Keldric waited for Alyssa with an awkward expression.
From inside the door came a whimpering sound. The trembling breaths within belonged to Alyssa.
After waiting in silence, the door burst open roughly. Keldric, who had taken a step back, was greeted by Alyssa, who kept her head bowed.
“….”
“Oh, um……”
Between her slightly disheveled blonde hair, tearful blue eyes glared fiercely at Keldric.
However, Keldric couldn’t bring himself to say anything harsh. The shame Alyssa must be feeling was beyond his estimation.
Alyssa silently held something out. Keldric took the small pewter pot from her.
As a subtle warmth spread through his hand, Keldric glanced at Alyssa, holding the pewter pot.
“Well, then……”
“……Let’s go.”
Alyssa’s face was so red that even a beet would be envious. Clear tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
“Um… Alyssa. I’m sorry.”
“….”
“I’ll be sure to repay you later. I swear on my honor.”
There was no reply from Alyssa.
Without another word, Keldric silently began to walk. Alyssa, her head bowed, followed behind him.
At this moment, Alyssa might hate Keldric, but Keldric hated the world. Or, to be precise, he hated the devil’s whisper that had led to this situation.
‘Beware the captured apostate. He will surely cause harm. The way to avoid it is to sprinkle him with the fresh urine of a young maiden.’
Fresh urine of a young maiden. In other words, just warm pee.
Among the people around Keldric, Alyssa was about the only one who could be called a young maiden.
To suddenly ask a woman he barely knew to ‘fill a basket with urine and splash it on me’ would be to drag Keldric’s honor through the mud.
But he couldn’t exactly go around telling people about meeting a devil in his dreams, so he was going crazy.
If he simply ignored the devil’s words, he was still bothered by the fact that the devil didn’t lie when in human form.
It might be a feeling he shouldn’t have for a devil, but Keldric trusted the devil quite a bit at this point.
At least when he was in human form, there was no room for doubt. If he could get help, it was wise to suck out as much benefit as possible, rather than openly rejecting or avoiding it.
Other people would refuse outright due to religious issues, but Keldric had little religious fear or guilt about his faith.
Thus, the devil’s last piece of advice forced Keldric to make an extreme choice.
Was he going to ask Alyssa about her virginity, or was he just going to leave the captured old man to be dealt with by Count Bogenberg?
Keldric, prepared for social suicide, chose the former.
Fortunately, Alyssa was a virgin with no experience with men.
So he had painstakingly asked for a pot of urine, and Alyssa, who had doubted her ears several times, had finished the deed in the bathroom with a slightly disgusted expression, which led to the present situation.
‘Fuck.’
Keldric chewed and swallowed the curse. The warmth he felt from the pewter chamber pot in his hand was unnecessarily warm.
He was long past the age of giggling at poop and pee, but even so, being told to suddenly receive and sprinkle a virgin’s urine was just too absurd.
But the person who would find it most absurd would be Alyssa.
From Alyssa’s point of view, Keldric, who couldn’t even explain the dream, was sure to be the most perverted man in the world for suddenly demanding a virgin’s urine.
He had vaguely explained it by changing the devil to the Holy Spirit, but if everything could be solved with words, there would be no crime in the world.
He could see the trust of his colleague plummeting. Keldric carefully opened his mouth, watching Alyssa’s mood.
“By the way, what happened to the wizard you’re looking for?”
“……I’m still looking.”
“I see.”
The conversation ended there. Feeling unnecessarily awkward, Keldric focused only on walking.
He shouldn’t have said anything. He was full of regret.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
The old man was imprisoned in the inner castle’s dungeon.
Keldric headed straight there. Alyssa, whose face had now calmed down from its redness, but still wore a chillingly cold expression, followed behind him.
Opening the door leading to the underground from the inner castle’s front yard, they entered the dungeon, where two soldiers stood guard.
Keldric’s steps, passing the soldiers, stopped at the room located at the innermost part of the dungeon.
From inside the tightly locked door came a clattering sound. As soon as Keldric opened the door, a rather burly man politely greeted Keldric.
