1055: An Angry Interrogation

In front of Fran was a ranting admiral along with a knight and a mage, both trembling. First we need to restrain them.

The two in the back would probably obey an order to surrender, but well need to use force on the admiral.

Unfortunately for them, it seems Frans rage was far from satisfied, even after all her earlier violence. Rather than making an attempt to talk, she simply swung her blade without any offer of surrender.

GYAAAAAHH!

Eh? Hold up. Fran?

They need to understand the hierarchy first.

Fran seemed to have no intention of conducting a normal interrogation. The pitiful screams of the three men echoed across the deck of the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p, having lost their knees and everything below them. Fran, however, questioned them with batting an eyelash.

Are you from Raydoss?

HYAAAAH! Ah! Ah! It hurts! S-Somebody! Save me!

Argh! D-d.a.m.n! I-I couldnt even react!

Ahhh! Why am I in this mess?

I dont think theyre in any condition to listen right now

But Fran was relentless.

She splashed the three with water magic, and before giving them a light dose of intimidation. Then she spoke again with a cold stare.

Are you from Raydoss? Answer me.

S-Silence, silence, silence! D-Dont think you can get away with this! Ill make you pay!

Hmph.

GEH!

GWAH!

GAAAH! W-Why us too?!

Joint liability.

The three men all gasped for breath after taking a wind blast to their stomachs. Frans simmering rage was now readily apparent.

I-I am merely a mage hired to escort the fleet! I-I know nothing about the inner workings of our nation!

But you just said something about the Chancellor.

Wha-! You overheard!

The Chancellor is important? Then you must be important enough to talk to him. Dont play dumb with me.

GYAAAH!

Lying will only bring you more pain.

Fran kicked the mages open wounds, resulting in the grown man screaming with tears due to the pain. His heart had been completely broken.

While the mages eyes were dead, the fat admiral continued glaring at us with hostility.

Though a fool, he was still over level 30. This was no power leveling either, he had the strength to match.

It seems that gave him more resistance to pain than the mage. Well, not like he could do anything to Fran though.

Admiral wasnt a direct combat cla.s.s in the first place, so his stats were pretty low.

D-d.a.m.n you! You lowly adventurersGYAAAAAHHH!

Fran approached the admiral who was about to start another rant and stomped down on what remained of the mans severed leg.

The Admiral twisted his body in an attempt to escape, but his resistance proved futile against Frans overwhelming power. He only managed to tear his wounds open further and amplify his own pain.

Argh!!

Are you from Raydoss?

After repeating the same question three times, the knight finally answered. He must have realized that answering was their only chance for survival.

Y-Yes, we are. I-Ill tell you everything! So please dont killGYAH!

You speak only when asked.

O-Okay! I know already, so stop hitting me!

Stop hitting me?

I mean please spare me, Im begging you!

Hmph.

Now the knights heart was completely broken too, his eyes dominated by pure terror. He trembled at Frans slightest movement.

Upon seeing the knights face drenched in saliva and tears, the half-dead admiral finally settled down. He now understood that his life was in the hands of the p.i.s.sed off girl in front of him.

The conversation that followed went very smoothly.

As expected, this fleet served the Kingdom of Raydoss, with half of the s.h.i.+ps and personnel coming from the Kingdom of Seedran. Raydoss had taken over Seedran with some sort of plot, and illegally enslaved the rebellious citizens, soldiers, and even royalty to use as disposable forces.

The enhanced ward on the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p was the result of modification by the Raydoss alchemists, as well as the effect of Marles skills.

The damage transfer phenomenon was also due to her skills. Admiral-type cla.s.ses apparently had several skills which could be applied to s.h.i.+ps in various ways.

Coincidentally, the fat guy in front of us had the Stealth Admiral cla.s.s, which applies a cloaking effect to the fleet under his control. That must be how he reached Bulbora undetected.

Despite his appearance, he was one of the top bra.s.s in the West Conquest Dukes navy. He apparently partic.i.p.ated in the operation to cause a civil war in Seedran, leading to their conquest.

And as for what happened to Marle, they only knew a little.

Her demonoid surgery implanted the magic stone of a spirit-like monster known as a Sea Fairy. Then, she underwent a different surgery to implant the horns of a mutated ogre, and transform her into a super soldier.

Human augmentation was still an experimental technology, so it apparently causes mental instability in those undergoing the procedure. Thats probably why they forced her to obey with a slave collar.

