinnel only asked me to track them down, not wipe them out completely.

Of course, if the leader or Kist were still here, I would’ve caught them… but unfortunately, they left for another city, so I’ll wrap it up here.

I’ll report the information I gathered from interrogating them to Gwinnel, and giving him Hersh as a gift should satisfy him.

As for Heinz…

“Ghk, ghhk…! Grrgh…!”

He didn’t seem to have more than a minute left to live.

Honestly, it was a miracle he was still alive in that state.

His heart and brain were intact, but the rest of his body was torn, twisted, shattered, and sticking out like some surrealist art piece.

Well, I’ve heard everything I needed to hear.

I’ll leave his body here and just take what I need.

– Slice!

I cut off his head and then severed the heads of his subordinates.

As trophies… no, what am I saying?

Taking human heads as trophies? What kind of crazy idea is that? I must be tired to think such nonsense.

I cut off their heads solely to use as evidence.

Heinz the Beheader, rest in Kellogg.

Honestly, I’ve never heard of these nicknames, but judging by how they bragged about them, they must’ve been somewhat famous.

—

‘Looking at them now, it’s a bit…’

I gathered them, but even I had to frown at the gruesome sight.

Heinz, whose eyes were burned out, looked relatively intact.

The other heads looked like they belonged to a deranged serial killer who considered torturing and butchering people a form of self-gratification.

Nabis, with his skull split vertically, spilling its contents.

Kellogg, with his face crushed and brick fragments embedded, looking more like a rock monster than a human.

Radeli, with a hole the size of a child’s fist in her forehead, her eyes looking in different directions, crying bloody tears.

[Good heavens, what kind of savage beast could butcher people like this…! You say it’s the work of a human? Good grief, the morals of civilized society have hit rock bottom!]

Hersela lamented in an exaggerated tone.

Her sarcasm is getting better. Did she learn from Freide?

‘You’re right. Such barbaric acts must be the work of those Ka`har devils!’

I casually retorted and stripped Heinz’s cloak to wrap the heads properly.

I also stuffed Hersh, who was still unconscious, into the cloak.

It might be a bit uncomfortable squeezing a person in there, but at least she’ll be happy to be with her comrades, right?

After completing the large sack, I searched the scattered bodies for other evidence.

I stripped them completely, thinking they might have some kind of mark, but all I found were a few gold coins and a book that seemed to be their scripture.

I placed the bodies on the roof as a warning.

Radeli’s body might quietly disappear, but that’s not my concern.

Considering the atrocities they committed under the guise of preaching, being used by the slum dwellers after death could be seen as a form of divine punishment.

—

After that, I left the bodies behind and started making my way out of the slum with Hersh.

Carrying the sack with four heads over my shoulder, jumping across rooftops, I felt like some kind of hellish Santa Claus.

Ah, Santa Claus is a judge who comes from hell to punish sinners, wearing a blood-stained robe and a long beard covering a wolf-like snout.

He rides a red beast down from the sky at the end of the year, raids sinners’ homes, and especially harvests the heads of sinful children, filling his sack before returning to hell.

After executing thousands of sinners in one night, he stuffs the headless bodies into large socks and hangs them on trees for the sinners’ parents to find before returning to hell before dawn.

…Come to think of it, maybe his name was Satan Claus.

Anyway, the adults where I lived used to scare misbehaving children by saying Satan Claus would take them away.

Looking back, it’s a nostalgic memory.

When I was a kid, I actually believed it.

I used to hide under my bed, afraid Satan Claus would come for me.

And now, here I am, doing something not much different from Satan Claus. It’s kind of funny.

I laughed, reminiscing about my childhood nights spent trembling under the bed.

—

Thanks to the memories I recalled, I left the slum with a relaxed and warm heart, jumping across rooftops.

It took about thirty minutes to completely leave the slum.

I got delayed a bit because I had to cut down some thugs I ran into.

And finally, what awaited me as I left the slum was—

“Don’t move, you murderer! You’re completely surrounded! Drop your weapons and surrender!”

A siege of dozens of Paladins and hundreds of soldiers.

…What’s this?