Interrogation Breakdown
Thud-thud-thud! Even amid the deafening roar of the massive propellers tearing through the air, the interior of the helicopter—encased in special alloy—was as silent as the depths of the abyss.
What crushed the air inside was none other than Elena's overwhelming presence, seated across from me. Her red eyes, crossed legs and all, fixed on me without a single blink. Breathing felt like swallowing a razor blade—a nauseating pressure. But her gaze lingered longest not on my dangling empty left sleeve, but on the divine object, the Mugyeok True Sword.
"No matter how much I think about it, I can't understand."
Elena's voice, dry and sunken, shattered the silence.
"The Sword Master's divine object... to that little girl..."
Elena's sharp suspicion tightened around Gyu-yeon's throat bit by bit.
"It just doesn't make sense."
At her piercing interrogation, the Alliance Leader beside me flinched. He was the only one who knew the horrific truth—that I'd transformed from man to woman.
As Gyu-yeon pouted, ready to stick out her lip, the Leader cleared his throat and struck first.
"Ahem! President, she may look like a young girl, but she's the Sword Master's true successor. The divine object hovering by her side is proof enough."
When Elena didn't drop her suspicious glare, I quickly played along with the Leader's plausible pitch. Gyu-yeon clung tightly to his arm and wrinkled her nose at Elena.
"Hmph! Hear that, lady? Stop treating me like a criminal and glaring all scary!"
I thought I'd sounded pretty bold, but what slipped from my lips was the adorably cute voice of a silver-tray pearl-rolling idol girl. Far from intimidating, it came off like a kid whining to dodge a scolding from Mom.
Grind!
"Let's see if you can keep up that cheekiness until we reach the Association basement."
Whether it was the "lady" that got under her skin, Elena's molars ground with a chilling screech.
* * *
Soon, the helicopter touched down on the Association's rooftop helipad. Under heavy guard from hunters, Gyu-yeon was dragged to the "special isolation zone."
A cold interrogation room lined wall-to-wall with black obsidian that absorbed mana. Gyu-yeon sat alone on the central iron chair.
Then Elena's voice flowed through the speakers from beyond the glass.
"Given the Alliance Leader's guarantee, I'll provisionally accept that you're the Sword Master's successor. But the suspicion of being the perpetrator who blasted through the Tower's dimensional barrier remains—disciple or not."
Elena stated flatly.
"Before the full interrogation, we'll forcibly seal your internal mana circuits."
Researchers approached cautiously and clamped a silver metal device onto my only remaining right arm with a click.
"Forged from Abyssal Qi-Rejection Stone. With that on, even the Sword Master's disciple becomes a mere mortal. Activate at maximum output."
At Elena's command, eerie blue currents surged from the restraints.
Instantly, my body rebelled unpleasantly against the foreign intruder. If I wanted, I could shatter those shackles in a heartbeat and reduce them to ash. But I suppressed and contained my energy.
'Too much hassle. If I blow up here and cause a scene, it'll be all "national facility damage" crap and endless headaches. Better play nice, get it over with, and snag my phone back.'
I stifled a yawn, leaned back in the chair, and let all tension drain from my body.
After checking the monitor's wave readings, the researchers reported to Elena.
"President, the target's mana fluctuations have converged perfectly to zero. Internal energy fully sealed."
Hearing that, Elena's taut shoulders eased ever so slightly. Even the disciple of a great hero tames before the Association's restraints—she seemed inwardly relieved.
"Begin the interrogation."
Thus began the boring, torturous battle with time.
Elena bombarded me endlessly from beyond the glass. Why was I at the Tower 10th-floor boss room collapse yesterday around 2 p.m.? How do I wield the Mugyeok True Sword? When and where did I meet the Sword Master? And so on.
I dangled my legs in the air from the chair, answering with a cool, bored expression.
"Went to stream." "Just swing it and stuff happens." "Teacher picked me up as a kid on a mountain."
Nothing but nutrient-free responses.
But as two hours turned to four, my outward nonchalance cracked—inside, I was hitting my limit.
'Haa... I'm beat.'
Thinking back, today had been insanely hectic and exhausting. Soloing the 10th floor for a casual visit, vaporizing the Mire Orc Lord, perfect return home. I'd planned to savor the thrill on the couch, munch chicken, check World Murim Gallery reactions.
