Chapter 39 : Interrogation (2)

I was left with no choice but to be shocked when I saw the people Bliss had brought with her.

There were more people than I had expected.

I had roughly anticipated around 4 or 5 people, but I never thought she’d bring 20…

Moreover, there was even a carriage waiting at the back to take them.

Is this the power of a high-ranking priest…?

And what was most surprising was this.

“Excuse me, Bliss? Why is that person here…?”

“I picked them up because they looked like they had nothing to do.”

Among the people Bliss had brought was Paladin Artorius.

“As an inquisitor and Paladin, you’ve got me doing something like this? Only someone like you, Bliss, would make me do such a thing.”

Artorius, after escorting another person onto the carriage, muttered at Bliss.

“Well, I’m a high-ranking priest too, you know? And when given a task, you should be grateful, not complain.”

Bliss shot Artorius a sharp, piercing look.

“Even so, I’m a Paladin… I have my dignity. These petty tasks, like this arrest…!”

“Did you just call it petty? Are you saying that arresting the thugs who attacked the Saint of the Church is a petty task? These aren’t just any criminals, they’re the ones who attacked the Saint!”

Bliss’ words made me nod inwardly.

That’s true.

Even though I’m a false saint, the fact that someone attacked the saint of a church is a big deal.

And if there are more of them… it’s even worse.

Bliss continued speaking.

“Also, Artorius, honestly, you’ve got nothing to do, right? I thought you were just wandering around without any purpose.”

“No, that’s not…!”

“You’d rather keep wandering around doing nothing, or quietly go to the church and interrogate these people? It’s better than just roaming around without accomplishing anything, don’t you think? We don’t have to do anything annoying, and you get something to write in your report. It’s a win-win situation, don’t you agree?”

“Well… Bliss…”

“Oh ho! If you say one more word, I’ll write in the report that you’re just wandering around doing nothing!”

Bliss cut off Artorius, who seemed about to argue, and loudly declared.

“Bliss, that’s not fair.”

“Report.”

“No matter what happens, I will make sure these people are escorted to the church! Then I’ll shake every bit of information out of them! Ah, it’s been a while since my fists will make a sound!”

Artorius clenched his fists and shouted loudly.

Looks like he’s given up on arguing…

“Fine. Let’s get to work then.”

“Understood. Alright, everyone, let’s go!”

Artorius shouted loudly to the other followers, who then began boarding the carriage.

However, unlike the others boarding the carriage, Artorius didn’t head toward the carriage himself.

“Hey, Bliss…?”

“What is it?”

“Make sure the report goes well…”

Artorius, looking around nervously, whispered like an ant crawling.

“I’ll see how things go.”

Bliss responded coldly, arms crossed.

Hmm.

Is this really how a normal Paladin and high-ranking priest behave…? 

Even though a Paladin is one of the most guarded figures against demons, it’s kind of… off.

I can’t believe she can control a Paladin like this. 

What exactly is this report Bliss keeps talking about? 

If I could write reports, I could get a lot more done.

“Alright then!”

Even though Bliss’ cold response came, Artorius seemed satisfied, nodding with a relieved expression.

“Let’s go, everyone! For justice! The Knight of Justice, Artorius, is setting off!”

With that loud cry, he mounted the carriage.

As soon as Artorius got on, the carriage started moving.

The carriage began to slowly disappear into the distance as time passed.

“If he had just quietly done what he was told, there wouldn’t be any extra comments.”

Bliss murmured, watching the carriage.

“So, how did it go with the interrogation of Ruina?”

By the time the carriage was out of sight, Bliss turned to me and asked.

I sighed and answered.

“There wasn’t much to report. They just kept saying the same thing.”

“Really? Ugh… another wasted effort. This is exhausting.”

Bliss slumped her shoulders, looking defeated.

“Oh, wait!”

Then, as if something suddenly occurred to her, she looked at me.

“Ruina, did you get any prophecies or anything?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Yeah, Naias probably wouldn’t share that sort of thing with us.”

