"Thank you for your praise, Seneschal."
Quinn gave a slight bow, neither proud nor arrogant.
Xin Zhao handed the list to Jarvan III. After Jarvan III took it, his gaze fell upon it, and his calm eyes grew colder and colder.
Then he handed it to Jarvan IV.
Jarvan IV understood what he meant. After taking it, he said solemnly, "Your son will handle this at once."
He gave Garen a look. The two of them shared a tacit understanding and said nothing more. Very soon, they took a group of men and separated from the main party.
Clearly, they were going to handle the names on the list.
Before such a major incident, anyone connected to Tourt, Josie, Croger, or Eldred would not be able to escape involvement.
Each one had to be questioned clearly.
And this was also an idea Luke had been brewing for a long time.
Demacia today looked glorious and beautiful on the surface, but in truth, the inside had long since rotted beyond recognition. Ministers and nobles all harbored their own schemes and malicious intentions.
The fact that a few ministers working together could so easily plan a mage rebellion in the royal capital was enough to show that the parasites feeding on this nation had already spread everywhere.
In truth, Tourt, Eldred, and the others had not been wrong about one thing.
Demacia today truly did need a crisis to awaken it. It needed a heavy slap to wake everyone from the beautiful dream of past glory.
Luke had merely made a little use of that.
Otherwise, who knew how long it would take to dig these parasites out one by one?
Luke's original intention was to use this mage rebellion to begin a purge from the inside out.
And Quinn's day-after-day investigations over nearly half a year had finally borne fruit.
As the mage rebellion was gradually suppressed, the royal capital did not return to calm.
On the streets were military units moving in every direction, keeping the atmosphere throughout the entire royal capital in a constant state of high tension.
Clearly, the matter was not over yet.
By the time it reached five in the afternoon, Quinn led Luke and the others along the streets of the royal capital. On the way, they ran into Fiora, Poppy, Sona, and the others.
Anticipating that something would happen today, Luke had arranged in advance for them to go to various streets so they could suppress the mages who started the rebellion at the first opportunity.
In truth, today's mage rebellion seemed very large in scale, but from the moment they launched the rebellion to the moment it was suppressed, only a little more than two hours had passed.
Even now, it was not yet evening.
The real main event had all unfolded inside the palace.
On the way, they also regrouped with Lux and Galio. The colossus followed at the very back of the group, drawing the attention of many people.
As a result, more and more people began following behind the party. Luke did not stop the civilians from following.
What came next needed to be witnessed by everyone together.
"Where are they going?"
"No idea."
"The king and both princes are in the group. The colossus is following too."
"Anyway, let's follow them."
"I saw a lot of mages too."
"Isn't that the mage who was supposed to be executed at noon? Sylas of Dregbourne."
"That's right, it's him. I remember. He was the one who led the rebellion."
"So what's going on now? Have these mages surrendered?"
"I also saw Miss Crownguard use magic. She's actually a mage too."
"I saw Sona. If not for her, we might have been hurt by other mages."
The crowd discussed everything noisily. As the incident settled down, the panic caused by the mage rebellion gradually began to subside as well.
Drawn by Galio from various districts, the crowds kept talking about what they had seen and heard today.
The thing mentioned most often was mages. For a while, they could not figure out the current relationship between the army and these mages.
So when they saw such a strange group, they could not help following along.
When they learned that even Miss Crownguard and Sona were mages, some people who had only just learned the truth were greatly surprised.
They could not quite understand the situation. Why did the mages and the army appear to be walking together in relative harmony?
The group kept walking out of the royal capital and arrived at Clarion Cove outside the city.
This place was not very far from the royal capital. It was near the river port by the Great City, and there was a harbor here about the size of a small town. This was Clarion Cove.
The events in the royal capital had clearly affected this place as well. On the streets, every household had hidden indoors, and only soldiers were patrolling.
The harbor, which was usually lively, was now rather quiet.
Only when the party arrived did the people of each household dare to come out.
On the street, Quinn said, "I discovered the Mageseekers' base by tracking a Mageseeker officer named Hesbeth. He seems to be the chief scientist among the Mageseekers."
"This man is cautious by nature. I followed him for half a month, but it was usually very difficult to find a chance to act. Only a day like today gave me that opportunity."
As she spoke, she came to the roadside and kicked over a crate of wine barrels. From inside rolled a Mageseeker who had been tied up tightly.
He was wearing the uniform of a Mageseeker officer, and something had been stuffed into his mouth, preventing him from speaking. But after seeing Jarvan III, Luke, and the others, his eyes still showed shock and terror.
