Chapter 476

Chapter Ninety-Nine: Warm Tea Lake, Pine Forest Moonlit Night, Part One

“Sir Commander, I wish to accuse Kevin Arlanster of his crimes.”

The lady turned her head towards the commander, her hoarse voice choked with sobs, her tear-streaked face cold and resolute. “On that day, those foreign invaders, accompanied by refugees, stormed the castle. Kevin Arlanster led part of the guards in surrender first and assisted the outsiders in looting, searching for food, killing, and dismembering people within the castle. He also disclosed and sealed off the secret escape routes inside the castle, resulting in no one being able to escape…”

“Mom—”

The young man cried out in despair.

But Lady Arlanster ignored him. “Kevin Arlanster was the ringleader who promoted these atrocities. He obeyed the words of the heretics obediently. Under their orders, he personally killed three maids who had served the Arlanster family for over ten years, and ate their flesh raw. Afterwards, he voluntarily drank the blood of the demon to join the heretics, gaining the power of the demonic fire.”

“To please the invaders, Kevin Arlanster organized the refugees to kill all the elderly and children in the castle, including his grandfather, Viscount Arlanster’s father. They threw the corpses of the elderly into the mountainside, leaving them exposed in the wilderness. As for the dead children, under the orders of the heretics, they became the meal for new recruits joining the heretics over the next few days.”

“Mother… You are sentencing me to death!”

The man’s wails echoed through the hall, but Lady Arlanster paid no attention, not even glancing at him. Her words remained firm and decisive.

“All the young women, even the underage girls, were imprisoned in the dungeon under the orders of the heretics by Kevin Arlanster and his rebellious guards. Kevin Arlanster informed them of my identity and my daughter’s, leading to our imprisonment in special cells where we were violated and tortured for days. During this time, Kevin Arlanster participated, repeatedly and actively violating his own sister, until the knights rescued us.”

“These are the crimes committed by Kevin Arlanster.”

Lady Arlanster finished her statement.

She took a deep breath, tears welling up in her eyes. Finally, she turned to look at her ashen-faced son.

“In addition, I hereby declare, as the matriarch of the Arlanster family, that Kevin Arlanster is to be expelled from the Arlanster family and deprived of any right to inherit Silent Castle and its future generations. After his death, his tombstone and epitaph will not be included among the Arlanster family, and his body shall not be buried in the Arlanster family cemetery.”

The nobleman named Kevin had already weakened knees, barely standing with the support of two knights. He looked at his mother’s cold and resolute face, tears streaming down his cheeks, his lips trembling as he made “ah, ah…” sounds, seemingly trying to defend himself, but unable to speak.

“Those who make mistakes but do not know it are unwise; those who know it but do not change are cowardly. Although the Arlanster family is not adept at warfare, it must have the courage to take responsibility. You have committed such sins, and you must bear the consequences… Kevin, this is the last lesson I can teach you.”

…………

When night fell completely, the executions began.

After Saphiros’ interrogation, with testimonies from the tortured women, all the surviving men in the castle, under the direction of the heretics, had killed their own kin, innocent elderly and children, cooked and eaten the flesh of the deceased, and imprisoned and humiliated the young women, subjecting them to rape and torture…

These survivors had violated the Church’s “crimes against humanity” and should have been hanged, but due to the large number, there weren’t enough gallows in the castle. Thus, they were executed by decapitation—a form of mercy.

At night, the fog obscured the moonlight, and the execution ground inside the castle was filled with severed heads and stifled cries.

The refugees who had committed crimes knelt in a row on the high platform. Behind them, the knights raised their swords. At the commander’s order, the swords swiftly slashed their necks, cleanly severing their heads. The blood sprayed into the mist, mingling with the rain and forming red streams that flowed to the grass some meters away.

The headless bodies collapsed softly, then were dragged away by carts. The commander ordered the next batch of prisoners to be brought up. The condemned were pushed up the platform by the knights, trembling as they walked. Some were too weak to walk and were carried up. They knelt before the executioners, their bodies spasming in fear. A man in his thirties suddenly screamed loudly, his voice tearing at the heart.

The commander’s hand waved, pointing at the prisoners on the platform and below. He sneered, “If you could eat human flesh, what else are you afraid of!?”

He raised his hand. “Prepare—”

“Execute!”

Another round of heads fell, blood spraying.

Outside the execution ground, the women who had been violated lay on the windowsills of the inner castle, some standing under the watchtowers, watching silently. Some laughed, others clapped crazily, while others held their fists to their chests, closing their eyes and praying silently to the gods, tears sliding down their cheeks.

Under the night sky, the bodies of the condemned were carted away, one after another, to the pit where the dead were found in the mountains. Their bodies and heads were thrown together, buried with those they had killed.

I saw the nobleman called Kevin being brought to the execution platform and beheaded under Saphiros’ command. I felt a suffocating feeling, as if something was blocking my chest, unable to express my feelings. For the deaths of those people before me, I felt neither sorrow nor joy—I just felt helpless.

