Chapter 57

The rebels have a more rigid internal class system, with only a handful of important senior personnel, and all have very mysterious identities.
Underneath is their commander's crony team, a team loyal only to individuals, the team does not communicate with each other and does not know the other chiefs they belong to.
Further down is the bottom of the line of people similar to cannon fodder.
The only one that exists differently is that leader of the rebels, who has no crony forces of his own, but has all the top brass convinced to serve him and keep his identity tightly covered.
The men they caught were the so-called bottom-feeders, who not only did not know the identity of the leader, but also did not even know the identity of several of the top brass.
But the executioners didn't believe it. They just thought they were being tough-talking and carried the whip and tried to continue the whipping, but Aaron stopped them.
"Do you want to splatter me with blood?"
Aaron's tone was very flat.
The jailers moved stiffly for a moment and obediently put the whip down.
"Nick," Aaron suddenly called out, his gaze falling on Nick, "I remember your interrogation is also top-notch, how about I leave these guys to you?"
"Happy to oblige." Nick made a gentleman's salute, pulled out a pair of black gloves from his pocket and put them on without panic.
He walked slowly over to the torture devices hanging off to the side, his fingers slowly stroking over them, landing on a couple of half-finger-wide needles and picking them up as the prisoners stared in horror.
His face looks worse than the previous two days, through the pallor of a serious injury, the way the shiny thick and long needles placed in front of his eyes, like a hellish demon.
Every movement he made was extremely gentlemanly, and the words he spoke made the prisoner's teeth chatter.
"So, before I do it, I still have to ask once more, do you really refuse to say?"
The prisoner looked at the long needle waving around in front of him and shouted in terror: "I don't know, I really don't know ah, you just kill me I can't tell!"
"I swear to the moon goddess, you, you believe me, I will not lie to you, I really do not know, ah!"
Nick unceremoniously nailed the long needle into the prisoner's shoulder blade, the prisoner let out a scream, shivering and hissing, "Give me a break, I really don't know! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts ......"
Nick, as if he could not hear the scream, smiled and nailed another long needle into his other shoulder, pulling out both long needles as he begged for mercy, pulling them out bit by bit at the slowest speed, torture-like.
The prisoner even heard the tearing sound of his own flesh and blood, a stabbing pain invaded his brain and drove him crazy.
Sophia kept watching Nick, not letting go of even the slightest expression on his face, but Nick was calm from beginning to end, even when the thick blood sprayed on his face, he could continue to smile.
It's like a painted-on expression, without a trace of real emotion.
"Still won't talk?" Nick asked with a smile, sticking the long needle down the hole where the nail came out, again little by little, stirring back and forth in the wound.
The prisoner's body jerked and kept rolling his eyes, the intense pain made him pee his pants, a foul smell filled the air, Aaron couldn't help but frown, pulling out the hand towel he had specially brought from his pocket and covering Sophia's nose.
The hand towel carried a nice scent that cushioned the stench in the air.
She looked down and whispered in Aaron's ear, "They should really not know, why don't we ask in a different way, ask them if they know any characteristics on that chief."
Aaron nodded and spoke up to stop Nick from continuing to torture them.
The prisoners were all tortured out of their minds, and were poured with another bucket of salt water with another burst of tearing pain, completely out of strength, and could only rely on the ropes of bondage to support their bodies.
Several other prisoners were also scared to death.
"I'll give you one more chance to tell me what you know about your leader, and when I'm satisfied, you'll have a chance to live, understand?"
Aaron's cold voice was like a savior, rescuing them from the abyss of pain, and they breathed heavily, trying to give that answer that would keep them alive.
But after searching their minds for a long time, they couldn't find anything related to that chief.
While they were trying to think, Nick stepped aside, took off his blood-stained gloves and took out a hand towel to wipe the blood from his face, his eyes indifferent.
"Nick, is everything okay?" Sophia asked softly.
Nick froze for a moment, then smiled.
"Queen, I have done this many times before for the King, you don't have to worry about me."
Sophia looked at him worriedly, her voice soft and relaxing.
"You don't look well, did the wound fall apart again?"
Nick relaxed a little with her voice and answered naturally.
"The wound is okay, but I really haven't been feeling well the past two days."
"What happened to your hand? The tips of your fingers are all worn out."
Sophia's soft voice came again, Nick subconsciously shrunk his hand, trying to hide his fingers, looked down and found that the fingertips were just a little rubbed with red marks, the abrasion had long since healed.
Nick could only smile and hold his hand out for her to see.
"You're looking at it wrong, my hand is fine."
