Encouraged by the fact that the interrogation of the marquis' son had gone very quickly and not feeling like asking the same questions three times, Lucy decided to interrogate Gary, who had been awake for a while and was watching in horror as Rina fought with a tree, using his boss's son as a weapon, and the two subordinates who were captured along with the marquis' son, and who were still unconscious in piles of black vines, at the same time.
The longer someone spent in a pile of black vines, the tighter they were bound, so the men in the two piles of black vines were almost out of sight when Lucy turned her attention to them. If they had been conscious, perhaps Lucy could have interrogated them in that state, motivating them to talk by imitating a magician inserting a dozen swords into a box containing a person. However, thinking that she would have to free them anyway to bring them to the village as proof of her claims, Lucy decided not to stop after freeing their heads to administer a healing potion to wake them up. Thus, she extracted the two men from the black vines and then, to ensure they wouldn't cause any trouble, bound them tightly with steel wire, just like she had done with Gary.
Placing the two men in front of Gary, Lucy expected that once they woke up and saw the situation their colleague was in, they wouldn't refuse to answer her questions, and certainly not Gary, who was looking at her as if she were the embodiment of evil. However, to her surprise, when all three were awake and she asked them about the location of the dungeon they were headed to with the lionkins they planned to kidnap, none of them gave a satisfactory answer. Gary and the one with the Formation Crafter class swore they didn't know, while the one with the Hunter class remained completely silent.
Since Lucy knew from the marquis' son that the one with the Hunter class definitely knew where the dungeon was, he became her primary focus, kicking him in the liver and threatening that he would share Gary's fate. Still, he refused to answer Lucy's question, stating that even if she cut off his legs, he wouldn't betray Marquis Olsen, as his family would be in danger.
Not believing that a criminal with a family was any less guilty than a bachelor, Lucy had no intention of granting him any preferential treatment, so she was fully prepared to carry out her threat. However, Yara, who had so far stood by and allowed Lucy to do as she pleased, pointed out that cutting off his legs wouldn't be productive as the blood loss would cause him to lose consciousness before he could come out of the shock caused by the excessive pain, and Lucy wouldn't have the chance to ask him the question again until after she stopped the bleeding by administering a healing potion, thereby missing the opportunity to make him talk when the pain and fear of further suffering would work together to erode his resolve.
Lucy's strategy when torturing someone didn't rely on temporarily weakening their will with pain, but rather on driving them to despair by confronting them with seemingly endless suffering. For example, in this case, after cutting off her victim's legs at the ankles, he might not break immediately, but when he realized she wouldn't stop and continued to take off five centimeters more each time he refused, the edge of her sword would start to occupy a more important place in his mind than his family. So, Lucy was confident that if she proceeded her way, she would get the desired result. However, thinking that this interrogation was a couple's activity, she decided to accept Yara's suggestion and put the sword aside, her mentality being similar to someone who, at a fair with their girlfriend, lets her drive the bumper car even though they know their driving skills are superior.
But the marquis' subordinate didn't get to breathe a sigh of relief for long at the thought that he might keep his legs because, instead of the sword that disappeared from Lucy's hand, a large iron sledgehammer appeared after a few seconds, her intentions being evident to everyone present. Maybe she no longer intended to cut off his legs, but she could take them in other ways.
Lucy wasted no time with negotiations and immediately began turning the legs of the marquis' subordinate into tubes of confetti, crushing his bones from the toes upward, completely ignoring his deafening screams. Even as he began writhing in agony, it didn't bother her; in fact, it made her job easier. His rolling from side to side allowed her to strike his legs from different angles without having to adjust her position.
Lucy continued her grueling work until she had flattened the marquis' subordinate's feet up to his ankles, pausing for a moment to wipe the sweat from her forehead. She couldn't recall making such an intense effort since arriving in this world; swinging the sledgehammer proved to be a highly effective workout, engaging almost every muscle group.
Not letting go of the sledgehammer, Lucy didn't intend to take more than a few seconds of a break, so she didn't bother urging the marquis' subordinate to talk again. However, before she could raise the sledgehammer above her head once more, the marquis' subordinate began, through groans, to tell her the location of the dungeon, hoping this would make her stop. Since the healing potion Lucy had administered hadn't worn off, the marquis' subordinate realized there was no way he could escape by losing consciousness, even though the pain he felt was greater than anything he thought a person could endure, so he became truly desperate, no longer caring about anything other than ending his suffering. Moreover, as Lucy became more and more absorbed in hammering, he feared that she might forget why she was hitting him and wouldn't stop, even if he agreed to answer her questions.
Lucy didn't like leaving a job half-done, so for a moment she thought about ignoring the marquis' subordinate. However, not wanting to appear unreasonable in front of Yara, she decided to put the sledgehammer aside and let him finish what he had to say.
After he finished speaking, Lucy pressed him for details about the measures they had planned to ensure the lionkins wouldn't escape, as he appeared to be the real leader of the mission. However, he claimed to know nothing about that, stating that all security responsibilities fell to his colleague with the Formation Crafter class.
Lucy didn't know what to make of the fact that none of the marquis' subordinates seemed to know all the details of their mission. Didn't their mission seem similar to the heist planned by the Joker? Remembering her comparison between Marquis Olsen and Saruman, Lucy wondered if it was possible that he was also someone reincarnated, with a similar tendency to enact movie scenes, the only difference being that he preferred playing the antagonist. But Lucy thought that it would be too much of a coincidence if things were like this; she wasn't the protagonist of a comic book where the hero and the villain were two sides of the same coin. Besides, she was aware of the human tendency to project their own mentality onto others.
