Chapter 1056: The Captive
The dungeon was dim. A single candle. The shadow of the woman hanging from the ceiling moved across the stone like a forked tree branch, shifting with every swing.
She did not struggle. She made no sound — or almost none. When the whip landed, a low moan escaped her, and then the next lash drowned it.
“Crack.”
“Crack.”
The candle wavered.
After ten strokes, Earl Lorenzo raised his hand. “Enough. Rest.”
The executioner stepped back.
The prisoner’s back was a map of old marks and new ones. Sweat stood out on her arms and the tip of her nose. Pain was present in every line of her, but she held her voice. Blood moved slowly down from the oldest of the welts.
Lorenzo walked to her and took her chin in his hand, tilting her face up to his. It was still a striking face. The ordeal hadn’t changed that — if anything the damp skin and the brightness of her eyes intensified it in a way that Lorenzo found both infuriating and unwelcome. “So. You won’t tell me where the Holy Book is.” His grip tightened slightly. “The church is finished, Farrina. Is there any purpose left in your loyalty? If you won’t think of yourself, think of your companions.”
Damn church dregs. The thought moved through him with the familiar heat of old grievance. The entire Kingdom of Wolfheart was available to them — every desolate corner, every abandoned coastal town — and they had picked Archduke Island. He had made himself plain when he executed the messengers: leave him alone. They had a God’s Punishment Army. They could have gone anywhere. Instead they had come for his head.
If Pope Mayne hadn’t given him guards as a precaution — if he hadn’t thought to ask — those same guards wouldn’t have saved him.
He touched the side of his head where his left ear had been.
The battle had cost him more than the ear. Of the twenty God’s Punishment Warriors he had been allocated, fewer than three could still fight. The rest were dead or maimed beyond use. They had been the foundation of his authority on this island. The nobles of Wolfheart obeyed him not because they respected a former bishop’s new title — they obeyed because they feared what stood behind him. If they learned the truth about his losses, the title of Earl would dissolve inside a week.
He needed Farrina to speak.
He wanted to cut her to pieces.
He could do neither.
“I can’t say whether the church is truly over,” said Farrina, after a silence. Her voice was quiet and precise. “But I can say with some certainty that you are, Earl Lorenzo — or should I say, the traitor.” She paused. “You don’t have many God’s Punishment Warriors left, do you? That’s why the Holy Book matters so much. You want what was passed down among the popes — the method of creating more warriors. To keep your small position here on borrowed ground.”
His palm connected with the side of her face.
“Tell me where it is.” His teeth were almost clenched. “Tell me now.”
Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth. Farrina worked her jaw, then said, “I don’t know.”
“Then I suppose your companions will.” He looked at the executioner. “A leg. Choose whichever you like.”
“Stop performing.” Farrina’s voice was weaker but the derision in it was unmistakable. “That finger you sent me last time — the blood had already darkened. A living body stays warm and bright. You took it from a corpse. You killed them when you took the castle, didn’t you? That theatre has already been played, traitor.”
The mask of cruelty faltered.
Lorenzo turned away.
“I’m not even a true acting pope,” said Farrina. “Tucker Thor was the pope. He never told me where the Holy Book was. No one alive knows how to create God’s Punishment Warriors. That knowledge died in Hermes.”
“You’re lying.” Lorenzo’s voice went thin. “Tucker sent you here to rebuild the church. To take revenge against Graycastle. Without the Holy Book, how does any of that happen?”
A sound — something between a cough and a laugh.
“Tucker didn’t send us to rebuild the church or take revenge.” Farrina’s voice had gone flat, almost gentle. “He sent us to leave. He wanted us to find somewhere quiet and live out our lives. The church’s war with Graycastle was already decided. He knew it. The book he left wasn’t instructions — it was an accounting. A history. His last will.” A beat. “He just wanted us to survive.”
“Absurd.” Lorenzo’s voice cracked on the word. “You attacked me. You came to my island and tried to murder me in my own castle. That’s settling down quietly? That’s the acting pope’s mercy?”
“You killed the messengers.” Farrina’s head turned toward him, slowly. “You could have turned them away. You could have ignored us. We would have chosen somewhere else. But you killed them.” The faint starchiness in her voice solidified. “The kind of people I despise most in this world are the ones who betray their oaths for comfort. You failed O’Brien. You don’t deserve whatever life Tucker tried to give us.” A long exhale. “It’s my failure that you’re still alive.”
Lorenzo breathed in. Breathed out.
