A Fellow Countryman's Good Intentions

Only then did Aiven react, stumbling toward the torture rack.

Hewen, hanging from the rack, laboriously raised his head. His cracked Adam's apple bobbed, and he forced out an ugly smile.

"...Buddy. Seeing that you're still breathing means the two punches Colin gave me weren't for nothing after all."

Aiven fumbled with the chains, his voice trembling.

"Is Colin alright?"

"Don't worry. He's fine."

Those five short words finally let Aiven breathe a sigh of relief.

He lowered his head and kept trying to pry open the Judgment Clasp, but his fingers were shaking so badly that he could not get a grip on it.

Luo Jiuge stepped over and pressed her sword against the chain. "Should I cut it?"

Hewen said quietly, "No need. That woman damaged the clasp's core. It looks like it's still suppressing me, but it can't actually hold me anymore."

After saying that, he drew a deep breath. The muscles all over his body bulged, and he violently wrenched his right arm outward. The Judgment Clasp cracked with a snap.

Luo Jiuge looked at the shattered clasp on the ground, then at Hewen's thick arm, completely thrown into disarray.

"If you could break free yourself, why were you hanging here so obediently getting tortured? Was this performance art?"

With Aiven's support, Hewen steadied himself. Then he produced an inconspicuous little transparent vial from his palm and waved it before Luo Jiuge.

"The woman who infiltrated this place with me left this for me before she was taken away. It's only the most basic ordinary recovery potion, but I couldn't be sure whether there was anything else in it."

Hewen gave a bitter smile, his gaze carrying the composure of someone seasoned by experience. "I couldn't figure out what kind of trap she had set. I was worried that escaping rashly would land me in a deeper snare, so I decided to stay on the rack and watch what happened while waiting for news from outside."

He paused and gave Luo Jiuge a helpless look. "I just didn't expect things to turn out like this. It really is quite a surprise."

Luo Jiuge looked at the ordinary recovery potion, then listened to Hewen reveal the inside story. Her mind turned halfway around before she finally caught on.

"That woman? You mean the one pretending to be a monk, dressed in a gray robe? You two came in together?!"

"Yes." After answering, he looked at Luo Jiuge suspiciously. "Are you the person she came to save?"

"Huh?"

Luo Jiuge froze, the thoughts in her head tangling into a mess.

What was all this supposed to mean?

Why did it get more confusing the more she listened? Who exactly was saving whom?

Isolde's cold, indifferent face automatically surfaced in her mind.

At that moment, her train of thought completed its circuit.

That girl had accepted a rescue mission, then accidentally triggered a hidden infiltration mission.

So she had carried out both missions at once. She had damaged the clasp core beforehand and even secretly left behind her precious ordinary recovery potion, all so that this man could free himself when she could not look after him.

She was alone and outnumbered, unable to handle both sides at once. So when she encountered this "high-level fellow countryman" in the Lamp Room, she put on a cold, selfish act and pretended she did not want to team up. In reality, she had deliberately used a "hidden mission" to stuff the rescue route and the key NPC into Luo Jiuge's hands.

The more Luo Jiuge thought about it, the more convinced she became that she had figured it out.

What tsundere?

She was clearly an angel who bore everything on her shoulders and silently gave everything from the shadows!

To protect Luo Jiuge from catching the Holy Court's attention, she had willingly entered the most dangerous minefield herself to draw away the fire. She had even given away her lifesaving medicine and surrendered all the good opportunities for grinding experience and earning hidden rewards. She had even raised Luo Jiuge's margin for error in the rescue beforehand.

Luo Jiuge's expression gradually shifted from confusion to shock, finally settling into an almost tragic determination.

She pinched herself hard in her mind.

Luo Jiuge, Luo Jiuge, she's been so generous and kind to you. You absolutely cannot mess this up. Even if this hidden side quest costs you half your life, you have to clear it perfectly. You cannot let down your fellow countryman's painstaking goodwill!

On the other side, Aiven and Hewen were rapidly exchanging information.

