The town's dungeon had not changed much since he came here a year ago.
Large-scale infrastructure construction had not taken this place into account. Although the houses and roads above had all been changed, becoming orderly and bright, the underground prison was still full of a rotten and dilapidated atmosphere. Moss grew on the stone walls, and dirty water flowed down the stairs, making a noisy dripping sound.
The only difference was that there were few prisoners left in the dungeon.
With the expansion of the territory, people could always find a job to fill their stomachs as long as they were willing to work. As for the scoundrels who refused to repent, they were all sent to the mines, where they were naturally taught how to behave with whips and sticks.
Since the lowest cell had been destroyed by Anna and there was no need to repair it, they simply sealed the entrance and abandoned it. Roland followed Iron Axe to the center of the third floor of the prison and saw the imprisoned priest, who was also the only prisoner on this floor.
He was not hung on a rack, nor was he tortured to a bloody pulp. In short, it was completely different from the interrogation scene that Roland had envisioned. He was sitting in a corner of the cell, leaning against the cold wall. His clothes were basically intact, but he looked a little dispirited, pale, and dazed, as if he had lost his focus.
"Is he all right?" Roland asked in a low voice.
"Not a big problem, Your Highness," Iron Axe bowed and replied. "If you have any questions, you can ask him directly."
The prince nodded. It seemed that the Sand Nation's way of interrogation was indeed different, but he was not interested in how Iron Axe did it, nor did he want to find out whether it was humane or not. He just wanted to get the result. He cleared his throat, sat on the long wooden bench beside the cell, and asked through the iron bars, "What's your name?"
"You're the fourth prince of Graycastle... Roland Wimbledon?" The priest's eyes changed a little. "Look... look what you've done. You've released the power of the devil."
"His Highness is asking for your name," Iron Axe said coldly. "If you don't want to repeat last night's punishment, you'd better not talk nonsense."
The priest's expression suddenly froze. He paused for a moment before lowering his head and saying, "My... my name is Cainphas."
"I heard you're from the Holy City of Hermes?" Roland looked at him and asked, "Who is the witch who came with you? Is she also from the Holy City? What position do you have in the church? "
"She..." Cainphas hesitated for a long time before replying, "Her name is Aurora, a Pure Witch of Lord Tayfun. She doesn't hold any position in the church."
"Tayfun?" The prince thought for a while. He seemed to have seen this name somewhere before.
"He's one of the three archbishops of the Holy City and is in charge of the church's external affairs. He's also an important figure second only to His Holiness the Pope," the priest explained.
Roland finally remembered that he had indeed seen this person at the Royal City's celebration. On that day, Wimbledon III held a grand coming-of-age ceremony for Tilly Wimbledon. The bishop sent by the church to host the ceremony was Tayfun. In his memory, he looked like a kind old man. His smile was filled with love and compassion, as if nothing ugly in the world could have anything to do with him.
"What are Pure Witches?"
Cainphas hesitated again until Iron Axe scolded him. He reluctantly explained, "Pure Witches are witches trained by the church. Only the archbishops or His Holiness the Pope can control them. I don't know much about them."
Roland scratched his ear and asked Nightingale for confirmation. The response he got was that Nightingale was not lying.
"How many people know that the church hides witches?"
The priest shook his head. "I was only told by Lord Tayfun in the last two years. He told me not to mention it to other believers, so... I don't know who knows."
"It seems that the church is very secretive about training Pure Witches. At least they don't implement two sets of rules in public," Roland thought. "This is good news for me." He had only guessed before, but now it was confirmed. He had one more piece of evidence to destroy the church's faith. If the believers knew that the doctrine they regarded as the truth was just a piece of fictitious waste paper, and that the church secretly adopted the devil's minions in the name of eliminating the devil's forces, what would they think? "
"Why did you plot to frame the Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge? Why did you want to take her to Hermes? "
"I don't know. My task was to monitor Aurora's actions. Only she knew the specific purpose. I changed my mind later because Aurora found out that the Lord was a real witch, and the new Pope asked us to send the captured witches to the Holy City for purification. "
"Purification," Roland snorted. "Do you believe it yourself? If the purified witches... no, the Pure Witches are innocent, why does the church hide their existence? "
"Because... because some believers aren't devout enough, so this is the only way..." His voice became lower and lower, and finally he closed his mouth.
The prince sneered. "Where do you plan to go after leaving Fallen Dragon Ridge?"
"Redwater City."
"What's next?"
"Impassable Castle."
"Anything else?"
"Only these three cities." After revealing the information about the Pure Witches, the priest seemed to have given up and replied numbly, "Lord Tayfun didn't say when we'll return. Before the new order is issued, we'll stay in Impassable Castle."
This answer matched the contents of the secret letter seized from the witches. "Why these three cities?"
Cainphas shook his head.
"It seems that this guy doesn't know much. For the church, he's probably just an insurance beside the Pure Witches." Roland touched his chin and thought, "Fallen Dragon Ridge is in the Southern Region, Redwater City is in the center of the kingdom, and Impassable Castle is at the junction of the Northern Region and the Western Region. They are basically unrelated, and neither are they pass or hub cities. Even if the church wants to overthrow Graycastle, it should be unlikely that they will attack them first."
If there were any similarities between them, it would probably be that all three cities happened to fall on the border of the Western Region. An idea suddenly came to his mind. "Is the mission of the emissaries actually aimed at me?"
...
The interrogation lasted until the evening. When Roland sorted out the information he had obtained and got up to leave, he noticed that the priest was leaning against the wall, motionless like a living corpse. He neither begged for mercy nor rebuked him, which surprised him. "Aren't you going to ask me what I'm going to do with you?"
"You used torture to force me to say all this... God will see it," Cainphas said with his eyes closed. "In the end, it's God who will judge me, not you. As for what you'll do with me, it doesn't matter. "
"Your Highness, give him to me for one more night," Iron Axe said in a low voice. "I'll change his attitude."
"No, that's all." Since the priest had said what needed to be said, Roland was not interested in torturing him for the sake of torturing him. "He'll be judged, not by God... but by the people."
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