Chapter 491: Inquiry, and More Questions

The Old Priest Ruiduokasi walked in slowly. He first closed the wooden door, then said to the soldier: "You don't need to ask him anymore, little Luosa. This soldier clearly doesn't know why they had to do that either. They were merely following orders, and in the process of executing those orders, they projected their own cruelty and sadism onto those innocent villagers."

Although the Old Priest's eyes were cloudy, they were full of wisdom—a pair of eyes that could easily see through people. He said to the soldier, who had not said a word since Priest Bataer burst in: "These people, they are panicked and afraid. Ever since the battlefield last year that he spoke of, these people have been under immense pressure. This pressure kept accumulating, and it completely crushed them as they passed through the mountain forest."

Jier did not know how the Old Priest had made this judgment, so he asked: "How did you tell?"

The soldier named Lenglian Bote, however, secretly glanced at the Old Priest.

"Because he said his unit had two hundred people in total, and because they were separated from the army, they were not routed on the battlefield but hid as a whole. They passed through the battlefield afterward and likely suffered no losses. But little Luosa said the group of Defeated Soldiers that appeared in Changmai Cunzi numbered only a little over a hundred, less than one hundred and fifty. The missing ones must have died on the way through the mountain forest, right? Isn't that so, young man?"

The soldier said nothing more, merely nodding silently to confirm the Old Priest's deduction.

These soldiers did not actually lose fifty-some people while passing through the mountain forest, but over seventy. Basically, one-third of the entire unit died in the mouths of various beasts and Monsters in the mountain forest; some simply disappeared inexplicably—neither seen alive nor dead.

Besides that, others died from poisoned water sources and the bites of venomous insects.

Even with a local long-haired mountain cat Beast leading them through the mountain forest, they still paid an extremely heavy price.

Even on the battlefield, an army would collapse if one-third of its men died, and since they had no other path, they had no other choice but to persist through the mountain forest, did they?

They couldn't exactly surrender to the venomous insects and fierce beasts in the forest, could they? Or the poisonous streams? The man-eating trees? The rampaging herds of Beasts? The strange things that emerged at night?

These things brought immense pressure to all the surviving soldiers in the unit. Therefore, when the order to attack Changmai Cunzi came down, all the soldiers participating in the operation transformed their pressure into endless violence.

If it weren't for the fact that they still needed living people to extract Mineral Ore in the Mine, how could any villagers in Changmai Cunzi have survived the hands of these highly stressed soldiers?

The act of capturing people to dig in the Mine was, on one hand, the reason for the soldiers' attack on Changmai Cunzi, and on the other hand, it preserved the lives of most of the Changmai Cunzi villagers. They did not end up dying at the hands of these soldiers who had accumulated such great pressure and were now releasing their violence.

As for dying in the process of digging after entering the Mine, that was another matter entirely.

"You, you! It's all because of you! Why didn't you just retreat with the main force last year? If you had retreated then, wouldn't things like this have been avoided?"

Priest Bataer was extremely frustrated. He slumped onto the ground, even knocking over the wooden bucket filled with water. Clear water spilled all over the floor, but no one in the room cared.

The soldier had not said a word since the two priests burst in. Now, questioned by Priest Bataer, he kept his mouth shut. He wasn't stupid; he could tell at once that this young priest was the Cunzi Priest of Changmai Cunzi, unlike Jier the Knight from out of town, this young champion of the farming god.

Jier did not have much emotional attachment to the villagers of Changmai Cunzi, so he could deal with this Defeated Soldier—who had once attacked and captured Changmai villagers—relatively objectively. But this young priest, being the Cunzi Priest of Changmai Cunzi, risked infuriating the other party with every word he said. In this situation, even if the priest killed him on the spot, he would likely have died in vain. The terms of surrender he had previously sought from this Jier the Knight were completely useless.

Jier saw the fear and embarrassment of the soldier at this moment. He helped Priest Bataer up, escorted him outside the door, and said softly to the Old Priest: "Bataer is a bit emotionally agitated. Please keep an eye on him and don't let him do anything stupid."

The Old Priest chuckled, not caring at all about the surrendered soldier in the room, nor about Priest Bataer's agitated emotions: "Isn't this good? Young people should be full of impulse and passion. People full of emotion are the real people. Joy, sorrow, anger, fear—these emotions, and the experiences that trigger them, are what write a brilliant life. And when he is old, looking back on these, he can be certain that he did not waste his life."

