The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 374: Short Interrogation

After they entered the room and were ordered to stand facing Aldrian, who was already waiting for them, they watched as he slowly approached, his gaze sweeping over them one by one. His smiling face, paired with eyes that seemed to pierce into their very souls, made it feel as though he could see through any deception.

After a moment, Aldrian stopped and returned to his original position.

"I’m sorry to disturb your nightly activities, but allow me to introduce myself. You can call me Aldrian. I’m from the main church, here to investigate the traces of the traitor, Cardinal Carsius. I have a few questions for you, and I hope you will answer them truthfully," he said.

Their hearts tensed at his words, but they did their best to suppress any signs of unease. Instead, their expressions showed only a hint of relief, as if they had just heard something reassuring.

"Of course, my lord, we will help and answer to the best of our ability. I thought we had done something wrong, which is why we were called here. Please, ask anything," one of them, a guard, said with a slight bow.

"Me too, my lord," the other two echoed.

However, Aldrian only smiled at them, watching with amusement. Though they spoke with confidence, inside, their hearts were gripped with nervousness, a chill creeping through them like ice. They knew something was wrong. The fact that all three of them had been summoned at this hour could not be a coincidence. They knew each other, shared a connection to Cardinal Carsius—and to the devils. freewebnσvel.cøm

If they had all been called together, then the church must have already uncovered something that pointed to them!

Aldrian didn’t know why, but he enjoyed moments like these—feigning ignorance only to strike with undeniable facts when his "victims" believed they were safe. His gaze shifted to the man standing furthest to the left. He was a middle-aged man dressed in a butler’s attire.

"Mister Moris."

"Yes, my lord."

"You have served as the butler here for a long time, haven’t you? And from my understanding, you never leave this mansion without Mayor Franco’s permission, correct?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Then, can you tell me what you did in the days following the rumor of Cardinal Carsius’s arrival in this city? Specifically, when Mayor Franco was away in the capital?"

"I simply carried out my usual duties—overseeing the mansion, managing the maids, and ensuring everything remained in order. If there was nothing urgent to attend to while Lord Franco was away on business, I spent most of my time cultivating. That is what I did during that period as well, my lord," Mister Moris replied.

Aldrian nodded. "I see." He then turned his gaze to the man in the middle. "Guard Paz, you have been guarding the side of the mansion all this time, correct?"

The man in the middle, clad in armor, straightened his posture and answered, "Yes, my lord!"

"You didn’t see anyone or anything suspicious during the time when Mayor Franco was in the capital?"

"No, my lord."

"Alright." Aldrian then shifted his attention to the man on the far right.

"Mister Zavi, you are the one responsible for operating the private teleportation portal inside this mansion. To use the portal, anyone who wishes to pass through must have the mayor’s permission, correct?"

"Yes, my lord, that is correct," Mister Zavi answered. Aldrian responded with a nod.

Mayor Franco also looked at the three men. After hearing Butler Moris and Guard Paz’s responses, he already knew what to expect—these were the same answers he had received before. In fact, all of his subordinates had been questioned in the same manner, and every one of them had given the same response. The point was clear, they all claimed to know nothing about Cardinal Carsius.

"Nice answers from all of you, and there seems to be nothing wrong with them," Aldrian said, causing the three men to sigh in relief. But then, he continued.

"But why are you lying to me? Didn’t I tell you not to lie when answering my questions?"

A chilling sensation ran down their spines, and Mayor Franco narrowed his eyes.

"My lord—" Butler Moris wanted to speak something, but Aldrian ignored him and turned his gaze to Mayor Franco.

"Excuse me, Mayor Franco. Although these are your people, I must take action against them."

Mayor Franco met Aldrian’s eyes before giving a nod.

"It’s okay, Your Eminence. They are at your disposal."

"Good."

Suddenly, the three men began to tremble, their eyes unfocused as if they were seeing things in multiple places at once. They remained frozen where they stood, and moments later, their bodies started convulsing. Blood trickled from their noses, ears, and eyes.

