Interrogation

The members of Birang's party were startled by Yoo Hyun's sudden anger.

The Hidden Stage could be accessed solely on the basis of nationality. In other words, only the country to which the first player to enter belonged had the right to access it. However, South Korea had never communicated with another civilization even once since the tower was built. This meant it had fallen considerably behind in the competition with other countries.

Ahn Junhyun and his companions, who had only had a handful of chances to see the tower's inhabitants in person, did not realize what they had done wrong. Only when they belatedly saw Yoo Hyun's name turn red did they realize he had become hostile toward them.

"You made him angry! Why did you do that!"

"How should I know? We were just talking normally!"

"Do you truly not realize that every word you spat out was tantamount to declaring that you would trample the rice paddies and fields cultivated through the blood and sweat of the common people beneath your military boots and desecrate the Celestial Emperor!!"

"Aaaah! What are we going to do!? Make a decision, quick!"

At the urging of Lee Jihye, the party's only mage, Ahn Junhyun quickly assessed the strength of Yoo Hyun and the woman beside him.

Quite apart from the unique abilities awakened upon becoming players, the status window given to players upon entering the tower was heavily restricted, and their stats were not displayed. However, Ahn Junhyun could gauge the two people's level with the unique ability he possessed.

<Yoo Hyun>

<Yeon Bunhui>

'The flames coiling around the woman's body are twice as large.'

That meant Yoo Hyun's potential was insignificant compared to the full power the woman named Yeon Bunhui could unleash. Of course, that did not mean his absolute value was low. By his physical might alone, he was roughly on the level of a hatchling basilisk, a third-grade magical beast.

But there were five of them, and every one of them was B-rank, so he judged that they could handle this much and made his decision.

"Let's attack."

"Are you serious!?"

"If we keep dawdling here, the commotion will only grow and reinforcements will arrive. Isn't it better to do it now?"

He had no intention of killing Yoo Hyun. He intended to have the strongest member of the party, himself, quickly knock Yoo Hyun down and join the others immediately.

"We can subdue both of them as long as we're careful around that woman. You and the others hold out until I join you."

Ahn Junhyun drew his sword. The moment he infused mana into the blade, his swordsmanship flashed into action and clashed with Yoo Hyun's spear.

Quite apart from the unique abilities awakened upon becoming players.

Ahn Junhyun was also a swordsman who had mastered Meteor Style swordsmanship.

Skrk!

A cluster of grayish-white slashes, like a swarm of stars, poured toward Yoo Hyun. There were seven in all. Five of them instantly cut across his waist and shoulders. After confirming that his attack had worked, Ahn Junhyun became certain of victory.

"If you surrender even now, we will treat you as a prisoner."

"Ridiculous. Isn't it too late to beg forgiveness and too early to show mercy?"

"……It can't be helped. Let's talk a little later."

Yoo Hyun stood back up instead of giving up. He already looked exhausted, so Ahn Junhyun swung his sword again, careful not to let him accidentally lose his life.

Four slashes struck him. Then three.

And after that.

"Are you done?"

"He blocked it? Meteor Style?"

The weakness of Meteor Style was that its sword trajectories were easy to read. However, because the slashes formed from mana that erupted from the scabbard were extremely fast, they were not attacks one could easily block or evade even after seeing through their forms and techniques.

It was a style whose gap could never be closed in a short time without a solid foundation in the basics. Yoo Hyun had blocked the swordsmanship of such a style.

Even though he had suffered far more injuries than at the beginning.

'The flames got bigger……?'

When he came to his senses, the flames coiling around Yoo Hyun's body had already grown far larger than before. They were now almost as large as Yeon Bunhui's.

Ahn Junhyun quickly infused a throwing dagger with mana and hurled it. It exploded the moment it touched Yoo Hyun, ripping away his clothes and skin. But Yoo Hyun merely grimaced and brushed it off, while the flames grew larger. Only fine cracks remained in the waist and shoulders he had injured at first.

"Damn! He could heal too!?"

Clink! Ahn Junhyun suspended a poison that diminished regenerative abilities in midair, then swung his sword along the same trajectory. This time, he abandoned any attempt to subdue Yoo Hyun and aimed directly for his neck.

However, the very next moment.

Fwoosh!

"Why this time, too!? Was he resistant to poison as well? Even so, he didn't take a potion, so what in the world is this regeneration ability……!"

"That's not it."

Yoo Hyun's expression did not change at all. The closer he came, the harder it became to breathe through the blazing flames, which had grown as large as a house.

Ahn Junhyun had never encountered such a powerful being while climbing the tower. Yoo Hyun said calmly,

"To begin with, I'm not learning swordsmanship, healing wounds, or breaking down poison."

"Th-then what are you doing...?"

"Hmm."

After pondering for a moment, Yoo Hyun lifted the shaft of his spear as though he had just remembered something.

"I've adapted to your existence."

The same applied to the slashes, explosions, and poison. The instant his injuries returned to normal, attacks of the same strength could no longer harm Yoo Hyun.

"For a barbarian, your skills weren't bad. If you'd grown stronger during the fight, you might have had a chance to take my head. But crossing a wall while your opponent is caught off guard is no easy feat."

