## Chapter 577 – Good Friends When You Meet

The interrogation proceeded remarkably smoothly.

Elise smashed the heretic’s feet and shins with her mace, then cast a heal to stop the bleeding. After staunching the blood, she repeated the same procedure.

It was an incredibly simple and intuitive form of torture.

Since legs don’t have any vital organs, you could inflict pain almost indefinitely as long as you were careful about excessive bleeding. People don’t die from having their foot or shin bones broken.

Elise didn’t ask anything and just wrecked one of the heretics in that manner.

He tried to say something, but it was in a language we didn’t understand. Since he couldn’t speak our language, he was worthless, so we showed him an example by executing him.

After about two hours of mace torture, the heretic in question was intentionally left to bleed to death.

“Hoo. I told you there wouldn’t be any deaths, but mistakes do happen. As you heretics have seen, this is how I plan to conduct the interrogation.”

Elise wiped the blood clinging to her mace with an indifferent look.

“Of course, I won’t be making any more mistakes from now on.”

I brought paper, a pen, a desk, and a chair, and sat down to record the interrogation. Elise was extremely angry right now.

“I won’t kill you until I hear what I want to hear.”

The heretic bastards were corrupting the villagers and engaging in vile human trafficking. It was an evil that had to be crushed no matter what.

“Kuh, krrrk…!”

Originally, it was okay to kill heretics.

“Are you thinking of opening your mouth?”
“So you’re the dirty hunting dogs of Ijzermarkt!! We will never succumb to torture! For our god, for the cause! We will never be defeated!!!”
“Hmm.”

Even after watching one of their comrades get completely destroyed in real-time, the heretic didn’t lose his fighting spirit. What kind of faith makes people such crazy fanatics?

It was enough to make me wonder.

There are quite a few saints who throw away their lives for justice, even if they aren’t numerous. All humans want to be righteous, and they have a conscience.

But I couldn’t understand the bastards who threw away their lives for evil deeds.

ㅡSwish, swish.

There’s no need to write down personal opinions… but I need to record what the heretic said. These are all clues.

Claudie and Winia watched Elise’s torture and left, seemingly bored. They must be thinking of washing up and resting now. I want to finish this quickly and go in to rest too.

“Hey, hey. Stop talking nonsense and spill it already, you moron. You’re going to say everything in less than 10 minutes after getting hit with the mace anyway, so why are you talking so much?”
“Hehehe!! Paladins of Verde, you said? You will never know! What will happen in the future!”
“Are you trying to make me curious? Huh? Tell me something, really. I’m so curious. Sorry for stabbing your eye earlier.”
“Foolish, ignorant ones!”

This bastard is like an elementary schooler, not telling me something only he knows. Of course, the reason he’s running his mouth is because he hasn’t been hit enough yet.

Elise, having wiped all the blood off her mace, stood in front of the heretic who was putting on airs.

“Then I will now begin the full-scale interrogation. If you feel like you want to say something, feel free to speak at any time.”
“You will never know anything!!”

The heretic shouted loudly, and Elise smashed his shin bone.

Exactly 30 minutes later, we were able to extract meaningful information.

“Kuhk…! Krrah! I don’t know the location of the business…! I’m just receiving funding…!”
“Hehehe, this bastard is finally going to say everything, making everyone tired.”
“Keuk…! Krrah!”

The heretic, succumbing to Elise’s continuous shin-breaking, began to vomit out everything he knew while shedding tears.

In fact, they were said to have a hidden card.

It was a kind of self-destruction technique, where they could curse their opponent by activating a wicked sorcery and burning their own lives.

However, it was completely blocked by Holy Silence.

The reason the heretic had endured until now was purely because he hoped that the effect of Holy Silence would wear off over time, but it was so effective that it didn’t wear off, and Elise’s torture accelerated, so he opened his mouth.

“Good. Then where’s your house? Where’s the location where you moved the trafficked people?”
“If you go north from the village… you’ll find it… I know it, I…”
“Hehehe, okay.”

It seems we’ll have to get a direct guide for the location.
Actually, as long as I know that, I don’t care about anything else.