"Indeed, I was wrong about that." Sophia said gently, taking her eyes off him and looking at the prisoner who tried to speak several times but hesitated.
Sophia didn't need Nick to answer, one of his movements was enough to answer her.
The abrasion of his fingertips, the dots of blood in the cracks of the floor, something seemed to connect the dots.
"Thinking?" Aaron got impatient, his grip on Sophia tightening, and drank in annoyance.
The prisoners shivered and were named one by one in response.
"I, I heard our leader is a very handsome man, not very old and tall." The prisoner who had pissed his pants had shivering lips and said what he knew, and looked up at Aaron apprehensively after he finished, afraid his answer would make him unsatisfied.
Aaron's expression did not change much and looked at the next person.
"I heard that he hates the royal family very much and wants to overthrow it."
"But he has great faith in the moon goddess and often makes sacrifices in the hope of asking for a wish from the goddess."
"He had a very precious thing that he always carried with him, but no one could mention it, and I heard that the death of one of the top brass was a violation of his taboo."
The clues they provided were very fragmented, much to Aaron's dismay.
Sophia patted his shoulder and whispered, "Give them a little more time to think it over, maybe they'll come up with something."
"One night, if they can't think of anything, they will be tortured from tomorrow until they think of something."
Aaron threw down these words, picking up Sophia and leaving the dungeon, Nick looked back at the prisoners, hooked his lips slightly, and followed them away.
The next day, Sophia woke up to the news that the traitors had committed suicide in the dungeon.
When they were caught, everything was searched from their bodies and the poison stuck in their teeth was taken down, but that still didn't stop them from killing themselves.
Sophia visits the dungeon again, without Aaron coming along.
Several prisoners were held separately, and the first person Sophia looked at was the only one Nick interrogated. He was begging for water to drink when he broke the bowl, cut his aorta with a shard, and bled to death.
Sophia found a line in the blood.
We shall prevail.
She went to see a few others who had asked their jailers for pen and paper, said they would write down the characteristics of the leader for them, and then poked the pen down their throats, and others who simply ran headlong into the ground and died.
The same thing was written on the ground with the words.
You are doomed to be abandoned.
The wolves will surely go to extinction.
You will not be forgiven.
We will triumph in the end.
Like a curse, and like a prophecy.
Accompanied by the curse, there was one assassination after another. The assassins ambushed in the palace and around the palace pounced on them without fear of death, and once almost really hurt Aaron, but at the last moment Nike arrived in time to help Aaron block it.
These assassins did not escape after the failed assassination, and very simply committed suicide.
It is as if they were deliberately put out of the lead, just to make Aaron have a sense of crisis.
Nick was injured again to protect Aaron, but still kept working and wouldn't rest.
Sophia has seen blood seeping from his wounds more than once, and still stands behind Aaron to guard him.
If there weren't so many suspicious things about him, Sophia would almost really believe that Nick is the most loyal person to Aaron.
After being driven back to his room once again by Sophia, Nick looked as if he couldn't hold on any longer, propping himself up on the table and panting heavily, which was seen by a maid passing by the door.
The maid knocked on the door and asked worriedly, "Are you all right?"
Nick jerked back and his eyes were bloodshot, scaring the maid into taking a step backwards.
Nick covered his face and tried to slow down his voice, but he couldn't hide the pain in his voice.
"I'm just a little sore, sorry for scaring you, I'll just take a painkiller later, don't mind me."
The maid froze and nodded, running away almost as if she had fled.
Nick stumbled to the door, locked it behind him, and almost flopped to the floor when his feet went weak, held up by someone who had quietly tumbled in through the window.
"You haven't taken your medication in a while, are you still holding up?" A worried voice came from under the mask as the man helped him to sit down on the edge of the bed and stood still.
Nick shook his head and said unhappily, "Why are they acting without permission, I told you, I must take care of that man myself."
"Those guys said you delayed too long, obviously always by his side, trusted by him, had many chances to do it, but you delayed." The man replied respectfully, but it was clear that there wasn't much reverence for the guys he was talking about.
Nick had a cold sweat on his forehead, his hands were shaking uncontrollably, and he had to yank something hard to barely stop it.
He laughed mockingly.
"A bunch of idiots, who do they think they are assassinating, not to mention that he was surrounded by so many people guarding him, so many assassinations failed to take him down, that time he fell alone, one person failed to let him die even after fighting so many, can I outwit him alone?"
"As long as he catches the slightest chance to resist, the one who dies is me, I can't take the risk."
Nick frowned and relaxed his body to lie on the soft bed.
"Besides, what about after killing him, we still have a lot of things not ready, just act hastily, what should we do next, a bunch of brainless fools!"