Loving The Mad King

Interrogating the Bandits

Odette stroked Daniel's head gently, and said that the bandits would not be able to hit Daniel, because the king would protect him. "Yesterday, the king fought and defeated them all easily. Now they are in prison."

"Is that true?" Daniel looked at Odette, the boy's face looked very innocent.

Odette nodded and hugged the child warmly. It was a hug that made Daniel feel safe.

***

In prison, Trish again interrogated the four bandits that survived, and pointed out why he was called the king's savage dog. Rion had ordered Trish to make the four bandits tell him to whom they had sold the children and women they had abducted. If they didn’t want to confess, then they would be tortured until they gave up.

"I'll ask you again, where did you sell the children and the women?" Trish asked emphatically. He tightly gripped the collar of one bandit's shirt and stared intently.

The man's face was battered, he couldn’t even open his left eye because of the bruises, and he looked very scared. "Please don't hit me again, if you do, I will die," he whimpered.

"IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO HIT YOU AGAIN, THEN ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!" Trish shouted in anger, his face red and his veins popping out.

Arlo, who was standing behind him, gulped when he saw such an angry Trish. The other three bandits were waiting for their turn to be interrogated again by Trish. They were trembling and felt very frightened.

"I-I don't remember," the man stammered.

As soon as he heard that answer, Trish kicked the man in the stomach with his knee. Due to a very hard hit, the man vomited blood and his body fell to the floor.

"Arlo."

He understood the orders given to him. He forced the man to stand up, and took him to the treatment room. After the man recovered enough, he would be interrogated and tortured again. That was if he still did not want to tell where and to whom he and his friends sold the children and women that they had kidn*pped.

The same went for the other three friends.

Trish's punching and the screaming echoed through the interrogation room, until the sun was directly overhead. The last man was just led by Arlo out of the room to the infirmary, while Trish walked towards the king's room.

"How was it? Have there been any results?" Rion asked, as soon as Trish stood before him.

"Not yet, Your Majesty. They keep saying that they don't know or they don't remember," Trish replied.

Rion seemed silent and went into thought. "What do you think? Are they faking it or telling the truth?"

"I think they're pretending, Your Majesty. Don't worry, I will continue to force them to confess."

"No need. I’ve called Adriel here. We'll tell him to read their minds."

Adriel was one of the magic user knights in Panthera. He and the other knights were in the magic tower in the south. Their job was to guard the protective magic that prevented Randle's monsters from entering Panthera.

"Your Majesty, I don't think we need to summon knights from the magic tower just to deal with such lowly bandits."

"I just don't want to waste any more time. We must immediately help the children and women they have sold." Rion snorted. "I feel really bad when I think of them."

"Please don't feel that way. It's not your fault, Your Majesty," Trish said, when he saw the king blame himself and held himself responsible for the misfortunes that befell the children and the woman being sold.

Not long after, a dazzling white light appeared not far from them, and a black-haired youth with golden colored eyes came out from there.

The light disappeared, then the young man crouched down with one knee bent. He greeted the king and the leader of the knights politely.

"Stand up, Adriel," said Rion. The young man, who was around twenty years old, nodded obediently. After Adriel stood up, Rion immediately ordered the young magician to follow him.

Their destination was the room where the four bandits were being treated. It didn't take long for them to arrive there. The doctor and the two nurses in the room immediately bowed politely, upon seeing the arrival of the king.

The bandits, who had just finished being treated, immediately reacted in fear upon seeing Rion and Trish. In their eyes, the two men were guardians of hell, who tortured sinners.

"How are they?" Rion asked.

"They have serious internal injuries. If Knight Trish beats them again, they won't survive," explained the doctor.

"They deserve to die," Rion said flatly, and made the four bandits immediately get off the bed. They were at Rion's feet, begging for forgiveness for their lives.

"Forgive us, Your Majesty … we promise not to do it again, please don't kill us …" The four men, who were laughing when they saw a frightened Odette two days ago, were now crying like babies at Rion's feet.

Rion looked down on the four of them, then ordered them to get up. Since they couldn't get up, Trish and Arlo had to force them to stand up.

The doctor warned Trish not to treat them too harshly, because it could tear the stitches in their wound. To be honest, the doctor felt sorry for the four bandits, but that was what they deserved.

"Stand tall!" Trish snapped at one of the men who was staggering, the man felt so dizzy. For fear of being beaten again, the man desperately held his body from falling.

"Adriel, do your job," ordered Rion, and Adriel immediately nodded, then stepped closer to the four people. He began to read their minds one by one, by looking into their eyes.

During the process, the atmosphere of the room became silent. Rion and the others watched Adriel, who was doing his job. A few moments later, Adriel had finished doing the task the king had ordered him to do.

"How is it? Did you find out where they sold the children and the woman?" Rion asked.

"I'm sorry to say that I didn't find the information. They have no memory of that place or rather, their memories have been erased," said Adriel. It made Rion and everyone who heard it shocked, because it meant that there was a magician involved in the case.

Adriel explained that the memories of the four people were like an incomplete storyline. There were a lot of missing pieces, and all those missing pieces were the part where they would kidnap the children and women. Including the part where they gave them to the people who had bought them.

Adriel added that the person who had erased their memories was a very thorough person. That person had not left any information about the place.

Adriel told him that the person was not a random mage, because he could sort the memories as he wanted, he could erase them or keep them. That required a high level of skill.

Adriel himself couldn't do that if he was asked. If he was to erase someone's memory, he would erase that person's memory completely. He couldn't choose which memories to erase and which memories to keep.

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From the author:

What do you think about the story so far? I hope you enjoyed reading so many chapters today. Rion has realized his feelings for Odette... Ahh... We will also know more about what happened to the children and women who were kidn*pped by the bandits.