As with their own excuses, everyone here, including those desperate refugees and sinners who had lost all moral boundaries, were all victims.

Clown.

Clown.

Clown.

I silently repeated this name three times in my heart before turning away from the execution ground.

“Hey Shorty!”

Upon reaching the gate of the inner castle, I heard Isaac calling me from behind, so I turned around.

The bald giant, clad in golden armor, led a group of knights riding their beasts through the rain curtain. The iron hooves clattered as they stopped in front of me.

“How is it?”

The bald one asked. I pointed toward the execution ground. “They’re beheading.”

“…Everyone?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Damn…”

The bald man muttered under his breath.

I looked up at him and asked, “What about you? Did you find the heretic leader?”

Isaac shook his head gently and spat on the ground.

“That bastard ran too fast. I followed the footprints leading out of the secret passage, and we killed quite a few heretics along the way, but we didn’t find that Wessermill. He was throwing fireballs at us from the city walls, damn it… Doing such inhumane things, he must be one of Clown’s people.”

If he’s one of Clown’s people…

“Then we’ll meet sooner or later.”

And we will kill them.

“At that time, I’ll twist his neck off and cut off both his and Clown’s heads, feed their heads to dogs, otherwise, I won’t be able to vent my anger…” Isaac scratched his bald head, “Anyway, our knights and the Faithful have almost all entered the city. The last batch is just outside, and His Holiness is there too. I need to go report the situation first. How about you, Shorty? Do you want to come with me?”

“No.”

I shook my head and pointed towards the castle gates. “I’ll go see if I can help the nuns over there.”

“Oh, then thank you for your hard work.”

After a brief conversation with the bald man, I entered the inner castle.

Among the women rescued from the dungeon, only a few with good luck and minor injuries could watch the execution. The rest, most of whom struggled even to walk, were arranged by the nuns into rooms on the first and second floors of the castle, serving as temporary wards for further treatment.

Nuns set up several tents in the hall on the first floor, where medical supplies and tools were piled up. Many nuns were managing and sorting these items. I knew nothing about medicine and couldn’t heal anyone, so I went over to ask if there was any simple task like running errands. The nuns were somewhat reserved when they saw me, as they dared not ask a knight of the Pope to do such small tasks. However, they had no choice but to tell me to deliver some anti-inflammatory herbs.

I carried a bowl of dark medicinal juice and followed the nuns’ directions. From afar, I could hear the women’s painful moans, which became clearer as I approached the door. Pushing open the slightly ajar door, I saw a woman lying on a straw mat, struggling desperately to arch her body.

Her mouth was stuffed with cloth, her eyes full of bloodshot veins. Her dress had been lifted, and I saw her bloodied lower body, with several infected and pus-filled wounds caused by sharp objects.

The woman—or rather, girl—struggled incessantly in extreme pain. The nuns could barely hold her down. They called two knights to assist, one holding her legs and the other her hands, to allow two nuns to disinfect her wounds with alcohol. They stared in surprise when I entered, and one of them was a familiar face—the knight who had shown me the way earlier.

But there was no time for etiquette. I hurried forward, and the nuns took the herbs from me, starting to apply them to the girl’s wounds. The pain continued, and the girl writhed wildly, nearly knocking over the bowl several times. The cloth in her mouth seemed to have loosened a bit.

“Don’t… save…”

“Let… me die…”

Mumbling, I heard the girl say these words.

Tears flowed continuously from her eyes.

After a long while, once the nuns finished applying the medicine, the girl fell unconscious in her pain, no longer struggling. A monk came over to perform another healing miracle. Only then did I leave the room with the knights and head toward the hall.

“The girl, I heard she’s also from the Alastair family. Don’t know her name, probably a distant relative. She’s only nineteen years old,” the knight who had been showing me the way said after a long silence, looking up slightly, as if sighing for something, “This land within a three-hundred-kilometer radius has been managed by the Alastair family for centuries.”

I turned to look at him.

The knight smiled stiffly, “I heard that a long time ago, this place was almost uninhabited. It was the Alastair family who spent hundreds of years transforming it into a prosperous and beautiful land. The pine forest we passed through on our way here was planted by them with great effort and time.”

“The Alastairs have always loved peace and avoided conflict. I heard that the girls here are all skilled and talented, singing and dancing beautifully. In the past, many famous gardeners, dancers, and landscape masters came from the Alastair family, from the Silent Castle. They made this previously ignored place gradually become well-known. Everyone yearned for the pine forest and lakes mentioned in the songs, the warm tea and moonlit nights… I was no exception.”

“I once had a dream, imagining one day visiting the Silent Castle as a knight, standing on the high walls as described in the song, gazing at the beauty and prosperity of this land, falling in love with the pretty and shy girls of the Alastair family…”

“Such a beautiful dream seems hard to achieve now.”

The knight said, turning to look at me, a hint of apology on his face, “Sorry, Lady Silvija, I’m not feeling well and couldn’t help but say more.”

“It’s okay.”

I shook my head gently.

I wasn’t sure when, but the crying outside had already stopped.