They are all characters I control.

"What? You don't trust me? You don't want to tell me?" Knight Commander Fernando spoke up in response to the obvious strange looks from the crowd.

Faced with such a rational and calm Knight Commander Fernando, Claire shook her head.

"No, it's not that I'm unwilling, I'm just somewhat relieved."

After saying that, he paused and looked at Knight Commander Fernando, adding, "I am fortunate to have met you, Knight Commander Fernando. You are a respectable person."

"Hehe, I'll take that as a compliment."

Knight Commander Fernando chuckled a few times.

Now that the atmosphere had reached this point, Claire had nothing left to hide.

He then began to recount, from Eleanor's perspective, how he was ordered to investigate the activities of heretics, but was ambushed and his entire squad was wiped out.

Eleanor was seriously injured and fell into a coma. When she woke up, she saw heretics killing other church knights.

Although she wanted to save her companions but was powerless, she finally escaped thanks to healing magic, which gave her the power to fight back. However, she then encountered a group of villagers from 'Lin Valley Village', led by a little girl named Mel.

They led me to a village, but little did I know that it was the stronghold of the Church of Life.

That's where I first saw the Philosopher's Stone, and also when I first learned that the Church of Life used the blood of church knights to forge that thing.

He was besieged but survived by sheer luck and drove away the heretics. Afterwards, Knight Commander Will and Karl arrived with the church knights.

On our way back to the Knights, we encountered 'refugees' and were led to a gray rock town.

The town was taken over by the Church of Life, who used civilians as human shields, and the Scarlet Witch Dorothy weakened Knight Commander Will with poison.

At this point, Dorothy snorted smugly.

This was the first time she had heard Claire's evaluation of her, which was naturally a novel and interesting experience. At least Claire was someone she acknowledged, and someone who had caused her adversaries Sister Martha and Mel a lot of trouble.

Now, this is the first time Dorothy is hearing Claire recount this series of events.

Megan listened quietly. She had met Claire (Eleanor) in prison, and although she was able to investigate Eleanor's past experiences and route, it was naturally better to hear the person in question's account.

Moreover, it seems there is a second 'person' inside 'Eleanor's' body.

The way she was speaking now was clearly not the same tone and manner as Eleanor, which was naturally a very good thing for Megan, the nun from the Inquisition.

Without additional trial or torture, one can hear the story of this unusual 'Eleanor'.

As for whether the content is true, Meghan has her own judgment.

Ignoring the onlookers around her, Claire continued talking.

"Knight Commander Will was poisoned, and I and the other church knights led him into the mine."

“There were villagers in the cave who had been fed the Philosopher’s Stone. They rushed up like madmen, so I had to cover their retreat and let them go first.”

"I don't know what happened over there after that, I just heard a huge explosion. When I found Knight Commander Will, he was already lying in a pool of blood, and everyone else was dead."

Claire shrugged, picked up her glass, and took a sip of water. "I sent Knight Commander Will back to the Order, and then Karl showed up. He had me crucified on charges of killing civilians, apostasy, and aiding heretics. The bishop believed him, and I was sentenced to hang. On the eve of my execution, the apostate tried to silence me, and I escaped in the chaos. You know what happened after that."

Fernando was silent for a few seconds; he had already realized the problem.

Wasn't Carl there when you rescued Will?

Claire didn't know the answer to that question either; he'd have to ask Eleanor herself.

At that time, Claire was on her anti-addiction period and hadn't yet established a 'mental bond' with Eleanor, so she naturally couldn't see what Eleanor was doing.

At this moment, Eleanor was also seeing this scene through the system screen and heard Knight Commander Fernando's question.

[Eleanor: I didn't see him. When I went there, I didn't see Karl. I only saw many church knights who had died tragically, with severed limbs and broken bodies everywhere, and they didn't even look human.]

[Eleanor: Now it seems they were also tricked by the apostate knights into consuming the Philosopher's Stone beforehand, just like when Sister Martha controlled William.]

[Eleanor: Otherwise, I think the church knights would never have let Knight Commander Will fight alone, no matter what. I just didn't know that at the time.]

From Eleanor's words, Claire understood what had happened.

Therefore, he found it much easier to explain to the Knight Commander Fernando in front of him.

"I didn't see Karl, and even the many church knights who were with us at the time were nowhere to be seen. All I could see was the monstrous corpse that was imprisoned with us, and that monster was my companion."

