13 Mink Street

Order’s black flame swayed faintly from the lamp upon Bernard’s chest. It did not bring light. Instead, it caused the inside of the cave to grow a little dimmer, as if the effects of light and shadow had been reversed.

Time passed slowly.

During this period, Karon did not speak. He simply sat there, his eyes deliberately not looking at Bernard, though also not deliberately avoiding him either. It was as though everything that entered Karon’s sight had nothing to do with him. He was merely waiting for the fuel to burn clean.

Several times, Bernard tried to open his mouth, only to close it again. In his eyes, conflicting emotions clashed and churned.

A person who has died once does not usually become more indifferent to life and death. Rather, they frequently become even more afraid of death, or to be precise, they become afraid of the end. On that point, Karon had considerable authority to speak.

He knew that Bernard had to be suffering great torment right now. This had nothing to do with what kind of man Bernard had been while alive. The revelation of death stripped everything away from him at this moment. His heart was now like a young snake freshly hatched from its egg.

Beyond that, the flames of Order used the spiritual power within Bernard’s body as fuel. This brought about a pain comparable to having his soul burned away, because the very foundation of Bernard’s existence at this time was that remnant spiritual power that remained within his corpse.

Certainly, there were those with unwavering faith who could face life and death with indifference, but Bernard was not one of them. “You are a devil. You are a devil. You are a devil!”

Karon remained unmoved. Tears welled in the corners of Bernard’s eyes, and snot ran from his nose. He was not on the verge of collapse. He had already broken.

This happened faster than Karon had expected. Because Bernard had died very peacefully, the amount of residual spirituality inside him was very large. In other words, he still had a long time to burn.

Someone like Saman had been able to move for nearly three days after being Awakened. His normal bodily organs had not yet deteriorated to the point of failure, and that was roughly a day and a half after he had been Awakened. This indicated that even with Order’s fire burning on Bernard’s chest, he should be able to last nearly five hours.

Although the soul and spirituality could not simply be compared, under normal circumstances, residual spirituality within a corpse was far more resistant to burning than a soul. However, only five minutes had passed.

At this rate, Karon felt Bernard should still be able to curse for another fifteen minutes to half an hour. After no more than half an hour, he would start to bitterly beg Karon for a quick death.

Those who had never truly experienced solitary confinement could never know just how terrifying confinement could be, and what Bernard was enduring was a torture countless times deeper than that. From body to mind, from the initial groundwork to the current progression, step after step, point after point, his mental defenses were slowly smashed apart.

In the end, a conspirator who could barely be considered a hero of his age was tortured until he became a pitiful man covered with tears and snot.

Karon had truly never thought he possessed such talent. He had really never thought so, because what he had studied and mastered in his previous life had been for resolving people’s inner suffering and mental pressure. This time, it could be considered an exploration in the opposite direction.

Hmm. The results of this exploration are quite impressive.

Bernard cursed for more than twenty minutes straight. Then, slowly, his voice began to weaken. Fear began to seep in.

In this world, there were many things more terrifying than death. Bernard was already losing his sense of self. His thoughts were in chaos, and he no longer had any grasp of who he was. He was like someone thrown into a bottomless abyss, falling endlessly, unable to sense where the ground might be.

At that moment, Karon turned his body slightly, revealing only his side to Bernard, denying the man even his gaze. That was because Karon knew that at a time like this, even a glance could offer Bernard a bit of warmth and a sense of security.

Karon refused to grant even that.

He should have brought a book. Right now, Bernard needed to see that Karon was calmly focused on something else. He needed to understand that Karon did not care about him in the slightest. With no better option, Karon took out his pack of cigarettes again. He drew one, and lit it.

He did his best to enjoy smoking, becoming absorbed in it and forgetting everything around him.

“Wuwu...” Bernard began crying aloud.

Karon pressed the cigarette tightly between his lips and held back. He could not allow himself to laugh.

“Wuwu...”

Infants were best at using this method to attract adults’ attention.

Karon smoked three cigarettes in a row. Each time he put out a butt, Bernard’s crying would grow louder. He still clung to hope, hope that after Karon discarded the cigarette butt, he would notice Bernard.

