EWEML 29

Chapter 29

Dielo gestured.

“Prepare everything as the Sister requested.”

There was not the slightest hint of coercion in his words.

Yet the people from the Intelligence Department immediately sprang into action. It was as though a knife were pressed against their throats.

I sensed something strange about it.

Before becoming Argenta, surely she hadn’t written some kind of contract that said, “If you disobey me, you’ll burn to death”…

Then there was only one possibility.

Dielo had them completely under his control.

But how?

“Crua?”

However, whenever our eyes met, Dielo merely looked up at me with his soft, pale-blue eyes.

…Could someone this gentle really do that?

“Let’s go.”

When our eyes met, he smiled beautifully, completely unaware of what I was thinking.

Crua Alloze, the wicked woman.

Dielo had heard the rumors about her.

Although she possessed only weak innate abilities, her temperament was said to be extremely vicious.

It was already a well-known story that she had drowned the servants of the Alloze family simply because they had looked down on her for having weak water-manipulation abilities.

And she hadn’t done it with her own water-manipulation ability.

If they look down on me, doesn’t that mean they’re effectively looking down on the blood of the Alloze family?

She knew very well what kind of blood flowed through her veins.

So she had manipulated the servants into drowning those who had disrespected her, using the very hands of the people who had looked down on her.

Interesting.

It was said that the Duke of Alloze, who could not stand seeing his authority diminished, had found the scene merely interesting.

The cunning Duke of Alloze and his illegitimate daughter, too preoccupied with enjoying the privileges of her position.

That was the image of Crua Alloze that Dielo Argenta knew.

Or rather, that was the image of Crua Alloze he had heard about until now.

But then…

I’ll teach you.

The Crua he had seen before their marriage was completely different from the rumors.

Contrary to what he had heard, she was actually a lovely woman.

And on top of that…

…I need to practice pretending to be bad a little more.

Dielo almost laughed as he remembered what she had said on the beach.

What am I supposed to do with this innocent Sister?

He had to wonder.

He had thought that seeing this new side of his bride, who had been rumored to be nothing but a wicked woman, would be the end of his surprises.

But apparently, that wasn’t the case.

Dielo looked at Crua standing in front of the bathtub.

“Listen carefully. From now on, the space you’re in is going to slowly fill with water.”

The two traitors were forced to kneel inside a bathtub large enough for a person to swim in.

Heavy rocks had been tied to their bodies so that they would not be able to float even after the tub was filled with water.

Their mouths were free.

Only their hands and feet were restrained.

Dielo wasn’t surprised by the sight.

If it was Crua, he had assumed that she would at least know how to torture someone.

“More than one person wanted to go to Cartiel. To avoid suspicion, you planned to leave one by one in a predetermined order. That means…”

Crua’s eyes were shining as she looked at the people kneeling inside the bathtub.

Dielo quietly watched her.

Those weren’t the eyes of a foolish person abusing power simply because she trusted her position.

They were the eyes of an intelligent person who knew exactly what she could accomplish with her abilities.

“You communicated with each other and decided on an order in advance, didn’t you?”

Moreover, contrary to the rumors that she merely enjoyed acting tyrannically, her mind was remarkably sharp.

“…!”

The two traitors flinched at Crua’s words.

“Turn on the water.”

Crua gestured.

The members of the Intelligence Department looked toward Dielo.

Should we obey her command?

They had been looking at Dielo every time Crua gave an order.

Should we take care of it ourselves?

It had been the same when these men were brought in earlier.

As always, if he had told them to handle it themselves, they would have interrogated them using Argenta’s methods.

That was the standard procedure.

The Intelligence Department still didn’t know what kind of person Crua was, while Crua herself knew little about Argenta. They probably assumed that she wouldn’t be able to handle the interrogation efficiently.

So naturally, they kept seeking Dielo’s permission each time.

But Dielo found that strangely irritating.

Let the Sister do as she wishes. She said she would show us something.

In the end, he whispered the words without making a sound.

The members of the Intelligence Department understood what he meant.

Unlike the gentle image people had of him, the intelligence agents were the ones who knew his cold nature best.

Since he had said this, they understood that he meant:

Don’t ask me again whether you should carry out Crua’s orders.

—Splash!

Water began filling the bathtub.

“…!”

At first, the traitors had scoffed.

But as the water level gradually rose, they began to hesitate.

Only then did they realize that the bathtub was much deeper than they had expected.

And that they could actually drown in it.

“T-This…!”

“The water on the side that names a traitor will decrease little by little. The water that decreases will move to the other side.”

Water naturally flows from a higher place to a lower one.

But…

When Crua raised her hand and released her water-manipulation ability, the water began moving as though it were forming a specific shape.

