### Chapter 96: The Woman in the Cage
“……”
Isaac stared, momentarily stunned.
Then realization flickered across his face, a flash of anger passing over.
“How many have come in from the team outside the castle? Have the nuns from the Faith Organization and the medical staff arrived?”
“Part of them are still outside, Lord Isaac.”
“Tell them to hurry!”
“Understood.”
A group of knights on their steeds raced toward the castle gates. I had a hunch about what was going on, but it was still hard to believe. I instinctively turned my head to look at those kneeling—huddled in the downpour, they looked pitiful, like ants. If any knight wanted to slay them, I doubted many would dare rise up in resistance—like sheep ready for slaughter.
The nobleman was once again forced to the ground by two knights. He knelt before Safiros, his once handsome face now pale as a ghost, mumbling to himself like he was repeating a prayer or begging for the knights’ forgiveness.
Someone rushed over to report the findings to the Captain of Knights.
The Captain, without missing a beat, kicked the nobleman to the ground.
“What’s going on in the cellar!? Speak! What happened—”
“I—I don’t know… I don’t know…”
“You don’t know—!”
Safiros gave the nobleman another kick to the gut, sending him vomiting. Tears, snot, and drool mixed with the pouring rain, sticking together like slime on the filthy ground.
“What about those women…”
I softly asked the remaining knights, my voice involuntarily trembling.
“Miss Silvya…” The knights seemed hesitant, unsure how to respond, “You might want… to see for yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend—”
“Take me there.” I stared at the leading knight, my eyes unblinking.
“Uh…”
The knights exchanged glances.
Then Isaac spoke: “Let her go take a look. Don’t treat the Pope Knight like a child. Even though she’s young, before this, she was a strong and just knight. She needs to understand the ugliness of humanity.”
“Understood.”
The leading knight complied, instructing two men to lead me back into the inner fortress, through the hall, to the castle’s back door. They opened it to reveal a dim, damp corridor, firelight flickering weakly on the walls.
We walked down the long corridor, past the wavering flames, reaching the back of the castle where an open cellar awaited. The stairs leading down seemed to stretch forever. Two knights guarded the cellar entrance and stood at attention upon seeing me.
“What’s the situation?” the leading knight asked.
“There are seriously injured people inside; we didn’t dare take any rash action… Have the nuns arrived?”
“They’re on their way.”
After a brief exchange, the leading knight pointed to the stairway down: “I’ll take Miss Silvya down to take a look.”
The knight on guard nodded and stepped aside to let us in.
I followed the leading knight, stepping down the stairs as a pungent odor wafted from the depths of the cellar. The smell grew stronger with every step we took.
I took a gentle sniff, my brow furrowing.
It stunk.
The stench of bl**d.
And…
An unpleasant odor, typical after horrific acts.
These smells mingled together, making the air overwhelmingly disgusting and sending my mood plummeting.
d*mn it…
“Watch your step.”
The knight ahead reminded me. I snapped back to reality, suddenly realizing the steps beneath me felt sticky. I looked down in the dim light and saw bl**d. Not far away, a body leaned against the corridor wall—its form withered, hair gray, dressed in blue and white armor, now slightly deformed.
“When we discovered the cellar, four guards were here. They wore the armor of the Silent Fortress but had already become followers of the Gate of Truth. Upon seeing us, their first instinct wasn’t to fight but to run toward the dungeon, trying to k*ll to cover their tracks. Luckily, we reacted quickly; they didn’t succeed.”
“Hmm.”
I responded softly.
The smell was getting more intense.
Advancing further, I saw the corridor opening at the end of the staircase—a supposed arched exit now blasted with numerous holes. In the flickering firelight, I could see bloodstains and chunks of flesh smeared against the walls and rubble, with a leg protruding from one of the stone crevices.
“That person was left behind to hold us off. The explosion you heard was their attempt to collapse the entrance with self-detonation to block our way, but sadly, they failed… the prison of this castle is just beyond that.” The knight turned back and said to me.
Entering the stone chamber, which wasn’t overly large, several knights hurriedly moved with torches in hand. Some were carrying bl**d-stained scraps of cloth, heading toward a room at the end. They didn’t stop at our arrival, merely nodding in acknowledgment.
Two corpses lay sprawled by a flickering wooden table, also in blue and white armor, their bodies dried like ancient bones, appearing grotesque and terrifying.
“These four likely received a d*ath command. Maybe out of fear of dying or some other reason, they couldn’t act swiftly…”
The cellar was dark.
