Chapter 69: Underground Cave Maze
"Door?"
Oleg turned around as he traced Fei's vision and looked in the direction he was staring. He instantly understood what Fei was thinking and responded right away, "Your Majesty, Iron Prison – Water Dungeon isn't the entire underground cave maze. There's an endless passageway behind the door, but no one knows where it leads to. Some people had entered the passageway to explore, but none of them made it back alive. The passageway is extremely dangerous. Some say that there's a massive maze behind the door, while others say that a terrifying man-eating hell beast hides behind it. Anyways, for a period of time before the door was built, horrible roars and howling noises would be heard everyday, and a great suction force would suddenly occur and pull people into the corridor...To prevent more deaths, the king before your father ordered craftsmen in the kingdom to build an iron gate to seal the corridor behind it and prohibited entry for everyone in the Kingdom."
As Oleg spoke, he looked at the black iron gate and seemed uneasy.
Fei nodded in a calm and collected manner, but on the inside he couldn't be more shocked. According to Oleg's statement, this huge Iron Prison – Water Dungeon was only a part of the underground cave, and maybe only just a tiny part of it.
This was way too crazy. "Who actually built this underground cave?" Fei couldn't help but link this huge unimaginable cave maze with the grand-scale constructions of Chambord Castle. Suddenly, a thought popped up in his head, "Could the ones who built Chambord Castle have created this underground cave as well?"
Fei vaguely felt that Chambord Castle was the same as this underground cave. It only revealed a small portion of itself, as if it was an unknown mysterious treasure that was covered by the dust of time. The secrets of this area hadn't been discovered by anyone yet and were just waiting for itself to be uncovered.
At that moment, Fei's curiosity had reached its peak.
He decided that he had to squeeze out some time later on to go through the black iron gate to the mysterious corridor and figure out what secrets were really hiding in this underground cave maze.
As they talked, Oleg led Fei to a wide open stone room on the first level in the huge underground hall. The room was fully furnished. All the torches in the room added some warmness into the chilly and moist air. Fei walked in and sat on a black fur layered soft stone chair behind a black wooden table as he was thinking about the things he previously neglected.
Suddenly, "Bam! Bam!" It was the sound of the iron fences hitting each other, and it was mixed with "tinkling" noises of the iron chains dragging on the ground. Brook had returned with someone behind him.
"Your Majesty, I have brought Peter-Cech." Brook saluted as he announced.
Fei took a detailed look at the former First Commander of King's Guards who was seriously admired by Brook. The man was about 6 foot 4 (190cm), his clothes were all tattered and he was barefooted. It might've been that he was locked up for too long, but his hair was all messy and had hay in it, like an old and used mop. He had a thin body; both his hands and ankles were locked up in iron chains that were as thick as his wrist, and the areas of his body that were in contact with the chains was filled with calluses. He looked terrible, worse than a beggar.
However, the eyes that were hiding behind the long, messy hair of this impoverished looking man shocked Fei – his eyes were surprisingly bright, and his brown pupils exuded a strange light. It made Fei feel like the man was a dragon sleeping in a mountain or a tiger resting on a plain. He had an unspeakable calmness and confidence in his eyes. No one could relate this pair of eyes to a prisoner.
"Peter-Cech greets Your Majesty!"
After entering the stone room, Cech glanced around and observed everyone; his eyes landed on Fei last. He didn't say anything more and kneeled down directly to show respect and salute Fei. The chains on his body started tickling due to his movement.
"Please get up! Oleg, quickly remove the chains on Commander Cech and get another chair."
Fei got up, walked up to Cech and helped him get up as he said that. Oleg immediately knew that this former first commander of the King's Guards would come back to power and no one could stop it. Although Cech was charged with the most terrible crime – treason, he could be pardoned at Alexander's will. The Warden was great at analyzing the situation; he humbly moved a soft fur covered stone chair for Cech and then grabbed the keys from a jailor and released Cech from the chains.
Fei grabbed onto the big black wooden table and single-handedly moved it in front of Cech. The strength of a level 16 Barbarian was completely showcased. He pointed at the delicious and delicate food that Oleg prepared on the table and laughed, "Peter, eat first. We will talk after you get full."
Cech had a surprised expression on his face as he looked at Fei. After a moment of silence, he grabbed onto a roasted pig leg and started devouring it; he chugged down a cup of wine and ate ravenously as if the food in front of him was the best in the world. Soon, the food that was enough to feed four or five men was cleanly swept up by him. He chugged down the last bit of wine in the silver pot container, got up as he burped and then turned around as he kneeled down in front of Fei again. He lowered his head and loudly swore an oath, "My king, Peter-Cech swears allegiance to you. I shall give you everything I got, even my life!"
Fei was a little surprised. He didn't expect that after the big meal, Cech would instantly declare his loyalty. He didn't even have the chance to say the bossy lines he had prepared...He thought to himself proudly, "Did I already develop a domineering appearance that can subdue people subconsciously?"
But Fei didn't know was that the legendary stories of King Alexander returning to normal, his domination of the battlefield and execution of the powerful enemies, as well as killing the Zenit Imperial Cavaliers at the Celebration Party for the pride and honour of Chambord Kingdom had already spread across Chambord. Even the jailors talked about it for a long time during their free time. What had happened in Chambord had already gotten to Cech. Moreover, Brook had told him millions of times on the way here. The former commander of the King's Guards was a clever person. He knew his turning point was here; the "reborn" King would definitely value his loyalty, so he swore it right away.
