Chapter 267: Interrogating Nachi

Leon thought for a moment and asked, "Your mom used to use that kind of magic to probe a prisoner's memory. Do you know how to use it?"

The three sisters looked at each other, then tacitly shook their heads.

"Such a useful spell and none of you learned it?"

"Did you learn it?"

"I didn't either, hehe—oh damn!"

Noah elbowed her dad.

'Ah, those days of flirting with the mother dragon in his dreams...'

"So what now? Torture doesn't work, and nobody can use memory-probing magic. Are we just going to drag this out?"

Aurora said, "The Blade Trio went to the estate and didn't see Nacho. They should notify the empire immediately to begin a search. We don't have much time, need to act fast."

But even though they said act fast, for now, there was no good way to make those two guys talk.

After thinking for a while, Leon suddenly spoke, "You all know… the prisoner's dilemma?"

———

Leon opened the storage room door. Inside was only Nacho.

His hands and feet were bound, unable to move.

Seeing Leon enter, Nacho snorted coldly, "You monster… why couldn't you just stay in the tube… it's been twenty years, what are you out here doing?"

Nacho had regained his calm.

No matter whether Leon had come back to life or for some other reason, he was indeed causing trouble for Nacho.

But Nacho hadn't lived these twenty years for nothing.

He looked at Leon and slowly said,

"Ah… no matter what, I guess I've fallen into your hands. But… even so, the current situation is still quite troublesome for you, right?"

Leon stood in front of him, looked into his eyes, silent.

"You hurriedly kidnapped me, trying to get intel on the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale from me. That means it's very important to you, right? But you don't have much time. Otherwise, you wouldn't have taken the risk to provoke the royal family."

"If you can't get the intel from me, then even if you kill me, your plan will go nowhere. And it'll draw the empire's attention."

"The Silver Dragon clan has already been disbanded. Casmodeous, you have no backup. If you fail, the outcome waiting for you is even more miserable than mine. Am I right?"

Twenty years in officialdom had taught Nacho a bit about the art of negotiation.

If both sides have chips, don't rush to admit defeat.

He looked at Leon proudly, like he was flaunting his current self to this undying guy.

"Mhm, you're right."

Nacho froze. He didn't expect Leon to admit it so easily.

Nacho pursed his lips, intending to continue analyzing the situation, laying out all of Leon's disadvantages, applying heavy pressure.

He enjoyed this feeling, when others disliked him but couldn't do anything about it.

Until Leon pulled a dining knife from his pocket, the one used in the restaurant earlier.

Nacho panicked, subconsciously swallowed, "Y-you, what are you doing… you can't kill me, you wouldn't dare. I'm part of the royal family, and I have the intel you want. If you kill me, you'll never know where the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale is!"

"And, and!—after that, you'll never catch anyone else who knows this intel. The current empire will be on full alert at the slightest sign."

"No matter how strong you are, you can't catch a royal family member in such a tight net!"

Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose impatiently, "Are you done talking?"

"..."

"Your adjutant Scott already told me the location of the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale. So…"

Leon shrugged with mock regret, "You're no use to me anymore."

As he spoke, Leon waved the knife in his hand.

The blade shimmered coldly, dazzling Nacho's eyes.

"N-no way, Leon, you're bluffing."

Nacho forced down the fear and anger in his heart, "Scott would never betray the empire."

"Whether he betrayed the empire or not, I don't know. What I do know is that ten minutes ago, he betrayed you. My people already knocked him out and took him away. By the time he wakes up, we'll be long gone from the empire. As for you…"

Leon raised the knife and patted Nacho's face with it, "Think—if you die, who will take your place?"

That sentence was like a fuse, completely detonating all the emotions in Nacho's heart.

He struggled violently, but his limbs were tightly bound and couldn't move.

Seeing Nacho's intense reaction, Leon secretly smiled.

As expected, this old guy had long been addicted to the sweet trap of power, unable to pull himself out.

'Master is right, these officials are all the same.'

"All right, settle down. The more you struggle, the less precise my stab will be. If your death is too painful, I'll feel really guilty," Leon spoke slowly, practically spelling out the word fake on his face.

As his words fell, the knife slowly reached toward Nacho's carotid artery.

The blade slowly sliced the skin, blood began to seep out.

"Wait a minute!", Nacho suddenly shouted loudly.

"What?"

"Scott… what exactly did Scott tell you?"

"You don't need to worry about that. Anyway, by this time tomorrow, I'll probably be swaggering out of the empire with the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale. Tsk, shame you won't be around to see it."

The knife continued slowly downward.

"Scott only knows the storage location of the Dragon Scale! He doesn't know the shift times or the password codes!"

Driven by fear and rage, Nacho decided to use intel to save his life and position.

