Chapter 475

Chapter Ninety-Eight: Demon and Man

As night fell, the rain seemed to grow heavier.

In the square outside the castle, a group of people knelt with their heads bowed, drenched by the rain and huddled together in the cold wind. Their dirty, matted hair clung to their faces, making them look like stray dogs trembling from the cold, quite pitiable.

However, the surrounding knights watched them with suspicion and indifference, as if they were looking at condemned prisoners, showing no sympathy.

“Next.”

The calm voice of the knight commander came from the direction of the inner castle gate. Soon after, a knight stepped forward, pointed his lance at a person in the front row, and shouted loudly, “Stand up!”

The frail figure rose unsteadily, his bony hands raised high above his head, his face half-hidden in fear and panic, “M-Master… I-I was forced… If I didn’t do it, they would kill me… They would kill me, I—”

“Shut up.”

The knight swung his lance, striking the man’s calf, sending him rolling in the rain. The man’s quivering words abruptly stopped.

“Get up, go over there!”

Two knights grabbed his arms and pulled him up from the ground. The man sobbed, muttering, “I’m just a farmer, just a farmer without land…” But the knights ignored him, dragging him forcefully into the inner castle hall.

In the flickering light of the fire, Saphiros stood expressionless at the front, beside a young bishop with the same expression.

Behind them, standing or sitting, were a group of disheveled women—these women had been rescued from the dungeon. The knights had found clothes for them inside the castle and gathered them in the hall. Some were mad, some were mumbling, and others were receiving treatment from nuns—their injuries mostly in private areas, but there was no time to tend to these now. Saving their lives was the priority. The knights on either side did not look at them, and these women… seemed to have given up.

Two knights brought someone into the hall, stopping about seven or eight meters away from the women. They stood before Saphiros and the young bishop. One of the knights pushed back the prisoner’s hair, revealing a pale, terrified face.

Saphiros turned and asked the women behind him calmly, “Who knows him?”

Some of the women glanced over.

“M-Master…”

The man’s lips trembled as he said, “I’m just a farmer, I was forced…”

“Scum, beast! Damn devil!” A woman saw him and roared, picking up a pair of scissors from a nearby tray and standing up to approach him, “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you! Filthy worm—”

The nun hurriedly stepped forward to stop her, but the woman threw the scissors.

“I want you dead! Go die, go die—”

Whoosh—

The scissors flew past Saphiros’ face and were knocked away by his sword with a clang. The woman cried out, while the prisoner was so shocked that his legs trembled and he couldn’t speak. The knight commander frowned and looked at him for a moment before waving his hand slightly.

“Take him away.”

“Yes.”

The two knights turned and took the man away, making him kneel among the crowd in the square, guarded by dozens of knights riding beasts.

“Next.”

Soon, another person was brought into the hall.

“Knight Commander, I want to expose them! I—I want to expose the brutality of those outside!”

The timid figure knelt before Saphiros, not daring to lift his head, saying meekly, “They… they toyed with and tortured these poor women, whipping them, burning them with red-hot irons, listening to their screams… even some… cut off… parts of their… they tortured the women to death, chopped up their bodies, and cooked the meat… I didn’t eat any, Master! Please forgive my sins, spare my life—”

“Is that so?” Saphiros looked down at the lowly figure curled up on the ground, disdain and mockery evident on his face, “You didn’t eat, how did you survive? By sheer willpower… Pull him up!”

The knights dragged the man up, pushing back his hair to reveal a tear-streaked ugly face.

Saphiros turned and asked behind him, “Who knows him?”

After a moment, a woman stood up shakily.

She appeared to be severely injured, with most of her body and face wrapped in bandages, still oozing yellow fluid. Her eye, visible through the bandage, stared ahead with intense hatred.

“My face… chest… cough, he used a knife… cut off pieces of flesh and ate them…”

The woman’s voice was hoarse and choked, tears welling up in her bloodshot eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.

“She’s lying, Master! I could never do such a thing…” the man panicked and shouted, “Why aren’t you dead yet! You must be a demon’s incarnation! The devil wants to defame me! Knight Commander, I didn’t—”

Saphiros kicked him several meters away, causing him to collapse and lose consciousness.

“Take him away, next.”

Outside the castle square, the captives kneeling in the heavy rain began to feel uneasy and frightened, realizing they faced imminent death. However, surrounded by countless armored knights with weapons, and with the faithful followers of the Faith Order watching from the distant ramparts, the captives dared neither resist nor flee. They only shouted to the knights, begging for mercy, trying to win their sympathy.

“Knight Sir, please forgive me!”

“I am a citizen of Silgaya and a believer in the great deity—”

The captives at the front, soon to be called by the knight commander, cried out most desperately. The middle-aged man who had earlier claimed to be a servant wept in the rain.

