CH.289 Interrogating the Adventurers
<span style="font-weight:400">“Wilma?” I called, as I rushed to her. She was within the Swords of Revealing Light I used to immobilize the ‘adventurers’ that called for our help, but it doesn’t seem like she is frozen because of them.
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<span style="font-weight:400">But the stab wound in her back might be a different case. That might make moving a bit more difficult.
<span style="font-weight:400">I took a gentle hold of Wilma, even if moving her might be a bad idea, and took her quickly to Lua. As Lua got to work healing Wilma, I also got a card out of the Collection and activated it.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Dian Keto the Cure Master.”
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<span style="font-weight:400">Between Lua’s healing magic, and the card I just activated, we quickly closed the wound on Wilma’s back, and I finally took a nice deep breath.
<span style="font-weight:400">As I turned back to look at the group of ‘adventurers’, the reality of what I just did hit me in the face.
<span style="font-weight:400">A group of six people, frozen in ce by Swords of Revealing Light. And one small child, well, I don’t know if he is a child, but still. One small cat-folk, with a hole in his chest, caused by my sword. My sword, which I ordered to end him, and even threw at him.
<span style="font-weight:400">It didn’t quite make me feel sick, because in all honesty, he deserved it. But still, I did have a mild regret for what I did. I have the strength to be better, so I shouldn’t do things like that. I could have just activated a card like Shadow Spell or something else like that.
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<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright. Brian. Can you … unfreeze one of them? I want some information from them.” Mariina said.
<span style="font-weight:400">She had of course woken up because of all of themotion, and we had caught her up to speed. And because she is the ‘one in charge’, I let her decide how to go forward. I didn’t really want to take charge of the situation, as I was still quite emotional, so I likely would make some… not so good decisions. So in all honesty, I was more than happy to let her take over themand.
<span style="font-weight:400">I entered the Swords of Revealing Light, took a good hold on the other beast-folk, and dragged … her out. I think this one is a she, the other one is a boy. As soon as I touched her, the effect of Swords had on her was undone. It took her a second to catch onto what was happening, but as soon as she did, she began struggling and yelling.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Shut Up.” I said, somewhat quietly, while trying to make my voice sound cold. “You will answer our questions, if you don’t want to end up like your brother.” Admittedly, I have no clue if he is her brother, but they do look simr enough where that could be the case.
<span style="font-weight:400">I dragged her out of the Swords, holding her by the scruff of her neck. Even with her resistance, I was boosted by my Red-Eyes ck Dragon Sword and Summoner’s Unity skill, so she would have to be extremely strong to be able to resist me.
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<span style="font-weight:400">I tossed the cat-folk girl in front of Mariina, and then put my Red-Eyes Sword right next to her neck. She was visibly shaking, looking at my sword, then at me, then at Mariina, and finally taking a nce at her dead brother.
<span style="font-weight:400">“She will question you, and you will answer.” I said, before I let Mariina take it the rest of the way.
<span style="font-weight:400">Mariina squatted down so she could better look the cat-folk in the eyes, before she began her interrogation.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you know who I am?” Mariina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...” The cat-folk didn’t answer, but she did shake her head a bit.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why did you attack us?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...” Again, no answer, just a small shake of her head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Which one of you is the one that summoned the lightning tiger?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I …” This time, we got a one word answer.
<span style="font-weight:400">Wait? That tiger was a summoned monster? … well, I guess it breaking apart like that makes sense then. And this little catgirl is the summoner? I guess she does have a staff, so.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good. Just keep doing that, and this will all end well.” Mariina said. Her voice sounded extremely calming, hopefully getting the catgirl to drop her defense even more.
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<span style="font-weight:400">“Bring the next one, please.” Mariina said.
<span style="font-weight:400">We didn’t get too much from the catgirl, but we did learn a few things. One, she has no idea why they attacked us, or who most of us are. Two, she and her brother, yes, the other cat-kin is in fact her brother, are ves belonging to one of the ‘adventurers’. Three, she can summon a few cat monsters, the strongest being that lightning tiger, while her brother is a tamer and the killer tigers that came with the lightning tiger were tamed by him, as were the forest lynxes that attacked us earlier in the day. Fourth, they were ordered to kill the beardeddy, aka. Wilma, by using the tigers to take away our attention, and then they were supposed to run away. We were just a lot faster in dealing with the tigers than they expected, so they didn’t have time to run away. Or at least, that is what seems to be the case, based on the one or two word answers we got from the catgirl.
