Sun Fei stepped onto the square and looked around carefully. He found that most of the people gathered there were dressed in rags, with sallow and emaciated faces. They were all commoners from Chambord City. He didn't know why they had all gathered here. When they saw Sun Fei and his group arriving from afar, they cheered and all knelt down on the ground.
"Look, His Alexander has really come..."
"Your Majesty, you must uphold justice for us!"
"We want to sue the officials of the Iron Prison for abusing their power to arrest innocent people..."
" Your Alexander, my son has been imprisoned in the Iron Prison Dungeon for offending the son of the former herald Gejir, Bazel. I beg Your Majesty to uphold justice..."
The common people knelt on the ground and cried out loudly, their expressions filled with grief.
Sun Fei turned to look at Brook, Brook quickly shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, I didn't inform these poor people to gather here, nor did I say you would be coming to the water dungeon this afternoon. Strange, this..."
Sun Fei smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's alright. I came here today precisely to oversee the Iron Prison Dungeon Iron Prison Dungeon. This is perfect; it will allow me to better understand what really happened there. Have the soldiers set up tables and chairs in the square, and have Warden Oleg bring out all the files and documents. I want to oversee the prison in front of all my subjects."
Brook nodded and left to carry out the order.
Soon, the soldiers separated the crowd in the small square, set up a small umbrella, and brought up stone tables and chairs. A large amount of animal hides and silk cloths with inscriptions about the trials and judgments of the Iron Prison Dungeon over the past ten years were carried up and piled up like a small mountain next to the umbrella. Some of the animal hides may have been left for a long time and were even moldy, with Little Black, and a musty smell wafted over.
"Your Majesty the Great and Noble Alexander, these are all the files from the last ten years. I have had them all brought here, without missing a single one. My esteemed king, since Oleg took charge of the Iron Prison Dungeon in Chambord City, he has not dared to be negligent in the slightest..." [ Bootlicker ] Oleg stood obsequiously beside Sun Fei with a fawning smile, diligently fanning Sun Fei with a delicate white bird feather fan in his hand.
Sun Fei nodded slightly.
Oleg, like a fighting rooster encouraged by its master's approval, excitedly went outside the canopy and shouted, "The great King Alexander Bazel come to the Iron Prison Dungeon today to expose and correct the crimes committed by the ambitious Bazel against Chambord City! Rejoice! Justice and light have descended upon the Iron Prison Dungeon! Anyone who has suffered persecution and unfair treatment from that damned ambitious Bazel can confidently appeal to the great King Alexander. My king is wise, just, impartial, and benevolent... He will surely give all the innocent a just answer."
Oleg used at least twelve ornate adjectives to praise Sun Fei, speaking with great enthusiasm, before instructing the soldiers to maintain order, carefully separating the parasols from the crowd, and setting up a small exit before allowing the civilians to approach the parasols one by one to plead their grievances.
Sun Fei nodded to himself.
Although Oleg is cowardly, greedy, and a complete Bootlicker, he does have his strengths. Compared to officers like Brook, he is more meticulous and handles such situations with ease and skill. If used properly, such a person can be a good assistant.
"Your Majesty Alexander, please clear my name..."
An old man in tattered clothes was the first to step forward and kneel on the ground. His son had served as a servant in the mansion of the former messenger, Bazel. However, he had accidentally broken a rough wooden dog food bowl that the fat pig Gejir used to feed his dog. As a result, the old man was asked to pay 10 gold coins. Because the old man had no money to pay, his son was imprisoned in the Iron Prison Dungeon for more than three months, and his fate was unknown.
Soon, a jailer brought over the file concerning the old man's son. Sun Fei glanced at it and found that the account largely matched the old man's story. With a stroke of his pen, he immediately released the old man's son and even set aside ten gold coins from the confiscated property of the Bazel mansion as compensation. The old man's son had suffered considerable abuse in prison, but was still relatively healthy. The two of them immediately wept and embraced, kneeling to thank Sun Fei for his fairness and mercy...
Seeing this, the surrounding civilians became excited.