“Now, tell me about your god. What god do you worship, and why did you commit human trafficking? Is it to offer sacrifices?”
“…”

But strangely, when the question about their god came up, he clamped his mouth shut. It was something that couldn’t be found out no matter how much torture was poured on him.

But he answered other questions while wailing.

“…Strange.”

It’s strange, as Elise said.

“It’s definitely strange.”

The more I interrogated him, the more I realized that he seemed to be someone who wasn’t quite right in the head. No, it’s obvious that heretics aren’t in their right minds, but this was a bit strange.

“Kuhk…! Heuk… I, I’ve told you everything…! I’ll guide you to the location, so please stop…. Daoc, Tulsordec… please stop…”

He denounced everything in this attitude, but he never opened his mouth about anything related to faith.

“What god do you worship?”
“…”
“Is it a god so pathetic that you can’t even say it?”

It was as if he didn’t understand the question, or didn’t hear it? I don’t know. He didn’t seem to recognize the question itself, or he seemed to be deliberately avoiding it.

“…Mind manipulation.”

Elise, who had been observing him, said that.

“It’s highly likely that he’s been mind-manipulated.”
“Mind manipulation? What’s that?”

What are you manipulating?

“It’s a wicked sorcery that twists the mind to prevent it from uttering specific concepts or words. A forgotten sorcery… you could say. Those who knew how to use such sorcery were also targets of the Order’s extermination. I heard that the last time it was used was quite a long time ago.”

There’s such a thing?

“This seems similar to that. Of course, there’s no way to know for sure, but….”

In other words, it’s a technique that manipulates a person’s mind, and it seems that it has been eradicated. It seems that it has popped up here.

“Isn’t he just acting?”
“That’s possible. I think we’ll have to interrogate him a little more.”

In the end, we invested almost a day torturing the heretics.

We roughly grasped the location of their base. But that’s all. He didn’t know much, and he didn’t say anything about their purpose or faith.

There were many unanswered questions, but Elise, after torturing him herself, concluded that this was similar to mind manipulation, and stopped the torture. I also wrote it that way in the report.

In fact, there was no need for torture since we found out the location, which was the main purpose.

That was the most important thing.

“Elise. Then let’s take these bastards and raid their base.”

We need to raid their house as soon as possible. We can’t delay any longer. If we know what we need to know, we have to move.

“Ah, since it looks like we’re leaving right away, can you call Claudie and Winia? And put these bastards on the carriage. I’ll go see Captain Barkerel for a moment.”
“Understood. I’ll prepare for departure.”
“Okay.”

As soon as I came out of the barn, it was early morning.

It was already this late.

I immediately went into the lodging where the holy knights were staying.

The holy knights were waiting inside, and I handed the organized document to Captain Barkerel.

“You’ve worked really hard, Paladin. I’m really sorry about this.”
“Hehehe, it’s okay. I understand well enough.”

Barkerel said with a sorry face. The holy knights and priests searched the village surroundings from morning to night, then returned and holed up in their lodgings, as quiet as mice.

“Yes, this is the content of the interrogation… I understand the situation. Even if I don’t know anything else, the most important thing is that they spat out the location. Then let’s depart immediately.”

Since we couldn’t put the heretics and the holy knights together, we decided to put the heretics on our carriage to guide us.

There are two carriages anyway.

If we guide from the front, the holy knights can follow from behind.

“Captain Barkerel. I’m just saying this in case, but you really can’t touch the heretics. Those bastards have to guide us. We can only know the specific location by getting a direct guide.”
“Hahaha! Don’t worry! The education is already complete! Frankly, I might have killed them all if the Paladin hadn’t stopped me, but the Paladin has already stopped me, hasn’t he!”

Barkerel, bursting into laughter, patted my back.

“Rest assured, I’ve been suppressing my murderous intent while constantly practicing mental cultivation!”
“Uh… yes. I’ll rest assured.”

I went outside and boarded the carriage.

Inside the carriage were two tightly bound heretics, Claudie, Winia, and Elise. From now on, I will force the heretic to guide us to their base.

