“Let go of this!”
“Be quiet.”
We were heading to the detention room, guided by the attendant. To be precise, it was a room designated as a detention room, but taking her to a prison felt like too much trouble, so we deliberately opted for a closer place.
“Stop hitting my butt! You pervert~!”
Is this guy a masochist?
“Ahh!”
Despite having been smacked on the butt dozens of times, Cidri, who couldn’t seem to quiet down, was continuing her pointless resistance.
At this point, you’d usually do what you’re told just to avoid more spankings, but her incessant noise reminded me of a feisty cat.
As we boisterously walked down the corridor, the attendant who was leading the way stopped, so we planted our feet back on the ground. He pulled out a key from his pouch, unlocked the room, and said to us.
“You may use this room.”
“Please inform His Majesty the Emperor that the interrogation will take place here.”
“Yes, understood.”
With the attendant leaving down the corridor, it was just me, Karina, and this masochistic demon left. We quietly entered the room, placed a chair we found in the corner right in the middle, and made Cidri sit on it.
“I will set up the sanctuary.”
“Got it.”
While Karina was setting up the sanctuary in her dress, I manipulated branches from the World Tree wrapping around Cidri’s body, tying her to the chair. Cidri, who had become one with the chair, was chattering loudly, but there was nothing she could do.
“Damn human…”
“Why not say something like earlier?”
“How on earth did you find out about my existence?”
“I told you, there’s an unmissable stench coming from your body.”
“Do you know how much I care about cleanliness!”
Cidri’s face truly looked wronged.
Well, I would feel the same way if I were captured like this. Originally, I would have held out until the last day of the banquet and barely stopped it just before the civil war got established, but here, I was caught before I could do anything and was just getting spanked.
But what can I do?
I’m a reincarnated being. If it’s an outsider, I wouldn’t mind, but I want to take it easy with a mid-boss like you and avoid any slips.
It would also be nice if she coughed up information about that Agares cult.
“Cidri. Your fate will be decided based on your answers. Do you understand?”
“Ha, you’d extract information from me~? Do I look that easy~?”
“Ugh.”
“Ouch!”
…Actually, she does look easy. Karina gave her a little dose of sacred power, and judging by the way she twisted her body, it showed.
“Karina, this interrogation process might not be very pleasant to watch. If you want a break, you can step outside.”
“No. I want to stay with you. I don’t want to burden Johann alone.”
“Karina.”
“Johann…”
How can she be so kind-hearted? I hugged Karina and lightly kissed her. Ideally, I’d want to make out for 5 minutes or even an hour, but unfortunately, it was interrogation time.
“What the hell is this romantic moment tied up in front of a demon, you damn lovebirds~!”
With the noise coming from the side, it was tough to concentrate.
“You’re completely clueless. Don’t you know you should be quiet in times like this?”
“It’s not like a demon would know how to be discreet, right?”
“That’s true.”
As Karina and I jokingly laughed, she shouted with a flushed face.
“If I get free, you’re both dead~! I’ll drag you to hell and make you suffer for a lifetime…”
“A lifetime?”
“A lifetime…”
“Before that, have you considered that you might just spend your entire life being tortured here?”
“Torture? Like a human could—”
Cidri seemed to want to maintain her last shred of pride, sneering with a twist at the corner of her lips. It seems she still hadn’t been trained properly. I thought about giving her another round of spankings but decided against it.
Doing that would be a hassle, plus that masochistic demon was making unnecessarily lewd sounds every time I hit her butt.
If I kept it up, I felt like I’d accidentally open my eyes to something I shouldn’t see, so I crossed my arms and leaned in toward her, asking.
“It’s better if you willingly spill the information.”
“…Do I look foolish to you~?”
“Are you expecting Agares to come rescue you?”
“…”
Yeah, I suppose you think so.
It’s not like demons have a sense of camaraderie or loyalty.
The only way for this girl to survive is by spitting out information and remaining a prisoner. After all, it’s far quicker for me to kill her than for a demon like Agares to save her.
“It seems you’ve come to a realization. Are you ready to answer willingly?”
