Chapter 104 - Ways

"Sir, shouldn't we have returned at night?" Zaos asked. "Based on what we know, it isn't likely that they are keeping their eyes on the village at every single moment, but if they discover that we captured one of them, won't they attack us with a large force?"

"Even if they do, it is not like I am planning to wait for them without doing anything," Verkan explained. "We will put some lookouts around the area while we obtain the intel we want."

"… How are we going to do that exactly?" Zaos asked.

"Relax, kid," Verkan said. "There are numerous ways to break the spirit of someone without relying on physical torture."

Zaos already had the mindset of a warrior. While he was fully aware that he was naïve in some aspects, there were things that he was one hundred percent that he would never want to do. Torture was one of them. Fighting for your life and defeating the enemy fighting and having a weapon in your hands was something. Killing or torturing another that couldn't defend themselves was another. Still, even if they weren't to torture the kid, the captured enemies only had one destination on their hands… Zaos once again began to wonder if he should have given that idea.

Maybe he would feel different if the prisoner was an adult. Regardless, only now Zaos realized that life on the battlefield perhaps was more straightforward, and he was suited for it. Just fight the enemy that is trying to take your head and defeat them first. After doing that, he just had to worry about the next target… which was a lot less troublesome than the current situation.

After tying up the kid on a chair, Verkan made sure to put some fresh bread and hot milk in front of him. The boy soon woke up and then began to struggle to free himself, but he couldn't move an inch. Behind him, there was a guard ready to knock him down in case he managed to use magic. Verkan grabbed a chair and then sat on the other side of the table.

"Hello, kid," Verkan said. "I am sure you can understand your situation without me telling you about it, so let's cut to the chase. Where can I find your friends?"

Apparently, Verkan forgot to take out the gag on his mouth. However, that was necessary since there was no telling what the kid might do. Instead of just waiting for a fast answer, Verkan was planning to weaken his spirit and only confirm when he was going to talk after looking him in the eyes.

The kid looked around the room, counting the enemies and accessing the environment. Despite the situation, he wanted to escape. Although they were a weird bunch, the followers of the demon god had a lot of spirit.

"I guess this might take a while. You guys should resume your duties," Verkan said. "I will take a nap since they caused a lot of problems for us. You should do the same, Zaos. I need you to sharpen that skill."

Although he was exhausted, Zaos didn't feel that sleepy, and the tension in the room probably would make him stay awake for quite a while. Despite that, he decided to follow Verkan's command. Zaos's made an improvised bed in the corner of the room, where he could keep an eye on the prisoner, and while he couldn't see him and just as he had imagined, it took him a while to fall asleep.

Zaos only woke up around dinnertime. Apparently, Verkan had also fallen asleep on his chair since when the guards suddenly opened the door of the post, he opened his eyes widely and immediately touched the hilt of his sword.

"Dumbasses…" Verkan said and then sighed while his men were having a hard time controlling their laughter.

After a couple of minutes, an old couple showed up in the post, and they brought a giant pan filled with soup with him. Even though Zaos was half-asleep, the fragrance of the soup made his stomach grumble.

"Thank you, Uncle, Aunt," Verkan said. "The dinner this time looks even more tasty than usual, just as I asked. Do you want a bowl, kid?"

The boy glared at Verkan. Even though a full day had passed since his last meal, he still had a lot of spirit remaining. Zaos couldn't help but wonder what would end first, Verkan's patience or the kid's spirit. Verkan was trying not to make the kid suffer too much and was even planning to give him a quick death, but a soldier in the front lines could have only so much patience. After asking around for a while, Zaos confirmed that Verkan was really raised in that village. The old couple were really his relatives. So, he had one more reason to avenge the merchants of that place…

After finishing his meal, Zaos used Heal several times in order to get rid of the burn marks. While the spell was working, it wasn't as nearly as effective as it was in closing ordinary wounds. Burn marks really were a problem… whenever Zaos used magic, the prisoner would tremble slightly. Maybe he thought Zaos would attack him from behind, or maybe that was just him trying to move and look at Zaos. It was impossible to know.

Zaos tried to check the kid's presence with his eyes closed, but the presence got a lot fainter if compared to before. As expected, it is easier to track a mage when they recently used a spell. Zaos tried to move away and see the limit of his Magic Perception and noticed that he couldn't feel anything once he was ten meters away from the target… which wasn't good.

"It looks like magic, and the amount of mana I have doesn't influence in that kind of skill," Zaos rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So, if I want to get better at this, I just have to become more skilled at using it."