Chapter 371 335: Encounter

"Your interrogation is over, Judge."

Urus's cold voice rang out from behind Chadwick.

From Lu Jia's perspective, she saw an Imperial Knight with only half a body appear silently in the interrogation room, like a Wind Demon.

More terrifying still.

This Wind Demon grabbed Judge Chadwick's arm, smashed open the interrogation room door, and dragged him along the ground. In the blink of an eye, they vanished into the dark, narrow corridor.

"Ah...!"

Other than the Judge's brief, terrified shriek during the attack, everything fell silent. Then, heavy footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor, pounding like a drum against the heart and reverberating through the lowest level of the secret prison.

Lu Jia didn't know who had attacked the Judge.

She had also never imagined she would leave this prison, a place filled with filth and sin, alive.

A month ago, she had learned that Sister Superior Eleonor—the woman she admired most in her life—had callously deceived her and sent her here. Eleonor had done it all to gain recognition for the Holy Rose Order from the Ash Soil Star Zone's Judgment Court and to further her own personal ambitions, striking a secret deal with Judge Chadwick.

Lu Jia had fallen into the blackest despair.

The feeling of being betrayed by the leader she respected and trusted most was a torment far worse than any suffering she endured during the interrogation.

But whenever she recalled the knightly oath she had sworn before the Radiant Holy Image, whenever she thought of the Emperor's Angels who fought alongside her inside the Demon Mother Ship, and of the Vengeful Angel who had faced a Fear Knight alone to cover their retreat...

On that night nineteen days ago, when she was gravely injured and on the verge of death...

...she had finally abandoned her illusions and realized the truth. This interrogation was never about her own life or death, nor was it about some plot to bring down Reinhardt. It was a struggle of faith and conviction.

Not even Demons had made her kneel.

The pain and suffering of these interrogations only strengthened her resolve and solidified the path she had chosen.

When the heavy footsteps stopped outside the interrogation room, Lu Jia saw a familiar figure in the dim light. The surface of the deep black Power Armor was marked with crimson war patterns, like blood. A massive Black War Axe dripped with fresh, wet blood.

At that moment.

Lu Jia realized she might actually be dead.

She was actually seeing the Emperor's Angel who had died.

She lifted her head, her gaze passing through the strands of hair hanging over her forehead. She quietly watched the towering, mountain-like figure who had appeared at the door of the interrogation room. In that instant, time seemed to slow to a crawl.

Though she was gravely wounded, her soul trapped in darkness and conspiracy, she felt a sense of peace and tranquility she had never known before.

She knew her soul was about to return to the light of the Divine Emperor.

A faint smile touched her pale, chapped lips.

Her voice was as thin as a thread.

"Angel, my faith... it has withstood the test. For... the Divine Emperor..."

As she spoke, she saw the Emperor's Angel stride toward her. She had already prepared herself to face death calmly. Her entire life had been a battle for her ideals and the majesty of the Divine Emperor. She had no regrets, even in death.

"Your Loyalty has been tested and proven, sister."

Reinhardt ripped apart the thick iron chains binding Lu Jia's hands and feet with his bare hands. He knelt on one knee, lowering himself to catch the Battle Sister as she fell from the interrogation rack, her strength gone.

Lu Jia's body leaned against Reinhardt's shoulder. The steel of his Power Armor was bone-chillingly cold, and her voice grew even weaker.

"Is this what death feels like? So... cold..."

Reinhardt lifted her into his arms, stood, and started walking out. "You are still alive, Lu Jia," he said coldly.

"Alive?"

Hearing these words, Lu Jia's semi-conscious mind was jolted as if from a nightmare. A cold, clammy sweat beaded on her skin. She stared blankly at Reinhardt, listening to that familiar voice.

"Aren't you here to guide my soul back to the Divine Emperor's light? You..."

Although their conversation followed a logical question-and-answer pattern, their thoughts were not on the same wavelength.

Lu Jia believed Reinhardt was an Imperial Heroic Spirit, here to guide her soul back to the light of the Divine Emperor.

From Reinhardt's perspective, the semi-conscious Battle Sister seemed to be spouting nonsense, yet it also felt like a genuine outpouring of her heart.

After receiving the list from Robie, Reinhardt had realized that Lu Jia was most likely arrested and interrogated because she had traveled with him for a time and had no powerful connections in the Ash Soil Star Zone.

During the year and more he had been lost in the Demon Void Realm...

...the Judges had considered going after the founding members of the Vengeful Angels, but every member had their own background and deep-rooted seniority, making them difficult targets.

Even Raphael was safe, as long as he remained on Verne World; the people from the Judgment Court had no opportunity to touch him there.

Verne was not like other worlds.

If the Judgment Court dared to arrest someone, the Verne World Defense Army and the Caster Battle Group would dare to fight them to the death, even if it meant mutual destruction.

In the end, the only easy target was Lu Jia.

'But if my memory serves me right, Sister Superior Eleonor of the Holy Rose Order retreated from the Eternal Battlefield with me. Could she really not have known about this?'

Hearing Lu Jia's question, Reinhardt looked down, his gaze meeting that of the Battle Sister, her face smeared with blood and her hair a tangled mess.

"I met Sister Superior Eleonor in the Demon Void Realm. Did she know you were imprisoned here?"

Hearing Reinhardt say with her own ears that he was still alive, Lu Jia was stunned for a long time. She still vividly remembered the grim, somber atmosphere in the cabin of the Punisher Ship when Agate Sage's Phase Recall had failed.

During the year she fought alongside Raphael, she had more than once seen that Combat Priest praying alone all night in Caster Cathedral.

She raised her right hand and gently touched his Avenger Power Armor. Feeling the real, biting cold of the steel, she finally believed that Reinhardt was truly alive.

After a moment of silence, she gazed into Reinhardt's eyes for a while, then leaned weakly into his arms and whispered, "Welcome back, Angel.

I think... I need to rest for a bit..."

「Meanwhile.」

A Silencer stepped out of the shadows, faced Reinhardt, and said in a low voice, "My Lord, I have finished checking the list. Three hundred seventy-one are dead, one hundred and six are missing, and forty-five have survived.

"That Verne Judge you ordered me to find, Kirk, has been missing for over fifty days. He was likely executed in secret by the Judgment Court."

"Understood."

As a local Judge who had fought alongside Reinhardt during the Verne War, Kirk's life had been one of hardship.

His daughter and wife died at the hands of a Demon Mage. Later, the tavern owner he was close with was also killed during Grand Lord Kles's invasion.

He should have been enjoying a quiet life in retirement, but instead, he was caught in this political vortex and died in the Confessor's Secret Prison.

But one could imagine that even in his final moments, the Judge never surrendered.

Thinking of the aging, increasingly stout Judge, remembering the sight of him walking more than ten kilometers alone to visit the cemetery on the mountain, Reinhardt's fists clenched.

'This debt...'

'He was far from finished settling the score with the Judges from the Blue Rock Island's Rune Faction.'