Chapter 23: If One Falls from Darkness, Will They Fall Toward the Light?

“Don’t… don’t! It’s too big, coming in like this… I’ll break!”

“Ah! Go easy, don’t!”

Sophia gasped in pain, writhing on the floor in agony.

“Hee hee hee, suffer! I’ll fill your tiny soul with my enormous pressure!”

After a while, as Sophia’s magic power was exhausted, the pain gradually faded.

Along with it came her soul, battered and riddled with holes.

True darkness enveloped her.

Without Spirit Vision, her eyeballs shattered, she could no longer see the outside world, perceive color, light, or space.

Even darkness left her in true blindness; the only things remaining were the hallucinations and afterimages generated by her brain.

“Now, I’ll ask you one more time. Where is Rena?”

Lafeier didn’t just want an answer; he wanted Sophia’s submission.

This wasn’t his cruelty, but the appropriate punishment for someone with a Sin Level above 50 who couldn’t be executed.

‘Your sin level is so high, and you still want me to treat you like royalty?’

‘Why? Because you’re pretty?’

“South…” Sophia’s voice trembled, her face pale as ash from the intense pain. “Under the hill south of the prison, in the Ghoul cave…”

“She can’t be alive. She was probably eaten by Ghouls long ago…” After speaking, Sophia couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh.

“Your skin itching again, is it?”

Sensing the pressure, Sophia instinctively shrank back.

“Are you wrong?” Lafeier asked.

“Ugh! Just kill me!”

“Want to die? Impossible. If you don’t cooperate properly, I’ll not only make you suffer this pain forever, but I’ll also make your whole family suffer.”

Death was not a terrifying thing to Sophia.

But pain was.

Blindness was.

And bringing disaster upon her family and the entire organization was even more so.

“I’ll ask you one more time. Are you wrong?”

After a long while, this once-arrogant young lady, who considered herself a noble mage, finally spat out those two words that could erase all her dignity and honor: “I was wrong.”

She said it, her voice trembling, barely audible.

“Too quiet. I didn’t hear you,” Lafeier said.

“Say it again. Are you wrong or not?”

“I… was wrong.”

Lafeier turned to Liliya and said, “Record everything that happened today, including all the content of my conversation with Chief Guard Sophia, and submit it to the Imperial Judicial Bureau.”

Hearing this, Sophia could no longer maintain her composure. She hurriedly crawled along the sound to Lafeier’s feet.

“I was wrong, I’m really wrong! Don’t, don’t do this!”

Seeing this, Lafeier smiled in satisfaction.

“Good, very spirited!!!”

‘Just scaring you, you fool.’

Having her as a prisoner is very useful, of course, the groundwork was also necessary.

Break her psychological defenses, crush her self-esteem, drive her into servitude, and let her spend the rest of her life atoning for her mistakes.

Someone might ask, ‘Streamer, streamer, isn’t there a more pure-love approach?’

Pure love? What pure love is there to talk about with a murderer who sent a colleague to the Ghoul cave?

“Do you really know you were wrong?”

“Then the questions I ask you next, you must answer honestly. Don’t let me catch you lying.”

“Yes…” Sophia said with difficulty, “Warden… sir.”

“Then, first question. What is the purpose of your organization?”

Sophia paused, then answered, “Overthrow the Empire’s rule and establish a new order.”

“How large is your organization?”

“Spread across the country… very little contact between each other. More than that… I’m not too sure.”

Lafeier thought for a moment. That was reasonable.

Otherwise, the whole organization would have been wiped out by the Emperor long ago.

“What exactly is the secret about Wells?”

The corner of Lafeier’s mouth curled into a wanton smile.

“He… is the spiritual symbol of the organization. Dead, he’s more useful than alive.”

“The top brass of the organization need him dead. There’s no secret. Either rescue him and keep him well, or let him die and become a martyr.”

As Sophia spoke, she slowly shrank into the corner.

“Then why not act earlier? Why wait over ten years?”

“The organization didn’t know where he was imprisoned, so they didn’t dare take risks. Until a year ago, a female guard retired from the prison and happened to mention it to a member of our organization, and then…”

Lafeier was speechless.

‘So this is how you treat your own organization’s founder?’

“And what is your organization’s current objective?”

Sophia shook her head.

“I’m only responsible for execution, I don’t attend meetings. All executors complete tasks alone, and we don’t know each other…”

“Perhaps,” she paused, “there are other Black Party members in the prison besides me.”

“Your Black Party really is mysterious.”

Lafeier mused.

Even in the game, there wasn’t much description of the Black Party; they didn’t even appear in the main storyline.

He hadn’t obtained much useful information, but that was expected.

“Liliya, call a doctor to treat her wounds.”

“Yes, young master.” Liliya nodded and was about to leave.

“Oh, and after that, go look in the Ghoul cave Sophia mentioned. Rena should still be alive.”

“Those Ghouls shouldn’t be a match for you, right?”

“Of course, young master.”

After Liliya left, the room was left with only Lafeier and Sophia.

“It’ll be a few minutes before the doctor arrives,” Lafeier said as he closed the door. “Let me remind you of one thing.”

“Don’t think about dying. If you die, the House of Sheng Gereisi becomes worthless to me. I’ll still report to the Empire then. Understand?”

At this point, Sophia no longer dared to have any attitude.

She responded, “I… yes, as you command, sir.”

“Heh, not bad.”

Lafeier walked slowly to her side and gently wiped the blood stains from her face with a handkerchief.

“As long as you obey, I won’t do anything to you, nor to the Black Party, nor will I persecute your family.”

Besides being a hostage, if Lafeier wanted to learn magic, Sophia was undoubtedly the best breakthrough.

“This…”

‘As long as you obey’—Sophia sensed a different aura in Lafeier’s words.

The oppression and gaze of a superior, and that sense of humiliation, became burning hot in Lafeier’s whisper.

“Yes… Warden sir.”

The warm breath, identical to the burning sensation in her eye sockets, transformed into a monster that defiled reason and pierced chastity in the fusion of stinging pain, heat, and chaos.

A following palpitation occupied her chest, as if it were the only thing she could truly grasp in this chaotic world.

Every breath brought ripples of her heaving chest. After enduring great pain, it seemed she felt for the first time how sweet the air was.

The scent of Lafeier, his words, and every breath she took in and exhaled constantly invaded the pure land she had marked out for the Doctrine of Death and Night, constantly profaning the purity of her faith.

And the devotion and reverence that should have been for Death and Night unexpectedly appeared in Lafeier.

Even though she couldn’t see or perceive, there was always an alarm bell roaring in her heart, like the Silver-decorated Bronze Bell atop the Divine Tower in the Imperial Capital, that shook the entire city every morning at six o’clock.

Dong dong dong—

“Warden sir, you called for me?”

Footsteps faded away.

Door opened.

Greetings.

Sophia clenched her fingers.

“Why…”