Splash!
Cold water splashed across the man's face, and he instantly woke up, his eyes snapping wide open.
"Huff! Huff!"
He gasped for breath repeatedly, trying to move his body, but the moment he did, pain shot through him. His limbs were fastened tightly onto a rack.
He couldn't move at all. That was his current state.
The masked person in front of him set the basin down and leaned against the wall with folded arms.
She was still dressed the same, her entire body wrapped in a cloak, only a pair of emerald-green eyes visible, staring at him in a way that was terrifying.
He remembered clearly, it was this woman who had single-handedly taken down all his brothers with her agile and precise skills.
"You're awake? Good. Let's have a little chat."
The man glanced around, trying to find where the voice came from.
It was a dark and damp basement. Before long, by following the sound, he saw a woman sitting in a chair.
She was idly playing with her nails, while the table in front of her was covered with torture tools that could never pass inspection.
Through his blurry vision, he noticed a peculiar-looking glove on her hand, embedded with several gems, he didn't count how many.
"There's an old saying, 'a wise man submits to circumstances.'"
"Looking at all these tools, I think they'll be enough to pry open your mouth."
Cold sweat drenched his body in an instant. Panicked, he struggled desperately, trying to break free, but it was no use.
He couldn't move an inch.
"I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!" he shouted in a hurry.
Smack!
The masked woman suddenly slapped him hard across the face.
"I haven't even asked yet. What are you so eager to say?"
Liya toyed with the pliers in her hand, then laughed.
That crisp slap brought the half-conscious man fully awake, and at the same time, rage overwhelmed his senses.
"Do you even know what you're doing?!"
"Kidnapping! Torture! You... you'll all be arrested!"
"So what? When you die like a stray dog by the roadside, who's going to care who killed you?"
Liya stood up, her eyes cold. It looked like she had done this countless times before.
The man struggled even harder, thrashing about.
"Damn it! Damn it! How dare you do this, what gives you the right?!"
Liya looked at him like he was an idiot. "Because I'm rich."
"..."
That one sentence instantly silenced him.
"So what if you're rich? That doesn't mean you can..."
"My brother is Viktor. He's a noble, and a third-rank mage."
"..."
He fell completely silent.
Liya tapped the table with her iron pliers, then continued, "Since you already know you've offended the Clavennaa family, you should've been prepared for this."
"Speak. Who ordered you?"
"It was the duke! The duke told us to do it!"
He still stuck to his previous statement. To make her believe him, he even volunteered an address.
"That's our hideout! You can go there! You can check it yourself!"
"The duke gave us a huge sum to smash your family's shop today! I'm not lying, you have to believe me!"
Hearing his desperate tone, the masked subordinate leaned close to Liya and whispered, "He said the same thing earlier… could it really be the duke?"
Liya clicked her tongue dismissively. "A clumsy attempt to frame someone."
"If you hadn't said that, I might've suspected the duke a little. But since you insist on it so firmly, it only makes him less suspicious."
The man froze, just that brief instant of confusion was enough for Liya to notice.
Seeing this, she couldn't help but laugh again.
Her charming laughter gradually faded. Covering her stomach, she raised her alluring eyes and smiled slyly.
"You really believed me? I was testing you."
"But judging by your reaction, it really wasn't the duke. I knew it, no duke would resort to such crude methods."
The man opened his mouth as if to protest, but Liya waved her hand dismissively.
"Enough. Finish him, Leon."
"And don't forget to take out his organs, they can still be sold for some money. Oh, and his companions too. Wipe them all out. Leave no one alive."
Liya patted the man's face, smiling like a devil.
His body trembled violently, struggling in terror, trying to speak.
But the next moment, Liya flipped her palm, and a vial of potion appeared in her hand.
The blue liquid shimmered under the light.
"What a pity… even if I sold all your organs, your total worth wouldn't compare to a single item from my family's shop."
She smiled sweetly, waving the potion in front of his eyes.
"Of course, even something worth a thousand geo… in my eyes, it's the same as you."
"Utterly worthless."
Smash!
The next second, the vial shattered against his face.
He only felt a rush of liquid running down his numb skin.
