Chapter 238: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (31)
Chapter 238: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (31)
The man with the longsword had been defeated in a single strike.
Perhaps finding that fact impossible to accept, the light had already faded from his eyes as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Of course, that wasn't my concern.
I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him along.
He was highly likely to be associated with the Dark Cult anyway. His skills were far too polished for someone belonging to a mere back-alley gang. He was roughly at the level of an ordinary knight from a high-ranking noble family.
While he was no match for me, he certainly didn't possess the kind of talent one would find in a common thug.
There were so many fallen bodies that I kept tripping over them. Eventually, losing my patience, I simply hurled the man toward the reception room door.
With a thunderous crash, the wooden door shattered.
As the dust billowed, I could hear the sharp intake of breath from the hairy man inside. I vaulted over the fallen bodies and stepped into the reception room in a single bound.
The bruisers who were groaning and trying to push themselves up looked back and forth between me and the man with the longsword.
Then, they collectively decided to lie back down on the floor.
It seemed they realized that resisting would only lead to a world of pain.
When the man with the longsword coughed and tried to brace himself against the floor, I delivered a sharp kick to his ribs.
"Gah!"
With a death rattle of a scream, the man rolled across the floor again. Slumped against the wall, he looked like he no longer had the strength to even sit up.
The hairy middle-aged man watching the scene wide-eyed let out a voice that trembled piteously, scratching at his vocal cords.
"H-How… dozens of men, and even Big Brother Smiling Dagger… and you took them all down in just a few minutes!"
'Smiling Dagger,' huh?
I glanced at the man who had been holding the longsword. No matter how I looked at him, he didn't seem older than the middle-aged man, and he certainly hadn't shown me a smiling face.
The naming sense of these back-alley types was bottom-tier across the board.
Thinking to myself that it was at least better than 'Hand Axe Young Master,' I pulled out the hand axe hanging from my waist.
"I'm a third-year in the Academy Swordsmanship Department."
"W-What does a hand axe have to do with the Swordsmanship Depart—GYAAAAAAH!"
Thwack. The corner of the hand axe exquisitely lopped off exactly one of the middle-aged man's fingers.
When I raised my hand, the axe returned to me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
It wasn't a common trick.
To the middle-aged man's eyes, it must have looked like sorcery.
He clutched the stump of his finger with his remaining hand, trembling violently, yet he gritted his teeth to keep from screaming any further.
The light of terror in his eyes grew vivid.
Just as I had done before entering the reception room, I walked over with heavy steps and knelt down. Tears welled up in the eyes of the man facing me.
He was looking at a human who had just dismantled dozens of men in a matter of minutes.
It would be stranger if he weren't afraid; besides, he clearly had no cards left to play.
In terms of the hierarchy of power, I held the absolute advantage.
I flashed a thin smile and spoke.
"Let's stop with the useless questions. We'll each get what we need, but for every question you ask me, you lose another finger."
The middle-aged man nodded without hesitation.
Hesitating would only cost him more precious fingers. Since I had cut it cleanly, it could probably be reattached—though he'd likely suffer permanent side effects unless he saw a high-ranking priest.
If he cooperated, I was even willing to introduce him to the Saintess.
"Now, first. What did you do with the missing people?"
"……I-I don't know!"
I stared at the man without a word.
As I slowly tightened my grip on the hand axe, the man, instinctively sensing the minute change, cried out hysterically.
"I-I really don't know! W-We… we just sold the information!"
Repeated violence tends to push the human psyche to its limit.
Specifically, the knowledge that high-intensity assault can occur at any moment creates a state of extreme tension. I was even intentionally refraining from showing any signs of conflict.
It was to maximize the effectiveness of the interrogation.
We were strangers who would never see each other again after today; there was no harm in being feared a little.
I glared at the man in silence. His pupils were shaking violently.
At the very least, he didn't look like he was lying. A low voice escaped my lips.