“Lord Keldric of the Bellaf Family. I heard from His Excellency that you would be visiting.”
“Hmm.”
The man was a torturer under Count Bogenberg.
No sooner had he entered the room than the stench of blood filled the air. In front of the old man, who was tightly bound, was a device for pulling teeth.
Two molars were rolling on the floor. Keldric looked at the bloody teeth with a slightly uncomfortable expression.
Keldric had captured people and extracted information by force many times. He had even crippled his half-brother, Fritz.
But giving pain delicately without killing or turning them into an idiot was something that even Keldric couldn’t match compared to a torturer who made it his profession.
“Did you find out anything?”
“Not much, Lord Keldric.”
The information that the torturer had managed to extract was mainly two things.
One was that the old man was a wizard, and the other was that he was from the Frank Kingdom.
Indeed. Keldric slowly nodded.
He wondered where he had heard it before, but he certainly felt a similar accent in the old man’s speech to that of Sir Henri, whom he had met before.
The other fact, that the old man was a wizard, was something he had only guessed to some extent, even though it was the first time he had heard it.
The old man had threatened Keldric by throwing suspicious potions from time to time. That was definitely not a normal person’s way of attacking.
If a person’s behavior was so unique or bizarre that you had never seen it before, it was one of two things.
Either they were a wizard, or they were really crazy. It seemed that the old man belonged to the former.
Or maybe both.
“I think we need more information.”
“I’ll do my best. It’s only been a day, so if we give it a little more time, he’ll spill everything.”
To put it simply, what the torturer was saying was, ‘It’s only been a day, so wait a little longer.’
Keldric was a little impatient, but Keldric had to be even more wary of the old man that the devil had warned him about.
“Was there a strange mark on his body? A mark of a burning flame……”
“I couldn’t find anything like that. His body was clean.”
Zamash had emitted gold from his eyes and mark, and then exploded in a huge explosion and died.
He didn’t know if the flame mark was necessary for that act. But it was wise to point out the commonalities from the unique parts first.
If the old man didn’t have a flame mark, Keldric would be relieved. Keldric glanced at the old man.
Unlike yesterday, when he was wearing a loose robe, the old man’s body, which was only covered in his lower body after only a day, was pathetically thin.
Who wouldn’t be, unless they were a rich old man, but the old man was particularly bad.
Looking at his ribs sticking out, Keldric felt a little uncomfortable. It was a sight that ruined his appetite, to put it bluntly.
“Can you wake him up for a moment?”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
The torturer smiled brightly and headed somewhere, returning with a bucket full of water.
There was ice floating in it, so it seemed to be cold water that had been left outside for a long time.
Splash!
The water, which looked chilling to the bone, was poured on him, and the startled old man shook his head and opened his eyes.
“Puheok! What…… Heok!”
His eyes immediately met Keldric’s. The old man’s body began to tremble like an aspen.
Keldric didn’t know if it was because he was cold or because he was afraid of Keldric. Maybe both.
“Get a hold of yourself. How many fingers do you see?”
Keldric held up two fingers in front of the old man’s eyes. The old man, trembling, moved his Adam’s apple and barely opened his mouth.
“Two, two……”
“He’s in his right mind.”
Except for the fact that his pronunciation was unclear because he had a little saliva in his mouth every time he spoke, there was nothing lacking in his answer.
It was probably because his molars had been pulled out. Keldric casually asked the old man.
“What’s your name?”
“….”
“This won’t be fun.”
Keldric held out his hand to the torturer. The torturer naturally handed him a single-edged saw, as if they had practiced it
many times.
“Every time you don’t answer, you’ll have to say goodbye to one finger at a time.”
“……………..Ja, Jacober.”
Jacober. It was a perfect name for someone from the Frank Kingdom.
It would be useless if the old man, Jacober, had lied about his name, but names were not that important to Keldric anyway.
What was important was that Jacober’s mouth had been opened.
If his mouth was open, he could find some common ground. Then he could just massage him appropriately and extract information.
