In that spur of the moment, the knight he himself thought was free from the suffocating collar around his neck, suddenly loses his consciousness. Or to be precise, he loses his life. Shortly after, the same happened to the other fellows he is with.
It all happened right in front of them. However, no one knows how it occurred. All they noticed was a shadow of a person from the stairway to the ground level as it seemingly going for a run.
"There's a person up there!"
"Wait!!"
Edle and Tedric chased through the stairs, while Sieghart and Jinrah busts through the ceiling. But unfortunately, the person behind the shadow was nowhere to be seen.
"Impossible..."
"They're gone...?"
Back inside the underground room, Selene's quick reflexes saves them as she immediately creates a barrier. David thanked her for what she did.
"Hey, you two! Didn't I tell you not to destroy properties unless you're certain you'll catch your target?!" Lira shouted
The two apologized to Lira as they sweat profusely in fear.
"I heard the culprit disappeared the instant all of them tried to chase that person. Isn't that too impossible?" Selene remarked.
As Edle and Tedric entered the devastated underground room with disappointment, the prince suggested that it's a work of the scrolls Gates that they mentioned earlier.
"This is all too sudden. Just when we thought we could actually talk to someone who might know a thing or two more about Castile and his Kingdom..."
Everyone looked at the dead knights who fell victim onto their own ally to keep something hidden from Christa and the others.
Foot steps slowly approaches the house as knights of Reilaea heard a bang after Sieghart and Jinrah destroys the ceiling.
"Is everyone okay? We heard a loud bang coming from here..."
The knight who checks up on them also loses his words on the site of the dead soldiers of Kruule.
At the moment, Edle suggested everyone to get out of the house while he ordered the knight to get the lifeless bodies of the soldiers and give them a proper burial.
"Let's discuss further outside. You, bring these corpses up and give them a proper burial."
"Understood!"
The knight calls up the others to help taking the corpses outside of the underground room and the house itself.
The small carriage brought in to carry the corpses then moves out to the place where they'll be properly buried.
"What do we do?" Commander Tedric asked.
Wordlessly, Edle looked up into the young night sky with the moon seemingly gazing down on him as well.
While the prince were contemplating about everything that happened ever since the invasion, Christa steps in front of everyone to summarize everything that they know and the questions that remained mysteries.
"At the very least, we got some important information about Castile and his schemes." Christa proceeds to stab his wooden sword onto the ground.
They know that they are creating magic weapons through wood and other materials. Just like her wooden sword. That's more than enough to believe that he's planning to attack not just the country of Reilaea, but also the others as well. Gates were supposedly forbidden by all the countries involved in the first Ruler's conference, but somehow, Castile were still able to produce them. Seeing how the attack occurred in the Kingdom, it's pretty obvious that they are planning of the same strategy into attacking other countries.
In the case of the collars. Not every soldier of Kruule wear them. Meaning that slavery of his people are happening in the Kingdom.
"And what I mean by slavery, is literally what it means. Although, they are not physically being controlled, rather, he is controlling them by tormenting them mentally."
"Tormenting them mentally...?"
Continuing her explanation to Sieghart who asked about what she mentioned, she explains that they are being controlled with nothing but fear.
"Fear is an emotion that affects every individual differently. There are some who uses their fear of something or someone to stand fearless against a powerful enemy. There are others who's fear are too overwhelming for them that all they can do is fall prey into it. And, some who can use that fear to rule above others."
As Christa worded her opinion, she is reminded of the knight who stood fearless against her in the forest. The knights who are tight-lipped despite having the will to act on their own due to the lightning collars. Not only that, a figure of a strong King of Kruule that she have never seen in person before also comes to mind.
"Are you saying that he is controlling them with nothing but fear alone? If that really were the case, he's definitely too confident for himself." Jinrah regarded with a mocking tone.
"After seeing those knights who couldn't even speak to us properly until Christa decided to stop the collar only to be killed by an assassin, don't you think his confidence are justified?"
David's opinion erased the jackass look into Jinrah's face.
"It's not impossible to rule a Kingdom by fear. But realistically, the way he does this is way over the top."
"It may be way over the top or whatever, but there's no denying it's doing pretty well for him." Christa replied to David's words. "For him, brainwashing or hypnotism might be a lot of trouble than instilling fear to them. In the case of what derives his ability to instill such fear into someone..."
