Chapter Twelve: Three Questions
“…An owl?”
The night breeze made my cloak flutter like a banner, the hood billowing like waves as I tilted my head slightly, a puzzled expression on my face: “What owl?”
“The Owl Chapter…”
The Knight Leader’s throat was wedged in his chest plate, clearly uncomfortable. His breathing grew heavier: “It represents… the blade of Damocles that has hung over the Temple Church in the Holy City for centuries… the Holy Church, the supreme executive organization… the guardians of the regime… When seen, one must obey. Should anyone dare to disobey, they will be treated as a heretic…”
“Really.”
I murmured, my eyes squinting slightly.
Never heard of such a thing before…
“So is there any connection between it and the Choir of Saints?”
“I… I’m not sure… No one knows who the members of the Owl are… It’s like, you can never truly know which of those friends you once got along with so well actually has ties to the Choir of Saints… The Owl just hides even deeper…”
“They don’t often reveal their identities in public… but privately, they are the authors of doctrine, wielding divine authority to command everything… They even hold the power to judge the Pope… The church court in the Holy City is directly governed by the Owls… cough cough…”
The man cleared his throat twice: “With my level… this is about all I know…”
“…Alright.”
I nodded, my eyes slightly reddened under the hood, staring into the man’s eyes: “You seem fairly honest… Let’s leave the first question at that.”
I think I have a decent picture of what kind of scoundrels they are…
Now, onto the second question.
“Second question.”
I raised two fingers at him: “You say you were ordered to retreat and let the heretics invade the Mosley Coast, massacring innocent children in coastal towns—that you were given direct orders from the Owl. You couldn’t defy such commands… I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now, but after that, as far as I know… the Third Knights Order had a chance to hold the heretics back overseas, but they ran out of supplies…”
“The Currency Exchange was responsible for supplying the transportation route for provisions, but it got cut off. The knights were starving, and many fell ill, vomiting and waving their swords without the strength to resist those villains, which is why they suffered such a crushing defeat. Later, I heard the supplies were taken by a bunch of starving bandits, but then those bandits seemed to vanish into thin air. No one could find them again… Tell me everything you know about this.”
“Y-You’re suspecting me…”
“That’s just nonsense.”
Bang—
I punched the man squarely in the face: “Stop testing my patience.”
“Ugh!”
That punch landed with quite the thud; the man’s nose broke instantly, his upper lip tore open, his head snapped back, and even his helmet flew off. He let out a painful grunt, his face twisting as bl**d finally poured out from his nose and mouth after a two-second delay, instantly staining half of his face crimson.
“I don’t know… d*mn it, I don’t know!”
The Knight Leader was on the verge of breakdown: “I was just ordered to fall back to the port. After finding Archbishop Ansiel, I learned he had been ambushed by a jester at sea, his entire fleet wiped out. After that, I ordered people to escort him south, to the Northern Region… and only then did I receive news of the Third Knights Order’s defeat! At that time, I thought with Captain Williams holding the fort, those heretics could never truly cross the line. Who would do such a thing, given that their supplies had already run out!”
His mouth was badly injured from my punch, his speech came out awkward and windy, like a drunken sailor. His hair was disheveled, streams of tears and snot flowing from the pain of his broken nose, the aura of authority he once had completely vanished, leaving him looking rather pitiful: “I may not be a good person cough cough, but I’m a… a glorious Church Knight! The honor and bottom line of a knight wouldn’t allow me to do something like that! You can assert your power and force me to your whim, you can beat me, but even if I d*e tonight at your hand, you will never trample on my dignity! That’s my bottom line! Did you hear me, you d*mn assassin!”
In the night breeze, the final shouts of the man rose with a hint of lion-like spirit.
…Well.
He really might not know anything.
But he might also be afraid of the consequences if the truth came out, which could possibly be worse than d*ath, so even if he’s to d*e by my hands, he adamantly refuses to say anything.
There’s no need to press him further on this issue; it would just be a waste of time.
I reckon the Sixth Knights Order stationed on the coast also didn’t have much opportunity to pull something like that…
Let’s just assume he really knows nothing.
“Quiet down.”
I interrupted him calmly and raised a third finger: “Now, the final question.”
“Phew…”
The man looked a bit tired.
He suppressed his anger and the torment of his injuries, trembling as he gasped for air, slowly closing his eyes: “…Go ahead.”
“About the flood in the southern region of Silgaya… that lasted nearly half a year and submerged countless villages and farmlands with rain—tell me everything you know about it.”
With that, I fixed my scarlet eyes on his face—at that moment, the Knight Leader instinctively opened his eyes wide, his pupils slightly constricting in the darkness, his expression freezing just for a second.
A very small change.
If I hadn’t been prepared and observing closely, I would’ve never noticed such a minuscule shift.
That change was quickly masked by him: “The flood?”
He panted: “That rainstorm was a disaster no one wanted to see. Many died in the southern region… cough, many people… it also created many opportunities for the heretics… But in the end, the rain stopped before things became irretrievable, which was a rare stroke of good fortune amidst the misfortune… Later, the Sixth Knights Order did quite a bit to restore order in the coastal region, and for the last six months… we’ve been busy with this…”
As he spoke, the man suddenly realized something, his eyes widening: “What you mean is—”
He seemed to have an inkling, but immediately dismissed that thought.
“No, it’s not possible… that rain… it covered the entire southern region of Silgaya. You know how vast that land is; no one could do that… No one… It’s absurd… cough.”
“Really.”
I watched his expression and suddenly burst into laughter: “Are you sure you’re not hiding anything from me? I’ll give you one last chance. In that fleeting moment earlier… what exactly did you think of? Answer me within three seconds.”
“What could I think of… wait, wait!”
The Knight Leader tried to quibble, but when he saw me relax two fingers from gripping his chest plate, he suddenly got anxious: “I remember one thing! Back before that rainstorm hit, around early March, a friend came to see me. He said some things to me that I found quite perplexing at the time, but after the rain, I understood the meaning behind it…”
“Oh? What did he say?” I tilted my head and asked.
“He said… cough cough…”
The Knight Leader coughed a few times, pausing as if in reflection, weighing his words: “He told me that this year, the harvest in the southern region would face problems, and I should quickly buy up any food and hay circulating in the markets of coastal towns, as much as I could, to store in a safe warehouse… it would definitely come in handy…”