Yet every time, Karon leisurely lit another one.

Bernard, your sins are heavy. I quit smoking so long ago. Do not make me relapse. Karon felt somewhat helpless, but he could only continue maintaining his calm.

Finally, the next stage arrived. “Kill me... kill me... kill me!”

Karon still ignored him.

“Please, kill me. Kill me. Please!”

Karon lit another cigarette. Even the heaviest smoker would feel nauseous after chain-smoking like this, yet Karon had to keep up an appearance of thoroughly enjoying each one. There was no helping it. This was a battle of endurance.

Thinking of what Bernard was suffering at that very moment, Karon felt that a little excess nicotine and tar was something he could endure.

Originally, Karon could have made things simpler, but he now wanted to experiment. If things continued along this rhythm, he should be able to obtain Bernard’s confession.

Karon now wanted to know exactly who it was who had incited Bernard to kill Phileas and the others. He wanted more concrete information, because Karon had a premonition that at some stage in the future, he would encounter those same people.

Karon was also examining himself, examining the difference between himself and Phileas. This was not the difference between Light and Order, but a difference in their stages of development.

Compared to Phileas, Karon was far more cautious. Even if the captain knew his secrets, the captain did not know the views on gods and faith that lay buried in the depths of Karon’s heart.

Phileas was different. Phileas had truly been preaching. If not for Bernard’s betrayal, and if the orthodox churches had not noticed Darkmoon Island at that time, it was very likely that the Church of Light would have taken root there, a Church of Light that believed in Light alone, not in any god.

A Reformed Church of Light.

It seemed that once Karon returned home, he would need to give Alfred a warning. He could be allowed to continue preaching as merrily as he pleased, or it would be all too easy to draw that organization’s attention.

The truth remained that Karon did not possess the conditions to preach openly. The situation Phileas had faced was different. The Church of Light had already collapsed and scattered, and there had been no higher ecclesiastical structure above him. He himself had essentially been the leader of a remnant of Light.

Karon was in a different position. If he brought things into the open, that organization would not even need to intervene; The Church of Order itself would crush him with overwhelming force.

“Please kill me... Father... Father... kill me... kill me... please, Father...” He needed deliverance. It had become his sole fixation, his only craving, and it was countless times stronger than any drug addiction. Dignity, bearing, identity, and all such things became worthless once a person lost all sense of self. Their mind would rapidly degenerate, and instinct would seize command of their consciousness.

Karon felt that if Pu’er were in the same situation, she would probably be able to hold on. If she was burned for several hours, she would keep cursing for several hours. After all, she had been a cat for a hundred years. Another way of saying that her nature had not changed during that time was that she had long since grown used to loneliness.

Bernard and Pu’er were people of the same era, but Bernard had spent the time since then asleep, lacking a hundred years of tempering. He could not be considered some old monster. In short, Bernard was far weaker than Karon had imagined.

It was about time. If this continued, Bernard would enter the next stage. He would completely lose his mind to derangement, which was not what Karon wanted.

He finally turned around and looked at Bernard.

“Please, kill me. Kill me!” When Bernard saw Karon’s gaze turn toward him, he cried and laughed at the same time.

“I awakened the Allen family’s Earl Rekar.”

“Please, kill me!”

“I awakened a senior craftsman priest from the Church of Pamireth. His name was Saman.”

“Kill me!”

“Now, they are both sealed in coffins, waiting for me to Awaken them again in the future, because I can use this method to grant them permanent existence. I have prepared twelve such coffins. Two are already in use, but ten remain.”

“Please... I want it! I want it! I want it!”

Karon looked at Bernard and smiled. “Sorry, but you are not worthy.”

“Please give it to me, Master. Please give me a coffin, Master, Master!”

“You lack the qualifications.”

“I know. I am lowly. I am livestock. I am inferior. I...”

Karon stood and stretched.

Bernard immediately shouted, “Those people call themselves the Keepers of Silence! They are an organization with a legacy that stretches across many epochs. Their organization has existed for longer than many orthodox churches!”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It is true! They truly exist! I originally did not believe it either, but among the two people who came to find me, one was a priest of Light, and the other was... a priest of Eternity. I could sense their power. Their power was not something I could resist. That terrifying pressure made me feel like an ant before them.

