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Sasori said that before telling a story. When she first met Hebi, she behaved just as plainly as she looked. But rather than being aloof or unsociable, she was good at listening and grasping undertones. She seemed to have a special talent for it.

During their missions, Hebi was incapable of interrogating anyone, so she always relied on a specialist to do it for her. That specialist would always point out a lot of issues Hebi had, which Sasori recalled with a distant look in her eyes and a smile. That prompted Hebi to learn more about the topic, and eventually get acquainted with the interrogation methods she employed now.

(Somehow it looks more like a deviant hobby than interrogation methods, but maybe it’s just my imagination…)

During Sasori’s story, Mira glanced at Hebi stepping on the man, who kept vowing his endless loyalty to Hebi with a glint in his eyes. 「He’s definitely a pervert,」 she murmured to herself.

According to Sasori, every time Hebi had two prisoners, she would gag them and make an example of one of them. All her torture tools on the table were just for show, never actually using them on a prisoner. Still, she would make one of the prisoners scream loudly before making them pass out with drugs.

Throughout the story Sasori firmly refused to explain exactly how Hebi would make the prisoner scream though, only saying that Hebi was incredibly skilled while her cheeks reddened.

「I think we should go to a better place first though.」

When Sasori was done telling Hebi’s tale, the pursuer had also finished making his declaration of slavitude for Hebi, so Mira suggested that in an attempt to change the atmosphere filling the room.

Their worry of pursuers had been needless, producing two sources of valuable information instead. Ideally they would get all the information possible from them first, but the enemy already knew of their current position, so it was preferable if they went to a safe place before reinforcements arrived.

「Yeah, let’s better do that. I’m sure there’s a lot they can tell us.」

Saying that, Sasori turned to look at the other captured man lying still, the corner of her lips twitching as she took a step back.

「I’ll take them to the King’s Hidden Palace then. You should go rescue his family.」

Not wasting her words, Hebi quickly formed a humanoid golem with necromancy, which picked up the sleeping man and stuffed him into its mouth. The other man, who was still awake, watched in terror.

「It’s just a means of transport, calm down.」

Hebi explained, to which the man replied by standing up right and exclaiming, 「I’ll stay calm then!」 He had truly submitted to Hebi.

Once the second man vanished inside the Golem’s mouth, 「Inside or outside?」

The golem followed Hebi as she walked up to Mylene and asked that. Like always, she did not waste a single word, though in this case there was so little context Mylene struggled to comprehend what she meant. In the end, she seemed to get the wrong idea as a soft blush spread on her cheeks as she replied.

「O-outside! Please…」

Her response was loud at first, but trailed off in the end. Hebi nodded and gave the order to the golem, who picked up Mylene and carried her up, then Hebi picked up her bag and climbed up the golem’s back.

「Ah, this is what you meant, outside…」

Understanding Hebi meant whether Mylene wanted to travel inside or outside the golem, her face began boiling with embarrassment as she curled up in the golem’s arms.

「I’ll take care of them.」
「Good luck.」

Seeing Hebi was ready to go, Mira looked at them one last time. Hebi replied with a nod before casually jumping out through the window.

「Well, let’s go rescue Johann’s family now!」

Once Hebi was gone, Sasori quickly gathered her things too before jumping on the windowsill. Mira just stared at her back though.

「Shouldn’t we try to tidy up the room first?」

The room belonged to an inn, so they could not simply leave it messy. Mira could not allow herself to flee without fixing it up at least a bit.

「…Yeah, you have a point.」

Hesitating for a bit, Sasori lowered her shoulders and agreed with Mira. She had tried to use the rush of things as an excuse to forget about the room.

Since the location of that inn was already compromised, it was hard to think they would ever return there. In that sense it was faster if they simply left, leaving cleaning up to the staff of the inn. Chimera was at fault for attacking them in the first place after all. Though there was no way for the inn to know that, and they would be annoyed regardless.

Once Mira brought it up, Sasori had no way of ignoring it anymore, so she knew just what to do, heading straight to the front desk.

Mira activated Life Sensing one last time to make sure no other pursuers were nearby, then followed after Sasori.

In the inn’s entrance, Mira saw some of the inn’s staff looking confused, Sasori constantly bowing in front of them like a praying monk. Mira pretended not to know her, watching silently from afar.

If they waited for the inn to evaluate the damages to the room, they could end up spending too much time there, giving Chimera’s pursuers more time to arrive. Mira could easily thwart their efforts with Complete Suppression, but just being seen by them could harm their mission, so moving quickly was a priority.

That prompted Sasori to stop the inn from checking the room, instead paying with her own pocket money for a full renovation of the room.

「Well, don’t sweat it now. I’m sure you can get it back later by filing it as work expenses. I’ll vouch for you too.」
「Mm… thanks.」

Mira placed her hand on Sasori’s dejected back, gently comforting her for the loss of her money. At the same time she was impressed with Hebi’s ability to leave so easily, even though she was the main reason the room had gotten ruined.

「By the way, what’s the King’s Hidden Palace?」

As they crossed the always-awake business district, heading back to the warehouse facility, Mira asked Sasori. Hebi had said she would take the two pursuers there. She spoke of it like a common location, so at the time Mira did not think much of it, but now she realized she had no clue where that was.

「Ahh, umm, remember Patronager S? He mentioned a trading corporation too, we spoke with them and it seems they arranged a lot of things behind the scenes, including an underground hideout we call the King’s Hidden Palace.」

「I see, that does sound like a good place for an interrogation.」

The Eabates Trading Corporation, a direct competitor of Melville’s, which also put them against Chimera Clauzen. Given that position, it was hard to imagine Chimera would approach them so easily. While Mira could not understand why Solomon would approve of a code name like the King’s Hidden Palace, she was grateful he was supporting them like that.