Chapter 45: The Dark History of the Seofano Family

  Frederick background, I'm not very clear, but I can roughly guess a bit.

  That meal he had at Wendel's restaurant, ordinary German princes might not even know about such dishes. Add to that the few skilled guards and their equipment, as well as his knowledge, and his family is definitely a minor but influential noble house in Germany. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to have the capital to cultivate him like this.

  "Follow me!" I shouted loudly, drawing out the thick stinger sword from my waist and kicking my horse's belly, charging out of the alley.

  Across from me, the two guards stationed at the Holy Spirit's Sanctum stood frozen in place, clutching their flintlocks in confusion. By the time I rode up to them, they had no choice but to comply, as the blade of my sword was already pressed against their necks. "Don't move! The Church's prisoner wagon! Where is it? Tell me, or I'll kill you right now!!!"

  A guard's forehead was beaded with cold sweat, his eyes fixed on the sharp blade at his throat, and he told us they had stopped in the inner courtyard.

  I raised my head and looked at the Holy Spirit Cleanliness Institute and asked: "Where is the inner courtyard?"

  Another guard lifted his trembling finger and pointed to the big road on the left inside: "Go down along this road and you will arrive."

  "Let's go!"

  Just a few steps after running away, the two guards behind the horse shouted: "What are you still dazed about? Go and inform the bishop quickly! Say that several guards wearing Seofano robes rushed into the Holy Spirit Temple and went straight to the prison!"

  "Oh, oh!"

  In the inner courtyard of the Holy Spirit Church, there were several fully armed guards standing at the narrow gate. We rushed out and they shouted in surprise and panic, "Halt!" "This is a place of worship, you must not be presumptuous!"

  Too late, the horse's hooves arrived, and those guards rolled and crawled to get out of the way to the other side. With their small stature, they weren't even enough for our fine Polish horses to kick.

  The horse was in the yard, sweeping across this cold and gloomy yard, I saw a prison cart parked next to an old well with its cage already removed, but there were several dungeon-like entrances in the yard.

  I leapt off the horse and grabbed one of the guards at the entrance, pressing my pistol against his temple. "Where is he?" I demanded. "Where is the man in the cage?"

  I had just finished speaking, and the guard who was so shocked that he couldn't even speak properly hadn't reacted yet. A cellar entrance opened, and joyful shouts came from below.

  "Brothers, we've hit the jackpot, God bless! The two guys we caught today, one of them is a stunning beauty! Haha, those bishops didn't enjoy her, what a waste for you! Sixty denarii! Sixty denarii! Whoever gives sixty denarii can go first!"

  "It's true, she's even more beautiful than the high-class courtesans in the northern part of town! Sixty dinars isn't expensive at all!"

  "I think that chick is still a virgin!!! Her skin is white and smooth, and she's even blonde. A commodity like this would cost over 100 solari in a brothel, 60 dinars! You're getting a good deal! Haha! The second one, 40 dinars, who's interested?"

  "Is everyone under that basement?" I asked the guard in my hand, and he nodded vigorously.

  "If you don't want to die, don't move!" I threatened them in a low voice, turned around and put away the handcuffs, and whispered to the guards, "Do you have money? Lend me some."

  Three guards looked at me, I looked at them, each of us pulled out a few Sorlis and one or two Ores from our waist bags.

  "What's going on? Why isn't anyone making a sound? Are the guards of the Holy Spirit Temple all penniless, or what?"

  I took the money from them, three aurei and four sestertii, and called down into the cellar, "Three aurei! I'll give you three aurei for the lot of us!"

  "Who is it?!" The dungeon door creaked open, and two people with black hoods covering their heads emerged from below, revealing only two eye sockets, with black and white eyeballs staring in astonishment.

  I held up a few coins in my hand and shouted down at the people below: "Three aurei and four sestertii! Take us three!"

  "Who are you?" Another black-hooded man emerged from the cellar, his question being more difficult to answer.

  "As you can see, the guardian of the Seofano family, heard that this time it's a noble who was caught, heh heh, we've never had a noble young lady before, so I want to try something fresh." I imitated the lewd tone of Cheap Old Dad.

  "What are you doing here, the royal guards of Seo Fa No?!" The black hooded head that finally poked out was apparently the leader of the group of hoodlums. He crawled out of the dungeon exit, his big belly jiggling, his messy hair covered in black grease, who knows how long it's been since he last took a bath.

