Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
After hearing what Soran had to say, a middle-aged man next to them frowned and looked at the corpse. There were few Drows in the Frost Kingdom, and there were no passages connecting them to the Underdark. If you didn’t spend a lot of time in the Underdark, you would have a hard time recognizing the viper whip. That was because Priests of the Queen of Spiders seldom fought. When Soran thought about it, aside from the followers of Maiden of Pain, the Succubus from the Underdark was also capable of bringing a hint of pleasure while inflicting pain.
The Maiden of Pain was one of the deities who excelled in using the whip and was only slightly worse than the Succubus Queen.
The Queen of Spiders, however, used the viper whip only to torture her enemies.
The others continued with the funeral while the middle-aged woman invited Soran to the shrine of The Grain Goddess. A small town could be seen in front, but it was closed on all sides and there were many guards nearby. A burly man, who looked like the marshall, came up and took a good look at Soran who was in front of him. He then bowed to the Priest and asked, “Priest Tine. Who is he?”
The middle-aged woman looked at him and said slowly, “He is a traveling adventurer. Maybe he can help us. The vicious degenerates have become more and more rampant recently. Now the number of people killed has reached more than ten. The residents of the town are in a panic. We must stop those degenerates.”
The marshall opened his mouth and seemed to want to say something but nothing came out of his mouth.
Since the start of the incident more than half a month ago, the guards didn’t have any clues even though the number of people being killed increased. At first, it was just one person; they were able to quietly cover it up and blame it on one of the murderous bandits. However, that number had increased to two, and more recently, three people were killed at the same time. Now, even idiots knew that this was not a simple homicide case. Looking at their injuries, it was unlikely for them to have been murdered, but rather victims of some evil ritual.
Soran’s eyes swept over the marshall and then paused on a young man not far behind him. The young man noticed that his gaze and became somewhat evasive. Although Soran did not know why, he thought that the young man seemed a little guilty. The young man was thin-looking with brown hair and brown eyes. His feet and legs seemed somewhat disabled.
Soran stopped, looked at the young man, and asked, “Who is he?”
When the young man heard Soran’s question, he fumbled slightly and had panicky eyes.
The middle-aged woman seemed to notice something too. She frowned and said, “He is a Blacksmith’s apprentice. One of the victims outside was a blacksmith.”
Soran suddenly grabbed the young man’s arm then twisted it back and pressed him to the ground.
The unexpected situation caught everyone else by surprise and before they could ask anything, Soran murmured, “Get his clothes off.”
Everyone became stunned but quickly got into action after hearing the instructions.
“What are you doing!… He’s just a stranger!… You’re letting him do this to me!…” The young man was obviously in a panic, struggling desperately and shouting, “I didn’t kill anybody!… Everyone knows that I am disabled! How could I have killed Master Kana?… Or all the others!… I am not a murderer!…”
The marshall frowned and explained, “Let him go. Collo is just a poor child. He had never even trained in combat, and he couldn’t even fight off a wolf. Among the victims were trained guards, so he can’t be the murderer!”
Soran gave him a cold look then proceeded to let go of the arm of the young man and said, “I never said he’s the murderer.”
“Take off his shirt!”
The two guards glanced at each other then proceeded to peel off the young man’s clothes, revealing many wounds on his back. The others could not help but show pity when they the wounds on his back, illustrating that he was beaten quite often. Soran looked at the scars on his shoulder and figured they were inflicted in the past. The sheriff said he was a poor child, probably because he knew what had happened before.
However, Soran wasn’t looking for that!
He tore off the young man’s clothes directly and saw a gruesome scar. The other scars were left a long time ago, but only this scar was still very fresh. It seemed like it had been left within a month.
Soran immediately held the young man on the ground with his foot on his throat and asked, “Was he flogged recently?”
Flogging. It was a common punishment that was given to criminals.
“No.” Answered the middle-aged woman who looked at the wound and frowned. “Nobody has been flogged lately, and we seldom used flogging as a form of punishment.”
Soran lifted his foot, looked at the silent young man on the ground, and slowly said, “Don’t tell me you used a barbed whip to whip yourself when you were bored!”
“He is a believer in the Maiden of Pain.”
