## Chapter 571 – Good Friends to Meet

Now, all that’s left is to find the evidence.

Honestly, if nothing comes out of this, it’ll just be a load of bullshit. From the start, they refused to cooperate. That was a clear illegal act and a serious act of treason.

Subduing them is only natural. If they resist, just hit them again.

In a world where the threat of heretics is real, trying to protect the enemy is punishable in itself. It’s only because Captain Barkerel is a good person that he subdued them so gently.

“Paladin, please cooperate with the other Holy Knights in the investigation!”
“Understood!”

And so, we conducted a large-scale investigation of the village with the Holy Knights. It was very simple since we had been doing it all along. We even dragged all the people out of their houses, so we could go in without any interference.

“A regular house, huh.”
“Doesn’t seem like anything special.”

The house we entered was just extremely ordinary.

“Nothing suspicious. Why did they react like that?”
“Hmph, is there really nothing?”

Winia and Cloudie also showed doubt. Well, we’ve only searched one house. If we keep looking, we’ll find something.

It was while we were going from house to house.

ㅡWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suddenly, a roar like the death cry of a pterodactyl torn from a nightmare echoed from over there… That voice!

It’s a Holy Knight!

“Saint!”
“Yeah!”

ㅡFwoosh!

I immediately dashed towards the sound, and I saw the Holy Knights gathered in front of a barn, screaming in unison.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!”
“This can’t be happening!!!!”
“Kkyaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Verdeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!”

Just what shocking scene did they witness? They were almost kneeling, tearing at their hair. Among them was a priest, sobbing. What a party of lamentation…!

What the hell!

What on earth happened?!

ㅡGulp.

I swallowed involuntarily.

So there really was something in the village. I steeled myself so I wouldn’t be surprised by the shocking sight and slowly headed there.

“Holy Knights! What in the world is going on!”
“Pa, Paladin’s here! Come quickly and see this inhuman sight!!!”
“Inhuman sight?!”

A terrible thing that made even the murder-hardened Holy Knights scream inhumanely! I immediately checked the inside of the barn.

ㅡWhat was there.

“Keuh… I’m alive…! Hngh!”
“Hngh, hngh, hngh!”
“Please save me, please save me, please save me…!”

People in rags, with one foot cut off at the ankle.

“Please save me…”

They were only wearing tattered rags, tied up with ropes, writhing like butterfly larvae. Their sunken eyes and cheeks were devoid of life.

People imprisoned, extremely starved.

I could easily guess the situation.

“Th, this is bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Saint, this is!!!!”

ㅡHuman trafficking!!!

Elise and I shouted in unison!

“Too inhuman!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Cu, cutting off ankles…! Unbelievable!!!!! That such an unspeakable thing was happening!!!”

These bastards kidnapped people, cut off their ankles, and kept them tied up in the barn! To sell to the heretics!!!

The reason they refused the Holy Knights’ entry was revealed in that moment!

ㅡKkyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Seeing the extremely horrific sight, I couldn’t hold back my screams any longer. It was the same for Elise. And so, we added our screams to the screams of the Holy Knights.

Praying that this cruel truth would reach the god Verde, and the god Ijzermart.

“It’s okay now! You’ve been rescued!”
“Yes!”

The priests, who came to their senses first, went into the barn and released the imprisoned people. I also helped with the work.

“Hngh… Holy Knights… Hngh!”
“Save me, save me… Save me…”

They were completely insane.
They must have been subjected to terrible things.

“It’s okay now!!!!!”

Wait. Are all of these men? That means there must be a separate place where the women are being held.

“Holy Knights! There are only men here! There must be a separate place where the women are being held!”
“Ah, I understand! I’ll go find it!”

So this was the truth of the village.

They were engaging in human trafficking to serve the heretics. Just like that village I massacred last time.

We caught their tails.

“This is a really fucked up place. That something like this is happening…”

Winia shook her head as if she was fed up. I cut the ropes and slapped the cheeks of the person who seemed the most sane and asked.

“What in the world is going on! Why are you here!”
“Keuheuk…! Finally, finallyyyy…!
“That’s right! You’ve finally been saved! Explain why you’re here!”
“I, I was on a merchant escort mission… and…! Keuheuk!”
“Escort mission! What are you talking about!”

I comforted him and listened to the circumstantial evidence. He said that as an adventurer, he was hired to escort a merchant to the Misty Plains.

While crossing the Misty Plains, they entered this village and stayed for a day, but when he came to his senses, his right ankle was gone and he was in this barn with his companions.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Planned crime! That merchant must have been from this village!

“I’ll go see Captain Barkerel for a moment! Cloudie! Winia! Elise! Take care of this place!”

I ran straight to Captain Barkerel.

“Captain Barkerel! Evidence of human trafficking has been found! People with severed ankles were trapped in a barn!”
“Wh, what did you say?! Severed ankles?!?!?!?!?!?!”

ㅡPoof!

Captain Barkerel, hearing my shout, jumped about 3m high in surprise, landed, and grabbed his head with wide eyes.

