A Brush with Death

I sat down right in front of her and stared deeply into her eyes.

She seemed to have interpreted my actions as hostile, as she returned my gaze with a glare full of bloodlust.

I ignored the thick bloodlust in the air and just continued to stare at her.

Then, I asked her a question.

"Who are you and who sent you?" It was just a preliminary question. We already knew she belonged to the Black Mambas, but we gotta start small, don't we?

She didn't answer. Her lips were sealed tight.

I asked her the same question again. But she remained silent like the tree she was tied to.

Out of ideas, I didn't know where to go from here. Should I try torture? But I don't even know how to torture someone. I might even accidentally kill her in the process, or worse, she retaliates and kills me.

We didn't have any Lobon metal cuffs to restrict her Aura. She's still very much a threat. The only reason why she's behaving right now is that Rebecca is a bigger threat.

Rebecca is trained in combat, like every knight. While this mercenary was probably trained in assassinations. It's clear who would win in a duel between them.

More solid evidence for this is what happened last night. The mercenary failed to hold off Rebecca's Aura blade projectile and was blown away.

Since I'm out of ideas, I just stared at her as she glared at me while trying to think of a way to get some answers from her.

This staring contest continued for a while. I honestly didn't know what the fuck I was doing. My initial stare was just me trying to think of a way to make her talk, but it somehow escalated into this.

Goddammit! Can't believe I'm losing! My eyes are starting to sting and she doesn't look tired at all.

What should do? Fuck...

Oh!... hehehehehe...

An idea just popped in my head.

Gathering a fistful of dirt, I threw it at her eyes.

"Ugh!!"

She flinched from the granules of soil and sand touching her delicate eyes, causing her to blink.

"Hah! You lose." I made fun of her for blinking.

After blinking and shaking her head a couple of times to remove the dirt, she finally spoke.

"You petty little rat."

"Heh, so what? What do you gonna do? Spit on me?"

Just then, Rebecca appeared right in front of me. Her hand was cupped around a black ball.

Looking closer, it wasn't a normal ball. That was a sphere of black Aura.

Rebecca caught it just in the nick of time, saving my life.

That scared me. 3rd Stage Aura users are on a whole other level. There was nothing that allowed me to sense her attack. It was only a split second later after Rebecca caught the Aura sphere that I felt the air split open in the trajectory of that Aura projectile.

If Rebecca hadn't stepped in, I would've died without even realizing it.

Rebecca crushed the Aura ball and it shattered and dissipated.

From the movement of the air... that Aura ball came from the mercenary's mouth. She really did spit on me. Maybe I shouldn't have taunted her that much.

"Do that again and you won't live to see the next day." Rebecca gave a stern warning. The killing intent she emitted was so overbearing that it was difficult for me to stay conscious.

Seems like the mercenary got the message. Her face didn't show any reaction, but I could see a hint of fear in her obsidian eyes.

Rebecca then turned her head to me and gave me a warning as well.

"No more immature acts, Luka."

I nodded and Rebecca went back on standby, watching the mercenary closely.

I sighed. Can't believe I let myself become childish back there. Has Rosaline been influencing me? That would be bad. I truly that's not the case. Becoming a dumb gorilla isn't in my bucket list.

I went back to questioning our captive, but to no avail. She's still as silent as a grave.

Torture tactics are something I wanted to try my hands on, but that is too risky considering her Aura isn't restricted. Rebecca could do it, but after accidentally killing the mercenary I captured, I'm not so sure I could entrust her with information extraction.

The other knights are not so different. They are knights, they spend most of their time training in battle rather than torture. Besides, they have this stupid code of honor that prevents them from learning torture tactics any deeper than what they already know. Rebecca's an exception from this code, mostly because she doesn't even bother in following the knightly code of honor.

Out of options and quite frankly desperate for information, I talked to Rebecca and suggested she buy some Lobon cuffs in the next city we'll stop by.

She accepted my suggestion quite easily. As a 3rd stage herself, she knows best how dangerous another 3rd stage is without Lobon metal to restrict his or her Aura.

In the meantime, mastering my new sense is my top priority. I need to be fast enough to react to something that disturbs the air. Fast enough for my brain to process what my Wind Sense picks up. That brush with death I had earlier was a bit of a wake-up call.

And so, as we continued our journey to the Hepburn manor, I started training instead of just idling in the carriage. To do that... I had to put a blindfold on.

If I want to master this Wind Sense, I need to lower my dependency on my other senses. Namely, my sight.