Reborn as the Hero's Daughter

Chapter 280: Nicole’s Special Questioning

Since Maxwell held the summoner at bay, I managed to calmly defeat the Devil. As expected, having an ally around really made battles easier.

Similarly, Maxwell’s situation also improved. Having lost his trump card, the magician started to grow impatient. That stirred him to make rush attacks, which created big openings.

True to his skill, Maxwell wasn’t one to miss those openings. The man put so far the highest amount of magic power into his spell and produced a giant Fire Javelin.

It clashed with Maxwell’s earth wall and caused a large explosion. That created a tempest of destruction far surpassing anything until then. However, that explosion also made him lose sight of Maxwell.

As the dust and flames settled after the destruction of the wall, there was no sight of Maxwell there.

“He’s gone? Kahahaha! No way he could have escaped that explosion. It seems that even a Six Hero was no opponent to my spells!” “I have to say, my skills have not dulled to that extent yet.”

I, who was observing their battle from the outside, noticed it. The moment the man’s Fire Javelin destroyed the wall, the old man used Conceal.

And after the explosion settled down, he probably calmly made his way behind the man.

He appeared behind him and quickly constructed a magic circle. Hearing a voice, the mang turned around in a fluster.

There, he saw Maxwell who had already finished constructing his magic circle. The man tried to reflexively attack with a spell, but he couldn’t possibly beat Maxwell to it.

“Damn you!? Crimson eight—” “Stun Bolt.” “Gyapii!?” “…You are slow. And your choice of spells is naive too.”

Even from the perspective of an amateur magician like me, the man’s blunder was obvious. The first was that he used too much magic power.

It would be one thing if he could output as much power as Maxwell and blow everything surrounding the target to dust, but his half-baked attack simply caused him to lose sight of the target.

The second was that he tried to use attack magic after having his back taken by surprise. After the enemy was so close, it was far better to attempt a physical attack. Maxwell wasn’t good at hand-to-hand combat, either, so he would’ve had a better chance of succeeding with that method.

And the third blunder. That was for him to try to use Fire Javelin reflexively. He would’ve had a better chance of success if he tried to take a diversionary action and flee, rather than try to defeat him then and there.

Then again, it was doubtful whether he could beat Maxwell who had already finished his circle to the punch even if he had chosen a spell with a shorter chant.

After all those blunders stacked together, the man could do naught but take Maxwell’s Stun Bolt head-on.

This spell paralyzed the opponent, restraining their movements.

That said, it wouldn’t show any effect if the opponent had Resist cast on them, so it was a pretty sink or swim spell.

The man continued to twitch even after he became numb and lost consciousness. I used my threads to tie him up.

These threads couldn’t be removed with half-hearted spells or other methods.

“Maxwell, good work.”

I said while tying up the man. Maxwell also returned my words.

“It was nothing much. I am more impressed you managed to defeat that Devil on your own.” “It had a bad affinity with my magic, but not with my Gift.”

Threads against tentacles. After being on the same stage, what decided the outcome was battle experience, physical ability and the number of trump cards.

I beat it in every aspect other than physical ability, so it was natural that I won.

“Now… I suppose we have to get some information out of this fellow.” “He had a loose mouth, but he didn’t reveal anything important.”

Contrary to how much he talked, he didn’t say anything about the supplier of the sacrifices. But there should have been someone who was connected to the suppliers. We could approach the sacrifice-related problems of the northern parts from there.

“First we have to wake him up… Awake.”

As the name said, this spell forced the fainted targets to awaken. When the target had received great damage, however, they could once again faint right after awakening, so it would be pointless to cast.

In this case, the man had simply lost consciousness due to Stun Bolt, so that wouldn’t happen.

“Gnhh…”

The man started twisting around while being bound by threads as he awakened. Seeing that, Maxwell took off his distance from me.

“Reid, I leave the rest to you. I will go detoxify the children in the meantime.” “Yeah, leave this to me.”

That said, I wasn’t very good at torture… I mean, questioning. In my previous life, I often settled bothersome situations through brute force. That is, by killing.

But I was different now.

After obtaining a new power called magic, I now had the means to deal pain without damaging the body too much.

First, I dropped down his pants, leaving his lower half exposed.

“W-What are you planning to do!? I have no sexual interest in young girls!” “When did I say I was going to torture you that way? This is just a preliminary arrangement. If you spill everything now, I will stop and simply hand you over to the authorities without hurting you.” “Wait, that would just get me killed anyway!” “So you were aware that you were doing something deserving capital punishment. Good to know.”

I continued preparations while I talked.

I exposed his ugly this and that, and coiled threads around them. I could just lop it off… But that would only amount to one-time pain.

But I decided to use my newly-learned spell instead.

“Warm, The Failure Edition.” “GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?”

The Mythril threads that became excessively hot started to scorch his epidermis. Since they were metallic, they could conduct the heat quite well.

And so began the torture.

That said, it did not take long before the man had succumbed.