Chapter 381 Interrogation

Leon Croft and his soldiers huddled quietly in the People's Army camp, and some hot, thin bean soup was enough to make them feel alive again.

They were not mistreated, relying on their labor for food and shelter. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't bad either. However, no one knew if this meal would be their last, or if there would be another. Prisoners generally held the lowest status, less useful than livestock. Furthermore, they weren't high-ranking generals of the empire; their fate depended entirely on the enemy's whim.

Their attitude wasn't exactly rude; it was a far cry from the "devil" image the Imperial Army had instilled in its soldiers. "Our common enemy is Ferros," several Limin Party soldiers earnestly explained to Leon and the others. "We're all Silver Iris people, so why fight to the death in this icy land? We might as well just go kick those damned Yankees' asses together and drive them back home."

Leon Krove might not be smart enough to lead his men in the North for so long without being eaten by the Snow Wolf, but he must be good at assessing the situation. He observed carefully for a few days and found that this team probably had two leaders.

One was the red-haired woman named Maxine, and the other was mysterious, with her hood pulled low, so her face couldn't be seen clearly, but her voice sounded very young. However, when the People's Party soldiers saw him, they would subconsciously straighten their backs and be very respectful, even awe-inspiring, in stark contrast to the enthusiasm they had for Maxine.

That day, Leon and several of his men were working hard to clear the snow in front of the camp. The shovels hit the ice that was harder than stone, and the shock made their palms numb.

They were working so hard that they were sweating all over and their limbs were cold. Suddenly, Lyon saw a group of People's Party soldiers passing by them, escorting the Ferros priestess who almost ate them, and heading towards the largest tent in the center of the camp, which seemed to be used for meetings.

The priestess seemed to have regained some strength. Although she was tied up tightly and her mouth was blocked, she still tried to kill everyone she saw with an extremely resentful look, and an indistinct growl came out of her throat, like a hysterical mother wolf who had lost her cubs.

As they passed by Lyon, she seemed to recognize them, the madness and hatred in her eyes almost overflowing. This made several imperial soldiers who were still secretly observing her immediately lower their heads and dig into the snow, fearing that this crazy woman would pounce on them and bite them.

Lyon quietly swapped positions with someone else so he could see the tent entrance, and while working, he took the opportunity to look up. The curtain of the central tent was lifted, and first the female general named Marshilin came out and exchanged a few words with the soldiers escorting the priestess.

Next to the other person was the mysterious young man, tall and slender, who was casually lowering his head to put on his gloves, slowly and elegantly - an ominous symbol that made one's blood freeze, and always made one wonder whether this meant that something unpleasant would happen next.

The priestess let out a vague roar from the depths of her blocked throat, probably a curse. But she seemed to sense some terrifying premonition of danger. Even though the man didn't even look at her, she still instinctively retreated, but was still roughly shoved into the tent by the soldiers.

Before the mysterious figure opened the curtain and leaned in, he suddenly raised his head slightly, his hood barely shifting. Leon suddenly felt as if he were being pierced by a cold, indifferent gaze. It was a pure scrutiny, without sarcasm, without disgust, without even a hint of emotion, like observing a dead stone in the wilderness. Leon froze, his head lowered, not daring to look.

That gaze lingered on him for less than a second before moving away without interest, as if brushing off a tiny speck of dust. But Leon's back was practically drenched in cold sweat. It wasn't until his men noticed something was wrong and leaned over to whisper to him that he gasped sharply, as if waking up from a dream. He felt as if he had nearly died.

...What a scary person.

Azuka calmly withdrew his gaze, and his eyes finally fell on the priestess who was staring at him. The gag had been removed to prevent her from speaking and hurting others. The woman immediately sneered.

"Beasts," she cursed in the harsh Common Language, a common derogatory term used by the Ferros people against the Silver Iris people. "How dare you, creatures fit only to stay in cages and be slaves, touch the envoy of Salvador? The ice and snow will peel off your skin, and the snow wolves will tear out your intestines..."

But the other man did not get angry, nor did he interrupt her. He just stood there quietly, the shadow of his hood completely obscuring his expression, which instead made the priestess feel deeply uneasy.

She knew she was going to die, and she just wanted to quickly anger the other party so that she could die as soon as possible and become part of the Great Shaman's flesh and blood again.

The other man finally moved, only to stop panting as the priestess paused. He raised his hand, and the priestess instinctively flinched back—but the man simply pulled back his hood, revealing a breathtaking face.