  "There's someone upstairs who wants to meet the principal." I pointed to the clergyman we had brought along, "He took us on a tour around and we happened to pass by here when we heard your shout..."

  Then I gave him a look, you know the expression. The black hooded head was still hesitating, and I immediately put on an impatient face: "What, don't you want to?!"

  The black hooded man withdrew his gaze from the pack of wolf-like guards and the terrified priest, then said: "Hand over the money. Later, do as I say."

  The two guards who moved to the edge of the dungeon gave me a signal, but I didn't immediately give the order to attack, because this masked guy piqued my curiosity: "Huh, what am I supposed to do later? Didn't I pay you and let me in to play with women?"

  "Haha, you don't know this... " The stout masked man put away several Oreos and burst into laughter. "You look so young, you must not know the way. Come on, let's go down and talk while we walk."

  The church's dungeon was very cold, with dark and seemingly bottomless corridors that resembled a deep abyssal beast. As I walked in, the stench inside almost made me faint.

  The black hooded man led the way, saying: "Later on, you don't say anything at first, I'll talk, you pay attention to what I'm saying, and when the time comes, we can use those words to humiliate that noble lady. By the way, I have to remind you in advance, that noble lady is disguised as a man, so she might not bleed if you have that kind of hobby of making virgins see red, you might be disappointed!"

  "Don't worry, I didn't. But what's strange is that if she really was a high-class courtesan from the Precious District, why wouldn't the bishop bring her back to his room for a taste?" I laughed.

  "Who knows what those big shots are thinking, anyway we're invited, and told to play those two guys to death. Best to drive them crazy. A man and a woman, the two of them are obviously a couple, this is easy to deal with. But I need to come up with something stimulating." The hooded man chuckled, "But I think someone like you must like cleanliness, I don't think you'll participate in this."

  "You don't say, how would you know I'd mind?" I calmly retorted back, occasionally thinking about Frederick's little face being sandwiched by such a group of burly and brutal big men is also quite interesting, isn't it...

  "Of course, that... You know, with so many of us, after you're done, we've got to have some fun too, right? Don't look at me like this, actually I've been preparing for today for the past two days and my body still reeks... even I can't stand it myself. Originally, I heard it was going to be against two guys, who knew... Hehehe. One in front, one in back, absolutely enough to make that proud noble lady's heart die a thousand deaths. Honestly, among the prisoners I've dealt with, they're the easiest to handle, this move is basically foolproof!"

  I was shocked and asked: "Is this trick always effective? Have you done many similar things?"

  The black cloth bag head revealed a dark history of the Seo family.

  Every time there is a change of emperor, it can't be avoided that there will be some bloody rain and violent winds.

  More than 20 years ago, it happened that my grandfather was old and weak, gradually transferring everything to the hands of cheap old man. The emperor on the throne took advantage of this trend at that time. That imperial emperor was also a product of the rise of our ancestor, so there were still some forces. He shouted with one arm, and a group of two hundred and fifty people who went against the historical trend jumped out. As a result, the whole army was defeated. Those guys were not many, basically all doing literary and artistic work. However, our Seofano family also suffered some injuries. This price is not big or small, but it would be very painful to throw it into anyone's home. Because several promising uncles and fathers in the direct line of descent died in this turmoil. The death was very miserable, either being stabbed to death by a knife on the bed of a mistress, or being beaten to death by a stick while fooling around with a mistress outside...

  Afterwards, a large group of nobles were dragged out and beheaded, not just one hundred, but two hundred. Those concubines were sentenced as being pro-monarchy people. Anyway, afterwards, none of them or their families survived. As for the church, those guys stood firmly on our side from start to finish... And that jailbird, let his father take him out and opened a restaurant, even got involved with several baronesses.

  "We're here." The black hooded head stopped at the edge of the dark corridor, his thumb pointing to the room behind him, then he opened the door. "Is one meal's time enough?"

  I blinked in confusion for a moment, that wasn't more than an hour... I smiled wryly: "I'll try my best."

  "He pointed to a spacious hall on one side of the corridor with his head wrapped in a black cloth: 'We'll sit there, and if anything happens, just shout loudly.'"

  "Alright." I gave a signal to the three guards and they cautiously followed me into the dungeon room.