Chapter 179: Icor’s Welcome
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Although Benjamin did not have experience in interrogation, he was surprisingly good at it. It was as if he had done it countless times before and could imitate that cold-blooded look.
The process itself was so simple — Before more threats were fired, the other party had already succumbed to threat of the Ice Needle.
"Alright already, as long as you take this thing away, I will tell you everything."
Benjamin did not move the Ice Needle and continued, "State your motives first."
"Hiss..." The young man struggled as his arms were frozen to the core. He dared not make sudden big movements as an Ice Needle was pointed at his throat. He twisted his body slightly and quickly spoke, "Her Majesty the Queen wanted me to follow you to understand your next move. However, I don’t know what she is up to."
Benjamin fell into deep thought. He stopped the threat with the Ice Needle as promised.
The queen was stalking them.
If it was to solicit mages, it was unnecessary for such a move. Although they took down the Crusader Gateway, it did not mean that they were all that powerful. The queen has many mage underlings. Why would she go through all that trouble to send someone to follow them?
He spoke once again after giving it some thought, "If the queen sent you to follow us, why did you disguise yourself?"
He felt that there was something suspicious about him.
"Plea-Please don’t kill me, I’m really not lying." The young man seemed to have been frightened by the Ice Needle and quickly replied, "Although I’m not sure why Her Majesty the Queen wanted me to follow you, I know a lot of other things. I know why she was personally leading the army and a lot of other secrets regarding the Mage guild. I will tell you everything as long as you don’t kill me."
... Mage guild?
Benjamin’s heart skipped a beat.
"Tell me about the Mage guild," he asked.
The young man quickly responded with information after information, "Recently, they are secretly developing a magic potion. When consumed, it will make a person immune to any magic or divine arts for a limited time. A lot of mages are against this research, which is why they are in hiding. Also, they have been secretly rearing magic beasts in the city. Her Majesty the Queen doesn’t even know. And..."
Benjamin frowned as he was hearing this.
What the hell?
His intention was only to learn more about the current situation of the "Mage Guild" but instead this young man was throwing secrets after secrets to him. Until now, he still has not gotten a grip of what the "Mage Guild" was and he already knew the next level dirt.
That being said... He could deduce a few things from the conversation.
The Mage guild should be an organisation that existed not only in Icor, but in many other nations as well. From what has been described by the young man, the organisation was huge and influential. They have a systematic organisation and was presumably on a higher functioning level than the Kingdom of Helius’ Academy of Silence.
Come to think of it, it would be really hard for Mage organisations to develop after being out casted by a fanatic like the Church. However, this would be different outside the Kingdom. Nobody was oppressing them, and the mages could obtain a higher social class with their own capabilities, of course an organisation could grow big and influential.
They were even developing magic potions and rearing magic beasts... The Mage guild from a science aspect was creating something amusing. The knowledge of magic was surpassing its original state and developing its own individual theories.
He really would like to observe if there was a chance.
"Sir, you... do not know the existence of the Mage guild?" The young man could guess this much from Benjamin’s expression and he cautiously asked.
Benjamin nodded.
"We are mages who escaped from the Kingdom of Helius and have never been to another nation. It’s not surprising that we do not know about the Mage guild." He peeked at the young man’s frozen arms as he said this. He continued, "However, even so, please do not think that I have not discovered that your freezing cold arms was a play pretend and a dagger has already slipped down your sleeves. You’re looking down on me."
"..."
The young man’s "frightened" look froze once again.
Benjamin let out a sigh of relief within him.
If it was not because he was cautious and used his Water Particle Detection, he would not be able to see through the young man’s pretence. Things could have gone south real quick.
Things were not as simple as it looked.
Benjamin looked at him without expression and quietly waited for the young man to tear down his second layer of pretence. The situation intensified.
After a while, the young man lowered his eyes and sighed. He said helplessly, "If I were to tell you now that I do not bear any bad intentions and the frozen limb was because lying down was so comfortable that I was too lazy to move, would you believe me?"
Benjamin returned a friendly smile and shook his head.
Half a minute later.
Looking at the young man with every body part of his frozen apart from his head and neck, Benjamin nodded with satisfaction.
"I think you wouldn’t be able to have any tricks up your sleeve now." He used his finger to knock on the ice he froze him in, "Who really are you?"
The young man whose whole body was frozen, could only move his neck in pain.
"Didn’t I said it already? I’m only a mercenary who accepted the task to follow you by the queen. That’s all there is to it."
Benjamin shook his head and said, "You didn’t say that you were a mercenary and if you were really a mercenary, why were you at Icor’s camp?"
This young man who suddenly appeared was just too suspicious. A lot of Benjamin’s questions were half answered or simply scrambled through. Even though he has said a lot of things, he did not reveal any key information.
Benjamin could not be more cautious.
"Before Her Majesty the Queen set out, she called on the mercenaries and gathered a lot of them to set out together. I participated because the reward was bountiful." The young man explained, "After you left, Her Majesty the Queen ordered me to follow you because of my specialty in stalking and hiding. This was the whole process. If I am lying to you, then I wish for my whole family’s gruesome death, deal?"
"Oh, really?" Benjamin smirked. "Right now, you have failed your task. Why don’t you look as though you’re disappointed?"
The young man was stunned, "Why should I be disappointed? I did not fail. I know your location and I did not lose sight of you and could return to report to Her Majesty the Queen. Should I be disappointed?"
Still playing dumb...
Benjamin played along and smiled, "How would you know if you’ll be alive to report back to the queen?"
The young man’s facial expression changed once more. This time, the fake stunned look disappeared and was replaced with the same smile Benjamin had on.
"Because you can’t kill me."
Benjamin felt something was untoward with the confidence the young man was displaying. Suddenly, tiny bristle sounds like something cracking started coming from the young man.
Benjamin’s face quickly changed.
He could not care for the non-verbal spell casting and immediately chanted an Ice Arrow at him. However, with a touch of wind and momentary astonishment, there was only him in the tent, apart from the broken ice all over the ground. The young man could not be found.
Benjamin’s jaw dropped.
How was that possible?
That fellow... Who was he? How did he crash the ice on him and disappear into thin air in a jiffy?
What was going on?
Benjamin was more and more puzzled by the minute. The night wind that blew into the tent was chilling.
Suddenly, he found a piece of rag where the man had disappeared. Puzzled, he went ahead, picked the rag up and held in his hands. There was a line of words clearly written on the rag,
"Hmm... Welcome to Icor, Benjamin Lithur."