The Whereabouts of Chief Gul
After Minos had given his orders, the soldiers carried on to arrest the two unconscious men, bringing each of them into two separate rooms before looting the items that were left as a trophy for them after killing all the bandits.
Minos' soldiers also gathered all the bodies of nearly 100 people and also burned them, forming a large fire not further from the mansion's main building.
Following that, Minos made his way to the inner section of the mansion, where he planned to rest for a few hours. He was still quite tired from the previous battle and wanted to regain the energy before proceeding with the interrogation of those two men.
Upon entering the mansion, the group accompanying Minos could see a well-furnished place but was left empty!
The bandits had indeed stripped all the valuables, leaving only the chairs and sofas for the sake of resting.
Minos, along with Ruth, Dillian and the others, moved through the mansion, while some of the group were looking for a place to rest and others were trying to gather more information about this place.
Finally, Minos then found a secluded area and immediately started cultivating. Taking out a few low-grade spiritual crystals, he then began absorbing their energy.
Meanwhile, the groups that had been tasked to attack in the different parts of the town had begun to arrive one after another as well. The first group to arrive was the one that attacked the city's east entrance, which had been the group that completed its mission more quickly.
Next came members of the second group, the ones who had been responsible for the western entrance. And finally, arrived the soldiers who attacked the nightclub in the south of Yellow City.
Due to their mission's nature and complexity, the third group took the longest time to arrive, almost an hour later than the others.
By the time they arrived at the entrance of the city government mansion, the place had already been thoroughly cleaned, and the bandits' bodies had already returned to dust.
...
Meanwhile, Elen and Eduard had ventured to a secluded region at the back of the mansion, where they had sensed several faint signs of life. These were some of the traders who had been kidnapped by the bandits!
Not all of them were killed, as some of them were members of influential families as these bandits could not be at risk of being chased by one of such families for all their life. After all, if any of these traders died while passing through these areas, their families would undoubtedly hunt for them here and seek their revenge.
And that would be the end for these bandits. And even if some of them were sought after by large families from the north of the Central Continent, these families didn't have any information about their whereabouts.
As a result, as long as they did not abuse the place where they lived and attract attention, it would be challenging for anyone to identify them in a far place like Yellow City. And that was why they had also checked the past of each of these kidnapped traders well, before killing only those with small powers behind them.
Elen entered a room which had a large cell covering an area of 30 meters.
Here, she was looking for someone and also discovered the person in not much time.
"Ralph, hey! Look over here. It's me, Elen," she smiled, trying to get the attention of a man lying in the corner of the cell.
Ralph was one of the Nash Family's subordinates within the Kingdom of Waves. He usually traveled between the kingdom and Stone Island, transporting resources back and forth while also providing all sorts of crucial information about the region to the Nash family.
The Nash family had assigned Ralph to assist young Elen in her business ventures after recognizing her potential among the other members of the family and thus giving her more responsibilities. However, months ago, Ralph suddenly stopped all communication with Elen just after leaving the Kingdom of Waves to address an issue in the Brown Kingdom.
Relying on this and other information that Elen and Elena had found about, the two concluded that Ralph's disappearance was connected with the increasing instability of Yellow City, where the crime had escalated considerably since a while.
The man dressed in tattered clothes and sporting a tired look on his face, stood up looking in Elen's direction in disbelief. "Ah! Ms. Elen!"
"Yes, it's me. Now come with me and tell me what happened to you," Elen said as Eduard opened the cell door, allowing the people inside to leave.
...
Two hours passed swiftly, during which Butler Dillian assisted several guards with minor wounds to recover quickly. Not only that, he also provided primary treatment to the two bandits who had been captured by them.
Minos, who had already adequately recovered from the previous battle after recuperation, had asked the butler Dillian to do this so that the two would regain consciousness rather quickly since he was eager to find out why the leader of this city had left all of a sudden, taking most of his forces along with him.
He then walked to one of the rooms where the muscular man was being held. Upon entering, Minos saw that the guy's face was ashen and he was glaring at him menacingly.
