Chapter 411 Wedding Banquet (11)

Chapter 411 Wedding Banquet (11)

At the southernmost side of the castle area, in the underground warehouse of the barracks.

In order to ensure security during the banquet, there were few people in the barracks except for some soldiers who had finished their shifts and came back to rest. After the explosion in the castle, these soldiers who had just rested were also arranged to go and support other investigators.

"Hurry up, or we won't wait for you!"

"coming!"

As the last soldier was urged by his companions to leave the barracks and close the door, the barracks hall, which was bustling with people a few minutes ago, suddenly became quiet. About a minute later, there were some unusual movements in the barracks hall. Several cabinets suddenly moved twice, and as the cabinet doors opened, several figures quietly left the cabinets.

They kept quiet and found the entrance to the barracks basement with ease. One of them took out a key and easily opened the lock. He looked through the crack in the door, nodded, and walked into the basement stairs. The others also filed in, and the last person turned around and closed the wooden door of the basement.

There were some war supplies in the basement of the barracks, including neatly arranged arrows, loaded and sealed alchemical bombs, some polished daggers, and so on. However, these people were obviously not interested in these supplies at all. Even the astonishing number of alchemical bombs did not attract any attention.

"At this."

One of them lit the small oil lamp on his waist. With the help of the lamp's bright but narrow light, he began to observe the ground. Soon, his eyes were fixed on a carpet that was mostly covered by a box of supplies.

Two companions came and moved the supply box. He lifted the rough carpet. There was a lot of dust on the carpet. It looked like no one had touched it for a long time. But there seemed to be nothing wrong under the carpet. It looked no different from other places on the ground.

"Look carefully, we should have plenty of time."

The man with the oil lamp hanging around his waist seemed to be the leader of these people. Under his orders, the others quickly started to search in various locations in the basement. After about a few minutes, two people seemed to have found something.

"I have one here."

"Me too."

"Don't move, I'll go first..."

"Squeak~~"

The noise coming from above the basement made everyone keep quiet immediately. The leader turned off the oil lamp and hid behind a supply box. The others also quickly found cover according to their positions and hid in the darkness.

"Squeak~~~"

After a few seconds, the door of the basement seemed to be pushed open, and some light shone into the basement stairs through the gap in the door. With the help of the light shining through the gap in the door, several people hiding in the darkness saw a figure. From the outline, it seemed to be a woman, at least she was wearing women's clothes. The hem of her long skirt swayed, sliding across the stairs, making some friction sounds.

"Whoo~"

The figure at the door also entered the basement stairs and closed the door behind her. She took out something from under her skirt, and she seemed to blow at it. Then, a light came on, illuminating her face. The person who came was indeed a woman. She was holding an alchemical torch in her hand. The whirring sound just now was not from blowing, but the sound of the alchemical torch being lit and the alchemical module being activated.

The woman was wearing a noble dress. Judging from the material of the clothes, she was of high social status. The earrings on her ears were an emblem, the family emblem of this castle. She should be someone in the family. She was not very old, less than 30 years old, with long hair draped over her shoulders. However, the faint reflection in her hair seemed to indicate that there was something hidden inside. Judging from the size, it might be a slender dagger.

The woman went down the stairs into the basement and stopped in front of the stairs. She placed the alchemical torch in front of her chest and used the nails of her other hand to rhythmically tap the handle a few times. After stopping the tapping, the other people who had been hiding in the darkness quickly left their hiding places and walked out.

"Did you find it?"

"Found it, but there are two mechanisms here, which are different from what you said before."

"Only one is real and the other is fake. You didn't touch them?"

"No, I was going to look into it, but now that you're here, I thought you might be able to speed up our investigation."

"It's just luck. I wasn't born when this castle was built."

"Anyway, the sooner the better. What's the situation outside?"

"It's a mess. The explosion you caused injured some people. Now the soldiers in the castle are patrolling and searching everywhere, and the guards of those guests are staying with them. No one will come to trouble us. But as for Lemon, I think it's time for you to solve this problem."

"What do you mean? Didn't Lemon just go to arrange the explosion? Why do we have to kill him?"

"That idiot didn't create the explosion in the right place. He almost killed dozens of civilians, and none of our original targets were affected."

"What?! This idiot!"

"But even if that guy didn't cause the explosion in the right place, he still achieved his goal of attracting attention, didn't he? Clemens won't be able to escape after a beating, but he won't be killed, right?"

"No, in fact, that guy not only failed to complete the mission, but also put us at risk of being exposed."

"Wait a minute, you said before that Lemon only injured a bunch of people. You mean, no one died? If that's the case, and only some civilians were affected, then why is the castle patrolled so heavily? What kind of trouble did Lemon get into?"

"He caused the explosion just as an Inquisitor was passing by. He was accompanied by a Grand Mage. The two of them saved almost everyone in the explosion range. Many people were injured, but no one died. According to my information, the order to seal off the castle was actually issued by that Inquisitor."

"Didn't your father refuse?"

"Do you think that insidious and cowardly fat guy dares to go against the Inquisition? Also, that idiot is one of the reasons why I want to cooperate with you. If it weren't for the convenience of his identity, I would have cut off contact with him long ago."

"You nobles are in such a mess."

"But that's not important. Do you have any other news?"