:”I, the mother of my child, was taken by them… among those tortured women… and my poor little Abby, his head was chopped off… Those demons said they didn’t need children… I lost everything in this disaster, I am a victim of violence too!”

“You lie—”

Immediately, a captive raised their voice, revealing the lie: “You killed your son, I saw it with my own eyes! You were tempted by the demons to kill your mother and your four-year-old brother! You deserve to die—”

The middle-aged man’s face changed instantly. He hurriedly bowed towards the knights ahead, knocking his head against the ground repeatedly as he stammered, “I was forced… I was forced… Spare me from death… I would do anything…”

“You are no different from those demons—”

The person who shouted laughed coldly, long wet hair covering half of his face, looking like a madman: “I also killed people… and did that… We are all no different from demons… hahaha…”

He appeared already deranged.

“Quiet!”

“Shut up, all of you!”

“A bunch of scoundrels, vile cowards! You have no moral boundaries and only raise your blades against the weak!”

“Not fit to be human!”

The surrounding knights shouted angrily, then heard the calm voice of the knight captain: “Next.”

Soon after, the young survivor of the Alanser family was brought to the inner castle, standing before Safirols.

“Kevin Alanser.”

Safirols glanced at him and then looked at the women behind him: “You should all know this person. Don’t be afraid, we will deal with this factually… So, who can tell me about his crimes?”

“I have no crimes!”

The nobleman named Kevin loudly defended himself: “I said, I was just pretending to follow the demons! Preparing to kill their leader when the chance came! I haven’t found an opportunity yet, and I haven’t done anything to these women!”

“Is that so?”

Safirols looked at him with a half-smile, and the nobleman glared back.

“Really, nothing at all?”

“No!”

“Lying adds to your crime.”

“There is nothing, there really isn’t!”

Safirols looked back at the women again: “None of you can say anything about his crimes?”

The women looked at each other, some laughing crazily, others shaking their heads lightly, and some moaning weakly, but none stood up to accuse the nobleman.

Safirols was silent for a moment, his expression unchanged as he turned around.

“Since that is the case—”

“I will say it!”

Suddenly, a soft but resolute shout, mixed with anger, interrupted the knight captain’s next words.

Everyone looked up, following the sound.

I escorted the beautiful lady in a formal dress down the stairs from the hall, bypassing the injured women, walking through many gazes, and standing in front of Safirols.

“My Lady Sylviega.”

The knight captain saluted me, then looked at the woman with a puzzled look: “This beautiful lady is…”

He hadn’t participated in the dungeon rescue, always guarding and interrogating the captives here, so he didn’t know who she was.

“Knight Captain, I am Lady Ocella Thia Alanser, Viscountess of Alanser. The person being questioned in front of you, I know him and his crimes.”

Lady Alanser walked towards the nobleman as she spoke.

The nobleman’s eyes flickered, instinctively calling out: “Mom…”

Smack!

Lady Alanser slapped him hard, so quick that even the knights on both sides didn’t react in time.

“I’m not your mom.”

Smack!

Another slap.

The knights reacted, lifting their hands, not restraining him, but tightening their grip instead.

“I don’t have a son like you.”

Smack!

A third slap landed.

The nobleman’s face swelled visibly.

“You’re just a beast.”

“Mom, stop!”

The man struggled fiercely, shouting loudly at Lady Alanser, and received a fourth slap immediately.

Smack!

This slap almost twisted his mouth.

“What did you do to your sister?”

“What else could I do! What could I do! They made me do it, what could I do! I had no choice—”

“You can go to hell…”

Lady Alanser laughed.

“Like your father, like your uncle, bravely meet your end…”

That smile instantly turned into a desperate wail.

“You can go to hell—”

Smack smack smack smack!

Her pent-up emotions finally burst, and she ignored everything, slapping him repeatedly, her cries and shouts piercing through the entire castle: “Why don’t you go to hell, why don’t you—”

The nobleman named Kevin kept his head down, desperately dodging, his voice filled with sobs: “I dare not die, Mom! I dare not die… I’m scared…”

“You dare not die, so you rape your own sister!?”

The knights finally moved, holding the nobleman back, Lady Alanser covered in tears, kicking her son twice more and spitting at his face.

“I had no choice, I had no choice… If I didn’t do it, they would kill me… they would kill me…”

“The first time was under duress, but the second, third time… and countless times after, were all under duress!?”

“My sister was so beautiful… I loved her, why should she be violated by those filthy lowlifes from the Eastern Continent, why! Since she can’t marry anyway, why not me—”

In the midst of their emotional outburst, the man blurted out his innermost thoughts.

Lady Alanser’s red-rimmed eyes widened, filled with an indescribable coldness and sorrow.

“Beast…”

“Filthy creature!”