“The screams were because of that!!! Village chief! The village chief and residents were all serving the heretics!!!”

Captain Barkerel drew his sword with fierce momentum and pointed it at the village chief.

“Oh, misunderstanding! Human trafficking and serving the heretics! I don’t know anything about that!”

The village chief, despite the clear evidence, denied it and appealed with a truly wronged expression.

This bastard!

“Then what about those people in the barn, sir!”

I immediately rebuked him and deeply stabbed his abdomen with my finger.

“Kk, kkeuaaaaaaaaack!!!”
“Where do you think you’re lying!”
“Kkiiiiiiiiiiiik!!”

As I stabbed his flesh with just my finger, the village chief’s body collapsed. Lying on the floor, he vomited and shouted.

“Keu, keuheuk…! What in the world are you doing! They were all thieves who came to rob this village! We were just punishing them ourselves and keeping them locked up to hand them over to the city later!! This is tyranny! How can you do this…!”
“This bastard is lying to the end!”

There’s no lie like this bullshit!

“Holy Knight Dodalkan! Watch the personnel! I’ll take the Paladin and the village chief to the scene! Paladin! Come with me!”

Barkerel, who shouted that, picked up the village chief and ran. I followed him.

“Captain Barkerel!!!! Look at this inhuman sight!!! Five men and four women were trapped with their ankles cut off!”

Had they finished cleaning up? A Holy Knight reported. The rest were taking the victims out of the barn and treating them.

“Hngh…!”
“Hngh, I’m alive…!”

There were also women rescued from other places there.

ㅡFierce anger began to boil.

These heretic bastards were all enemies of Fusion Confucianism!

I have to slaughter them all!

“You fucking village chief, come here! The evidence is so clear!”
“Please don’t do this! What I’m saying is the truth! It’s just that I didn’t want you to come into the village because I was afraid of being misunderstood because of this!”

Even so, the village chief screamed, lying.

“Captain Barkerel!”
“Hmm…”

Captain Barkerel looked at the terrible sight and said with a hardened face.

“Village chief. What you say may be true. We may have refused entry into the village because we were really afraid of being misunderstood, and they may be thieves. Exercising self-defense in such a village is extremely justified… It’s the right thing to do.”

ㅡAn extremely cruel face.

“But… we are currently here on a mission to annihilate the heretics who are engaging in human trafficking.”

At this moment, the nice Captain Barkerel was not here.

He looked at the ankle-less people lying on the floor and crying with a colder face than ever before and said in a cold voice.

“Doesn’t the situation fit too well?”
“I’m telling you it’s all a misunderstanding!!!”
“If you were going to claim it was a misunderstanding, shouldn’t you have said something when we came in?”
“Th, that…!”
“Didn’t you think we would force our way in? Of course, you may have been confused and your judgment may have been clouded.”

Captain Barkerel’s words were extremely reasonable.

Of course, it could be a misunderstanding. But the village chief’s words don’t add up. Decisively, the person trapped in the barn gave me a clear testimony with a causal relationship as soon as he was rescued.

After being trapped there for days, starving with his ankles cut off.

Perhaps they set up a disguised merchant group to roughly pick out the victims to coincide with the timing of the snow. Adventurers who have no work in winter will be happy to do it, and the church will stop the operation. They would kidnap them without anyone knowing.

When they come to the village, they treat them appropriately, feed them drug-laced rice, and then it’s over.

An extremely cruel method.

“I swear to the god Verde that you may be wronged, but this is a subject of interrogation. The primary responsibility for creating this situation lies with you, the village chief. If you had told us the reason from the beginning and let us in, we wouldn’t have gone this far.”
“…!”
“Paladin. Go and start interrogating the villagers. I’ll take care of the village chief myself.”
“…Understood. Let’s go.”

I immediately dragged my women and Elise and headed to the center of the village.

“Saint…! The material evidence is clear!! If we can just get a confession through interrogation…!”

Elise had already drawn her flail and was bursting with anger. Winia doesn’t care about the small stuff, so she just told me to kill them all, and Cloudie was smiling.

“Elise. You can use healing, right? To heal people’s wounds.”
“Yes. I can use it. But why are you asking that…?”
“You’ll be using it later. Just wait a moment.”

On the way, I went into a nearby house and found a box that looked useful and grabbed it.

ㅡThump, thump.

The fiercely rampaging anger was kicking my heart as if it would burst. I slowly took a deep breath and calmed my anger. I am Kim Kat, a man who never loses his composure in any situation.

I have to interrogate them.

“A box? Darkie? What are you going to do with that? Are you going to beat all the kids to death with the box?”
“Something like that.”

And so, I arrived at the center of the village.

“Keuheuk…”
“Wh, what should we do…!”
“Hngh, hngh!”

The 30-odd residents were trembling, their foreheads pressed to the ground, and Holy Knight Dodalkan was silently watching them with a sword in his hand.

“Paladin… Is that true? What in the world happened!”
“It’s true. Go and check it out yourself. Captain Barkerel ordered me to interrogate the villagers.”
“…I understand.”

