Towering Knowledge, part 5 by Vanessa S. Quest
AN: Haha, I'll take this time to say this has just been modified to --M-- thanks to this chapter, I think it would count as such at least. This is, well, not heading down the merry little road of bubbles and cupcakes. Without giving too much away, Yozak's earlier thoughts give too much away. Read on if you dare, I hope you like it, and if you disagree with the new rating, please remember that it is better safe than kicked off the server! Please R & R!
Conrad waited until very early in the morning before leaving Yuuri's side. He straightened himself up, fixing the buttons on his uniform shirt. He would normally have changed into another uniform but he knew his chore was about to be messy and he'd rather not expand his collection of laundry for the maids to tend to.
He tapped on Yozak's shoulder as he passed him in the hallway, three strides from his bedroom door. "Yozak, please guard his majesty in my absence." His eyes were darkening in such a way that Yozak knew exactly where that absence would be keeping him.
"Ah, I should say that his highness doesn't like to kill people, and if that sorcerer were to die he'd probably think it was his fault."
Conrad smiled softly at the thought of Yuuri, but his eyes seemed more nostalgic than warmed, the darkness was still burning in the back after all. His face became serious once more, "Oh, you think I would kill a man just by interrogating him?"
Yozak swallowed, "In that mood? On second thought, I'm sure his majesty Yuuri would see it as a mercy-killing."
Conrad quirked and relaxed his brow once at Yozak almost as if he was willing to contemplate on the idea, of course, the joke did make him less likely to break the man's femur. Well, maybe not BOTH of them, at any rate he had to get to the holding cell before Yuuri would think of what a great idea it would be to get the words straight from the horse's mouth.
The sorcerer seemed to be acting like he was hung-over. Conrad walked up to the outside of the door, two guards flanking him as he entered. The guards remaining on the other side of the door locked it.
Conrad drew a chair from behind the table, turning the back of the chair to be closest to the table, he straddled the chair, leaning forward. First he'd play nice-guy. Everyone seemed to buy that impersonation.
"Name and rank?" Conrad said, he acted in the sympathetic I know you won't give me more, but I still have to start the paperwork tone.
He wondered if the assassin remembered who he was, not as though that mattered.
"You already have it on file from my earlier visit." The man growled.
"Ah, force of habit. You don't seem to be feeling too well." Conrad smiled softly.
"Well, with the king of demons still alive, and in his jail no less…" He made a gesture in the air. Brown eyes turned a bit more fierce, though he knew how the game was played, as did his guest, it seemed.
"Ah, well, I can't help cure you of that affliction. Have you eaten yet?"
The man held his hand over his mouth, not looking too happy to have food mentioned to him.
"Oh, I see, so you're not hungry. Water then?" The man shook his hand dismissing the offer, his color recovering.
"I don't need to piss or shit either, so why don't you ask me what you really want to know."
"Oh? What do you think I really came here to ask?" Conrad laughed, scratching the back of his head. "After all, the blanks are already fairly filled in. Unless you wanted to add in more or confess, though that is rather pointless, as you can tell we have plenty of witnesses."
"Ha! You really think that's everything?" The man smirked, thinking how stupid this was, this guy was trying to mess with him, wasn't he? He cracked his neck side to side. "No one asked me why I wanted his head."
"Oh, I see, we had thought you had just wanted to kill him, but a keepsake! I don't see the practicality of it."
"Ha! Like I'd keep something as unlucky as a double black! I'd as soon chop off my hand if it touched that cursed thing, but you know how some people are with their strange requests, proofs and all."
"Hmm, it doesn't say you're married here, your girlfriend must be pregnant."
"What?! No! I'd never keep something like that near me! I just said that! No, I should say that some merchants just sell weird things." With that he smiled. "Interested in a story?"
Conrad shook his head, "Not particularly, but if you're just trying to keep yourself entertained…" Conrad's eyes darkened visibly and caught the man's eyes, then hand. "You said you'd cut off the hand, huh? Well, we can hardly give you any such weapon. Shall I help?"
The man's eyes went wide as Conrad looked back at him, pleasantly again. "W-What?!"
"I said did you require our help in cutting off your—"
"Absolutely NOT!" The man held his arm protectively.
"Oh, but with your story… I'd have sworn you were asking me to…" He took out a dagger and twirled the blade under his fingernail, cleaning out the imaginary dirt underneath.
"Ah…ah… there is no merchant! It was just a story! You want the truth? Why should I just give it away for free!"
