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“Ha!”
Lyla stretched out the hand that she used to hold her staff. She sounded refreshed.
“Are you in a better mood now?”
“Sort of.”
Lyla was about to place her feet forward but stopped. In the place was about to step on, there was a mercenary whom Zich had knocked out.
Kick!
At her kick, the mercenary rolled several times. Although he groaned like he was in pain, he didn’t wake up.
“You left them in pretty good condition.”
“It’s because I don’t know who has important information. I decided to choose some guys with skills first.”
“Maybe I should have held back a bit.” Lyla felt a bit uneasy that she might have ruined Zich’s plans.
“It’s fine. I saved a good mix of mercenaries and mages, so I’m sure I will get as much information as I can. Besides, I saved the most important guy too.”
Zich pulled out a person from a pile of fainted humans; it was Mawin Jaewick.
“Oh, I can remember it now that I see his face. He is the guy who dueled with me.”
“…You really didn’t remember him?”
“He isn’t someone that I need to remember though.”
“I know how I am, but you are also something else.”
Lyla almost teared up from Zich’s tone. Although she knew that the fact that she couldn’t remember her duel partner might be infuriating for her opponent, she thought her action didn’t call for such a response.
“Then why did you remember someone so insignificant like him? Don’t you forget trivial things easily?”
“It’s because he clearly looked like someone who would hold a grudge. So, since he could try to suddenly backstab us, I kept him in my memory for the time being.”
Lyla pouted, because Zich’s words were reasonable. However, his next set of words made her nod and think, ‘No wonder.’
“Also, I obviously have to remember such things so I can take a better jab at him when I screw him over. There are many guys who get more enraged about the little things.”
“…No matter how nasty my personality becomes, I doubt I would be able to ever match yours.”
“Of course. If you want to match me, you will have to roll around in the mud for many more decades.”
“Can you please stop saying these kinds of things boastfully?”
Inside a forest where the atmosphere had gone dreary with the fresh pile of corpses, the two continued to banter. Then, Zich dragged a large tree, placed it on the ground, and made an impressive wall. He placed the fainted bodies leaning against this wall side-to-side next to each other. From a distance away, Lyla sat on the trunk of the tree she cut with magic and watched.
“You are going to extract information out of them, right?” she asked.
“Yeah, I have to. That’s the only reason why I kept them alive.”
“How are you going to do it?”
“Isn’t there only one way to get information out of guys you can do whatever with?”
Lyla could easily guess what method Zich was talking about.
“I didn’t torture the robed guys because I knew it wouldn’t work them; but I’m quite an expert in this field.” Then, Zich said while looking at Lyla, “I suggest for you to turn away if you have a soft heart.”
*      *    *
Mawin Jaewick regained his senses. He scowled as the back of his head throbbed, but he soon forgot the feeling when he suddenly heard a scream beside him.
“Umph! Umph!” He tried to scream, but there was something inside his mouth. He couldn’t even make a proper sound.
“Ummmph!” He tried to move, but his body didn’t even budge. His whole body was tightly bound, and he couldn’t see anything. There was something over his face.
“Are you awake?”
He heard a familiar voice. It belonged to the guy who had thrown all kinds of insults at him before. No, he didn’t even have to go that far back. That voice had mocked him even during the ambush.
‘Ambush?’ Suddenly, all the memories came back to Mawin. The woman, whom he once believed to be a cheater, activated an overwhelming magic attack that killed most of the people he had gathered. Then, that annoying bastard suddenly appeared and struck him with something.
‘I lost my consciousness then.’ He was captured, and there was no other way to describe it.
“Have you realized the general situation you are in?” Zich asked. Mawin jumped up and down to release his bondage, but it was too tight for a magician to break.
“It’s useless no matter how hard you try…but I bet you won’t give up anyways. Well, do what you want to do for now since it’s not your turn yet.”
‘Turn? What does he mean by that?’
Mawin’s question was soon answered by an extremely horrifying and gruesome reply.
“Kkkuaaaaahh!”
From some distance away, he heard yelling. Even though he couldn’t see, Mawin could guess the situation just by the noise. The owner of the voice definitely wasn’t receiving gentle treatment.
“Let’s take the easy road for both of us. I told you that I would stop if you told me what I wanted to know.”
“I-I told you! I already said everything I know!” The voice seemed to belong to the mercenary he had hired.
“I told you multiple times already. What I want is not what you know, but what I want to hear. What you just said is what the other guy already told me. I need different information than the one you gave me.”
“S-So, I told you that I don’t know anything besides that!”
“That’s a pity. If that’s the case, I have no choice but to suck up my tears and continue this act. Ah, how sorrowful. Can no one in this world sense my heart besides the flower blooming on the mountaintop?”
“At least change your expression if you are going to babble such words, you demon-like bastard!
“Ha, ha, ha! Although it might not seem like it, I don’t plan to lose even if it’s to the devil. Your comment irked me a bit. Since it doesn’t seem like you know anything else, should I rip off that useless mouth of yours first?”
“W-Wait…! Stop!” However, his pleas faded away like a dewdrop disappearing into the fog and a chilling scream followed.
Mawin’s teeth began to chatter, and now that he thought about it, there was a strange smell that kept disturbing his nose. He didn’t know what it was, but as the situation settled down, he arrived at one guess.
‘It’s the smell of blood!’
As his vision was blocked, his sense of hearing and smell told him that a terrifying situation continued to transpire in a dark place. His clothes began to soak in sweat, and all kinds of horrendous thoughts invaded his brain.
