novelbin Chapter 150 : Chapter 150
Chapter 150 : Chapter 150
Chapter 150. Social Death
It was colder and harder than even Logaris’s voice, like the edge of a blade soaked in ice water.
“Cassido Tarassa.”
Along with that voice, the figure in black riding attire slowly stepped out.
Sylvia removed the sunglasses from her face and casually hooked them at her collar. Those iconic silver-gray eyes of hers were now fixed on the fat man sprawled on the floor without the slightest trace of warmth.
Shing—
A crisp ring like a dragon’s cry cut through the room.
The Winter Wolf Sword, symbol of the highest military authority in the Northern Territory, slid half an inch from its scabbard, and its cold gleam instantly lit up the dim study.
Cassido stared fixedly at that face, then at that sword, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
As one of the old noble houses of the Northern Territory, how could he possibly fail to recognize that face?
“Y-Your Highness the Princess?!”
The shriek that burst out of him sounded exactly like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
The fat all over Cassido’s body quivered violently. His legs gave way, and he collapsed directly onto the expensive carpet.
But very quickly, as though he had suddenly seized upon some lifesaving straw, he struggled back up and forced an expression onto his face that looked even uglier than crying. Bluffing through his fear, he shouted,
“Since it’s Your Highness, then all the more reason you can’t act recklessly! I’m a hereditary count enfeoffed by the kingdom! I have noble immunity! Even if you’re the Acting Governor, without a writ of judgment from the Senate, you have no right to deal with me privately!”
“You’ve trespassed into my estate and now you mean to attack me… that’s illegal! That’s trampling on the Nobility Law! I’m going to appeal to the capital!”
Looking at this old bastard, who was already standing at death’s door and still using that rotten set of laws as a shield, the disgust in Sylvia’s eyes nearly became tangible.
“The Nobility Law?”
Sylvia stepped forward. The pressure of long-held authority mixed with the aura of a fifth-tier powerhouse and came crashing down on Cassido like a mountain, making it hard for him even to breathe.
“When you colluded with an enemy nation, sold military intelligence, and manufactured that inhuman poison within your own territory, did you think about the law then?”
“I…” Cassido was struck speechless, cold sweat pouring down him like a waterfall. “That’s all slander! I want to see a judge! I want to see my lawyer!”
“Save it.”
Logaris yawned, already seeming to have lost interest in this trial whose outcome had never been in doubt.
Sylvia walked forward expressionlessly. From her Spatial Ring, she pulled out the document pouch she had lifted from the safe, casually took out several pieces, and flung them in Cassido’s face.
The heavy ledger struck the bridge of Cassido’s nose with a sharp crack that made one’s teeth ache, and blood instantly gushed from it.
Cassido let out a miserable scream and rolled around on the floor clutching his nose. But he stopped almost at once, because he had seen the letters scattered across the carpet.
That scarlet twin-headed serpent wax seal stood out with painful clarity beneath the lamplight.
It was the exclusive mark of the Tyrenian Royal Intelligence Bureau.
And there was also the ledger. On the page where it had fallen open, every filthy transaction between him and the Tyrenian navy was clearly recorded.
Cassido froze as though he had been struck by lightning. The swagger of a local tyrant that had filled him just moments ago vanished instantly in the face of this mountain of ironclad evidence—evidence enough to send him to the gallows a hundred times over.
It was over.
“T-this isn’t mine! This is a frame-up! A setup!”
Cassido suddenly lunged like a mad dog, trying to stuff those letters into his mouth and swallow them.
“It was that bastard Rossi! It was all him! He forced me into it!” Cassido wailed through tears and snot while cramming parchment down his throat, his words coming out thick and garbled. “He said that if I didn’t cooperate, he’d kill my whole family! I had no choice, Your Highness! I’m loyal! I’m absolutely loyal to the kingdom!”
“And that unfilial son of mine! Baron! Yes, it was all that little beast’s doing! He was the one managing that factory, and he was the one making those drugs! I didn’t know anything! I’m just a pitiful old man who was kept in the dark!”
Logaris almost laughed.
So that was it? He was selling out his precious son already? With face-changing speed like that, it was a shame he had never gone on stage.
“All right, stop acting. You’re disgusting to watch.”
Logaris walked over, lifted a foot with visible distaste, and kicked Cassido in the shoulder.
Bang.
The fat man of more than two hundred pounds rolled several meters like a ball before crashing into the bookshelf. Then he lay there on the floor gasping for breath, no longer even having the strength to crawl back up.
Once he was done dealing with that piece of trash who could do nothing but cry and howl, Logaris turned to look at the middle-aged man who was still standing there in that stiff, frozen posture.
Rossi.
Or rather, Tyrenia’s senior intelligence agent.
Logaris snapped his fingers.
The space imprisoning Rossi loosened slightly, but only enough to allow movement above the neck. The rest of his body remained as immobile as if it had been cast in concrete.
“Haa…”
Rossi sucked in a huge breath of air. His well-maintained face was drenched in cold sweat, and even his carefully trimmed mustache had been soaked through and stuck to his lips, making him look faintly ridiculous.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself?” Logaris dragged over a chair and sat on it backward, both hands resting on the backrest as though he were observing some rare animal. “Although I’ve already more or less guessed what you do, I’m a fairly democratic person. I like to give criminals a chance to confess and earn leniency.”
Rossi drew in a deep breath and tried to make himself look calmer.
As a veteran spy with professional training, he knew that this was the one moment when he absolutely could not lose his composure.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Rossi spoke in impeccable Common Tongue, even forcing out a professional smile. “My name is Rossi. I’m a legitimate herbal merchant. My dealings with the count are limited purely to normal commercial trade. I understand nothing about politics, and even less about espionage.”
“An herbal merchant?”
Logaris arched a brow. “Selling ‘herbs’ that cook people’s brains into mush? Or selling ‘herbs’ in exchange for military intelligence?”
“That’s a misunderstanding.” Rossi’s gaze flickered. “If you don’t believe me, you can examine my travel papers. Every stamp on them is perfectly legal—”
“Checking papers is too slow.”
Logaris cut him off.
He rose to his feet and slowly walked over to Rossi. Then he removed the white glove from his hand, revealing that long, pale palm.
“Look, I happen to have a spell called Soul Probe. The side effects are a little unpleasant, but the results are truly excellent. Whatever I want to know, I can dig it out—even how many times you wet the bed when you were three.”
Logaris slowly pressed his palm toward Rossi’s forehead. The exposed right eye had turned a bizarre crimson, as though a vortex were spinning inside it.
“For a professional like you, someone who’s had mental resistance training, I may need to turn the power up a little. It’ll probably hurt. Roughly like having someone stir your brain for ten minutes with a red-hot iron rod. If you’re unlucky and end up an idiot, then I can only apologize in advance.”
Sweat instantly drenched Rossi’s forehead.
Soul Probe!
As a spy, he understood that move’s horror better than anyone. After enduring it, becoming an idiot would already be the best possible outcome. There was even the chance that his memories would be extracted and made into a Memory Stone, condemning him to total social death!
At that thought, Rossi’s face turned deathly pale.