“…I wouldn’t tell a lowly human…”
“Humanity has conducted extensive research on torture since ancient times. From simple to complex methods, they’ve thought of it all. And humans have invented all sorts of effective methods of torture.”
“What the…”
“Would you like to try each one, starting from primitive to modern methods? It will surely be an interesting experience.”
Cidri’s face was stained with fear. With a bit more coercion, tears would probably well up in her eyes. Just like in the original story, her mental fortitude was surprisingly weak. Well, that’s why she could only play the spy role.
“Fine! I’ll talk!”
“If you’d done well from the beginning, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
“I would never tell a scum like you…”
“Seems like you haven’t been hit enough.”
I pretended to roll up my sleeves. Cidri screamed in horror as she reacted.
“Not the butt!”
“If you find sitting on that chair so painful, answer my questions properly. Got it?”
“…Got it! I said I’d do it!”
The sass had completely drained from Cidri. The typical elongated speech that characterized her was gone.
Was it all a concept, or were they forcibly corrected because they were too desperate? Either way, it didn’t matter to me.
As long as she answered properly, that was all I needed.
“All right, first question. Cidri, what is your purpose for becoming Lady Trisha?”
“W-well, obviously to conquer this land!”
“You’d do well not to lie.”
Knowing the original story, I couldn’t be unaware that Cidri was lying. Plus, considering she had subtly joined the land appropriation of outsiders, she wouldn’t be using such childish goals as conquering the continent.
While Cidri probably didn’t know about the outsiders, she at least had to know some information regarding the Agares cult. I intended to dig that out no matter what.
The ultimate goal of this vacation was to liberate the Empire from the threat of demons.
“I didn’t lie!”
She still seemed rather comfortable. I decided to throw a question at her, pretending to be calm.
“I’ll give you a choice. Which fingernail would you like to have removed?”
I knelt down in front of her and held her hand with the purple hue. Cidri wriggled in horror as I grabbed her hand, but what could she do while being tied up?
I started to toy with her pinky nail.
“Are you going to answer or not?”
“You’re worse than a demon…!”
“I have no reason to listen to such words.”
I could clearly see that her goal was to instigate a civil war by inciting bloodshed in the Empire. Where were your noble words? I grabbed her pinky with my left hand and squeezed her nail with my right.
“Since you’re silent, I’ll just choose myself.”
“Ah, fine! Just let me speak! I’ll talk!”
“Should’ve done that sooner.”
“It’s humiliating…”
“If you want to live, you better throw away all your demonic pride.”
“I-I was planning to manipulate the Third Prince to incite a civil war! That fool is such an idiot, but there were a few who were willing to follow him because of how pathetic the First Prince is! I’d planned to charm some nearby nobles and prepare for a coup…!”
Looks like it’s not much different than the original story.
In the game, this part was random, so which prince got seduced was a dice roll.
“A coup… how intriguing. What was the Agares cult doing behind the scenes?”
“The… the behind-the-scenes machinations of the civil war…”
No wonder it felt odd in the original story for Cidri to be running around solo, causing a civil war. Perhaps the Agares cult was the backing force even in the original.
“Where is Agares now?”
“I… I don’t know! I can only find out when Agares calls for me…”
“Useless.”
“I-I’m useful!”
“Do you have a grievance?”
The moment I touched her pinky nail again, Cidri desperately shook her head in denial.
Seeing the pathetic display she showed when cornered, which had even become a meme in the original story, felt surreal. How could such an idiot be controlling the Empire?
No matter how much of a doomed state the country was, wasn’t this going too far?
Of course, demons are close to transcendent beings that ordinary humans cannot handle… but still, watching someone so easily dominated was infuriating.
“Any other information?”
“Th-that’s—”
Hmm?
“Karina, hide behind me.”
“Wha—?”
“You boldly mentioned that there are spies from the cult within the royal court.”
The scent of conspiracy is in the air.
I quietly grasped Cidri’s collar and whispered.
“Crafting.”
As the floor opened up and I felt weightlessness, a big explosion struck my eardrums.
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