Thud! The sound of screaming stopped. At the same time, Mawin heard something fall to the ground. Mawin’s breathing grew heavier as he felt a presence come closer to him.
He heard someone say, “So, is it your turn next?”
Screams rang out near him. The screams came from a different voice, and Mawin trembled even harder.
*   *  *
“You’re the last one.”
A presence stopped right in front of him, and Mawin gulped his saliva. However, there was no moisture left inside his mouth.
“Were you able to hear all the questions I asked the others?”
Of course, Mawin had heard them. Even though he hadn’t wanted to listen to them, it was impossible for him to block his ears since both of his hands were tied up. In the end, he had no choice but to listen to all the questions and answers that the victims let out—of course, with all their terrifying screams too.
“You have to tell me information that other people haven’t yet told me so far.”
A cold and sharp sensation pressed down on Mawin’s thigh. Mawin felt a sharp sense of pain; it felt as if his thigh had been slightly cut. Since he couldn’t see anything, his senses were sharper, and he could clearly feel blood flowing out of the cut on his thigh. Mawin frantically nodded. In the first place, he had no intentions to stay silent like a knight who was captured by an enemy.
Mawin was terrified by the screams he constantly heard and the smell of blood that kept wafting into his nostrils. Thus, he wanted Zich to quickly ask all the questions he wanted to ask. Mawin wanted to offer all the information he knew, and for this whole situation to be over as fast as possible. However, what came to him was not a question.
“Before that, let’s make some preparations. I don’t want you to even try lying to me.” The sharp object, which was most definitely a sword, pressed deeper into his thigh.
“Mmph, mmph!” Mawin cried out and tried to talk. He wanted to tell Zich that he was never going to lie. Zich could understand what Mawin was trying to say, but Zich didn’t lessen the strength he used to hold Windur. “I know, I know. You’re desperate to say anything, right? It feels like you will readily give me all the information you know, right? Unfortunately, I have a hard time trusting people.”
“Mmpf! Mmph! Mmmhh!”
“I only need a few moments. It’s going to be over soon, so just wait a bit. Okay?” Contrary to the present situation, Zich’s voice was kind. However, the actions he took were not kind at all.
Push!
“Kuumpf!” At the searing pain, Mawin let out a pathetic cry.
*   *   *
Zich took out a water container from his magic box. He put his hand in the clear water, and the clean water slowly turned red from the blood on his hand.
“Is it over?”  When the sounds of screaming ended, Lyla walked out of the forest. Even though Lyla was fully capable of using cruel methods if necessary, she didn’t enjoy seeing other people’s blood or pain so she stayed away for a while.
“I pretty much got all the information I could get.”
“What type of information did you get?”
“Don’t expect too much. I didn’t get any really useful information.” Zich looked at the informants who had now turned into gruesome corpses. “The mercenaries and mages were people hired by Mawin. The mercenaries were hired by money, and the mages were betting on Mawin to become the future leader of their school of magic.
Zich raised his pinky. “Thus, they’re just lackeys.”
“Then what about Mawin Jaewick?” Lyla’s gaze moved towards the only person who was alive. Even though his entire robe was covered in blood, he looked completely fine on the outside. Zich seemed to have healed him with a potion.
“Well, that guy really did seem to have orchestrated this plan.”
“Then did he ambush us just to pay us back for the duel?” Since Lyla and Zich had waited to get ambushed by people who blocked Elena’s mana, they were a bit disappointed that Mawin Jaewick was the one who ambushed them.
“Yeah, that’s the main reason, but when I asked him more specific questions, he told me some interesting information.”
“What kind of information?”
“He said that someone helped him out.”
Since Mawin was a young master of an esteemed family, there were probably a lot of powerful and strong people that were willing to help him out. However, it didn’t seem like Zich was trying to say such an obvious fact.
Lyla recalled Mawin’s previous words. “Now that I think about it, didn’t that guy say that he got his information from a ‘trustworthy source’? Is it that person?”
“Yep.”
“What kind of person are they?”
“He said he doesn’t know.”
“…What?”
“He also doesn’t know who the person is.” Zich shrugged his shoulders in a much too relaxed manner.
“…Are you sure that he didn’t lie?”
“Yeah, I’m certain. I took some time to build a very trustworthy and close relationship between us, so he wouldn’t lie to my kind questions.”
Lyla did not ask what methods he used to build a “trustworthy” relationship. Instead, she asked, “Then he received help from a mysterious figure he doesn’t even know?”
“Yeah, and it seems like he really trusts that person.” Zich laughed, but it wasn’t a kind laugh at all. Anyone could see that Zich was laughing to mock Mawin’s foolishness.
Zich continued, “Ah, now that I think about it, that guy said you used some cheap tricks, right? He told me that he thought you unfairly used some kind of rare artifact from an ancient ruin to win the duel against him.”
“…But only magic staffs are allowed in a duel between mages. He really believed this? Didn’t he see me use different types of magic attacks and incantations in that duel? I can't even make an artifact that activates so many different types of magic!”
“I told you. He said it was a rare artifact found in an ancient ruin.”
Lyla hesitated and finally said, “…I have a request, Zich.”
“Don’t worry. My views of mages won’t reach the bottom of the earth just because of this one idiot.”
“I’m really thankful.”
Was there a time when Lyla was this grateful to him? It seemed as if she really didn’t want to be put in the same category as that idiot.