"That female miner the other day, I wonder if I can convince that false Hydra to make her my slave.
"Heh, I wouldn't mind having her as mine either. After all, this earth dungeon will make us filthy rich!"
"I just have to make sure he doesn't know about it."
"Suck that Marquess! He's already rich, I mean, the diamond I stole the other day just proves it!"
"False Hydra here and another one at the Demon King's Castle. Hehe, I wonder if I can get a land here myself once our conquest begins"
They are drunk and spill everything. Randy notices it and makes us wait until they spill everything, and it's true, it doesn't take much more than a few drinks to make them say everything on their own.
We got tons of information from them, and what bothers me the most is that they're two false hydra. Since they're drunk and talking to each other, I'm sure what they said is nothing but the truth. A grim truth for us. How many people have been sacrificed, how many people are victims. How many families lost their loved ones and still go on living their lives without even remembering their loved ones. This makes me sad, but more than that, angry.
Now they talk about our theatrical play yesterday. I don't think they'll say anything more, and the other adventurers agree and are ready to strike when Randy gives the signal, I quickly erect a barrier of silence and as soon as I nod at them, their ambush begins.
An arrow to their main joint, with pinpoint accuracy, manages to land a blow. Drunk as they are, they're soldiers and start to assess their situation, but luckily for us, these drunks are fumbling around. Kat quickly claws her way through them, making sure to use her dagger, slicing their wrists and fingers so that they cannot hold their weapons properly. Some try to use their spells, but Randy is quicker, using the back of his golden axe to knock them out. A powerful blow to the back of the head. I can even imagine the skull fracturing from the powerful blow. Scary. Really scary.
"HELP US!"
"BLOW THE WISTLE!"
They scream, but fortunately my barrier negates any sound from escaping. All that's left is to tie them up and
"Now speak. What are you doing here?" [Randy]
Randy starts intimidating them. Berserker intimidation, I'm surprised they haven't fainted from fear alone. They may be drunk, but I think what these adventurers are whispering might be true. There's no way the Empire would entrust a mission in a foreign land to a bunch of nobodies. I guess it makes sense why they refused to talk.
"I guess I have to start torturing you. Those centipedes look nasty... I wonder what will happen if you accidentally swallow one" [Randy].
"Ehh! That centipede did nothing wrong!" [Diana]
I don't want those centipedes to be eaten. Poor things! I tell the centipedes what Randy is going to do, and surprisingly they say
"The centipedes don't want to be eaten, but they say they can crawl into their noses, ears, and eye sockets to get some fresh meat" [Diana].
"Even better! Thank you Diana" [Randy]
"Sure. So you wanted me to choose or let the centipedes choose for themselves" [Diana]
"Up to you" [Randy]
(I don't know what's scarier, the fact that they will be tortured or the fact that a sweet little girl like Diana mentions something scary with a smile) [Kat].
The Imperial soldiers just laugh, but their laughing faces soon turn to terror as the centipedes start crawling towards their faces. I signal the centipedes on one of the soldiers to start entering the nose and
"AAAASRRRGGGGGHHHH"
"WAIT! STOP! MAKE THE GIRL STOP THE CENTIPEDES".
I make the centipedes stop, and the centipedes quickly come out of the nose. The nose that's now bluish to blackish with blood dripping out. I turned pale and my head felt dizzy. I wanted to vomit. I gagged and Kat quickly came to my aid and gave me water to drink. I thought they would just feel a little pain, never thought they would scream their lives out. It is scary... Really scary... Oh Goddess... I guess I wouldn't sleep well tonight.
(My mistake. Diana is still a little girl.) "Well, I can use the same spell to command the centipedes. Well then, how about a second round. After all, there are twelve of you, surely one or two casualties wouldn't be too much of a problem" [Randy].
Hearing that makes me shivver. I don't want to see it again. I'm sure Randy doesn't know nature communication spell, but the thought alone scares me, but luckily for me, one of them start speaking
"I'll talk! I'll talk! Our prince wanted this land for himself! He sent all of us to bring back the false Hydra and make the Hydra work with us! The Marquis is able to talk to the false Hydra, and they're collecting scarifices so that the false Hydra can become even more powerful!"
"How many false hydra are there?" [Randy]
"Only one, but they multiplied rapidly, but now, after the power struggle among them, there are only two. One here and one in the Demon King's castle."
"How many people have they kidnapped! Was there a little girl kidnapped yesterday?" [Randy]
"I don't know. There is a girl yesterday, yes, but I don't know how many people are victims! Trust me!"
"What happened to her?" [Diana]
"I... I don't know! The False Hydra usually drain their prey of mana before eating them! She's probably still alive!"
So Siti is here! Thank God, there's a chance she's still alive. Looking at them, Randy doesn't think there's any useful information left to get, so he orders one of the adventurers to tell Nar and Sas, who are waiting outside, what we just learned. As for me
"Make them sleep" [Randy].
"Can I give them a nightmare. I don't want them to sleep peacefully" [Diana].
"All yours" [Randy]
"Alright! You scared me with that scream, so I guess the centipedes in your dream will take revenge for me" [Diana].
Borrow Titania's power. I started my spell. Nightmare. Bring forth your darkest fear. Centipedes. Cockroaches. Scorpion. Different sizes. All looking at you menacingly. One gouges out your eyes. One goes in your ears. One bites and eats your tongue. Your teeth fall one by one as the poison begins to spread throughout your body... Urrgg... I will get a nightmare myself tonight, even more so because as I described this nightmare of them, but
"They looked like they were in pain" [Kat].
"Thank God I put a barrier of silence around them. I never want to hear that scream again in my life... Urrgh .." [Diana]
I vomit. Yup. I will definitely have a nightmare tonight. Fie meows at me a few times, worried about me, but I tell Fie that I'm fine and that I want to hug him in my sleep tonight. Randy and the other told me to rest first before we continue our descent, but I don't want to be near them, so we move quickly after saying goodbye to one of the adventurers who will tell Nar and Sas what happened here.