LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 55: Interrogation
Chapter 55: Interrogation
Tyrel slowly opened her eyes, feeling a splitting headache.
“Ugh……”
As a bright light shone through her slightly opened eyelids, she instinctively turned her head.
“Kuh!”
But her body wouldn’t move as she wished; instead, she only felt a stabbing pain in one shoulder and her entire face.
“Oh, you’re finally awake!”
Hearing a voice nearby, Tyrel carefully opened her eyes, enduring the pain.
Standing before her was Jin Beom-Min with a welcoming smile.
“You……!”
Tyrel tried to say something but winced in pain. However, it definitely felt less painful than before.
“Don’t push yourself. You haven’t fully recovered yet.”
Jin Beom-Min added, carefully examining Tyrel’s face with a worried expression.
“Still, you’re recovering quickly for a dark elf. You’ll be able to speak without difficulty soon.”
“……Where…… Where am I……?”
Tyrel cautiously asked, moving her jaw and mouth for a moment.
“Where else would you be? This is where we confine extremely dangerous prisoners like you.”
At Jin Beom-Min’s words, Tyrel slowly looked around. Or rather, she tried to.
But her neck and head wouldn’t move at all.
Flustered, Tyrel tried to raise her hand to touch her face, but even that was impossible.
Looking down, she saw her arms and legs tightly bound by thick metal restraints.
“What…… What have you done to me……!”
“What have I done? Did you perhaps do something bad?”
Jin Beom-Min slowly moved out of her sight. Tyrel struggled to move her body somehow, but it was no use.
All she could move freely now were her fingers, toes, and face.
Before she knew it, Jin Beom-Min reappeared on the opposite side of her vision.
“Hmm, they said it was titanium alloy, and it really seems sturdy.”
He tapped the thick metal restraints that held Tyrel’s body and nodded, continuing.
“Just in case, I’m telling you, it’s best not to try to escape.”
Thump―!
Jin Beom-Min stomped on the floor a couple of times with his thick rubber boots.
“There’s high-voltage electricity flowing through this floor and walls. Without these boots, even you would be half-cooked in an instant.”
Tyrel didn’t respond, but her eyes were busy darting around.
However, there wasn’t much to see. The room she was confined in seemed to be solidly built with smooth, seamless metal, and there wasn’t even any furniture.
“Alright then.”
Jin Beom-Min bent down and made eye contact with Tyrel.
“Let’s begin.”
“……What…… What do you mean……?”
“It’s simple, I ask and you answer. Understand?”
“Ptooey!”
Tyrel tried to spit in Jin Beom-Min’s face as he approached.
However, there wasn’t much moisture in her mouth after being unconscious for so long, and Jin Beom-Min stepped back and easily dodged even the few drops of sticky liquid.
“……You seem to still have plenty of energy.”
“I have…… Nothing more to say to you……”
“Well, I still have a lot of questions.”
But Tyrel ignored Jin Beom-Min’s words, shutting her mouth tight and even closing her eyes.
“Let’s start with the easy stuff. Your name and affiliation?”
“……”
“What was the item that the ‘thief’ you mentioned stole?”
“……”
“Were all the monsters that have invaded Earth so far sent by you?”
“……”
“……The ‘Battle of Sorrow’ that happened 28 years ago. What was that?”
Finally, Tyrel’s lips twitched. However, she didn’t say anything, only twisting the corners of her mouth into a sneer.
“Oh, come on, cooperate a little. Who knows? I might even give you a sip of water.”
At Jin Beom-Min’s words, Tyrel licked her lips. She was desperately thirsty, craving even a single drop of water.
But she firmly closed her mouth again.
She knew all too well what could happen if she started accepting help from the enemy interrogating her.
“Hmm…… Alright. Then I’ll have to ask for help.”
Jin Beom-Min sighed and stepped back, then turned the ring on his finger.
Kiiiiiigigigig―!
A figure clad in blue armor rose from the metal floor.
“G-G-G-G-G-G-G-Gug!”
However, unlike usual, Kuen appeared trembling and convulsing with a strange voice.
“Huh?”
The next moment, Jin Beom-Min remembered the thick rubber boots he was wearing.
“Oh, dear! Charlotte! Turn off the electricity here, please!”
When Jin Beom-Min shouted, a reply came from a speaker installed somewhere out of sight.
[Jin? What is that? Suddenly from the floor……!]
“No, just turn off the electricity first! That, that! It’s smoking!”
[……Are you sure it’s okay to turn it off……?]
“Yes! He’s on our side now! He only listens to my orders, so you don’t have to worry! Ah, quickly! It’s catching fire!”
[……Alright.]
The lights in the room flickered for a moment. Then, Kuen’s writhing on the floor stopped abruptly.
“Uh…… Kuen? Are you alive……? Oh, you’re not actually alive, are you……”
After a while, Kuen slowly rose from the floor, smoke rising from his body.
“W-W-What…… W-What happened……”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I forgot……”
“I-I-I…… To be treated like this……”
Jin Beom-Min patted out the small fire on Kuen’s shoulder with an embarrassed expression.
“I apologize. I wasn’t thinking.”
“……Somehow…… Ever since I started listening to your orders…… I feel like I’ve been treated a bit…… Poorly……”
“Oh, come on. Don’t be mad. It’s not much of a consolation, but there’s a familiar face here, so……”
“……Oh……!”
Only then did Kuen, noticing the bound Tyrel, stop grumbling and let out an exclamation.