I will start the interrogation now.

Holy Knight Dodalkan sheathed his sword and ran towards the barn. There are four of us here now, including me, Cloudie, Winia, and Elise.

With these four, it’s more than enough to control about 30 people.

ㅡShwing.

“Villagers.”

I said to the trembling heretic collaborators, drawing my sword.

“In the barn in your village, a bunch of people who were treated like shit came out. From now on, shut up and answer only the questions I ask. You’ll die.”

As I said that, the man at the front raised his head and shouted.

“Th, those are criminals! Let us go! It’s true!!”
“What did I just say?”
“About the barn…!”

This bastard.

“People only listen to what they want to hear.”

I slowly approached him and kicked his head, which was raised.

ㅡThwack!

“Kyak!”

He let out a death cry and slumped.

I controlled my strength, so his neck wasn’t broken or anything. With an appropriate shock treatment, he fainted.

“Hi, hiik! Stop the violence! We’re really wronged!”
“Please believe us, Holy Knight! We are innocent! The ones we kept in the barn were all thieves!”
“Please have mercy!”

Then the residents, who raised their heads like pigs, screamed as if they were wailing.

“I.”

These fucking bastards, this won’t do.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up and answer only the questions I ask?”
“…!”
“…!”

Fucking bastards, are you finally understanding?

I felt like I couldn’t hold back my anger any longer. When I saw them, the heretics had a knack for making angry people even angrier. Not only did they lie, but they didn’t even listen.

I don’t believe these bastards’ lies.

ㅡSilence.

It’s roughly quiet now.

“Saint. How are you planning to interrogate them?”
“Wait. I’ll tell you now. Elise, if there are any guys who resist, hit them in the back of the head. Don’t kill them.”
“Understood.”

And so, an atmosphere perfect for interrogation was created.

The residents feared me, Winia was aiming her staff, and Elise was watching the surroundings with hawk eyes. Cloudie was standing behind me with her arms crossed.

Then let’s begin.

“From now on, I will begin Schrödinger’s interrogation.”

ㅡCreak.

I set the box I had brought next to me and opened the lid. It was just the right size for an adult man to easily fit in. For some reason, Crown Prince Sado comes to mind.

“Schrödinger’s interrogation…? Saint. What in the world is that?”
“Darkie, what nonsense are you talking about again? Weren’t you going to beat them up with the box?”

ㅡSchrödinger’s cat.

As everyone knows, it’s a thought experiment about stuffing a cat into a box and spraying poison gas inside. The observer only knows that fact and cannot observe or interfere in any way.

In that state, you think about what state the cat inside the box is in.

Life and death.

Dead and alive.

Roughly known, it’s about the fact that the state of the cat is determined when the box is opened. That is, when it is finally observed by the observer. Some say that the cat enters a world where it is alive or dead.

It’s been a while since I left home, so I only remember it roughly.

“You’ll know when you see it.”

Anyway, I’m going to apply that to this interrogation.

“Cloudie. Put that guy over there who just got hit by me and fainted in this box.”
“Hehe, I wonder what Kat is going to do? Okay. I’ll put him in.”

Cloudie picked up the fainted man and put him in the box. The box was a bit long, so it felt like a vampire in a coffin.

“Vampire…!”

I crossed the fainted man’s hands in a cross shape to create an atmosphere and closed the lid.

“Now, let’s start Schrödinger’s interrogation.”

ㅡSiljang Sword Technique.

“Siljang Thrust Dejaaaaaaaaat!!!!!”

I suddenly shouted and held the sword in reverse and slammed the lid of the box violently.

ㅡKwaang!

“Kkwaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeng!!”

Immediately, a bizarre scream erupted and blood splattered. I aimed for the thigh. One hit won’t kill him. Cloudie, with her good sense, was sitting on the box, crossing her legs.

ㅡThump! Thump!

The box shook slightly, but he couldn’t get out.

“Heok…!”
“What in the world is this!”
“Too, too terrible…!”

The villagers who saw the scene gasped and inhaled. I explained to them in a calm tone.

“Now, inside here, there are heretics who have been stabbed with a sword and heretics who have not been stabbed with a sword at the same time.”

ㅡSchrödinger.

This is the core of this interrogation.

“Darkie, what nonsense are you talking about?”
“Saint?”

Winia looked at my face as if she was dumbfounded, and Elise called me as if she was questioning me.

“Th, then… what are you going to do…”
“Wh, what? Heretics stabbed with a sword and heretics not stabbed with a sword…”
“Please don’t do this, Holy Knight!!!”

Perhaps feeling confused, the residents said that.

“Holy Knight!! What does that mean!!!”

Well, it’s nothing special.

“No, I’m just saying.”

ㅡSwoosh.

I said, pulling out the sword stuck in the box.

“If you don’t want to go into this box, tell me everything you know, you fucking bastards.”

Schrödinger was just an excuse and a simple threat.

If you don’t want to go into the box, you have to tell me everything, you bastards.