Watching this, Mayor Franco and Arthur narrowed their eyes. From the looks of it, they seemed to be under some kind of illusion, a powerful one, strong enough to affect reality itself.

It was clear they were experiencing intense torture, their bodies reacting to the unseen torment. But then, a question arose in Mayor Franco and Arthur’s minds, what had these men done to deserve such punishment? Aldrian had not explained anything to them, yet they chose to wait and see what had led him to take such drastic action.

They glanced at Aldrian, who simply observed the three men expressionlessly, as if waiting for something. He leaned casually against the large desk in Mayor Franco’s office, showing no urgency or concern.

A few seconds later, the three men stopped trembling and collapsed weakly onto the floor. Blood stained their attire, but they paid no mind to it as they desperately struggled to crawl toward Aldrian.

"Please spare me! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!"

"Please spare me!"

"Have mercy on me!"

Their voices trembled with desperation as they clung to Aldrian’s feet. However, unlike before—when he had worn a smile—Aldrian’s expression remained completely blank as he looked down at them.

"Then talk," Aldrian said.

"I did meet with Cardinal Carsius at George’s Inn," Butler Moris admitted. "He contacted me at the time, saying he wanted to escape to the north. He reached out because of our connection to the devils, and I thought this was part of his or the devils’ plan. So, I helped him enter the mansion to use the mayor’s private teleportation portal. He couldn’t use the public teleportation station anymore for obvious reasons."

"Yes, I also saw him enter the mansion," Guard Paz added. "At the time, they came through the gate I was guarding, and since we belong to the same faction and share ties with the devils, I let Cardinal Carsius in. I assumed he was carrying out something important for the devils’ plan. I even directed them through a path that no one else used to avoid witnesses."

"Cardinal Carsius did, in fact, escape through this mansion’s teleportation portal—and I was the one who operated it," said Mister Zavi, the portal’s operator. "Since we share the same connection to the devils, I assumed he was carrying out something in line with their plan."

Hearing their confessions, Aldrian turned to Mayor Franco. As expected, his expression was truly ugly, his face contorted with fury, though he forced himself to hold it in. Aldrian was certain that if he stepped outside right now, Mayor Franco would beat these men to death on the spot. There was no way someone like him would tolerate being fooled by his own subordinates.

"There you have it—the answer we were looking for," Aldrian said.

Mayor Franco took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

"I truly did not expect that some of my own men would betray me and have ties to that traitor and the devils," Mayor Franco said after calming himself down. His expression remained ugly as he slightly bowed toward Aldrian. "I deserve punishment for my negligence."

However, Aldrian simply waved his hand.

"It’s fine. This isn’t something just anyone could have known. They could lie through their teeth and control their expressions and reactions, making it nearly impossible to detect their deception. If they were easy to expose, they wouldn’t have been able to act as spies in the first place. Besides, you trusted them, so you had little reason to be suspicious," Aldrian replied.

He knew about the three of them because of the memories he had read from the devils in the underground base outside the city—the ones he had killed. These three were, without a doubt, spies for the devils, and they had also been connected to Cardinal Carsius.

After Cardinal Carsius passed through the private teleportation portal in the mansion, Moris, the butler, went to the devils’ base outside the city to report on the cardinal’s movements. However, it was then that they discovered Cardinal Carsius had no real connection to the devils’ plan—the devils there knew nothing about his actions.

Realizing they had all been deceived by Cardinal Carsius, they found themselves in a difficult position. They couldn’t report this to Mayor Franco, as doing so would expose their own involvement. Having already lied to both the investigation team and the mayor, they knew they would undoubtedly be dragged into serious trouble.

"Where is he? Where is that traitor?" Aldrian asked, looking down at Zavi, the teleportation portal operator.

"I... I don’t know his exact location right now, but at that time, he went to Caritas City in the Atria Empire."

Aldrian narrowed his eyes—he hadn’t expected this. He had already escaped outside the church’s territory!