Chapter 19
Chapter 19: The Basement
“Whew, it’s finally over.”
This time it was really thrilling. Sivey hadn’t expected to go settle a score and end up with two time bombs right under his nose.
He struggled to get up, propping himself up with his huge sword, took a deep breath, and felt a weak, sore, and powerless feeling all over his body.
This was the side effect of Resolute Will. This skill, which could only be activated when severely injured, would leave him in a long period of weakness after its duration ended.
After all, it was called Resolute Will; either you die, or I live.
“Oh no! Clement is still buried!”
Sivey slapped his head, signaling the cavalrymen who had gathered to quickly pull Clement out of the ruins.
……
Clement lay on a stretcher, his face pale. His knight helmet had flown off somewhere, revealing his graying hair and still stubbornly bright eyes.
“Master, I’m fine, it’s just my helmet, and my sword…”
The old knight muttered, despite the pain making him grimace. He still pleaded with Sivey to help him retrieve his helmet and sword.
Sivey looked speechlessly at Clement, who was being carried away by the cavalrymen, wondering why he cared about his helmet and sword when he was almost dead.
“Hey, you, Gudbay, go and get a priest to perform healing magic on Clement.”
“…Master, Winterfell doesn’t have any priests left…”
Gudbay pointed to the dozen or so headless bodies in white robes outside the ruins, saying somewhat innocently:
“You said to leave no one behind, so we chopped up all the priests.”
Sivey was stunned, then realized. He had impulsively ordered the knights to kill all the priests in the church. Now what? Who would heal them?
Rubbing his face with a headache, Sivey muttered.
“Fine, then go to my study and fetch a bottle of Water of Life for Clement.”
“Everyone else, search the ruins of the church. Take away anything valuable, and report back if you find anything suspicious.”
“Winterkeep is still short of people! Ugh…”
Sivey sighed.
He swore to himself that he would go to other territories in a while and snatch a few priests. They didn’t do anything normally, just nursed him when he needed it!.
…
Resting for a while with his sword, Sivey felt much better.
With nothing else to do, he simply squatted in front of the pile of odds and ends gathered by the knights, flipping through them one by one, looking for anything valuable.
“Barda statue, oil painting, gospel, cup? What junk is this… hmm, why are there stockings here? Who brought these?”
“No, what I should really pay attention to is, could it be that Malton and Carter have some strange hobbies?”
Sivey stroked his chin, thinking, speculating whether Malton and Carter were the ones on top and bottom.
“Oh my god, what’s this!”
“Oh gods…”
Suddenly, Sivey heard the commotion of the knights from a corner of the ruins.
“What’s going on over there?”
“Lord, we found a basement over there.”
A knight ran up to Sivey.
“A basement?” Sivey looked puzzled. What was there to be surprised about a basement?
“Is it unreasonable for a church to have a basement?”
“Well…”
The knight hesitated, somewhat hesitant, and said:
“The situation there is a bit complicated, Lord. I think you should go and see for yourself.”
Guided by the knight, Sivey arrived at the entrance of the basement, where two or three knights were supporting the wall at the entrance, vomiting loudly.
What did they see?
Sivey’s expression turned solemn as he pushed open the door to the basement.
As soon as the door opened, Sivey felt a tingling sensation between his eyebrows. The strong smell of blood, like aged wine mixed with the stench of decay, pierced his nostrils.
The knight behind him retched, immediately covering his mouth and nose, picking up an oil lamp and walking ahead of Sivey.
Walking down the dim basement stairs, the sound of the knight’s boots echoed between the walls.
The deeper they went, the stronger the smell of blood became, reaching a point where it was almost suffocating.
Soon, the two reached the bottom of the stairs, but the knight leading Sivey suddenly stopped.
“Clang.”
The oil lamp fell to the ground, rolling a few times, as the knight ahead of him trembled all over, collapsed to the ground, clutching his face, emitting painful cries.
In the dim light of the oil lamp, Sivey seemed to see hell on earth.
In a basement less than ten square meters in size, there were densely packed bodies of demi-human girls, at least twenty or thirty, all young and naked, with a miserable appearance.
Each one was pale, bloodless, with bulging eyeballs, grimacing, as if suffering great pain and fear before death.
Some of the bodies were still relatively fresh, but half of them had begun to decay. In the dim light, Sivey could see maggots wriggling on them.
In the middle of the basement was a round table, on which stood a cylindrical container filled with blood, as tall as a person.
Beside the container was a letter that had just been written and not yet sealed.
[Respected Pope:
Praise be to Barda, Malton greets you.
The blood for this sacred blood ritual is ready and will be sent to the capital before June.
There are still many blood bags in the Eagle Territory, but they are hidden deep, and it is impossible to find them in the short term. I beg for your help. Also, if possible, I request that you transfer Carter, as he is not a good partner. He is stubborn, reckless, and as stubborn as a rock in an outhouse…
I sincerely hope that the plans of the Holy See will proceed smoothly. Praise be to Barda of the Holy See, praise be to our great Lord.
Winterfell Bishop Malton]
…
With a grim face, Sivey set fire to this basement filled with sin and suffering, and led the mentally distraught knight outside.
He had underestimated the madness of the Holy See.
From the letter and the situation in the basement, it could be inferred that the birth of the Temple Knights originated from the mysterious sacred blood ritual, and the blood of demi-human girls was still a necessary medium for this ritual.
They were even referred to as blood bags by the Holy See.
This made Sivey unable to help but draw parallels with his past life. Why had the former Lord plundered demi-human girls so recklessly? Was it truly just due to a single fetish?
Was the promotion of the demi-human enslavement convention solely his idea, or was there another instigator behind the scenes?
Was the Cologne Empire’s attack on the demi-human principality really just because of the sudden outbreak of the divine war?
Barda’s unprovoked attack on the Wilderness Goddess Marlon also revealed something suspicious.
Sivey furrowed his brow, feeling that there was a black hand behind all this.
“Anyway, I don’t want to think about it.”
Sivey shook his head wearily, accepting things as they were. He hadn’t even figured out the problems with himself and the Player, so how could he focus on the matters of the Cologne Empire and the demi-human principality?
With the help of the system’s rewards, he would definitely become stronger and stronger. When the time came, anything standing in his way could be overcome with strength.
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