"To whom?"
"I-I don't know that either. Like I said, I was just following orders… AHHH! Okay! I'll tell you everything!"
When his excuses started getting long-winded, I had no choice but to raise the hand axe again.
Immediately, the man covered his head with both arms and began babbling whatever came to mind.
"The higher-ups! It was an order from above, but I don't know the details! T-They just told me to hand over the information whenever someone wearing a black hood showed up…."
"Someone who looks suspicious to anyone?"
"I-I had no choice!"
Panting, the man continued his excuses.
"Bad debts are meant to be sold as a rule… We couldn't collect on them even if we tried, so we just handed over the debtors' information! What happens with the collection after that isn't our—GYAAAH!"
Once again, a finger flew through the air accompanied by a spray of blood.
Seven fingers left.
I offered a faint smile and dropped a single line.
"……I didn't ask."
Haaa, haaa. After taking a few ragged breaths, the man finally seemed to calm down slightly.
He tried to shuffle away from me.
Of course, there was only so far he could go.
I continued my questioning in a casual tone.
"Even so, you must have heard something. Does it make sense to just hand over debtor info and call it a day?"
"I-It's the truth… A-Ah!"
The man, who had been trailing off as if he were being wronged, suddenly snapped his eyes open as if he'd remembered something.
He spoke haltingly, as if it were a lifeline.
"B-Biological experiments!"
"……Biological experiments?"
It was a word that felt foul just hearing it.
It would be bad enough if it were animals, but the subject of this conversation was the missing people.
It meant they were all humans.
As my brow furrowed, the man let out a hollow laugh as if he had finally recalled a crucial piece of information.
"He-Hehe… T-That's right! I'm sure I heard them say to hand over data needed for 'biological experiments.'"
"……You lunatic."
I let out a deep sigh and sent a chilling gaze his way.
"You heard that and still handed over the information?"
"T-That's……."
The man's eyes darted around as he tried to read my expression.
However, since he had contributed by providing important information, I decided not to torment him any further.
I stood up and grabbed the stack of documents remaining on the table.
Though stained with blood, the important contents were still legible.
My interrogation continued.
"So, how many did you sell off in total?"
"So far, uh… about nine?"
Hmm. I flipped through the papers one by one.
Nine wasn't enough.
So, I cast a glance at him and asked back.
"The numbers don't match the documents."
"Some of them are actually missing! We hand over all the bad debts by default, but like I said, some people just skip town in the middle of the night! T-That strange person doesn't seem to chase after the ones who ran away……."
I continued flipping through the pages in silence.
A small murmur escaped my lips.
"……Doris. He's the son of Aunt Yona, who runs the mill."
At the information I let slip, the trembling man's gaze turned blankly toward me.
He was likely wondering if I was reading the debtor information.
But I was merely flipping through the papers nonchalantly, without even glancing at the detailed descriptions.
"Mari. Has she reached adulthood already? I guess she couldn't wait and started that fruit business she was always talking about… Her dream as a child was to eat her fill of fruit. She was a kid who especially loved apples."
Thud. I listlessly tossed the documents back onto the table.
My burning eyes turned toward the middle-aged man.
"……She's missing. Now she can't even eat apples."
My hand, which looked like it was just moving toward the man, suddenly seized him by the collar.
Lifted effortlessly, the man flailed in the air, gagging.
I warned him in a simmering voice.
"Do you think I wouldn't know these people? I'm someone who grew up with them in this tiny territory… Tell me the truth. Is it really only nine?"
"Gack, cough… R-Really… Ugh, it's the truth! I swear!"
Thump. I slammed the man onto the floor with all my strength.
His body bounced once, and a suffocating groan escaped him.
I pointed the hand axe at his throat and shouted.
"……How would you know that?"
"Haaa, w-what do you mean… Uuugh……."
"Weren't you handing over all the bad debts to that person?"
The man's eyes were filled with intense confusion.
