"Auctioneer!"
The first to react was the young engineer apprentice named Neues, but right after a breath, everyone who came to the dinner said the same thing as him.
"What is the meaning of this? How can you put someone from the city of the Heart of the Sand in this state?"
Seeing perhaps the most important of the people he provided security for turned into a rag, Boss roared, and along with his subordinate behind him, they took a fighting stance. Merchant Dona Gracia's eyes shone, and his servant tried to shield his master, ignoring his tiny stature.
The calmest person in the environment was engineer Clemens Holzmeister; despite seeing the ruined body structure of the man who swaggered on the stage in the morning, he neither gave a reaction himself nor allowed his son such a chance.
"Please calm down! I never thought my little surprise would surprise you this much, turns out you loved this man so much? Or should I have said, do you trust me that little?"
Wind of Death might have cast aside her savagery and sat at the negotiation table with them, but the Three Faction Leaders of the Heart of the Sand shouldn't forget who she was. Standing before them was the Commander-in-Chief of an army possessing a billion warriors.
"Help! The orcs are going to kill me, please help!"
It was unknown whether it was because he didn't have the half-naked girls next to him to complete his show-off persona, or because Soul Stealer's foot was still pressing his head against the mold-smelling floor, but the Auctioneer was managing to squeeze cries for help between his painful groans.
"Please, would you share with us what this situation is about?"
"There, this is the question an ally should ask another ally!"
When the engineer spoke, Wind of Death's furrowed brows relaxed, and the wrinkles on her forehead instantly disappeared. Shifting her head slightly to the right, after giving an order to her subordinate that only the two of them could understand, she slammed her right hand hard on the table and brought her esteemed guests in their defensive stances to their senses.
"First, let everyone listen to the message sent with this latest model Mechanical Hawk!"
The Leader of the Elite Ten possessed an accessory containing interspatial storage of her own; getting what her commander wanted from there and placing it on the table would take a breath. This mechanical device was designed to transmit voice recordings, and someone familiar to everyone at the table was telling things to someone they all knew closely.
"Sir, new faces appeared in this damn place today, but since they hid themselves with their clothes, I couldn't learn who they are."
The sound was a bit raspy, and in some places the words of the person speaking couldn't be heard, but everyone who had the right to sit at the table was skilled enough to cover these deficiencies.
"As if it wasn't enough that they gave millions of gold pieces for a worthless energy storage, they wanted me to put a device I've never seen before up for auction. I am sending a drawing of it along with the message; I assume these are the Vagrant Orcs you mentioned in the previous message, and one of the new inventions of that wretched Leonardo in their hands.
To be sure, I will finish the job tonight before the other three imbeciles. Before the next turning of the day, the mechanical device in their hands will belong to our Emerald Leaf Guild.
If you give the order, I can start my plan to destroy the Heart of the Sand from the inside, and before the orc forces infiltrating our lands reach here, I will wipe the name of the city from history. I offer my deepest respects!"
When the message ended, Boss shot up from where he was in such a way that while he pulled his knees back along with the chair he sat on, the pieces of the broken table mixed together.
"Hold it right there!"
The one speaking was Wind of Death, but the person standing before the orc warrior succumbing to his anger was none other than Soul Stealer. He had encountered her once in the duel inside the Grand Bazaar, and there was no trace of fear in the purple eyes of the Elite Ten Leader.
"Okay, we understand you found the traitor among us, but why are you preventing me from handing out the traitor's punishment with my own hands?"
Boss might have appeared as an orc possessing a calm demeanor, unlike his men, but the foam he sprayed from his mouth was actually shouting that he wasn't such a person. It was obvious he had been traveling in the complete opposite direction for a long time to suppress his instincts stemming from his nature, but no matter what, his return was very fast.
"While we have a spy of the Emerald Leaf Guild ruling the Central Region in our hands, why simply kill him instead of learning everything he knows?"
The Leader of the Elite Ten broke the silence she had maintained throughout the long dining part and the events developing afterward. This event caused Boss to take a step back.
"You say nicely, but these types of people are under the influence of various spells so they don't tell what they know. Even if we somehow manage to get it out of him, he will die away before he can complete his first sentence."
After tossing the dwarf standing in front of him aside with the back of his right hand, Dona Gracia voiced his opinion regarding the orc warrior's proposal. What he said were pure facts; spies were enchanted with restrictive spells so they wouldn't play double-cross or leak information to the enemy the moment they were caught.
"Unfortunately, we do not have a technology available to break these types of spells. I can untie his tongue with the serums I prepare, but I cannot ensure he doesn't die while talking!"
Even the Chief Engineer of the Heart of the Sand, Clemens Holzmeister, who had a cure for everything, could do nothing but sit with his hands tied, and it seemed Boss would achieve his goal.
"I think it would be better if we handle this job. Soul Stealer!"
She didn't need to receive an order; the moment she heard her name, she understood what she had to do. Lifting the Auctioneer, whom she grabbed by his head adorned with a round hat all day long, into the air, the Leader of the Elite Ten had to listen to the man's final words.
"You won't learn anything from me. Our supreme leader Izumrud will destroy you all with his iron fist. He will send his troops to the hole you call the Heart of the Sand, and you will drown in your own filth!"
The reason he was so daring was that he had already risked dying, and he thought there was no other village beyond there, but shortly, he too, like the others in the room, would learn something entirely new.
"Shut up, from now on only your soul will speak!"
When she pulled and took the Auctioneer's soul within five breaths with her right hand closed over his face, the battered body, turning into an empty shell, couldn't hold on any longer and fell onto the worn wooden floor. The man, continuing his existence as a transparent energy mass, was now silent; without even paying attention to the others watching him, he was looking at Soul Stealer.
"Who are you? What is your position within the Emerald Leaf Guild?"
"My real name is Moloy, I am the Deputy Head of the Emerald Leaf Merchant Guild Espionage Department."
Neither lacking nor excessive, he completely said whatever he was asked to say and sank into silence again. The Three Faction Leaders and the subordinates they brought with them hadn't yet been able to digest what happened; they had become at least as frozen as the man whose real name was Moloy.
"The person who reported every step you took, every minor action you made to the guild ruling the Central Region is before you and at your command to answer your questions. What more are you waiting for?"
After serving magnificent sweets on top of the meal, Wind of Death was continuing to spoil her guests with a gift they couldn't even imagine, and they had no intention of turning down any offering tonight.
"Tell me, did you report to your guild how I look?"
The first question came from Dona Gracia. While everyone expected him to ask something about trade, money, goods, or his wealth, the first question of the man who was in the most terrible body form possible had been about his image. Moloy didn't break his silence; even though the others wouldn't know the reason for this, Wind of Death gave her order.
"Soul Stealer, let him continue answering until our guests' questions are over!"
Bowing her head respectfully, the Elite Ten Leader leaned to the ear of Moloy, taken hostage while about to go to the spirit realm, and whispered something. From that moment on, the former Auctioneer would begin answering all the questions of the Three Faction Leaders and their subordinates.