"Hmm, I suppose you're right." Conrad looked at his hand and nails as if he had just completely his manicure. He stabbed the knife deeply into the table, "How about this, you know this is the castle of the maoh, so, theoretically you know about demons, right?" Conrad pretended to witness a nod, "Right. So, as I'm sure you can imagine, demons love flesh, they can't get enough of it, so… you see, we have all of your information, we know you're guilty… frankly, we already have your punishment in mind." Conrad closed his eyes as if he was saying something so matter-of-fact as the daily weather report.
"We were going to execute you, feeding you to the demon-foundlings, their eyes glow such an adorable red when they crunch on bones…" Conrad made loving eyes as he imagined it, as that was exactly what he was doing.
"But you see, what fun is it to do it all at once, right? It's hardly fresh… so we chop people up while they're alive, transport the parts to the nursery… yada-yada, you can fill in the rest. It gets boring telling it to people again and again, you're smart enough to realize where that's going. Anyhow, we can… push back each 'delivery' if you tell us the true answer to a question or provide us with some good information. We feed the little darlings on a twenty-minute cycle, they grow up so fast you know, but, they do have a nap-time at midday, and go to bed by sunset."
Conrad nodded, "Meaning some people get to stay alive for DAYS! Isn't that wonderful for them? They get to even try to pray for forgiveness… Oh, right, it's almost time for their first meal, I see the sun rising." His smile beamed as if he was convinced that it was absolutely the best luck ever.
The guard looked a bit blanched, the Captain was in top form today!
As if it were timed, Elle, across the castle ground's wailing informed her parents, and most of the light sleepers of the kingdom, that it was, in fact dawn. "Oh, well, she seems hungry." Conrad took the knife and was about to bring it down on the man.
"WAIT! Wait, what's the rush?" He smiled, dripping in fear, "And what happens when you find out everything you need, anyway?"
"Oh, I didn't think about that. Well, maybe they'll revisit your case and revise the punishment. If the maoh is pleased, he tends to be very forgiving." He took the knife back up, "Oh, are you left or right handed?"
"Ah… ahh… ah, is that the first question you want me to answer? The truth is I'm a righty."
"Ha, what relevance is that? Okay, left pinky it is." Conrad grabbed his hand and put it on the table.
"WHAT ABOUT GOOD FAITH! Ask first! Ask first! I'll tell!"
Conrad seemed to wonder why the man was frantic, what, it was only a pinky, he had nine other perfectly fine fingers, really. "Well…" Conrad sighed, lowering the knife, "if you insist, but do keep in mind we do have a schedule to follow!" His voice was stern, but again that of Mr. Nice Guy.
"Which assassins' syndicate are you affiliated with?"
"Th-th-the Venomous Mages."
"I've never heard of them." Conrad said, with a doubtful look, eying his dagger, "You know, I'm putting myself out there for you… and if you're just going to—"
"No! Really! That's my Guild! My crest, my crest is in my magic sack, it's inside the stuffed squirrel's mouth, under the tongue!"
One of the guards eyed it, "Captain… should we?"
"Go ahead, if he's trying to trick us, I'll just make sure the maids have enough to make a puree with two of his fingers."
"Yes, yes! I swear it's in there, it's not a trap!"
The guard pulled it out, unrolling a small scroll it showed the actual crest of a guild. "Hunh, new ones just keep cropping up…"
The man smiled, relieved, "We're hardly new."
Conrad smiled at him as if that was irrelevant. He couldn't believe how easy this was going for him. Of course he knew about that guild, it did confirm that the fool would roll, though. Hell, if the sorcerer just screwed up slightly, he'd still get to rip off some fingernails; maybe even get to carve into him. After all, he had stabbed Yuuri. STABBED him. His Yuuri, his majesty, his world… the man seemed to have realized something.
"Oh, yes, they will be wondering why we haven't sent anything down yet. Pardon me for just one moment!" He said pleasantly, he walked to the door and whispered to the guard on the other side to inform Yozak that it seemed he'd need to keep an eye on Yuuri, and definitely keep him away from this area.
He returned to sit down, looking pleasant. "It seems they are disappointed, they do work so quickly. It appears that they will be expecting something, if you don't hurry and keep talking," he shook his head displeased, "I might not be able to get his majesty to rescind."
"What do you want to know?!"
Conrad seemed taken aback, "Are you sure you need that pinky?" The man's eyes widened in horror, "Alright, alright, who hired you to kill his majesty?"
"You know of Svelera…? Within the nation, a small cluster of city-states have banded together. The mayors of each town paid handsomely for us to murder the maoh who destroyed their country's mining, the one industry they had left!"
