Chapter 43 |
Chapter 43
"It is done!" Jacques covered the goods on the carriage. He had already carved the Sacred Whisper onto these items.
They were not overly conspicuous, yet not completely hidden either. As long as the inspection at the city gate proceeded normally, they would absolutely be discovered.
"You should not be here." A sudden voice startled Jacques.
Turning around, Jacques saw Lao Mushi.
His mind raced, and in that split second, Jacques''s quick wit was forced to the surface.
"It is you." Jacques quickly feigned a relaxed posture, then spoke with feigned indignation, "Nels must definitely be involved in the Whalehide Ore situation. I have to uncover his violations."
"That is why I came to the Caravan to conduct an inspection."
"Lao Mushi, please just pretend you never saw me. I will leave as soon as I finish checking," Jacques pleaded. His tone and demeanor were exactly the same as how he had previously acted toward Lao Mushi.
By bluffing his way through, he hoped to make Lao Mushi lower his guard.
"You are a good child," Lao Mushi said with a gentle smile. "Even though you can be impulsive at times, that is only because you lack experience."
"If you experience a bit more of the world, you will become a qualified Holy Knight."
"I..." Jacques was just about to say something when Lao Mushi interrupted him.
"I sincerely apologize, Jacques."
"Everything is proceeding as if by Shen''s will, unfolding into a situation I never wished for," Lao Mushi said. Suddenly, he heard a loud crash echoing from the distance.
With his sharp perception, he quickly determined that the noise originated from the Cathedral.
"It seems someone has discovered my failures hidden beneath the Cathedral."
"Is it Nels? Or is it Isabella?" Lao Mushi did not panic at this realization; instead, he felt a liberating sense of relief.
His attitude toward the experiment had always been extremely conflicted.
Ever since his failure all those years ago, he had lost far too much because of this experiment.
He could not let it go. He felt that he should repent, that he needed to atone for his sins.
Yet, at the same time, he believed he could not just let the matter end in failure. If he did, his sins could never be fully washed away.
And so, he unconsciously restarted the experiment.
Reason told him he should stop the experiment, to put an end to all of this, but every external circumstance seemed to be pushing him forward.
When he finally saw the critical juncture of the experiment''s success approaching, with every necessary element falling into place one by one, he could no longer hold back.
Now, his final avenue of retreat had been severed. He no longer had the luxury of wavering, and in this moment, his heart finally settled.
What greeted Lao Mushi was Jacques''s Sword.
In the instant he swung the blade, Jacques unleashed his full strength.
He fully activated the power of the Saint''s Bone, along with his family''s secret inheritance, the Path of the Saint.
His full-powered strike swept directly toward Lao Mushi.
The Sword landed heavily on Lao Mushi. Blood sprayed through the air as Lao Mushi''s body was cleanly severed into two halves.
However, Jacques''s expression drastically changed.
''The feedback is wrong!'' Jacques had participated in hunts and slaughtered animals with his blade; he knew exactly what the Blade Edge felt like when it cleaved through flesh and shattered bone.
Sure enough, the surrounding environment instantly dimmed.
Just as Jacques went on high alert, a beam of light descended from an unknown source, enveloping him completely.
He was like the protagonist of a stage play, instantly becoming the center of The World. Jacques had no idea what Lao Mushi was scheming, nor could he understand what was happening, so he could only grip his Sword and stand on guard.
Then, he saw another beam of light appear in the distance.
The person bathed in that light was incredibly familiar. It was none other than the man he hated so deeply: Nels.
Except, in that vision, Nels appeared remarkably young, roughly the same age Jacques was now, looking as though he had just reached adulthood.
He was sprinting down a long corridor.
Clad in full armor, he gripped his Sword and cleaved open the door at the end of the hallway. He charged into a courtyard where several servants were carrying various items.
"Is that... the Dartmenli Villa?" Jacques immediately recognized Nels''s location. It was a manor adjacent to the main Dartmenerly estate, where many of the Family Household servants stayed to manage the dietary needs of the elite family members.
Because numerous precious medicinal ingredients were used here, and due to the constant fear that the family elites might be poisoned, this area was strictly off-limits to outsiders.
Then, he watched as Nels grabbed a servant, his eyes completely bloodshot as he demanded, "Where is it?"
After using the Sword in his hand to extract an answer, Nels stormed into a specific section of the estate. Swinging his blade like a madman, he forced back the guards stationed outside and shoved the heavy doors open.
The moment he saw what was inside, Nels seemed to be drained of all his strength. He collapsed against the threshold, staring blankly at the contents of the room before he began to violently dry heave.
Jacques was struck by an ominous premonition. He stepped forward inch by inch, approaching that very spot. Filled with dread, yet entirely unable to restrain himself, he peered inside.
And then, he witnessed a horrifying scene that he would never be able to forget for the rest of his life.
The room was massive, filled with over a dozen racks. Suspended from each of these racks was a human being.
Their bodies were impaled with countless tubes. Some tubes drained away their blood, while others pumped food or mysterious chemicals into their systems.
Their physiques were severely emaciated, riddled with agonizing scars. They were missing limbs, and raw, bloody tissue was still visible around the amputations, layered with dense, overlapping blade marks.
Jacques could vividly imagine how the flesh had been meticulously sliced from their bodies, piece by agonizing piece.
"Urgh..." Jacques could not hold back a sudden bout of dry heaving, his entire body trembling violently.
But what drove him to the absolute brink of madness was the fact that each of those dozen racks bore an identification tag.
Right there, among the names, he saw those of his own parents.
The two figures chained to the racks bearing his parents'' names had almost entirely lost their human shape. They had been staring at him from the very moment he looked inside.
How could anyone even begin to describe those two pairs of eyes?
In an instant, Jacques felt a severe World-Spinning sensation.
Unable to maintain his footing, he collapsed onto the cold floor.
He had always believed that his parents had perished while crusading against Evil.
Never in his wildest nightmares did he imagine that they had survived until now, suspended in such a pathetic, torturous state?!
"Aaaahhhh!!!" Jacques released a furious, agonizing roar.
He was enraged by his own blinding ignorance, and equally furious at the Dartmenerly Family for subjecting him and his parents to such unthinkable cruelty.
But more than anything, his wrath was directed toward Nels.
When Nels discovered this truth all those years ago, why didn''t he blow the matter completely out of proportion?! Why didn''t he let the Church eradicate the Dartmenerly Family?! Why didn''t he just kill the Jacques of that time!!!
And what had he himself been doing all these years?
Ridiculously taking pride in the Dartmenerly Family, fighting time and time again for that so-called noble lineage?
He was nothing more than a pathetic clown, ruthlessly manipulated yet still eagerly performing to amuse his masters.
The overwhelming reality of it all was driving him completely insane.
Right at that very moment, the heavy restraints binding the racks snapped apart.
Those grotesque, inhuman figures began crawling toward him, hellbent on tearing him apart.