Chapter 28
THE GROUP EXITED the property without security noticing a thing. When they reached the residential zone, they leapt atop buildings to take the shortest route back to the inn. Mira and Scorpion were moving with such speed that they occasionally slipped out of concealment. Nevertheless, they continued their headlong rush.
They reached the inn in under ten minutes. Careful not to leave Wasranvel’s radius now, they hurried to the room where Scorpion and Snake were staying.
Mira and Scorpion leaned in and pressed their ears to the door. Millene’s mask would lead their pursuers to them, but there was no sound from within the room.
“It’s quiet.”
“Do you think we made it in time?”
“Or the opposite…” Now that they were so close, Mira could sense people other than Snake and Millene behind the door. Their enemies had arrived in their absence.
The two nodded to each other, prepared for battle, and flung the door open. They leapt into the room under the effects of concealment and took in the sight before them.
“Oh, my…” Mira gasped.
“So…they beat us here,” Scorpion murmured.
Nothing was broken, but the room looked as if twenty cats had fought a war there. They’d sped back as fast as possible, but still arrived too late. However, their tardiness didn’t seem to be a problem.
Atop the frayed carpet lay two men clad head to toe in black. On closer inspection, they resembled the guards who watched Johan.
They were thoroughly restrained, even gagged. One of them was unconscious and immobile, while the other wriggled on the floor like an earthworm. Snake sat at the table beside them, a cold smile on her face as she arranged her implements on its surface.
“I had a feeling it might go this way…” Scorpion glanced at the men on the floor before nervously turning to face Snake.
“Seems our concern was unnecessary.” Mira had expected Chimera to send elite fighters, since they had a strong presence here. She sighed in relief to see that they’d sent normal goons.
Snake was still in the same tank-top-and-shorts combo from before. She was dressed so casually that you wouldn’t think she’d just trounced two thugs.
Meanwhile, Millene was fully dressed and sitting obediently on a bed. For some reason, she was blushing bright red.
“I see we’ve missed a lot,” Mira said as she disabled the concealment.
Millene yelped. They couldn’t blame her for being startled—Mira, Scorpion, and Wasranvel had appeared out of nowhere.
Snake, however, had seen that trick before. She didn’t jump like Millene; she simply shot Scorpion a blank look. Snake nodded once to Mira, then put a bare foot on the neck of one of the pursuers.
Mira ticked the box of another kink discovered.
“They came in through the window. I’ll be interrogating them regarding their motives, if you’re willing to wait,” Snake said. She brandished some very inhumane-looking metal implements as she ground her heel into the man’s neck. He groaned and struggled even more in a vain attempt to free himself. “The first one was well-trained; he didn’t breathe a word. So, I’ll have to be rougher with this one.”
Snake glared coldly at the man on the floor. He froze and gazed back with wide eyes before letting out a feeble, pleading scream.
Mira began to pity them…though since they were with Chimera, her sympathy was short-lived. However, since she already knew their motive, she believed she could spare Snake the trouble.
“If you want to know why they’re here, I’m pretty sure it’s related to this.” She picked up the dubious mask on the bed and summarized what had happened at Johan’s mansion.
Millene’s instructor was aiding Chimera Clausen, but only because his family had been abducted. Mira and Scorpion had gotten him to promise that he’d help Isuzu if they saved his wife and daughter.
But before Mira’s group could leave to save Johan’s loved ones, they were informed that Millene’s mask had tracking magic on it. Johan’s imprisoners would surely send pursuers if she did anything unexpected. That being the case, Mira and the others rushed back.
Once Mira finished her story, the quiet Millene was first to speak up in surprise. Not about the Chimera spell cast on her mask, but about Johan’s family.
Millene had been told that Anne had been sent to a school in Ozstein, and that her mother had accompanied her out of worry. She’d heard all of this after returning from a trip to Sentopoli to buy alchemical materials, so she’d never had the chance to see them off personally.
“You might’ve gotten kidnapped too if you’d been at the mansion then,” Scorpion said.
“Yeah…” Millene agreed weakly.
“That’s why we returned in such a hurry…but I suppose it was unnecessary.” Mira tossed the mask back onto the bed and chuckled at the fallen men on the floor.
“I see. So, these are the pursuers.” Snake returned her metal rod to the table, prompting the gagged man to nod vigorously in confirmation. But when Snake took an odd pair of scissors in hand, he immediately began to struggle again.
“Wanna take that out? I think he’s had enough.” Scorpion looked down at the writhing man and pointed at his mouth.
Snake snipped the scissors a couple of times, then nodded and looked coldly at him. He fell totally silent, then bobbed his head a couple times in a pleading way.
“I suppose.” It was obvious by now that he’d yielded, so Snake squatted down and removed the gag from his mouth.
“I’ll tell you everything I know! Give you anything you need! Please, please, just no more!” He must have suffered quite a bit before Mira’s return. But right after he said it, the gag was stuffed back into his mouth.
“Silence. You’re too loud,” Snake thrust the scissors forward.
The man kept his eyes fixed on the shears as he nodded once.
“I thought she was the quiet type. This is…unexpected.” Mira was surprised by Snake’s unusual intensity. The situation and her scant clothing made this all very exciting.
