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“S-Sir, what does this all mean? Who are these people?” asked the owner of the inn, who clearly had no idea what was happening.

“Well, then, Ludwig, I’ll let you do the talking,” said Dion as he walked away.

Ludwig laughed and shook his head in resignation before telling the owner what was going on.

While this was going on, the assassins were led to a room in the inn with their hands tied behind their backs. There, a group of the Princess Guard was already crowded into the small space.

Some of the Guard were rough and mean, while others were calm and dependable.

Even though they were met with many angry looks and growls when they entered the room, the captives did not show the slightest bit of fear.

“All right,” Dion said with a smile. “We have a lot of questions, so why don’t you all talk, hm?”

He pulled out his sword that made the room feel cold. It seemed like a few degrees had dropped. Some of the prisoners started to sweat when they thought about how well he had used the weapon just recently.

One of the guards asked Captain Dion, “Are you sure it’s a good idea to keep them all in here?”

The underlying message, of course, was that victims were usually easier to question when they were alone.

Dion just gave a shrug when he heard the idea.

“I’m no longer your captain, but it’s all right. We’ll keep them here like this. After all, it’s one thing to hear that your friends are hurting, but it’s another to see them scream and die. I think the second one has a stronger effect. Don’t you?”

The prisoners stood up to protest.

“Y-You think that kind of threat will make us back down?”

“Yeah, I thought your princess was supposed to be kind and all that? I heard she doesn’t like torture.”

Ludwig walked into the room and talked to them instead of Dion.

“Such threats are, in fact, wrong. Your complaints are valid. You already said that Her Highness is very kind. She can’t help but be kind,” he said with a calm smile. “Let me tell you something we’ve never told anyone else. When Her Highness was in the Kingdom of Remno dealing with the uprising, there was a group of people who were working against her. They were spies from a different country, and one of them even held a sword up to Her Highness. This was, of course, a terrible crime that should be punished in the harshest way possible.”

When a topic that seemed unrelated was brought up all of a sudden, the captives looked confused.

Ludwig kept going anyway.

“In the end, they were all caught alive. So, here’s my question for you. What do you think is going on with them now?”

One of the prisoners laughed.

“What kind of a question is that? They are, of course, dead. Either your cruel friend there cut off their heads, or they died of torture in a dungeon somewhere.”

Ludwig shook his head in a quiet way.

“No. Everyone is still alive. Under the care of Lady Rafina, they are still alive and well. Every day, they listen to her sermons, copy the Holy Book, and do good things for others. They are a good example.”

During the long silence, the prisoners just stood there with their mouths open.

Then they laughed mockingly.

“Are you serious? Is this the punishment for trying to kill her? What a joke! Your princess is a real softie, for sure!”

The laughter faded, however, when the captives realised that their leader had suddenly gone silent. The humour had drained from his face, along with all colour.

“Hey, what’s up? Why so quiet? What’s going on?”

The leader didn’t answer the questions of his followers and instead looked straight at Ludwig.

“These…people. Did they really work as spies? Not just regular soldiers?”

“They were good at being spies. Men with a lot of experience and the most rigorous training. Professionals who didn’t care if they killed or were killed as long as it helped them do their jobs. They had also been given a lot of training on how to endure torture.”

The man didn’t say anything, but his actions were starting to worry the other people.

“Hey, what the hell is wrong?”

“What does this guy want to say?”

“Tell me,” the man finally said, “how do you get a bunch of top-notch spies to just…decide to go clean? These are people who have been taught to kill. They kill people like livestock. And now you’re telling me that every day they have to listen to lectures? Putting holy verses on paper? Helping people?”

He looked at them.

“They gave up. “What in the name of hell did that take?”

The result was a very loud silence.

Slowly, the others began to see what it meant. It became clear what had happened. These spies had caused a lot of trouble and put the lives of Tearmoon royalty in danger. They had done the worst kind of wrongdoing.

Of course, they wouldn’t get away without punishment. In other words, they did get in trouble for something.

After that, they became religious people who took their faith very seriously. No matter what happened to them, it made them want to find God. With a burning desire.

So what was this punishment that was so good that it turned bad people into saints?

“Y-You mean, they were so traumatised that all they can do is listen to sermons and write out the Bible every day?”

When do people want to be close to God? When you’re so scared you can’t stand it, of course. Just like when they were fighting Dion and all prayed for their lives.

So, whatever was waiting for them must have been something that would make them want it every day…

Ludwig, however, shook his head.

“No, it’s not that. They’re not doing it because they’re afraid.”

A longer silence ensued. The statement didn’t give them any comfort at all.

At least fear made sense. The fear of pain, mental anguish, and the endless emptiness of death…

These were terrible things, but they were not impossible to understand. Being able to imagine them made them easier to deal with.

But if fear wasn’t what caused the strange change in the spies, then what was it?

In that case, no one knew what had caused it. It seemed like it couldn’t be done. How could these spies, who had spent their lives doing the worst jobs, become so religious all of a sudden?

Those people must have been changed to the core. No matter what happened to them, it would have had to completely change who they were and what they believed.

A known fear was limited, but an unknown fear wasn’t.

Without the limits of reality to hold them back, the would-be assassins fell into a deep silence as their minds filled with all kinds of cosmic and otherworldly horrors.

Ludwig then smiled at them, and his face looked almost kind.

“Because of this, you’ll all be fine. You won’t be hurt in any way. You will not be killed. None of that will happen. You’ll just turn out like them,” he said as he put a comforting hand on the shoulder of a prisoner.

“Gyaaah!”

The man immediately flinched and moved away.

Ludwig’s words made them think and wonder, even though they didn’t want to, what transcendent horrors they were about to face that couldn’t be put into words.

“Now, come. You don’t have to be so scared. Her Highness is most benevolent.”

At this point, no one believed what Ludwig said anymore.

“She won’t do anything bad to you. That’s not necessary. You’ll gladly give her your hearts.”

Their minds were filled with images of tearing open their own chests in a mad rush, trying to be the first to give the princess their still-beating heart.

The room was full of scared gasps.

“Where did my good manners go? You must be thirsty after walking so far. I’ll have some beer delivered.”

They heard that as a way of saying, “Enjoy it while you can still do it.”

The staging was also very good. Dion stood nearby, giving off an air of danger that made people feel hopeless.

As the prisoners looked at him, they tried to guess what kind of nightmare creature his master, Her Imperial Highness Princess Mia Luna Tearmoon, would be.

“It was the King of Ganudos! H-He told us to do it…” They cracked.