Bliss sighed, clearly disappointed.

“Ugh, seriously! Why are those damn Enders hiding everything so tightly?”

“I know, right?”

“Seriously! They could just tell us openly! Even when we offered them money, they still wouldn’t talk… bribing them with money was a big deal, but they still wouldn’t budge!”

Now that I think about it, we did try that. After getting nowhere with the investigation, we decided to take a big risk and offer money for information.

But the Enders refused to take it. They even said that there were things they couldn’t share, even with money.

If they were devout followers, that would be understandable. But they’re not priests, so why would some merchant talk like that?

And it’s not like we offered them a small amount of money.

We offered gold coins.

Not silver, not copper… gold coins!

How could anyone turn down gold coins? That was all of my savings! All of it!

Hmm… the conclusion is that our investigation has made no progress.

Even after spending money!

Bliss looked at me seriously and asked.

“Do you think there’s anyone out there who would sell information for money?”

“Someone like an informant?”

“Yeah, people like that.”

“Hmm… isn’t it harder to find those kinds of people?”

“Definitely.”

I nodded at Bliss’ words.

Informants are hard to find by nature.

And if it’s an informant in a city you’ve never been to, even more so.

“Ahhh~ if only we could find someone to guide us. It would be great if someone like that just fell out of the sky~”

Bliss looked up at the sky, lamenting.

And then, it happened.

“Need some information?”

A voice from behind suddenly called out.

“Who’s there?!”

We immediately turned around at the unfamiliar voice.

“There’s no one here…?”

But for some reason, there was no one behind us.

“Here, here!”

The mysterious voice came again, this time from above. We looked up to see a figure.

“Finally saw me, huh!”

“A child…?”

A young child was sitting on top of the wall.

The child wore shabby clothes and had blonde hair.

I hadn’t expected there to be anyone nearby, so I couldn’t help but be shocked.

When did they start watching us? I’d made sure there was no one around during the fight.

Why hadn’t I noticed until now? As I thought about it, I realized that I hadn’t checked the wall behind me during the fight, assuming it was a dead-end.

What a mistake.

As I sank into thought, the child jumped down from the wall.

“Phew… now I can breathe.”

“You! How long have you been there?!”

Bliss pointed at the child and shouted.

“Umm… since you guys were fighting those weird guys?”

The child casually dusted off their hands and answered.

So they saw everything.

“Really?”

Hearing that, Bliss said, “Then you’ll have to come with us to the church.”

She lifted her morning star and said.

“Why?”

“Having no witnesses is better for us. 

Should I knock you out first? It’ll be a hassle if you try to run.”

“I hope you’ll cooperate willingly.”

Bliss began to approach the child while holding the Morning Star.

“It might hurt a little when you faint. But it’s okay. I’ll treat you right away, and you won’t die.”

Could she really knock him out with that? Nah… no way, right?

“It’ll just hurt a bit.”

Bliss gave a chilling smile.

It didn’t seem like “just a bit.”

After seeing that unsettling smile, the child seemed to have the same thought as me and shouted anxiously at Bliss.

“Wait! Put that down and listen! I came here to make a deal!”

“A deal?”

Bliss stopped in her tracks at the child’s desperate shout.

“Yeah! You guys need information about those Cult of the Final Days people, right? Recently, you’ve been snooping around asking about them. You must need that info, right?”

“How do you know that?”

“How could I not know when they’ve been causing such a big fuss around here? It’s not just me, probably everyone living around here knows. Two nuns asking about the Cult of the Final Days, right?”

Hearing the child’s words, I couldn’t help but be shocked.

No way, word about us had spread to the locals?

Now I understood why there had been people who seemed to recognize us. I never imagined the rumors would have spread this far.

Could this be the reason why our investigation had made no progress?

“Then how do you know about the Cult of the Final Days?”

“Me? I spend my days roaming the city, so I couldn’t possibly not know.”

The child pointed to himself in response to Bliss’s question.

