Chapter 78
“Mmpph!”
I clamped my hand over my nose and mouth.
‘Even the lake didn’t smell this bad.’
What on earth was in here to make it reek like this?
“Ugh, it’s so dark I can’t see a thing.”
I mumbled through my covered mouth, and Heraies snapped his fingers.
With a sharp crack, flames burst into the air. Like ghost-lights, they floated and brightly illuminated the room.
“……”
“Holy sh—…”
“Ueeegh!”
Faced with the sight before us, some were speechless, some cursed, and some started gagging.
I was the one cursing.
“Freaking lunatics.”
The source of the stench was the pile of goat corpses stacked throughout the prayer room.
Only the heads remained—who knew where the bodies had gone—and the severed goat heads were rolling over a massive magic circle.
It hadn’t been long since they were decapitated; fresh blood was still dripping.
When my gaze met their unblinking yellow eyes, a chill ran down my spine.
“Hm. Looks like they were trying to perform a summoning spell.”
Ban, the only one who kept his sanity while staring at the corpses, immediately recognized the magic.
“A summoning spell…?”
Ban and I both glanced toward Heraies.
These lunatics had done all this to resurrect Heraies.
“I’m seriously going to kill them.”
I could practically see Heraies’ rage meter shooting up.
“Wait—are you telling me they did all this just to summon that ‘Father’ they never shut up about?”
“If it’s a summoning spell, it must be. They were always yelling that their Father would return without fail.”
Noah and Edan, unaware that the “Father” they were trash-talking was Heraies, unintentionally started badmouthing him.
“What kind of bastard was that Father anyway, to gather this many lunatics?”
“Must’ve been just as crazy as them.”
A vein popped on Heraies’ forehead.
At this rate, I was afraid he’d behead them first.
“Edan! Noah! Stop it—we need to find Father first!”
Cutting off the conversation, I looked to Ban.
While we had been distracted, Ban had already discovered a hidden door and was gesturing us over.
“Over here.”
I tugged Heraies’ hand and whispered,
“Hold it in. They don’t know.”
“…Tch. I am killing the cult leader with my own hands.”
“Sure, sure. That one’s all yours.”
Patting Heraies and taking the lead, I heard groaning right behind me.
“Urghh. This place is insane. Completely insane.”
Lucas, half out of his mind, kept mumbling in a crumbling voice.
Thankfully, Rina was supporting him well enough, but I worried he might faint any second.
Squish, squish.
A weird sound came from our shoes with every step.
Who knew how many experiments or spells had been conducted here—the floor was sticky.
I didn’t want to know why it was sticky.
Edan, staring at the magical remnants everyone else was avoiding, spoke.
“So that’s why the lake was contaminated.”
“That magic did it?”
“Yeah. It’s overflowing with grudges and malice. They must’ve dumped the failed experiment residue into the lake. That’s probably how it got polluted.”
Edan frowned, as if things had gotten more complicated.
“Let’s go down.”
Opening the door revealed stairs leading underground.
‘Of course it’s underground. Creepy.’
Nothing good ever happens in basements—in novels or in movies.
Holding Heraies’ hand like a lifeline, I descended and frowned.
“A dungeon…?”
Large, sturdy iron prison cells—exactly the kind used to hold prisoners—filled the underground.
In about ten of the cells, people were imprisoned.
Seeing a clearly masculine silhouette, I hurried over—but it wasn’t the duke.
“Pofu…?”
Lucas, who had been trembling behind me, suddenly rushed forward, grabbing the bars and calling out desperately.
“Mr. Pofu! Wake up!”
“You know him?”
“Yes, he’s a gatekeeper at the lord’s manor. He wasn’t brainwashed like me. One day he suddenly vanished—I thought he was dead…”
Lucas let out a breath of relief.
As he continued his emotional reunion with Pofu, I didn’t have the luxury to watch.
Because he wasn’t the only one imprisoned.
“Sir! Sir, wake up!”
Rina reached an arm through another set of bars, shaking an unconscious knight.
I recognized his face. He was one of the knights who served Father.
‘Then that means Father is here somewhere.’
The moment Noah and I made eye contact, we split without a word.
We didn’t need to speak to know what each of us had to do.
We carefully checked each cell, one by one.
And then—
“Father!”
At last, Noah found the duke.
Rushing to Noah’s side, I peered into the cell—and gasped sharply.
His body lay slumped against the cold floor.
His hands and feet were chained, covered in shackles. His face was full of wounds.
“What on earth…”
I froze, staring at his broken figure. Noah gently pulled me back, impatient but soft.
“Sienna, step back—it’s dangerous.”
Doing as he said, I backed away. Noah drew his sword.
CLANG!
A slash of sword aura shot from his blade and obliterated the lock.
Creeeak—
The moment the gate opened, I scrambled in, almost crawling, and gathered Father into my arms.
“Father! Please wake up!”
Noah hurried to remove the chains from Father’s wrists and ankles.
“Let’s get him outside first.”
Together, we laid Father down outside the cell, and I gently patted his cheek.
But his eyes remained tightly shut.
“Noah… what do we do? He won’t wake up…”
Father always appeared strong.
I had never once seen him collapse. Not even injured.
He would never show blood or wounds.
So seeing him completely broken like this—it shocked me deeply.
“Sienna, calm down. Priest Edan is checking him now. We need to wait.”
“But what if it’s some weird magic…”
The horrifying black magic we’d seen earlier flashed before my eyes.
Did they only use goat heads as offerings?
If it was a summoning spell, wouldn’t they need a living body to bring something through?
What if the people locked up here were meant for that?
The thought made me go pale. I grabbed Edan and shook him.
“Do something!”
If only I hadn’t seen that earlier—I wouldn’t be this terrified.
I bit my lips anxiously.
“I don’t sense any wicked energy. So it’s not black magic or a curse. Most likely he was drugged with a sedative.”
“So he’s not physically harmed?”
“His energy is quite depleted, but his condition isn’t bad. I’ll purify the sedative with holy power.”
Edan placed his hand over Father’s chest. A soft white light flowed out.
Who knows how long it was after Edan lifted his hand—
Father’s unmoving chest suddenly heaved deeply.
“Cough!”
He let out a rough cough, eyes fluttering open. He looked at me as if in a dream.
“Sienna…?”
“Father! You’re awake?”
“You’ve woken. Do you know how worried we were?”
Father glanced between Noah and me—then muttered something ridiculous.
“To see even Noah… I must be on my way to the afterlife…”
At that absurd statement, both Noah and I yelled at the same time.
“How could you say that?!”
“Did captivity rattle your brains?!”
Father’s eyes widened at the ear-drum-busting roar.
“So… it’s real…?”
He still seemed unable to believe it, muttering, “It can’t be…”
“You vanished for three months without a trace, so we came to find you—and that’s the first thing you say? Hmph! I’m going home.”
“I agree. Should’ve left him here.”
As we both moved to drop him and stand up—
A sudden force pulled us back. In my tilting vision, I saw Noah falling too.
“Woah—”
“Guh—”
Father spread his arms wide and pulled us both into his embrace.
After three months apart, the reunion was quite emotional—though slightly painful.
He was too excited to control his strength.
“It’s not a dream. My children… I can feel you.”
“Of course it’s real. Have you ever had dreams this vivid?”
“It seems you’re ready for retirement, Father. Your judgment is clearly failing.”
“Quiet. You go away.”
Father shoved Noah aside without hesitation, then hugged me tightly. Stepping back, he grabbed my shoulders with a terrifying expression.
Ah. That’s his ‘I’m about to scold you’ face.
