886: Filuria's Interrogation

Filuria grunted, cursing Fran as she clutched the wound on her right arm.

「Y-You! You just attacked me! H-How foolish can you be? Don’t think you can stay in this city after this!」

「So?」

「W-What?」

「I don’t care.」

「Eh?」

After hearing Fran’s answer, Filuria was stunned. She seemed to be in complete disbelief.

To Filuria, who had always lived in the closed world of this illegal city, being chased out of the city must have been the worst outcome she could imagine.

It wouldn’t surprise me if she thought it to be equivalent to death.

Therefore, she must have thought Fran would panic after hearing her words. She didn’t expect her threats to be so easily dismissed.

To think she wasn’t prepared for any injuries to herself after provoking the civilians to attack us…

Fran looked a little stunned too. We hadn’t seen such a coward in a while.

She simply gave a light sigh before stopping Filuria’s bleeding with a spell. Thus began Fran’s interrogation.

「Are you connected to black market slavers?」

「Shut up! My arm――Gyaaah!」

「You shut up. Just answer my questions.」

「Aahhhh! Why…!」

Filuria, who had now lost her left arm in addition to her right, let out a gasp of despair. Her eyes staring up at Fran were filled with complete terror.

She finally realized the black cat adventurer in front of her was no ordinary girl.

「Are you connected to black market slavers?」

「N-No! Of course no――」

『Lies.』

「Hmph.」

「Gyiahhh! I-I answered you! I answered you!」

「You lied. Tell the truth.」

Filuria stared at her left leg, which Fran had stabbed me into, with a look of astonishment on her face. With this, she fully understood that Fran could see through all her lies.

「Why… Why are…?」

「Hmph.」

「Gyraah!」

「Don’t stall. Just tell me the truth.」

「Urgh…」

「And nothing else. Greater Heal.」

「Aah…!」

Filuria’s face filled with more despair at the sight of her severed right arm being reconnected. It was obvious what would happen if she continued disobeying Fran.

『We don’t know when Seliadot will be coming back, so we need to finish the interrogation quickly.』

Bryne and the others already had the civilians under control. We could ignore everyone else, but we still needed to worry about Seliadot.

「…Nn.」

Fran glanced at the tower.

『Did you sense any sign of Seliadot?』

（Dunno.）

『Hmm. Well, the tower seems to have a lot of surveillance wards, so maybe you sensed those.』

（Nn.）

It’s still incredibly difficult for us to sense Seliadot, so we had to hurry either way.

『Let’s make it easier for her to talk.』

「Nn. Pain Boost.」

「Eh?」

Fran used the life magic, Pain Boost. This spell amplifies the amount of pain the subject suffers.

It must be a spell affecting the body’s nerves. Unfortunately, the most powerful people in this world have skills to reduce or nullify pain, so this spell could only be used against small fry. For Filuria though, this was perfect.

「Hmm?」

「GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

Filuria gave us the biggest scream of the day just from a light thrust. Her pain must have been amplified several times over.

She was practically hyperventilating, with a river of tears and saliva flowing down her face.

「Life… magic…」

「Nn.」

Filuria muttered something, staring up at Fran with a strange look in her eyes. Her gaze felt kinda disgusting somehow.

The look she gave Fran seemed like the same way a slaver looks at their merchandise. I detected life-aspected mana in the underground facility, so maybe Filuria’s research was related to life magic.

But soon afterwards, her eyes had nothing but fear.

Fran trampled Filuria’s wounds with her foot, causing her great pain. Filuria cried out and begged for forgiveness.

「N-No more… Please stop!」

「Then tell me everything you know about the illegal slavers.」

「I-I know, I know…! I will!」

From there, the interrogation went as smooth as usual.

Filuria answered all our questions, and we obtained very interesting information as a result.

First, the identities of all the Sanatorium members involved in slave trafficking. Surprisingly, there were only a few: Filuria and some guards under her command.

Seliadot wasn’t involved either. It seems that those underground wards were set up as a countermeasure against antidemon invasion.

Also, they weren’t actually a part of the slave trafficking ring. They were merely one of its clients.

She said they required illegal slaves as guinea pigs for her experiments. She first checked whether or not the slaves they captured could be used for her research. If useful, they would be sacrificed in the name of science. If not, she simply sold them off.

Apparently, she had regular contact with a slave trafficking ring, her partner in conducting slave transactions. However, she wasn’t privy to all the details about the traffickers, so tracking them down might be a bit of a pain.

「What research?」

「E-Experiments on life magic.」

「About what?」

「E-Eternal life!」

「What?」

「To live forever young! To do that, I need the power of life magic!」

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