Chapter 149

149 Chapter 149: Interrogating Barren

Upon Frost and Findlay’s arrival the two dwarven guards saluted by slamming their fists against their chests. One was a bit too gung-ho and hit himself too hard, knocking the wind out if his chest, he coughed a little. The usually funny antics did little to alter the cold expression Frost had on his face. Findlay by his side just shook his head but kept his tongue. He could feel the anger building in his master.

Frost was in a foul mood; the painful training was part of it but the more he thought about dealing with this adventurer the more annoyed he got. This person and his party killed his polar bear, heavily injured Findlay, and tortured his cute artic horned rabbits plus they also scared away all of his potential victims for an entire 24 hours. The really annoying thing however was that he’d have to restrain his anger. If he killed the man now sure he’d get a fair amount of DP but that wasn’t worth the long term gains. The man being locked up in this room was dishing out 300DP a day, a substantial income that Frost didn’t want to lose.

Frost reached to open the sealed door but stopped part way. ‘I’m too angry right now huuu huuuu deep breaths deeeeep breaths.’ Frost tried to calm himself down slightly.

The man though injured was still a fairly accomplished D-rank fighter, as long as his body didn’t deteriorate further, he could survive for a couple weeks, even without food, water however he’d need to find some way to force it down his throat. When faced with a slow agonising death, ideas of suicide would come to the forefront of a person’s mind. Frost needed to prevent that, either by chaining him up tightly and gagging his mouth or provide some sort of promise that’d he allow the man to live after a certain period of time. Shame is Frost wasn’t a fan of lies and wouldn’t demean himself for an enemy.

That leaves forcibly sustaining the man. Frost lacked the methods to make him eat but drinking was possible, it’d be rough and painful, however, an added bonus. Frost couldn’t help but snigger in an evil way as those images came to mind. Psychological torture can be far worse than just physical.

Calming down his emotions and returning to a cold stoic expression, Frost opened the door and entered, Findlay followed close behind. Locking the door behind them, it’d be a waste to remove that tasty triple DP intake.

Barren had been sitting incredibly still ever since Frost forced him to drink that low level health potion, his mind however was going crazy. Everything about his current situation was wrong, why was he alive. Their group entered a monster lair and battled against a horde of fairly high ranked monsters but yet here he was chained up and breathing. Monsters didn’t behave like this not even frost trolls with their little intelligence, he should have been eaten- not that he was complaining about that part. He remembered being dragged roughly to this room once the fight was over, he was barely conscious and in serious pain, and was prepared to die with fury in his heart but the reaper never came.

As the hours continued and he remained awake for longer periods of time he became frightened, terrified even. Then came an unknown person, he never saw their face, but their footsteps sounded human and without warning he was forced to drink some kind of potion. At that point he believed it was some kind of agonising poison that would inflict ungodly pain through his body or turn him into some sort of animal. There were monsters with high intelligence after all that liked to use poisons and experiment of people, liches in particular. But this monster lair didn’t house a single undead, eventually however he felt the potion heal some of his wounds, preventing his death and was relieved then he was knocked out.

When he came to next some herb infused cloths were over his more prominent wounds and he could finally feel a modicum of strength return to his limbs.

.....

‘Have I been saved?’ This thought ate away at him as he slowly healed, his fear becoming hope and then gratitude but that changed when he saw who was watching over him and treating his wounds. A frost dwarf, a monster. This horror of being an experiment came back and this time it wouldn’t leave.

His entire body now trembled at the slightest sound and his hair started to turn white from extreme stress, he leaked urine where he sat. When Frost and Findlay entered the room and closed the door, he yelped in fear. His eyes staring in their direction, bloodshot and unfocused.

“Eh? What the hell happened to him?’ Frost looked over at Barren with confusion, he’d given him a health potion 14 hours ago or so and hadn’t sent anyone to torture him. However, it appeared as though the man was plagued with terrifying nightmares for weeks, Frost even felt his anger dissipate. His job seemed to have already been done, how boring.

“Tsk” Frost audibly clicked his tongue before marching over towards Barren with forceful steps. He kicked the man in the legs when he arrived, not too hard but just enough for Barren to focus his eyes.

“Whatever happened to the man that was screaming revenge and insulting my monsters huh?” Frost asked mockingly, growing more annoyed the longer he looked at the shrivelling husk of a man that sat before him.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiii” Barren simply screamed in fear, he still hadn’t gotten a look at Frost so assumed he was a monster with intelligence, likely the one here to torture him. He backed up against the wall as much as he could, doing his best to lengthen the distance between him and Frost.

“Look at me!” Frost spoke with a commanding tone, releasing his pseudo aura upon Barren. In fear Barren listened to Frost, focusing his gaze, and looking up at his face.

“Eh?” He was stunned, this person wasn’t a monster he was a young male elf. Barren’s body suddenly relaxed a great deal, his fear receding almost instantly. As long as it wasn’t a monster his circumstances wouldn’t be too bad, and he could even negotiate his release.

“Hoh suddenly got backbone again I wonder why?” Frost slapped Barren across the face. Just because he looked like an elf didn’t mean that Barren’s situation was going to be any better. In fact, the sapient races are far more terrifying than monsters. The things they do to one another could be considered ungodly. Blood dripped from Barren’s lip from where he was struck, he felt anger once again but kept his tongue. Findlay was still out of sight but seeing his master slap Barren across the face brought a smile to his face.

“You killed my polar bear, my dwarves and even injured my frost troll.” Frost spoke with a severe chill in his voice, his eyes spitting fury as he spoke, he appeared truly enraged but internally he was actually having fun.

‘God damn playing the bad guy is really exhilarating.’

“Eh? You’re polar bear what do you mean this is a...”

Slap!

Frost slapped Barren with his other hand, shutting his mouth.

“Did I say you could speak!” His voice was louder and filled with anger, almost a roar. Barren quivered and kept his mouth shut, his recently relaxed body becoming tense once again.

“Who are you and why are you here?” Barren looked up at Frost nervous about opening his mouth again, but eventually seeing Frost getting ready to slap him once again he started talking.

“B....Barren my name is Barren.” He spoke every syllable with caution.

“Barren....well Barren why are you here?” Frost didn’t really care; the answer probably wasn’t anything important, but he felt on a roll playing the whole interrogation route.

“The Sanguine Snakes, my adventurer party were ordered to investigate this monster lair.”

“Hmmmm orders to investigate this lair, who and why?” Frost’s interest was piqued. The standard adventurer investigation should have been completed already so why another one?

Barren seemed to gain a little confidence before speaking his next words.

“We work for Baron Adam Furano, he ordered us to investigate what happened to his subordinate Alex.” Barren’s words caused Frost’s expression to freeze, his lips twitching in disbelief.

“Eh?”

‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’ Frost couldn’t believe the coincidence, no this must be some kind of fate, that intertwined him, and anyone related to that Baron. He laughed internally but his face appeared shocked. Barren saw this and believed he had some leverage, granting him incredible confidence.

‘That’s right who in this area doesn’t know of Baron Adam hahahaha, this fool, I’ll exaggerate my importance and have him willingly let me go’

“Yes, that Baron Adam, the one who rules Furano, he’s my boss and not someone you want to mess with.” Barren smiled, bringing his body closer to Frost, no longer seeing him as an object of fear. This riled up Findlay, he decided to step up and knock some sense into this prisoner. He was quickly stopped by Frost, holding his hand in the air.

“Baron Adam Furano’s subordinate....now that is interesting.” Frost tilted his head slightly, showing a gentle expression towards Barren.

‘I really should be worthy of some kind of acting award for this performance.’