Jier smiled awkwardly: "Isn't that a bit too broad? We young people wouldn't think about what to do when we're old."

Afterward, Jier closed the door and fastened the door latch from the inside. He said to the soldier again: "Alright, now it's just you and me in the room. I have a few more things to ask. Answer honestly, and I won't have to trouble myself with going out to fetch another bucket of water."

The surrendered soldier, who had thought that since the water in the wooden bucket had spilled, he would no longer be subjected to Water Torture, twitched the corners of his mouth and obediently lowered his head.

"Sir Knight, please ask."

Jier rested his chin on one hand and his elbow on the other, pacing back and forth in the room. His Boots went *pat-pat* on the spilled clear water, splashing many small droplets.

"Where is the specific location of your Mine?"

Jier stopped his pacing and asked the first question.

The surrendered soldier raised his head, thought for a moment, and said cautiously: "It's hard for me to give you a specific location, because our unit was a Scout squad. Ever since Knight Hartna led us through the mountains to that Mine marked as an iron mine, we only stayed there for two days. Then we set off north to the vicinity of Changmai Cunzi. After routing and capturing that village and its villagers, we never went back. First, we scouted the surrounding area, then headed north all the way to this village. The orders from the Knight and the Captain were for us to find a way to capture more people here and send them to the Mine."

After a pause, the soldier said: "I am truly sorry to the people of this village. We captured nearly thirty people from this village in total. One escaped, and another was accidentally beaten to death by my companion. The other twenty-some people were handed over to another unit stationed near Changmai Cunzi, and they took them away. Sir, please understand, the Captain set a hard quota for us; if we couldn't capture people, we would have to take their place ourselves! In fact, everyone in the unit has gone mad! They don't even know what they are doing. We ourselves are victims being oppressed too! I don't want to wander here, capturing people to dig in the Mine! The Mineral Ore dug out isn't shared with me at all!"

"I just want to go home, I just want to go home alive. Even if I have to do those evil things for it, I just want to go home!" The surrendered soldier became more and more agitated as he spoke, bending his waist and kowtowing to Jier incessantly.

But Jier hated this the most. He raised his foot and kicked the soldier toward the wall. After being kicked away, the soldier seemed to realize that he couldn't get forgiveness this way, so he stopped begging for mercy.

Jier's eyes rolled, and he pointed out a detail in the other's words just now: "You said just now that you arrived at a Mine marked as an iron mine? That means when you arrived there, there was already a Mine in existence?"

Jier's question seemed to stun the surrendered soldier. After thinking it over carefully, he was also at a loss: "Yes, Sir. When we went over, there was already a not-too-deep Mine there. There was quite a bit of mine tailings outside the Mine, and many trees around the Mine had traces of being cut down. It's just that those old stumps were covered by newly grown small trees. I didn't pay attention at the time; I thought it was opened by locals and then abandoned."

Jier did not continue questioning but opened the door and walked out.

He came outside, closed the door tightly, and asked the now-calmer Priest Bataer in a low voice: "You heard it. If he isn't lying, when they arrived, there was already an initially excavated Mine in the mountain forest near Changmai Cunzi! Do you know about this?"

Priest Bataer looked puzzled: "How is that possible! We are afraid of the Monsters coming out of the mountain forest to the south of the village; how could we possibly enter a mountain forest that no one has ever entered to mine iron? Moreover, Changmai Cunzi is actually half a day's journey from the edge of the mountain forest. It's impossible for anyone in the village to suddenly disappear for a whole day, let alone run into the mountain forest to mine. The village is full of farmers; even hunters are rare. It's impossible for anyone to risk going south."

The Old Priest stroked his gray beard, his expression becoming serious. After pondering for a moment, he said: "It seems the whole thing is full of oddities. Could that Mine have been excavated by Dwarfs in the past?"

Jier's eyes lit up, and he immediately returned to the room to ask: "Is it possible that the Mine was dug by Dwarfs nearly a hundred years ago? Are there any Dwarf tools or buildings inside or outside the Mine?"

"Dwarfs? Sir, what are you talking about? What does that have to do with Dwarfs? However, although the Mine was empty and looked abandoned, there were quite a few tools inside. I went in to look at the time; it looked like they were prepared to develop it but suddenly withdrew. But the Mine is very new, and the tools were all packed in boxes. Although they were dusty, they could all be used normally."