“I know exactly what you’re doing.” He had himself back under control. “You want to provoke me into killing you. You think if you die, the secret dies with you. But there are instruments in this dungeon that would surprise even a member of the Judgement Army. We know how to take a witch apart.” He looked at her feet. “We’ll start with the toenails.”
He held himself together until he reached the castle hall. Then he threw the tea set against the wall.
The pieces scattered across the stone.
He stood over them.
The cruelty was a mask. He knew it. He hated that it was a mask and that she could see through it. Farrina’s willpower was exceptional — she had spent years in the Judgement Army, where they trained it like a muscle — and she might outlast anything he had the stomach to do. He couldn’t close the port and declare a trade ban without immediately raising the nobles’ suspicions. He couldn’t leave the island without giving the merchants an opportunity to probe for weaknesses. He needed more God’s Punishment Warriors before any of that changed.
And Farrina refused to give him the means.
“My lord.” Hagrid, his butler, appeared in the doorway. He looked at the broken crockery and waited.
“Not now.” Lorenzo turned away.
“I believe it may be relevant to your current problem.”
Lorenzo turned back.
Hagrid was one of the few people on this island he genuinely trusted — a former priest, steady, with a talent for gathering intelligence that made him worth three times his position. He would not interrupt a bad moment without a reason. “What is it?”
“The border of the Kingdom of Dawn has been active lately. Someone is moving toward Cage Mountain.”
“What does Cage Mountain have to do with us?”
“The movement itself is not what matters,” said Hagrid. “The person behind it is.” He paused, with the slight deliberateness of someone delivering a prepared point. “My lord — I have reason to believe it is the King of Graycastle.”
Chapter 1056: The Captive Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
In the dark dungeon, a dim light cast a shadow on the wall as the captive dangled from the ceiling. The shadow flickered and swayed like a forked tree branch.
The prisoner did not struggle, nor did she utter a yelp or beg for mercy. She only produced an almost inaudible moan when the whip landed on her skin.
But that was soon drowned out by the following lashes.
“Crack!”
“Crack!”
The candlelight wavered and flickered as it played with the swaying shadow as it moved across the ceiling. The dull sound of a whipcrack cut through the gruesome silence of the dungeon.
After around ten lashes, Earl Lorenzo said, “Enough. Take a break!”
“Yes, my lord.” The executioner withdrew.
Blood trickled down the female prisoner’s back. There were new and old whipmarks all over her body. Apparently, this was not her first time being tortured. Beads of sweat stood out from the tip of her nose and arms. Obviously, she was suffering great pain, but she forced herself not to cry out.
“So, are you still not going to tell me where the Holy Book is?” The earl walked up to the woman and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look at him. It was a pretty face, despite the constant torture the woman had been going through. As a matter of fact, her damp skin and bright eyes made her even more attractive. “The church is over, Farrina. Do you still want to plot
against me? You should at least think about your companions if not about yourself.”
“Those damn church dregs!” Lorenzo thought savagely. “There are many places they could have chosen to live in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Why did they have to pick Archduke Island? I made it very clear when I executed the messengers that I want them to leave me alone. Plus, they have a group of God’s Punishment Warriors and could have picked anywhere to settle down as long as they stay as far away from Graycastle as possible. Why did they attempt to murder me? If I didn’t ask Pope Mayne to give me some guards to protect me as a precaution, they would have mounted my head on the city wall by now.”
At this thought, Lorenzo felt the side of his missing left ear throb again.
When the two groups of God’s Punishment Army had fought that day, Farrina had nearly killed him. Fortunately, his guard had blocked her strike. He survived but had also lost his left ear.
Lorenzo was actually more upset about the loss of the God’s Punishment Warriors than his missing ear. Out of the 20 God’s Punishment Warriors, only two to three were capable of fighting now. The others had either died during the battle or had lost limbs. It was impossible for them to fight again.
Yet he relied on those God’s Punishment Warriors to secure his position on Archduke Island!
The nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart did not come back to him not because of the change in his status from a bishop to a noble, but because of their fear of the God’s Punishment Warriors. If they knew he had only a few capable God’s Punishment Warriors left, they would probably strip him of his earl title immediately.
Lorenzo was so tempted to cut Farrina into pieces.
But he could not do that.
Not before he knew where the Holy Book was.
“I’m not sure whether the church is over, but I know you are… Earl Lorenzo, no, I should call you a traitor,” After a moment of silence, Farrina said quietly. “My biggest mistake was that I underestimated your God’s Punishment Warriors, but there are few you can use now, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t need the Holy Book so badly. You want to know the secret passing down among the popes, which is how to create the God’s Punishment Army, so that you can keep your pitiable position…”
“Smack!”