Setting aside these thoughts, Lucy turned her attention to the only one of the three men who still had functional legs and ordered him to tell her everything he knew about how they planned to ensure the lionkins wouldn't escape. Though he was genuinely terrified and began talking immediately, he avoided revealing anything truly important, discussing trivial matters like locks that required two keys to open. This led Lucy to believe he was more afraid of what the marquis might do to him if he betrayed him by revealing sensitive information than of what she could do to him. Concluding that sometimes it's not enough for someone to see to believe but that one must also feel, Lucy struck the marquis' subordinate hard with the sledgehammer on one leg, snapping his shinbone in two, which immediately made him much more honest.
To uncover all the details of Marquis Olsen's operation, Lucy had to go back and forth between the three subordinates multiple times, and by the end, none of them were left with intact limbs, as she was not stingy with her sledgehammer blows. Piecing together the information she gathered, Lucy now had a fairly clear picture of the route the captured lionkins were to take and what awaited them inside the dungeon that would become their long-term home.
In short, after separating from the marquis' son, who was going to return home with his guards after he had selected about three lionkin girls for himself, the three subordinates were to lead the group of mercenaries to the location of a fake grain transport caravan, where they would load the lionkins into cages that would then be covered with grain. From there, the three were supposed to travel with the caravan to the estate of a count, where a new dungeon had been found, whose first level had been arranged to serve as a prison for the lionkins and other beastkins who would be captured. Once they arrived, each lionkin would be subjected to a ritual performed by the one with the Formation Crafter class, marking them with a slavery tattoo that could only be removed upon death, ensuring there was no chance of them being freed by anyone who might infiltrate to spark a rebellion.
Lucy couldn't understand why none of the three men sent by the marquis to capture the lionkins knew all the details of his plan. Perhaps he was paranoid because this was the first time he had orchestrated such an operation, or maybe he feared betrayal. There was also the question of why Marquis Olsen had sent Yara and Silas to guard his son if he was so afraid that his plans would be exposed. Given that the two dark elves knew many details about his secret meetings with other nobles, Lucy thought it was too great a risk for the marquis to allow them to learn about the lionkins capture as well. Was it possible that Marquis Olsen intended to eliminate them now that the entire operation was set in motion? Just thinking about the possibility that the marquis might have a plot against her new lover made Lucy want to hunt him down and introduce him to the Ninja Bone Crusher she had used to convince his subordinates to betray him.
"The interrogation went better than I expected. Honestly, I think you have a talent for this...", Yara interrupted Lucy's thoughts, trying to return the atmosphere to normal. Since she was well aware of how ruthless Lucy could be with her enemies, Yara had been quite prepared to witness some brutal scenes during the interrogation of the marquis' three subordinates, so she wasn't too shocked by what Lucy had done.
It was true that Lucy's playful attitude while committing acts of violence still made Yara wonder if she had a dark side, but since Lucy didn't seem to take anything too seriously, Yara tended to believe this was just the way she had grown accustomed to acting.
"Well, I think it's because I do it out of passion, not out of obligation or a desire for revenge...", Lucy said, her words completely disrupting Yara's assumptions. Did this mean that Lucy actually found pleasure in seeing people suffer?
"So, are you saying that you enjoy torturing people?", Yara asked in the most casual tone possible, not wanting to make Lucy think she cared too much about it and thereby cause her to hide her true nature.
It wasn't as if this would make her like Lucy any less, since Yara herself wasn't a saint either, but she thought she might need to be careful in the future not to let Lucy get consumed by a thirst for violence. Yara had met people who had made it their life's mission to spread suffering, and from what she had observed, they lost the ability to be happy, a fate she didn't wish for Lucy, who was at her best when she was in a good mood, radiating with sweetness.
"That? Not really... It's dirty, and it smells bad. I was talking about punishing those who think they can do bad things without any repercussions...", Lucy replied, initially planning to share a bit of her philosophy with Yara, but stopped when she realized what Yara's question could imply.
"What, did you think your girlfriend turned out to be a psychopath?", Lucy continued, throwing a sideways glance at Yara.
"Well, it's not hard to get that impression from someone who wags her tail happily while hitting someone with a sledgehammer. But don't worry, even if that were the case, I wouldn't have liked you any less. On the contrary, I'd spend as much time as needed trying to bring you back on the right path...", Yara said, pulling Lucy into a hug, bringing their hearts closer both literally and figuratively.
"Yeah? And how would you go about doing that?" Lucy asked, burying her face into Yara's neck almost involuntarily. It wasn't just that it was impossible for her to stay mad at Yara when her nostrils were filled with her fragrance; Lucy was also beginning to be overwhelmed by the attraction she felt for her. Every time they were this close, Lucy had the urge to pin her down and start undressing her.
"Hmmm, I'm sure that if you couldn't get out of bed in the morning, you'd be much calmer all day...", Yara said confidently. How could she doubt it when Lucy was lying so sweetly against her? It felt as if Lucy was completely surrendering.
Understanding what Yara was insinuating, Lucy didn't know what to say. It was true that if she spent a night with Yara, she'd be exhausted the next day, but not necessarily because Yara would manage to wear her out, but because Lucy wouldn't be able to stop herself from devouring Yara's body, which overflowed with sensuality.
"...Probably...", Lucy eventually agreed, planning to let Yara feel proud of herself until their first showdown in bed. A clever cat knows not to scare the mouse before it leaves the hole.