Inside a crude, spacious wooden building, bedding was laid out in neat rows across the ground farther in. Several chairs and tables stood on the other side, while the Candlelight Society's holy emblem hung in the very center of the room.
Kyle sat blankly in a chair, reciting prayers with numb eyes. His bear-like, sturdy body seemed listless.
Beside him sat a group of equally numb workers. Dressed in identical linen clothes, they gathered around the Holy Scripture on the table and recited in unison.
They had originally worked in Rhine's factories, only to be inexplicably seized by the Candlelight Society's holy knights and sent here.
Although they had been given food and drink along the way and had not been tortured or put on trial, they all looked haggard and dispirited.
They did not know what they had done wrong. Apparently, it was because of Theus—once their fellow worker. Every day, he would tell all sorts of strange stories, and everyone had simply listened for amusement.
The priests of the Candlelight Society said that Theus was a cultist, which had greatly surprised them.
He had neither preached to them nor asked them for money. He had merely spent his free time each day telling stories to make everyone laugh. Did that make him a cultist?
Some people had been deeply indignant over this. Factory owners had driven workers to death and madness, yet they were lawful citizens, while someone who told a few stories was to be killed. What kind of justice was that?
Those people never appeared again.
From then on, the remaining workers became much more obedient. Following the Candlelight Society's demands, they recited prayers day after day, atoning for sins they did not even know they had committed.
The chanting continued for a while before coming