CH 72.2

At William’s words, the servants shut their mouths.

They did remember what the hero had done at the banquet. But they weren’t going to say that.

Because there is a big difference between what you think and what you say with your mouth.

At this point when the hero had captured the demon and uncovered the innocence of the prince, it was even more difficult to put it into words.

“…Alright.”

In the end, the servants had no choice but to bow their heads and leave. When they left, only the demon, King William, and Cloud remained in the dungeon.

William said, looking at Cloud.

“Before I ask you why you wanted it to be private, can I ask you one thing?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks for apprehending the demon and cleaning the rumours, but why did you torture the demon yourself?”

“For information, as simple as that.”

“Thanks to you, the demon has lost its mind.”

“Because I don’t have a deep knowledge of torture arts.”

“There are excellent torture specialists in the palace.”

“Stop asking more questions, Your Majesty. You are blaming my arbitrary torture because of which the demon lost its mind. But I did it for a sufficient reason.”

“I am listening.”

“Soulstone.”

William’s face hardened at the word Cloud uttered. Cloud grinned as if he had caught the right string.

“What are these demons aiming for, to be desperate enough to entangle even the prince’s name? As I thought deeply, the direction of my thoughts turned to the royal family. Maybe they want something the royal family has. But as far as I know, there is nothing in the royal family’s possession that demons would want. So I tortured it to see if there was something the royal family was hiding, and I was right.”

Cloud got up and brushed the dust off his butt.

He walked in front of William and faced him.

“You will guide me.”

“…I’m thinking I should have accepted the head butler’s proposal, letting Sir Weasel stay behind.”

“Nothing would have changed.”

“Was worth trying.”

William sighed deeply.

“Follow me.”

William and Cloud walked down the stairs of the dungeon. After going down for a while, they reached the last floor.

“There are no prisoners here.”

“Not enough prisoners that would requisite the need of this floor, and it wasn’t made for that purpose in the first place.”

William entered the sixth prison cell on the right and fumbled with the wall across the iron bars. A brick that touched his hand went deep.

Kugugung-!

The wall splitted, revealing a passage leading to the inside. William went in first, followed by Cloud.

“You don’t look surprised.”

“I’ve been through much to be surprised by just this.”

“I’ve been curious about it for a long time. What kind of experience did you go through that changed you like this?”

“Not a great experience, I’ll give you that.”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk. We don’t have time to listen anyway.”

William motioned at the purple light he saw through the aisle. That was the end of the passage, and the place the thing Cloud mentioned was stored at.

Arriving in the small round room, Cloud found himself in front of a gem emitting dazzling purple light.

He recognized it at a glance, this gem was the soul stone, and at the same time frowned at the strong energy it oozed out.

Soul stone.

A gem that turns captured souls into energy.

A gem touted as a sacred artefact among warlocks.

Cloud had wondered why the Kingdom had this treasure, but now was more curious as to why the Soul Stone emitted such strong energy.

“How many people did you sacrifice to gather this amount of energy?”

“Not too many. I can count on ten fingers.”

“You are saying that fewer than ten souls will radiate that kind of energy? Like what, had they all been the heroes of the century?”

“Don’t say nonsense,” Cloud laughed.

William went silent with a bitter face.

Cloud’s expression hardened slightly.

“You said you can count on ten fingers. Exactly how many?”

“Seven in total.”

“Which among them were heroes?”

“All seven of them… ugh…!”

Before William could finish speaking, Cloud grabbed him by neck. The neck was fragile, so fragile that it could be broken at any moment if desired, but Cloud did not.

He just looked at him with cold eyes, his hand around the neck.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t break this neck.”

“You… you’re mistaken… something big…”

“Mistaken?”

“You think the kingdom… forced… their souls… don’t you think…”

“Oh?”

“Never..! The kingdom never siphoned their souls! Kugh..! They sacrificed… for the sake of the kingdom… There’s no way we could have siphoned the soul of a hero… who are beyond the realm of humanity in the first place…”

“Maybe with threats, you could. There are many other ways.”

A hero is a superhuman.

However, that does not necessarily mean that the people around a hero are superhumans too. For example, what if you secretly kidnap a hero’s family and force him to sacrifice his soul to the soul stone?

If he is a man with strong family affection, he will have no choice but to give in to the threats.

“Yeah… There may be many ways like you said… But think about it… If the kingdom had done such a vicious deed… wouldn’t it have been punished by the Goddess?”

“Now that you bring in the Goddess, even the last bit of trust is gone.”

“What?!”

""

What a blasphemous remark!

Just when William, astonished, prayed to the goddess that he had nothing to do with those remarks.

“So you are the hero of this time. If that child’s words are true, won’t you let go?”

A suspicious voice was heard.

Cloud turned his head in the direction the voice came from.

A spirit in the form of an old man was looking at him, hovering above the soul stone.

“…and who you may be?”

“Sylus, was the first hero of the Kingdom of Prona.”

Starting with the introduction of the old spirit, six more spirits jumped out of the soulstone one by one.