Ch.57Stone Golem – 6

I dragged Gloria by the neck into the room and roughly tossed her onto the bed. Sprawled face-down on the mattress, she clutched her throat, coughing and gasping for breath.

‘Looks like she came here with a clear purpose.’

I hadn’t been mistaken. She wore absolutely nothing beneath her translucent negligee. The fabric was even thinner than it had appeared from outside, making her practically naked.

I locked the door and cast a soundproofing spell to block any noise. It seemed that the detection barrier didn’t pick up on privacy spells like this one—perhaps out of respect for personal boundaries.

When I turned around, Gloria was glaring at me, her hand still gripping her bright red neck as the pain began to subside.

“What are you… *cough*… planning to do with me?”

I still couldn’t get used to seeing Priscilla’s vicious face. Except for those rare moments when she turned savage, Priscilla had always been so gentle that I worried about her.

“You said you’d scream rape if I didn’t accept your advances. If I’m going to be falsely accused anyway, wouldn’t it be less unfair to actually commit the crime before being reported?”

“…You’re insane.”

“No more than you.”

We had already started speaking informally to each other. Well, more precisely, I had lost any reason to show her respect, while she was simply revealing her true colors.

“…Fine. So you’re a man after all, is that it? Since it’s come to this, go ahead and do whatever you want.”

As I approached, her face, which had been filled with confusion and anger, gradually shifted to one of composure. Gloria spread her legs provocatively, as if challenging me to try, and looked up at me.

“If you satisfy me, I’ll forget this ever happened. So you’d better put in your best effort. Who knows? If I like it, I might call for you again.”

Even in this situation, she was trying to take control—truly living up to her vicious appearance. Or perhaps she was just extremely rational and calculating, even in extreme circumstances.

“I play along a little, and you think you can actually wrap me around your finger.”

“…”

But when I showed no change in expression, her composed look instantly hardened.

I never intended to go along with her words. My comment about it being less unfair to actually commit the crime was just to see how she would react.

“W-what are you going to do?”

I approached her and gripped her left index finger. Gloria looked up at me with an anxious expression.

“You’ll see.”

“AAAAAHHHHH!”

I snapped her finger. With a cracking sound—slightly quieter than what I’d heard from the Duke’s hand—the finger joint shattered and bent backward. Her fingernail touched the back of her hand.

When I released her hand, Gloria clutched her broken, dangling finger and gritted her teeth.

“Ugh… y-you crazy bastard…”

“No matter how crazy I am, I’m not as bad as you. Why do you keep making me repeat myself, just like in the hallway?”

“D-do you think you’ll get away with this…? Besides your family’s wealth, you’re nothing special. Do you really think you can harm the daughter of a Duke and escape unscathed…? Just wait, as soon as I leave here, I’ll tell my father everything…! He’ll have you skinned alive and hanged…!”

She was right.

No matter how wealthy the Crate family might be, we hadn’t truly stepped into the realm of power. If a Duke’s family decided to come after us with the justification that their daughter had been assaulted, we would be destroyed in an instant.

“Assault? What did I do? You came to seduce me in the middle of the night wearing only a see-through negligee, so I let you into my room and tossed you onto the bed?”

“Are you pretending not to know?! You just broke my finger…!”

Gloria instinctively pointed at me, then froze in shock when she realized she was using her left index finger—the very one that had just been broken. Her amber eyes widened in disbelief.

“I’m asking you a question. What did I do? Can’t you answer?”

“This… this is impossible… What! What is this? What did you do to me?!”

“I wonder. What could it be? Why don’t you use that brilliant mind of yours to figure it out?”

What I had just used was, of course, a healing spell. It was such a low-level spell that its characteristic green light was extremely faint, and she had been too busy clutching her finger and confronting me to notice what was happening below.

“Was it an illusion or hallucination spell? No, that can’t be. Any illusion or hallucination spell that causes actual pain would have triggered the detection barrier… Then what was it?”

Gloria chewed on her fingernail, deep in thought. I grabbed her left index finger again.

