Although he knew this woman was not joking, Varius still had a smirk on his face. "You can get nothing out of me."
Dyna pushed her fingers into the arrow wound near his shoulder.
"Ah!" He winced and was in pain. The wound bled again.
"I will make you speak," Dyna said.
Varius was suffering, yet his lips forced a smile. "You could never."
Dyna lost it and punched him in the face, but found no results. She hit him again and again, but he was still smiling while bleeding from his mouth. She was about to punch him again, but Gilbert held her arm.
"Stop. Let me deal with him," he said. He stepped ahead and took out a dagger. He held the thumb of the right hand of Varius and placed the blade on it. "I will cut your thumb if you fail to talk," he said.
For the first time, they noticed a tensed expression on the face of The Sadistic Menace.
"You are kidding, right?" he reacted.
"I am not." Gilbert suddenly amputated the pinky of his left hand.
"Aahh!" Varius screamed in agony. "You dastard! I will kill you!"
"Only if I do not kill you here," Gilbert responded calmly. He placed his blade again on his right thumb. "Now, will you talk?"
Varius grinded his teeth as it hurt too much. He did not know what to do anymore. If his right thumb is cut off, he would be rendered useless. He would be unable to shoot arrows and hold a sword. He would be useless to King Hammer.
"You are taking too long to answer." Gilbert suddenly amputated his left ring finger as well.
"Aaahh!" he screamed in agony again. Now with greater intensity. "You m***erf***er! You son of a b*tch! You dastard! I will kill you!"
"Throwing curse words at me would not help you," Gilbert said, and again placed his blade on his right thumb. "I gave you two chances. If you fail to talk now, I would not hesitate to amputate your thumb."
"F**k you!" Varius cried.
Gilbert sighed as he still refused to give in. "Fine. You asked for it." He was about to amputate his thumb. He had tightened his grip around it, but suddenly…
"Wait, wait, do not do it," Varius stopped him.
"Are you ready to talk?"
"Damn it." He grinded his teeth again. "Arrgh... Okay, fine!"
Gilbert glanced at Dyna with a smile. Although his methods were cruel, he managed to get him ready to talk.
"Now, tell me, where is Prince Colt?" Gilbert asked him.
"At the bordering castle of the Wild," Varius said. "The castle under Governor Ramos."
"That wretched guy," Gilbert reacted. "Are you telling the truth?"
"Yes," Varius replied and somehow forced a grin. "King Hammer will not forgive you. I will then laugh at your dead bodies and dance over your graves."
The old man and Dyna walked away without listening to the rest of his gibberish.
"What should we do now?" Gilbert asked.
"We will attack the castle," Dyna responded.
Gilbert wondered if she was serious. They clearly lacked numbers, and he could see that. "Do we have the strength to attack a castle?"
Dyna looked at Gilbert. "Do not worry. We will get the strength."
"But how?"
"Do you remember all of the tribal chiefs had not submitted to Hammer?"
"I do." Gilbert realized what she was talking about. "So, we would ask for their help, right?"
"Yes," Dyna said. "But we have to hurry. Hammer has made two rebel tribal chiefs submit to him. The others might reconsider their actions if we do not contact them in time."
***
"You are very naughty, my king."
King Hammer seated on his throne and played with the maidens on his lap. He kissed and touched them around when a soldier entered.
"My king, Sir Varius has sent you a letter," he said.
"Read it aloud," Hammer said without taking his eyes off from the maidens.
The soldier unrolled the letter and read it. Varius had written everything he had found. He even wrote the location of Prince Colt and urged taking immediate action. Hammer let the women stand aside and stood up. He had a wide grin on his face, which made his canines visible.
"Great job, Varius. It is time to end the story of my brother. The castle would be a cherry on the cake." He looked at his soldier. "Send my summon order to the tribal chiefs. They must assemble here with their armies shortly."
"As you order, my king." The soldier bowed and left the court.
***
"You got rid of their bodies so that the governor would think the soldiers of Madmen have killed you," Rozerd said to Colt.
The brothers were having a discussion in the tent.
"Not only that. Brother Hammer would find it out that I was held in the castle," Colt said. "He would still think that I am in there, and he would leave no stones unturned to get me out of there and kill me."
"So, you would create this confusion between them and make it work in our favour," Rozerd said, and his lips twisted to form a smile. "You have developed some new skills as well."
"It is not like that," Colt responded with an awkward smile while rubbing the back of his head. "It just came to my mind at that moment. You know I am not good at these things at all."
"Yet you came up with this idea. Impressive," Rozerd said. "Alright. Let us come to brother Hammer. He would surely use the tribal soldiers under him against the lord of the castle."
"Yeah."
"Whoever wins does not matter. We just have to catch them off-guard. Our target is the castle."
"Castle?" Colt could not comprehend his words. "Would we take the castle?"
"Of course. We would need a base to operate. This place is too dangerous to stay as it is inside the borders of Madmen."
Colt nodded when he understood what his brother planned.
Rozerd grinned widely. "I can not wait now. Things are going to get interesting."