am-books Chapter 159
Chapter 159
Sometimes, in crime movies or dramas, you see scenes like this—
They set up a gloomy atmosphere, shooting in locations that are already dreary and making them feel even more depressing.
Construction sites, docks, empty lots, dark forests, or abandoned buildings—
Only bleak and unsettling places appear, making even the viewers feel down just watching them.
Well, I get it.
The subject is crime, so they can’t exactly film in bright, cheerful locations.
After all, crime isn’t something you can commit openly and proudly.
But still—
‘If it’s done openly and proudly, wouldn’t it stop being a crime?’
If you’re confident in yourself and have no shame even if others see what you’re doing, then it’s no longer a crime.
So—
“There’s no need to hide. We just have to be in a bright place, standing tall.”
“......”
“Don’t you think so?”
“......”
“This guy... Not answering, huh?”
Ihan clicked his tongue, scolding the mage for having such a bad attitude.
An adult asked a question, and he didn’t even bother to answer.
“I heard the cake here is good?”
“It’s amazing how times have changed. Who would’ve thought a café for commoners would pop up?”
“I heard the owner is some black-haired noble. Could it be...?”
“No way. There’s no way it’s that person. Hoho!”
A dessert café—
One of the most popular spots in the capital these days, famous for offering affordable desserts and coffee that even commoners could enjoy freely.
Most of the customers were women, but there were enough men sprinkled in to prove that the allure of sweets wasn’t limited by gender.
So, it wasn’t particularly strange for a bulky knight to be sitting there.
“Excuse me, would you like to order?”
“One fruit crepe cake and a milk tea, please.”
“And for the gentleman sitting across from you—?”
“Just a cup of coffee. Oh, and he likes his coffee iced, so make sure to add a ton of ice.”
“Ah, I see....”
The waitress glanced coldly at the blond man sitting in front of Ihan.
She muttered to herself, “He looks refined, but his taste is awful.”
As if putting ice in coffee was some kind of unforgivable sin.
“!?!!”
But the blond man looked utterly wronged.
He didn’t have any strange preferences for iced coffee.
Yet here he was, misunderstood, unable to explain himself.
The blond man—Huey de Beiron—clutched his chest in frustration.
Why did he have to be misunderstood like this?
Why couldn’t he even correct the misunderstanding?
Unfortunately—
“Mm...”
He couldn’t open his mouth.
He couldn’t even move a finger.
The most he could do was roll his eyes.
Huey’s body had been completely immobilized.
...Against his will.
He shot a resentful glare at the knight who had stripped him of his freedom.
But the knight—
“Oh, look at all the fruit in this cake! This place is pretty great.”
—was too busy celebrating his discovery of what might become his new favorite café.
*****
It had been a full 17 hours since Huey de Beiron was kidnapped.
Given his status as a noble guest of the kingdom, countless soldiers must have been dispatched to find him. The mages from the Magic Tower were likely scrambling to track him down as well.
And yet, after 17 hours, he was still held captive.
What made it even stranger—
Ihan knew the mage wasn’t cooperating simply because he couldn’t open his mouth.
This was just defiance.
Whether it was pride or just poor judgment, it didn’t matter.
...One might ask why Ihan didn’t just torture him.
‘Mages always mix 50% truth, 30% lies, and 20% nonsense.’
As someone who had hunted more mages than he cared to count, Ihan knew—
Torturing a mage wasn’t effective.
You could make them suffer, sure, but trusting their words afterward? Impossible.
That’s why the only way to get the truth—
Was to make them speak voluntarily.
Otherwise, he’d never be able to trust what came out of their mouths.
But still—
‘Time keeps ticking away.’
Precious time was slipping by, and he couldn’t afford to keep dragging things out in a stalemate.
Sure, he could march in and directly take down the Sultan to find the rogue mage.
But if the rogue mage went into hiding, that would be a whole new headache.
That’s why he needed this guy’s cooperation.
Because this guy—
‘He definitely knows something.’
Ihan was sure that Blondie knew about the rogue mage.
It wasn’t just a hunch.
As someone who had hunted more mages over the past hundred years than anyone else, his judgment was backed by experience and knowledge.
So—
‘...No choice, then.’
It might be a bit exhausting, but Ihan decided it was time to get a definitive answer out of him.
By speaking directly to Blondie’s body.
“You’re probably thinking something like this—‘Why the hell did this lunatic kidnap me and start asking about a rogue mage out of nowhere?’”
“!”
“And maybe something like this too—‘Even if he’s looking for a rogue mage, shouldn’t he be politely asking for cooperation instead of pulling this crap?’”
“...???”
“Judging by your face, I nailed it.”
The guy looked dumbfounded.
Like he was asking, ‘If you know that, why are you treating me like this?’
“Well, let me explain why I’m treating you like this. We’ll need to go back about two years. That’s when I captured a mage named Kristin—a rogue mage infamous for human experimentation.”
“!!”
Huey’s eyes widened in shock.
Kristin, the master of lightning magic.
His name was well-known even in the Magic Tower.
Once upon a time—
“That bastard told me something interesting. He claimed he used to be part of the Magic Tower.”
“──.”
“And then he said something really funny—‘Even if mages get expelled from the Tower, all their movements and actions are still reported back to the Tower.’”
“......”
“...I see. So that bastard was telling the truth after all.”
“!!”
For a brief moment, Huey de Beiron felt chills crawl down his spine.
He hadn’t said a single word—
Yet this lunatic knight was talking as if they’d had a full-blown conversation.
‘...How?’
He couldn’t make sense of it.
Confronted by this unknown terror, the mage trembled.
‘Ugh, my head hurts.’
Meanwhile, Ihan’s actions weren’t as complicated as they seemed.
Not to him, at least.
‘Reading heartbeats and muscle contractions all at once is a pain.’
All he was doing was mimicking a lie detector.
...Granted, it was a skill that only he could pull off.