“You don’t seem to be figuring it out. Let me help you.”

“W-wait! Just wai—AAAGH!”

Once again, her left index finger bent back to touch the back of her hand. Perhaps due to the sweat seeping through her skin, the translucent negligee was gradually clinging to her body, revealing the contours beneath.

It was quite an erotic sight, but neither of us was paying attention to that fact.

“Watch carefully. Don’t miss it because you’re too busy fighting back.”

This time I used a slightly higher-tier healing spell. Gloria’s expression turned to utter disbelief as she watched her finger, enveloped in green light, instantly return to normal.

“What… what is that… That’s not holy power… Holy power is definitely white… How…”

“Right, it’s not holy power. What do you think it is? Here’s a hint: it’s not an illusion or hallucination. Your finger was actually broken and actually healed. Surely you can figure it out now?”

After pondering for a moment, Gloria’s eyes widened rapidly.

“…Healing magic?”

“Correct.”

“That’s impossible! Such a thing can’t exist! If healing magic existed, it would have been known long ago!”

“You really don’t trust what I say. Should I show you again? Will you believe me then?”

As I reached for her left index finger again, Gloria frantically shook her head. She clearly didn’t want her finger broken again.

I released her hand. Gloria scrambled across the bed, trying to get away from me. But even at the far edge, she was still only a king-sized bed’s distance away.

“Very few people know about this. Two at most. But why do you think I showed you something so valuable?”

“…How would I know?”

“Because I have no intention of letting you leave with your sanity intact. I can do whatever I want to you, and as long as you’re still alive, I can erase all evidence. I’ll make you forget everything that happened here, and about the healing magic.”

Gloria’s face turned pale as she finally grasped her situation. She acted quickly, attempting a desperate escape as soon as she understood her predicament.

Of course, it was only “desperate” from her perspective; in reality, it was just a woman clumsily trying to run away.

She wasn’t even using physical enhancement or any other magic, making her painfully slow. Whether she couldn’t use magic or chose not to, I wasn’t sure, but there was no way I would let her escape.

—CRACK!

“KYAAAAH!”

I stomped on her ankle from the side, crushing it.

Gloria tumbled to the floor, clutching her twisted ankle and trembling violently. The fact that she still wasn’t crying showed how tough she was. She lived up to her fierce appearance.

“I’m pretty sure I told you not to make unnecessary moves. Why do you keep making me repeat myself?”

This was a method I often used when dealing with demon prisoners became troublesome. Once you break their ankles, escape on their own becomes virtually impossible.

Toward the end of the war, when there was no longer any reason to keep demons alive or captive, I just killed them indiscriminately.

I picked up the trembling Gloria from the floor and placed her on the sofa. I didn’t heal her ankle, of course. I briefly considered making her symmetrical by breaking the other ankle too, but decided against it.

Gloria, slumped on the sofa, completely changed her attitude and began to plead.

“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Won’t you please let me go? I promise I won’t say a word about what happened today. I’ll keep my mouth shut. Okay?”

“I already told you I have no intention of letting you leave normally. You might act sorry here, but once I let you go, you’ll change your mind right away, won’t you?”

I’ve seen her type countless times before. People with no pride who can flip their attitude as easily as changing clothes. Showing mercy to this type only leads to trouble.

“Absolutely not—”

I gripped her left index finger again. Gloria stopped mid-excuse and shut her mouth.

“Don’t worry. As long as you answer properly, you won’t get hurt. Why would I harm you if you cooperate?”

I deliberately didn’t mention that I would still erase her memories before letting her go. There was no benefit in telling her that.

“…Alright. Ask me anything. I’ll tell you everything I know. Whether it’s secrets of House Agnes or other nobles. I’ll answer everything within my knowledge.”

I released her finger. Gloria sighed in relief, then winced as the pain in her ankle finally registered. I cast a healing spell on her twisted ankle, and it instantly returned to normal.

It’s not good to be too harsh. You need to give a little hope occasionally for better cooperation.