People kept coming to the umbrella shelter to cry out their grievances, mostly about trivial matters. However, because it involved Bazel and some nobles in the city, the common people were being oppressed by the powerful and sent to the Iron Prison Dungeon, where they suffered immense torture...
In just half an hour, Sun Fei had released more than forty people from the Iron Prison Dungeon. All the unjustly wronged poor people not only regained their freedom but also received a certain amount of gold coins as compensation. One gold coin was equivalent to about a year's income for a poor family. Immediately, everyone was filled with gratitude and knelt on the ground, shouting " Long Live the King!"
Sun Fei thoroughly enjoyed his experience as a judge.
However, as the trial progressed, many people who had initially come to the square to watch the spectacle couldn't help but step forward to voice their grievances upon witnessing the scene. Some had been extorted by nobles and driven to poverty, reduced to beggars; others had their family heirlooms stolen by wealthy merchants; and still others had their young daughters abducted and disappeared in noble mansions...
For a time, the crowd in the square was in a state of high spirits, and the scene even got a little out of control.
Seeing that things were not going well and that the crowd that had come to hear the news was growing larger and larger, Sun Fei immediately stopped the pretentious public trial, sweating profusely. He instructed a special person to record all the accusations and then hand them over to the new Best, Best, to handle. He was confident that his father-in-law would be able to handle it well.
Sun Fei quickly scanned all the case files laid out on the ground. Most of them weren't particularly difficult cases, and the verdicts were quite lenient. After two hours, about 60-70% of the prisoners in the Iron Prison Dungeon had been released. In fact, in a remote town like Chambord City, the people were generally honest and simple, and there were rarely any earth-shattering crimes. Most cases involved nobles and powerful merchants oppressing the poor, or disputes between neighbors. For Sun Fei, who had transmigrated from another era, as long as he grasped the concept of 'human nature and justice,' there was practically nothing difficult about it.
After dealing with these matters, all the poor people knelt on the ground and kowtowed excitedly. Amidst waves of cheers that rose higher and higher, shouting " Long Live the King!" and "Long live His Majesty Alexander!", Sun Fei, Brook, Oleg, and the others entered the black stone fortress of the Iron Prison Dungeon.
Upon entering the stone fortress, Sun Fei realized that the prison's reputation as Iron Prison Dungeon was truly well-deserved. The stone fortress exposed on the square was merely the living quarters for the guards, while the actual cells were located underground. A deep tunnel had been carved out of the stone mountain, leading directly to the ground.
The passageway is about three meters high and two meters wide, leading down the stone steps.
The light quickly faded, and after descending about three or four hundred meters underground, the passage finally leveled out, no longer leading underground but instead extending parallel to the ground. On the stone walls on both sides of the passage, many stone grids of varying sizes had been carved out by hand, each containing a charcoal brazier. The flickering firelight illuminated the entire passage in a dark and deep atmosphere, permeating it with a chilling aura.
Sun Fei grew increasingly alarmed as he walked.
He was shocked to discover that the entire mountainside seemed to have been completely hollowed out. The prison was built without a single brick or tile; it was carved out of the mountain itself, like an underground labyrinth. After walking more than a thousand meters and passing through more than twenty iron gates, he heard the sound of flowing water. The passageway gradually widened, and many carved stone houses appeared on both sides, sealed off with steel fences. These stone houses were covered with damp, withered grass, and contained simple stone beds and chairs—the places used to imprison prisoners.
However, because Sun Fei had previously granted amnesty to prisoners and reorganized the prison, releasing many innocent civilians who had been imprisoned, most of the stone houses were empty at this time. Only a few stone houses still held prisoners who had not been wrongly accused but had indeed committed crimes such as theft and fighting. Upon seeing Sun Fei and his group arrive, some looked blank, some rushed to the iron bars shouting that they were innocent, and some laughed disdainfully and provocatively...
As you walk deeper in, the passageway widens, becoming almost like a large hall.
The sound of flowing water grew louder and louder.