"Great, Awesome! Peter, you've been wronged all this time... Brook, pass on my command. Notify the whole Kingdom; after the King's investigation, the crime of treason doesn't stand for the former commander of the King's Guards Peter-Cech. This incident was conspired by the former Head Minister Bazzer. From today on, his injustice is cleared and he shall be reinstated as the First Commander of the King's Guard!"
Brook was elated. He didn't expect things to go this smoothly. He kneeled down with Cech to show his gratitude.
To his side, Oleg was congratulating Cech warmly. From a prisoner on death row to the high ranked First Commander of the King's Guards, Cech had ascended in power unimaginably and returned to the centre of power in the Kingdom. Although Oleg the flatterer wasn't a good person, he was great at observing and analyzing situations. He clearly sensed the high regard that the King had towards Cech, so he classified Cech as the type of person he had to have a good relationship with.
After Cech showed his gratitude to Fei, then got up, turned around and surprisingly thanked Oleg, "Thank you for taking care of me these days, or I would've being tortured to death in this dark and cruel Iron Prison – Water Dungeon. I will never forget your saving grace and shall repay you heavily for this."
This sudden scene shocked Fei and Brook as they stared at each other in unison.
The new military Guru Brook was deeply aware of Cech's personality. He was very dismissive of soft and greedy "thugs" such as Oleg; he could've never imagined that Cech would lower his head and thank the latter. He was deeply surprised. Fei on the other side was also astonished; he looked at Oleg up and down several times, as if he had discovered a new continent.
After Cech thanked Oleg, he saw the surprise on Fei's and Brook's faces and explained what happened. After he was framed and locked up, Bazzer was afraid of potential hidden problems and wanted to get rid of this stumbling block who in the way of his evil plan. He wanted Cech killed before the formal execution date. It was simply too easy to kill a prisoner in this dark and gloomy prison. However, Oleg who normally listened to Bazzer had the urge to be merciful to Cech, so he didn't follow Bazzer's order to torture Cech to death in secret. That was how the former First Commander of the King's Guards could live until the day that justice shined through. Otherwise, Cech would've been a corpse by now.
This was something that no one thought about.
What made Fei and Brook more surprised was that Oleg was rarely thanked by "positive figures" such as Cech, which caused the flatterer to become a little shy. He rubbed his shiny bald head and laughed humbly.
Fei found that interesting and laughed with Oleg.
Although Cech had luckily escaped from torture, his body was still weak due to living in such poor conditions for a long time. If he wasn't a two star warrior, he would be really ill by now. Therefore, Fei ordered Brook to take Cech out of the prison and get some sunshine and fresh air to recover.
Fei stayed at the Iron Prison – Water Dungeon for a while longer.
"Oleg, if a prisoner becomes ill and dies or gets executed here, how do we deal with their corpses?" Fei sat on the stone chair and closed his eyes as he pondered. He suddenly thought of something and asked.
"According to tradition, they should be burned. But in this underground cave, burning corpses will reduce the air quality. Therefore, after a prisoner dies, if their relatives don't claim the body, their corpse will be thrown into the underground waterway and washed away." Oleg didn't know what the King wanted, so he bent his back and answered carefully.
"Oh..." Fei was a little disappointed. He asked another question, "So are there any corpses that haven't been thrown away?"
Oleg felt this was a little odd, but since he still didn't know the King's intentions, he answered carefully again. "Your Majesty, Mr. Brook told me that you were coming to revamp the Iron Prison this afternoon, so...so I ordered the jailors to get rid of the all the corpses already."
"Eh? That's unfortunate. Are there any serious criminals that will be executed soon?"
Oleg kind of had an idea of where the King was getting at. He thought deeply and his eyes suddenly shined, "Your Majesty, there are three wandering mercenaries who killed people in the kingdom. Mr. Brook fought and captured them himself. They're still being imprisoned at the Water-Dungeon and haven't been executed yet. Except for that, the corpse of the silver masked man that you brought back and ordered to watch out for a couple days ago is still here."
Fei was stoked.
"Awesome. Order someone to bring over the three mercenaries...En, and also the corpse of the silver masked man. Prepare a sealed stone room for me...Oh, one more thing. That black cloaked mage is still alive, right? How is he doing?"
"Your Majesty, we followed your instructions. Every time the mage showed signs of waking up, a jailor would instantly smash one of his bones and make him faint him again. That guy is still lying on the prison ground unconscious!" Oleg felt a chill to his bones when he remembered Fei's vicious and sick order.
"Ahahaha, great. Order someone to bring that mage to the sealed room as well. I have something important to do."
Oleg turned around and went to bring the prisoners and prepare the sealed room himself after Fei finished speaking.
After more than ten minutes, Oleg returned. He led Fei to a big, wide room on the sixth level in the huge underground hall. A small, concealed room was dug out on the right hand side of the big room. It was about 180 square feet (20 Sq m). The three mercenaries given a death sentence and the corpse of the silver masked knight had already been brought into the room. The poor four star mage was also dragged into the concealed room like a dead dog.
"Guard the door with some jailors. Don't allow anyone to come in...Remember, it doesn't matter what happens later on, don't come in." Fei nodded in satisfaction and ordered.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Oleg left the room with the other dozen jailors in curiosity and guarded the door of the big room carefully. Although the Iron Prison – Water Dungeon was extremely safe, he could tell from the King's expression that he was about to do something extremely important.