“I heard you’re a wizard…… Alyssa?”
“Yes. Mr. Jacober, which academy and which school are you from?”
When Alyssa, who was also a wizard, asked, Jacober moved his lips and rolled his eyes.
The torturer, who had been watching him quietly, approached with something in his hand. The stench of blood grew
stronger.
“Lord Keldric. Shall I help you a little?”
The torturer was holding a large, rusty pair of scissors in his hand. Keldric shook his head with a slightly queasy expression.
“It’s okay for now.”
“Understood.”
“So…… Jacober. Which academy did you study at, and which school are you from?”
‘…………..I studied magic and alchemy at the Belmond Academy.”
Keldric had heard of the Belmond Academy. It was one of the two famous academies in the Frank Kingdom.
“Jacober. I also asked you which school you were from.”
“That’s……”
But Jacober kept his mouth shut as if he had nothing more to say.
He didn’t know why he had said the academy but kept his school a secret. Then Alyssa whispered the reason.
“Wizards are proud of their school. Mr. Jacober must be worried about causing harm to the seniors and juniors of that
school.”
“Oh……”
‘So he has some loyalty.’
Keldric nodded. But that was that, and this was this.
Whether it was his seniors and juniors or whatever, if he had caused a ruckus in Count Bogenberg’s territory, he should have
told them everything, even the color of the poop he had pooped yesterday.
But Jacober didn’t open his mouth until the end.
Whether he belonged to the school in the past or still belonged to it, he seemed to have a deep affection for the school.
That was as far as he could say nicely. Keldric instinctively sensed it.
“I think it’s your turn to step up.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
The torturer grinned and stepped forward, and Keldric took a step back. Alyssa, with a slightly queasy expression, followed
him to his side.
“Well, let’s have a good time. Mr. Jacober.”
“Eueuk…… Wa, wait a minute……”
Jacober burped something similar to a burp and made a painful expression.
He must be afraid of the torture to come. Keldric didn’t care.
“Geuheup…… Th, eugh……!”
However, the moment Jakober’s cheeks began to puff up more and more.
Keldric sensed a spine-tingling danger. A faint golden light was leaking through Jakober’s teeth.
Keldric rushed to Jakober. And with a rough hand, he pried Jakober’s mouth open wide.
“Son of a bitch!”
The fire brand was, of all places, seared onto Jakober’s tongue.
The golden light it emitted slowly began to intensify. Unlike Zamash, who had burst instantly, Jakober didn’t explode right away, but slowly revealed the signs.
“Lord Keldric? What in the world—”
“Get out of here! Now!”
“Pardon?”
Keldric grabbed the torturer, who was standing there dumbfounded, by the scruff of his neck and suddenly remembered something.
The demon’s words about needing a virgin’s urine. For some reason, those words flashed through his mind.
“Keuh…! Keuk!”
Jakober made an almost dying sound. The golden light began to fill the room.
Nothing to lose. Keldric threw the torturer he was holding out of the room and picked up the pewter chamber pot he had brought earlier.
Alyssa shouted something when she saw this, but there was no time.
Keldric immediately opened the lid. Then, he forcefully splashed the contents of the chamber pot towards Jakober.
Sploosh!
Then, an amazing thing happened.
The brand on Jakober, which had been burning with golden light, subsided in an instant. Jakober himself, whose eyes had looked like they were about to pop out, slowly calmed his twisting body.
‘…It worked?’
Keldric was truly amazed. As a matter of fact, he never dreamed that such a folk remedy-like demon’s advice would actually be helpful.
Keldric didn’t know the exact principle, but Jakober became quiet as if nothing had happened. The brand also subsided.
The problem was elsewhere.
Thud!
Amidst a very faint smell of urine slowly spreading in the room, someone was heard collapsing.
“Ah, ah…”
Alyssa, who had collapsed to the floor, sobbed with a look of someone who had lost their country.
Keldric turned his gaze away. It was best to brazen it out.
Whatever the case, a misfortune of being buried underground or exploding had been avoided, so it was a good thing for Alyssa too.
…Probably.