By then, even the flames surrounding him had vanished. He had adapted even his own gaze to them.

"There is no mercy for barbarians, but this time I shall make an exception and show you mercy."

"W-wait...!"

"I have a lot I want to ask you."

All that Ahn Junhyun could see was the end of the long shaft of the spear in Yoo Hyun's hands. The moment it came down toward his philtrum, Ahn Junhyun lost consciousness.

*

A bundle of marten pelts. Four unconscious barbarians. That was the haul from today's patrol.

We had let one escape. After knocking Ahn Junhyun unconscious, I helped Bunhui deal with the rest of the party, but the mage named Lee Jihye threw herself into the rift they had crossed through at the last moment.

I even stuck a finger in to see whether I could enter as well, but an unknown force repelled me. Someone needed to convey the situation to the other side anyway, so I decided to return without pursuing her.

On the way to the prison, I passed a military tent I had never seen in the camp before.

It was a huge canvas tent that commanders had used only in wartime long ago. It had been sitting in storage, so why was it here? Looking closer, I saw a bustle of activity. When I pulled aside the flap, my subordinates were making something inside.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Lately, General Yoo Hyun hasn't been beating us up out of nowhere. You seemed gloomy after Park Gyu left, so we're hammering away at this."

"Now that you've become the Great General, shouldn't you at least have a splendid audience chamber?"

Apparently they were talking about the time I had been agonizing over whether to return to the modern era. Not that I had ever said I wanted anything like this.

"Be honest. You're building it because you want to look cool."

"Ahem, well, you see."

"Even though we may not look it, back when we were in society, we were all young masters from great clans. Now we want to look like proper soldiers under General Yoo Hyun, the Grand Marshal of Military Forces."

What heirs of a clan? They didn't even have surnames.

Of course, there could have been exceptions I didn't know about, like Bunhui, so I asked out of courtesy. The more capable subordinates one has, the better.

"Were you all graduates of the Cheonyu National Academy?"

"What's that?"

"Is that the name of a gukbap restaurant?"

I was an idiot for getting my hopes up.

"Where do you think you're slacking off during work hours? I'll extend all your sentences by a month."

"What!?"

"Finish what you were making. I might sit in it later."

Thus, after passing the subordinates who were hammering away, I had the Birang party locked up in the brig inside the military camp. Then I began thinking about what to do with them.

They'll definitely come again, so before then, we need to get them to spill as much information about the other side as possible... Bunhui.

"Yes?"

"Do you know any way to make a prisoner reveal secrets?"

The brig had originally been prepared to confine people who committed crimes in a military camp or government office. I had served on the frontier for fifteen years, but I had never captured a barbarian prisoner. I had never tried to learn anything from them, either.

In response to my question, Bunhui gazed at the ceiling and tilted her head back and forth a few times before suddenly remembering something.

"Oh, I've learned that!"

"Really? That's great."

"You mean how to turn someone into salted seafood while they're still alive?"

"……"

Besides that, she rattled off terrifying punishments that were horrifying even to hear about, such as slicing flesh into strips, putting someone alive into a boiling cauldron, and turning a person into a pig.

Come to think of it, the standards for interrogating prisoners were rather different here. They had probably actually carried out such things during the Great Upheaval, when the previous Celestial Emperor's children fought one another to become Celestial Emperor.

Even if we could extract information that way, we'd truly cross a river between Earth and this world that we could never cross back, so I decided against it.

"Then shall we burn them?"

"No. Let's find a gentler method."

"A gentler one, hmm..."

After putting our heads together for a while, a good idea suddenly flashed through my mind. It wasn't excessively cruel, anyone could do it easily, and the force could be adjusted.

Most importantly, it was an interrogation method any Korean would find all too familiar.

"Ugh, where is this...?"

"A prison? Damn it."

A few hours later, the members of Birang's party woke up.

Some had been burned by Bunhui's battle aura, so I poured the potions they had been carrying over the burns. Fortunately, they were in fairly good shape. I had finished preparing for the interrogation and was waiting when I opened the cell door, and Ahn Junhyun asked with an expression of half resignation,

"What do you intend to do with us?"

"Didn't I tell you before you passed out? I captured you alive because I have a few things to ask you barbarians."

"Urgh, I won't tell you anything."

Ahn Junhyun at least calmly expressed his refusal, but a few of the party members began screaming in terror.

"A lawyer! We're invoking our right to remain silent, so call a lawyer!"

"Idiot, do you think there are things like that here!?"

"There are."

"Huh?"

"R-really?"

"Normally, in an interrogation hall, we don't allow anyone to speak for the criminal, but there are two people here who have stepped forward to defend you barbarians."

"Who are they? What kind of people...?"

"You needn't be so hasty. I'll introduce them soon. Wait a moment."

The members of Birang's party were relieved and hopeful when they heard that someone would defend them. To them, I showed the two long iron stakes I had pulled out of the military tent under construction.

"Say hello. Attorney Joo and Attorney Lee."

"Yes……?"

If they weren't going to confess willingly, there was no helping it.

"Joo…… I suppose it's time to twist them, huh?"