Chapter 421

The paladins, driven mad by rage towards heresy, roared like drunken elephants and smashed everything in their path.

A banquet of violence surged like a tidal wave.

The heretics hiding in the ruins were captured or dismantled without exception.

Among them were the executives managing the funds and those in charge of drug production.

Though not combat specialists, they were still masters in their own right… but in the end, it didn’t matter.

“Annihilate the heretics! Slaughter them like dogs and offer them to the spirits of the victims!”

“Face the wrath of Menes!”

With high-ranking paladins and priests joining the assault, the enemies were turned into half-pulverized meat before they could even react.

They were kept alive for interrogation… but honestly, I’m not sure if you could call that “alive.”

Worse than Heinz, even.

—

After the Dream Paradise Society was purged, Gwinnel personally interrogated the financial executive and rooted out all the priests who had collaborated with them.

There were more than expected.

The summoned priests spat and protested their innocence, but whether they were truly wronged would be revealed by the paladins’ investigation.

If they were innocent, they’d live. If they were bribed, they’d die.

And… after thoroughly searching the underground ruins, we finally uncovered the truth about the new drug they had created.

“Good heavens…! How could they do such a thing…!!”

“Ooooh… Menes, hear us…!”

The paladins and priests, witnessing the LSD production facility, collapsed like orphaned children, crying out the name of God.

…It was a sight worthy of such a reaction.

“Uuuuuh… uuuuuuh…”

“Hieeeeeeek…”

It was like the lab of a mad scientist who had lost his mind five times over.

The dim, massive basement was filled with humming vibrations and groans. Blue magical lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating five giant glass tanks and dozens of beds.

On the beds were people who seemed to have lost their minds, stripped naked and bound, with strange tentacles stuck into their heads like straws.

The tentacles pulsed like pumps, sucking something out. Each time they twitched, the bound individuals convulsed, their eyes rolling back as they let out weak moans.

It was a horrific and blasphemous sight.

The tentacles embedded in their heads occasionally merged and thickened, leading toward the large tanks.

And what was inside those tanks…?

“Juuurek? Juurrrrrrek…!”

“Juuwaaak! Juwak Juwak!”

It was a monster that looked like it belonged in a child’s nightmare.

Its skin was a translucent pink, and its body resembled the limbs of a starved person, pulled apart and washed in acid five times.

Where fingers and toes should have been, there were tentacles that looked like male genitalia, opening and closing to reveal tongue-like appendages.

Its face was equally horrifying.

The monster had a shiny bald head, like it was hinting at Leopold’s future, with pink steam puffing out of a nostril-like hole on its crown.

Its pale eyes were located where ears should be, and its face was so transparent that the wrinkled brain and optic nerves were clearly visible.

Below its jaw, instead of a mouth, were dozens of small tentacles and about ten thick, long ones that seemed to suck out the brains or brain fluids of the bound individuals.

Literally, a brain-sucking monster.

The paladins, half-crazed by the inhuman sight, tore apart the drug-managing members like minced meat during interrogation, and we learned a shocking truth.

The truth is always shocking, but this was on another level.

A secret known only to the drug-managing members within the Dream Paradise Society.

They had been kidnapping innocent people and feeding them to monsters to extract drugs…!

And I mean that literally!

Yes, the drug they spread in the slums, LSD, was…

Shockingly, a refined mixture of the pink steam and excrement emitted by the monsters!

The priests fainted from the shocking truth, and the enraged paladins ground the captured drug managers into a bloody pulp.

The monsters were also sliced apart by the paladins’ blades, turning into something resembling meat porridge.

—

And so, the Dream Paradise Society, which had been encroaching on Holon’s slums and dreaming of revival, was crushed in a single day with pitiful screams.

Though the cult leader and a few core executives remained, having lost all their facilities and followers, they were effectively finished.

The captured heretics were forced to spill all their information and were scheduled for public execution in the square. The bribed priests would also be burned at the stake.

“Magnificent! It’s all thanks to you!”

Gwinnel, who had achieved a great feat, showered us with praise and hospitality.

He even wrote a letter to the Cardinal, filled with praise for me and Lacey.

We received a hefty reward, secured a meeting with the Cardinal, and our reputations soared.

For a night’s work, things turned out very well.

We enjoyed a lavish meal provided by Gwinnel and left Holon with a grand send-off from the Menes Church Order.

—

Oh, and Hersh, the sole survivor of the Five Swords Society, became a slave.

With so many prisoners, she was deemed useless and was originally going to be tied up in the square for public humiliation… but Gwinnel canceled that after seeing her face.

Hersh’s face was a mess of tears and foam, but it was surprisingly delicate and youthful.

She looked older than Rana but younger than Milia.

She had roughly cut silver-white hair and purple eyes, with dark brown skin that hinted at African heritage.

That wasn’t the problem.

Whether she was of mixed race or a young girl, having been part of a heretical organization, torture and execution were the natural course.

The problem was the long, pointed ears peeking through her hair.

Not as long as an elf’s, but clearly not human.

It was a feature unique to half-elves, rarer than even full elves.

The fact that the captured criminal was a half-elf girl was surprising enough, but what happened next was even more shocking.

Gwinnel stamped a slave mark on Hersh’s lower abdomen and gifted her to me.

A priceless item, they said… but honestly, I was a bit flustered.

I knew slavery existed in this world, but I didn’t want to be reminded of it like this.

Should I just kill her?

—

“Wouldn’t burning her at the stake be appropriate?”

Lacey glared at Hersh, ready to light the pyre, while Bels polished his sword like an executioner waiting for orders.

Liliez just smiled with a strange expression, glancing at her now and then.

“Wouldn’t it be a waste to burn her? A half-elf slave is something even the imperial family would struggle to obtain. The Archbishop must think very highly of you.”

“A slave… It’s a light punishment compared to her crimes, but it depends on how she’s handled. Half-elves live three times as long as humans, so a century of servitude should suffice.”

Leonor and Nigel thought killing her was unnecessary.

No reason to keep her alive, but it’d be a waste to just kill her.

Damien seemed indifferent, while Milia looked like she was wondering why we didn’t just use kobolds as slaves.

“P-please, spare me…! I’ll do anything, so please, just let me live…!”

Hersh, now transferred to me, knelt trembling, tears and snot streaming down her face.

Having witnessed Heinz’s fate, she seemed completely broken.

…I decided not to ask what she meant by “I’ll do anything.”