“There was probably a ritual held within the month. The Maiden of Pain had a whipping ceremony that required people to use a metal whip with thorns to whip themselves so that they feel the power of pain and torture. I don’t think I need to tell you what to do next? Find a way to make him talk and let him tell you who the other believers are? The Maiden of Pain must have planted her faith here!
Soran’s expression was cold. He did not care about the marshall’s stunned face. Even though Soran had just arrived, he had already found more clues then the guards who had been searching for half a month!
“Bring him in.”
The middle-aged woman was not happy. When it came to faith, even Priests would become cruel. She ordered in a low voice, “Torture him! Make him spit out the others who’ve fallen into the camp of evil!”
The young man was picked up by two guards. He looked maliciously at Soran, the others nearby, and gave a grim expression to the middle-aged woman. “You’re all going to die! When the Maiden of Pain comes, she will torture then kill all of you! You hypocritical people! You devils of false benevolence and false righteousness! You hypocritical bitch! You watched my mother die and wouldn’t even reach out to save her! You saw me being beaten by a blacksmith, but you were indifferent to me! You hypocrites! I curse you! I curse you all to hell!”
Who would have known he had become a believer of the Maiden of Pain.
This young man probably had experienced a lot of bad things. Unfortunately, Soran wasn’t interested at all.
He didn’t have much sympathy. He only murmured, “The worshippers of the Maiden of Pain are very tolerant of pain. I think you’d better use some clever means when you torture him.”
The middle-aged woman gave a stern look to a man next to her, nodded to Soran, and said, “Thank you, adventurer.”
“If it weren’t for you, we would have had a hard time finding out the people who had fallen to this state.”
The Priest led Soran to the shrine, and the guards dragged the young man away. The marshall’s face was expressionless for a while, and he went with the other guards. The marshall even kicked the young man forcefully.
Now that it was confirmed that someone had fallen into evil alignment, there were surely others as well. Even though there were devotees of an evil deity who developed their beliefs here the marshall knew nothing about it. This would definitely lead to a sharp decline in his authority.
Inside the shrine of The Grain Goddess.
There was a fountain in front of the shrine with pools on all sides and plants everywhere. There were many pictures carved on the walls, and in the center, was a beautiful and elegant goddess with a soft smile; her arms were open as if they were embracing something. There was a faint light in the shrine, which showed that it was covered by divine power. It seemed that ceremonies were often held here. As a powerful goddess, The Grain Goddess had more power than any other deities.
The middle-aged woman asked someone to bring some water and put out her hand in a welcoming manner.
Soran glanced around and saw statues of the Goddess of Singing Waters and the Water Lord in the side halls. Farmland needed water for irrigation thus these two lesser deities were the most important deities to The Grain Goddess.
The middle-aged woman looked at Soran smiled and said, “News should come very soon.”
“I really appreciate your help. If you need it, I can arrange for your accommodation. You look like you’ve been on the road for a long time. Maybe you can have a good rest here.”
Soran nodded slightly, then picked up the cup of water to drink.
Clearwater with a hint of sweetness. It was the raw material for the making of holy water. The water source had also been purified by divine powers when passed through the shrine.
The rich culture in a shrine required hundreds of years of accumulation.
The marshall did not keep them waiting for long, but what he brought was not good news. He came in with a disappointed face and bowed slightly. “Priest Tina. No matter how we torture him, he just won’t talk. He just keeps cursing at us.”
“I think his soul must be controlled by an evil deity!”
The middle-aged Priest’s face became stern in an instant. She glanced coldly at the marshall in front of her and slowly said, “I only care about the results, I don’t want to hear your useless excuses!”
The marshall became speechless. He seemed to want to refute her but nothing came out.
Officials were not aristocrats but were merely elected administrators. Their rank was lower than Knights, let alone the Priest of a shrine.
Soran frowned then stood up and said, “Let me do it.”
“The Maiden of Pain is also the goddess of agony. His followers would possess some special abilities after the ceremony and many torture techniques become ineffective towards them. Without special means, normal torture would not make them talk.”
The middle-aged woman nodded her head and said, “Sorry for troubling you.”
“After dealing with those degenerates, the shrine would surely reward you.”
