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EP.114 How to Take Down a Criminal Organization (5)

"Arggghhhh!!!!"

When pulling the dagger out of his shoulder, I twisted my wrist sideways to make the wound even bigger.

The man rolled on the ground, screaming.

"Whew, that feels good."

I couldn't help but smile.

I had already figured out how this man's ability worked.

The man had to touch someone to use his ability on them, which meant that 'contact' was necessary to use his power.

"So I just need to avoid being touched."

"Ugh... w-what... you... ugh... it hurts!"

"I was about to call you mister, but no, that'd be too polite for scum like you. Hey, wake those kids up right now. Or I'll kill you."

This guy is a menace to humanity.

It'd be better if he just died cleanly.

But I had to threaten him instead of killing him outright, since it might harm the sleeping children.

The sharp Cerberus +11 emanated a menacing aura, as if it would slice through the man's neck at any moment.

"Ugh... spare me!"

"If you want to live, wake them up!!"

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!"

"I'll say this one last time - wake the kids up now! I warned you I'd kill you. This is your last chance."

"J-just touching them once will wake them up. That's all it takes. Huuung... it hurts...!"

"Really?"

The condition for waking them up was simpler than I expected.

Now that I knew the children wouldn't be harmed, there was no need to show this guy any more mercy.

"Tch, making such a fuss over a little shoulder wound."

I kicked his back to knock him down and made him put his arms behind his back.

"Ahhh! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!"

"Stay still. Move and you're dead."

"Huuuung!"

The man showed no signs of resistance.

Still, since Teacher told me not to let my guard down, I kept him in my sight.

"Kids, wake up. Hey, kids?"

"Mmm..."

"Hmm....huh?"

"Why are there only two? Hey! Where's the other one? Why are there only two?"

Fortunately, when I shook the two kids awake, they started coming to their senses.

The problem was that there were only two children.

There should have been three.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts...!"

But the pervert was already clutching his bleeding shoulder with a pale face, trembling too much to answer.

"Sigh, completely useless."

I couldn't help but feel annoyed.

Of all the people to catch...

"Ugh... there's blood."

"Sniff... What? Who are you?"

At that moment, the two kids who had just barely opened their eyes from their half-asleep state looked at me warily.

"Did you come to save us?"

"Really?! Is that true?"

"Isn't it obvious? Just look at them - they look nothing like those dirty guys."

I had to laugh at the kids' bold words.

"Yeah, you got it right. I came to rescue you."

"Phew~ we're saved. I was worried about what would happen if we got taken away like this."

"Thank you for saving us."

The children politely expressed their gratitude.

It seems they hadn't been subjected to anything too terrible in their dreams.

"I know that person kept you asleep so you couldn't escape. Did you have any bad dreams or anything like that?"

"Rather than bad dreams, they were fun dreams."

"That's right. The dreams weren't bad at all. They were so good I didn't want to wake up."

Not unpleasant dreams?

"They gave us really gross food though."

Honestly, I had been expecting much worse things to have happened, so the children's words brought me relief.

Now that I'd confirmed the children were safe, I asked about the missing one.

"Did you happen to see another kid besides yourselves?"

"Another kid? There was nobody here except us from the start. Did you see anyone?"

"No, I didn't. But, did you change your face using that ability just now? It's amazing. You look exactly like Tama."

"Oh yeah, I borrowed Tama's face for a bit."

"But isn't Tama a boy? Aren't you a girl? Oh, well, you are tall like him, but otherwise you look similar."

"Stop with the useless chatter. So you're saying you never saw another kid?"

"...Yes."

The two children's voices grew small with fear.

Thinking I might have been too harsh with kids who'd been kidnapped, I softened my voice and spoke again.

"Are you sure you're not feeling sick or mentally stressed at all?"

"No, we're fine because we were just having fun in our dreams."

"Yeah. We actually wished we could stay in the dream forever."

"That's..."

What a dangerous thing to say.

They must have experienced some psychological trauma after all.

Just then.

"I-I'll let you dream!! Save me, save me!!"

"Dream?"

"Huh?"

The kidnapper who had been writhing in pain suddenly acted up.

"You bastard!"

The children's eyes grew hazy at the word "dream."

I knew he'd done something to them in their dreams!

"Ariane!"

"That bastard used some weird ability on the kids!"

And right on cue, the knights and teachers who must have subdued the other kidnappers came to where the children were gathered.

"Arghhhh!"

As soon as the teacher heard my words, they stomped on the kidnapper's face.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

When the kidnapper screamed again in pain, the children who had been in a trance-like state snapped back to their senses.

"Huh? Teacher?"

"Teacher!!!"

As soon as they saw the familiar faces, the children ran straight into their teachers' arms.