Conrad slumped back, not shocked, but he did have the guard note it down, "Did they only go to your guild? Or are you on a bid?" Conrad asked as if he was pondering the actual move.
"No, it was not a bid. They had tried to hire two other guilds, no one else would have the man-power or skills. If your next question is am I the only trained assassin, though," The man smiled sadly, "Not even close. Those ground soldiers were grunts and footholds, but they are neither trained like the assassin class nor the sorcerer class. Actually, if anything, three of my four colleagues are probably glad I've weakened that damnable monster so much. Oh, heh…" He looked outside at the midday sun, "The maids haven't come for a little while now. I think the foundlings are having nap time, that means I get to eat, doesn't it?"
Conrad bowed his head, "Of course. The maids may have leftovers from what they've been supplementing."
"Oh? And that is?"
Conrad smiled with a warning, "The two soldiers from the other room. Though I doubt there are leftovers, we usually go through 18 prisoners a day, so far we only have 16 that have been sentenced. As you said, in his weakened state…" He rolled his wrist, "What can I say? He's a hands-on sort of guy."
The prisoner looked very uncomfortable. "Shall I see though? After all, they make wonderful soups."
"N-No, I'm not hungry."
"Oh, but I'm sure they've even made lady's fingers… oh, sorry, no not yet." Conrad eyed his hands, "Are you sure you don't…"
"I HAVE MORE INFORMATION!" Conrad turned his ear to him. The man sighed.
"Why don't you tell me the tricks of your trade, you seem to know an awful lot about his majesty's weaknesses."
"That? You see, we often traded with Svelera, mages using their powerful stones and all, we create powerful spells, we sell some, others we buy and trade. They told us all the information they had gathered, including from the incident in their borders, the gambling town-- that's when they found out he could die from using up his magical energy. That's probably what they're up to right now, you know."
He looked out the window, just a little more, just another few hours.
"Oh, what do you mean by that?" Conrad eyed the knife, getting quite frazzled internally. He was starting to have a bad feeling.
"Planning, after all, the maoh form only shows up when a lot of people are in danger, right? So I attacked the castle, they'll attack some villages, or a bridge, maybe just attack the castle again. Who knows…?"
Conrad smiled, "Are you saying you do not?"
The man nodded, "Yeah. I am."
Conrad sighed, "Ah, well then, if that's the case." His voice that of a defeatist, until he lifted the knife, "We did say with lies…"
The man's eyes went wide as Conrad peeled back four nails from the nail beds. "They already had soup, lady-fingers would do no good. I suppose croutons in a salad though… Guard, give these to the men outside, they'll know to give it to the maids when they get here."
"AHHHH!" The man grasped his hand, he continued to scream.
"Please do calm down, I am trying to preserve you, after all, you're being so helpful… and you do seem so attached to that left finger…"
The man kept clutching his wrist trying to reel in his own breathing. He had forgotten the threat at hand. These demons!
"Shall we try that question again? Hmm, your hand seems so sore, I suppose I'll give it a break. So your toes next." Conrad smiled pleasantly as he instructed the guard to remove the prisoner's shoes.
The man screeched, pulling his leg away. "I'll tell you! I'll tell you! They're staying in the village three kilometers to the North following the wooded trail, the one that passes a lake."
"Are you sure ALL of your coworkers are?" He spun the blade threateningly on his finger like he'd seen basketball players on Earth do with those strange orange basketballs.
"N… No, only two. The other assassin is near that sickening shrine you keep to your demon-master, and the other sorcerer… well…"
"Well?" Conrad was approaching the man's toes.
"I know your stories about foundlings were lies! We've been through here many times, and you never even noticed! I can't believe you actually peeled my nails off!"
Conrad sighed, "Oh, then, if the charade is off." His face darkened. "Where is the other sorcerer?"
"Ahaha! By now? By now with you, his private guard and personal knight, being so far away for so long?" He looked out the window at the near-setting sun, "About to kill the maoh right on these grounds. I do wonder how it'll be done. When he's distracted like an assassin, or maybe with magic… suck the life right out of him…!"
"Really?" Conrad smiled, and then chopped off three toes. "We'll see about that."
"Guard," Conrad signaled for the door to be opened. "I am sending you reinforcements, if he tries to escape—move from that chair—blinks, use as much force as you have to in order to subdue him. Oh! I should mention, your toys were destroyed last night, it seems his majesty is quite good at wrecking those sort of stones as Svelera can attest."
For good measures, Conrad stabbed the man's left hand then took back his knife. "By the way, only left-handed people pull a chair out that way."
He exited and began to move through the grounds, he knew where Yozak was likely to take Yuuri.
--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest