After sending April back, Luo Li watched the little girl skip away from the Temple.
"Let's go to the prison."
"Yes."
Currently, only Lancelot remained by Luo Li’s side.
Ligeia and Camilla had gone to the Alchemists' Association and the Mage Association, respectively.
As for Vincent, she would discuss his reward later.
Although they had been on the battlefield at the time, many people had heard Vincent's words.
He was a clever man and worth putting to good use.
Perhaps she could transfer him to Brilliant City.
Of course, she would have to discuss this with the Mage Association first.
Ligeia had gone to handle exactly that.
As long as you are willing to help me, I am naturally willing to give you the corresponding status, power, and wealth.
She only needed to shake her hand, and the crumbs that fell from her fingers would be enough to satisfy these people.
"Lancelot, bring someone trustworthy, someone who writes well and has a bit of wit, to come with us."
As the commander of the dragon knight army, Lancelot was quite attentive to his subordinates.
He naturally knew who to pick.
He simply acknowledged the order and turned to a nearby knight. "Go find Captain Claude."
The soldier took the command and hurried off.
Meanwhile, Luo Li led Lancelot toward the prison.
Outside the prison stood two hundred guardian knights, all around level thirty or forty.
The original prison guards had all been expelled.
Luo Li did not trust those people, so she had replaced them with knights from her own Dragon Knight Corps.
These were her direct subordinates, and she knew the background of every single one of them.
Half were nobles, and the other half were of humble origins.
This wasn't because Luo Li intentionally kept half the noble sons, but rather because there were too few commoners in the knight corps with level thirty or forty strength.
To gather these thousand commoners, she had even recalled many knights from the Great Wall's border defenses.
If possible, Luo Li truly wanted to replace them all with commoners.
After all, if she did that, she would be the only person they could rely on.
But reality was not like that.
As she had thought before, if she were to conduct a wholesale purge of the nobility in the Kingdom of the Moon, the ultimate result would be having no one left to serve.
From local officials to court ministers, over ninety-five percent of them were children of the nobility.
They all had tangled connections with the current noble families.
Rashly raising the executioner's blade would be equivalent to fighting the entire country.
Unless it reached the absolute final step, Luo Li would never choose that path.
Otherwise, domestic chaos would be inevitable.
And if a foreign enemy chose that moment to invade, the nation would cease to be a nation.
The Holy See was watching like a hawk. Although Diocletian had made promises, he had not abandoned his greed for the Kingdom of the Moon.
Not to mention the Kingdom of Flame.
This was the current state of the Kingdom of the Moon: internal troubles, external threats, and the demon army lurking in the shadows.
Things could only be solved one by one.
Shaking her head inwardly, she stepped into the prison.
Two young nuns followed closely behind her, holding up the train of her long dress.
Once inside the prison, she went straight to the interrogation room.
"Bring out the Borgia father and son. I will interrogate them."
Previously, she hadn't been in a rush to return, as sending a message of safety was enough. Now, seeing that the situation in Brilliant City was becoming troublesome, she had to move faster.
She wanted to conduct the interrogation immediately and stop wasting time.
Two knights received the order and brought the Borgia father and son to the interrogation room.
They tied the two to execution racks and then exited the room.
"Lancelot, wait outside. Send Claude in."
"Yes."
Lancelot almost never asked 'why'. He simply accepted orders and turned to leave.
Claude walked in, a trace of nervousness on his face.
As a knight of humble origins, he had spent years guarding the Great Wall and rarely returned to Brilliant City.
Let alone meeting the Saintess.
Most noble knights stayed in Brilliant City, and those with less influence were sent to the major cities as garrison knights.
As long as a family had some ability, who would want to send their child to that cold and desolate place?
If he hadn't been selected for the Dragon Knight Corps this time, he estimated he would have spent the rest of his life at the Great Wall.
Watching the never-ending tides until he grew old and died in a foreign land.
"Your Highness."
"Mhm. Sit over there, prepare your paper and pen, and record the following conversation."
"Yes."
The Saintess's voice... is so beautiful?