"There, there, you've been through a lot. Oh my~ your face is all messed up."

The teachers comforted the children while taking turns stomping on the kidnapper to vent their anger.

Rebecca was the only teacher who checked on me.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Nope! I'm fine. But be careful, you'll fall asleep if that guy touches you."

"Yes, you did so well. It's thanks to you that we were able to rescue the children without any injuries."

Rebecca's praise made me grin sheepishly, "hehehe~"

"But there's a problem."

"A problem?"

"As you can see, there are only two of them."

"I thought so, one is missing?"

"Huh? You knew?"

"I had my suspicions. It seems one had already left the city."

"Yes, when I asked the children, they said that child was never here from the start."

The knights and teachers' expressions darkened at those words.

While the lockdown hadn't been completely useless, if one child had been taken somewhere beyond their reach, it would be much harder to find a way to rescue them.

"Never here from the start!? That makes things... much tighter."

The news quickly spread to the knights and teachers.

Everyone was shocked to hear that the child had never been here from the beginning.

"How do we track them down?"

"We'll have to extract as much information as possible from these guys."

While successfully raiding the kidnappers' hideout and subduing them without major casualties was a great achievement, everyone became gloomy at the fact that they failed to rescue one child.

"Let's get the children outside first."

Though the situation was serious, taking care of the rescued children naturally came first.

At Rebecca's suggestion, I left the scene with the two rescued children.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"Nairel isn't here."

"Nairel... that would be the plant-type child. Also the first one to go missing."

"It seems their main target was Nairel, and the other children were just taken along the way."

We were frustrated to confirm that Nairel wasn't among the rescued children.

Meanwhile, Fran, who had been particularly worried about Ariane, immediately rushed over after leaving enemy territory and poured holy light over him.

"I'm not hurt anywhere!"

"Still, you worked hard. Just stay still for a moment."

Only after making Ariane receive treatment for quite a while did a satisfied Fran move on to check the knights and teachers' conditions.

"Thank you, Fran."

"It's nothing."

"Um... you might not like this, but could you possibly treat this person?"

Rebecca pointed to where the arrested criminals were.

"These criminals? Why? They don't deserve it."

Fran, who they thought would agree to treat the criminals since they were still living beings, surprisingly showed resistance to treating them.

Rebecca scratched the back of her head, seemingly uncomfortable with the request herself.

"Ah, I don't mean right now, but as you know, we still haven't rescued one child."

"Yes."

"We need to interrogate these guys to find out where that child is."

This wouldn't be a pleasant sight for a student.

Despite this, she seemed very cautious about having to make the request, continuing with concern in her voice.

"The torture process will have to be quite cruel. We can't show mercy given the urgency. There might even be some accidents along the way."

"Ah! You want me to heal them in case they might die during torture, right?"

Fran understood Rebecca's words perfectly.

"Yes, that's right."

"I'll do it. Leave it to me."

"Are you sure? It won't be a pretty sight..."

"Don't worry. I'll make absolutely sure they don't die. As long as their breath doesn't stop completely, I can save them no matter what mistakes are made."

Fran smiled brightly.

Rebecca stepped back when she caught a glimpse of madness in her clear eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh? Ah, nothing. Thank you for helping. You're... you're a good girl. Yes."

I watched this scene from a distance and shook my head.

'She's been assigned what Gwangyeon does best.'

The corrupted Gwangyeon was tier 1 at torture.

However, since Fran hasn't been corrupted yet, she won't be able to show tier 1 torture abilities.

'Still, Gwangyeon's reputation must count for something.'

She'll be able to handle it well.

Fran definitely can.

"Where should I go?"

"Follow me this way."

Fran followed behind Rebecca.

After repeated cycles of torture and healing, torture and healing, the criminal being interrogated would have no choice but to break.

While they should find comfort in thinking this torture would eventually end with time, how could they hold onto such hope when Fran provides endless healing?

'Even I would want to spill everything I know and just die.'

With Fran helping with the torture, it wouldn't be long before these guys would reveal all the information they knew.

If they didn't, their pain would never end.

And if Fran showed just a hint of her madness...Shudder'I wouldn't hesitate for even a second before confessing everything. Fake madness can never beat real madness.'

And sure enough, my prediction proved exactly right not long after.

"We've found out where the other child is!"

The knight delivered the news to us waiting outside with a bright face.

"What, already?"

"How long has it even been?"

"Thought their skills were pathetic, but their endurance is pathetic too."

"This is why illegal awakened ones are... tsk tsk!"

"No, this was all thanks to Miss Fran's help."

The knight explained that it wasn't because the illegal awakened one's endurance was weak, but because Fran's tremendous contribution made it easy to obtain the information.