Before the priestess was shocked by the face, she was suddenly stunned by a pair of golden eyes. She dared not move at all and did not even notice that a cut of neither deep nor shallow had appeared on her neck.

The blood flowed down, but before it fell to the ground, it was condensed into blood beads by a gust of wind and fell on the fingertips of the blond young man.

"Great Shaman, Salvador," Azuka said slowly, twirling his fingers through his gloves. He spoke fluent Ferros, with not a hint of an accent. "He made you eat his hair and flesh, causing your bodies to resonate, thus granting the Ferros priests his power—a very... primitive, ancient, and brutal practice."

Even the gods seem much more advanced in comparison.

"How could you..." The priestess' pupils shrank violently. This was the most important and obscure secret of the Ferros royal family, and now it was being casually revealed by an outsider?!

"Who the hell are you?!"

The blond youth didn't answer. Under the gaze of those cold, commanding golden eyes, the priestess couldn't help but let out a faint sound, like a beast being stepped on by the neck. She wanted to retreat, to avoid his gaze, but it felt like a towering mountain was bearing down on her.

"Salvatore wants to be a god." Azuka stared at the priestess's pale face expressionlessly. He even looked a little bored. "Of course, this is not surprising."

"What did he promise you?" He couldn't help but sneer: "Sharing his divine power, eternal life, the honor of 'immortality'..."

——Even the true "gods" cannot do this, but there are always lunatics in the world who intend to conquer fate, no matter whether they are stupid, arrogant or great.

"Alas, you have become merely an extension of him, a part of him. Your faith nourishes him, but due to the bond of flesh and blood, I'm afraid even your individual will will one day vanish completely." Azuka commented coldly, "This is what they call 'sharing, eternal life, and immortality'. Ridiculous."

The priestess seemed irritated by his disrespectful attitude, her breathing becoming rapid. "Foreigner, what do you know?! The merciful Great Shaman is omnipotent. He will use his supreme power to reshape this icy plain that has tormented Ferros for millennia, and forge our eternal kingdom with the filthy flesh and blood of our enemies!"

"So this is the official statement of the Royal Family of Fellowes?" Azuka said thoughtfully.

When they fought back against Fernloth in their previous life, Silver Iris had been mired in the quagmire of war for too long, and few people had the energy to worry about what was hidden behind the crazy ravings of these crazy Yankees. It was only because he and his two good friends were sharp enough that they discovered the source of the power of these priests.

After killing Salvador and the frost dragon White Nightmare, the Ferros, having lost its backbone, fell apart. All their energy was focused on the Scarlet Tyrant. Apart from hastily signing the defeat agreement, they really had little contact with the Ferros royal family.

...It seems that the royal family of Feroth supports this "Great Shaman" in reaping the faith of the whole country - but how did Salvador himself come up with such a barbaric and bloody way of increasing his strength?

...Coincidence? Or is it related to the gods again?

The priestess was dragged away. Azuka rubbed his forehead. The fanaticism and evilness of these followers of the great shaman made him very uncomfortable and inexplicably irritated.

Maxine, who was watching from the side, didn't say anything either. The red-haired girl looked at her friend's expressionless profile and frowned in worry.

Become a god.

The more successful the devout believers on this extremely difficult road are, the more likely they are to resonate with the ideas and be alienated by them... It can even be said that the essence of becoming a god is the process of being gradually stripped of humanity by the ideas.

The old gods, once great heroes of their golden age, have now become a group of pathetic, despicable old immortals. Those who aspire to become new gods are equally diverse, and compared to Owl's fervent thirst for knowledge and Pavaton Miller's hypocrisy in maintaining worldly fame, they seem incredibly normal and harmless.

To be honest, until now, Maxlin still didn't feel much reality about Azuka's deification. It seemed that apart from being a little indifferent - uh, or perhaps also having a strange fanaticism towards His Majesty - that guy seemed to be as good and bad as ever.

...But she didn't know whether the other person would undergo some terrible and tragic changes in the future as time passed. She didn't even know whether she would become hideous in the future.

"Salvatore probably has royal blood from Fellowes."

Azuka was stunned for a moment, and when he came to his senses, he saw the black-haired young man lower his head, lift the door curtain, and come in. He moved a little too much, and he couldn't help but cover his mouth and coughed softly a few times.

Then, Maxine noticed a very obvious change in her friend's face. The coldness and indifference that seemed to separate him from the world quickly disappeared from the blond young man, and was replaced by an exceptionally peaceful gentleness.