Interrogation

Franz looked at Ernes blankly, he found that the wound he had inflicted had already healed. But it was not this that made him confused, he had never seen a boy in front of him with such an expression on his face, even the external feeling around him was different. Previously, he felt only joy and interest in everything around him from the child, but now, looking into Ernes' blue eyes, he felt like a small boat in the boundless ocean.

Ernes, seeing that Franz was looking at him in confusion, not paying attention to his words, said coldly.

- Apparently you didn't hear.

Having said that, he tightened his grip on the dagger in his right hand and struck Franz's wrist, piercing through it. The pain caused caused Franz to scream in pain and reflexively jerk his arm. Because of his movement, the dagger rested on the floor slightly cut through the brush, stopping in the interstitial joints, creating a long through wound in the brush, from which blood gushed.

Franz, having experienced another pain, stretched out his other hand to forcibly pull out the dagger. Ernes saw his actions, pulling out a dagger and easily avoided the barely moving hand. Avoiding capture, Ernes grabbed Franz's hand, locking it. Immediately after that, he stabbed the boa constrictor with all possible force right into the crook of the elbow, piercing it.

Taking out the dagger, Ernes watched as the hand fell to the floor. Franz, who had received another wound, screamed in pain. After a few seconds, thanks to the remnants of the healing rashu in his body, the blood flowing from the wounds gradually stopped, and the pain decreased. Having stopped the painful cry, Franz tried to catch his breath. Due to the loss of blood, he felt weak and his body turned pale. Shifting his frightened gaze to the child, he stammered out.

- W-who a-are y-you?

Ernes, who was calmly watching Franz, ignored his question. Opening his mouth, he asked his question again in a demanding tone.

- Who made you kill that child?

Hearing the question, various thoughts feverishly flashed through Franz's head: "Who the hell is this, it's definitely not Ernes, Ernes is too kind to hurt a person so coldly and this immense feeling emanating from him. Did someone possess his body, but that's impossible, the guardian wouldn't allow it unless..."

Thinking about this possibility, Franz's face turned whiter than before, and he looked at the boy in front of him with horror. He tried to move his body to take a bow pose, but because of the wounds, his legs and arm did not move. Realizing his position, Franz, looking down and lowering his head, said with fear and reverence in his voice.

- Great Guardian, I beg you, spare my family, she is innocent of nothing, she was taken hostage. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have committed this crime once.

Having said this, Franz fell silent expectantly. Ernes, who was calmly graying at his side, thought to himself.

"Thinks I'm a keeper, if that's the case, it will be easier to get information"

- I won't touch you and your family, just tell me what you know.

Hearing Ernes, Franz cheered up, in his opinion, there was no need for such a powerful man to lie. After a little thought, he decided to tell.

- I... - But as soon as Franz opened his mouth, he felt his soul being torn apart. In his life, he had never felt such severe pain as this. Externally, nothing has changed, the only noticeable change was the eyes that lost focus.

Ernes noticed the strangeness in the butler's behavior, quickly extending his left hand and touching his shoulder, directed a small amount of his spiritual energy. After examining Franz's spiritual space, he saw how the yellow rashu was rapidly corroding his soul.

"Interestingly, a part of his soul is missing, apparently thanks to this missing piece of soul, someone somehow activated this high-quality yellow rashu. In the future, it will be necessary to find out about the principle of operation of rashu items."

While these thoughts were running through Ernes' head, he divided his spiritual energy into two streams of energy different in quantity and directed it to Franz's soul. A larger stream enveloped the soul, creating a thin layer of energy around it, a smaller stream, flying into Franz's soul, brought him to himself and slowed down the corrosion.

"Now my spiritual energy is even unstructured and it will not last for a long time. We need to find out the maximum while it is possible."

Franz felt the pain decrease significantly, and he was able to recover a little. These last ten minutes were a real hell for him, because of the constantly changing level of pain, his mind was in a lost state. Suddenly he heard the voice again.

- You're worried about your family, aren't you? Now you don't have much time left and the kidnappers of your family know that you betrayed them. Tell me everything you know, and I can save your family.

"Family. Right, they said they'd kill them if I told them."

A sense of concern flashed in Franz's lost eyes. Taking the will in his fist, he looked at the child sitting next to him.

- Are y-you really going to s-save them?"

- Yes, but you need to hurry, they won't delay killing them.

Franz, worried about the safety of his family, decided. Opening his mouth, he began to tell the little information he knew in a tired and confused voice. Ernes listened attentively to him, simultaneously controlling the spiritual energy and analyzing the information received.

"From his words, I can assume that someone from the upper echelons of Vern is involved in this. They can quite freely deliver a message to the butler's room and later kidnap him. Probably, several people from the branches of the Werner family are also taking part in this, hoping to seize the throne. We should not miss the opportunities for their support from other countries, for the collapse is true.

The possibility of distracting the Eternal Guard suggests the presence of a spy in it. This can be confirmed by the fact that they knew information about the guardian, which only the Eternal Guard can know, since only they have contact with him. From my assumptions, the guardian is probably a creature that is close to supersized, or slightly lower.

If this is the case and he has enough intelligence, he will definitely be able to notice that there is a traitor in the eternal guard. From this we can conclude that he has been missing for a long time and the conspirators decided to take advantage of this."

Having finished his thought, Ernes looked at Franz, the yellow rashu had already eaten away a significant part of the soul. Because of this, his thoughts and parts of his memory were erased, and he began to rave. Ernes examined the thin spiritual shell around the soul and thought.

"After completely corroding his soul, this rashu should disappear, leaving behind the pure spiritual energy of Franz. After cleansing, it will be useful to strengthen my soul."

Having finished his fleeting thought, Ernes completely stopped restraining the yellow rashu. Feeling unbearable pain again, Franz stopped raving, the light in his eyes was quickly disappearing.

After five seconds, his soul, along with the yellow rashu, completely disappeared, leaving a minuscule amount of misty white energy concentrated in one place in the shell. Ernes, controlling his spiritual energy, slowly compressed the shell into a small sphere, the size of a baby's fist. Manipulating the spiritual energy, he caused the sphere to fly out of Franz's dead body and taking it in his hand, moved it directly into the spiritual space of the body.