I Aggressively Stack Steel of the Heart in the Knight Order

”Bastard... Bastards—! The Holy Judgment Cathedral is a Holy Land basked in the Emperor’s radiance! How dare they?! Desecration, desecration—!”

”My lord...”

”Continue the torture! I refuse to believe we can’t break her!”

「In the dim secret prison.」

Flickering lights, weak moans, and muffled groans of pain echoed endlessly down the long, damp corridor.

A month of torment and interrogation had left Battle Sister Lu Jia battered and broken, barely resembling a human. Her thin prison garb was filthy and tattered. Her once-smooth skin, tortured by a constant cycle of injury and healing, was now a twisted mass of ugly scars.

Even so, her faith remained as unyielding as steel, never once wavering.

In fact, despite such immense suffering, the depths of her eyes still held a light and devotion that other prisoners lacked.

But the longer the fruitless interrogations went on, the more infuriated the Judge became.

From his initial confidence to his current, total failure, every time he interrogated Lu Jia and met the Battle Sister’s gaze, he felt his own soul and faith being put to the test.

It was as if each heavy lash that fell upon Lu Jia’s body was not interrogating her, but rather interrogating the piety of his own faith.

Now, with Kosai Port fallen and the Holy Judgment Arc under attack, he no longer had the courage to interrogate Lu Jia.

In this month-long battle of faith, he had ultimately lost.

And lost completely.

He knew perfectly well that the so-called crimes were merely a means for them to challenge the Grand Governor, not something real. Or rather, as the number of interrogations of Lu Jia increased, his own mindset had shifted from that of a power-hungry careerist to one of panic and unease.

This woman was the toughest, most steadfastly faithful subject he had ever interrogated in his entire career as a Judge. Bar none.

He didn’t dare continue interrogating Lu Jia himself. It wasn’t just because of the failure of his plots and ambitions. What he truly feared was, ’After I die, will my filthy soul, steeped in power and conspiracy, truly be able to return to the Divine Emperor’s light?’

But of one thing he was certain.

That Battle Sister’s soul would surely return to the Divine Emperor’s light.

Due to Nun Superior Eleonor’s intervention, he hadn’t used any illegal, wicked methods for a long time. But he could still hear the sound of whipping from the interrogation room, along with Battle Sister Lu Jia’s muffled grunts as she clenched her teeth and endured.

Sitting outside, Judge Chadwick’s right leg bounced uncontrollably. His head was covered in sweat, and the sticky, cold sweat seeping from his back had soaked through his underclothes.

Perhaps it was an auditory hallucination brought on by his frayed nerves.

Or perhaps the enemy had truly broken through the Holy Judgment Arc and reached the Confessor’s Secret Prison.

He faintly heard the muffled sound of a human dying.

Like a startled bird, he shot to his feet and looked toward the other end of the corridor. As usual, it was completely silent.

After a moment of careful consideration, he signaled to the two private soldiers beside him—two Official Knights of Four-star Military Rank—to go check the top level outside the prison.

”The Desecrators have likely sent someone to infiltrate the fortress to rescue these accomplices. You two patrol the outside, then report back to me. Go.”

The two Knights exchanged a glance.

Judge Chadwick’s order was clearly out of character, tinged with a sense of frantic incoherence.

It seemed he was desperate to get them out of the way.

But as employees of the Judgment Court, they could only obey.

Chadwick had lost the extraordinary bearing of a Judge—powerful and unflustered by crisis. Like a child doing something naughty under his father’s nose, he watched intently until the two Knights were gone.

He shuffled over, pushed open the door to the secret prison, and said to the subordinate still applying the whip, ”How is the interrogation going?”

The subordinate in charge of the interrogation, sweating profusely, rolled up his sleeves and said breathlessly, ”Same as always. She won’t say a word.”

”I... I see. You can go. I’ll speak with her alone.”

The subordinate put down the leather whip and turned to leave the prison.

But just as he turned, the Judge, who had been standing with his hands behind his back in a feigned calm, suddenly whipped out a dagger and plunged it into the subordinate’s lower back. Clamping a hand over the man’s mouth, he gently lowered the unresisting body to the ground. The subordinate’s wide eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.

After doing all this,

The Judge shut the prison door, stepped over the subordinate’s not-yet-dead body, and took out a bottle of Demon Poison he had hidden in his lining.

Under the flickering light,

This Judge, who had once faced a Demon without a hint of fear, was now drenched in sweat just from holding the Demon Poison, his right hand trembling uncontrollably.

Her face smeared with blood and filth, her hair a tangled, dirty mess, Lu Jia looked up at the Judge who had tortured her for over a month, and at the vial emitting a sinister aura.

She, who hadn’t spoken a word in ten days, finally smiled.

Though she was incredibly weak and her parched throat made her voice abnormally hoarse, the mockery and contempt filling it instantly shattered the Judge’s composure.

”I knew it. You’ve made a deal with Demons, traitor... You held back for a month, but you finally couldn’t take it anymore, could you? Heh heh.”

The Judge slapped Lu Jia across the face with all his might, roaring furiously, ”Shut your mouth! A deal with Demons?! What do you take us for?!

Demons are merely tools we use to find and resurrect the Great Emperor! Do you have any idea how many Judges have sacrificed themselves on this path for our grand ideal?

That Imperial Knight you’re protecting—he’s the real traitor!

Hidden deep within his soul is an evil power that could allow him to ascend into a Venerable Great Demon! You don’t know any of this! Because of your shortsightedness and stupidity, we’ve wasted so much time, causing all our efforts to be for nothing.

Now we can only watch as the last glimmer of the Empire falls into the hands of that bastard Sedon—a man who grew up in the Old Empire and wants to keep clinging to that corrupt old system!”

Spouting these ravings of a madman,

Judge Chadwick unscrewed the cap of the Demon Poison. The immense psychological pressure of committing such an evil act, as if under the gaze of the Emperor himself, had driven him to the brink of incoherent madness.

”You forced me to do this, Sister, you forced me... Only your testimony can bring down that traitor Reinhardt, can overthrow the Grand Governor’s corrupt rule over the Imperial Administrative Region.

You forced my hand...”

But Lu Jia only watched in silence. This Judge had gone completely mad, even madder than that bastard Eleonor.

When the Judge, in his panic, exposed his true thoughts and called her by the holy title of Sister,

She knew.

She had won this battle.

After a moment of silence.

”But what you’re doing... how is that any different from a traitor, Judge?”

Just as the Judge took the Demon Poison and forced her mouth open, a tall figure appeared in the cell, as silent and sudden as a ghost.

A large hand clamped down on the Judge’s wrist, gripping it like a vise.