If it were simply about dying, Nacho wasn't afraid.

From the moment he gained power, he knew this day might come.

But what Nacho couldn't accept was having his hard-earned position and power, earned through twenty years of suffering, stolen by Scott.

Absolutely, could not accept.

"Oh? That's betraying the empire, you're not afraid of being found out later?", Leon asked unhurriedly.

"Just pin everything on Scott," said Nacho.

Hearing that, Leon raised his eyebrows. He understood what that meant, "Yeah, sometimes the dead are more useful than the living, because the dead don't talk."

As the classic scapegoat of "the dead are more useful than the living," General Leon understood this deeply.

He took out paper and pen from his pocket and tossed them in front of Nacho, "Write down everything you know about the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale. If it doesn't match what Scott told me, I'll kill you both."

Nacho, with his bound hands, struggled to pick up the pen and started writing furiously.

Totally unaware of General Leon's almost uncontrollable smirk.

Ten minutes later, Leon walked out of the storage room. Coincidentally, Noah also walked out from the storage room next door.

Father and daughter exchanged a glance, and on each other's faces, they saw two words:

Success!

"Wow! It actually worked~", Luna once again transformed into Dad's little fangirl, showering him with praise.

Aurora also saw this kind of interrogation for the first time, it was entirely about talking the intel out.

"If you capture two or more prisoners, then the prisoner's dilemma is basically an unsolvable interrogation technique."

Leon explained, "When facing the prisoner's dilemma, Nacho and Scott had only two choices: stay silent or betray each other."

"But they couldn't communicate directly."

"So, whether they used silence to protect their comrade or betrayal to protect their own gains… hmph, who knows."

"But no matter what they choose, the initiative is in our hands. Just add some small interrogation tricks, and getting intel is easy as pie."

Luna let out a long "ohh~", "So amazing!"

She didn't quite get it, but Dad is still so amazing.

Leon and Noah compared the intel the two provided, the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale's location matched perfectly.

"So how do we deal with them?", Noah asked.

"Knock them out, lock them up for now, and keep them as hostages."

Leon said, "Because we don't know if there'll be more trouble later. It's always good to have hostages as bargaining chips. Even if the empire doesn't care about them and wants to go down with us, we'll still have time to deal with them."

Noah nodded, "Got it. I'll set up an illusion spell here first, so the empire won't find them."

"Good."

Leon looked down at the intel in his hand.

As long as he got the Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale, he could activate the reversal magic.

He had to go back.

He must go back.

"Rossweise… wait for me. You must… wait for me."

———

Under the cover of night, Leon brought Noah and sneaked in through a secret passage in the outer wall of the Royal City.

This place wouldn't trigger the perception barrier's alarm, and it was far from the main roads inside the Royal City, so patrol teams generally wouldn't come here.

According to the intel provided by Nacho, this secret passage was built five years ago, and only people at his level or above knew about it.

Have to say, the little civil officer back then really made something of himself, working hard to climb to such a height today. Seems like working in the imperial royal court is indeed a good job.

But Leon didn't have much time to feel sentimental about his "old colleague"; he had to hurry and find the Heart-guarding Dragon Scale as soon as possible.

According to the intel provided by Nacho and Scott, Leon and Noah sneaked along the outer edge of the Royal City all the way inward.

Just like Nacho said, there weren't many patrol teams on this secret passage's side. Leon and Noah easily found the storage location of the Heart-guarding Dragon Scale.

It was an underground facility, with only an entrance exposed on the surface, guarded by four fully armed guards.

In addition, there was a perception barrier with a level of security not inferior to the outer wall.

If they broke in by force, it would definitely trigger the barrier's counterattack measures. If time dragged on, more enemies would be drawn in.

Only those four guards could deactivate the barrier, allowing safe entry and exit for visitors.

Leon and Noah leaned against a wall, observing the four guards.

"Nacho mentioned in the intel he gave me something about passphrases and codes."

Leon said, "To get into that underground facility, we have to match passphrases with those guards."

"So, we have to just swagger over and report the passphrase?"

"There's no other way, because the guards here don't change shifts. The whole night, it'll be these four people guarding here. We don't have any time gap to slip in."

Noah blinked and asked, "Then what if they recognize you?"

Although twenty years had passed, there had been many personnel changes inside the empire, but Leon was a well-known figure twenty years ago. Moreover, his appearance hadn't changed at all, so there was still a risk of being recognized.

"Hmm... that is a problem. After all, your old man's handsome face is still pretty recognizable," Leon couldn't help but seriously think about this issue.

Three black lines slid down Noah's forehead.

'Mom love his sense of responsibility, love his courage and fearlessness, loved his selflessness and strength, but... Does she also love this narcissism?'

'Mom, I think you are really starving."

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