Hewen frowned and asked, "Where did that woman go after she came in?"

Aiven shook his head. "We split up after the Lamp Room. She told me to follow this swordswoman and come save you."

Hewen immediately turned his gaze toward Luo Jiuge, who was feeling rather moved by herself nearby.

Noticing both of them looking at her, Luo Jiuge immediately straightened her back. She even subconsciously smoothed her somewhat messy bangs, speaking in a solemn, serious tone.

"That's right. She gave me a mission and told me to bring him to the Discipline Office to save you."

Hewen caught the key point. "A mission?"

Luo Jiuge nodded seriously. "A hidden mission."

Hewen did not understand the words "hidden mission," but he understood the first half.

That mysterious woman had indeed come here to rescue someone.

At least for now, their interests aligned.

Originally, Luo Jiuge had infiltrated this damned place solely to loot a few high-level treasure chests and get rich.

But when she thought of her fellow countryman's restrained yet noble "entrustment," she forcibly suppressed her greedy heart.

She could loot chests anytime.

But a hidden side quest that could connect her with top players would truly be gone if she missed it.

Besides, if she brought these two core NPCs of the Northlands out alive, the faction rewards afterward might be even better than one or two treasure chests.

After talking herself into it, even the ache of giving up the loot faded considerably.

She gripped her sword hilt and said in a low voice, "We found them. How about... we get out of here first?"

By then, the inner courtyard of Grey Dove Monastery had already descended into complete chaos.

When several monks responsible for changing shifts dragged out the corpses from the Lamp Room, the captain of the inner courtyard knights immediately changed expression.

"There may be more than one intruder!"

"Seal off the Stillbone Prayer Room!"

As those final words carried down the corridor, Isolde stood in the shadows behind a statue.

She lowered her eyes to the silver pass in her hand, her lips twitching faintly.

The chaos had arrived faster than she expected.

Luo Jiuge was indeed very useful.

Whether Luo Jiuge had acted willingly or under duress, she had already drawn away most of the attention for Isolde.

The Holy Lamp was in her hand, its wick flickering with a pale flame.

That flame carried a faint fragrance.

Every time she thought about how it was fueled by unicorn corpses and living human hearts, her stomach churned uncontrollably.

But disgust was disgust. As long as it was a useful tool, she would never waste it out of misplaced sentimentality.

Along the way, she used the excuse that "a heretic corpse had been discovered in the Baptism Room" to divert several groups of hurried knights.

This had nearly collapsed the defense line around the prayer room. Only the entrance at the bottom, leading down the underground stone steps, was still guarded by the last two Holy Court knights.

These two were clearly far calmer than the rabble outside. Faint purification runes flowed across their heavy full-body armor, while their bright silver spears crossed before them, blocking the only passage.

"Stop." Isolde halted at exactly the right moment.

The knight on the left stared coldly at her through the slit in his helmet visor.

"The Stillbone Prayer Room has entered the highest state of alert and lockdown. Without the permission of a Silver-Robed Inquisitor, no one may enter."

Isolde did not waste words. She merely raised the Holy Lamp in her hand and displayed the silver pass.

"The Lamp Room was massacred by heretics, and some of the Holy Lamps were damaged." Imitating the urgent tone of those fanatical zealots, she said, "The Silver-Robed Inquisitor has ordered me to immediately inspect the lamps in the prayer room. The holy radiance must not be allowed to go out."

At the words "Lamp Room attacked" and "Holy Lamps damaged," the two elite knights visibly tensed.

Isolde knew she had gambled correctly.

The stricter a hierarchy was, the less anyone dared to casually question the orders of their superiors.

But the guards assigned to this door were obviously no pushovers.

The knight on the left stepped forward half a pace and warily extended his iron-gauntleted hand.

"Hand over your pass for verification."

Isolde bowed slightly and obediently handed him the silver pass.

The knight accepted it and lowered his head to inspect it.

The next instant, Isolde raised the Holy Lamp, and a blast of Purifying Light exploded point-blank before the two knights.