Ch.159EP.39 – Two Men Go All the Way (2)

Sometimes in crime movies or dramas, there’s this thing they do.

They create a somewhat dim atmosphere, filming scenes in places that make an already dreary mood even more depressing.

Typically construction sites, docks, empty lots, dark mountain workshops, or abandoned buildings.

Just gloomy and unsettling places everywhere, making me think they’re deliberately choosing locations that depress even the viewers.

Well, I understand.

The subject is crime, so they can’t film in bright places.

Crime isn’t something you can do proudly in public anyway.

But…

‘If you’re proud of it, doesn’t that mean it’s not a crime?’

If you’re proud of yourself and can face the sky without shame even if your actions are exposed to others, then it’s not a crime.

So…

“I guess you can just be out in the open, proudly, without needing to hide anywhere.”

“……”

“Isn’t that right?”

“……”

“This guy won’t even answer.”

Ihan criticized him, saying that as expected of a spellcaster, his personality was twisted.

An adult was asking, yet he wouldn’t even answer.

“I heard the cake here is delicious?”

“The world has really improved. Who would have thought there’d be cafés for commoners?”

“I heard rumors that the owner is a black-haired young nobleman, could it be…?”

“No way! It couldn’t possibly be him, could it? Hoho!”

A dessert café.

One of the trendy cafés in the royal city recently, famous for selling desserts and coffee at affordable prices that even commoners could freely enjoy.

Most customers were women, but seeing the occasional male customer made it clear that the temptation of sweetness knows no gender.

Which meant there was nothing strange about a large knight sitting here.

“Sir, would you like to order?”

“I’ll have a fruit crepe cake and a milk tea, please.”

“And for the gentleman sitting across from you-?”

“Just a coffee. Oh, and this person likes ice in his coffee, so please add plenty of ice.”

“Ah, I see…”

The female server, who momentarily gave a cold look to the blond man sitting across from Ihan, muttered to herself, “Handsome face, but terrible taste.”

As if wondering how someone could be so uncultured as to put ice in coffee.

“!?!!”

But the blond man felt wronged.

He had no such habit of putting ice in coffee.

Yet why did he have to suffer this misunderstanding without being able to correct it? The blond man, Huey de Beyron, was beating his chest in deep frustration.

But unfortunately.

“Mmph…”

The man couldn’t open his mouth.

He couldn’t move a finger, and rolling his eyes was all he could do.

Huey had lost his freedom of movement.

…Unintentionally.

He looked at the knight who had taken away his bodily freedom with resentful eyes.

But the knight.

“Oh, this cake has quite a lot of fruit in it? Not bad, this place.”

He was simply delighted to have found a nice café worthy of becoming a regular.

* * *

It had been a full 17 hours since Huey de Beyron was kidnapped.

Being a distinguished guest of the kingdom, countless troops would have been dispatched to find him, and mages from the Tower would also be frantically tracking him.

Yet it was quite strange that he remained captured even after 17 hours had passed.

Moreover.

Slurp.

“Haven’t had this in a while. Coffee is really best iced.”

“……”

“What? Want some?”

“……”

“Why aren’t you talking, you?”

“!?!”

It seemed like the ultimate twist that no one could find him despite being so brazenly out in a café.

Perhaps knowing this?

“How is it that you’re still alive when not a single one of your colleagues has moved to rescue you? Honestly, I expected to run into a spellcaster or two, but they’re all resting in the royal palace, I hear. Well, spellcasters are typically that kind of people, so it’s not surprising.”

“…mmph!”

Ihan taunted, and the blond mage bristled.

But the fact that he couldn’t refute Ihan’s mockery seemed to shame him, as his face turned bright red.

He seemed more embarrassed by the revelation that his prestigious title as the Tower’s top disciple was actually worthless, rather than being ridiculed as a spellcaster.

But to Ihan, this wasn’t particularly surprising.

From the moment he heard about the Tower, the gathering of spellcasters, he was convinced they had no camaraderie.

‘How many spellcasters have I caught?’

Back when Ihan was working as a “spellcaster hunter,” he occasionally saw them moving in groups, but he had never seen creatures with such poor teamwork.

Extreme selfishness.

Mages were a race of social misfits who only cared about their research and interests.

‘They’re like college group project teammates.’

And all trolls at that.

In that sense, it was already expected that kidnapping this guy wouldn’t cause much trouble, and all he needed to do was avoid soldiers, which gave him the leisure to sit openly in a café like this.

