Chapter 152

152 . Solas

We quickly threw a heal at Solas, who was still collapsed on the ground and unable to rise to his feet . He lost both an arm and a leg; his injuries were far too serious for a single heal to fix, but we didn't really care . All we needed was for him to stop bleeding so we could question him .

「...」

His expression remained constant throughout the process . That is, he simply continued to glare in Fran's direction .

「First . Deactivate Appraisal Blocking . 」

「What?」

「Playing dumb . Pointless . 」

「...I see . You must have Appraisal then . 」

「Nn . 」

「And what if I say no?」

His expression was filled with a sort of strength, one that left me confused as to whether he was trying to negotiate or just flat out defy us for the sake of it . Either way, we didn't care . We weren't planning to really negotiate with him in the first place .

What we needed to do was figure out what the skill he was using on us was .

「Will keep hitting, but won't kill . Can use healing magic, won't allow suicide . 」

「...」

Fran's lack of an expression was pretty nice to have at times like this . It made her sound completely serious — not that we weren't actually completely serious anyways .

Solas seemed to have sensed it, as his eyes had immediately began expressing his fear .

「...You'll at least let me live, right?」

I felt something again the moment he spoke in that probe-like manner . The sensation I felt this time, however, was a bit different than usual . It was much more clear . I could immediately tell that Solas had done something to us .

The sensation was very much akin to having someone stroke my blade, it was one that was simply impossible for me to ignore .

I was pretty sure that Malice Perception, Crisis Detection, Magic Detection, and Presence Detection were all working in conjunction in order to allow me to sense that he'd used a skill on us .

『Fran, did you feel anything just now?』

「?」

『What about you, Urushi?』

(Woof?)

Neither of the two could sense anything at all . Why was I the only one capable of picking this up? My immediate guess was that it was probably because I had the Sorcery skill, and that it made me better at picking up on magical energy and the flow thereof . If that is indeed the case, then I guess that just means that I'm just better at picking up magic-related stuff, kinda like how Fran's better at picking up stuff that involves using the five senses .

(Something done to us?)

『I think so . 』

「Nn . 」

Fran nodded and stabbed me straight through Solas' back .

「Giiiiiiihhhh!」

It was a well aimed thrust; I went right through his lungs . If Solas were an ordinary person, he probably would've died just then . Him being an adventurer only prolonged his pain . The fact that he wasn't weak disallowed him from even fainting . He was forced to endure an exorbitant amount of pain as blood spewed from his lips .

「Hiiigiiiigigiiiiiihh!」

「Middle Heal」

「Ugh... . 」

Being healed caused Solas to fall into despair . Only then did he realize just how far she was willing to take this .

「Will not allow any actions until Appraisal Blocking deactivated . 」

「Growl . 」

「Ha...Ha...」

I couldn't tell whether it was because he started getting scared, or whether it was just because we'd stabbed him through the lung, but Solas' breath gotten all ragged . He didn't bother putting up a front any longer . He hadn't removed his gaze from Fran, but tears had welled up in his eyes .

「I-I get it, I get it! I'll deactivate the skill . It's one of my equips, so you'll have to let me take it off! Give me just a second!」

He brought his hand out in front of him and bit down on his ring in an attempt to take it off . Apparently that was what was stopping us from appraising him .

Oh right, we chopped off his other arm so he can't really take it off normally, can he?

That said though, it refused to budge, which kinda did make sense . Rings were like that . They'd get stuck if you gained even the slightest bit of weight .

「Haa... mmmphhh... . 」

However, Fran wasn't what you'd call the patient type . Seeing him fiddle around with it only served to annoy her .

「Enough . 」

「Whagyaaa!!」

Solas lifted his head with a bit of a stupid look on his face in response to her words, only to immediately lose his finger . Fran finished everything up nice and quick by severing it before he had much of a chance to protest against her actions . The man had naturally let out a scream in pain, but I didn't really mind it too much . I was more so focused on admiring Fran's technique . She'd managed to separate him and his finger without causing even the slightest bit of damage elsewhere .

「Heal . 」

「Hiii hiii」

The only comment I had was that it was a shame the ring had been broken — not that it was even the slightest bit Fran's fault . It seemed like the ring was the disposable type of equip . It was made to break the moment it was removed . That said though, it was still pretty worthwhile an item seeing as how it prevented people from appraising you and all .

