CH 589

The staircase leading underground was not very long. As they descended through the entrance buried in debris, the stench grew increasingly unbearable, and the pungent smell of blood intensified.

"What on earth could be down here..."

Ellen, tense, pushed open the door leading into the church's underground chambers.

In the darkness, the Sun's Cloak draped itself over Ellen's shoulders, and soon, the blazing flames spewing from the cloak repelled the darkness.

As the darkness receded, a long hallway appeared, with rooms scattered here and there.

The underground had not been affected by the fire.

However, corpses were strewn throughout the hallway, either undiscovered or not yet cleared away.

"Even down here..."

Ludwig stared blankly at the hallway, his eyes wide.

There was a hidden space within the church.

The stench rising from the ground was from the blood and filth of the corpses.

"It seems the attackers' main goal was to kill the people here."

Unlike the disheartened Ludwig, Ellen calmly walked down the hallway.

What did this church and the dead people underground signify?

'From the start, this seems to be the true purpose of this place...'

While there weren't too many people, it wasn't a small number either.

Ellen walked through the underground hallway, examining the rooms as she went.

There were spaces that looked like dining halls, storerooms, and bedrooms.

'The surface was a front, and the underground was the reality. There were more people living here than I had heard...'

Ellen's eyes spotted scattered weapons, like swords and spears, throughout the area.

'The remnants of a battle, not a massacre...'

'The attackers fought with the people who were underground.'

However, the crucial issue was that they couldn't tell which corpses belonged to the attackers and which were the victims. Not a single person was wearing priestly garments.

There was another staircase leading further down.

And the stench continued to rise from below.

Though Ludwig wasn't scared, the fact that more people had died and that the church was operating for a completely different purpose than its outward appearance made him more confused.

Ellen reached the second underground floor.

"What is this... what on earth...?"

Ludwig mumbled, his face pale and vacant.

Ellen gazed at the vast space and murmured to herself.

"A prison, perhaps."

At a glance, the area appeared to be a large-scale detention facility with iron bars.

The prisoners were dead, hanging on the walls.

'The cause of death is a puncture wound... They were impaled by a weapon like a spear.'

Ellen walked around the second underground floor, visually examining the corpses behind the iron bars.

'All the other corpses have the same cause of death. That means they were killed from outside the bars by stabbing them with a spear... It's likely they were executed.'

'Considering the scars on each corpse, it's clear they were not only imprisoned but also tortured. There are quite a few rooms that look like torture chambers as well.'

'Imprisonment, and torture.'

'Did the attackers come to rescue the people who were locked up?'

'If that was their objective, then these people weren't killed by the attackers, but by the people who were in the church's underground.'

'Whether the rescue was the goal or not isn't certain, but the rescue attempt failed, that's for sure.'

"Who are these people, and why have they been imprisoned here?"

"Ellen..."

Ludwig's distraught voice interrupted Ellen's thoughts.

Ludwig, who had called Ellen, was standing in front of a cell, staring blankly inside.

"I... I saw this person yesterday."

"What?"

At his words, Ellen approached Ludwig's side.

A mysterious prisoner, dead from impalement on the cell's bars. However, Ellen had no idea who the person in front of her was.

Ludwig's eyes were trembling intensely.

"Yesterday... Among the people who tried to ambush me and the priestess... this person was there. I'm sure of it..."

"They tried to ambush you?"

Ludwig nodded.

He briefly explained the situation from yesterday.

There was a commotion during the purification work due to a heretic issue, and Rowan, who had shown slightly irrational behavior upon seeing them. However, she gave up attacking when she realized they were hero priests.

On their way back after completing the purification work, the hero priests attempted to ambush Ludwig and Rowan. Ludwig escaped with Rowan in tow.

One of those attackers was now dead and imprisoned.

"I thought we had left those people alone..."

"In reality, they captured them from the refugee camp... That must be the situation."

In front of Rowan's death, an enraged Ludwig sought Ellen's help.

However, by now it was almost certain that Rowan was far from a good person.

It was unclear if all the prisoners were the same, but there was a high possibility they were heretics.

And Rowan's demeanor, which appeared to have momentarily lost her sanity upon seeing the heretics.

The torture chamber.

Now, Ludwig couldn't help but know what this place was and who Rowan had been.

"Could it be... This place... And the priestess was..."

Ludwig mumbled blankly, and Ellen, quietly observing the prison, spoke briefly.

"She must have been an Inquisitor."

"..."

There was no doubt that this place was where heretics were interrogated, tortured, and re-educated.

Then, Archbishop Rowan must have been a priestess corresponding to the leader of the Inquisitors.

With his eyes wide open, Ludwig couldn't help but be soaked in feelings of betrayal and humiliation.

It was almost certain that she had captured heretics from the refugee camp and tortured them.

Ellen wasn't unaffected by the shock, but because of it, she searched the underground prison even more diligently.

The prison wasn't only composed of cells and torture chambers. Ellen examined the dead bodies, checking for any peculiarities on their corpses.

Seeing their emaciated forms, she realized they were residents of the refugee camp.