Wait, now is not the time for such thoughts.
He hurried to the desk, took a sheet of paper from a stack, and spread it out. He picked up a quill, licked the tip, and sat down to prepare.
This job... isn't it just a clerk's work?
For a mere recording task, why would she have a level thirty-five knight like him do it personally?
Couldn't any ordinary person do it?
While he was dazed, the Saintess spoke.
"Gentlemen, we haven't met for a day, and yet you look so haggard."
The Borgia father and son, Aubrey and Casma.
Both had been high-spirited before. Even the fifty-year-old Aubrey had looked like a young man in his thirties or forties, with sharp eyes and a back as straight as bamboo.
But now, the fifty-year-old Aubrey was completely grey-haired.
The wrinkles on his face looked as though they had grown overnight.
His eyes were dull and half-closed, his body hunched, and even lifting his head seemed like a struggle.
"So it is Your Highness... This old minister... no, this criminal Aubrey, greets Your Highness. Heh..."
The final cold laugh seemed to be mocking her, or perhaps himself.
However, it was likely more of the latter.
Casma, beside him, didn't even speak.
Casma, in the prime of his life, had been full of vigor yesterday, but today he was a prisoner. The blow to his young heart was massive, and he barely reacted to the outside world now.
Luo Li didn't care.
She calmly pulled out the ledger, waved it in front of them, and tossed it at their feet.
"Mr. Aubrey, can you explain the contents of this to me?"
Aubrey narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at the ledger, and asked tentatively, "What does Your Highness wish to ask?"
"Nothing much. I just want to know how you contacted the demon army and how you transported supplies to the demon island. Additionally, there are many records regarding human trafficking. Those people were sent by you to the demon island to become food for the demons, weren't they?"
Aubrey struggled to lift his head to look at the girl, then lowered it again.
"Since Your Highness already knows, why ask?"
Luo Li nodded and glanced at Claude.
"Record: Testimony of Aubrey Borgia, Elder of the Borgia family. The Borgia family colluded with the demon army, trafficking weapons, armor, and people to the demons."
Claude froze. Just as he was about to start writing, he suddenly realized something was off.
As a child of humble origins, it was rare for him to sense the nuance in those words.
But Aubrey suddenly reacted, shouting fiercely at Claude, "Wait!!"
Aubrey's eyes were filled with fury.
"Your Highness, what is the meaning of this?"
"What I mean... can't you tell? I am simply giving you a taste of your own medicine."
Aubrey narrowed his eyes, still pondering the meaning of those words.
"I still remember someone telling me in the square, 'This strange girl... the Saintess I know isn't like you.' If I recall correctly, those were your words, Mr. Aubrey."
Aubrey's expression grew darker. He seemed to understand the girl's plan.
"You!!"
Luo Li sneered.
"That's right. Repaying in kind. You can tell lies with your eyes wide open, so why can't I tell the truth with my eyes closed?"
"Claude, record: According to Aubrey Borgia's oral confession, the Borgia family colluded with the demon army, using the entire family's power to traffic military equipment and people to the demon island, secretly funding the demons."
"They communicated with the demon island and provided intelligence, leading to the loss of a large number of knights during the expedition to the demon island."
"After the Saintess returned, the Borgia family, in order to defect to the demons, gathered over ten noble families in Moonrise City to surround and assassinate her."
"Aubrey Borgia personally admitted that this was done under the instructions of the entire Borgia family."
Aubrey's eyes widened further and further until it seemed his eyeballs would pop out of their sockets!
Fury made Aubrey lose all reason. He struggled frantically, the sound of clanking iron chains echoing through the prison.
"Luo Li!! Luo Li!! You crazy woman! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!"
Claude watched this scene in a daze.
It was only at this moment that he suddenly understood.
The Saintess didn't seem to intend to ask anything at all. Aubrey's presence was merely an excuse for her to freely write down various crimes.
In other words, her coming here was just a performance for the outside world.
She would tell the public, 'I have personally interrogated him,' and then use that as the reason to crush the Borgia family with these charges.
