343 Interrogating The Culprits
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At the end, Allan and Shade moved forward with a series of other questions, as they had already realized it was kind of a lost cause to continue trying to convince these people, no matter how many explanations they gave to them, these people were still willing to do what they did before again if they were given the opportunity. The decision of ultimately bringing the demon children with them and make them join the tribe of Amazon was growing stronger as a good option, this entire town seemed to have too big of a grudge against demons to let them live in pace. If they were to leave this place, there was nothing saying they’ll be able to live and prosper happily.
At the end, Allan and Shade decided to ask more about this “boss” and the whole organization where these people came from. They wanted to find the hideout at all costs and put an end to them before they did anything more dangerous in the near future. However, things seemed more complex, this “boss” was someone that was rather closet to his subordinates, and he wasn’t just the one behind this, there were many people involved… and perhaps the entire government as well.
“Boss… we don’t know his name. But he’s a good person. He welcomed us on his group and has been taking care of us. We do all sorts of works for him; robbing is not something we do… We actually often do rural work or maintain the city’s structure by fixing paved floors…”
“There’s also a stall where we sell food, and boss has a soft spot for the orphanages… the other ones. He always donates to them, so the children in there grow healthy and eat a lot!”
“We are not bad people… We are merely trying to do what’s right to protect our place…”
“So you only did things like that? It doesn’t sound criminal at all, but you’re lying, aren’t you?” Asked Allan, becoming quite serious, his gaze pierced the people’s souls, as Shade approached his hand into one and touched his soul with it.
“Gyyyyaaaaah…! O-Okay! I’ll talk…! W-We often rob! We rob from merchants that pass through some routes, very little times, only when these merchants are bastards! The nobles pay us to ruin the business of other merchants… T-That’s all!”
“Oh yeah?”
…..
“Uuugh…! W-We also kidnap… demi-humans to sell as slaves, but everyone does that nowadays…”
“You guys are really two-faced. You tell me all the good things while hiding the bad things, you’re not really good people at all…” Sighed Allan. “You’re glorifying what you do way too much… I assume the stolen goods and slaves are stored in your hideout? Speak, where is it?”
“W-We cannot say that!”
“We’ll never speak, torture our souls as much as you want!”
“Y-Yeah!”
“Hoh? With pleasure.” Said Shade with a smirk.
.
.
.
At the end, the thugs were tortured until they opened their mouths and revealed their secrets. Shade and Allan learned that the hideout was located within an area of the Red-Light District near a drugstore, there was a secret entrance that only opened to members of this organization, leading to an underground base where several of their stolen goods and slaves were stored. This organization wasn’t the only one that held such a hideout, but one of the major three. And all of them colluded with various nobles.
The Duke himself seemed oblivious about this but if he had revoked the abolition of slavery, it probably meant he was happy that the market of slaves came back, as it gives a lot of money and helps maintain the economy of the fiefdom. It was unknown for the thugs if the Eastgrain Family were all like that, especially because the previous governor, the father of the current one had abolished slavery and pitied the demons.
“Lastly, do you know anything about the Dungeon and the recent Miasmic Pupa that have appeared? The Chaos Cocoon?” Asked Allan while slightly nervous, this was one of the major problems he came here for. The whole drama with the war survivors was something he had not expected, especially in the last city before reaching the port, their true destination. This ended being way bigger of a side quest that the Former Hero could had ever thought it would become, and he hasn’t even discovered the mystery behind the primary problem he came to resolve.
“W-We have no idea, really!”
“Y-Yeah… We don’t know about that… Boss was also worried about such a thing!”
“I-If Boss doesn’t know, perhaps that might be the doing of a different organization…”
“Please believe us!”
Shade and Allan used magic they copied from Mary rather easily, [Heart’s Reader], which they used to discern false from truth more easily than through things like checking their temperature or heartbeat, quickly concluding that they were saying the truth. The two nodded, quickly hitting the people in the neck and putting them down unconscious. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
“No matter what, they’re still doing illegal things, we’ll catch them and bring them to justice.” Said Shade. “Of course, let’s delete the memories of what they learned from us, and about us as well… Memory Erasure…”
Illusion Attribute Magic was able to meddle with memories too, although it was not possible to delete old memories without causing a sever damage to people’s head, it was possible to easily delete recent memories that were still freshly lingering within their minds.
After the memory deletion, Shade and Allan brought the thugs with them carrying them inside of Shade’s Shadows through his [Shadow Storage] Spell that allowed him to create a pocket space inside his own shadows, big enough to fit a whole house inside, or more.
Without any delays, the pair of friends reached the Red-light district deepest streets, emerging over the roofs of the closed drugstore, in there, they noticed two thugs guarding the secret entrance in silence.
The two friends nodded to one another, jumping into action.
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