'To have the power to conduct heretic interrogations and the combat power to protect this place...'

It was a matter of attacking the Inquisitors' base.

It wasn't just a simple band of thugs; it was definitely not an ordinary group.

'They attacked to rescue the people, but they had already been killed to silence them. And the entrance to the underground being blocked due to a collapse... It's still uncertain who did it.'

The attackers assaulted the Inquisitors' base, killed all the people inside, and then vanished after killing the Inquisitors.

'Anyway, the entrance to the underground being blocked by debris is more likely to have happened before the arrival of guards or looters.'

A fire broke out, and guards were deployed.

The guards had failed to comprehend this space, which likely meant that the entrance to the underground had been blocked from the beginning.

Before anyone could discover the scene that was not meant to be seen, the Holy Knights were deployed and took over jurisdiction from the guards.

'Preventing me from entering must have been to stop me from seeing what they're doing here...'

No matter how much it was a heretic inquisition, the sight of capturing civilians, torturing, and killing them was appalling. If Ellen saw this, it was inevitable that something uncontrollable would happen.

However, they couldn't stop Ellen's steps either, so they reluctantly opened the way for her.

Ellen passed the prison cells and torture chambers, heading towards the deepest room.

"Ellen..."

"Yes, I'm listening."

"If they are heretic inquisitors... they'd be similar to the Holy Knights, right? They'd have to fight."

"I don't know for sure, but I guess so."

It wasn't strictly necessary, but since heretics could wield dangerous powers, the heretic inquisitors would likely need practical combat skills.

"Then... it's clear that Rowan must be a high-ranking person among the heretic inquisitors."

"She must have been."

"Then wouldn't Rowan... actually be a person who could fight?"

The leader of the heretic inquisitors.

They would likely need actual combat power.

Of course, it wasn't a given. Those who sat in the Pope's position in the Five Great Church had tremendous divine power at their disposal, but they didn't necessarily have to be Holy Knights.

"It's possible, but she was directly involved in external activities, so she must have been."

However, Rowan was on the front lines. So, she must have had exceptional combat skills. Perhaps even better than Ludwig.

"…Why did she need protection?"

Ludwig couldn't help but feel confused, and Ellen couldn't help but consider Ludwig's doubts valid.

"If she's a heretic inquisitor, she should be able to fight, and if she's wandering through the refugee camp to gather information or intelligence on heretics, there's no reason for her to receive protection from the guards. It would be more convenient for her to move alone. It doesn't make sense."

"Why did she do that?"

"I don't know. Not yet."

It was undoubtedly strange.

It couldn't be ruled out that Rowan genuinely lacked combat abilities, but it would be strange for the leader of the heretic inquisitors who engaged in fieldwork to lack them.

Ellen passed the prison and arrived at the end of another corridor.

When she opened the door there, Ellen saw a desk, chair, and bookshelf inside.

The space was unmistakably that of a person in charge.

The bookshelf was tightly packed with books related to the Holy Church and theology, and Ellen approached the table.

A few documents were scattered around, but most of them were encrypted, so Ellen couldn't understand their meaning.

It was natural for all the documents dealing with classified information to be encrypted.

However.

There.

Ellen found one document she could read.

"!"

It wasn't that she had deciphered the document.

Ellen carefully picked up the single sheet of paper.

"Did you find something?"

Ellen handed the document to Ludwig, who couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Although they couldn't understand the encrypted documents, there was one they could.

The photograph contained in that document.

"My face... Why is it here?"

There was a photograph of Ludwig.

"I can't read the content, but it's clear that this document contains your personal information."

Just because they couldn't read it didn't mean they couldn't deduce its content.

"She didn't need a bodyguard."

Ellen looked at Ludwig.

"I don't know the reason, but it seems like she approached you from the start."

It was evident that Rowan had deliberately approached Ludwig.

For now, Ellen put the document away.

------

In the Tu'an church, the crumbling facade hid a place where people were imprisoned and tortured underground.

The stronghold of the Inquisitors.

The hidden side of the church could be seen.

Most of the Inquisitors were slaughtered by unidentified assailants.

A fire broke out, and after the fire, looters ransacked the church.

The entrance to the underground was blocked by a collapse after the fire, which was an intentional act.

Ludwig was devastated to learn that Rowan had been orchestrating such horrific events.

Their business was done.

Ellen took the dumbstruck Ludwig and returned to the surface.

As Ellen had ordered, the Holy Knights were unable to enter or leave the area.

The Holy Knights were supposed to prevent Ellen from witnessing this scene, but they couldn't stop her.

Ellen didn't know whether these people were involved with the Inquisition or not. However, they must have known what kind of place this was, which was why they had tried to stop Ellen.

In this situation, they wouldn't have any excuses if their throats were to be slit by the enraged hero's sword.

Without uttering a word, the Holy Knights awaited the hero's judgment.

"The number of priests is lacking, you said."

Ellen neither judged nor interrogated them.

In any case, the likelihood of them knowing the specifics was low.

"It seems there are enough priests to take part in killing people."

Ellen merely spoke those words as she passed by them.