Clearly, this evil god emperor had embellished his earlier statement.

But Eleanor felt no aversion at all; on the contrary, she was very grateful.

Claire's words at this moment did not directly give Knight Commander Fernando the answer to his question, but they effectively guided him to think about it.

With the mind of this knight commander, so different from his rugged appearance, he was naturally able to figure out the key to the problem.

Of course, more importantly, this also allows us to bring William out at this moment, preventing him from being treated as a monster by Knight Commander Fernando.

Chapter 130 Fernando's Iron Fist

Claire's account of her experiences completely filled in the gaps that Knight Commander Fernando was unaware of.

Although he is a Knight Commander, he is currently just a church knight who guards a small area, not at the Knights' headquarters.

Therefore, the information they have is very limited, and they can only learn about what is happening through reports from their subordinates sent to the Knights.

At this moment, Knight Commander Fernando's mind completed the prelude to Knight Commander Will's coma.

He remained silent for a long time after hearing that there were no church knights around Knight Commander Will, but instead only corpses that had turned into monsters.

Naturally, the knight commander also noticed that besides Eleanor and the others, there was a monstrous figure in the prison wagon that Karl was escorting.

If that monster was Eleanor's companion, and Eleanor was wronged, then the answer is obvious.

This connected everything. Knight Commander Fernando's fingers tapped unconsciously on the table, as if piecing together a broken puzzle piece.

He looked up, a knowing glint in his deep brown eyes.

“I know a little about the methods of the Church of Life,” he said slowly. “I’ve seen the Philosopher’s Stone. Most people who eat it will turn into monsters. Only a few can maintain their sanity, but that requires long-term adaptation and a special physique.”

He glanced at Claire. "Your companions and the church knights around Will should be the same."

Claire didn't say anything.

“You just said that when you arrived, you only saw Will and the monsters’ corpses, and Karl wasn’t there,” Fernando continued. “Then Karl is the mole. Your only problem is that you did kill the townspeople before.”

Dorothy leaned against the wall and whistled. "Clever."

The mastermind behind the ambush in the small town was now listening smugly as two church knights recounted their exploits.

But putting aside Dorothy's evil, Claire can certainly breathe a sigh of relief.

Regardless of Karl and the other church knights, or even the bishops of the 'Holy Lance Knights', it was naturally the best that Knight Commander Fernando could trust him.

“It’s not intelligence,” Fernando shook his head. “It’s because I’ve witnessed something like this firsthand. Three years ago, the knights of a northern outpost disappeared en masse. When they were found, they had become victims of the Philosopher’s Stone. Someone had put a drug in their drinking water—a small dose, but it lasted for several days. When the drug took effect, they didn’t even know what they were doing.”

Claire looked at him. "You think Carl did the same thing?"

“He’s not the mastermind, but he’s an accomplice.” Fernando leaned back in his chair. “Given his status, he didn’t have the resources to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone; he was merely the executor. The real poisoner is still lurking in the shadows.”

Dorothy's lips curled into a slight smile. "You're much smarter than that Will."

Fernando ignored her and turned to Claire. "I think you're being hunted by the heretics right now, because they didn't expect you to exist. Nobody thought you'd survived."

"So from the very beginning of the investigation, the plan was to first attract you and then attract Will."

"The goal is simply to continuously increase the strength around Will. If Will takes the bait, we'll ambush him. If Will doesn't take the bait and doesn't make an appearance, we can still weaken the strength around him."

"The result was that Will took the bait, and you also contributed your share. It's just a pity that you were ambushed by the heretics in the end. You should have died long ago, but we didn't expect that your existence would create a loophole in Will's ambush."

“Will is not dead, he is just in a coma, but there are definitely loyal knights in the Order of the Church who are loyal to him. In addition, his special status will also ensure that the Church keeps a close watch on him.”

"Eleanor, your appearance has completely disrupted the heretics' original plans, which is why they are so desperate to capture you."

Claire didn't reply. In his mind, Eleanor's thoughts were already flooding the screen.

[Eleanor: What he says seems to make sense... but what about all those who hanged themselves? What about the women and children?]

Claire didn't answer immediately; instead, he addressed Sir Fernando himself. "Sir Fernando, I have one last question."

"Hmm? What's the problem?"

Were those people hanged at the town entrance really heretics?

Fernando's fingers paused for a moment, and the air in the room seemed to freeze for a split second.

