The sudden, unexpected attack caught Rabel completely off guard, leaving his mind in a daze for a moment. He was filled with anger and fear, and he finally managed to speak up, questioning with a mixture of fury and apprehension.
"Lotte, what are you doing? The Ship Gang has never provoked the Pedrol family before... Remember, the Harbor is our turf. I advise you to think carefully..."
Rabel's threats were forceful, but before he could finish speaking, Lynn swiftly grabbed his other arm and then threw the burly man, now curled up like a shrimp, to the ground.
"I ask, you answer. Do you understand? Cooperation is in everyone's best interest!" Lynn crouched down, staring at Rabel and speaking directly.
The towering man was already drenched in cold sweat from the pain. He clenched his teeth and remained silent, fixating his gaze on Lynn as if he could swallow him whole, his thoughts racing, yet he couldn't fathom why the son of Baron Pedrol had attacked him.
Could it be that some fool from the Ship Gang had accidentally offended him?
Just as he pondered this, Lynn's voice resounded.
"The first question... Your name!"
Rabel stared with wide eyes, feeling deeply insulted. Wasn't it obvious enough?
"Answer!" Lynn's voice was cold and emotionless. After waiting for two seconds, he swiftly drew a dagger from Rabel's waist and decisively stabbed it into Rabel's right hand.
"Rab... Rabel..."
The burly man screamed hoarsely, not wanting to lose his precious right hand over such a foolish question.
Lynn's actions continued without pause. Under Rabel's terrified gaze, the dagger was thrust into the gap between his closely clenched fingers.
"You have only one second to answer each question, no second chances!" Lynn said coldly and proceeded with the next question.
"Gender!"
"Male!" Rabel replied through gritted teeth, regarding the man before him as nothing short of a lunatic.
"Place of birth... Well, your hometown!"
Lynn continued to ask Rabel a series of questions, starting with straightforward ones and then progressing to more tricky ones. The questions ranged from the daily tasks he performed to the Ship Gang's trade goods and routes.
If Rabel hesitated for even a moment, Lynn would break one of his fingers.
In just a few minutes, six of Rabel's fingers were broken, and the pain left him in a daze.
"All right, since you can't even remember which foot you stepped out of your house with three days ago, I'll ask you a simpler question." Lynn sighed in resignation, and then his tone changed. He suddenly asked, "Where is Lame Laut?"
"In..." Rabel was about to answer reflexively, but in the next moment, he stopped and shook his head, looking terrified. "I... I don't know."
"I told you, cooperating would be in everyone's best interest." Lynn sighed in resignation as well. In fact, he wasn't skilled at interrogations, and he had crammed all the little he knew last night.
But Rabel clearly had no intention of talking, so Lynn had to resort to more radical methods.
Lynn's gaze sharpened. The Ship Gang was originally formed by a group of reformed pirates, and according to Rabel's confession, they engaged in various illegal activities in addition to their legitimate maritime operations.
These activities included pretending to be pirates and raiding ships, human trafficking, smuggling contraband, murder, and more. If this were his previous life, the things Rabel had done would have been enough to enrage the public a hundred times over.
"Do you know about the art of flaying?" Lynn asked in a leisurely manner.
Flaying?
Rabel shivered and listened as Lynn continued, "First, you make an incision below the spine, splitting the skin on the back into two halves. Then, you slowly cut along the grain of the muscles. The action has to be swift, completed before the target dies from blood loss..."
Lynn provided a vivid and detailed account of a gruesome ancient torture method from a foreign land, including details like how to make the cuts, how much blood would flow, and how each step needed to be completed within minutes.
Rabel was now on the ground, trembling with fear. He did not doubt that the madman before him would actually flay him alive. He stammered, "My Lord Lotte, I truly don't know where Leader Laut is."
"Is that so? But I heard that you were Lame Laut's most trusted subordinate!" Lynn sneered.
"In truth, Mr. Laut doesn't trust anyone..." Rabel explained in a terrified, uncertain tone. "I only know that he left the port town three days ago..."
"If you're not willing to talk, that's fine. We have plenty of time to play." Lynn stood up and brushed the dust off his pants. Last night, while researching interrogation techniques, he had come across many interesting yet non-lethal methods. Now was the perfect time to give them a try.
Half an hour later, Rabel was nearly broken, both mentally and physically, under the dual torment. He was now willing to divulge every detail to Lynn, even admitting to smuggling an entire Ship worth of goods and disguising it as a shipwreck.
However, when it came to Laut's whereabouts, Rabel remained clueless. After experimenting with various methods to break his spirit, Lynn had to admit that Rabel was likely not pretending.
According to the information Rabel provided, Laut had left the Harbor town two days ago, which coincided with Archbishop Anluke's attack on Ur Town with his men. Furthermore, the Drunken Spirit's Tavern, where Lynn had been, was raided on the same day by the Church, and Old Hawke had gone missing ever since.
It was highly likely that it was during this time that Lame Laut received a warning and went into hiding. Only a handful of high-ranking members of the Ship Gang knew that he was not in the Harbor town.
"It seems that your most trusted assistant is nothing more than a decoy!" Lynn sighed, shaking his head in resignation.
Rabel indeed knew many of the Ship Gang's secrets, but when it came to the secret transportation of goods to the Wizard's Land, his knowledge was extremely limited. He only knew that on Moonrise, Laut personally oversaw the transportation of several large ships, but he had no idea where these ships were headed.
Lynn pondered for a while. Laut's caution and cunning had taken him by surprise. Laut might have already prepared for the possibility of high-ranking members of the Ship Gang betraying him or being captured.
However, Laut alone couldn't sail across the sea. There must be some more core figures within the Ship Gang responsible for this. The other peripheral members acted as cover, following Rabel's orders and being abandoned as pawns in times of danger.
Lynn recalled the names and backgrounds of the Ship Gang's leaders and members he had learned from Rabel. Every one of them seemed like a potential spy planted by Laut.
As he contemplated, a thought suddenly popped into Lynn's mind: If he couldn't find Laut, why not make Laut come to him instead?
TL/n -
Flaying is a method of slow and painful torture and/or execution in which skin is removed from the body.