The Royal Revenge
Chapter 180: Interrogation Part 1

Chapter 180: Interrogation Part 1

Henry had stayed behind when Cordelia mentioned she was returning to the palace. She only stayed for a bit of chat. Eventually he waved at her goodbye as he sat down in front of the man his master and his wife had kept from the public.

The attendant was a bit confused what he was supposed to do at the moment. Was he just going to stare at the man? Guard him until he receives further instructions?

Or maybe interrogate him?

"Can you speak?" Henry asked the man.

He had been tied up with chains and was sitting dejectedly on the cold floor of the manor’s dungeons. Henry didn’t really think the day would come they were going to use this place, and they had so little that was improved of it.

The old man released an exasperated sigh. He was late to know, but apparently, Aleksander had the money but was just too stubborn to use it since it was from his father, the late King Raxus Ardorlean.

The man they have taken as prisoner didn’t speak at all.

Even after Henry gave him enough time to gather his thoughts and respond to his question, the man only remained quiet. His lips were tightly pressed together in a thin line, and his eyes were empty – like he didn’t exactly hope for anything next, not even an escape.

Judging that the man merely afraid to speak up, Henry tried to approach him with a kind and soft voice. Perhaps he could at least gain some valuable information for King Aleksander when he would call the attendant back to the palace.

"Do you wish to speak of anything regarding the fire this morning?" Henry asked, this time around taking precaution not to put too much pressure in his voice.

The man merely shook his head and turned away from Henry. His back was now facing the attendant, and Henry scratched his head – he doesn’t know what else to do.

"Can you tell me why his majesty and her majesty have brought you here?" Henry tried to pry further.

People who were guilty would usually tend to make excuses that were far too obvious. When they are interrogated, sometimes their reasons wouldn’t be coherent at all.

But even though the old attendant tried his best to get an interaction with their captive, the man still gave no reply. Not even a single twitch of an ear or a shrug to indicate a disagreement.

He wasn’t really up for torture, and his master had not instructed him regarding how Henry should handle the man.

The old man moved closer to the locked prison cell, and then squatted in order to have his eyes on level with their prisoner.

"Listen," he started, "I don’t know what you have been through, or whose side you are loyal. But now that the King and Queen are on your case, it is only a matter of time before they find out whatever it is that you are hiding."

The man didn’t budge from his silent protest against Henry. He continued to sit still, his legs folded as his eyes remained closed. Maybe his ears were closed too, Henry couldn’t really tell.

Henry folded his arms as he thought it over what he should really do at the moment.

It seemed like a futile thing to push any further with the man. Although Henry might as well try and torture him into confessing, the attendant believed that fear wasn’t the right motivation.

The King Aleksander would have leaned more on to the process, but Henry was the one in front of the man right now – and he wasn’t in the mood to go to such messy work so early.

Instead, the old attendant made sure that the prison cells were locked and had no way out. He peered left and right, trying to find something that could give the man inside the cell a chance to escape.

’Alright, so far so good,’ Henry told himself.

His folded arms pressed on to his chest, and Henry felt something kind of sharp stabbing at him. All of a sudden, the old man recalled that Elys had actually given him something to work on too.

He quickly pulled out the broken vial in his vest pocket, and gingerly pulled it out from its thick wrapping. Luckily, unlike Henry’s initial assumption, the rectangular vial’s edge was the one that had ’stabbed’ him and not the broken part.

Henry’s eyes scanned the dungeons once more, and after he was satisfied and convinced it was secured, he left the man alone and went upstairs to make a few calls.

The Western Kingdom was not that much technologically advanced compared to the Southern Kingdom whose devices were oftentimes smuggled into the West. One of the few items that the kingdom used was that of what they call a telephone.

Letters were mostly the main means for communication within the kingdom, but on times of emergencies, the select that do have the smuggled telephones contact each other.

Using magic could exhaust mana, but telephones were just a few clicks and spins away.

"I will be upstairs," Henry called out to the man, "don’t make any attempts to escape. I wouldn’t hurt you, but the King Aleksander and Queen Elysianne would never hesitate to do so."

The attendant turned off the lights inside the dungeon, completely immersing their prisoner in a world of darkness and hopeless. Perhaps by the time that Henry would come back, the man would start to take his guard down and answer Henry’s questions.

KRING KRING KRING

Henry heard the other side of the telephone he was calling ring. He needed to confirm something, and he wasn’t in the position to walk around the kingdom while he held a prisoner down in the dungeons.

CLICK!

The receiver clicked, and Henry waited for the all-too-familiar voice that would always take the call. A grumpy voice, and one that was most definitely annoyed that his telephone was ringing so early.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!" Rui exploded on the telephone.