Chapter 29

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: The Interrogation
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Diello gestured.

“Prepare everything as my wife has instructed.”

There was no hint of coercion in his tone.

But the members of the intelligence department moved instantly, as if a knife were at their throats.

I felt a strange sense of unease.

It wasn't as if they had signed a contract that said, ‘Disobey, and you'll be burned alive’ before joining Argenta…

That left only one possibility: Diello had them completely under his thumb.

How?

“Croire?”

But when our eyes met, Diello simply looked up at me with his pure, pale blue eyes.

…This soft-hearted person?

“Let’s go.”

As our eyes met, he, oblivious to my thoughts, gave me a beautiful smile.

* * *

The villainess, Croire Alloje.

He had heard the rumors about her.

Though her innate abilities were said to be weak, her temperament was rumored to be incomparably vicious.

The story of her drowning the Alloje servants who dared to disrespect her for her weak water-manipulation ability was already famous.

She hadn't done it with her own water-manipulation ability.

‘Since they disrespect me, isn't that the same as disrespecting the blood of the main Alloje family?’

Well aware of the blood she carried, she had manipulated the servants into drowning those who had slighted her, using their own peers' hands.

‘How interesting.’

Duke Alloje, who couldn't stand seeing his authority diminished, was said to have watched the scene with nothing but interest.

The scheming Duke Alloje and his illegitimate daughter, too busy reveling in her own position.

That was the Croire Alloje that Diello Argenta knew.

No, that was the Croire Alloje he had heard about until now.

And yet.

‘I'll teach you.’

The side of Croire she had shown him before their marriage was completely different from the rumors.

In fact, contrary to what he'd heard, she was a lovely woman.

Moreover.

‘…You'll have to practice acting bad a little more.’

Diello almost laughed, recalling what she had said on the beach.

What was he to do with this pure bride of his?

He, who feigned innocence himself, had to wonder. He had thought that was all there was to this new side of his rumored-villainess wife.

But it seemed that wasn't the end of it.

Diello watched Croire as she stood before the bathtub.

“Listen carefully. From this moment on, the space you are in will slowly fill with water.”

The two traitors were forced to kneel in a bathtub large enough to swim in.

A rock was tied to each of their bodies to prevent them from floating even when the tub was full.

Their mouths were free. Only their hands and feet were bound.

Diello wasn't surprised by the scene. He had assumed that someone like Croire would be well-versed in methods of torture.

“I know there was more than one of you who wanted to go to Cartiel, and that you planned to leave one by one, in order, to avoid suspicion. Which means.”

Croire’s eyes gleamed as she looked at the people kneeling in the tub.

Diello watched her quietly.

Those were not the eyes of a fool who wielded power relying solely on her status.

They were the eyes of a sharp-witted person who knew exactly what she could do with her abilities.

“You must have communicated with each other and decided on an order, right?”

And on top of that, contrary to the rumors that she simply reveled in cruelty, she was sharp.

“…!”

The two traitors flinched at Croire's words.

“Turn on the water.”

Croire gestured.

The members of the intelligence department looked back at Diello.

*Should we follow her command?*

They had been looking at Diello every time Croire gave an order.

*Should we handle this ourselves?*

It had been the same when those bastards were captured earlier.

As always, if he had told them to 'handle it,' they would have interrogated them in the Argenta way.

That was the standard procedure.

The intelligence department didn't yet know what kind of person Croire was, and they likely assumed that she, being unfamiliar with Argenta, wouldn't be able to handle the situation adeptly.

That must be why they kept seeking his permission for everything.

But Diello found it strangely bothersome.

*‘Let my wife do as she pleases. She did say she would show me something.’*

In the end, he mouthed the words. The intelligence department members understood his meaning.

They were the ones who knew his true nature—cold, unlike his gentle reputation.

They would have understood that his words meant, 'Do not ask me a second time whether you should carry out Croire's orders.'

*Gush!*

Water began to fill the tub.

“…!”

The traitors, who had initially scoffed, began to hesitate as the water level rose.

They were belatedly realizing that the tub was deeper than they thought, and that they could actually drown in it.

“Th-This is…!”

“The water will only recede for the one who speaks a traitor's name. The water that recedes will go to the other side.”

It is the law of nature that water flows from high to low.

However.

When Croire raised her hand and unleashed her water-manipulation ability, the water began to move as if forming a shape.

