Eastern One

"Speaking of which, how'd you know where they were hiding?"

Since the crisis is over, Rebecca finally let her curiosity take over and asked me.

I explained it to her as best as I could. Starting from my ability to control the wind—which she already knew—and how I found a way to extend this ability by imitating my god's 'knowing all winds' aspect.

She was impressed and even complimented me on my creativity, then slapped my back for encouragement.

That slap hurt, you know?

We turned our attention back to the sleeping mercenary.

I took off their mask so that we could see what kind of face was under all that black cloth.

What was revealed was a pretty face with short black hair.

"Is that-?"

Rebecca stopped in her exclamation before kneeling to pull back the eyelids of the mercenary, revealing black irises.

"...an eastern one. What is an eastern one doing all the way out here in the far west side of the Alumis continent?"

Eastern one? You mean like the asian people back on Earth?

Looking closely at our mercenary, they do look like an asian woman.

Her eyelids were narrow and her hair is pure black. Even her irises were black, a characteristic I'm all too familiar with back in my past life. I was a Filipino, a southeast asian. I had the common black hair and eyes. It's been a while since I've seen something familiar in this world.

Judging from Rebecca's reaction, people similar to Earth's asian race also exist here.

"Is seeing someone from the east that uncommon?"

Rebecca scoffed, "Not uncommon, it almost never happens. The continent is far too big for anyone to travel around for a vacation. She was most likely captured as a slave. The question is how?"

How did the Black Mamba mercenary groups get ahold of someone from the eastern side of the continent... that's a good question.

Magic exists, so teleportation isn't that far-fetched of an idea. But mages all charge an extremely high price for their services.

Teleporting someone from the east all the way to the far west would probably cost enough money to buy a country. So unless the Black Mambas are richer than the Montampes duchy, how were they able to recruit an asian? Or eastern one. Asia doesn't really exist here, does it?

Rebecca and I decided to put off the question of how the fuck an eastern one is here, and promptly tied up our mercenary and rendezvous with the other knights back at the campsite.

After getting back, I finally returned to my butler clothes. The hell of the uneasy feeling of my crotch being exposed to the chilly air finally ended.

Rosaline was back to having silver hair and I already left my wig back at the cave. I didn't bother to get it back. It'll be a dark history that I shall never look back on.

The knights discussed what we should do with the mercenary. They were kind enough to invite me into their debate, seeing as how I was instrumental to tonight's victory.

After many backs and forth, we concluded to just wait until the mercenary woke up and see what she has to say.

We just left her tied to a tree and went back to sleep. We didn't have any Lobon metal to restrict her Aura. So rope will have to do.

The next morning, we found our perpetrator struggling to slip out of her bindings. But before that, she was desperately trying to hide in the tree's shade. It was as if she was afraid of sunlight. Is she a vampire?

"Give up. The knots on that rope are impossible to get out of on your own. Use Aura and you'll be kissing Rebecca's fist here." I pointed at Rebecca, who then pound her fist to her palm, trying to intimidate our captive.

"Remember, it's already daytime, your black Aura is very much disadvantaged. And from the looks of it, you and your friends weren't trained for long head-on fights which is very much unlike the knights. Try to escape and you'll be facing seven knights in broad daylight. From what I can see, you're severely disadvantaged."

I warned her not to waste energy trying to escape. The knot lessons grandpa gave me in my past life thanks to all those camping trips were useful.

She stopped struggling and glared daggers into my eyes. Her expression was full of resentment towards me, and disappointment towards herself. The former was more obvious than the latter.

"Ptui!"

She spat at my face, but I was able to react fast enough to push back the blob of saliva with a gust of wind.

Her spit returned to her and splashed on her cheek. Her face of resentment turned even worse than it already was. She looked like she was about to rip off my face and eat it.

Rebecca started the questioning.

"Who are you?"

The mercenary didn't answer.

"I'll ask this again, who are you?"

We already knew that she was a member of the Black Mambas, but we were curious about her personal origins.

She kept silent. Only trying to spit on us which would inevitably circle back and splash on her face.

Rebecca seemed to finally lose her patience as she firmly grabbed and squeezed the cheeks of the mercenary is spoke in a low intimidating tone.

"Listen to me you eastern bitch. Either you tell me something I can use or I'll rip you a new one!"

"Go kill yourself..." She only responded with an insult.

A vein visibly bulged on Rebecca's forehead. Magenta Aura flared like a fierce flame, illuminating the surroundings with a purplish-red glow.

Rebecca clenched both of her hands into fists. She wanted to punch the mercenary to vent her frustrations, but I stopped her by tapping her shoulder.

She turned her head to glare at me. Seems like I got her attention.

"You're the one who said we need her alive right? If you decide to blow her head away, no one here is strong enough to hold you back. We'd be losing our only lead to the person who commissioned the Black Mambas, and that'd be on your shoulders."

Rebecca's eyebrows twitched, and her Aura slowly calmed down from an angry flame to a calm bubble. But I struck while the iron's still hot.

"Do you really want to deal with the Duke's anger? You know how protective he is with his daughter."

Fear flashed in Rebecca's eyes. Her Aura instantly retracted. Small beads of sweat were forming off the side of her face.

I still don't know what the Duke did in the past. But from the whispers and rumors I've heard, he's a scary man when someone harms his family.

In any case, I successfully calmed down the hot-headed knight. It's my turn to question our prisoner.