Jier turned back, opened the door, and shook his head at the two priests outside. They had both heard what the soldier said. Since the Mine was new and the tools inside were also new, it could not have been excavated by Dwarfs who withdrew a hundred years ago.

They could not discuss this matter further without seeing the Mine, so Jier put it aside for the moment and, after returning to the room, asked his second important question.

"I ask you, you said that Knight Hartna of your unit was burned by flames, and his Metal Armor was melted by the fire. He later seemed to lead you successfully through the entire mountain range, so what happened afterward? After finding the Mine and having you attack Changmai Cunzi, where is he? Was the re-excavation of the Mine, the attack on Changmai Cunzi to capture villagers, and making the villagers dig for ore—was this whole series of events directed by him?"

The surrendered soldier's face stiffened. He moved his eyes left and right, thinking repeatedly, before answering Jier's question cautiously: "Sir Knight, it is unlikely that Knight Hartna directed the attack on the village, because when we reached the vicinity of the Mine and were about to walk out of the mountain range, he was already dying."

"Is he dead?" Jier asked.

The soldier shook his head: "He hasn't passed away, but he is dying. To have flames that can melt Metal Armor, how powerful must that be? So Knight Hartna suffered very serious injuries. Sir Knight, he was in great pain just moving at the time. By the time we walked out of the mountain range, his body was already stinking, pus was seeping from the gaps in his armor, and he couldn't even speak. In this state, how could he possibly command us to re-open the mine, attack the village, and capture people to dig for ore?"

Jier nodded. It seemed this person was likely finished, but this Knight Hartna was clearly the center of the matter. He inexplicably survived the battlefield, inexplicably obtained an important map, inexplicably found his own unit that even enemy soldiers hadn't discovered, and inexplicably came to the mountain forest in the south of Sasi County to mine a Mine that had inexplicably been abandoned by someone.

This Knight clearly knew everything, but he might already be dead by now. Even if a Knight's physical constitution was strong and his Life Energy was miraculous, it would be impossible to treat severe burns all over his body that had become infected and festered.

"So, after that Knight Hartna became incapacitated, who was in charge of your unit? Who led the team to attack Changmai Cunzi?"

Jier asked sternly.

The surrendered soldier sighed: "I remember, after Knight Hartna couldn't speak, the unit seemed to always be decided by the Knight's Attendant Adjutant and the Soldier Captain. However, I am very clear about who led the team to attack Changmai Cunzi: it was the Soldier Captain who led us to do this. He commanded us to capture the village and take the villagers who dared not resist as captives. And the villagers who resisted firmly were all ordered to be killed by him."

*Thump! *

The sound of a fist hitting the wall came from outside the door. It was clearly Priest Bataer, who, upon hearing this, was emotionally agitated and had hit the wall with his hand.

Jier sighed silently. He actually didn't dare tell Priest Bataer that some time ago, he himself had once, under the leadership of Knight Kela, attacked a village and killed many villagers who resisted stubbornly.

However, the difference was that that operation had been approved by the local lord.

But Jier also knew that what he did at the time seemed wrong. Because they were not the people of Kendall County, he had attacked and killed wantonly. Although most of them were people from a certain Merchant Guild, he had still killed or wounded no fewer than a dozen local villagers.

"The matter is clear. The one who led the team to attack the village was your unit's Soldier Captain, and all of you soldiers participated in the attack on the village, right?"

Jier asked.

The surrendered soldier leaned against the corner of the wall, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and said softly: "That is so, Sir."

"And then a portion of the soldiers snuck toward Blue Dragonfly Cunzi here, attempting to capture more innocent villagers? While a portion of the men escorted the Changmai Cunzi villagers to a newly abandoned mine pit in the mountain forest further south to dig for ore?"

"Yes, my lord." The surrendered Soldier shrank back, curled up, and responded in a low voice.

Jier nodded: "Then are you also unclear about why that Knight Adjutant and the Soldier Captain insisted on excavating the Mineral Ore from the mine? The location is so remote; even if you dug it out, there is no manpower to transport it, and no one to buy it. Why on earth are the two of them doing this? Are their brains broken?"

"I don't know, my lord. But perhaps their brains really are broken; after crossing the mountain range, everyone in the troop has changed too much," the surrendered Soldier answered in a low voice.

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(End of this chapter)