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“Sh̲it! They exposed me!” the stranger yelled. “I didn’t expect that damn hero I heard about to be here, I gotta get outta here, like, right now…”
I’m not a hero, but… Well, it’s fine.

“I won’t let you get away,” Mika instantly restrained the stranger’s body with Psychic Magic, robbing him of his freedom.
“Gah…!?”

In that interval, while he had zero magic power, I immediately created 3 chains around his body, with handcuffs and leg irons that drastically lowered the stats, and restrained him.

The knight commander and the knights faced the stranger and stood ready with their swords drawn. The minister produced something that looked like a staff and aimed its tip.

“Mika, you can undo the Psychic Magic,” I told her. “He’s immobilized.”
“Yeah, got it.”

After the Psychic Magic was removed from the purple-colored man, he writhed in apparent agony and breathed heavily. It looked like the restraints were a bit too tight, but that was of no consequence for us.

“Kh… hah~…” he gasped, “just how friggin’ strong is that magic power…?”
“You cretin, who are you?!” The knight commander asked the stranger. “Where have you taken the princess?!”
“What kind of… idiot do you think I am? I can self-destruct, you know. Of course, I’ll blow myself up before I tell you sh̲it! Fools~, kya-ha-ha-ha-”

The knight commander and the others raised their guards. I stood in front of Mika, to protect her, and prepared to deal with the explosion.

Only; the stranger tried to move his body and started to wriggle, but nothing happened.
That was all. The restraints I made were that effective.

“Why won’t it work?” he asked baffled.
“H-huh? Why…?”
“Because I crafted those restraints from orichalcum,” I explained, “they’re very sturdy and highly effective at restricting an opponent’s movements, you see. I forgot to mention that.”
“Wha-…!? Fu̲ck…” the stranger panicked. “But, I won’t say anything. Definitely. It’s because of him¹.”

Just like this, the knight commander held his sword at the ready and brought it close to the stranger.

“Well, you might want to start talking. Or do I have to get the answers from your corpse²? I don’t really want to do that, but… First of all, tell me the whereabouts of the princess, then your objective, who you are, and who ‘he’ is.”

When it looked like the knight commander was about to move the stranger to the interrogation room, a group of six people, made up from the king, Tuhl, Ruin and three others, arrived.

“Karua, what happened to Karua?!” the king yelled. “Gordes, explain this to me!”
“Yes, your Majesty…” the knight commander answered. “Because of our lack of ability… the princess seems to have been abducted… This stranger transformed into the princess.”

When the king heard that, he released a tremendous bloodlust.

“Wha… wha… wha… You lowlife~!! Where have you taken Karua~?!”

Together with the king’s roar of fury, a gigantic magic circle spread out, and seemed to encircle this room completely.
This is bad. The king’s magic power is approximately that of an SS-Ranker.

“F-father, please, get a hold of your senses!” Tuhl frantically tried to calm him down. “If we summon that here, it won’t end well! …for now, we need to get information from that man!”
“Karua is a reminder of my wife… our precious daughter! If this thing… did anything to…!”

Someone else, Ruin, I think, started to soothe the still agitated king.

“Please calm down, father… We all feel the same way. Everyone here.”
“Heh~… hah~… Hrm, that’s not good, I lost my composure. Gordes, hurry up and get information out of that thing.”
“Yes, your Majesty!”

The knight commander did so; He grabbed the stranger on the scruff of his neck, forcibly dragged him to the interrogation room and threw him in there. All the people in Karua’s room followed. The knight commander then nimbly brought a dagger to the stranger’s ear.

“Shall we scrape off this long ear, for a start? If you spit out the information, I’ll give you an easy death.”
“…gah.”

This is useless, even if he talks, it will take time…
That’s right, I know something useful for a time like this.

I created a substance, smelling of alcohol, with dark matter. I took out the somewhat cloudy liquid and gave it to the knight commander.

“Alim, what’s that?”
“I created it just now, Sir. It’s an extremely potent truth serum. If you were to take several doses, your mind would be in tatters, and you’d become a complete invalid. But if you only take one dose, there would be no question too big. You’d answer everything being asked of you.”
“Hm, understood. Since we can trust your medicine, let’s use it.”

The purple-colored man heard that, and closed his mouth firmly, but I immediately controlled him with Psychic Magic, forcing him to open his mouth, and the knight commander poured the truth serum into that opening.

“Uh… *gulp*…”
“Start talking!” the knight commander ordered. “First… Who are you?

The words the stranger let out next were apparently shocking. Well, I didn’t quite get it, but looking at the king and the others, they seemed to be astonished.

“I am… de Bavia³… one of the ‘Demons’…”
“Wha…?! Did you say demon?”

I didn’t understand why they were so surprised, so I tried to ask Ruin by message.

I see, if a race that should have been destroyed 300 years ago showed up in front of me, I’d be surprised, too, wouldn’t I?

“Alim, is that true?” the knight commander asked me. “That thing isn’t lying, right?”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” I told him. “After all, the truth serum I gave you is legend grade, you see? No matter how powerful that demon is, he’d confess everything with certainty.”
“It’s legend grade…?! I-I see. In that case, that thing really is a demon… Well, let’s have him spill what he knows, then.

Thus, the interrogation of the demon, de Bavia, continued, thanks to the truth serum.

TL notes:
The demon’s gender in this chapter is never mentioned. While the name sounds feminine and they impersonated Karua, the demon talks in a very crude and masculine manner (before they get drugged), I decided to assume it’s a male demon, if only to avoid having to use ‘they’ everywhere.

1. Might also be a “her”. My best guess is Mephistophales, since he abducted Karua and left the imposter behind.
2. Not sure about this. He might also say “Ask your body directly”, which could be a euphemism for torture?
3. The Original is デバビア (Debabia). I settled on “de Bavia”, but it might also be “Debavia”, “Devabia” or “Devavia”.