The red and blue fluids mixed together, it was impossible to tell if it was blood or potion.
"Maniac… you're a maniac! Let me go! Please, let me go!"
His voice trembled. His eyes were wide with fear.
Under the torture of both mind and body, his face had become almost unrecognizable.
Liya looked at him and laughed again.
A beautiful smile, but one that pierced like a demon's grin.
Seeing the bloodshot terror in his eyes, she yawned and said faintly, "Finish it quickly."
"Yes."
———
A few hours later, Leon had cleaned everything up.
She quietly climbed through the window into Viktor's study. Viktor wasn't around, so Liya sat at his desk handling recent accounts.
No one else was in the room. Leon had removed her hood, revealing short light-golden hair and a pair of long, pointed ears.
Those inhuman ears alone were enough to show her race.
An elf.
"Miss, everything's been taken care of."
Liya didn't even look up, she already knew who it was and smiled faintly.
"Good work."
"It's my honor, Miss Liya."
Leon continued, "I gathered a lot of money from their bodies, and I also searched their base. Recently, they received quite a large payment, around three thousand geo."
Liya accepted the pouch Leon handed her, weighed it, and set it aside.
"Quite a sum. Seems that man wasn't lying after all."
Leon hesitated, then asked, "So… it really wasn't the duke who ordered it?"
Liya paused, then burst into laughter, closing the ledger and looking at her.
"You believed that too?"
"What?"
She chuckled softly. "Even if the duke's suspicion has lessened, that doesn't mean he's cleared."
"We've only added another suspect, but the duke's hostility toward us hasn't changed."
"Maybe someone's stirring things up behind the scenes, deliberately trying to pit the Clavennaa family against the duke, so they can reap the benefits later."
"Or maybe the duke simply doesn't like us. After all, there's no need for a royal capital to have two youngest third-rank mages."
Leon didn't understand the complex power plays between nobles. She hesitated, then asked what she truly wanted to know.
"Why didn't you continue interrogating him?"
"He wouldn't have said anything more. He didn't even know who the real mastermind was."
Liya flicked the money pouch with her finger, the coins inside jingled crisply.
"When payment is made in money, it means the person was just a disposable pawn. So all he could do was insist it was the duke."
Then Liya added, "Tell me, why do you think the duke's daughter came all the way to the eastern district? And just happened to 'run into' those thugs smashing our shop?"
"And in the end, paid an enormous sum to compensate for the damaged potion?"
Leon frowned. She'd heard that Erica had spent over ten thousand geo just to compensate them, and still found it hard to believe.
'Could anyone really be that kindhearted?'
"I don't buy her story," Liya said helplessly, spreading her hands.
"I've lived with Viktor for over ten years. I know exactly what kind of man he is."
"He may have a talent for magic, but teaching others? That's a lifetime too early. Back at the academy, he probably relied on the assistants to write his lectures while he just improvised in front."
"And Erica claims to be his student? What could Viktor possibly teach her?"
———
Meanwhile, far away in the town of Sancher, Vega sneezed.
Viktor glanced at him. 'A raven catching a cold?'
But right now, he didn't have the time to care about a sick bird.
They had arrived at a small town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. The town wasn't big, and there was only one inn.
The knights didn't really care about accommodations, they could even sleep beside their horses at a stable.
But Gwen was a woman, and also their respected Knight Commander, so the knights insisted she stay in the inn to rest properly.
Likewise, Viktor was a mage.
He also needed a comfortable place to recover his mental strength.
So the two of them came to the inn together.
They had planned to get two rooms, but...
"Are you sure this is the only room left?"
Gwen looked anxious, an expression Viktor found amusing.
It was the first time he'd seen her so flustered.
At that moment, she looked like she wanted to conjure a house out of thin air right on the spot.
The innkeeper looked helpless.
"My lady knight, how could I dare deceive you? Truly, there's only one large bedchamber left."
"Besides, judging by how you two came together, you must be a couple, right? Sharing a room shouldn't be a problem."
Gwen wanted to argue further, but Viktor spoke up first, cutting her off.
"We'll take it."
At that, Gwen's eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at him.
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