"You... you're abusing an informant! This violates Iberian law and church scripture! Once this is over, I'm going to..."
When Tom woke up and saw his missing fingers, their raw edges cauterized shut by searing heat, he completely broke down.
In his mind, dealing with an orphaned child should have been a simple task. Yet here he was, waking up to a hand stripped of three fingers. The horror of his reality hit him all at once, driving him to the verge of madness.
"No matter which laws you quote, you're the one facing punishment at the end of this," Jeanne said, stepping forward with a calm, composed smile, entirely unbothered by his murderous glare. "Your only option right now is to lead us to those people. Otherwise, once we drag you to the Inquisition, you already know what awaits you in their cells."
If hatred could kill, Tom would have slaughtered everyone in the room. But with Skadi standing over him, he couldn't even lift a fist.
Anne had calmed down considerably by now. She realized that hacking this man to pieces would only satisfy her immediate anger, without actually catching the real perpetrators or securing justice for her parents.
Besides, leaving the villains alone would only put her and her sister in further danger. They had already sent thugs to harass her; the next step would be outright violence, stealing the property, and sacrificing her to some dark god from the deep.
Staring at the kneeling merchant, Anne took a deep breath.
"I'm leaving this to you," she murmured softly to Jeanne and Skadi, before turning and heading upstairs to check on her sister. She didn't trust herself to stay down here without reaching for the knife again.
"If I help you, will you let me go?" Even with blood on his hands and his fingers gone, Tom's first instinct was still to negotiate. Whether it was deluded optimism or the ingrained reflex of a scheming merchant, his wishful thinking was almost astounding.
"Do you honestly think that's going to happen?" Jeanne looked at him like he was an absolute fool. "You facilitated something that could destroy an entire city, and you think you can just walk away from the consequences?"
Her cold logic crushed his remaining hope. Tom tried to leverage the locations and names in his head, but Jeanne cut him off before he could speak.
"Think carefully about what happens if I hand you over to the Inquisitors," Jeanne added quietly. "Do you really think I'm making empty threats? Trying to turn the tables on us won't work."
Tom couldn't tell if she was bluffing, but he wasn't willing to gamble his life to find out.
After a agonizing silence, he finally hung his head in defeat.
"Fine. I'll take you there," he muttered, his voice hoarse and broken. "Just keep me alive on the way! I'd rather face the Inquisitors than fall into the hands of those monsters from The Deep Sea Church!"
With his agreement secured, Jeanne and Skadi set aside any further thoughts of physical coercion. Their immediate focus shifted to confronting the agents of The Deep Sea Church directly—though how deeply the cult had infiltrated this district remained an open question.
"Are you leaving now?" Anne asked, running up to the two women as they emerged from the basement, her eyes filled with conflicting emotions.
"Yes," Jeanne replied.
"Then can I—"
"No!" both Jeanne and Skadi barked in unison.
There was no way they would bring a twelve-year-old into a battle with dangerous cultists. One small mistake could prove lethal.
Anne didn't push the issue. She merely bowed her head, standing silently as a shadow crossed her face.
"Don't worry," Jeanne said, kneeling down so she was eye-level with the girl. "We will make sure those bastards pay for what they did."
Anne raised her head, looking straight into Jeanne's eyes.
"Thank you," she said, her tone heavy with responsibility. "No matter what happens, please... try to bring my parents the justice they deserve."
She paused, a flicker of hesitation crossing her expression before vanishing just as quickly.
"But if it gets too dangerous, please drop it. Your safety is what matters most. Don't throw your lives away for my sake!"
She understood now that her grief and anger shouldn't push others into mortal danger. These women had their own lives to live.
"Leave it to us," Jeanne said, waving goodbye as she stood up. "We're experts at dealing with this kind of trouble."
With Fafnir staying behind to protect the house, the sisters would be completely safe.
Jeanne and Skadi escorted their captive out into the streets, keeping a tight grip on him so he couldn't attempt an escape. Tom led them deeper into the maze of back alleys, heading into increasingly desolate, run-down neighborhoods.
Jeanne began to doubt his sincerity. Was this miserable merchant trying to lead them in circles to waste their time?
Just as her suspicion reached its peak, Tom stopped at the entrance of a dark, narrow alleyway. He glanced around nervously, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow.
"This is the place..." Tom whispered, pointing down the dim corridor. "This is where we made the trade before! They should be right around here... Where are they?"
He babbled frantically, terrified that Jeanne would lose her patience and turn her wrath on him. His pitiful, trembling form almost made him look like a victim of circumstance.
Before either woman could reply, a group of figures clad in dark green robes emerged silently from the gloom. Without uttering a single word, they drew hidden weapons and lunged straight at the group.
"Watch the merchant!" Skadi snapped.
The moment she caught their scent, she knew what they were. That sickening, familiar aura left no room for doubt—these creatures were intimately connected to the ocean monsters!
Skadi was right. The attackers rushing them could hardly be classified as human anymore. As her greatsword swept through the air, sending the leading cultists flying, their robes tore open to reveal grotesque, mutated marine appendages beneath the cloth.
Jeanne noticed something else: while some cultists engaged Skadi, several others deliberately bypassed her, charging directly toward Tom with lethal intent.
"Save me! Help me!" Tom shrieked in terror, scrambling backward on his hands and knees.
At this point, he no longer cared about drawing the attention of the High Inquisitor or his men. The Inquisition might torture him, but there was a chance he'd survive. These monstrosities, on the other hand, intended to erase him from existence!
Nobody paid any attention to his pathetic cries. Jeanne kept her eyes open, her instincts warning her that a mere frontal charge wasn't the full extent of the enemy's trap.
CRACK!
The sound of shattering stone exploded from the shadows right behind her. A towering, five-meter-tall biological horror rose from a collapsed wall, swinging a fist the size of a boulder straight toward her head!
Jeanne kicked Tom out of harm's way, raising her arm just in time to block the massive blow. Her boots skidded across the cobblestones from the raw force of the impact, her eyes narrowing as she sized up the mutated beast.
In that split second, a cultist crossbowman perched on a rooftop nearby spotted his opening. Dual-wielding heavy crossbows, he lined up his sight.
His bolts released with a sharp thwack, streaking through the air toward the tangled fray below!