Chapter 20: Talents Only I Can Recognize. Hidden gems (6)

 

In the second day as the commander of the supply unit I received a report that Zint was awake. He woke up exactly five hours after he had passed out. In other words, [Crush] stun effect lasts 5 hours.

I took a quick shower and headed to the prisoner’s barracks. Seeing that he’s trapped, it seems he doesn’t have the skills to break the chains. Besides, I’m now ready to use [Crush] again at any time.

As soon as I walked in, Zint and I looked at each other, and the standoff continued for a while. Is this a real war of nerves? No, there was no point in doing this.

“Did you sleep well?”

I stopped the nonsense and asked him a question. But Zint just kept staring at me and didn’t answer.

“You should stop staring at me like that. Let’s have a little chat. I have a very high opinion of your martial prowess.”

He remained silent. I tried to talk to him many times, but he didn’t respond. Zint closed his eyes.

The soldier who was dozing off in the back of the room opened his mouth as if my voice had awakened him.

“He’s not very talkative to begin with. I can talk to him for you, if you promise to let me go!”

“Not talkative?”

“Yeah. He didn’t said a single word in his unit.”

I see. So he was naturally like that.

“You can talk about anything?”

“Let me go and I’ll tell you anything you want to know!”

Then I need to change my purpose first, from recruitment to interrogation.

“I can spare your life, but I can also kill you right now.”

I pulled the sword from my waistband and held it at the soldier’s neck.

“Heeeeeeeee! Please. Spare me!”

The soldier was shaking and screaming. A soldier who fell off his horse just as he was about to run away, he looked cowardly, unlike the other nine. Well, it’s easier to interrogate him that way.

“Be honest. What is the purpose of the reconnaissance team? What is your unit preparing to do?”

“It’s…..”

“Listen, if you try to use your wits, you’ll die in a heartbeat.”

To prove that I meant what I said, I brought the tip of my sword even closer to the soldier’s neck. Blood oozed lightly from his neck.

“I don’t know all the details, but it sounds like they’re preparing a surprise attack, so we were told to do some reconnaissance.”

“Surprise attack? This supply base?”

“That’s all I’ve heard, I’m just a scout. That’s all I know just put the sword away.”

It is rather suspicious that a civilian soldier knows so many details. It could be false information, or it could be real information. Another posibility is that these soldiers were sent on a reconnaissance mission after being given false information by the commanders of the Narja Army, even though they thought it was true.

Of course, there is a great possibility that the story of the surprise attack is real. As a result of my reconnaissance yesterday, I found that there was a detour from Ganen Castle to this supply base without going through Linon Castle.

If the Narja Royal Army, which was advancing to attack Ganen Castle, were to figure out this route, they might try to take the supply base by surprise. Should they succeed in the surprise attack, the fighting castles of Ganen and Bern would be in a food crisis.

Even if they built supply routes elsewhere, they could starve for several days. That would lower morale especially if the enemy occupies this supply base, it will not be easy to build other supply routes.

It is not an unbelievable story. Of course, the fact that they dared to send a reconnaissance team to the base in a conspicuous manner is suspicious. It’s as if they wanted us to take them prisoners and make them confess. Is this a deliberate attempt to announce a surprise attack?