“One Light, one Eternity. Light aside, a powerful Eternity priest also appeared before me. The Church of Eternity! That is a church that already perished two epochs ago!”

“If they were so powerful, why did they still need you to act?”

“Because they are restricted and cannot truly act. They told me that they are waiting for the gods to return. At that time, they will receive the gods’ grace.”

The God of Light returning was one thing, but would the God of Eternity also return? Such an organization, what was the purpose of its existence? Watching the house and guarding the courtyard?

Karon understood that Bernard clearly did not know very much about this organization. He only knew some peripheral information.

“They promised me that when the gods return, I will receive a share of grace. As the clan leader of Darkmoon, I would lead Darkmoon to merge into the new Church of Light. I would become an elder of the new Church of Light. I would receive God’s guidance!”

“How were you moved by this?” Judging by Bernard’s character, since the other party had told him they could not act directly, would Bernard truly have bowed willingly?

“Because... because I saw the God of Light!”

Karon’s eyes sharply focused.

“God... smiled at me.”

That was somewhat abstract.

“I truly saw it, but I do not know how to describe it with words, but I truly did see it. I received affirmation from the God of Light. When Light dims, it becomes Darkmoon. My future path became clear in an instant!”

Hypnosis? Illusion? Neither should have been possible. Bernard was not so easy to fool. Then what exactly had he seen?

Karon did not believe it could have truly been the God of Light, but how had those people managed to convince even someone of Bernard’s level?

Karon could not help considering himself. If he were to play the role of the God of Order descending, the difficulty seemed much lower.

So, what could deceive Bernard had to contain at least some degree of authenticity. In addition, this organization actually had Light and Eternity priests, and ones Bernard described as powerful. This showed how mysterious and transcendent the organization was.

Karon felt a headache coming on. He did not want to think about these matters right now. More than that, he was instinctively repelled by the thought of touching this organization, whose presently known purpose seemed to be the removal of people like him and Phileas.

Keepers of Silence... silence before divine authority? Whoever dared to speak will be erased?

Did the orthodox churches know of this organization? It should be among the most tightly guarded secrets. Would he be able to uncover anything after returning home?

Nio certainly did not know anything about this. Phileas had only known that Bernard had betrayed them, and had subconsciously assumed it to be a classic case of the hound being killed once the hunt was over.

Then... should Karon tell the captain about this?

“The God of Light gave me a promise. He told me that on October 10, year 1735 of the Darkmoon calendar, I should go to the altar on Blackreach Isle to receive God’s guidance. God would fulfill all His promises to me!

“Because there were still more than a hundred years before that date, they were willing to help arrange for my long slumber after that matter was concluded, but I refused. Phileas happened to have just cultivated an insect that could help people enter long slumber.”

Darkmoon calendar... Karon began converting the time in his heart. In other words, three years from now?

Bernard had been awakened three years early.

An organization called Keepers of Silence had sent two powerful priests, one Light and one Eternity, to find Bernard, and had even made Bernard see the God of Light. As for the man seeing the true God of Light, Karon had his doubts. He did not believe the God of Light could truly manifest to do such a thing, but the scene and atmosphere at the time had convinced Bernard beyond doubt.

No, there was yet another issue. They had been willing to provide Bernard with a method for long slumber, but because Phileas had developed an insect with the same effect at the time, Bernard had refused their offer.

Karon, of course, understood that Bernard had trusted Phileas’s character and had also known what kind of genius Phileas had been, which was why he had complete confidence in the effect of the insects Phileas had developed. Since he had already had one, he had refused the two priests’ offer.

Heh. When bargaining, if the thing you want to arrange for me is something I can arrange myself, shouldn’t you compensate me with something else?

Then why had Bernard not mentioned this matter? In his current state, it was impossible for him to still hide or hold anything back.

If he can still hold something back when he’s like this, even if it is only one tiny detail, that means the confession is not absolute, which is equivalent to...

Karon frowned slightly.

“Please... Master... Master... I am useful... keep me... keeping me means keeping a way to respond... in the future... you will also face them... Master...”

