Chapter 137: 137 Confession

Using harsh interrogation to extract a confession is not what Luoning desires, but he feels no great sense of guilt when using it on criminals whose crimes have already been confirmed.

This method of interrogation easily leads to unjust, false, or wrong cases; the key lies in restraining people from using it indiscriminately.

However, Shanlin Town is still small, effectively Luoning's one-man show, and he can still keep a handle on it for now.

Once the territory expands and the population increases in the future, there will be matters he cannot oversee; at that time, it will naturally be necessary to implement corresponding laws to ensure that law enforcement is relatively fair and just, and that torture is not used to extract confessions.

However, those are matters for the future.

At least for the current Luoning, he needs to pry open the assassin's mouth to obtain valuable intelligence.

Returning to the warm living room, Chahar was waiting there.

"My Lord, your new bedroom has been prepared, and the books and items from the previous bedroom have all been moved to the new room."

The old room was left in a mess by the Battle Qi, so it was clearly inconvenient to live in.

"What is the extent of the damage to the house? If it poses a serious threat to the safety of this building, we will have to move out and rebuild it."

The main building in the Inner Castle is not something that can be built casually; it concerns the face of the Lord.

Just imagine, if a guest were to come to Shanlin Castle and the living environment was like that of a slave, one can imagine Luoning's reputation in noble circles thereafter.

To be honest, the building Luoning currently lives in is just average; it cannot be considered luxurious.

But even building such a structure is a major project; Luoning would need to prepare a large sum of money, as well as labor and resources.

Fortunately, Chahar took people to inspect it, and the main structure was not damaged, so there is no risk of collapse, but the broken doors, windows, flooring, and so on need to be repaired by William or other carpenters.

This made Luoning heave a sigh of relief, and he turned to ask: "Where is Black Tiger?"

Chahar smiled and said: "I don't know if it's tired from calling out or if it was frightened, but it is currently resting in Miss Ailin's room."

"Remember to give it a good meal tomorrow!"

Luoning laughed: "That I was able to safely escape the assassination today is thanks to the little guy warning me in time."

Chahar was startled, not expecting Black Tiger to have played a part in this. "Black Tiger is truly worthy of being a Storm Demon Wolf cub; it certainly possesses extraordinary abilities."

"Haha, when it grows a bit more, it will have many more abilities."

The Magic Core of that female Storm Demon Wolf contained three abilities: Speed, Tear, and Concealment.

Storm Demon Wolves generally only master Wind Attribute magic; after Black Tiger reaches adulthood, it should master the two abilities of Speed and Tear.

As for whether it can master the Concealment ability, that depends on whether it inherited the Dark Attribute from its mother.

The next morning, Luoning got up, washed, ate breakfast, and did his morning exercises as usual.

But the kitchen and the Guards had two more things to do than usual—boil sugar water and find ant nests.

Luoning originally thought finding ant nests would take some time, but the Guards' speed clearly exceeded his expectations; within an hour, they had found three locations, prepared baskets, and dug them out with shovels.

When the Guards lit a fire in the dark room to raise the temperature, stripped the assassin down to nothing but his underwear, and poured the warm sugar water over the assassin, fear surged from within Youying's heart, no longer to be suppressed.

His teeth, his knees, and his entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.

And when the Guards brought a large basket of ant nests before him and opened the lid, Youying saw the dense, crawling ants inside, and his scalp instantly felt like it was exploding.

"I confess, I confess, I confess! I'll talk!"

"Wuu wuu, I beg you, please take these things away, take them all away..."

In fact, the images he had thought about all night had already brought his emotions to the verge of collapse; that he could hold out until now is enough to confirm this assassin's psychological fortitude.

Soon, Maiken and the others invited Luoning over.

Seeing the assassin's tearful appearance, Luoning couldn't help but smile. "Actually, our Shanlin Town is quite merciful to captives; if you had spoken earlier, we wouldn't have had to go to these lengths."

As he spoke, he sat down on a chair nearby. "Tell me, who ordered you to assassinate me?"

"It... it was the President who ordered me to kill you."

The President?

Luoning frowned. "The President of the Skull Society? Who is he?"

"I don't know."

Youying said weakly, "The President always wears a golden mask; I don't know his true identity. When we communicate, he only uses 'Skull' as his codename."

The leader of the Skull Society wears a mask; it is estimated that his true identity is inconvenient to reveal, perhaps involving certain powers?

"Why did he want to kill me?" Luoning continued to ask.

Regarding this, Youying shook his head.

"I don't know; assassination missions often have no extra description. But..."

He hesitated for a moment, as if thinking about whether to continue revealing information, as it violated his professional ethics.

Bang, bang...

Maiken used his longsword to tap the basket containing the ants; Youying shuddered, and his professional ethics were completely abandoned.

"But the President told me that after the deed was done, I could go directly to the Zhaoze in Sain Territory to find Baron Leisen and collect the one-thousand gold coin bounty."

Hearing this, a stone seemed to fall from Luoning's heart.

Yesterday, he had guessed that it might have been an assassin sent by Sain Territory, but he had hesitated when he saw the Skull Society's emblem, as there were indeed many people who wanted him dead.

But the truth was as he had suspected; there was still the shadow of Leisen behind this matter.

If it wasn't ordered by the other party, why would he go to Leisen to collect the bounty?

Luoning smiled and said to Maiken: "It seems Baron Leisen is truly angered by me, willing to spend a huge sum of one thousand gold coins just to buy my life."

Maiken replied: "In his eyes, the conflict between him and you is irreconcilable. As long as he can kill you, the four savage tribes, and perhaps even Shanlin Town, could fall into his hands."

"Not bad!"

Luoning nodded secretly. He suddenly remembered something and asked: "Do you know Pedro?"

Youying was somewhat surprised and nodded. "I know him; he was a probationary member of the Skull Society. He was killed by you."

"Then do you know who wanted to kill the Gelin Family's Marina and Malike, the sister and brother?"

Youying hesitated for a moment, then said: "It was Baron Leisen. His relationship with Baron German is very poor, so he thought to use us to eliminate German's son and daughter, making him experience the pain of losing a child once again."

"You know that very clearly?"

"Because Pedro was someone I was responsible for investigating..."

Luoning had only asked casually, but he had not expected such an unexpected harvest.

It turned out there was a feud between Gelin Ling and Sain Territory that he was unaware of; it seemed he would need to arrange for an intelligence officer to specifically collect various intelligence and news among the nobles in the future.

"Very well, I am gratified by your honesty, Mr. Shadow."

Luoning signaled for the basket containing the ants to be taken away, "Rest assured, I will not kill you, but I will not release you either."

He stood up and instructed: "Maiken, prepare paper and pen, record everything Mr. Shadow just confessed, then have him sign his name and press his thumbprint."

"Additionally, Wodun, go to Huitu Village right now and have Ruidar and Tangmu come over."

(End of chapter)