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

“Yes… I’m sure there is. What is it?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t remember what I was curious about.”

“…What?”

“So you’ll have to tell me everything you know until I remember what it was.”

That was a lie. I didn’t have any specific information I wanted. I just thought I’d extract as much as possible since the opportunity had presented itself.

She’d been dealing with a succubus since well before Priscilla’s regression point at age 15, so I didn’t need to be too careful with her.

If she had been dealing with demons before my possession, then my presence wouldn’t have prevented her from starting such dealings in the first place.

And it goes without saying that these “dealings” were nothing good.

“…Are you insane? You want to drain me to the bone? Is this what comes from being born into that kind of family? I thought you were just a handsome young nobleman, but you’re actually a complete bandit?”

She wasn’t giving in easily. Having somewhat caught on to my intentions, her face turned vicious again.

It was remarkable that she could make such an expression after having her ankle shattered moments ago. This woman was truly extraordinary in many ways, from her guts to insulting my family.

“You don’t want to?”

Of course, I had plenty of methods to make her talk.

Gloria’s misdeeds had barely changed from the original story. In other words, she was still dealing with a succubus. And she had been doing so since she was 17.

That meant Gloria had been colluding with demons for nearly 8 years now. She started when Priscilla was 11, so it wasn’t something we possessors could have influenced.

‘That many nobles have already been enthralled?’

As a bonus, I gained even more valuable information than I had expected. A significant number of nobles had been enthralled by succubi, and as I suspected, the Starlight Order had been corrupted.

‘And there’s not a single piece of evidence to support it…’

Gloria confidently stated that there would be no trace of succubi entering either her body or anywhere in the Empire.

Moreover, those enthralled by the pheromones would coordinate among themselves to create fabricated alibis and evidence. They would never testify against the succubi.

‘Perhaps she really is the Queen.’

From what she said, at least 20% of the Empire’s nobility had fallen to the succubi, yet not a single piece of evidence remained despite enthralling so many nobles. As expected of a Legion Commander.

“Then I’ll see you next time.”

“Yes. I look forward to meeting you again someday.”

The next morning, the Duke and I shook hands as we parted ways. Unlike last time, it was a genuine handshake, not a disguised test of strength.

The Duke offered to let me stay longer and leave in the evening, but I politely declined. After saying goodbye to the Duchess as well, I turned to Gloria.

“Miss Gloria. I hope we meet again someday.”

“Ah, y-yes…”

Gloria, with a terrified expression, gently held the hem of her dress and bowed her head to me. She angled her face so others couldn’t see it.

“Take care of your head. You bumped it lightly earlier—it would be terrible if it left a scar.”

I lightly tapped my forehead with my finger, and Gloria, understanding the meaning, broke into a cold sweat.

Last night, I had inscribed a spell on her that would make her entire body melt if she even thought about revealing anything about me.

Honestly, even I didn’t fully understand the magic I used. A spell that reacts to specific human thoughts—how was that even possible?

“Yes… thanks for your concern. I’ll be careful.”

Gloria forced a smile. At my request, she had tried to write down what happened that night, only to experience the sensation of her body actually melting. She would have died if I hadn’t healed her immediately.

Such a feat was impossible with holy healing.

Priscilla was smiling brightly as she looked at her sister. She had been like that ever since seeing Gloria come to me around midnight, begging for her life.

“Come visit during the break. I’m not just saying that.”

“I will.”

With those final words, we boarded the carriage. Like when it had picked us up, the carriage passed through a single dimensional gate before dropping Priscilla and me off at the academy and disappearing again.

“What are you going to do now, Mira?”

“First, I need to organize everything I heard. She revealed so much.”

I had heard too much useless information. It was a side effect of telling her to spill everything she knew, but did she really need to tell me where her erogenous zones were?

When I expressed my disbelief that she thought I would be curious about such things, she trembled in fear.

“And…”

“And?”

“I need to take exams.”

The midterms start tomorrow, after all.