Chapter 379

Surprisingly, many people misunderstand.

They think that with strong willpower, they can endure torture.

But they don’t even know how much endurance that “strong willpower” actually requires.

Pain breaks people.

If it didn’t break them, it’s just because the pain wasn’t enough.

Fortunately, this time, the pain wasn’t insufficient.

Long live magic, I guess.

—

“Phew… I got so into it that it’s a bit hot now. Don’t you think?”

I wiped the sweat dripping down my forehead and took a step back, wearing the proud expression of a farmer who just finished planting rice.

Splash, the sound of water. The pool of blood on the basement floor stained the soles of my boots red.

“Y-yes… It does seem a bit hotter. Should I make some ice for you?”

The magician who came to assist with the interrogation was pale, dripping with cold sweat.

Guess the scene was a bit too stimulating for a desk jockey.

“No need. If you have the mana for that, use it on this guy instead.”

I tilted the cigarette I was holding and pointed toward the Ka`har prisoner in the corner.

“He doesn’t seem to have anywhere left to receive it…”

The magician looked at the prisoner with a face that seemed like he was about to vomit.

Before executing the Holy Kingdom-style brainwashing, we conducted a preliminary interrogation as a test.

The Ka`har warrior, who had been spewing curses, now looked like something halfway between a human and a monster, twitching and convulsing.

[What a horrifying sight. It would be better to just die.]

‘No, he can’t die. I went through all this trouble to keep him alive.’

I exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke and looked down at what used to be a Ka`har warrior just an hour ago.

The minty scent of the cigarette masked the stench of blood and organs filling the basement.

The prisoner’s condition was beyond description with just the word “miserable.”

It was like a collaboration between a surrealist painter, a serial killer, a butcher, and a doctor.

Without the help of the magician, potions, and the priest, even I couldn’t have pulled off this masterpiece.

No matter how strong a warrior, most would have died halfway through this.

“G-g-g-g-guh…”

The half-insane warrior let out a grotesque moan.

Bloody foam dripped from his gaping mouth and ran down his neck.

Honest hearts and sincere conversations always start with an open chest.

He was proving this truth firsthand, albeit in a somewhat anatomical way.

“…I’ll continue the life-sustaining measures for now.”

The magician reluctantly approached the warrior and poured a potion into his bloodied body.

“Ugh! Gyaaaah!”

The warrior thrashed like he’d been struck by lightning.

His limbs, stripped of muscle and bone, flapped like sheets of paper.

Yeah, that must hurt.

Having cold liquid poured into your opened-up body like a dissected frog.

The first interrogation was an experiment to see if we could break the Ka`har’s will through pain, and I gave it my all.

Removing his limbs was just the beginning.

I opened his abdomen, pulled out his organs, spread his ribs to expose his lungs and heart, and inserted metal needles into his exposed nerves and heart.

Even the warrior, who had been spewing curses, started screaming in agony at that point.

In any other world, he would have died right then, but unfortunately for him, this world was full of miraculous technologies surpassing modern medicine.

The magician cauterized the severed blood vessels and used magic to collect the spilled blood, transfusing it back into him.

It was a makeshift transfusion, but with the potions added, it was enough to prevent him from bleeding out.

And the priest sent by Ludwig kept him alive with healing miracles.

What a terrifying world, where you can survive something like this.

Thanks to that, I can proceed to the “next stage” without any issues.

—

[You’re like a savage from the West, how can you do this to a person…]

‘Well, I don’t think you’re in any position to say that.’

It sounded like criticism, but there was no hint of discomfort or rejection in the tone.

Instead, it was like the voice of a child visiting the zoo for the first time, filled with excitement and anticipation.

Yeah, it’s so fascinating it’s almost admirable.

All that talk about it being horrifying is just to tease me.

—

“Gyaaaaaah!”

A scream that could only come from the depths of hell shook the underground prison.

The Ka`har warrior must have thought the pain wouldn’t get worse after the needles were inserted into his nerves, but that was just the beginning.

Why do you think I specifically prepared “metal” needles?

“One more time. Increase the power by 20%.”

“Y-yes!”

The magician nodded and gathered mana at his fingertips.

“párvŭlusfulgor (small lightning).”

-Zap!

A low incantation turned mana into lightning.

The power itself was close to static electricity, but that was enough to inflict terrible pain on him.

“Haa…”

The magician sighed and extended his sparking right hand toward the Ka`har warrior.