"My head maid reported to me that the Inquisitor brought a team of about ten elite soldiers. I checked the guest list and none of them were on it. The Inquisition must be looking for something. According to the head maid, the Inquisitor once asked for a quiet place to talk to the people he brought with him. Their voices were not loud, so the head maid did not hear them clearly. She only knew that they were preparing to build something in the castle."

"That's a problem. Those guys have very sharp noses. If they smell something, it will cause us a lot of trouble. How is the team you hired to divert attention?"

"It cost a lot of money, but it was well worth it. They should have entered the secret room by now. If we're lucky, they should have released the things below. Even if we're unlucky, they can pass the wrong information to the guys guarding the secret room. You know, I gave that team a month, and only a few days have passed."

"So what exactly is that altar inside? Is it worthy of your father... the owner of the castle sending private soldiers to guard it?"

"I'm not sure. No one knows the details except him. I only know that he personally found some witches and wizards to cast a spell on the altar. The spell can make people who are close to the altar mistakenly believe that the things on the altar are emitting pure power of judgment. It is said that the magic is very powerful. Unless it is a legendary visitor from another world who truly possesses pure power of judgment, even the Chief Judge himself cannot find out that the things on the altar are fake."

"In other words, even if the Inquisition discovers the secret room, it won't make it public?"

"Yes, this is the trick of that fat guy, just to please the Inquisition one day. The private soldiers guarding the secret room don't know about this either."

"Then how did you know?"

"I know one of the witches who cast magic back then. She later offended my petty father because of something and was hunted down. I happened to be the person in charge of this matter, and I learned this secret from her. She should have known a lot of things, but she didn't tell them all because she died from her serious injuries."

"So what exactly is under the altar? You said there is only one thing. Are you sure that when that thing comes out, it will directly attract everyone's attention?"

"If the witch didn't lie, there would be no problem at all."

"So what is that thing?"

"What I was told was that it was a real alien monster."

The others looked at each other, seemingly somewhat unconvinced. After all, although the legend of the existence of another world had appeared since the Inquisitor appeared in their history, no one had ever confirmed the authenticity of the legend so of course, no one believed it.

"Don't look at me like that. I don't really believe it either. I think the thing down there is probably some irrational demon subspecies. But once that thing is released, it will definitely attract attention. I guess the Inquisitor must have heard the gossip that my father deliberately spread from somewhere, so he was sent to investigate. If they can find that thing when it is released, no one will care about our existence at all."

"But if that really happens, the owner of the castle will be in trouble, right? The Inquisition will never tolerate anyone raising a subspecies demon. You will also lose your status as a noble lady."

"Do you think I care about these? In fact, if the Inquisition can really catch that guy and put him on trial, it will actually be the best situation for my family. That hypocritical guy has done countless bad things. Unfortunately, no one knows the details. Everyone thinks he is an approachable, kind and generous duke. If the Inquisition really upholds justice as they claim, it is their job to tear off his disguise. But things may not be that simple. He must have other ways to escape this disaster."

"He was discovered by the Inquisition to be raising a demon subspecies and still be able to deal with it? That's unlikely, right?"

"I guess it has something to do with that altar... Wait, is that fat guy trying to play the old-fashioned trick of "the descendants of loyal ministers guarding the devil for generations"?!!"

"Why not? He never left any evidence of the bad things he did. Plus his reputation among the people, I think at least 90% of the people in the kingdom are willing to believe him."

"Have you ever thought of reporting him to the Inquisition?"

"I don't know if there are people in the court who have been bribed by him. Besides, even if the court is really solid and no one has been bribed, I don't have any evidence. If I really go and tell on him, the news will definitely get back to him in the end."

"So this is why you're working with us. What exactly do you want us to find?"

"evidence."

The leader nodded, although he actually did not believe this statement. After all, the woman had just said that the owner of the castle did not leave any evidence. However, this was not what they cared about. As a force of another faction in the kingdom, as long as they could cause some big trouble to the owner of the castle and reduce his voice in parliament, they did not care about the specific secrets at all.

Enough of the words, the woman began to observe the two mechanisms they found. After careful investigation, she pressed one of the switches. With the sound of stone friction, a trap door opened at the location they found under the carpet before, and there was a staircase going down. The stairs were covered with dust, and the air was filled with a musty and damp smell. It was pitch black under the stairs, and nothing could be seen clearly.

The woman was not afraid of the darkness below and walked down the stairs with the alchemical torch in hand.

"Follow."

After giving the order, the leader led the others down. The staircase was long and had multiple corners. It should be a very long spiral staircase. After walking for nearly five minutes, they finally reached the bottom of the staircase. The space in front of them was dark. The only areas that could be seen were the alchemical torches and the leader's oil lamp. This should be some secret dungeon, but the strange thing was that there was no place to place torches on the supporting pillars around.

The woman took the alchemical torch and began to search on the walls on both sides. She found a rusty pull ring and pulled it downwards with force. The sound of some alchemical mechanisms operating appeared in the space. After a delay of nearly ten seconds, some alchemical lighting systems gradually lit up in batches. Although the equipment in some places had lost its lighting function due to disrepair, there were many places that were still intact and could illuminate the entire space.

"Damn it, you're really right."

After putting away the oil lamps and alchemical torches, everyone looked at the illuminated space in amazement. There were at least dozens of narrow, damp cells filled with broken skeletons. On the walls on both sides hung rusty and horrific torture instruments. The dirt on them gave off an unpleasant musty smell. Although it had faded long ago, it could be judged that the dirt was definitely related to blood.