"Hold~!" I commanded the warriors to stop the lashes on the prisoners who failed the Questioning process. We have already collected all of the information that we can get through this method.
// Earlier //
What method did I implement? First, they were made to sit down on their knees, but even that thing was too hard for them... After giving them 'Drainer Pills' and removing their armors and upper clothes, I ordered them to sit down on the rubbles and flaming woods of the building they destroyed with their arrows. They were divided into groups of 10 peoples according to the groups they were already on. They are very frail inside those armours' and without any magic power to defend them. It was just a mere punishment for destroying our base and the real Punishment was yet to begin...
I ordered my Troops to bring out the whips, tie their hands like a bridge on a horizontal pole and lash their bare bodies. They began to cry with each whip falling on their body and after a while, their body began to flow red blood from the wounds of the whips. Their skins are very soft, it can't even bear a normal whip. But, the cries began to decrease after each whip as they began to endure the pain.
// The whip has a small iron ball bind on its tips. //
"haha, you humans are tougher than I thought. let me raise the pain a little... Spread the salt, let's see how much tough you are." As expected, they couldn't hold back and began to cry as the whips and salt fall on their bare bodies.
"Listen to me you 'Stupid Apes'! I am giving you all a chance to live, or perhaps some of you lucky individuals can even get a chance from me to get out of this misery,~" I gave an announcement to all of the Prisoners.
// Humans are also ridiculed as Apes in this world due to a reason that will be explained later. //
Every one of them looked at him as they were staring at a fool, they know they will be killed eventually. Why lying and giving them baseless hope, they are not going to believe him anyway. Why will they give them a chance to escape?, but Chann's next words persuaded them a little.
"How about it, I have a game for you all! I will give you a reward for answering my every question, the reward is, of course, I will spare you the next whip for each answer and will even spare your life. You have words! But if you don't give us the answer or you give us a wrong answer, You will get whips for a whole day and if you tell more than three lies you will get killed right here...!" I know they are not afraid of dying, they are warriors like us, but we were never going to kill them, we will use them.
"The wolf in front of you will write down your separate answers and If we find you are lying we will punish you, don't worry if you don't know about it, you can say it. We will only give you one whip, but if no one answered, you all will get punished for the whole day. If you continue on answering the questions, I will spare your previous mistakes." I have placed a werewolf for each group that will write down the answers. It's just a simple method but it will slowly impact their thoughts and decisions and make sure we get what we are trying to find...
I asked them their name, about the comrades in their own group, so as to detect the slightest lie. Their other expertise besides sword and spear fighting, the part of the Kingdom they live in, the composition of business in the kingdom, and the popular things from dishes to clothes to flowers. We asked them about the powerful people living around them, their trade with their subsidiary kingdoms.
We avoided asking them about the warriors inside the kingdom, rather we asked them about the youths and women working in agriculture, their carnivals, and other businesses... and just like that, I asked many predetermined questions that were prepared by Captain and Commander, which indirectly formulates a good blueprint of the Kingdom and the upcoming events happening inside the Kingdom of Daemon Land and its surrounding territory.
Many of them failed to avoid the first whips but as I began to ask the questions consecutively and they began to feel the need to avoid the pain by answering simple questions, they slowly started to answer honestly, and finally, the question-answer game came to an end!
They all answered my every question without any hesitation after knowing they will be spared for answering a simple question and some of them will even get the chance to get back to the kingdom. The motivation was simple, avoiding the beating. The question we asked was not even close to anything that if answered can disclose their kingdoms' important secrets and threaten the peace of their land, it was also the factor they took things lightly and answered everything and even more than we asked for...
... and the cries of the one who refused to answer or twisted the fact, they all got punished with more intensity. The result is, it further motivated the prisoners who were avoiding the lashes. Seeing the pain of those who retaliate and refused to speak such simple questions, they began to fear and leak more information in order to avoid the beating. The thing is they are confident that no werewolf can trespass their homeland, the barrier of the Kingdom is strong enough to hold any attack from outside. So any information we are getting from them is useless, but they don't know our true purpose...
// Now //
The Apprentice Magus and Amzi are completely under the mercy of Hugo and I was ordered by Captain to Interrogate the rest of them. They are grouped separately and are getting the lashes continuously without a break, except Amzi the rest of them are very weak, weaker than these Troops. I have learned that the humans who train more on their magic ability leave behind their physical abilities and they just cope with this disadvantage with their advanced magic.
"Halt..."
"Everyone, Mr. Hugo who will be taking care of you after me," I said those words, but before I could say further, all of them started to make a commotion. They started to talk to those beside them like they are planning to attack even in that state, whom? of all, they want to kill Hugo. *Disapproval*
"What?"
"That Traitor!" A man said.
"He is the one who betrayed us." another one spoke, just like that many of them started to speak loudly. They had almost forgotten about the man behind all this and the one who threatened their Prince's life. Now, they all are furious and are not feeling the pain anymore...
"Look how he is treating our Captain and those magicians, I am afraid they are also treating our prince in the same way as us somewhere inside."
"No, we don't want to even see his face. That man, I want to slit his throat and give it to the royal court."
"Yes, I want to kill him, no matter what?"
"We don't know where is our Prince, but we will not let you have your life so easily."
"What if our hands are tied, if we all work together we can still kill him alone with our legs."
"Yes, you will die today, Traitor...!"
With that everyone started to stand up, as the pole wasn't attached to anything and they were only tied to the same pole in a group. What are they trying to do? Their morale must have gone soaring the sky after some of them said they should kill the traitor in front of them, but did they forgot they are surrounded by our warriors? The warriors with the lashes were preparing to restrain them by hitting them. However, I stopped them with the message that can only be heard by the wolf's ears. I want to see what can they do...
*Thoughts* "I don't understand these stupid apes. What they are trying to achieve by saying those words? They are chained by us and just because we stopped the lashes today doesn't mean we are not going to punish them in other ways, and we aren't going to keep our words if they try to attack us. Ah...! he is pissed now. Just as I thought, Hugo will not tolerate the mocking and will do something to shut their mouth and stop the useless struggle."
As they began to move forward, Hugo turned towards them and cast a spell... The spell simply caught their feet and stopped all of their movement. Well, that was all they were capable of... Then he crushed the feet of one of them,
"You wanted to kill me with your feet? Oh no, now it's gone..." Hugo said those words to the one who just said it to all... It was their ignorance, they should have known that the man who injured their captain can also kill all of them without breaking a sweat. Especially, since they were all underestimating his power and no one of them can use magic to defend themselves after eating the 'Drainer Pill'. The man screamed in pain as the bones crushed between the rocky earth, and then he asked the man chained on the parallel pole.
"...and you! Want to slit my throat?" *Grave tone*