33 Chapter 33. Bad Plan or Bad Luck?

 "You're much more resilient than I expected. At first, when I saw you crying louder than a baby, I thought I could make you talk in a maximum of 5 minutes, but so much time has passed and I haven't learned anything useful. Hmm, come to think of it, there's also the possibility that you didn't make any effort to restrain yourself from whining to make me believe that the methods I used were tough enough because you didn't want me to resort to even more painful methods. Anyway, it doesn't matter now, because while you were enjoying your beauty sleep, I managed to capture someone else, who I think will be much easier to convince to talk...", the dark elf man heard Lucy saying, and in the next second, he saw another catgirl dressed similarly to Lucy, but with a mask on her face, emerging from behind a tree, dragging an elderly dark elf woman tied with a chain around her neck, her clothes covered in dirt.

 "She, she, she... my great-grandmother. She's my great-grandmother! You, you bitch, how did you manage to capture my great-grandmother?! Release her immediately, or I'll make sure not even your corpse remains when I'm done with you!", the dark elf man began to shout as loud as he could.

 "Bang!!"

 "Aahhhh!!!"

 "It seems you've forgotten your situation... Only I give orders here!", Lucy told the dark elf man after delivering a powerful kick to his stomach. "So it seems I managed to capture your great-grandmother... She probably noticed you were away from home when she served breakfast and came looking for you. Heh, it's very tragic... She's really unlucky to have such a great-grandson like you...", Lucy continued to say, then she signaled the other catgirls to bring the old woman in front of the dark elf man.

 "What, what are you planning to do? Don't tell me that... You shameless bitch! How can you behave like this towards an elderly woman who hasn't done anything wrong to you?!", the dark elf man continued to yell, ignoring both the pain caused by Lucy's blow and by the wounds that kept appearing on his body in the areas where he struggled against the steel wire bindings.

 "What do I plan to do to her? As long as she answers the questions I'll ask, I won't do anything to her. But if she refuses..., well, then I'll have to be a bit tougher..."

 "What questions do you want her to answer? She's just an elderly woman who takes care of plants all day. She has nothing to do with all this business...", the dark elf man continued to scream, horror-stricken as the catgirl wearing a mask placed the old woman, her face dirty and tear-streaked, on her knees in front of him.

 "Silas... I'm scared... What's happening?... Who are these people?", the old woman asked, her voice very weak, giving the impression that it would only take a blow to send her to eternal rest.

 "Don't worry, great-grandma. Everything will be fine... Everything will be fine...", the dark elf man began to reassure the old woman, trying to calm himself so as not to frighten her even more, but his terrified eyes didn't suggest he truly believed in the words he spoke.

 "Although I don't want to spoil your reunion, I want to remind you that we still have matters to settle...", Lucy interrupted the conversation between the two, simultaneously resting the edge of her ninja sword on one of the old woman's shoulders. "So tell me, old woman, who does your great-grandson work for?", she continued, but her gaze was not at all on the woman to whom she addressed the question, who stood with her back to her, but on the face of the dark elf man in front of her.

 Seeing this, it didn't take Silas long to understand that Lucy didn't expect to get answers from his great-grandmother and that her goal remained to make him talk. However, if until then, he had managed to resist the torture because he suspected Lucy wasn't the type to spare her enemies and that he had a better chance of surviving if he delayed until his disappearance was noticed, at that moment, when his great-grandmother's life was threatened, who had raised him for 15 years, he couldn't continue to say nothing even though he knew his chances of escaping would be almost zero after Lucy learned everything she wanted from him.

 "Alright, I'll tell you everything I know... Just swear you'll let her go, and I'll tell you...", Silas said after a few moments, unable to bear the thought of his great-grandmother being tortured in front of him.

 "Oh, so you're finally willing to talk. It seems you know how to value your elders...", Lucy said, retracting her sword, which had almost touched Silas's great-grandmother's throat. "So, to let her go... hmm, her existence doesn't matter much to me, so I'm willing to accept your offer and let her go after you tell me everything I want to know...", she continued, signaling the masked catgirl to come and take the old woman away.

 ......................

 'This fool... Not only has he been captured, but he's also fallen into an illusion...', Yara thought as she watched from the shadow at the base of a tree about 30 meters away how Silas was talking to himself while the catgirl in front of him just stared at him, with no trace of the great-grandmother he kept mentioning anywhere around.

 Although Yara had arrived at that location several minutes ago, the fact that she couldn't determine the level and class of 3 of the people holding Silas captive prompted her to stay hidden for a while longer to analyze the situation more thoroughly.

 'If my status reading device can't read the level and class of a person, then either that person has a level over 100 or possesses a device that prevents information about them from being read by others. Hmmm, I can't determine which category the three people whose information I couldn't retrieve fall into, but whichever it is, I expect the fight with them to be a very difficult one even for me...'

 Faced with such a situation full of uncertainties, Yara couldn't help but wonder if it might be better to abandon everything and leave, as Silas's life wasn't among the things she was willing to risk her own life for. However, remembering how long it took her to find someone who had an effective treatment for her brother, that person being Marquis Olsen, she couldn't risk returning empty-handed, without even finding out what happened to the mercenary group, as there was a good chance he would refuse to hold up his end of the bargain if he weren't satisfied with her services.

 'Since I can't risk a direct confrontation, the best option would be to capture the young lionkin woman who's level 31, or her masked guardian who's only level 22, and take her to Marquis Olsen for interrogation. But capturing the young lionkin woman won't be easy because she has Silas's necklace, which even I can't bypass its defense in a single move, and that catgirl who's among those guarding her has a class I've never heard of. What does Magic Powered Ninja mean? Is it some kind of fighter who enhances their physical abilities using mana? Hmm, whatever her specialization is, her level isn't even a third of mine, so I don't think she'll pose a problem. So I believe she'll be the easiest to capture...', Yara decided in the end, not intending to make the rescue of Silas one of her objectives, her goal being just to obtain something to bring back to Marquis Olsen so that she couldn't be accused by anyone of not making any effort.

 Seeing that Silas had already begun to talk about their employer and that everyone's attention was on him, Yara decided that now was the ideal time to set her plan in motion, so she began to advance very discreetly from shadow to shadow, maintaining their shape and size unchanged, until she reached the shadow of the tail of the catgirl she had her eyes on from the beginning and who didn't realize she was in danger until she felt a broad chest pressed against the back of her neck and a cold blade at her throat.

 "Be silent, kitty, and do as I say...", Lucy suddenly heard a very charming voice in her right ear, taking her a few moments to realize it belonged to the one threatening to take her life.