Taking a seat, Minos said calmly. "If you want to live longer, you better answer every question that I ask. You got it?"
The man remained silent with his furious gaze fixed at Minos. After a moment, the young Stuart then spoke again, "Firstly, I want to know whether the group that left Yellow City earlier were members of your bandit group."
Then without waiting for him to reply, Minos took an apple from his spatial ring and began to chew on it while waiting for the man's response.
"No answer? Are you sure about that? Your friend is in another room and should be waiting for his turn. I think that he will be the more intelligent of the two of you. I'm sure he will answer me..."
Minos remarked, looking at the apple in his right hand as if he didn't care whom he got the answer from.
Yet, the muscular man's face remained unchanged. 'A fool,' Minos thought to himself.
While he understood the idea of loyalty, being faithful to a group of bandits was nothing but stupid!
Hell! Some bandits were even willing to sell their own families, let alone a companion!
And even if the chance of him surviving was the slightest, there was no reason why he would die for such people, making Minos think of the man as a fool.
"Why did your boss leave with the strongest men from this place? Where did they go?" Minos again asked calmly.
Time passed, and no matter what questions Minos asked, the muscular man only answered him with the same indifference, ignoring him while casting murderous gazes at Minos.
"Fine! I'll speak with your comrade. At least, he won't be dumb like you," Minos breathed leisurely, rising up from the chair and leaving the room. He saw no need for resorting torture, since this man was well aware of his weak position.
After witnessing the entire group that he thought would soon rise to new heights, being wiped out in a matter of a few minutes by Minos' team had undoubtedly left the two men in a somewhat vulnerable state. Therefore, Minos believed that torturing them was not necessary.
In certain situations, torture was proved ineffective and could only hinder an interrogation...
A few seconds later, Minos entered the room where the skinny man was held captive and pulled a chair close to the man before saying, "You have a chance to live. All you need to do is answer my questions sincerely. As you have experienced yourself, the people in your group cannot stop us, so don't harbor any expectations for such to happen."
"Anyway, the group that left the city earlier, were they your superiors?"
Dugal, seated on the floor, gazed at Minos momentarily before asking, "What guarantee do I have that you won't kill me after learning what you want?"
"As expected... Well, there are no guarantees for you. All I can say is that I intend to spare your life in the end...but ultimately, it just depends on you," Minos replied, looking into the man's eyes.
'Okay, it doesn't make any difference anyway... But if there's a chance that I will survive, then I will answer,' Dugal thought, contemplating his situation.
Given his current circumstances, Dugal knew that he could not escape any punishment that Minos decided. However, on the other hand, the team of these invaders who had massacred their men would find out about Gul sooner or later.
After all, Gul had ventured out to hunt that fox and would return to Yellow City as soon as he captured it.
Furthermore, even if he refrained from saying anything to Minos about it, giving Gul's group a chance would be nothing but futile resistance. And with the power of Ruth and Eduard, and regardless if Gul and company were prepared well or not, they would still face elimination!
Finally, what would Dugal gain from such loyalty? Only his own demise!
Looking at Minos, he then said, "You are right. That group that left the city earlier today consists of the highest level members of our forces."
"Where did they go? And why did they leave with their main force?"
Dugal coughed slightly due to his injury and then continued, "Ehh, a few weeks ago, we received a report from a merchant about a strange beast that was seen inside this region. He also mentioned that she was pregnant. This prompted our group to start looking for her."
"After weeks of searching, some of our subordinates discovered the beast in a cave, a few hundred kilometers from here. We also found out that she had already given birth to a cub, and was at the 5th stage.
And because of this, the group went out to capture this spiritual beast and her cub while she was still weakened," Dugal explained slowly.
Upon hearing this, Minos grasped the situation and then asked curiously, "You said that the spiritual beast was peculiar. For what reason?"
"Cough! Hmm, she was weird because, despite resembling a fox, she had five tails instead of just one."
Upon hearing this, Minos' eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn't fathom that such a high level beast had appeared in such a place. 'Why is this Nine-tailed Fox here?' he wondered as he tried to decipher the presence of such a high-level spiritual beast in this impoverished region.