With just one look, he knew the commander's plan had failed.
At that moment, his heart turned cold. He knew that his own ending would likely not be good either.
"He is very weak, but clearly, he was also a core participant in this incident. The secret base's door is locked. He definitely knows how to open it."
Quinn stepped forward and removed the thing stuffed in Hesbeth's mouth.
Whether out of guilt or terror, Hesbeth took several deep breaths, then rolled over into a kneeling position and slammed his head hard against the ground. "Your Majesty, spare my life!"
Jarvan III looked at him without the slightest pity. "If I spare you, how am I supposed to explain that to the people behind me?"
How could the crime of rebellion be easily pardoned?
Among those mages, most had been used by people with ulterior motives, but what had truly forced them to this point was Demacia's long-standing oppression.
The ones who were truly guilty of the gravest crimes were precisely those who had secretly planned the rebellion from behind the scenes.
Hesbeth's face instantly turned ashen, and his whole body began to tremble in fear.
The people brought him to the entrance of the Mageseekers' base. It was located on the lower level of the sewers by the bay. Once they reached this place, the colossus could only stand outside, where he received curious and reverent gazes from the crowd and seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit.
The group entered the waterways. The water circulation system inside was still operating, and they had to continue walking inward for a while.
At last, they stopped before a heavy iron door that covered the entire space. The iron door was also reinforced with petricite, making it likely difficult to break open by ordinary means.
Several Mageseekers were guarding this place, but at the first opportunity, they were subdued by the covert guards Xin Zhao sent out.
Luke looked toward Hesbeth, whose head was lowered and whose eyes were already full of despair. With a very human touch, he offered him a chance. "Do you want to live, or do you want to die?"
Hesbeth immediately raised his head when he heard this. "Of course I want to live."
"Good. Then I will give you two choices." Luke revealed a gentle smile. "First, you know that we in Demacia have a punishment called death by a thousand cuts. It is reserved for those guilty of the worst crimes. Their flesh is sliced off piece by piece, but they are not allowed to die easily."
"The second choice is a little more dignified. One blade, instant death. Choose one."
Hesbeth, who had originally shown a little bit of hope, instantly turned deathly pale after hearing this, like white wax. He looked at the gentle smile on Luke's face in shock.
In that moment, that smile was simply like a demon's.
"I choose... the second one."
But under these circumstances, Hesbeth naturally knew how to choose.
Because he knew that even if he did nothing, the secret behind this iron door could no longer be hidden from everyone.
Once the secret behind this door was made public, he might no longer have the chance to choose. What awaited him would probably only be the first option.
Rather than that, it was better to choose the second.
He walked forward. His ropes had already been untied. He reached out and felt around on the iron door, then pressed a recessed spot.
His hand pressed inside. There was clearly a coded mechanism within. He gripped something and heavily adjusted it up and down several times, like entering a password. Then the sound of gears interlocking rang out from within the iron door.
Finally, with a click, the iron door slowly opened.
Seeing the iron door open, the people continued deeper inside.
Because the bay was right nearby, the Mageseekers' secret base had actually been built inside the sewers.
As they walked on the steps, torches lit one after another, illuminating the tunnel.
They had not gone far before they encountered another iron door.
"They made it look like some kind of military stronghold."
Luke glanced at Hesbeth.
The latter understood and stepped forward again to open the iron door, though this time, his hands trembled slightly.
After this door opened, the space inside became somewhat wider. Faintly, they could hear some painful groans.
When the firelight illuminated the inside, one small iron cage after another instantly appeared before everyone's eyes. They were like beast cages, and each one held a mage.
In the passageways along the walls, there were also large prison cages, each of them holding multiple mages.
Their expressions were far more despairing than those of the mages in the royal capital's dungeon, and their complexions were even worse.
When they saw the firelight shine in, they were instantly so frightened that they shrank into the corners. Those with nowhere to hide pressed hard against the iron bars, as if trying to avoid some terrifying thing.
Bloodstains could be seen everywhere. On the iron bars of the cages, on the floor, and on the bodies of these mages.
Many people smelled the faint scent of blood in the air. The Mageseekers had sprayed a kind of perfume to cover up the smell, but it could still be detected.
The scene before them was like accidentally stepping into some kind of horror show.
It was gloomy and strange, just like the cult base Luke had once visited.
The people who saw this had already furrowed their brows. Jarvan III ordered, "Open these cages."
Seeing this scene, he already sensed what had happened, but he did not dare think any further.
As long as he thought about it, his heart felt as if it had been pierced.