Then the blaring disaster alert ruined my vibe, followed by armed Association hunters blasting through my precious penthouse door. Hunters surrounding me was infuriating enough, but then the Leader shows up, learning my most humiliating secret—that I'd become a girl. And that terrifying Elena drags me here, confiscating my smartphone like it's an extension of my soul. Tied to an iron chair, treated like a criminal—this chain of events was pure injustice.
I'd tried enduring with a murim master's ironclad mentality, but this body was a young girl's. Fragile to stress, low emotional threshold, hypersensitive.
Accumulated fatigue, shame of my secret exposed, baffling grievance of being hauled here (in my mind)—it overloaded the girl's fragile frame.
'...Huh? Why's my eye watering?'
My vision blurred hazy. My nose stung, and an inexplicable sorrow and frustration welled from deep in my throat.
This damn body defied emotional control. Stress hit, and the tear ducts threatened to burst like a faucet.
"That kid... is she crying?"
A researcher observing from beyond the glass yelped in panic.
Elena's brow furrowed.
"Can't handle the restraint pressure and breaking down psychologically?"
I bit my lip hard. Inside, my male ego slapped me: 'No, Lee Gyu-yeon! Crying over an interrogation? Man up! Hold it!' Useless.
The girl's sorrow, once unleashed, escaped reason entirely. I rubbed my eyes nonstop with my shackled right hand.
"Hic...! Sniff...!"
Miserable sniffles. The once-threatening figure curled like a lost child, plunging the room inside and out into suffocating silence.
"D-disciple? What's wrong? Are the shackles hurting too much?"
The Leader, watching beside her, pounded the glass in fluster.
Even Elena startled at the unforeseen scene, her red eyes widening. The EX-rank hunter's razor-sharp reason lost its way before the silver-haired beauty's pitiful tears.
I looked up at the glass with bloodshot eyes and a reddened nose tip, sniffling pathetically. My blue eyes, brimming with chicken-shit tears, screamed for protection—endlessly pitiable and cute to anyone.
I wanted to puke at my own face. But the whimpers wouldn't stop.
"Lady, you're so mean... hic!"
"...."
I curled into a ball on the iron chair, sobbing miserably.
"You dragged me here, just glared and asked questions—I answered everything! Why treat me like a criminal and bully me? I wanna go home..."
Skipping her massive screw-up entirely, Gyu-yeon's tiny, trembling voice whined like the world's most wronged kid.
In that instant, Elena and the researchers froze like they'd been struck by lightning. A fatal error crashed the absolute-rational Elena's logic circuits.
'Cute...'
Just a fragile girl, yanked mid-chicken, sniffling from injustice. Puffing her cheeks, desperately holding back tears—that adorable sight.
Elena pressed her temple with long, slender fingers, nursing a deep headache from Gyu-yeon's lethal cuteness.
"Haa... What am I even interrogating here."
She sighed long and cold, gazing at me beyond the glass in bewilderment. Sobbing about fearing hunters, wanting to go home—this brat's interrogation felt too heavy for her conscience now.
"Alliance Leader, I don't know how this successor grew up like a flower in a greenhouse... but one thing's clear: a mentally sound interrogation is impossible."
Elena tapped her pad, offering a final compromise.
"The Association's deepest level—a top-grade underground bunker layered with dozens of special barriers and mana-absorbing minerals."
Her chilling voice echoed through the room.
"We'll release the shackles and test you there."
The Leader stroked his chin beard and nodded gravely.
At that moment—
My pitiful huddled sobs on the iron chair cut off like a lie. I wiped my teary eyes roughly with my remaining sleeve.
'Dozens of barriers? A top-grade bunker where I can go all-out without fallout leaking outside?'
The surging sorrow and hormonal frenzy washed away in an instant, drowned by manic curiosity and dopamine.
All those anime techniques I'd mimed half-heartedly at home, holding back lest the penthouse crumble. Sure, going full power here would vaporize the bunker—and the whole HQ—with it. I knew my limits best.
But flip that: wasn't this a "legal, sturdy playroom" for cranking way higher than my piddly home swings?
I stood lightly, face still flushed from tears.
"For real? You give my phone back and let me go home after?"
I wrinkled my nose up at Elena. My big eyes, sparkling from tears, now brimmed with mischief instead of grievance. My lips curved into a child's sunny grin, thrilled at the impending mayhem.
"Sweet! Let's do that test right now!"
I shouted excitedly, swinging my empty left sleeve wildly at the air.
"I'll show you something that'll blow your minds and clog your noses!"
Elena shivered down her spine at the beaming Gyu-yeon. That utterly non-threatening sunny smile felt oddly more unsettling and ominous.