When Theo regained his consciousness, he could still feel a stabbing pain from the back of his neck.
Damn, that brute of a woman had hit him really hard. He opened his eyes and tried to move, only to discover that his hands were tied behind his back and his legs were tied to the legs of the chair he was sitting on.
“He woke up,” suddenly the voice of a woman could be heard.
“What is your name?” One person stepped in front of him and raised his chin. “I suggest that you do not lie, or tomorrow you will already have become just another floating corpse in the moat.”
Theo had to blink to see clearer, the woman in front of him was wearing a veil, and her body was shrouded in a robe, apparently, she didn’t want him to be able to recognize her appearance.
“Theo,” he answered truthfully, at the same time he secretly looked around.
It was a narrow room, and his surrounding was covered in dust and pieces of plaster from a broken statue, even though it was once complete, now merely one-half of it was left. The accumulated dust and plaster had already begun to turn brown as if it had already been abandoned for a long time. The room was without windows, so no sky could be seen and he could only speculate on how late it was. The only light in the room came from an oil lamp hanging on the wall.
“From the Fallen Dragon Ridge to Silver City, such a long way,” continued the woman in a cold voice, “Why are you looking for us?
“I am not looking for you, it’s the Witch Cooperation Association who is looking for you.”
“What is an Association?”
“It’s a group of witches just like you. They had entrusted me with the task of spreading their news.”
“Nonsense,” the woman snapped, “I do not know where you had heard their name, but they are located far to the East, in the Seawind Region. Do you think that just by randomly throwing names into the room we would believe you?” The Women drew a knife from her waist and Theo had to discover that it was the knife that he had previously used. “I’ll give you one last chance, don’t challenge my patience!”
“What I said was the truth!” He stated in a loud voice, he wanted to continue to shout, but in the end, he didn’t dare, so he said with a suppressed voice, “They had originally intended to go into the Impassable Mountain Range, trying to find the Holy Mountain, unable to find the Holy Mountain, they had to settle down in Border Town, only to discover that the symptoms of the demon’s bite had disappeared. When they realized this, they naturally wanted to save other witches, I swear I did not lie!”
“Then why would they send you?”
“’Cause I helped them, I helped them when one of their members was chased by the Church’s Army of Judges, I helped her by distracting her pursuers. Their mentor is called Cara, and there are also Wendy and Scroll, they asked me to go! ”
After listening to his explanation, the masked woman turned silent, she put the dagger back to her waist and stepped behind him. Soon, Theo could hear how the two women whispered behind his back.
Fledglings, he commented in his heart, even though the two of them act like criminals, it is still clear that they are entirely new to interrogating.
During an interrogation, it is absolutely taboo to ask questions that had only one answer, in the case that they didn’t get their answer, the questioner only had the choice to kill or not to kill? If they decide to kill, they will lose any further possibility of receiving any more information, if they didn’t kill, it’s is equivalent to losing their threat of dying. This would severely damage the interrogator’s position of power, and the effectiveness of the next threat would be substantially reduced.
If he were the interrogator, he would start the torture with the fingers, for every lie one finger would be cut off. So even if there were an error in judgment, it would become a big problem. Under this threatening atmosphere the enemy’s heart would quickly collapse, but without professional training, it would be very tough to carry out such a trial.
As long as he would show a frightened look, the interrogator would become unsure, which is equally to exposing that they just cannot tell whether he was lying or telling the truth.
And Cara, Holy Mountain, and the Witch Cooperation Association were reliable and genuine information, which would further strengthen the persuasiveness of his information.
It didn’t take long before the masked woman appeared once more in front of him, “When was it that they entered the Western Territory?”
“Two or three months before the Months of Demons, and directly after the end of winter, they returned to the town, claiming that they had found the Holy Mountain.
“How many people are they?”