The earl boxed her ears.
“You’d better tell me what I want!” Lorenzo threatened through his teeth. “Tell me, where is the Holy Book?”
Blood dripped down from the corner of the prisoner’s mouth. Farrina said, “I don’t know…”
“That’s really a pity.” The earl eyed the executioner. “Chop off a leg. Pick anyone you like. I want her companions…”
“Stop acting.” Farrina interrupted Lorenzo feebly in a derisive tone. “You remember the finger you sent me last time? The blood had darkened. Do you still want to play the same trick? It seems that the comfortable life here has made our bishop forget the difference between a living man and a dead one. You chopped it off from a body, right? You killed them a long time ago, traitor!”
Lorenzo’s face clouded over.
“I’m not even an acting pope. How would I know where the Holy Book is? Pope Tucker Thor might know it, but he never told me. Nobody in this world would ever know how to create a God’s Punishment Army now.”
“You’re lying!” Lorenzo went livid. “Tucker Thor asked you to come to rebuild the church in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and revenge Hermes! Without the Holy Book, how can the church compete against Graycastle?”
“Haha…” To Lorenzo’s surprise, Farrina laughed. “With a God’s Punishment Army, the church can’t compete against Graycastle either. The acting pope simply wanted to save us and for everybody to spend the rest of their lives peacefully.”
“This is absurd! Do you think I’ll believe you?” The earl roared. “If you planned to settle down, why did you attack Archduke Island? Didn’t you attempt to steal the wealth, the food, the armors and the weapons here? Tucker entrusted the God’s Punishment Warriors to you, and he just wanted you to live a happy life? Nonsense!”
“Believe it or not, but this is the truth,” Farrina said indifferently. “I also want to tell you something else. If you didn’t kill the messengers but treated them fairly, we would have probably chosen somewhere else to settle down. But you made the worst decision. You know what kind of people I despise? Those double crossers like you!”
“You—”
“You failed Pope O’Brien, so you don’t deserve the life Pope Tucker Thor earned for us.” There was a faint starchiness in Farrina’s voice. “It’s a shame that I didn’t kill you, but the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart would eventually know who you are. Even if you have washed your hands off the whole matter and have nothing to do with the church, you’ll never become a true noble! You’re just a traitor living on borrowed time!”
Lorenzo took a deep breath, trying to suppress his anger. He growled, “I know exactly what your little scheme is. You just attempted to provoke me into killing you so that the whereabouts of the Holy Book would remain as a secret forever. But I can make you spit it out. There are not only supplies in here but also a lot of instruments of torture which we normally use on witches. I wonder if you would hold up better than those Fallens.”
He cast a glance at Farrina’s feet and said, “Let’s start with your toenails… I hope you could still play tough when I rip them off.”
…
After returning to the castle hall, Lorenzo could not contain himself any longer. He smashed the tea set onto the floor.
“Damn, damn, damn Farrina !”
He had armed himself with a mask of cruelty to conceal his inner uncertainty. In fact, Lorenzo had no idea how long it would take Farrina to yield. As a member of the Judgement Army, she had an exceptionally strong willpower. Perhaps, it would not be that easy to get something out of her.
He could not just close the port and announce a trade ban all of a sudden, for that would immediately raise suspicions among the nobles. If he, however, left Archduke Island as it was, there was a big chance that the nobles would appoint merchants to spy on him. Therefore, he needed more God’s Punishment Warriors to protect him before it was too late!
But Farrina, a person he loathed so much, refused to tell him that key information.
“This is so frustrating!”
Just then, his butler came in. “Your lordship, I’ve heard something interesting recently…”
“Get out of here. I’m not in the mood for some trivial gossip!”
The butler looked at the broken crockery and said patiently, “It may be helpful in solving your problem.”
“What?” Lorenzo looked up instantly. “What is it?”
After he became an earl and the lord of Archduke Island, his followers also became his “family members”. Hagrid, the butler, was one of his henchmen. As a former priest, he sometimes provided Lorenzo with counsels. “The border of the Kingdom of Dawn has been a little unstable lately. It seems that they plan to head to Cage Mountain.”
“What does it have to do with us?” Lorenzo scowled. “Archduke Island won’t gain anything from it, no matter who takes Cage Mountain.”
“I’m not talking about the operation itself, but the person behind this…” Hagrid paused for a second and continued, “Your lordship, I’ve heard that the King of Graycastle is behind this.”