Finally, after advancing another 500 meters, an underground river appeared on one side of the passageway. The icy cold water flowed gurglingly, and some stone houses were carved directly into the river's surface. The river water submerged the ground, and only by sitting on a stone bed could one avoid being soaked. This was the so-called 'water dungeon'.
Sun Fei was completely stunned at this point.
The scale of this Iron Prison Dungeon far exceeded his previous imagination. Even with the modern construction methods of the 21st century, it would probably take more than ten or twenty years, and countless financial, human and material resources, to carve out such a huge labyrinth inside the stone mountain... It was truly shocking and unimaginable who could have carved out such a Dashi.
Seemingly noticing Sun Fei's confusion, Warden Oleg followed behind with a fawning smile, explaining, "Your Majesty, this prison wasn't actually built by Chambord City itself... According to royal records, over a hundred years ago, a commoner hunting in the mountains accidentally discovered this underground labyrinth. When the royal family learned of it, they immediately ordered it sealed off. Later, through the exploration and gradual improvements by successive King of Chambord City, it became an impregnable prison. For over sixty years, no prisoner has ever escaped from here. It's said that your father, King Alexander, once imprisoned a very formidable master here, but that master never escaped until his death..."
I see.
Listening to Warden Oleg's explanation, Sun Fei suddenly understood and nodded to himself.
This explanation makes sense. Such a vast underground cavern is simply beyond the current national strength of Chambord City. Even if Chambord City had once been a fourth-class vassal state with some status, it would have been impossible for it to carve out such a vast, almost terrifying, underground cavern even after a hundred or a decade.
"Do you know who exactly carved this grotto?" Sun Fei asked.
"No one can say for sure. There are no clues left in the grotto. Apart from these simple stone houses and passageways, there are no murals or statues left. When we first came in, we didn't find any writing or other materials in the grotto. It seems that someone carved it out and then abandoned it for some mysterious reason. Some people have even suspected that it was the work of God!" Oleg said quickly.
"God's masterpiece?"
"Yes, aside from the supreme and omnipotent gods, it would be difficult for humans to carve out such a massive underground labyrinth from the hard rock inside the mountain... Of course, some say that this cave might be the work of the Stone Cave Dwarves, but even the Dwarf Clan have been extinct for four or five hundred years..."
As Oleg was speaking, Sun Fei's eyes suddenly lit up, and his vision suddenly opened up. He saw a hall with an interior space that was probably hundreds of meters high suddenly appear in front of him. Countless braziers were covered on the stone walls and in the air above the hall. Looking up, it looked like a sky full of stars shining in the dark night sky, which was very beautiful.
A series of steps were carved into the stone wall of the hall, winding upwards. The stone wall, which was more than 100 meters high, was divided into ten layers. Each layer was filled with densely packed stone houses. Sun Fei felt as if he had suddenly entered the interior of a 100-meter-tall skyscraper from his previous life during a time warp. He was incredibly shocked.
No words can adequately describe the shock Sun Fei felt at that moment.
"Your Majesty, this is where some serious criminals are imprisoned. The black-robed mage you brought back earlier, as well as the body of the silver-masked man, are both imprisoned here. The former captain of the King's Guard Petr Čech you are about to interrogate, is also imprisoned here on charges of treason."
Oleg explained cautiously.
Sun Fei nodded and said, "Yes, very good. Oleg, send someone with Brook to bring Čech over. I want to see him."
Oleg quickly summoned two jailers, gave them instructions, and led Brook up the stone steps, disappearing into the passageway in the wall. Čech, a serious offender, was imprisoned on the seventh floor and would need some time.
Taking the opportunity, Sun Fei carefully examined the layout of the entire super hall. The more he looked, the more astonished he became. He even began to attribute such a building to a miracle. It was too incredible, simply a masterpiece of nature. Even the ten Mogao Caves combined in his previous life could not compare to the scale of this labyrinthine cave.
Suddenly, Sun Fei's gaze fell on a black steel gate more than 20 meters high on a stone wall in the distance. The gate was covered with mysterious patterns that looked somewhat familiar.
"What's that gate for?" Sun Fei asked.
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