12- Secret of the Bell Temple (4)

"I I think that's enough, Let's go back now and continue the investigation later."

 Raihle pretended that he didn't see the old man's face shine when he said that.

"Your highness, please don't have the wrong idea about that girl; she isn't a bad child. She just expressing her anger." The High priest bowed and left rushing behind here.

Hugo scowled "You just found two suspicious people and now you want to leave? What happened to catching the killer?"

Raihle let his words enter from one ear and leave from the other

"Can you take care of the body?" He asked Lain.

"Of course, and I will come back tomorrow with the knights to investigate closely. You did well, your highness, Although we didn't get the person responsible, you were strict and observant." 

Raihle didn't understand why Lain always tried to show affection towards him as if he a member of his own family, but he decided to ignore him as well.

"Let's go."

Raihle headed out, leaving Hugo and Loka with no choice but to follow him.

The sky was already dark when they got out of the carriage.

Hugo leaned on the carriage window and closed his eyes, while Loka was reading a book he had brought along.

They were in the middle of the silence when Raihle suddenly knocked on the driver's window and said, "Go back to the temple."

Hugo instantly opened his eyes "What? Did you forget something?"

"Yes, the Sorcerer I was planning to catch."

Hugo frowned. "Did you discover something? Do you know his identity?"

Raihle shook his head. 

"I I was just hoping they would be comfortable enough to expose him themselves after we leave."

"Bu that doesn't make any sense," Loka said, following Raihle's quick steps as soon as the carriage stopped in front of the temple again.

"Priest and Sorcerers are like archenemies; they see them as disgusting creatures. would they help hiding one of them?"

"That's what we will discover when we find them."

He headed to the prayer room where he was standing at before but as soon as he opened the door, he almost stumbled and fell.

"Your highness, that's_"

He looked down and stopped breathing.

It was the young priestess, Rita, looking at him with blood leaking out of her pupils, painting the gray skin and dark veins on her face.

Hugo crunched down to her side. "She doesn’t look like she killed a long time ago."

"She isn't the only one." Raihle looked at the seats and the floors; they were crowded with people in robes; they were all priests and... "They are all dead."

"Tsk." Hugo clicked his tongue "It's more dangerous than I thought, Raihle, we can't handle this alone. Sorcerer won't be put down easily."

His voice didn't reach Raihle's ears. He was looking around, seeing the blood, the vomit on the floor, and then he saw the blood trail coming from one of the side doors.

He ran behind it, with the other two unable to convince him to go back.

The blood trail came from the outside, and the marble floor was drained with the blood and dark blood clots and then the trail stopped under one wall.

"No don't tell me..." Hugo cursed when he saw Raihle touching the wall and when he heard the clicking, he gritted his teeth and sighed "God, I hate secret doors."

Raihle was about to dive into the darkness when Loka stopped him. "We don't know what's down there."

"Isn't that why we are heading there?"

"It could be too dangerous, I'm not saying you are weak, Your highness, but I really think we should think this through."

Hugo agreed "Yes, there are better options, you don't have to do it yourself."

'No, you are wrong.'

Uncovering the Bell Temple secret is something he was assigned to do. 

Real Raihle didn’t untrusted this task to anyone, it was to the person who is wearing his skin.

There was no one but him who should do this.

"You are right." Raihle said.

Hugo smiled but that smile didn't last long.

"You should stay here and wait for me." He said before turning and sinking into the darkness.

Loka walked right behind him.

Hugo sighed loudly and wiped his face with his hand.

"Does this kid have any fear?" He mumbled and went along with them.

Raihle walked down the stairs, the moonlight from the entrance slowly started to fade and he couldn't see his steps, the sound of footsteps behind him was the only sign that Hugo and Loka were following him.

Raihle finally stopped at flat ground.

"Do you see anything?"

Loka hit Raihle shoulder by accident when he stopped.

Raihle looked around, he couldn't see anything yet but when he heard Loka words echo he knew they must be in empty place.

They didn't move until their eyes adjusted to the darkness, that's when they saw another body right beside Hugo's feet.

"God, this Sorcerer doesn't plan on letting anyone alive. Tsk." The dead man was wearing the same priest robes they saw earlier, he shook his head with a scowl, but when he raised his head and Raihle and Loka already walked forward.

"You are not exactly right." Raihle said while keep his eyes ahead "He didn't kill anyone other than the priests, did he?"

"Huh?"

There was a turn in the end of the hallway, Raihle stopped and looked behind then continued "There were visitors from the city and foreigners like us. But he only targeted the people who work in the temple," he stopped and turned at Hugo "Why do you think is that?"

Hugo gulped "Why?"

Raihle frowned "Why are you asking me? I'm not the Sorcerer."

He went back to walking leaving Hugo muttering in distaste "Then why are you talking like you know?"

Despite his grumble, Raihle’s words weren't the only thing that made him feel off.

He kept his back straight and his eyes unshakable while walking between cold bodies of people he just spoke with.

As if the only thing that mattered to was catching the Sorcerer and revealing the truth.

It felt unnatural and distressing to him that nineteen years old who is supposed to be spoiled and treated delicately all of his life is acting in cold behavior like that.

'Whatever!'

He shook his head and tried to ignore it all.

Raihle actually had a guess, whatever the Sorcerer purpose was, it was related to the temple's secret, the secret he came to reveal.

What he didn't realize was how close he was approaching to do so.

The whiff of rust and iron breached his sense, his head started to spine. This smell, this feeling, as if spiders started crawling on his bare back. He subconsciously shuddered and held his arm; his hair was standing up.

Loka stopped when Raihle did, he managed to sneak a glimpse on his expression "What's wron_"

The words disappeared when his eyes reached where Raihle's was gazing with a dark look.

Lanterns suddenly lit up on the walls, lighting the dark spots on the stone floor, the iron chains hanging on the wall, and the unmoving small bodies.

Raihle ears started to buzz, his eyes shook hard and he forgot to breath.

"Oh! you have arrived."

A man approached and stood in front of the bodies then revealed his head, under the shadows, the old, cramped face grinned, his eyes were completely dark.

"The High priest?" Loka said under his breath. His eyes switched from the chains and the dry blood and back to the High priest.

Raihle didn't hear a thing, nor did he see the high priest. The children were all he looked at vision.

They have been dead for few days, some of them started to rot due the moist and hotness of the underground.

Even so, the distortion, the cuts in their limbs, the visible bones under a thin layer of skin, the chains that still around their ankles and wrists, everything told him exactly what had happened to them.

"You are working with the Sorcerer?" Hugo gritted his teeth, veins popped on his forehead "How the hell could you do that? You killed your own apprentices. And these children.."

The high priest face didn't change, he was rather acting too calm and different than the person he was earlier that day.