But these charges weren't exactly trumped-up. It was because they had actually committed these acts.
So even if the Saintess didn't interrogate them, she could directly sentence them.
Claude stared blankly at the Saintess.
Everyone outside said the Saintess was beloved by God.
But what she was doing now... how was it any different from a demon?
However, for some reason, this behavior made him feel a strange sense of satisfaction deep down.
Claude blinked and then began to improvise.
He took the Saintess's words and added a layer of dramatic flair and literary polish. He even conceived a narrative of how the Saintess interrogated them step-by-step, eventually breaking Aubrey's psychological defenses and extracting everything.
By the time he finished composing and writing this narrative, half an hour had passed.
When Claude finally put down his pen, he realized the Saintess had been standing at the desk for some time, watching him write.
"Your... Your Highness? I... I lost myself for a moment and wrote all this nonsense. Please allow me to rewrite it."
"No need. This is quite good."
Luo Li reached out and picked up the paper, blowing on the ink as she admired it.
"I didn't realize you had such excellent writing skills, Claude. Where did you learn?"
Claude scratched his head shyly.
"I learned from the priest in my village."
Looking closely, the 'plot' he had fabricated was logically sound and filled with brilliant details. She hadn't expected to find such a talent in the knight corps.
"Very well, we will use this. Claude, go make copies. Remember to keep the original safe."
Hearing the Saintess's praise, Claude stood up excitedly, took the records, and left the prison.
A moment later, Lancelot walked in and looked at Luo Li.
A hint of curiosity appeared in his eyes, but it quickly vanished.
After years of traveling the Kingdom of the Moon, he had long understood one thing.
If something isn't told to you, don't ask.
Asking too much would only lead to a swift death.
"Lancelot, let's go. Inform the others to prepare the execution ground. Send these two back to their cells."
Lancelot nodded and glanced at Aubrey and Casma.
Aubrey's voice seemed to have gone hoarse from his frantic cursing.
But the girl hadn't paid him the slightest bit of attention.
Time passed quickly. After noon, over a hundred burning stakes were erected in the central square of Moonrise City.
Over a hundred people were escorted to the execution ground, surrounded by countless citizens who pointed and whispered.
All hundred were men in their prime.
Although Luo Li had been prepared for this, seeing so many people still gave her a slight shock.
These were only the adult men from the various families.
There were still the elderly, women, and children left.
Those would also be dealt with.
There was no choice. To pull up roots, one could be soft-hearted sometimes, but other times, one could not.
The so-called public trial wasn't about actually interrogating the prisoners in front of everyone.
Instead, it was to publicly read out the crimes they had committed and then carry out the execution by fire.
Luo Li simply sat on the high platform, saying nothing as she watched the person beside her read their crimes.
Then, the execution began.
A great fire rose, accompanied by screams, until everything was reduced to ashes.
The entire process took over an hour.
At the same time, rewards were distributed to the citizens who had protected her and been killed by the noble private armies.
These rewards naturally came from the assets of these noble branch families.
Once everything was read, Luo Li smiled at the citizens and said a few grand, hollow words.
Only then did she return to her residence.
As soon as she reached the church, Luo Li collapsed directly onto the bed.
"What's so interesting about an execution by fire anyway? So many people watched. It was boring to death."
"Of course it's boring. It's just burning people. It's normal for Your Highness to think so."
Ligeia was by Luo Li’s side this time. Seeing the girl's impatient expression, she couldn't help but chuckle inwardly.
No matter how world-shaking the things this Highness did were, at the end of the day, she was still just a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl.
"Ligeia."
"I am here, Your Highness."
"Tell me... since those nobles are dead, do their wives and children really have to die too?"
Ligeia froze, the smile slowly fading from her face.
"Your Highness, why ask what you already know?"
Luo Li, who was lying on the bed, saw the daze in her eyes vanish, replaced once more by a sharp gaze.
"It's nothing. I was just asking. Send word to Lord Byron. In three days, the remaining men are to face execution by beheading, while the women and children are to face execution by poison. We are returning to Brilliant City tomorrow."
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