“I’m from the slums. When people see me in these clothes, they ignore me. They’re such jerks. But, thanks to that, I know pretty much everything about what’s going on around here.”

“So, what information about the Cult of the Final Days can you give us?”

Bliss continued questioning.

“I know their meeting place.”

The Cult of the Final Days’ meeting place… That was definitely the information we had been searching for.

“You need this info, don’t you? I’ll tell you for just a little, a tiny bit of money. How about it?”

The child made a circle with his thumb and forefinger, grinning.

“How do you know that?”

Bliss asked with a confused look.

“Well, my parents used to go there.”

“So what about now? Do they still go?”

At Bliss’s question, the child’s face darkened slightly.

“No, they can’t go anymore. They passed away recently.”

Bliss, not having expected this response, looked somewhat flustered.

“…I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s all in the past.”

Thankfully, the child shook off the gloomy expression and returned to his cheerful demeanor.

“So, how about it? Do you want to make a deal? If not, it’s fine~”

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

Bliss looked at me, unsure of what to do, and I began thinking about what we should do next.

Should we buy this child’s information?

This child is from the slums. He also seems young, probably still not fully capable of distinguishing right from wrong.

We don’t know anything about this child. We don’t know if he’s telling the truth or lying.

But for some reason, I felt like we should buy this child’s information.

The reason I want to buy it is simple.

It just feels like the right thing to do.

Perhaps the reason I feel this way is that I, too, have lived through a similar underprivileged existence.

I’ve learned something from that experience.

And that is, surprisingly, this kind of information can often be more accurate than you’d expect.

I made my decision.

I pulled a gold coin from my back pocket and walked up to the child.

“Please guide us to the meeting place.”

“Wow! This is a gold coin?! Is this okay?!”

The child looked at me with a surprised expression as I handed him the gold coin.

“Ruina!”

I could hear Bliss’s flustered voice from the side, but I ignored it for now.

“Isn’t this too much? Well, I’ll be grateful if you’re paying me that much.”

The child chuckled as he stretched his hand toward the gold coin in my hand.

I grabbed his hand before he could take it and said,

“Hold on, I have something to say before the payment.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t tell anyone about what happened here today.”

“Huh…?”

The child looked at me with confusion as if the request didn’t make sense.

I met his gaze and said,

“The gold coin I’m about to give you is the payment for the information you’re giving us, and it’s also a bribe to keep you from talking to anyone about what happened here.”

The gold coin I was offering wasn’t just for the information about the Cult of the Final Days’ meeting place.

It was also a hush money to make sure this child wouldn’t tell anyone about what happened here.

If I were to break it down, the payment would be about 40% for the information and 60% for the hush money.

I had a reason for offering so much hush money.

And that reason is that there’s a chance this child might blab about what happened here, or there might be someone else who wants to buy him out, just like we’re doing now.

So, it’s important to give him enough to make sure he doesn’t talk.

I might also need to drop a little threat here.

“So if you take this coin and break our agreement, causing harm to us, I’ll track you down and make you pay.”

The price this child would pay if he broke the agreement would be truly terrible.

I’m a person who doesn’t leave things unfinished, and when I do, I go all the way.

At the very least, I would probably start with a basic beating, right?

But I don’t reveal these details to the child. No need to scare him off with unnecessary information.

Instead, I looked him in the eye with the most serious expression I could muster.

“Do you still want to take it?”

“Of course I do!”

The child answered without even a hint of a change in his expression.

Right now, he probably had no idea what kind of agreement he was making. He was too busy grinning because he was getting a gold coin.

He had no clue what he was signing up for.

Since I hadn’t told him, he didn’t know the consequences.

But right now, he was just smiling, thinking he was getting a sweet deal.

Seeing that, I let go of his wrist with a satisfied smile and said,

“Alright. Then, will you guide us to the place now?”

“Yes! Of course! Let’s go right now!”

With that, the child grabbed the gold coin with a bright smile.