"I'm curious. What kind of secret are you hiding that you tried to commit suicide without hesitation?" I asked while looking at the elves with a smile.
The elves gulped down nervously. Their eyes shook in fear, and their faces turned pale.
"Impossible…! W-Who are you?" One of them stuttered.
"Oh, right. I forgot to introduce myself." I said before removing the hood covering my face.
As soon as the elves saw my blue hair, their expressions froze.
"I think you already know who I am, right?"
"… Claus Quintin." One of the elves spat out in disbelief.
"Surprised?" I smiled.
The elves looked at me with disbelief, surprise, and fear.
As spies working in the Arcadian Empire, they knew a lot about the Imperial Family. More than some nobles even.
Thus, they also knew about me.
However, they probably never imagined I was this strong.
"Well, now that I introduced myself, don't you think you should tell me your names as well? You should also tell me what are two twelfth-layer elves doing here?"
The elves looked at each other in silence. One of them then looked at me and sighed.
"How unexpected. To think Prince Claus hid his strength so deeply. But, Prince Claus, is there a need to be like this?"
"Oh?" I was curious about his words. "What do you mean?"
"I know that perhaps we offended you when we were tailing your group, but I can swear for my race that we were not planning to kill you or cause you any harm. We are just two men in the middle of a mission?"
Really? Do you think I'm an idiot?
"And what is your mission?" I asked smilingly.
"… We are chasing after an elf fugitive and we learned he is in the human lands. We then followed his tracks until this city, and when we saw your exchange with the other group, we thought it was suspicious, so we followed you."
I thought for a moment and nodded. "Your story seems feasible."
The elves sighed in relief.
"… Unfortunately for you, I'm pretty good detecting lies, you know?" I then smirked with a mocking tone. "And your lies, my friends, could not be more obvious."
My words immediately made the elves pale.
Even although they did not know if I truly could say the truth from lies, they could feel I did not fall for their ruse.
And in truth, it's very easy for me to know if someone is lying or not. I just need to see the fluctuations of their souls and it will reveal everything.
Of course, some powerful people can easily control these fluctuations. As for Immortals? Heh, each one of them is a wily old fox able to lie without blinking.
But the two elves in front of me are not powerful enough or Immortals. Thus, they are completely unable to lie to me.
"Now, will you tell me the truth," I asked with an ice-cold tone. "Or should I get it out of your mouth using my own way?"
The elves fell silent for at my words. But soon, one of them chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"It looks like it's not just your strength that is frightening, prince. It looks like it's useless to lie to you. Even so, you should forget about getting something out of our mouths. We will tell you nothing, no matter what you try. It's better if you just kill us."
I raised an eyebrow. "You are unexpectedly calm. Are you not afraid of torture?"
The elf smiled disdainfully. "Torture? Hahahaha, what a joke. We, noble elves, will never succumb to something like that. Mere worldly pain is not enough to bend our ideals."
"Ho…" I said with an interested expression. Looking at the expression of fanaticism on the elf in front of me, I truly wanted to test the truth of his words.
I have learned a lot about torture in my multiple lifetimes, and although I seldomly use it, I wonder how long I will need to make this elf yield if I use some of my tricks.
Unfortunately, I'm not much of a fan of extracting confessions through torture. It's tedious, and there is nothing nice about watching strangers scream in pain.
Plus, Katherine is beside me right now. If I torture the elves, I'm sure my points with her with fall.
It's not a worthy deal.
Thus, after looking at the elves with a playful expression, I nodded.
"Perhaps you are right. And even if I'm confident in making you spit out your secrets eventually, I will probably need a lot of time."
I could feel the elves relaxing slightly. Obviously, despite their tough front, they were afraid of being tortured.
However–
"Fortunately, there are some easier ways to learn what I need to learn," I stated.
Then, I extended my hands, touching their foreheads.
The elves were startled. They looked at me in confusion, trying to guess the purpose behind my actions.
But in the next second, their confusion turned into astonishment.
And next, it turned into fear.
"Stop!" One of the elves cried out in panic. "What are you doing!?"
"Just getting the information I need," I say and used my will to force them to shut up. I have Katherine beside me, so I don't want to make this too ugly.
But although the eyes could not speak, their fear could be seen clearly in their eyes.
Their expressions were twisted in horror, as though they were seeing a demon. They could feel something invading their minds, peeking into their memories and exposing all their secrets.
The feeling of having their memories extracted was terrifying. Even although I used a painless method to read their memories, the terror the elves were feeling was perhaps worse than any pain they could have felt.
Even Katherine was looking at me bewildered. Even although she did not know what I was doing, judging by the expression of the elves, she knew it was nothing good.
However, she said nothing.
She just watched as I continued searching through their memories meticulously.
And soon, I found what I wanted.
Information about the two elves, their purpose in the empire, and why they were spying on us.
But then, I frowned.
Because I just found something strange.
… It looks like I stumbled into something greater than I expected.
Without hesitation, I dug deeper into their memories.
To find information about the elves' plan.
But to my surprise, I found several layers of defense in the elves' souls when I reached this point.
I was a bit surprised. If I add to the soul detonation technique of before, it looks like the elves of this world are well-versed in soul techniques.
Even so, such defenses are completely useless against someone like me.
With my understanding of souls, their defenses are like a sheet of paper.
In an instant, I broke through these defenses as though they did not exist and started to see the memories behind them.
But at that moment, my expression changed.
The souls of the elves started to self-destroy!
Without hesitation, I mobilized even more power from my soul, trying to interfere with the self-destruction.
But despite my attempts, the souls of the elves soon shattered into pieces, dispersing completely.
What the–
"Was is another Immortal? Is it him?" I whispered to myself.
I never expected to find clues about him so quickly.