At the end of the stone chamber, a few wooden doors were ajar, and low moans and sobs of women could be faintly heard from inside. Two knights led me to one of the tightly shut doors, took the torch from the wall, and with a creak, pushed it open.
The inside was pitch-black, and the nauseating stench hit me like a wall.
“Miss Silvya, here’s the torch.”
The knight handed me the torch, and I reached out to take it.
As the light illuminated the darkness of the stone chamber, I vaguely saw rows of iron bars with countless emaciated shadows inside.
I took a deep breath and stepped inside.
The firelight chased away the darkness of the stone chamber.
It was eerily quiet, with only the faint sound of rustling. Even the low sobs I had heard before ceased. I held the torch high, moving slowly, the sound of my footsteps echoing in the chamber. Glancing around, I noticed what resembled dog cages lining the two sides.
Cages everywhere.
Countless cages contained one or two people each.
n*ked women.
They curled up in the corners of the cages, the red firelight illuminating their pale, dirty bodies. Upon seeing me enter, they remained silent, not shouting, simply cringing deeper into the corners and burying their heads, as if I were a carnivorous beast.
“Don’t—don’t be afraid…”
I whispered, realizing my voice was a bit hoarse.
I cleared my throat: “I… I’m the Pope Knight. Here to rescue you…”
I tried to approach one of the cages, but before I could take a few steps, the woman inside suddenly went wild, tangling her unkempt hair, almost neurotically mumbling, “Don’t k*ll me, don’t k*ll me… spare me… spare me… I don’t… want…”
“I won’t hurt you…”
“I don’t want to… don’t come closer… don’t—ahhh—”
She screamed, slamming her head against the bars, the sounds echoing in my heart every time.
“Ahhh—”
Many women around me began to scream. Panic-stricken, I stepped back a few feet and collided with another cage, and in my fright, I quickly turned around.
By the torchlight, I could see a girl in the cage.
She reclined against the iron bars, her hands shackled to the bars, her legs half-bent; her undeveloped body was all too clear to me.
The girl looked about the same age as Aili.
Her head hung low, as if she were asleep.
Yet bl**d was trailing down, staining the stone floor beneath her.
My vision blurred, feeling light-headed.
“Don’t k*ll me! Don’t come near me… please… I beg you…”
“Ahhh—”
In the stone chamber, the heart-wrenching screams persisted, with the dark corners echoing the sounds of banging. Many women frantically struggled, where the firelight shone, some sat half-kneeling or leaned against the bars, their eyes wide open, yet unresponsive to everything around them—though their chests still rose and fell, they looked as if they were dead.
Listening to their wails and looking at the scene before me, my mind went blank, and my breath became heavy.
d*mn it…
d*mn!!!
“Get out of here, Miss Silvya.”
A knight patted my shoulder from behind: “We’re just knights, not equipped for this… comforting people business, let’s wait for the nuns to arrive.”
His words were somewhat muffled in my ears.
I didn’t even know how I stepped out of the stone chamber. The sorrow and rage in my heart almost consumed me.
“Beasts…”
That girl was only eleven or twelve!
Back at the cellar entrance, I kicked the body sprawled across the table in frustration and pulled out a chair to sit down, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists.
The leading knight sat beside me and pointed toward the farthest wooden door: “In there are countless skeletal remains, the kind with flesh stripped away by blades… and rotting intestines. We wouldn’t dare open that door again; the stench is unbearable. You can imagine what happened in this castle before we came… Miss Silvya, they can no longer be called humans.”
Creak—
A wooden door swung open, and several knights escorted a woman with matted hair wrapped in a cloak, alongside a girl about my age, stumbling out of the cell.
They were beautiful.
Even in their disheveled state, with unruly hair obscuring much of their pale faces, their trembling bodies still exuded beauty—like rare flowers that wouldn’t lose their charm even in the wind and rain.
They were nobility…
As the knights brought the women and girl closer, the leading knight and I instinctively stood up to make way for them. But then the girl abruptly wobbled, and with a thud, fell to the ground, the cloak slipping off to reveal her bare body.
The knights quickly averted their eyes.
The woman hurriedly squatted down to rewrap the cloak around the girl, lifting her off the ground. The girl looked at her, slightly unsteady on her feet, with hollow eyes devoid of any light.
“Mommy, it hurts so much.”
The girl mumbled, reaching down to touch her lower body, showing no care for the people around her. Her beautiful doll-like face bore no signs of life, akin to a puppet without a soul.
“I know, Mommy knows…”
The woman held the girl tightly, tears slipping silently down her cheeks.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid… we’re safe now…”