The thought that all of this had happened because he had ignored it made his heart unbearably sour and bitter.
The mages in the cages were released. Many of them were already on their last breaths, their bodies withered and thin as if their blood had been drained dry.
When people looked closely and saw that some of these mages were missing arms, some were missing legs, and some even lacked eyes, they could not help sucking in a cold breath.
There was a kind of pain that hurt just to look at.
Further ahead was another iron door.
Behind that iron door, another group of mages was imprisoned. By this point, the number of mages imprisoned here had already exceeded a hundred.
There were men and women, old and young. The youngest looked to be only around twenty or so.
Almost none of them were in good condition. Just looking at their broken, despairing appearances was enough to make one's heart ache.
Behind the third iron door, there were no more mages.
Instead, there were worktables. More precisely, they looked like operating tables. Faint traces of blood still remained on them.
On both sides of the walls, surgical tools were neatly arranged.
They continued deeper, and behind the fourth iron door was a place like a storage room. On rows of shelves, glass bottles and jars were arranged neatly.
At this moment, many people cried out in alarm, then covered their mouths. Their pupils shrank, but their eyes widened.
It felt as if their hearts had suddenly fallen into a freezing river, their entire bodies going stiff.
Inside those bottles and jars were severed limbs, arms, and even eyeballs, hearts, organs, and skin. They were soaked in a liquid, floating slightly.
Every glass bottle and jar was like this. The scene was extremely horrifying.
With only the slightest association, people instantly realized where these things had come from.
"You... were using mages for human experimentation?"
Jarvan III's voice trembled slightly. He found it difficult to imagine that something like this had actually happened right under his nose.
Seeing that the matter had been exposed, Hesbeth knew there was nothing left to deny. He lowered his head. "Your Majesty does not know. Human experimentation... began many years ago."
As his words fell, the entire area fell silent.
Experiments like this had actually continued for many years.
They could not imagine how many mages had suffered similar things over the years.
"Actually, it has nothing to do with me. Even if I had some involvement, it was Eldred who ordered me to do it."
Hesbeth lowered his head and did not dare look into anyone's eyes at all. "He was the one who first made me do this. He said that to understand mages, we had to understand everything, including their hair, toenails, skin, flesh, organs, every part of them."
"He ordered me to conduct experiments and search for a method that would allow people without magic to use magic as well. The first method we thought of was to strip organs that still held a mage's magic from their bodies and see whether they could be preserved through specific means."
"In his eyes, mages were not human beings at all. Some mages died directly on the table during the experiments, but their organs still possessed magic."
With every sentence Hesbeth said, the mood of the people grew more suffocating.
The smile on Luke's face disappeared. Looking at the scene before him, he felt that sometimes, humans were far more demonic than demons.
One had to understand that Runeterra did not possess modern medical technology and equipment.
Once many operations began, they were often fatal. They were essentially aimed straight at death.
Even if there were potions and medicines, the Mageseekers likely would not waste them on mages.
Those lucky enough not to die probably did not end up much better either.
Just like the mages they had rescued earlier. Most of them could no longer be called whole people.
This was the cruel truth hidden inside the Mageseekers' secret base.
They had used living mages, one after another, for inhuman human experimentation.
And it was merely for the sake of exploring magic.
Sylas and the mages looked at the scene before them, their eyes already blazing with fury. One by one, they clenched their fists.
However, they were not the only ones who felt that emotion.
Even those present who were not mages felt empathy.
It was a kind of anger born simply from being human.
Looking at Hesbeth, Luke asked, "Among these mages, were any guilty of unforgivable crimes? How many of them killed people? Tell the truth."
"These... no one kept count."
Hesbeth felt the atmosphere around him become as cold as an ice cave, and he did not even dare raise his voice. He said carefully, "Because in his eyes, mages were uniformly considered inferior people, on the same level as livestock. The mages brought here were chosen at random. Some of them had even been exiled. Among them, perhaps some had committed crimes. But most of them were actually just ordinary mages."
This sentence made people feel that cruelty once again.
A mage, even if they had done nothing, would be brought here for inhuman experiments simply because they were a mage.
Their eyes would be dug out, their arms cut off, their organs opened up.
Demacia only used death by a thousand cuts on criminals guilty of the most heinous crimes.
Yet most of these mages had done nothing, and what they faced was the same kind of torture.
What an absurd thing this was. And for such a thing to happen in Demacia made it even more absurd.
Who could have imagined that beneath Demacia's peaceful surface, such filthy things were hidden?
However, this was only the beginning.
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