Karon did not speak. Instead, he reached out and gently swept across the Order flame. The flame rose, larger than before.

“AHHHHH!!!” Bernard wailed. Even as he screamed, he continued begging Karon.

By giving him despair first, then hope, and repeating the cycle several times over, Karon tormented Bernard completely.

He stood beside the coffin, watching the man.

From that moment on, Karon said nothing. Bernard begged for an hour, and despaired for an hour. He was like a stalk of sugarcane, chewed over again and again, crushed through round after round.

When there was roughly one minute left, Karon reached out and weakened the flame, turning that final minute into another hour.

“You...” Because of this, Bernard’s entire person descended into complete confusion. One moment he cursed Karon, the next he begged Karon. One moment he called out his father and mother’s names, the next he called out for Poelle. His consciousness had already completely shattered into pieces.

In the end, Karon grew tired of playing.

Bernard lost consciousness. The tiny bit of residual spirituality left was no longer enough to continue supporting his thoughts and reactions. He was completely dead. Once the Order flame was extinguished, it would mean that this corpse had been burned dry, equivalent to an extremely thorough purification.

Karon closed the coffin lid, then patted his hands and walked out of the cave.

A short while later, the teleportation array outside the cave activated. The cave, no, the entire island, fell quiet.

Another two hours passed. Dawn was approaching, but Karon’s figure reappeared at the entrance of the cave. He walked back to the stone coffin and pushed the coffin lid off that he had closed earlier. Bernard’s corpse still lay quietly inside.

Karon raised his hand again. Black chains appeared beneath his feet and spread onto Bernard’s body. “Order—Awaken!”

Using Awakening on a corpse that had been thoroughly drained of spirituality brought no response from the corpse. Sigh, was I overthinking things?

However, Karon did not rush to retract the chains beneath his feet. This attempt to Awaken Bernard was still ongoing. To Karon, the consumption required to maintain the Awakening Art was so small that it could be ignored, especially when using it on an empty shell.

But patience always had limits. Just as Karon was finally about to admit that he had overthought things and prepared to withdraw the black chain, he suddenly sensed through that chain that somewhere on Bernard’s body, a crack seemed to have opened and was tugging against him.

Karon immediately continued to increase the power of his black chain, engaging in a tug-of-war with that tug. Finally, something seemed to be completely broken open. A surge of spirituality overflowed from Bernard’s head, or more precisely, from his eyes. From them, it began spreading throughout his whole body. Immediately afterward, the Awakening Art took effect.

Bernard’s body was actually Awakened once more.

However, the Awakening Art that had just succeeded extinguished soon after. The spirituality that had been burned by Karon sank back into silence, because a power of a soul had appeared. As long as this body possessed a soul, it meant that it was not truly dead. The spiritual power still had an owner, so naturally, it could not be Awakened.

Bernard opened his eyes and looked up at Karon, his expression fell completely, because he knew that everything he had endured before, every hardship and every torment, had all been for nothing. He had just suffered through agonies in hell. No, not even hell was as terrifying as what he had just gone through.

Bernard was in despair. This time, thoroughly and utterly.

Karon laughed twice and sighed sincerely. “Heh heh. Bernard, I really admire you a little now. Your eyes actually concealed your second life. This is the reward they gave you for killing Phileas, isn’t it? This is also the method for entering a long slumber that they offered you.”

Karon leaned forward and carefully stared at Bernard’s eyes, continuing, “Are those the true Darkmoon Eyes? You clearly could have treated these eyes as legacy holy relics, handing them down for generation after generation of your clansmen to guard. After all, when the time came, you could use the soul and spirituality sealed within those eyes to find a new body and resurrect.

“Oh, you were unwilling to hand them to your descendants, because you never trusted them. You also wanted to preserve your original body, which is why you used Phileas’s insect.

“Bernard, you truly are greedy, and extremely selfish.”

“I curse you! You will meet the same end as Phileas! You and everyone around you will all come to a miserable and pitiful end!”

“All right, all right. I will, I will. But before I meet that miserable and pitiful end, Miss Poelle is mine.

“And your eyes are mine too.

“I, Rhanedar, want it all.”