_______________________________________________________________

General Information

Name: Solas

Age: 33

Race: Beastman/Red Cat Tribe

Job: Labyrinth Scout

State: Normal

Status Level: 34

"HP: 208

MP: 187

STR: 101

VIT: 98

AGI: 187

INT: 111

MGC: 84

DEX: 191

Skills

Assassination: Lv 3

Acting: Lv 6

Espionage: Lv 6

Deception: Lv 5

Presence Detection: Lv 3

Silenced Actions: Lv 4

Dagger Techniques: Lv 3

Dagger Arts: Lv 6

Throwing: Lv 4

Poison Resistance: Lv 3

Magic Detection: Lv 2

Trap Detection: Lv 6

Trap Disarming: Lv 6

Vitality Manipulation

Unique Skills

Coerced Camaraderie: Lv 6

Titles

Traitor

Murderer

_______________________________________________________________

Huh, he seemed decently strong, and his skill levels weren't too bad either . In fact, he looked like he could be a C ranker if he wanted .

『He's got a unique skill, it looks like . Coerced Camaraderie, apparently . 』

「Coerced Camaraderie? Effects?」

「Err... that, right, yeah, that! I'll answer you, so lower your sword and have your wolf back off a bit already!」

「Growl . 」

Okay, he seriously needs to just get to the point . We don't have time to listen to him rabble on and on forever .

「It's just a boring little skill that'll make people think of me as a friend or comrade . It lowers the target's guard and makes them less doubtful of what I do . It's nothing special . I can't use it to make people treat me like their best friends or lovers . 」

Ah, so that's it . That's why we didn't suspect him, or rather, that's why we thought we were just imagining the fact that he was acting suspiciously .

「It's a skill that'll undo its effects the moment you happen to have any strong doubts . 」

「Used skill to infiltrate adventurer parties and attack companions?」

「Pretty much . 」

I figured that was the case . My guess was that he's been popping traps and whatnot on people here for quite some time already .

「Any other companions?」

「None . Just the people you killed . 」

『That's a lie right there . 』

「Lies . How many total?」

Fran pointed me right at Solas' face .

「Do you... happen to have a skill that detects lies too?」

「Nn . 」

「Man, I was being extra cautious of that too...」

Ah, I see, I see . He had Appraisal Blocking and Coerced Camaraderie . He'd be able to basically come off clean so long as he stayed vigilant of any lie detecting skills .

Now that I think about it, he was always speaking kinda ambiguously . His answers, for the most part, could've been taken both ways . They'd technically be right regardless of how we interpreted them . Moreover, Coerced Camaraderie would do to most people what it did to us, and make it so that said ambiguous answers were regarded as ones that affirmed his innocence .

The Principle of Falsehood was honestly a pretty useful skill, but we couldn't really be relying on it all the time . We needed to be more careful about the manner in which we asked questions, else risk having this, or something like this, happen again . Learning that here and now was honestly one huge gain on our part .

「Two choices . Answer honestly now . Answer honestly after torture . 」

「I have four other subordinates!」

「Nn . 」

I'm glad he was all honest and what not, but... seriously? He was the guy leading all the thieves this whole time?

「Where?」

「...They should be at the guild . 」

Solas' role was to find targets for the rest of his teams . He'd usually go after parties on the rise, people who were earning a fair amount of cash and acting all gung ho about it . Very few would be suspicious of parties like that suddenly going missing seeing as how they usually had the tendency to act rather recklessly .

He'd reach out about once a month, and even then, his lackies wouldn't actually act every single time . They were cautious and did their best to ensure that there wouldn't be any rumours about how the parties Solas joined would vanish .

Alright, I guess we'll have Solas take us to the rest of his companions . Gotta take out the trash and whatnot, you know?

『Hmmm, you see, we've got a bit of a problem . He knows a lot about our skills and stuff . I'm not sure letting him go free is that good of an idea . He might go around telling other people about us . What do you think we should do?』

(Kill . )

『Hmm... I mean, I guess that works, but... . 』

We would be able to get a good amount of info out of his lackies, but there's probably some stuff that only he, as their boss, knows as well . You know, like where he stores his loot and stuff .

『Actually, hold up . Don't kill him just yet . There's something I want to try . 』

We should be fine so long as we stop him from leaking anything about us .

「Won't inflict any more pain if taken to their location . 」

「Alright, I got it...」

「But only on one condition . Will form contract . 」

「Contract? You can use contract magic?」

「Can't say anything about us . Leaking information means death . Must agree to contract terms . 」

「I'll take it!」

Yeah, I figured he'd say that . He'd die if he didn't, soooo, yeah .

「Then will create contract . 」