“Claudie. Winia. You didn’t cause any problems, did you?”
“Nope, they didn’t say a word?”
“They’re not saying anything.”

The two women looked at the heretics with indifferent eyes, then shifted their gaze to my face and answered.

“Really?”

They’re not saying anything.

Certainly, he was drooling with unfocused eyes, like someone on drugs. It was only natural that he would be like that after suffering so much pain for hours that his legs were completely ruined.

“Hey! Heretic!”
“Yes, yep!”

As soon as I called him, an answer popped out immediately.

“Why aren’t you saying anything!”
“I, I’m sorry!!!!!”
“What? Sorry? Did I ask if you were sorry?”
“No!!”
“But why are you sorry!! You have something on your mind, you bastard!!!”
“No!!!!”

Despite his face being covered in bizarre tattoos, he had a surprisingly disciplined attitude.

The torture that lasted for a full day had reversed his spirit.

“Shut up because you’re noisy!!! Don’t answer until I ask!!”
“Understood!!!”

Of course, it’s possible that they’ll guide us into a trap.

But I trust Elise’s judgment. There are many doubts, but Elise, who can be said to be a symbol of thoroughness, stopped the torture and decided to depart.

Then it’s okay.

“Heretic. Start guiding us now. If you guide us on the wrong path, I will make your body neither dead nor alive.”
“Understood! Please go straight!”

The heretic became an excellent navigation system and began to guide us.

“Ah, Elise. But what about Holy Silence? Don’t we need to do it anymore?”
“I asked the priests, and they said it was okay. The heretic won’t be able to use any sorcery for the time being.”
“Hehehe, then that’s good.”

And so we headed to the heretics’ base.

In fact, it seemed to be a kind of branch rather than a base. I couldn’t extract any more information than that. Of course, I couldn’t figure out why he was only telling us the location of the branch while not saying anything else.

ㅡThe identity of the heretics has been shrouded in mystery until now.

Perhaps. I thought that it might be because the members were mind-manipulated, like this bastard here.

I don’t know what it is, but mind manipulation that can overcome torture… just imagining it sent chills down my spine. If there was such an advanced technology, turning a human into a monster would be a piece of cake.

Maybe even their faith originated from that mind manipulation?

Only doubts deepen.
Well, there’s no point in worrying about things that can’t be known at this stage.

Let’s just move for now.

* * *

“T, this is the place…! T, there’s our branch on this side…”

ㅡCough, cough!

In a little less than two days, the heretic had become noticeably weakened. Every time he coughed, black smoke billowed out.

Is it a sign of death?

I don’t really care. If this is the right place, he’s no longer of any use.

And on the way here, the other one eventually died.

“Hehehe, really? You’re not lying, are you? If you’re lying…”
“H, hiiik…!!”

As I whispered into his ear, he began to tremble all over and drool.

“Stop! Stooop…!”

The prolonged torture had shattered his mind.

ㅡFumbling, fumbling.

He trembled like a vibrator and frantically groped his legs. Was it that terrifying? Then it’s a finishing blow.

“I’m going to `shin` you again.”
“Kkeuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Hehehe, you’re not lying, are you?”
“That’s right! It’s not a lie!!!”
“Good, good! I’ll trust you, my heretic friend! Let’s get off!”

And so we got off the carriage with the heretic. The heretic, whose legs were completely ruined, couldn’t stand, so he barely got off with my help and crawled on the floor.

“Captain Barkerel!! We’ve arrived! Please get off!!”
“Understood!!!”

The holy knights and priests also got off the carriage.

“Hey! Where’s your house!”
“T, that way! It’s that way!!!”
“I can’t see it?”
“The entrance is hidden!”
“Guide us!”

The tightly bound heretic began to crawl forward like a larva. What was visible in front was a large mountain range. I guessed it was a mountain that bordered the edge of the Misty Plains.

“Keureureuk…!”

Captain Barkerel and the holy knights and priests were all breathing out with distorted faces.

“Let’s go.”

While being careful of traps, we slowly followed the heretic crawling like a larva. Fortunately, the holy knights didn’t have a seizure.

“This is the place!”

After about 20 minutes, we were able to find an entrance leading somewhere.