187 Chapter 187: Extracting Information (2/2)
The Dark Church had really planned everything out.
”Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
The Dark Church priest was rolling on the floor laughing. Literally. I mean, he was tied up, so…
”Are you sure you should be dawdling in a place like this?” he sneered with a scornful smile. ”If you don't look for the Goblins immediately, this city will be in huge trouble, you know?”
I glanced at him with narrowed eyes. Even though the holographic text mentioned that the Goblins were underground, they didn't specify the exact location. They could be in the sewers, but obviously the sewers ran throughout the city. There was also more than one underground facility. Even though we had narrowed it to underground, it would still be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
”I don't suppose you'll be willing to tell us where the Goblins are.”
”Why do you think I'll possess that knowledge?” the priest shrugged. ”The grand plans of the higher-ups are not for one as lowly as I to know.”
He had a point. The higher-ups might have withheld the knowledge from anyone they deemed as not significant enough to know, so as to minimize the chances of leaks.
”But you must have some idea,” Ana said coolly. There was something in her voice that had the priest tense and sweat profusely.
”No. I swear, they never told me anything! I'm just a grunt!”
”I suppose you are…but why did they give you all this data then? What did they expect you to do with all this data? Hmm?” Anastasia knelt beside the priest, a cold smile on her face. ”Isn't it to prepare the route for the Goblins? To ensure that they get into the city's bowels undetected? You must have been instructed to disrupt communications, divert traffic and personnel or close off certain underground sections.”
The priest's face was pale now, but he thinned his lips. Avoiding her eyes, he maintained his silence. Anastasia had evidently pushed a button in him somehow and he was desperately clamping his lips shut.
He probably was wishing he had learned how to terminate his own life like Adeline did.
”Do you mind starting from there?” Anastasia asked, her voice dripping with forced sweetness. The guy shut his eyes and trembled, but he looked resigned to his fate.
Even so, he was determined not to crumble.
Anastasia raised an eyebrow. ”A stubborn one, aren't you? That's okay. You'll eventually tell me everything I want to know.”
She then took out a vial of purplish liquid. The guy blinked and stared at her incredulously. Then he smiled, almost as if in relief.
”You're going to poison me? Then threaten me with the antidote? Just kill me already.”
I recalled that Anastasia was from the Veneneum Sect, Assassins who specialized in poison techniques. It made sense that she would be relying on poisons, but somehow I doubted that. Not unless those toxins caused excruciating agony that would turn a man mad and have him desperately beg for the antidote.
”Nothing so inelegant,” Anastasia replied cheerfully. I cocked my head to the side. Upon catching sight of my reaction, she snorted. ”What's the matter, Richard? Did you expect me to pull out a knife and start stabbing him? To cut off his fingers? Then grab a few healing potions to heal him before cutting him up again? That's so inefficient and time-consuming. We don't have enough time to break him, not if we want to find those Goblins before they hit the city. And I don't want to accidentally kill him before he can spill what we need to know.”
”Couldn't we just find the information from reading all the data here?” I asked dryly. ”Instead of wasting time with interrogation and some stupid torture scene from a badly written web novel that somehow got an anime adaptation?”
Anastasia ignored my jab. ”Go ahead and read the whole thing and tell me if you find anything else. Search for any data pertaining to what I had just said about underground facilities, diversion of traffic, closing off sections, etc. That should give us a good place to start.”
”I understand.” I complied immediately, sifting through the multiple holographic windows and hoping to locate any sort of clues. Though wouldn't it be faster if she searched the data with me?
Ana must have caught the look on my face, for she smiled sinisterly.
”Don't worry, I intend to cut down the time taken to extract the relevant information. After all, it'll be faster if he tells us everything immediately rather than us looking through every text and file for them.”
”Do you think I'll tell you anything?” the priest taunted. Some distance away, Adeline appeared as if she was sighing in resignation before she turned to look away in disgust at the priest's bravado. She must have some idea what the liquid in Anastasia's vials was.
”You will, after drinking this.” Grabbing the guy's chin, Ana forced his head up and his mouth open before plunging the vial into it. The guy choked and struggled, tears streaming from his eyes, but Ana forced him to swallow it. After a while, she yanked the vial out and allowed the priest to crash onto the ground, gagging and coughing uncontrollably.
”W…what did you make me drink?!” he gasped. Anastasia smiled darkly.
”A truth serum,” she replied simply before patting his shoulder. The priest flinched, but she ignored his reaction. ”Now, shall we begin again? You must have some idea where the goblins are right now.”
”Y…y...yes…”
Despite himself, the priest spluttered an affirmative in a most unwilling manner.
”Very good.” Anastasia rewarded him with another smile. ”Now, can you start listing them, beginning from the most probable location?”
His eyes bulging in rage and helplessness, the priest began rambling and pouring everything out.