"Why did you capture this bandit?"
Yale knew very well that the bandit caught like a ready to butcher animal was the bandit leader and based on the usual behavior of the Larken Clan, Yale couldn't believe that they let the bandit alive without reason after having attacked Sword City.
"I want to kill him, but he knows valuable information about a bandit alliance that plans to rebel against the empire. There are even chances of some traitors being inside the noble clans, so I need to interrogate this guy and obtain all the information that he knows."
Herken wasn't good with that job; he didn't like torturing others, and he wasn't good enough with words to make the bandit leader speak about his secrets unconsciously. However, he wasn't confident in being able to reach Imperial City before that bandit died; the travel wasn't short with so many young members of the Larken Clan, and if he was distracted due to the group security the bandit could kill himself.
"Do you need any help? Obtaining information from enemies that doesn't matter if die after having obtained the information is one of my specialties."
Yale said that by Spiritual Sense after seeing Herken's face that didn't show confidence in doing the job well. Yale didn't plan to say in public that he was good obtaining information from enemies, but he was also curious about the information the bandit leader had, so he needed at least to let Herken knowing it. Moreover, it was good doing a favor to the Larken Clan as long it wasn't related to marry.
"Then, I will need to thank you. I am not too good with those matters."
Herken also replied using his Spiritual Sense; Yale was engaged with Lar who was an important member of the Larken Clan, and even if Yale's relationship with a part of the Zhan Clan was bad to the extreme they wanted to kill him, Yale was still considered as part of the noble clans.
"How about you three come with all of us to rest? Ralen has prepared a good place for us."
Lar looked at Yale and seeing that he nodded she also nodded. Yale knew that Herken was just helping him to move to a place without people since he understood that Yale didn't want to act in public. Personally, he liked that behavior because any method used to obtain secret information from an enemy wasn't something a decent person would show in public.
Yale didn't mind about being righteous in the eyes of others like the Larken Clan, but he didn't want to show all his prowess to everyone, and he had already shown a lot of power in the previous battle.
Nobody thought that the fact Yale was going with the Larken Clan was strange since he was engaged with a member of the clan. Ralen and Selenia were giving thanks to their past selves to avoid offending Yale because he was even more fearsome than they suspected.
The place Ralen gave to the Larken Clan members was the hugest mansion of Sword City situated near the area of the housing for the Sword Five. That mansion was specially prepared for when the Larken Clan visited the city. There were also some smaller mansions for the big clans that supported Sword City, but the treatment they would receive would be far inferior the one obtained by the Larken Clan.
"You can all choose a room to stay; I want to talk a bit more with Lar and her fiancé."
Herken was only interested in speak with Yale, but he said it in that way to avoid the others knowing that he had a secret agenda with Yale because Yale himself seemed against it.
"They are my little sister and my brother-in-law, I also want to hear that conversation."
Durgan was the one who created their engagement, so he wanted to ensure everything was right by himself. Even with Lar being always so cold to him, Durgan was still a brother who cared about her little sister's well-being.
"Wyba is also coming with us; I don't want to leave her alone."
After seeing how the Larken Clan tried to cheat Wyba before, Yale didn't dare to leave her alone with them.
Herken quickly nodded to both of requests; he wanted to be alone with Yale to let him obtain the information from the bandit leader without other seeing him because Yale wanted it in that way, so as long Yale didn't mind someone else being present, he had no reason to forbid their presence.
Herken selected a big room equipped with isolation spells and sat in a chair without letting go the bandit leader who had been grabbed by the neck the whole time.
"Let's proceed. This matter the quicker we resolve it, the better. How do you plan to obtain the information from this garbage?"
Durgan was shocked by Herken's words because he didn't expect that Herken's true reason was getting Yale's help to obtaining information, but Lar had already expected something like that since Yale agreed to go with the Larken Clan.
The bandit leader didn't fear any type of torture because he didn't plan to speak anything that could put in danger the bandit alliance; he would just tell some lies after a bit to cheat them hoping even to provoke some internal strife by incriminating innocent people from being traitors.
"It is simple as long as you trust me. I can use Soul-search on him and obtain all the true information. This guy seems the type who wouldn't tell us the truth even if we beat him to death."
The bandit leader's face paled as Yale had seen through his intentions. The truth was that Yale didn't know any method of torture and he said that the bandit leader would never say the truth just to have a reason for soul-searching him instead of using torture and interrogation to obtain the information. However, he unconsciously frustrated the real plans of the bandit leader.
The only downside of Soul-search was that only Yale would know all the information and Herken would need to trust him.
"Do you really know Soul-search? It should be impossible, to use it you need to have some knowledge about the Death Law and your rank is too low for that."
Herken was an experienced man although his rank wasn't too high and he had some understanding about the Death Law because as someone who usually scout and investigate he had received an important warning from the clan.
"You shall never offend anyone who had any relationship to the Death Law."
Anyone who had some understanding about the Death Law was someone who probably could extract the memories of his opponents after defeating them; an outsider obtaining the memories of someone like Herken who know a lot about the Larken Clan would be too dangerous for the clan.
"If you know about the Death law, you should also know how it feels, right?"
Herken nodded, there were some elders of the Larken Clan that had touched a bit of the Death Law and showed it in front of him to help him recognize when others were using it.
"Then, just take a look to my aura."
Yale activated the Death Bloodline letting some Death law ripples appear around his body; he was willingly allowing those ripple to be sensed. Otherwise, there was no way Herken could detect them with his rank because the powers of the Death Law was hidden in the bloodline instead of being comprehended normally.
"Death Law ripples... Unbelievable, I can't even imagine what kind of lucky encounter you had to be able to emanate Death Law Ripples with your rank."
Herken was utterly shocked, he had thought highly of Yale, but he didn't think that Yale was so abnormal. Fortunately, he didn't overact before and offended Yale because with a bit of power of the Death Law it would be extremely easy for him provoking big loses to his current group. After all, the attacks directed to the soul are the most difficult to defend and heal.
"Do you trust in me now?"
That was an important point, without trust even if Yale obtained the information it would be useless.
"I trust you. You are the one who provoked more losses to them; if they were to know it, you would be the number one target of hatred. You shall be even more interested than us in getting rid of them."
Herken didn't believe that Yale was a traitor because he just needed to act normally and the city would have been conquered without anyone blaming him for it; his previous display of power wasn't something expected by anyone.
Yale smiled and started to walk towards the pale-faced bandit. That bandit alliance was something he needed to destroy because although their main targets were the noble clans, after dealing with them no one knew how the normal people in small towns and cities would end. If they had the power to dare to rebel against the Empire, those small towns or cities were doomed.
Yale wasn't arrogant enough to think that he could do it himself; he needed all the possible help and collaborating with the Larken Clan who shared the same objective seemed the best option to him.