"Hate."
"Huh?"
"It's hate. His hate against everyone with a royal blood is what probably derives him from terrorizing the people."
"Hate with the royal blood? Doesn't that mean he hates all the Rulers of all the Kingdom and their families?"
"Yes. I still remember it clearly into my mind..."
Edle recalls the words Castile spoke to him as he casts his dark flames.
"My hate against everyone with a royal blood far exceeds yours!"
"His hate against everyone with a royal blood..."
"Allow me to give everyone the knowledge of Castile's hatred, Prince Edle."
His voice and sudden appearance surprised everyone around him and Edle.
"Kaien...? Wait, did you know something about his hatred towards us?"
Kaien leans down to show respect to Edle, he then answered, "Up until now, we've been investigating Castile if he really were the one who is behind the missing of your Father, though nothing much came into fruition. However, even without your orders, I ordered my men to learn about Castile's past. That's where I learned about his tragic childhood."
"Tragic childhood?"
From what Kaien gathered from digging into Castile's past, his childhood, the present King family died in front of him as they try to hold back the monsters that were trying to get inside the royal castle in the Kingdom of Kruule.
"Back then, where monsters led by demons to invade countries are more frequent, a giant wave of monsters attacked Kruule. At that time, both Castile's Mother and Father are serving under the former King and Queen of the country. As the monsters managed to breach the castle, in the line of duty, both Castile's Father and Mother offered themselves to keep the monsters back from their rulers."
With both his parents holding the line to keep the monsters from reaching him and the rulers who are carrying him and the young princess, with tears trickling down from his eyes, he told the King of Kruule:
"W-We gotta save Mother and Father!! Let me go!!"
The King who is keeping Castile from escaping his hold answered the young man, "Don't worry! Once I get you all to a safe place, I'll call the soldiers and rescue them!"
"After that, Castile stopped from trying to get out of the former King's grasp and hoped that his parents will be rescued in time. But unfortunately, that did not happened." Said, Kaien to everyond gathered around him.
"What happened to his Mother and Father?"
Answering the Prince's question, Kaien told Edle and everyone that a search and rescue group were organized almost an hour have past since the King brought the Queen, his Daughter and Castile to safety.
"It took them that long?"
"Yeah, the King could not organize a rescue group in time because most of his soldiers were trying to fend off the monsters all around the Kingdom, and that he also received a grave injury after one of the monsters managed to catch up to them as they were running away." Kaien answered Edle.
After the group was organized, they immediately went and searched for Castile's Mother and Father. But only the Father's corpse were found in the same spot they were holding the monsters.
"It was suspected that Castile's Mother were captured by the monsters and turned into their slaves or playthings just like the other women that fall prey into them. But that also were not the case."
The follow up search and rescue to the monster's nest ended, the soldiers managed to rescue all the men and women that were captured by the monsters they eradicated. But there was no sign of Castile's mother inside the nest.
Days passed after the follow up search and rescue ended, all the people that died along with Castile's Father were given a proper burial by the King and his Queen. Slowly but surely the Kingdom were trying to stand up from the predicament that fell upon them.
When everything seem to be recovering from what happened, Castile assumed that the same fate of his Father also happened to his missing Mother and decided to let them go...
"He saw the King along with the other soldiers inside a chamber. And inside that chamber, he saw his Mother who he thought was missing and have died. Her hands were shackled, her trembling voice echoed through out the room in pain and in fear."
Once again, tears come trickling down his eyes as he watched the King along with the other knights like a pack of wolves feasting over his Mother.
"Both his legs and mouth were shaking in fear, he couldn't even let out a single word as he watch his Mother being tormented by them. All he could do was cry and cry as he witness the final moments of his Mother."
"How terrible..." Lira spoke with disgust over the former King of Kruule and his soldiers.
"They already did what they wanted with his Mother..."
"...But they also decided to kill her."
"For the longest time, he has seen his family serve the Kingdom and it's rulers without fail. They are knights who are willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of the Kingdom, for the sake of the King and the Queen. But after seeing what happened to his Mother, Castile must have felt betrayed by the country they served."
Kaien concluded the whole information he gathered about Castile's childhood. Sieghart thinks it might've been the thing that sparked Castile's hatred towards everyone with a royal blood. Tedric agrees with the idea, and so is everyone.