The Great Crestmaster

"W-what?" Bodger asked back, uncomprehendingly, "h-how?"

"I mean, this is clearly not your usual blockade right? You guys came here running like you knew where the carriage was going to pass and I heard you guys talking so I know for sure that you were aware that it was just one carriage."

"Did—did I say that? I-I just… I really can't recall that… probably because I was drunk and all the pummeling you gave me. Sorry, what was the question again?"

Bodger was no longer crying or making eye contact instead he was looking around in a panic and stuttering.

No longer was he able to keep a straight face he was clearly sweating profusely upon hearing that question.

"The question was how did you know that the carriage was going to change directions to here, long before it came it came into view?"

Bodger showed no response.

"All right let me make this easy for the both of us, let me change the question a little," He took something out of his pocket and showed it to Bodger.

It was a long black feather.

"Look Bodger, look," Aldrich waved the feather in his face and then asked again, "what is this thing? Tell me everything you know about it and then you'll be a free man once again."

"W-what's that? It's just a feather. It's probably from some bird, what else can I tell you about it? Now if you're done let's go to the hideout, they might sense that something is wrong if we delay here."

Aldrich face palmed, "oh, no, I asked the question twice and you didn't answer me… that can't be good. I thought you didn't care about the other bandits, why are you protecting them?"

"I…" Bodger attempted to say something but ultimately he wasted too much time which is why Aldrich smacked him in the head.

In fact Aldrich could easily kill a normal human with a punch to the head, naturally he intentionally suppressed his power.

"Are you lying to me? To us? After we offered to let you go?" Aldrich asked, his voice full of anguish. As if he was hurting more than the bandit.

Frank kicked Bodger in the stomach, if he hand not already emptied his stomach he would have vomited again.

"Damn, and I was actually beginning to feel sorry for you!" He gave him another kick, "what were you thinking!"

Aldrich hurriedly stopped Frank, "whoa, hold it."

Either Frank was a really good actor or he really thought that Aldrich was actually going to let this scum live another day.

"This asshole was trying to trick us from the start."

"But, isn't it obvious that bandits would betray each other? Why would he do that?"

"That's true, but this guy actually doesn't believe that we'll win," Aldrich chuckled, "for some reason he truly believes that we will definitely lose once we go to their hideout."

"Ugh! N-no I am sorry I didn't mean that," Bodger stammered after he caught his breath.

"What I want to hear are answers." Aldrich calmly knelt so that he could look the bandit in the eye, "I will not repeat my question."

"Listen kid, you're reading too much into this, there's nothing to worry about. At midday everyone will converge there so you can take them all out—"

Aldrich started slashing.

"Agaaah!"

Bodger screamed for dear life but as time went on he stared at his body and noticed that although Aldrich cut him more than a dozen cuts none of them were fatal, in fact they were shallow.

"Is-is that all you've got? There's no need for any of this just go off on you own. It's obvious you've never tortured anyone before just let me go and I will pretend that none of this happened."

Aldrich cleaned his throwing knife and put it back. He didn't look at Bodger but at the faraway group that was interrogating the other bandit.

"Frank, can you go and tell Nathan to give you THAT potion."

"THAT potion?" Frank looked confused, "which potion? What are you talking about?"

"The bone melting poison."

"Wha-"

"WHAT!" Bodger exclaimed in fright.

"Why did you think I bothered cutting you up like this? You're right I don't have any experience in torture so I will be learning right now on you."

"You know what they say right? There's a first time for everything."

The bone melting poison was—as the name implied, a poison that melts the bones of whoever ingests it.

In the case of Bodger he will experience this pain slowly since the poison will seep into his body through the wounds Aldrich made.

'N-no way, a bunch of kids wouldn't possibly have something like that, right? But… a bunch of kids wouldn't have been able to kill my crew no matter how useless they were… fuck!'

"Have you thought about it?" Aldrich suddenly asked bringing Bodger back to reality, "good, think about one more thing too."

"See your friend over there?" Aldrich pointed at his the other bandit, "he's being asked the same questions by my friends, you may be loyal and tight lipped but will he be the same? I wonder."

"Y-you are a monster!"

"Oh, please, I have no need to hear that from you. I have a quest to finish and I will get the answers I want, you get my drift?"

"A quest? You're an adventurer? Is this what this whole thing is about? We've already been reported to a guild, shit."

Frank could be seen coming over with a white liquid in a test tube.

"I-I'll talk, I will talk." Bodger shouted in desperation.

Aldrich who was about to pour the poison on Bodger stopped in his tracks, "oh, man~ I wanted to try it out."

Bodger sighed in relief.

"Oh, but I will also get the answers from your friend and if I think you lied to me…"

"I get it. It's the demi-humans! We're working for three demi-humans, the force us to call them big brothers. And they take all the good-looking women."

"What kind?" Frank asked in surprise.

"Ravenfolk, they're Ravenfolk."