Seeing him look as if he were seeking an answer from me instead, I felt a surge of anger and ended up yelling.
"Then how do you know which of them were kidnapped by that bastard and which ones actually ran away?! It's not like you saw it yourself!"
"T-That's because……."
The man, who was about to stammer out some excuse, suddenly wore a vacant expression.
A hollow voice leaked from his mouth.
"……Huh?"
It was then that the man's atmosphere shifted completely.
His limbs began to twitch and jerk like a broken doll as he pushed himself off the ground.
In the process, his arm joints snapped in the wrong direction with a sickening crack.
Despite that, not a single trace of pain crossed his face.
"Why, why, haaa, why, why, haaaa… WHYYYYYYYY?!"
He suddenly began to wail, clawing at the skin of his own face with his fingers.
Blood streamed down and his eyeballs looked ready to pop out, but he didn't stop scratching.
If anything, the speed only increased.
I had no choice but to be taken aback by the sudden change in situation.
"Wait, what… Hey, are you okay?!"
"Why, why, why?! Ugh, haaa… sob. Whyyyyyyyy!"
The man was now on the verge of tears.
I hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to respond.
I had crossed many lines between life and death, but this was a first.
For a man I was just talking to normally to have a seizure like this.
The man looked at me with desperate eyes.
His hands were still clawing at his skin, leaving his face a bloody mess.
He panted like a dog as he spoke to me.
"Y-Young Master… Haa, haack, why, pant, the m-memory… My head issssss……!"
At the very least, it was certain he wasn't doing this of his own free will.
I immediately lunged toward him.
I thought perhaps knocking him unconscious would work.
But at that moment.
I noticed a pitch-black pattern floating above the man's Adam's apple.
The bizarre geometric shape was spitting out dark red sparks of electricity.
Though momentarily startled, I soon recalled having seen that pattern somewhere before.
The Dark Cult's contract magic I had seen at Guildford's orphanage.
I spat out a curse and had no choice but to leap backward.
"……Son of a bitch."
And then, with a boom, an explosion erupted.
The man's skull shattered into pieces, and a fountain of blood sprayed from the empty space. Flesh, bone fragments, and brain matter splattered everywhere with a wet thud.
Staggering back a few more steps from the shockwave, I stared blankly at the headless body.
The tilting corpse soon collapsed into the pool of blood it had created with a splash.
Blood splattered all around.
I looked around vacantly. The bruisers who had been pretending to be unconscious and the man called 'Smiling Dagger' were all deathly silent.
And soon, black patterns began to float above their heads as well.
Sighing, I threw myself out of the reception room.
A storm of blood erupted, and a tide of gore began to spill out from under the reception room door.
Covered in blood, I had to dust myself off as I stood up.
A sigh escaped my lips as I stood there, lost in thought with my hand on my forehead.
"……I should report to the main house first."
I had caught the tail of the Dark Cult.
Nothing was known about their contract magic, but I had no choice but to trust the Lainella family's Magic Corps, which Sir Reynold cherished so much.
A few minutes later, after staggering out of the building, I stopped a passing pedestrian.
The person's face turned pale the moment they saw my state, but fortunately, we were familiar enough that I could smooth things over.
I stood guard there for a long time until the rest of the group arrived at the scene.
Leaving behind the dozens of bodies groaning in the hallway and the reception room from which blood continued to pour.
The group that witnessed that gruesome sight couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
Among them, the expression on Ria's face, who had arrived representing the Percus family, was the most sight to behold.
Wide eyes, trembling lips.
I offered a brief greeting to my cute younger sister.
"……You're here?"
And immediately after.
"Y-You're crazy! You're crazy, you're crazy, you're crazy……!"
"Ack! Ria! I told you to stop hitting me!"
I had to endure my furious sister smacking my back over and over again.
Even though I hadn't been hit once during the actual fight.
It felt unfair.