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Mira and Kagura were caught slightly off-guard seeing them that way. They were simply going to subject the Three Heads to a forceful interrogation under Kagura’s spell. A spell that made one spill each and every secret was scary to think about, but there was nothing more to it.

Those three were simply going to tell them everything. It was too soon to even think about killing them. But Mira and Kagura’s power was so overwhelming they feared for their lives. The three looked terrified, like they were staring death in the eyes, but Mira and Kagura were simply confused.

Mira noticed something odd was happening with the other prisoners, Isaac and Jamal were acting funny. Their lips were curved inwards while their cheeks struggled to refrain from smiling, their shoulders trembling slightly as if trying to hold back something.

「Say, you two. Did something good happen to you? You seem to be enjoying yourselves quite a lot there.」

Mira pulled their hair to bring their heads down and whispered into their ears, full of curiosity. The two seemed startled by that, and slightly scared.

「We just told them about it.」
「Yes, we warned them about how they’ll get interrogated soon.」

They said as their eyes wandered aimlessly. The interrogation, Kagura’s spell that would make them confess everything. They would be under hypnosis so keeping secrets was impossible, but there was absolutely no pain involved. Knowing that, it made even less sense for the three to be terrified for their lives, staring frightfully at Kagura.

「But those three are acting too strange for that. Was that really all you did?」
「…You see, the first thing they did was yell at us for leaking info. So we had to explain how no one could hold back against you, right?」
「Yeah, we told them how it didn’t matter how strong they were, they can’t resist Uzume’s interrogation… And that if they try resisting, she’ll cut their guts open while they’re still alive, and kill them in more painful ways than they can imagine…」

As Mira continued questioning them, Isaac and Jamal confessed without the need for hypnosis. Apparently those two had been teasing the three before Mira and Kagura arrived. It was quite a childish way to get back at their old bosses.

「I swear I’m surrounded by children…」

Mira sighed in resignation, punched their heads again and then turned to face the other three again. Tears formed in Isaac and Jamal’s eyes, but they looked strangely happy at the same time.

That short conversation ended.

「I see. Maybe that could actually work on them too.」

Kagura mumbled to herself as a sly smile appeared on her lips.

A moment later, the entire basement was filled with a feeling of dread. Kagura was releasing as much bloodlust as she could muster, showing she meant those words. She had managed to stay calm so far, but it was obvious she had been suppressing many vengeful thoughts.

「Alright, try to calm down a little, no need to get so violent. We settled on letting this world’s magic do the work for us, remember? Don’t forget what our priorities are.」

Mira gently hugged Kagura as she said that, calming her down by tapping her back softly. Slowly the dreadful aura surrounding her faded away, and the room became calm again. The three Heads looked pale, but relieved that they had been saved. Isaac and Jamal also sighed in relief, realizing they had it much easier before.

「You’re right, I’m sorry Grandpa.」

Kagura replied in a low voice and managed to muster a smile. She was still overwhelmed with various emotions, but time would sort them out. 「You’re fine,」 replied Mira, beaming a smile knowing her friend was going to be alright.

After that Kagura went to work, using her spell to extract all the information the three Heads knew. Mattie wrote down everything in a notebook. It seemed that catching a glimpse of a rare side of Kagura had filled her with energy, as she vigorously scribbled away.

The information obtained from the three Heads was vast and thorough, as they had expected.

This time Kagura had to put them in a fully hypnotized state, unlike when it was Isaac and Jamal’s turn. These three happened to have a strong faith. They almost revered the one atop their group, the Demon Princess. Internally Chimera Clauzen functioned almost like a cult.

The ideal they pursued was ‘to take back the world from the hands of spirits and return it to humans.’

Spirits controlled natural resources, which were an essential part of human survival. So it was almost like humans lived only thanks to the spirits’ goodwill. If the spirits decided they no longer wanted to bless humans with their powers, humans would starve and die without recourse.

Was it really the best to continue living depending on spirits? They believed it was best if humans regained the ability to sustain life by their own efforts. Simply living distanced was not enough.

Humans were always weak by their very nature. If there still remained spirits that they could cling onto, things would eventually return to the way they were before. So it was best to fully exterminate spirits.

That was the only way to secure humanity’s future. Or at least those were the beliefs of the Heads. It was a really selfish worldview.

Humans were more important than any other race. Such a claim was extremely alluring for a subset of people. But it was also so obviously selfish and arrogant that anyone could tell.

Hearing that, Isaac was confused, those words did not make sense to him. To him, this was the first time he ever heard of such a religious background to Chimera Clauzen. He had always seen and understood Chimera Clauzen as an easy means to use spirits to gain power and riches.

Mira asked Jamal, and his answer was similar to Isaac’s.

Trying to prod into that more, they found yet another secret. Something involving the Archeological Research Committee, to which both Gregorius and the heavily armored man used to belong.

First, the reason why the committee was created in the first place.

They claimed it was to research and preserve the many ruins strewn about in the wilderness north of the continent, but that was only half true. Their true objective was to find the City of Angels, said to exist in that land in the past, and to gain the power hidden within.

What those who created the committee truly wanted was kept even from the members, but they were told it was a matter of life and death. So they spent many months and years researching. Eventually they found the Graveyard of War Memorials, and ran into the Demon Princess. She began telling them how spirits were monopolizing their lives, deceiving them into believing the fall of humanity would equal the end of the entire world.

On top of that, the Demon Princess taught them how to fight against the spirits that controlled their future, and a religion was born.

「How… does that even…」

Mira was dumbfounded hearing how absurd that story sounded. Kagura was so taken aback that she could not even say a word. It was essentially like the Heads had all been brainwashed by the Demon Princess.

Simply looking at history and the current state of the world was enough to realize spirits would never do such a thing. But at the same time, it was easy to see how someone could use that as an entry point to claim spirits were the ones doing the brainwashing.

Even Isaac and Jamal were lost for words. They both had committed atrocious crimes, but they were aware of that, choosing greed over morals. Yet somehow Gregorious’ group had wholeheartedly believed they were doing the right thing.

All the other members of the Archeological Research Committee that were unaccounted for had not fallen for the Demon Princess’ tricks, claiming spirits would never do such evil.

「So we got rid of them too.」

Even fully under hypnotism, Gregorius spoke with conviction, believing that had been the right course of action.

The public was told the committee had gone missing. Traces of conflict had been found, but no bodies. There was a way to get the actual truth now though. Kagura asked what they did with all those men they killed, and Gregorius said they were offered as sacrifices in an altar, hidden behind a secret door deep inside the Graveyard of War Memorials.