Chapter 184: Interrogating Classmates
In the center of the marching column, a reinforced wooden prison wagon rattled over the cobblestone roads. General Boros sat slumped in the corner, clutching his bandaged hand to his chest. The general looked up as the heavy iron doors swung open.
Boros stared in absolute disbelief. He recognized the two youths immediately. They were supposed to be the divine saviors of the Fourth Continent, wielding the absolute power of the gods to crush Aethelgard’s enemies.
"By the gods..." Boros muttered, his face turning entirely pale. "They captured the Heralds."
If the mercenaries could crush the Heralds, the Fourth Continent had absolutely no hope of winning this war.
"You returned early," Lucian noted, his armored boots clanking as he stepped forward. He looked at Boros, then squinted at the two new humans. "Who are these children?"
She gestured to her Troglodyte guards. They dragged Boros, Jason, and Chloe over to a row of heavy wooden chairs and chained them securely to the floor. Syra pulled her leather diary from her robes, grabbed her quill, and dragged a stool over to sit directly in front of the prisoners.
Syra tapped her quill against the blank parchment.
Jason swallowed hard. He looked at the surrounding Vanguard commanders, his chest heaving with panicked breaths. He tried desperately to muster a fraction of his old earthly arrogance to mask his terror.
Syra did not write a single word. She just stared at him with her cold, unblinking black eyes.
"Demonstrate our interrogation techniques, Hawl," Syra instructed calmly.
The satisfying crunch of breaking ribs echoed loudly in the quiet warehouse.
General Boros flinched violently in his chair. He had endured his own torture with grim defiance, but watching the "divine" Herald of Aethelgard reduced to a weeping, fragile boy entirely shattered his worldview.
"He’s right! He’s right, please!" Chloe shrieked.
"Please! Don’t let him hit us!" Chloe sobbed hysterically. "We genuinely don’t know where the others are!"
"King Voranthar kept everything a secret from us!" Chloe babbled quickly, desperate to offer anything of value. "We were just his weapons! He never told us where the other pairs were stationed. He kept us completely isolated from the rest of the class so we couldn’t gang up or form our own plans. We just sat in the palace in luxury until he pointed us at a target and told us to destroy it!"
"I swear on my life!" Chloe cried out. "We only followed our specific orders! But... but I know about Chris! Chris Pitt and Megan!"
"They aren’t on the continent anymore," Chloe confessed, her words spilling out in a frantic rush. "The King sent them to the Third Continent a few months ago. They were tasked with breaking the border defenses and conquering the eastern provinces over there. That’s all I know! I swear to you, that’s everything!"
Apostle Lucian crossed his arms, his face pale as he processed the interrogation. "If King Voranthar has sent these ’Heralds’ to the Third Continent, it means he is fighting a multi-front war. And it means this conflict is far larger than a simple border dispute."