“……The…… Bitch of the Arcto family……!”
“……Ashkar’s hunting dog……”
As Kuen and Tyrel exchanged sharp insults as greetings, Jin Beom-Min asked.
“Do you know each other?”
“She is…… Tyrel. Tyrel Arcto. The…… Head of the Arcto family……”
“……Is it a famous family? I’ve never heard of it.”
“……Well, it’s one of the dark elf families…… But not very famous…… No, wait……”
At Kuen’s reply, Tyrel made an incredulous and indignant expression.
“Anything else?”
“……Not much. She has a twisted personality…… And enjoys eating human flesh……”
Tyrel snorted at the insulting remarks.
“……And she’s also…… Ambitious, trying to achieve great things…… And gain a bigger territory…… Even though she’s not capable……”
“It seems like the Arcto family’s standing isn’t very good?”
“……I don’t know about that…… But their current territory, Dunhilt, is…… A backwater.”
At Kuen’s words, Jin Beom-Min replied in a low voice.
“Dunhilt…… That was my…… Hometown.”
Kuen was startled by Jin Beom-Min’s words and hurriedly replied.
“Oh, uh…… It’s a rural place…… But the air is good……”
“Kuen doesn’t breathe anyway.”
“……That’s true……”
“It’s okay. Dunhilt fell while I was in training. My family and relatives all evacuated before that.”
“……That’s good to hear……”
Kuen seemed to let out a sigh of relief that he couldn’t actually exhale.
It was already known that the other side of the portal created by the monsters’ scrolls was connected to Jin Beom-Min’s hometown, Dunhilt.
The last photo sent by the drone entering the portal in Somalia was of Dunhilt.
But it was unavoidable that he felt complicated emotions upon confirming once again that his hometown had fallen into the hands of monsters.
Jin Beom-Min ran his hand over his face and then asked Tyrel.
“Then last time…… When you had the Bugbears capture the prisoner, that was your doing?”
When Tyrel didn’t answer, Jin Beom-Min asked again.
“……Is the prisoner dead?”
“……He’s alive.”
“Why did you take him?”
“……Isn’t it obvious? To find the thief’s whereabouts.”
At Tyrel’s words, Kuen asked in bewilderment.
“……A thief……?”
Jin Beom-Min scratched his head and explained the whole story to Kuen.
Then Kuen shook his head in disbelief and replied.
“……That can’t be…… The Legion Commander wouldn’t entrust…… Such a trivial task…… To such an insignificant being……”
Tyrel seemed indignant at being called “insignificant” but didn’t bother to open her mouth to deny it.
In the first place, the fact that she was granted a small and insignificant territory like Dunhilt was proof that her status wasn’t very high.
“Do you know anything about…… This Legion Commander?”
“……No. The monsters worship the Legion Commander…… Like a god…… But none of them have actually seen him……”
“Hmm…… Then why would such a great figure…… Entrust a task to Tyrel……?”
“……I don’t know……”
Jin Beom-Min glanced at Tyrel, but she remained stubbornly silent with her mouth shut.
“……I don’t understand what’s going on…… If it was a task directly ordered by the Legion Commander…… It means the stolen item is…… Very important……”
Kuen started racking his brains, trying to piece together the clues.
His brain might be half-rotted, but it seemed to be working somehow.
“……And to entrust such an important task…… To such a dimwit……”
“To someone who was a subordinate of a subordinate of that dimwit.”
Tyrel scoffed, but Kuen waved his hand dismissively, lost in his own thoughts.
“……Besides, magic that connects to another world is…… Very special…… Isn’t it……?”
“That’s right. I’ve never heard of it. I didn’t even know such a thing was possible.”
“……There’s only one reason…… To entrust such an important task…… To such a young one……”
“What is it?”
Kuen tilted his head like a seasoned detective and spoke.
“……He wanted to handle things…… Secretly……”
“Secretly? Why? If he’s the leader of the monsters, he could just give orders, couldn’t he?”
“……There must be a reason…… My brain can’t……”
Knock, knock.
When Kuen tapped his head, it sounded like he was knocking on an empty gourd.
“……I can’t think of any other reason……”
“Hmm……”
Kuen’s words made sense.
Thinking back on the monsters Jin Beom-Min had faced so far, they were all weaklings.
Of course, the Sphinx was considered a mid-level monster…… But it was hard to see it as someone carrying out the orders of the Monster Legion Commander.
Perhaps the Legion Commander didn’t want the higher-ranking monsters to know that he had lost an item.
“……Is what Kuen said true?”
Jin Beom-Min asked, but Tyrel avoided his gaze and kept her mouth tightly shut.
“Hmm, that’s a strange reaction.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s the first time today you’ve avoided my eyes.”
“……Nonsense!”
“They say a strong denial is an affirmation.”
Kuen also nodded in agreement from the side.
“……Let’s see…… So you received secret orders from the Legion Commander?”
Tyrel’s eyes darted around.
“But when all the subordinates you sent failed, you even asked your father for help?”
“……Father……?”
“The Ranger from last time was her father.”
“……Hmm…… There’s nothing more annoying…… Than an incompetent child.”
Tyrel’s eyes grew somber when the topic of Teano came up.
“Anything else you want to add?”
Jin Beom-Min asked her while she was emotionally shaken, but Tyrel still kept her mouth shut and lowered her head.
“Hmm…… Well, forget it. I understand the situation roughly. Then let’s change the question.”