114 The Inquiry
Selma Payne’s POV:
My father was on the phone in the study, so I waited for a while.
Ten minutes later, he put down the phone and asked me, “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I want to discuss Dorothy with you.” I was a little apprehensive, not knowing if my father would allow me to ask an important prisoner. “About Dorothy’s Eye of Insight, I want to ask Adele if she has a solution.”
“Yes,” my father said. “Master Mary and Tracy told me about Dorothy’s situation. I’ve already sent someone to communicate with the witch clan. In fact, I don’t suggest you ask Adele, child. We can’t guarantee the truth of her words. If she does something and we can’t detect it immediately, it might harm Dorothy instead.”
I was not willing to give up. “But there’s no time to waste, Father. The Eye of Insight is snatching away the life force in Dorothy’s eyes at every moment. If the witch clan drags on and does not give us a reply, Dorothy will probably lose her sight before we find a solution.”
“Let me ask Adele. I promise I won’t listen to her. I can ask a werewolf grandmaster to come with me. They have a lie detector.”
“Lies aren’t necessarily false,” my father said helplessly. “Sometimes, the truth can also confuse reality.”
“Please, Father, ” I insisted. “This is the fastest way. We have to try. We can’t just watch Dorothy go blind!”
In the end, my father couldn’t resist my stubbornness and agreed. He also sent Master Mary to go with me.
The palace’s most recent underground prison renovation was over a hundred years ago. There were not many guests here, so it was lifeless, gloomy, and dilapidated.
At present, the only resident here was Adele. Her father was a kind king who didn’t like to torture prisoners, so her living environment was relatively safe.
Adele had just woken up. When she saw Master Mary and I, she turned her head in disdain and pretended not to see us.
“Hey, witch. I have something to ask you, ” I said coldly.
Adele did not move as if she was deaf.
“I’m talking to you,” I replied impatiently.
She still didn’t respond.
“It seems like you think you’re a tough nut to crack?” I sneered and picked up the iron whip hanging on the wall. “I’m not a father. I don’t have the habit of giving preferential treatment to prisoners. Speaking of which, I haven’t really conducted an interrogation before. Perhaps you would like to be my first experimental subject?”
Adele finally turned around and looked at me coldly, still not saying anything.
Master Mary stepped forward and cast a detection spell on her. As the iron chain was engraved with a sealing spell, Adele could only let us do as we pleased.
𝑓𝙧𝙚𝙚w𝙚𝙗𝒏oν𝐞l. c𝑜𝙢
“You have a chance to atone for your crimes, so you don’t have to suffer such a severe punishment,” I said.
Adele finally spoke, “Really? Atoning for one’s crimes with merits? Does it mean that I can suffer less from the iron whip on the execution ground because I wagged my tail and begged for pity, or that I won’t have to be burned to death in the end? You’re so kind that even satan would shed tears of gratitude for your act.”
I gave her a whip and said, “Stop your glib tongue. If you can’t wait, I will let you taste the iron whip right now.”
Adele was silent. If looks could kill, I believed she would be happy to send me on my way.
“How much do you know about the prophetic witches?” I asked directly.
“Prophetic witches?” Adele smiled. “Oh, you’re talking about the little girl who got me arrested. It was a pity that she had forcefully broken through the mental defense of a powerful witch. Was she not crazy? Haha, it looks like she’s very talented. If those old fogeys in the clan were to find such a good seedling stranded in the enemy camp, they would feel so regretful that they would send the old, weak, sick, and disabled over to exchange for her.”
“Stop talking nonsense.” I frowned in dissatisfaction. “What do you know?”
“I know a lot,” Adele said. “About prophetic witches… Many have the ability and talent the others have dreamed of all their lives. Every sorcerer had fantasized about having that blood in their bodies when they were young.”
“So, do you know about the Eye of Insight?” I asked.
Adele’s expression stiffened for a moment. She covered it up very well, but I still caught it.
“You do know, ” I said with certainty. “Tell me everything about it.”
Adele shook her head contemptuously. “No, I don’t know anything. What ‘Eye of Insight’? Is this some low-level derivative of the wolf-witch hybrid?”
Her clumsy acting wouldn’t fool me. I raised my hand and gave her another whip. “Don’t play any tricks. Since we broke through your spiritual defense line once, we can do it a second time and a third time. Moreover, you’re sealed now, and without a defensive spell, we can’t guarantee that you won’t be affected by the spiritual invasion and become an imbecile.”
“If I’m retarded, you won’t get anything,” Adele threatened. “Otherwise, you would have interrogated me this way, right?”
“I’ll say the same thing again,” I said noncommittally. “You can try and see if I dare to or not. Since you’re not willing to tell me who’s behind this, there’s no point in keeping you alive.”