<span style="font-weight:400">Because of Mariina’s orders, I took the cat-folk back to the Swords of Revealing Light. Before letting go of her, I asked her to point out her Master, and she weakly pointed at one of the ‘adventurers’. Alright. So he is probably the one in charge.
<span style="font-weight:400">I set the catgirl on the ground, not quite gently, but I wasn’t hard on her either, making sure she had at least an alright position, before I let go of her and let the Swords freeze her up.
<span style="font-weight:400">Alright. Next subject shall be … let’s go with you. I didn’t pick the master of the ve cat-folk, as he is likely the leader, so let’s just leave him forst. Then we can cross-examine him based on the info we get from the others.
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<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright. Your turn.” I said to the one that was the master of the cat-folk ves.
<span style="font-weight:400">We had gone through the rest of them already, he was thest. We mostly got cursed from the adventurers, but Mariina was able to make two of them talk by crushing their fingers one by one. Lucky for them fingers are easy to fix with healing magic, but it would still hurt quite a bit.
<span style="font-weight:400">Just like all the others, the ‘leader’ struggled as I dragged him out of the Swords, but that doesn’t matter.
<span style="font-weight:400">Like with the others, I set him out in front of Mariina and ced my sword next to his neck.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... look at me.” Mariinamanded. Unlike with the cat-folk, she was using a very cold voice with the others.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Fuck off.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Brian, if you would. I want him to look me in the eyes.” Mariina asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">This wasn’t the first of them she asked that with, so I knew what to do. I, not so gently, took a hold of his head and turned it so that he was forced to face Mariina, while also pushing my left knee into his back, just to make the position a bit more ufortable.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you know who I am?” Mariina asked. Every time, it had been the first question she asked, but none of them had answered her correctly.
<span style="font-weight:400">“A Bitch!” The man answered, so I pushed my knee into his back a bit more.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Answer correctly.” I quietly told him, putting even more pressure on him with my knee, to the point where he screamed out. Then I let back just a bit, so he could actually speak.
<span style="font-weight:400">“How in the fuck should I know?” He yelped, in between some grunts he let out.
<span style="font-weight:400">“See. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Imended him, as I lessened the pressure on his back. Maybe if he understands that all we want is answered, even if they aren’t the truth, we will get somewhere with this.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. Just keep that up and we will be done soon.” Mariina agreed. “But since you don’t know me, I may as well tell you. My name is Mariina Sawyer, the fourth daughter of Earl Sawyer. And you, mister Fuck off, have just attacked my caravan. Do you know what the punishment for that is?”
<span style="font-weight:400">After hearing that, I felt just a tiny shiver in the man, so maybe he actually realized how badly he just fucked up. Now, let’s just get the info we need, so we can… actually, I have no clue what we are going to do with them.
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<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright. You can go join your ‘friends’.” I told the leader as I tossed him back into the Swords of Revealing Light. I wasn’t careful with any of them, outside the little catgirl, because they honestly don’t deserve it. They’d likely not have a good time when I release the swords, but that is their problem.
<span style="font-weight:400">We had both learned stuff, as well as not learned stuff.
<span style="font-weight:400">One, they had no idea about us. As in, they didn’t actually know we were nobles.
<span style="font-weight:400">Two, they were actually legit adventurers. Just doing not so legit work. They had paid quite a bit of money for the two cat-folk, so they needed a loan for it. And were somewhat desperate to pay it off. So when the one holding their debt gave them an out, in the form of killing just one person, they agreed to it. We tried to find out who that was, but that is info we didn’t get. Even what we got was in bits and pieces from the five of them and might not be true.
<span style="font-weight:400">So yeah. Now we have a bit of a conundrum on our hands. What to do with them?