*Splash!*

Moved by her ability, the water instantly defied the tub's walls, flowing back and forth between the traitors.

“…!”

At Croire's calm words, the traitors looked at each other.

The water was already up to their chests.

And the rocks tied to them were heavy.

*Gush!*

While they hesitated, the water rose to their chins.

“Are you going to keep your mouths shut?”

*Is she going to drain the water since she can't kill them?*

Diello watched Croire with intrigued eyes.

But Croire, on the contrary.

*Roar!*

She turned the water on with even more force.

“!”

As the current raged, the traitors' eyes began to fill with terror.

How much time had passed?

“I-Illian!”

Illian. The name of one of the knights.

*Trickle…*

The rate at which the water was rising for the one who had shouted the name slowed noticeably.

And just as the water was about to surge to the other side.

“Ante! There's one named Ante, too!”

A name came from the other side.

At that, Croire sent the water pouring back toward the one who had shouted 'Illian'.

The traitor, his nose and mouth suddenly submerged, made a gurgling sound.

It was certainly an effective interrogation method.

In how it stimulated fear, desperation, and the instinct for survival.

…And yet.

“…?”

At some point, Diello found himself watching not the traitors, but Croire.

More precisely, her tightly clenched fist. Her trembling hand.

Especially whenever the traitors' lives were in peril underwater, she would clench her fist tightly.

…As if she had never played with someone's life before.

A glint appeared in Diello's eyes.

This was yet another new side to her.

* * *

The interrogation method Croire used in the original novel wasn't as difficult as I'd thought.

It was just a matter of controlling the water.

“Glrph!”

But watching the faces of people on the brink of death in real time, I couldn't help but feel tense.

But.

If I don't stay calm, I'll be the one who dies.

With that thought in mind, I continued to interrogate the traitors.

“Th-There are no more!”

“We swear!”

Thanks to that, it took me less than ten minutes to get all the traitors' names.

Because they could see the water level drop each time they gave a name, the traitors scrambled to spill information.

“So, thirteen in total, you say?”

I looked back at the Argenta intelligence agent. A silent question asking if he had written it all down.

The agent whose eyes I met bowed his head respectfully.

*Slash!*

I formed a sharp blade in the water and severed the ropes binding the traitors to the rocks.

Then I let them raise only their faces above the surface.

“Sputter!”

“Gasp!”

The two traitors greedily sucked in air. Their faces and lips were pale, as if starved of oxygen.

I turned to Diello.

“I didn't kill them, just in case there's more to find out.”

It was my first time actually doing something like this, so I was nervous, but I couldn't let it show.

I forced a calm expression and placed a hand on Diello's shoulder.

“If you have more questions, go ahead and ask.”

“…Me, personally?”

Diello asked cautiously.

I nodded.

“Yes. You're the head of the family, Diello.”

He needed to get used to conducting interrogations.

Not just stand there watching the scene with wide, startled eyes.

“I'll try, Croire.”

Diello squeezed my hand, looking nervous.

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was staining a pure, blank sheet of paper.

But what could I do? It was better to survive stained and mottled than to be torn apart while still a blank page.

“Good. Then I'll go rest for a bit.”

I coolly stepped outside.

“I will accompany you, my lady.”

Pielle had appeared behind me at some point. I nodded.

Even though I had just used my water-manipulation ability, I didn't feel too bad.

Perhaps it was because compared to moving the sea last time, this was no different from moving a dishful of water.

“Hmm.”

I glanced back at the room where Diello was.

It was well soundproofed, so no noise escaped.

…Should I stay by Diello's side?

I doubted whether Diello, with his pure blue eyes, could properly interrogate the traitors.

“No.”

I shook my head and started walking.

You have to get stronger, Diello!

I could feel Pielle's questioning gaze on me, but I didn't bother to explain.

Diello wasn't some baby bird; he too was the head of a family.

He should be able to handle something like this. Even if the interrogation is awkward, the intelligence department will take care of it.

“There's somewhere I need to go.”

Instead, I quickened my pace.

We were in the annex of the Argenta estate.

“Where shall I escort you?”

Pielle asked. I answered without hesitation.

“The first floor of the main building.”

Before we went to catch Mirta, the knights from the fourth floor were definitely there.

Are they still there?

Why would Diello have stationed the fourth-floor knights there?

I intended to find out.