Things must have worked up until her magic stone instability and bodily mutation progressed too far, causing the slave collar to cease functioning.

Hmph.

Gah! W-Why?

Fran must have gotten p.i.s.sed at the pig-like admirals proud explanation of Marles surgery and Raydosss advanced technology. He was stunned when Fran suddenly punched him in the face.

I felt like it.

!

Okay, we learned what happened to Marle. Now why did they target Bulbora?

Their reasons turned out to be exactly what I was expecting.

Raydoss intended to invade Kranzel and end the long-standing feud between the two kingdoms. The strategy was to conquer Bulbora and establish a bridgehead there.

Kranzel should have their own navy, but they were apparently defeated in a naval battle near the port town of Dars and left in tatters. Well, I imagine they stood no chance against the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p.

Bulbora was their main target due to being a large port distant from Raydoss, which made them less vigilant against foreign invasion. Also, the security was still in disarray due to the incident about a year ago. An additional reason was that conquering Seedran allowed them to interfere with Kranzels supply routes more easily.

We ran into Raydoss wars.h.i.+ps on our way back from Gordicia for a similar reason.

The only difference being those s.h.i.+ps had the mission of hara.s.sing Belioths logistics rather than Kranzels. Thats because the terms of the Gordician Duty contract prevented them from attacking Belioth directly.

Thus, they took military actions against the trading ports of countries exporting food to Belioth, allowing them to hurt Belioth indirectly.

Furthermore, conquering their neighboring countries would ramp up the pressure on Belioth too.

Then they would strike as soon as the Gordician Duty safety period ended. It seems these plans had already been propagated to all of Raydosss allies, with the operation already well underway.

We also managed to get more detailed information about Raydosss inner workings.

I already heard the rumor about Raydosss recent change of king, allowing the dukes of the North, South, East, and West to do as they pleased.

The current war was said to be led by the East and South Conquest Dukes, with the West Conquest Duke backing them up. Each of the dukes had their own goal.

The East was after Belioth, the West after Phyllius, and South after our current location, the Kingdom of Kranzel.

Well, the fleet we just eliminated seemed to work for the West Duke though. The South Duke wanted to grab everyones attention by invading Kranzels northern border while the West Duke invaded Bulbora in the southwest.

If Kranzel decided to allocate reinforcements to Bulbora, this would thin their numbers and allow the South Duke to gain an advantage on the northern front. No matter what Kranzel did in response, this plot would give Raydoss the advantage, or at least thats how it should have been.

Sucks that they ran into us then.

Nn.

With Raydoss invading from the north, the powerful adventurers rushed north to stop them. Adventurers are not obliged to partic.i.p.ate in wars, but its a different story when Raydoss is the aggressor.

After all, Raydoss has always cracked down hard on adventurers. Kranzel losing the war would mean a drastic change in their livelihoods.

Its not like every single adventurer headed north, but their numbers almost certainly decreased drastically. Marle was a.s.signed to deal with the few that remained.

With her combat ability, she should be more than a match for any Rank B adventurer. Her victory was practically guaranteed with the Raydoss fleet backing her up. She might even be able to handle Rank A adventurers in her berserk state too. Well, a.s.suming they fought near a body of water.

Their fleet, including the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p, was to thoroughly crush Bulbora. Then, Marle would lead the landing forces to overrun Bulbora in one fell swoop. That was Raydosss plan, but it seems we interfered right before they could land.

Anyway, thats pretty much everything I wanted to hear.

Fran, lets turn these guys over to Bulbora.

Nn.

Fran seems to have calmed down after torturing them for a bit. She used healing magic to stop their bleeding.

Judging by her previous behavior, I almost expected her to simply off them when she was done.

I wrapped them up with some magic thread to restrain them. Fran held onto the other side of the thread, and all three had yet to regenerate their legs. Escape was impossible.

After taking a look around, I saw pretty much all of Raydosss s.h.i.+ps had sunk aside from the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p. Those still floating had been rendered incapable of sailing. Some floating s.h.i.+ps waved the Seedran flag, but their masts and oars were already broken.

Perhaps they could still move using magic tools, but it seems they didnt have the courage to escape with a huge wolf watching them.

Urus.h.i.+, were heading to Bulbora. Keep an eye on the fleet.

You can sink any s.h.i.+p that runs!

Woof!

Fran shouted that in her loudest voice to ensure the remaining boats heard her words. A few screams followed after Urus.h.i.+s reply.