Chapter 589

The stairs leading down to the basement were not very long. Even as they descended through the debris-covered entrance, the stench became unbearable and the smell of rancid blood rose to an intolerable level. "What could possibly be down here...?" With tension in her voice, Ellen opened the door leading to the temple's basement. In the darkness, Ellen's shoulders were covered by the cloak of the sun, and soon the flickering flames emanating from the cloak pushed back the darkness. As the darkness receded, a long corridor appeared with rooms scattered throughout. The basement was not affected by the fire. However, corpses were scattered throughout the corridor, either undiscovered or unattended. "There must have been a reason to kill the people here." Unlike the stunned Ludwig, Ellen calmly walked through the corridor. What did this temple and the people in the basement mean? "This place was the real purpose of this location from the beginning..." There weren't too many people, but that didn't mean they weren't enemies. Ellen walked through the basement corridor and inspected the various rooms. There were spaces that looked like restaurants, spaces that looked like warehouses, and even bedrooms. "The surface was a disguise, and the basement was real. There were more living spaces than I heard..." In Ellen's eyes, she could see weapons such as swords and spears scattered about. "It's not a massacre, it's the aftermath of a battle..." "The attackers and the people in the basement fought here." But the important thing was that it was impossible to tell who was the attacker and who was the victim among the corpses. There wasn't a single person wearing priestly robes. There was another staircase leading down in the basement. And the stench was coming up from the basement as well. Ludwig wasn't scared, but he was more confused because he knew that more people were dying and that this temple was operating under a completely different purpose than its appearance. Ellen reached the second basement level. "What is this...? What is this...?" Ludwig muttered in shock. Ellen was silent as she looked at the open space. "Is this a prison?" The large-scale detention facility looked like it had bars, and the prisoners were hanging on the wall, dead. "The signs are penetrating... They were stabbed with weapons like spears." Ellen walked around the second basement, checking the bodies behind the bars. "All the other corpses have the same signs. That means they were stabbed from the outside in with a spear... It's highly likely that they were executed." "Looking at the scars on the bodies, it's clear that they were not just imprisoned, but also tortured. And there seem to be quite a few rooms that look like torture chambers." "Imprisonment and torture." "Did the attackers try to rescue the people who were imprisoned here?"

"If that was their intention, then we should see these people as victims who were disposed of, rather than people who were killed by the attackers."

"We're not sure if their goal was to rescue them or not, but it seems like they failed."

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

"Ellen..."

Ludwig's absent-minded voice interrupted Ellen's thoughts.

Ludwig was standing in front of a certain cell, staring inside.

"I...saw this person yesterday."

"What?"

Ellen approached Ludwig at his words.

A prisoner who was stabbed to death. But Ellen didn't know who the person in front of her was.

Ludwig's pupils were shaking violently.

"Yesterday...this person was among those who tried to attack me and the priest. I'm sure of it..."

"They tried to attack you?"

Ludwig nodded.

He briefly explained yesterday's situation.

There was a disturbance due to the heretics during the purification process, and Rowen showed some behavior that seemed to have lost his mind after seeing them. But when they found out that they were warrior disciples, he gave up on using force.

On the way back after finishing the purification process, those warrior disciples tried to attack Ludwig and Rowen, and Ludwig fled with Rowen.

One of them was trapped in a prison and died.

"I said we should leave those people alone..."

"In reality, those people were caught and brought here from the refugee camp...that's probably the situation."

Furious at Rowen's death, Ludwig asked for Ellen's help.

However, it was almost certain that Rowen was now very far from being a good person.

It was not known if all the people who were imprisoned here were like that, but the possibility of them being heretics was very high.

And Rowen's attitude, which seemed to have lost his mind for a moment after seeing the heretics.

Torture chambers.

Now Ludwig could only find out what this place was and who Rowen was.

"Could it be...this place...and the priest..."

Ludwig muttered absent-mindedly, and Ellen quietly spoke while looking at the prison.

"He must have been an inquisitor."

"..."

This place was undoubtedly a place where heresy interrogation, torture, and conversion were carried out.

Then Archbishop Rowen would have been the leader of the inquisitors.

Ludwig could only be overwhelmed by betrayal and defeat, with his eyes wide open.

Ellen was not unaffected by the shock, but that's why she worked harder to explore the underground prison.

There were not only cells and torture chambers in the prison. Ellen examined the corpses to see if there were any other peculiarities.

She found out that they were residents of the refugee camp, looking thin and malnourished.

"They had enough power to carry out heresy interrogations and enough combat power to defend this place..."

Translation:

Summary of previous part only for context: In this chapter, Ellen and Ludwig explore the underground prison where they found the corpses of people who were imprisoned there. They discuss whether the attackers who tried to invade the prison were trying to rescue the prisoners or not. Ludwig recognizes one of the dead prisoners as someone who tried to attack him and the priest the day before. They speculate that the prison was used for heresy interrogation, torture, and conversion, and that Archbishop Rowen was the leader of the inquisitors. Ellen examines the corpses and finds out that they were residents of the refugee camp. They also discuss the possibility that the prisoners were heretics and that Rowen's behavior during the purification process was strange. Ludwig is overwhelmed by betrayal and defeat, while Ellen works harder to explore the prison and find out more about the prisoners. They both wonder how the attackers knew about the prison and why they failed to rescue the prisoners. When Ellen opened the door, she saw a desk, chair, and bookshelf inside, which could only be the warden's space. The bookshelf was filled with books related to theology, including the church, and Ellen approached the table. There were several scattered documents, and most of them were encrypted, so Ellen couldn't understand their meaning even if she looked at them. However, there was one document that she could recognize. It was a photo of Ludwig. Ellen put the document in her pocket and they left the underground prison. The temple had a place where people were imprisoned and tortured, and most of the inquisitors were killed by unknown attackers. The entrance to the underground was intentionally destroyed after the fire, and Ludwig was shocked to learn that Rowen was behind it all. Ellen and Ludwig returned to the surface, where the knights were unable to leave due to Ellen's orders. Ellen didn't judge or question them, but simply said that there were priests left to kill people.