…Though his boldness also came from feeling he’d committed no crime by kidnapping a blond spellcaster.

Anyway.

“From what I can see, there shouldn’t be any problem walking around proudly for two days or even a week? It’s not just that the soldiers are incompetent, the guild guys are helping a bit. If I wanted to, I could make you disappear forever. So, can you finally answer my question now?”

“……”

“Greg Bin. Where is that bastard? You know, don’t you, blondie?”

“!”

“By the way, if you don’t talk today, I’m afraid I’ll have to use some extreme measures? So please, be a good boy and end this while I’m asking nicely.”

Crunch..!

“Right, what conversation can I have with a spellcaster? I was being stupid.”

Ihan grumbled.

Saying that conversations should be had with people, not with spell-using creatures.

However…

“Mmph!”

‘You crazy bastard, you have to let me speak if you want me to say anything!!!’

Huey, whose mouth had been sealed for a full 17 hours, felt incredibly wronged.

Please let me speak-!

…He felt like he was going insane.

Currently, Ihan’s acupressure points were embedded in Huey de Beyron’s body.

In terms of technique, it might be similar to [pressure point striking]?

It was a state where he couldn’t properly use hand gestures, foot movements, or even mouth muscles, and for Ihan, this was a necessary measure.

After all, for magic users, their tongues and hand movements are like weapons.

Allowing him to open his mouth would give him an opportunity to attack, and Ihan couldn’t permit the guy to speak.

So the inability to converse was something he had to accept.

However.

“I told you that you can blink your eyes or give some kind of signal, but you keep trying to speak with your mouth? Why can’t you understand?”

“…mmph!”

“This guy, just full of pride.”

Ihan knew the man wasn’t cooperating simply because his mouth wouldn’t open.

That was just defiance.

It could be due to pride. Or perhaps this guy was particularly bad at assessing situations.

…One might ask why not just torture him, but.

‘Spellcasters mix 50% truth, 30% lies, and 20% fiction in their words.’

The man who had hunted more mages than anyone knew.

Torture wasn’t particularly effective on spell users.

You could inflict pain, but you couldn’t trust what they said.

Therefore, he needed to make him speak of his own volition.

Otherwise, he couldn’t hear the truth.

…However.

‘Time keeps passing.’

Precious time was slipping away, so he couldn’t continue this war of attrition indefinitely.

He could directly attack the Sultan to find the illegal mage, but if the illegal mage went into hiding as a result, that would be another headache.

Hence, he needed this guy’s cooperation.

This guy definitely…

‘Must know.’

Ihan was certain that blondie knew about the existence of the illegal mage.

It wasn’t just relying on intuition; he was probably the knight who had hunted mages most diligently in the past 100 years, so it was a judgment based on experience and knowledge.

So.

‘…No choice.’

Though it might be a bit tiring, he decided to use a more definitive method to get answers from the guy.

Directly from blondie’s ‘body.’

“You’re probably thinking, ‘Why did this crazy guy suddenly kidnap me and start looking for an illegal mage?'”

“!”

“And you’re also thinking, ‘Even if he’s looking for an illegal mage, he should politely ask for cooperation, why is he doing it this way?'”

“…???”

“I see I’m correct.”

The guy looked dumbfounded.

The expression of ‘If you understand so well, why are you treating me like this?’ was clear on his face.

“Yet why am I treating you so badly? To explain that reason, we need to go back about 2 years, to a spellcaster I caught named Christine. He was a notorious illegal mage known for human experimentation.”

“!!”

Huey was shocked.

Christine, the master of lightning magic.

That name was famous even in the Tower.

Once upon a time…

“-He told me himself that he was affiliated with the Tower.”

“──.”

“And then I heard an interesting story. ‘Mages who were once affiliated with the Tower have all their activities reported to the Tower, even if they’re expelled from it,’ -was it?”

“……”

“…I see, so what that bastard said was true.”

“!!”

…Suddenly, Huey de Beyron felt a chill.

Despite not saying a word, that ill-mannered knight seemed to be having a conversation with him.

‘…How?’

An incomprehensible situation.

The mage trembled before the ‘unknown terror.’

‘Ugh, this is giving me a headache.’

But unlike his opponent who was trembling in fear, what Ihan was doing wasn’t such a difficult feat.

After all.

‘It’s tough trying to read heart rate and muscle contractions all at once.’

He was simply imitating a [lie detector].

…Though it was a skill only he could perform.