“Oh… but… but I want to finish the work I’ve been given by my Master Marla first. I can’t let things remain half-finished. Certainly not this.”
Eren talked in a daydreaming voice. His eyes were staring at Agatha’s body and his face carried the look of fascination.
“You pervert, Why don’t you state things honestly and say that…”
“Almera, the boy’s playing with you. Hehe! He has no “reaction” down there after seeing what he has been seeing.”
Almera was about to admonish the butcher but was made aware of the fact by Marla right on time. Then she realized the Adapt ranker had used her mana sense to keep an eye on Eren’s bodily responses.
‘Things started with life-and-death battles and ended with lewdness in the air. Life is so fickle.’
The young Amazoness smiled mirthlessly at her thought before shaking her head. She walked off in the distance to feed their colts which were tied to a tree further back.
Eren and Marla had already started laughing in the backdrop behind her. Ken had the face of someone who was yet to understand the joke.
*****************
“Wakey wakey, Mr E-Rank cultist douchebag. I’ll ask you questions only once. We are tight on our schedules, you see. So you might want to answer quickly and truthfully.
I’ve separated your lackeys and will conduct another round of interrogation with them. And if I find any discrepancies… Well, let’s just say things would get much worse for you than they already are. Capiche?
Now let’s get down to basics. What’s your name? And which cultist gang do you belong to?”
The interrogation had been initiated. Marla was in the lead. Her team members were standing behind her.
“Haha! Pretty lady, you don’t even have a historian in your team. How are you going to establish that what I or any of us spewed was true or not? We just need to come up with the same story and we are good.
Do you think we are not ready for an interrogation?”
‘Damn it. The guy’s spitting facts.’
Eren thought and looked at Marla whose eyes twitched in response to the latter’s retort. All of them were battle oriented rankers. But they needed a specialized ranker to do these jobs. Their interrogation was bound to be full of holes if they depended on usual means.
“Okay, hotshot. Here’s another deal. If I can’t find the authenticity of what you say to be true or not, I’ll give that responsibility to you. Say what you want, however, you want, but by giving enough and relevant evidence you can produce.
If you can convince me with proof that what you said was the truth then I’d take you to the city of Silvermoon where you would be turned into a slave and live off a relatively comfortable life.
You can also try to break free from slavery and get back to what you were doing now. Tempting aren’t they? The prospects are limitless for you even now. I don’t care either way.
So it’s your job to make me believe that what you say is the truth. If you fail to do that, I’ll just kill you all right here. I don’t want to do extra work by taking you guys to the city. Now choose. What will it be?”
Marla came up with another approach to interrogation.
‘The plan is good but it lacks finesses. It lacks a threat.’
Eren was no stranger to interrogation techniques. Marla was good, but he was better when it came to unconventional things like these.
What the butcher said came to pass. The E-Ranker laughed it off by saying:
“And why should I do that? If you want to kill us, just kill us. We are not scared of dying anyway.”
Marla had creases on her forehead after she heard that. She wasn’t a pro in interrogations. Thankfully, a dark knight came to her rescue:
“Master Marla, allow me to do the honours.”
Eren spoke plainly. Marla and his other team members looked at him strangely at his proclamation. They just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that a mere student in the F-Rank wanted to lead the interrogation of a battle-hardened E-Ranker cultist.
“Eren, no offence but…”
“Hear me out, Master Marla. We have nothing to lose even if I ask this guy a few things. At best, we can learn a few things that you can confirm with your round of interrogation. And at worst, you can take over anyway if I don’t gain anything. Not a bad deal, right?”
Marla pondered for a while before giving Eren a nod. But she was soon met by another of his strange requests:
“Madam Marla, I want to interrogate this guy in private. I mean, for real. That means no keeping tabs on what happens here with your mana sense.
I won’t say what I’m about to do but trust me that you don’t want to know. Please grant me this request as well.”
Eren gave a courtesy bow to Marla after he put forward another of his requests. The butcher didn’t want to do this but there were a few things he wanted to ask the guy that he couldn’t do in front of the audience.
Marla sighed deeply before agreeing. The boy had already proved his mettle on various occasions. There was some leeway he had earned with her as a result of that.
Eren’s team went away from their earlier positions. The butcher waited for them before turning his attention to the E-Ranker.
The cultist wanted to make fun of the mere teen in front of him. But for some reason, he subconsciously felt more threat coming from this novice than Marla who was an Adapt.
Eren didn’t speak but dived into a staring contest with the guy. Then he let his eyes roam on the cultist’s well-built body. The victim of eve-teasing got creeps from Eren’s strange gaze landing on his body. He felt naked in front of the boy.
“What… what are you thinking little ra…”
“Don’t you fucking say what you are about to say, you hear me? Haven’t I told you before? I only allow one person to call me that. Now, where were we? Yeah, interrogation.
You see, these past few days have been shitty for me. I’m forced to interact with the guy who makes my blood boil every time I even see him. So you can say that I’m kind of on edge here.
I’ll not tell you to speak the truth right away. I don’t want that. What I want is for you to take your time in spilling the facts. That should give me plenty of space to vent out my anger. Hehe!
Let’s start with the torture first and ask questions later, shall we? Hehe”
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AN: The next chapter might creep a few readers. Proceed with caution.