<span style="font-weight:400">“I think we should kill them.” Alice gave her opinion.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Agreed. For them to attack my Master, they deserve to burn.” Agunan agreed with her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... are you sure that is a good idea? They are just people following orders.” Luamented.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are they?” I asked. “They had a choice. Pay their debt the normal way, but they picked murder. … I do feel bad for the ves though. They didn’t have a choice.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then just don’t kill them? But then we would need to…” Alice didn’t say everything she wanted, because while Mariina does know about Monster Reborn, herpanions don’t. At least I think they don’t.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It also isn’t quite that simple.” Mariina stated. “Here. Look at this ve mark.” She pointed out the dead catboy.
<span style="font-weight:400">It looked… Well, it was a bit different from the one Ria has on her body, but I cannot tell the real difference.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... so, why is it different from other ones?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It is an older ve mark. It has long since been made illegal in the three Kingdoms and the Hero’s country. Even the Crystal Empire has banned its use. That is because itcks some of the protections the newer ones have.” Mariina began to exin. “This ve mark, unlike the modern ones, doesn’t limit the orders the ve is given. For example, Brian, if you ordered Rhianna to kill herself, she wouldn’t have to do it, because the mark would protect her from that order. This one doesn’t. The same goes for orders to take other people''s lives and so on. The modern one protects the ve from having to execute orders of that kind.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... alright, but so what? Won’t they be free if we kill their master?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. That is the sad part. This seal… if their master dies, will kill the ve.” Mariina said. “It was made illegal for a reason. It is extremely inhumane.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... alright. So we will have to keep at least the leader alive.” I deduced. “Can that ve mark be transferred to be under a different master?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It can… but again, it is illegal. It isn’tmon knowledge how to do that. We would have to get ess to someone who knows more about it.” Mariina told me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Anyone that would know?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“The Sages should know. I think the Sage’s towers library’s limited section should have info about it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I see. But there would have to be someone who transferred the ves to that guy, right? They would have to know, wouldn’t they?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“And do you think we can get that information? No one will admit to it, as that will get them executed. And in all likelihood, there won’t be any proof of the transaction.” Mariina reasoned. “But we should still warn the local lords that there is a ve trader in this area using this mark.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then perhaps we should just keep them all alive and head back to Pekkers? And because this is a special situation, I don’t mind if we use one of my ships for it.” I offered. “But at the end of the day, you are the one we are working for, so it is your call.” I reminded Mariina.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, since you are offering your airship, we should head back.” Mariina quickly decided. “We will head back in the morning. I’m sorry, but you have to add keeping an eye on them to your nightwatch. Can the others use that immobilizing card?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. Alice, Lua and Ria can.” I confirmed.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good. Please do your best.” Mariina said, before her group headed back to bed.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was about time for me and Wilma to also say good night, as our turn guarding hade to an end some time ago, but I still had one more thing to do. Actually two. Or maybe even three?
<span style="font-weight:400">I first gave both Alice and Lua two copies of Swords of Revealing Light, so they could use them on our ‘friends’. Actually, let’s just give Ria two as well. It isn’t like I don’t have enough of them. And they coulde in handy, so why not? And maybe having more cards will help Lua and Ria get LV.3 Card Summoner, so that they can have that deck feature.
<span style="font-weight:400">Then the second thing. The dead cat boy. I used both Soul of the Pure and Blue Medicine to heal up the hole in his stomach. Then after Lua checked his corpse out and said he should be fine, I dropped a Monster Reborn on him to resurrect him. Then, before he had time to wake up, I moved him to be inside the Swords of Revealing Light.
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<span style="font-weight:400">If anyone asks, he didn’t die and was just badly injured, alright. That is the truth, if I tell people that is the truth. That is how it works, right?
<span style="font-weight:400">Last thingst. One quick request.
<span style="font-weight:400">(Laura, can you Mia and Kekri look into that ve mark? Do we have ways of transfering the ownership to me with one of my cards? Like Snatch Steal, Brain Control or something like that? Or maybe just ask the system about how it works?)
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<span style="font-weight:400">(Yes. I’ll have it done by the time you wake up.) Laura responded, so I was able to go to sleep with a rtively clear mind.