𝒐𝓋𝑙xt.𝐜𝚘𝓂

“Let me take a page from you as well and tell you this.” In response to Valyr’s question, the butcher let out a slightly maniacal laugh before proceeding to spit in the former’s direction. “Do you really think I’d tell you that easily?”

“Of course not.” Hearing the butcher’s response, Valyr lightly shook his head. Sending a message to Douglas through the party chat to make sure that the immediate vicinity had no other people in the area, Valyr then leaned closer to the butcher’s face and slightly tilted his head to the side before giving a mocking grin beneath the dark fabric. “However…”

“There are ways for me to make it easier.”

“Arrgghhhh!!!” Just as Valyr was finished saying those words, Tryndall went ahead and removed the saber near the butcher’s throat. After that, he landed a swift slash on the butcher’s torso, making sure that the wound he inflicted was surface level at most.

As the butcher cried out in pain from his attack, Tryndall wondered for a brief moment if what they were doing was right. After all, what he was doing right now was, for the lack of a better term, straight up torture.

However, after recalling the numerous innocent people that had died not only under the butcher’s hands, but under the hands of the other four suspects as well, Tryndall swiftly discarded this thought as his gaze grew determined, landing yet another shallow slash on the butcher’s torso soon after.

“So, will you tell us what we want to know?” Amidst the pain Tryndall was inflicting on the butcher with his saber, Valyr’s voice resounded throughout the area once more.

Surprisingly, even though the butcher experienced a lot of pain from what Tryndall was doing, the man regained a bit of clarity amidst the pain before looking at Valyr with great fury. “Over my dead body.”

“Over your dead body, huh? That’s a great idea.” However, rather than be offended by the butcher’s words, Valyr instead twisted the butcher’s words in a way where he would benefit from it as he let out a chuckle.

With Valyr raising his spear, which allowed the butcher to see the blood red spear tip from up close, it was only at that moment did the butcher’s feeling of fear from earlier intensify to greater heights.

Compounded by the fact that Tryndall had not stopped inflicting surface level wounds on the man’s body, sending wave after wave of pain that dulled the butcher’s mind, the butcher eventually broke down just as Valyr had partly moved his spear closer to him.

“Please…! Please stop! I’ll tell you…. I’ll tell you what you need to know…!” As these words escaped the butcher’s mouth, tears streamed down the sides of the man’s face, prompting Tryndall to stop what he was doing and look at Valyr.

In response, Valyr looked at the butcher for a bit before giving Tryndall a light nod, prompting the latter to move his saber away from the butcher’s vision.

“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Flashing a smile towards the butcher, even though his smile was covered by the dark fabric on his face, Valyr went ahead and started interrogating the butcher. “Before we begin, can you tell us your name?”

“Antoine… It’s Antoine…” Wanting to get this nightmare quickly over with, the butcher swiftly answered Valyr’s question.

Nodding in response, Valyr then asked through the party chat if the butcher was telling the truth regarding his name, with Douglas responding that he was not long after.

After asking a few more questions to Antoine to ascertain whether he was telling the truth to them or not, Valyr eventually asked him the question that all of them wanted to know the answer to.

“So, Antoine. Are you and four other people the Clossbay Killer?”

“Yes… we’re all the Clossbay Killer…” In response, Antoine swiftly answered Valyr’s question, though it took the threat of Tryndall’s saber to speed up his answer.

“Mind explaining why the five of you decided to kill a person each the previous week at the same time, even though the Clossbay Killer was known to only kill a single one from time to time?” As this question escaped Valyr’s mouth, Antoine went silent for a bit before responding.

“We were told to do so… back then, it was only one out of the five of us that would do it… but then, we were told all of a sudden to kill five at the same time…”

Hearing Antoine’s response, Valyr raised his eyebrow in curiosity as he briefly glanced at Tryndall. After asking Douglas if he was recording the conversation through a memory crystal the entire time, Valyr then proceeded to clarify the information Antoine had just given them.

“You were told to do so? That means none of you did it out of your own accord?”

“We were forced… if not, we’d be banished from the city… none of us wanted to do it…” Saying these words, Antoine started to sob once more, prompting Valyr and Tryndall to think that the question had brought up some unsavory memories for the man.

Nevertheless, with Antoine clarifying the situation a bit more, Valyr eventually asked the question that he and Tryndall knew would bring them closer to the truth.

“Since none of you wanted to do it, then who was forcing you five to do it?” At this question, Antoine went silent. For a while, he would open his mouth, only to stop at the very moment as he hesitated on whether to tell Valyr and Tryndall what they wanted to know.

Even threatening to inflict more pain on Antoine’s body was ineffective for the latter, prompting the two to think that the question they had asked was seemingly more important than they initially thought.

Fortunately for them, Antoine eventually made up his mind on what to do as he let out a sigh. Opening his mouth, he then told the two a statement that both of them would have never expected to hear.

“It was the city… the city that sheltered us… they forced us to do this…”

Ding!

[You have received a city quest: The Clossbay Conspiracy.]