My Wife and I Became Sages in Another World
Chapter 108: The Thief and the Saber Master

Chapter 108: The Thief and the Saber Master

After capturing two of the criminals who followed Gina to the abandoned house, we had them tied up back to back and removed their hoods to see their information.

We noticed that under their hoods, they had a little iron pin with the shape of a scorpion, which prompted us to start our interrogation.

"Are you guys members of the Crimson Scorpions?" I asked, but the two individuals looked to the side without saying a word.

"I mean. You have this pin on you... It’s kind of exposing you." I said, grabbing onto their small iron adornment.

"So what if we are? We own this district." Said the man, making me walk around to face him.

"You own the district? But this place is a shithole... Are you guys actually doing anything besides starving those people out there?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm.

The man sneered. "They are only giving us money for protection. The citizens can do whatever they want."

"Hmm, what a stupid answer," I said before slapping the man.

I tried holding my strength back, but it ended up being hard enough to draw some blood from the criminal’s mouth.

’I didn’t mean to hurt him like that, but whatever, he looks like he can take it...’ I thought.

"You are not protecting these people from anything other than yourselves. I recommend you guys start talking because my queen demon spider companion won’t be so nice asking questions." I told the pair, who gazed at Vespera and saw her sneering at them indifferently.

Again, Vespera wasn’t really going to hurt them. But she looked so intimidating that I had to use her appearance to scare them.

"I could easily pull their insides out," said Vespera, making everyone in the room scared of her words, including me.

[You are kidding... Right?] I asked my companion telepathically.

[What? Of course, I am joking!] she replied, making me a little relieved.

"Anyways, you heard her..." I told the pair, but they still looked down with their mouths shut.

"Hey, do you guys owe that gang so much that you are willing to die horribly for them?" I asked, my tone serious.

The two criminals looked frustrated, as if they wanted to say something but were being stopped by their thoughts.

"We can’t..." the woman said, finally uttering a word.

"You can’t talk?" I asked as I walked around to look at the girl.

She shook her head in denial and tilted it laterally, showing me the side of her neck with a little black mark that looked like an ugly flower tattoo.

"A curse..." Vespera said, gazing at the mark.

She explained that the two individuals had been cursed with a spell that didn’t allow them to divulge any information about the Crimson Scorpions. Breaking the deal would lead to consequences, most likely death.

"Hmmm, so these guys can’t say anything. That makes our threats kinda useless if they are going to die when telling the truth anyways..." I said, but our thoughts were interrupted when Vespera said she felt someone coming.

I used my "search" spell and confirmed that there were three individuals that were surrounding the house, getting into position.

"Yoru," I called, making my trusty companion get out of my shadow, startling the two criminals.

"There are three of them outside. Bring them here if you can." I said, prompting him to vanish in the shadows instantly.

Two minutes of silence later, Yoru brought three more hooded individuals inside the abandoned house. However, they were knocked out cold, so we just tied them up and left them in the corner for the time being.

"You got a rescue party coming. Anyone waiting for you?" I asked, but once again, no response.

The woman looked like she wanted to say something, so I started pondering about a way to get rid of the curse.

I had one thing in mind, but I wasn’t sure if it would work, so I had to try.

Opening my void pocket, I pulled out a Holy Panacea, which was the most potent healing potion that I had created.

I knew my panacea could heal certain illnesses that would otherwise be uncurable. But I wasn’t sure if it would work on a curse as it was the first time I saw one.

When I approached the woman with the potion and raised her chin to feed it to her, she hesitated and flinched, thinking I was feeding her some sort of poison.

Nonetheless, I forced her to stay still and made her chug the whole panacea while the men yelled at me to stop whatever I was doing. Since he couldn’t see his companion, he thought I was doing some horrible torture, but I was actually trying to heal her.

After the panacea was gone, the woman coughed to get some air and gazed at me with hatred in her eyes. However, I didn’t pay attention to her demeanor since I saw the ugly tattoo on her neck slowly disappearing.

"What the hell did you do to me, you bastard!" she yelled, her eyes widened with fear and anger.

"I cleansed your curse," I replied coldly, halting the woman’s rash movements.

"W-what?" she asked, her expression now confused.

"The curse. It’s gone. So how about you tell me more about these Crimson Scorpions now?" I asked, pulling another chair and sitting with the seat back in front of me so I could rest my arms.

"The C-Crimson Scorpions..." she muttered, shutting her forcefully as if expecting retribution for her words. However, nothing happened.

"Hmm, so you couldn’t even say the name of the gang before..." I said, pulling out another Holy Panacea and forcefully feeding it to the man.

With a bit of desperation in her voice, the girl explained that they were taken by the gang a few years ago and were holding some of their family members hostage.

The girl Nisa had developed her thieving skills while living on the streets and stealing to feed her little brother.

One day, they both got kidnapped by the gang that praised Nisa’s thieving skills and forced her to join them in exchange for keeping her little brother alive.

The man, Tony, on the other hand, was training to become a soldier ever since he was young, and his skills with the saber were promising.

The day he obtained his title of "Saber Master," his mother was kidnapped by the gang and was later threatened to join them in exchange for his mom’s life.

"What a terrible gang. I thought you guys were loyal to them or something. Is everyone working for them doing it under threats?" I asked the pair.

They confirmed that at least half of the members were working for them forcefully, while the other half were happy to be part of the gang.

The leader was a noble of Droman with the name "Rob Romanov." Outside of his nightly criminal activities, the man held a position of power in the empire, which allowed him to manipulate soldiers and other nobles.

’The fact that he is a powerful noble makes it pretty bothersome. The guy knows exactly which districts to attack since he also knows what the soldiers’ next move is...’ I pondered.

I cracked my neck as I stretched, telling my group that we had some work to do, making Nisa panic as she told us to stop.

"If you do anything, they will kill all of the hostages..." she said, her voice breaking as a little tear formed in her eyes.

"They don’t know we are coming, though. Shouldn’t be that big of a deal..." I replied with a bit of a lighthearted tone, which only angered Nisa more.

"Are you dumb!? Just because you captured some of them doesn’t mean you have a chance against the whole gang!" she exclaimed, promptly using her "Inspect" on me.

As my wholly censored information opened up before her, the woman widened her eyes in disbelief.

"What is this!? Who the hell are you!?" she yelled, glaring at me with anger in her eyes.

"Wow, rude. Good thing all my information is hidden." I replied.

Telling the woman not to worry about me, I asked them to give me the locations of their bases in the city.

From what they told me, different buildings in the city led to an underground fort that was as big as a whole district.

Romanov’s house was one of the buildings connected to it, but they mentioned there was one in the area we were present that led there, too.

The gang used these underground tunnels to move discreetly between districts, so it was safe to say that anyone we found inside was a criminal.

They told me that only a few of the people they were holding captive were in the underground tunnels. In fact, they allowed their families to stay home and keep living like nothing was happening.

Tony’s mother didn’t know he was being extorted, and neither did Nisa’s little brother.

All the gang did was place a few thugs outside their homes in case they ever rebelled, letting them know they could take what was important to them in an instant.