More precisely, toward the metal needles embedded in the warrior’s nerves.

Electricity flows through metal.

Magic wasn’t much different.

The magical lightning coursed through the warrior’s nerves.

“Guh! Gyaaah! Ooooh!”

The warrior, eyes rolling back, thrashed like a fish out of water, tears and snot streaming down his face.

His upper body convulsed madly.

His dilated pupils contracted and expanded repeatedly, wandering aimlessly.

Bloody urine leaked from his crushed groin.

His bladder, pulled out of his abdomen, twitched like a deflated balloon.

“This isn’t what I learned magic for…”

[It’s so ingenious it’s almost chilling. Are you sure you’re not a witch instead of a soldier?]

“By Shaulites…”

The magician shuddered, Hersela let out a hollow laugh, and the priest muttered a prayer with shining eyes.

“…But you can heal him back, right?”

I asked the priest, who was reciting prayers.

It would be problematic if he died before we got enough information.

Normally, I wouldn’t have gone this far, but this time, I trusted the potions and healing miracles to completely wreck him.

“No problem. It’ll take time for a full recovery, but restoring him to a state where he can survive isn’t difficult.”

That’s a relief.

“By the way, if it’s not too much trouble, could I share this interrogation method with the brothers at the Inquisition? They’d be delighted.”

The priest smiled as he looked at the Ka`har warrior with a fascinated gaze.

It’s not my place to say, given what I did to him, but it was a rather unsettling expression.

“The Inquisition would be delighted? Didn’t you guys choose brainwashing over torture for ‘humane’ reasons or something?”

“There’s no reason to treat heretics humanely.”

…Not wrong, I guess.

—

“Gyaaaaah! Please! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything, just stop!”

The electric current flowing through his nerves completely shattered the warrior’s will.

He squeezed out his last bit of strength to express his willingness to cooperate before collapsing.

He wasn’t unconscious, just completely drained of both physical and mental energy.

“There, there. If only you’d been this cooperative from the start. You couldn’t even last three hours.”

I, along with the priest, gave him some basic treatment.

Well, “treatment” as in putting his organs back inside and sewing up his wide-open chest.

“Huff, huff…”

Every time the warrior exhaled a thin breath, the thin wires sticking out of his body swayed.

He looked like he had metal hair growing all over his body.

Even after the suturing, the wires piercing his skin and connecting to the metal needles in his nerves remained, allowing external electrical stimulation.

—

After a break long enough to smoke two cigarettes, I began a proper Q&A session with the now somewhat recovered warrior.

His attitude was impressively cooperative.

The warrior, who had once directed infinite hatred toward Westerners and traitors, had been completely erased by the electric shocks, leaving behind nothing but an automatic response machine ready to sell out his homeland.

Every time the magician sparked his fingertips, the prisoner convulsed like an epileptic and spilled all kinds of information.

Guess he decided spitting out information was better than spitting out bloody foam.

“O-Or-han’s main force is still in the Maroon Plains. Targien, sir…”

“Targien ‘sir’? Our friend here still has some Ka`har in him, huh? You still think Targien is your superior?”

I smirked as I extinguished my cigarette on the warrior’s earlobe.

I was going to do it on his eyelid, but it’d be a hassle if he fainted.

“Gyaaaaah! Targien, that incompetent fool! He couldn’t find Amin even after reducing Dahamei to that state! But that sly bastard Shahalan found Amin! He was a complete wreck!”

“A wreck, huh? That’s not quite right. That bastard was born a wreck. Right?”

The warrior nodded frantically.

So frantically that the cigarette butt I’d stuffed in his ear almost fell out.

“To think someone of Ai-shan Gi-or’s bloodline could be so incompetent, it’s hard to believe. Did Dahamei really sleep with a dog or something?”

“That’s right! Amin was always like that! Dahamei must have been a bitch who slept with a dog!”

He was passionately insulting his superiors. Lovely.

I smirked and looked affectionately at the warrior, who had become an enthusiastic traitor.

It took a full two hours, but the result was extremely satisfying.

Even the Holy Kingdom’s truth-telling machine, created through brainwashing, couldn’t match this level of performance.

The truth-telling machine only gives clumsy answers to what’s asked.

But this guy now went beyond answering questions sincerely—he was spouting information I hadn’t even asked for.

You could call him a truth-spewing machine.

It was proof that violence reigns over holy power.