—Splash!

The water, controlled by her ability, instantly flowed over the wall and moved back and forth between the two traitors.

“…!”

At Crua’s calm words, the traitors looked at each other.

The water had already risen to their chests.

And the rocks tied to their bodies were only getting heavier.

—Whoosh!

While they hesitated, the water rose to their chins.

“Are you going to keep your mouths shut?”

Was she planning to drain the water because she couldn’t actually kill them?

Dielo watched Crua with interest.

But instead…

—Gurgle!

Crua turned the water on even more forcefully.

“!”

As the current swirled violently around them, fear began filling the traitors’ eyes.

How much time had passed?

“I-Ilian!”

Ilian was the name of one of the knights.

—Trickle…

The rate at which the water rose on the side of the person who had shouted the name noticeably slowed down.

And just as the water began rushing toward the other side—

“Ante! There’s also someone named Antera!”

A name came from the other side.

Crua immediately poured the water back toward the person who had shouted “Ilian.”

In an instant, the water rose, covering the nose and mouth of the traitor, who began making muffled gurgling sounds.

It was certainly an effective method of interrogation.

Especially because it stimulated fear, desperation, and the instinct to survive.

…But.

“…?”

At some point, Dielo stopped looking at the traitors.

He was looking at Crua.

More precisely, he was looking at the fist she had clenched tightly.

At her trembling hand.

In particular, every time the lives of the traitors became endangered beneath the water, she clenched her fist tightly.

…As if she had never actually played with someone’s life before.

Dielo’s eyes sparkled.

This was yet another new side of her.

The interrogation method Crua had used in the original story wasn’t as difficult as I had expected.

All I had to do was control the water.

“Gurgle!”

Still, seeing someone’s face as they were actually dying right in front of me was bound to make me nervous.

But…

If I don’t stay calm, I’ll die.

With that thought in mind, I continued interrogating the traitors.

“T-There are no more!”

“It’s true!”

Thanks to that, it took me less than ten minutes to learn all the names of the traitors.

Because they could see the water being drained every time someone gave a name, the traitors eagerly competed to spill information.

“So there are thirteen of them?”

I turned toward the members of Argenta’s Intelligence Department.

I was asking whether they had written everything down properly.

The agent who met my eyes bowed respectfully.

—Slash!

I created a sharp blade out of the water and cut the ropes binding the traitors and the rocks together.

Then I let them raise their faces above the surface.

“Gasp!”

“Haaah!”

The two traitors hurriedly inhaled.

Their faces and even their lips had turned pale, probably from a lack of oxygen.

I turned toward Dielo.

“We don’t know if there might be more information to uncover, so I didn’t kill them yet.”

It was my first time actually doing something like this, so I was nervous too.

But I couldn’t let it show.

I forced myself to maintain a calm expression and placed a hand on Dielo’s shoulder.

“If there’s anything else you want to ask, go ahead.”

“…Me? Personally?”

Dielo carefully asked back.

I nodded.

“Yes. You’re the head of the family, after all.”

Dielo needed to get used to conducting interrogations.

He couldn’t just stand there watching everything with those surprised eyes.

“I’ll try, Crua.”

Dielo tightly held my hand, as if he were nervous.

No matter how I looked at him, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was staining a person who was as pure as a blank sheet of paper.

But what could I do?

It was probably better for him to survive covered in stains than to be torn apart while remaining a blank sheet of paper.

“Good. Then I’ll go get some rest for a while.”

I coolly walked outside.

“I will accompany you, Madam.”

Pielle had somehow followed right behind me.

I nodded.

Even though I had just used my water-manipulation ability, I didn’t feel particularly exhausted.

Perhaps because compared to the time I had moved the sea, this was practically no different from moving a basin of water.

“Hmm.”

I looked back at the room where Dielo was.

The room was well soundproofed, so no noise escaped outside.

…Should I stay beside Dielo?

I wondered whether Dielo would really be able to interrogate the traitors properly with those innocent blue eyes of his.

“No.”

I shook my head and continued walking.

You need to become stronger, Dielo!

I could feel Pielle looking at me questioningly, but I didn’t bother explaining.

Dielo wasn’t some baby bird, after all.

He was also the head of a family.

Surely he could handle something like this.

Even if he was awkward at interrogations, the Intelligence Department would take care of things.

“There is somewhere I need to go.”

Instead, I quickened my pace.

We were in the annex of the Argenta estate.

“Where shall I take you?”

Pielle asked.

I answered without hesitation.

“The first floor of the main building.”

There had definitely been knights from the Fourth Floor there before we went to capture Mirta.

Were they still there?

Why had Dielo specifically stationed the Fourth Floor knights there?

I intended to find out.