Dorothy raised an eyebrow, watching Fernando with interest. Megan also looked up, her greyish eyes turning to him.

The question isn't complicated, but asking it directly might anger the knight commander in front of them, who is currently capable of taking on all of them single-handedly.

The previous kidnapping of the Knight Commander by Claire was merely a performance; it was a deliberate act by Eleanor to capture him.

Otherwise, Eleanor would have had no chance to take the knight commander hostage.

Fernando paused for a moment. "Not entirely."

The knight commander continued without changing his expression, "Some of them have family members who are heretics. Some have only had private contact with heretics. The whereabouts of some of their family members are still unknown, and I cannot be sure if they have any problems."

Eleanor's comments section exploded.

[Eleanor: Did you hear that?! He admitted it! Those people weren't heretics at all, they were just related to heretics, maybe even family members! He hanged them without even a trial!]

Claire ignored Eleanor and looked Fernando in the eyes. "Why?"

He was too lazy to argue with Eleanor, but Claire had already guessed what Knight Commander Fernando was thinking.

But at this moment, I didn't want to explain so much to Eleanor directly, so I decided to let Knight Commander Fernando answer for himself.

Fernando's gaze was calm. "Because of deterrence."

“If a person has a heretic in their family, they may not know it, they may know but not report it, or they may be coerced.”

“But either way, if I don’t kill him, the rest of the town will think, ‘It’s okay to be associated with heretics.’ That idea is more dangerous than the heretics themselves.”

He paused, picked up his teacup, and looked at the young church knight before him.

He had heard of this young church knight; it was a name that Lord Knight Will had mentioned to him.

Therefore, when he sees Eleanor, he will deliberately go up and strike up a conversation.

“I didn’t kill heretics. I killed ‘potential threats.’ Knight Commander Will was drugged and fell into a coma because he trusted those around him too much. I don’t want to end up like him.”

The cabin was quiet for a few seconds.

Claire looked at Fernando and slowly nodded. "I agree."

This is the most typical example of the system of collective punishment.

Chapter 131 Is it unlikely that a teammate will suddenly appear out of nowhere?

Ultimately, Knight Commander Fernando was not a heretic.

Although he publicly tried those civilians who appeared to be innocent, in reality those civilians were relatives or contacts of the heretics.

Therefore, although the surrounding residents were dissatisfied, Knight Commander Fernando was still able to control the situation.

However, at this moment, such an answer cannot wash away the label of Knight Commander Fernando treating the residents so harshly and even cruelly, at least that's what Eleanor thinks.

[Eleanor: What have you realized? He killed innocent people! Even if some of those people did come into contact with heretics, and might even have relatives of heretics, what about the children?]

[Eleanor: Surely those children aren't heretics too. Even if they were, they would still need to be tried and dealt with to varying degrees. Some would be imprisoned, and some would face severe punishment.]

[Eleanor: According to the rules of the 'Holy Lance Knights,' everything Knight Commander Fernando is doing now is wrong, and it is completely against the rules. Killing innocent people is a serious problem.]

Claire: He didn't kill any innocent people.

[Claire: He killed people who 'could be a threat.' Those people left in town could be used by the infidels, coerced, or betrayed at a crucial moment.]

[Claire: Rather than waiting for them to get into trouble, it's better to clean things up in advance and prevent problems before they occur. This is a question that any leader must carefully consider.]

[Eleanor: But they didn't do anything!]

[Claire: How do you know they didn't do anything? How do you know their family didn't pass them messages? How do you know they won't open the door and let the infidels in one night?]

[Claire: You're at it again, aren't you? You idiot, do you really think you can extract the truth from someone every time you interrogate them?]

[Claire: The simplest solution is to execute anyone on suspicion. While it might wrongly accuse you, it will definitely reduce the danger among those who survive.]

[Claire: What, have you forgotten? Or have you simply forgotten how few villages and towns we've seen along the way that have been overrun and occupied by infidels? Have you not seen enough?]

[Claire: What about children and women? Haven't you seen any children, women, or elderly people in the villages and towns who mutated after eating the Philosopher's Stone?]

Claire: You yourself can't beat them. Of course, they might not have willingly swallowed the Philosopher's Stone, but they are no less of a threat than adult men.

Eleanor fell completely silent, her mind replaying the scene in Mel's village where everyone, young and old, was a heretic, and the town that had been taken over and coerced by the Scarlet Witch Dorothy.