“She used to hate doing interrogations, y’know…” Scorpion said.
When Scorpion’d first met Snake, the girl’s personality was as plain as her looks. But she wasn’t unsociable by any means, and she had a talent for absorbing anything she was told.
When interrogation became necessary as part of her work, the inexperienced Snake would usually leave it to a professional. Unfortunately, that professional had a problematic style of interrogation. Scorpion stared off into the distance with glazed eyes and laughed at the memory.
Still, Snake took an interest in the art form and learned all kinds of methods, which eventually led to her current style.
During the conversation, Mira glanced at Snake and happened to hear the man say, “I will not disobey you, milady,” as she stepped on him with a bare foot.
“There’s another pervert among us,” Mira muttered with a smirk. Is it just me, or does this seem more like a fetish than an interrogation?
Scorpion added that, when there were two captives, Snake would usually make an example of the gagged one. But the truth was she did nothing inhumane; the tools on the table were all just for show. After terrifying them out of their wits and making them scream, she would put them to sleep with a drug.
But Scorpion refused to say how Snake actually made them scream. She simply murmured that Snake was “a skilled operator,” then clammed up, blushing. After learning all this about Snake’s exploits and hearing the man promise to be Snake’s slave, Mira decided to change the subject.
“First things first, I believe we’d best relocate.”
Despite everything, the pursuers had done no harm; in fact, they had become two valuable sources of information. Mira wanted to question them at length, but the enemy already knew they were here. They needed to move before Chimera sent more people.
Scorpion glanced at the sleeping man. Her mouth twitched and she backed away as he groaned slightly. “Let’s do that. I bet we’ve got lots of stuff to ask them.”
“I’ll move them to the King’s Hideout. Mira and Scorpion, you two go rescue the family,” Snake said curtly. She summoned a humanoid golem with her necromancy.
The golem took the sleeping man in its arms and tossed him into the hollow in the back of its own body. The other man gazed up at it, quivering in fear.
“It’s only a transport golem. Don’t struggle,” Snake ordered.
The man straightened his spine immediately and replied, “Yes, milady, I won’t!” It seemed she had broken him completely.
Once he’d been thrown into the golem too, Snake turned to Millene and asked, “Inside or outside? Choose.” Her words were as terse as ever, so it took Millene a moment to understand—or perhaps misunderstand. She began to blush for some reason.
“O-outside, please!” she screamed.
“Fine,” Snake replied. Her golem cradled Millene in its arms, and Snake picked up her bag and climbed onto its back.
“Oh, that’s what you meant…” Millene blushed again and curled up in the golem’s arms, embarrassed.
“Leave them to me,” Snake said to her partners.
“Good luck,” Mira answered, looking up at Snake.
The necromancer nodded and jumped from the window.
After seeing her off, Scorpion took her suitcase in hand and leapt onto the veranda. “Now, let’s go on that rescue mission!”
But Mira stopped her and asked, “Should we leave the room like this? It’s a disaster.”
This was an inn room, after all. Mira’s responsible side reared its head; surely they couldn’t simply leave it such a mess?
“Yeaaah.” Scorpion stopped, sighed, and slumped over. It seemed her plan had been to use the momentum of the moment to escape before anyone noticed.
They could no longer use this room as a base, since the enemy knew about it. They also had no plans to return once they left, so it would be faster to leave it as it was. And though it would be annoying for the inn staff, the damage was the fault of the enemy who’d attacked them.
But…it also wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t stayed there, and anyway, the inn would only care that their room had been trashed, not whose fault it was.
Scorpion knew that too. Once they’d made a decision, she acted quickly and headed straight for the lobby. Mira used her Biometric Scan to confirm nobody else was lying in wait and then followed.
In the lobby, a very apologetic Scorpion bowed to a very annoyed inn employee. Mira pretended not to know her as she watched from afar.
Estimating the damages would take some time. If they just waited here, more Chimera Clausen pursuers would no doubt come after them. They could evade pursuit with total concealment, but they would likely be seen before they used it, which might make the rescue effort more difficult.
Scorpion opted to skip the wait and instead paid a hefty sum from her own pocket to cover any repairs.
“Oh, don’t worry.” Mira put a hand on the sad Scorpion’s back and consoled her. “You can get it reimbursed as a necessary expense once this is all over. I’ll vouch for you.”
“I guess… Thanks…”
At the same time, Mira had to admire Snake, who had trashed the room and made a smooth escape.
***
“That reminds me, where is this ‘King’s Hideout’?” Mira asked Scorpion as they made their way through the sleepless city back toward the Melville compound.
When Snake had said she’d take the Chimera goons there, she’d acted like Mira and Scorpion would understand. Mira hadn’t paid it much mind at the time, but looking back, she had no idea what she was talking about.
“Uh, well, you know that company Agent S said he was talking to? Turns out they were willing to let us use an underground room in their head office.”
“I see. Perfect for an interrogation.”
Ebatess Commerce, a company that rivaled the Chimera-affiliated Melville Commerce, would be an ideal ally. Even Chimera Clausen would find it challenging to raid their underground office.
Mira didn’t know why it had been given a name like King’s Hideout, but she did have to mentally praise Solomon for his good work.
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