"Well, this is gonna be a big question, but first, let me ask you why you guys came to Arxia."

The Bandits man stares at me in silence. There was no need to exhaust his words, and he ordered the soldier who suppressed the man from both sides to kneel the man, and waved a whip down his back.

A very painful sound of bash echoes through the interrogation room.

I didn't let you take off your clothes, so it shouldn't be that damaging. Taking that into account, I swayed the whip about five more times.

A man who eats up his teeth and endures pain doesn't even groan. After all, it's not just a bandit. If a bandit broke into Arxia's abundance blindly, there would be no strong will to shut up until he was tortured.

"Let's change the question. Where were you headed?

"... I don't know the geography of Arxia."

You thought you'd eat a whip if you kept your mouth shut, that's what the man said to spit it out.

I don't admire lying statements. Swing the whip down.

A red and black stain appeared on the man's wrapped hemp shirt. More whipped from the top of the earthworm swelling, the flesh seems to have begun to tear.

Did you think that all that skilful use of the realm line would make you run away from the Knights of Yugfena and show them, and that bullshit about geography and so on would make sense?

Switch the whip to your left hand and wave it down with all your strength. Along with the sound of beating the meat, I could hear the whip tip beating the air sharply. The lacerations were engraved all at once on the area hit by the chain and stained bright red as the shirt wandered.

From the gap in a man's teeth, a groan finally leaks. I saw some soldiers flatter their faces.

"Oh, gi, gi, gi, it's north... I was looking north..."

"North?"

"Oh, yeah. The east and south of Arksia will be full of territory with powerful armies, out of vigilance against other countries, to the north..."

Aside from the reason, it's true that we were heading north.

To the north of King Yugfena and the eastern half of Cardia lies the Black Mountains (Amon Nour). Even in summer, it's very difficult to break through that mountain range.

The Bandits' footprints, when they return from their last deviation from the Junas Border Until then, are turning north to avoid the village. It was just around the middle of Cardiac territory, or past the Black Mountains (Amon Knoll), that returned from the Junas Frontier Border Territory. The Bandits will try to run the shortest distance north.

─ ─ Isn't it bright enough for the geography of Arxia?

On a man's back, wave his legs down, not his whip. Weigh your swollen back and step on it.

Continuing pain, completely different from the burning sharp pain when the whip is shaken. People are terribly vulnerable to continuing pain.

"Ugh... Gu...!

That would be humiliating to be kicked in the foot by a child. Every time I shook my legs down, the man's throat rang low.

"What did you capture the women for?

"... to know the location of the village..."

"That alone seems to have handled it quite badly."

I don't think those village daughters would try to shut their mouths in a life-threatening situation if they just asked where the village was located.

"... some young people, in consolation... ---!!

I shook my foot down trying to get the heel of my shoe tucked in. I get a scream from a man who doesn't speak up about how the torn meat was just well chosen.

Apparently, the degree of pain jumps when you apply relief to the pain.

The man skipped consciousness all the time about the sudden overinfliction of pain. When the pain passes, this happens occasionally. Somehow the man has been here for two days since he was cut off in spirit.

"Give me some booze."

When anyone gave instructions to take it, one of the soldiers grabbed the bottle of liquor placed on the desk at the wall of the room, as it had been bounced.

They were swallowed by the unusual air of interrogation. The soldier offers me a bottle in a sneaky move.

I flipped the bottle over a man's back.

The liquor drips down my bloody back.

The man regained consciousness with screaming.

"Let's continue the interrogation. Before you do that, I'll give you a drowsiness."

As much as consciousness becomes obscure, people become incapable of working and lying. Hunt him down, and if he gets hurt, people's consciousness goes far with pain.

When I waved the whip down, a clear scream burst from the man's mouth.

It was only four days after the interrogation of all of them.

I didn't really go to starve the sources in the corner, but I fed them a meal, but then the degree of hunger became more distressed.

As a result, although the number of swings of the whip decreased so much in the second half, even the muscles I don't normally use were moved, I began to experience dull muscle pain in my upper body on the boulder.

It was worth the total mobilization of knowledge engraved in the roots of my memory from my father to hurt the bandits, and the information could be drawn quite a bit.

There may be new matters emerging in the second circle of interrogation, but what we find out is compiled on paper so that we can report them immediately to the Earl of Teresia.

─ ─ I suspected, but they are still not just bandits, etc. Several members of the team felt upbringing. It is unlikely that a bandit of aristocratic collapse will emerge, so much so that Denzel is culturally inferior to Arksia.

In other words, on the back of them, at least the nobility of Denzel or more is moving. Given the term "heathen" of the first man you were interrogating, there would also be the possibility of some kind of religious community.

All the religions believed in the Principality of Denzel worship the Lord God, whom this is called Leva, and the gods who are entangled in it. It is therefore called Leva, as opposed to Kusha in Arksia.

I can't tell which sect of Leva the man finds his faith in after all... doesn't that mean, on the contrary, that the bandits' invasion of Arxia is likely to involve that sect?

Next is their destination, the "North". I have been warned a few days ago about the movements of scattered northern aristocrats, and even if I don't like it, I suspect Nordstelm.

I hope to put a stop to the national moves decided in the House of Lords and clean up the obstructive existence- I guess it is not a mistake around which the Earl of Teresia has also admitted that, however high nobility Nordstelm may be, that is not feasible.

But that's only in view of the situation in the country.

Assuming Nordstelm is working with organizations outside the country, the story is different.

There is no certainty. But you should be on guard.

I threw a note that I had finished writing the information into a locked drawer on my desk and stretched a lot to unscrew my spine.

I was to groan at the pain in my muscles.