The Wicked Wife's Dark History Keeps Coming Back To Haunt Her - Chapter 234
Over the long years, the tools that had slept in this place were speckled with rust, and dried blackened blood clung to them.
Hozi picked up one of the filthy tools, which looked unclean just from a glance, with a careful and deliberate gaze.
“W-What are you planning to do…!”
“Your friends showed remarkable spirit. No matter how much I persuaded them to talk, they insisted on resisting.”
His half-closed eyes glinted in the faint candlelight, and his voice carried a trace of amusement.
The closer Hozi came, the more desperately the knight struggled.
If they had met outside, the long-haired man would not even have been worth a single swing of a fist. But because the knight was now tied down and unable to move, even Hozi’s narrow-eyed smile and scholar-like hands looked terrifying.
“If you do not release us immediately, His Excellency the Count will never let you go!”
“That line is too stale. Your friends already used it.”
It was true.
The two knights he had interrogated earlier had said the exact same thing.
“W-What did you do to my comrades?”
If he had heard even a fraction of the screams and groans that had echoed for days, he would not be asking such a question.
“You kidnapped citizens of the Bayern Duchy and committed grave crimes. Summary execution is allowed here, you know.”
Yet the fact that they were still alive was proof of immense mercy.
But perhaps the knight interpreted his words as confirmation of his comrades’ deaths.
His jaw rattled as his teeth chattered, and he begged.
“I-I will tell you everything. Please, just spare my life…!”
The knight was no longer in his right mind.
After days of hearing his comrades’ screams and imagining unbearable torment, he felt like his nerves would snap at any moment.
He had undergone harsh training to become a knight, but without deep convictions or loyalty, anyone could abandon their lord in the face of fear.
And given that Count Azelot was a wretched person, betrayal was hardly surprising.
“I will do anything, anything you ask, so please…”
Hozi clicked his tongue inwardly at the pitiful display, devoid of even a shred of integrity.
‘I expected more from a knight. How boring.’
One of the fundamental interrogation techniques used to extract confessions from accomplices was isolation.
Even if trust between them was strong, once separated and manipulated, they crumbled easily.
Those without professional training were particularly vulnerable to such tactics.
Even so, how could someone who called himself a knight collapse this quickly.
He was sobbing, nose running, begging desperately for his life.
It was almost pitiable that Count Azelot had ever appointed such a creature as a knight.
A short while later, Hozi set down the chilling tool and smiled with benevolent gentleness.
“Very well. Since you beg so earnestly, I will give you a chance. But there is something you must know first.”
“W-What is it?”
“You will inform Count Azelot that the repairman completed his task, and that your two colleagues are delayed because they went to dispose of the repairman’s family.”
Hozi held the knight’s gaze, where faint hope and anger flickered together, and continued.
“If you fail to follow my instructions properly, every detail of your embezzlement and misconduct will be reported directly to the Count.”
“H-How did you…”
“There are ways to know everything.”
At Hozi’s chilling smile, the knight trembled violently and nodded over and over.
He held the rank of baronet, and every person in a noble household held an important position.
The higher the status, the heavier the expectations and obligations.
If his corruption were revealed, what then?
With Count Azelot’s nature, it would not end with simple expulsion.
He would frame him with additional crimes, strip him of his property, and dismiss him in disgrace.
The man’s complexion drained to an ashen color.
‘If I’m dismissed, it’s over…!’
Losing his baronet rank would reduce him to a commoner.
Worse yet, once dismissed for misconduct, it was nearly impossible to regain noble status.
For him, avoiding that outcome was a matter of survival.
“I-I understand. I will do as you say. Please, just keep that matter secret…”
Hozi released the knight from his restraints.
One might think it far too lenient for someone who had kidnapped an innocent family and tormented them.
But Hozi had no intention of letting him off.
After a little time passed, the knight would pay for his sins with suffering equal to, or greater than, that of the two who had faced Hozi before.
He simply had to wait.
