Capítulo 1085: Chapter 1083: Soul Interrogation
“Cheka Inspector, I’m quite pleased to et you as well.” Upon hearing the words, Richard’s eyebrows moved slightly, maintaining a calm deanor as he spoke to Cheka, not appearing guilty at all.
“Aren’t you afraid?” Cheka raised an eyebrow, sowhat amused, as he looked at Richard and asked.
“Why should I be afraid?” Richard continued to maintain his calm, softly countering, “If you’re referring to your cause of death being related to , I do not deny it. I regret your previous death; it was an accident caused by a misunderstanding.
But this does not an I would be fearful upon seeing your resurrection. I’m not worried about your revenge, nor do I fear it. Of course, I believe Cheka Inspector wouldn’t truly hold a grudge and seek revenge, as that would not align with the organization’s expectations of its mbers. If that’s the case, what do I have to be afraid of?”
“Impressive!” Cheka gazed at Richard, speaking with three parts surprise, three parts mockery, and four parts anger, “Wizard Richard, I truly admire your composure, your astuteness, and of course, your abilities. But unfortunately, this ti, you won’t have a chance to demonstrate them; my reason for descending upon Pompeii was solely to find you.”
“Oh?”
“I have great certainty that you are a spy infiltrating the organization. Removing you now could prevent incalculable future loss to the organization,” Cheka shrieked.
Richard still kept his calm, unflustered, and softly asked, “You suspect my intentions for joining the organization aren’t pure? Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s false. Regardless of the truth, I’d like to ask, Cheka Inspector, do you have evidence? Considering our previous conflict due to misunderstandings, accusing without evidence could easily be seen as slander.”
“Don’t worry, I certainly have evidence,” Cheka retorted sternly.
“Then where’s the evidence?” Richard pursued, “Eyewitnesses, physical evidence?”
“Neither,” Cheka answered.
“Then what is it exactly?”
“It’s your soul.”
“My soul?”
“Yes, your soul,” Cheka stated, “Since my resurrection from Heaven, I’ve acquired a new ability — I can question your soul by paying a certain price. Souls don’t lie; or rather, if a soul lies, it can be detected. So once I question your soul, everything will co to light.”
As he finished speaking, Cheka suddenly clenched his fist, causing a faint red glow to flicker across his body, and he began to tremble as if enduring imnse pain. Sweat oozed from his skin, and a gray energy vine erged from the crevices of his clenched fist.
The energy vine continued to extend until it reached over twenty centiters in length, then halted as its tip swelled and sprouted a bud. The bud blood, revealing a pure energy-ford azure eye, staring at Richard with an eerie gaze.
“This is the Eye of Truth, capable of discerning any lies,” Cheka wiped away his sweat, looked at Richard, and spoke, “I now ask you, Wizard Richard, have you intentionally done anything to harm the organization’s interests?”
Richard remained silent.
The surrounding wizards cast skeptical glances.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Three seconds later, Richard spoke, replying to Cheka, “No.”
As soon as the words were out, a layer of black mist appeared on the surface of the Eye of Truth.
“Ha!” Cheka sneered, “Wizard Richard, it seems your verbal answer and your inner thoughts are completely different. Let ask you a second question: was there any deliberate murder involved in my previous death?”
“No.”
The surface of the Eye of Truth was again veiled in a layer of black mist.
Cheka shook his head, looking at Richard sowhat sympathetically, “The last question, what exactly were you extracting at the quarry, and would it pose a significant threat to the organization?”
Richard pondered briefly and replied, “As I ntioned earlier, the quarry yielded only ordinary ores and so rare ones of unknown use. If such posed a threat to the organization, then all quarries would pose a threat to the organization.”
As his voice fell, the surface of the Truth Word was completely dyed in black, an ominous sight.
“Hmph.” Cheka snorted, directing his question toward Richard, “Wizard Richard, do you have anything else to explain? The Eye of Truth has already sufficiently proven that you indeed pose a major potential threat to the organization and need to be dealt with imdiately.”
“There’s sothing I’d like to ask.” Richard’s face remained unchanged, “How can you use a spell to determine my identity as a spy, especially when the spell is cast by you? In my view, unless there’s a complete chain of evidence with physical and eyewitness proof, a spell alone can’t serve as evidence.”
“Ignorance,” Cheka dismissed bluntly, “The ‘Eye of Truth’ I cast has been tested countless tis without a single error. So as long as it says you’re guilty, you’re guilty.”
“Has the spell never erred?” Richard calmly continued, “Or perhaps it has erred, but no one believed it. This completely illogical testing thod cannot serve as evidence because it lacks falsifiability.
Furthermore, even if it has never erred before, it doesn’t an it won’t err in the future. Just like a coin toss ga, if the first ten tosses result in heads, does that an every subsequent toss will also be heads?”
“This…” Cheka was at a loss for words. He originally intended for his descent upon Pompeii to proceed smoothly, but he hadn’t anticipated facing obstacles right from the start.
However, he quickly collected his thoughts: coaxing Richard into confessing willingly was nearly impossible. From his sufficiently familiar debate skills, it was evident — his previous death, in so sense, could be said to have been caused by Richard’s sharp words.
Thus, completing the purpose of descending upon Pompeii through debate with Richard was not advisable. The most rational approach would be to reveal Richard’s true nature, allowing the others to recognize Richard’s danger as he had.
His goal was to deal with Richard, so whether by awakening Richard to admit culpability or inciting others to take furious action and eliminate Richard on the spot made no difference.
It now seed the latter option had significantly lower difficulty than the forr.
“Hum—”
Cheka took a deep breath, attempting to stabilize his emotions, and addressed Richard, “Alright, you might make erroneous things seem right and right things seem erroneous, but this won’t save your life.”
Turning his head, Cheka looked toward Long i’er, speaking in a deep voice, “Supervisor Long i’er, please handle this. Please imdiately eliminate Richard, the organization’s parasite.”
“Eliminate Wizard Richard?” Long i’er spoke up, casting a glance at Cheka and calmly asking, “But Wizard Richard bears no culpability, correct?”
“Hmm?” Cheka’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at Long i’er, “Supervisor Long i’er, you…”
…
Reviews
All reviews (0)