'I already done with my schedule…'
'I'm bored.'
'You know what? I'll go check on Ulbert. It's surprisingly taking him a long time just to interrogate some ordinary soldiers, even with Demiurge helping him. Did they have some kind of mental protection spell on them?'
With that thought, Henry activated the ring on his finger.
In an instant, the ring triggered teleportation. Space folded around him in a flash of pale light, and the scenery completely changed.
----
The cold stone corridors of Nazarick greeted him once more.
Deeper within the Great Tomb, beyond several magically sealed doors, a series of agonized screams echoed through the halls.
Henry sighed. "Yep. Sounds about right."
The interrogation chamber reeked of blood, burned flesh, and sulfur.
Chains hung from the ceiling. Crimson magic circles pulsed faintly across the floor, while several soldiers from the Slane Theocracy lay broken against the walls—some unconscious, some begging for mercy, and others no longer capable of speaking at all.
In one corner of the room stood Ulbert Alain Odle, with black flames flickered around his fingertips as he stared down at a trembling prisoner with manic delight in his eyes.
Beside him stood Demiurge, calm and elegant as always, carefully writing notes on a parchment with several in lay in the table.
With several sheets of skinned human flesh were hanging across the wall and some laid out on a special box nearby the table.
The prisoner screamed even louder.
Ulbert frowned. "Oh, come on. I barely touched you."
A black fireball appeared in his palm, nearly causing the soldier to faint.
Henry stepped out from the shadows, casually raising a hand in greeting. "Yo, Ulbert. How's the interrogation going?"
Ulbert glanced back and grinned. "Henry! Perfect timing. I was just starting to get bored."
Demiurge immediately bowed his head. "Welcome, Henry-sama." Even while holding an absurdly thick report filled with interrogation results, Demiurge's posture remained perfectly professional.
Henry honestly wished Demiurge would stop being so formal sometimes. The man was his husband afterall, yet whenever work was involved, Demiurge turned into the very embodiment of a profesional corporate worker.
Henry let out a small sigh and waved his hand dismissively. "At ease, Demiurge."
"Yes, Henry-sama."
"And you really don't have to act so formal around me when it's just me, Ulbert, or Momonga nearby. Because our status as husband it already make you have the authority as the other supreme being" Henry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Otherwise Ulbert's gonna start thinking I bully you or something."
For a brief moment, silence filled the chamber.
Then Ulbert burst out laughing.
"HAHAHAHA—!"
Even the prisoners flinched at the sudden volume.
Ulbert held his stomach while pointing at Henry. "You? Bully Demiurge? That's rich. Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
Henry deadpanned, "I'm serious. You literally will skin me alive if some word gets out that I treated Demiurge even slightly bad."
"Of course I will skin you alive if you breathe the wrong way around my son," Ulbert replied between laughs.
"See?!" Henry pointed immediately. "That! That's exactly what I mean."
Ulbert smirked maliciously. "Nah, keep making him panic, Demiurge. This is entertaining."
"Okay, stop that. Continue what you're doing. It's been a few days, Ulbert. It's actually quite weird that it's taken you almost a week to extract information from ordinary soldiers. What happened? Did their minds have some kind of protective barrier?"
Momonga had recently resumed his administrative duties after spending time training swordsmanship with Henry, which meant Ulbert was no longer drowning in paperwork and meetings. Naturally, the moment he regained free time—he returned to his favorite hobby.
Playing the villai— *ahem*, interrogation.
Ulbert stretched his shoulders dramatically. "Nah, nothing like that. The reason you didn't receive the report yet is because I was the one who stuck reading my own report and handling all the documents for this past few days while you two dumped your work on me, idiot." Ulbert said with clear irritation. "I already put the main copy on Momonga's desk. If you want to read it now, there's another copy in Demiurge's hands. Right now, I'm just relaxing."
Henry chuckled while looking around the blood-soaked chamber. "Relaxing, huh?"
"Oh, don't look at me like that! I'm still mad at you two, so you should be thanking me for not taking it out on you."
"Alright, alright! We're sorry." He says with arm surrender.
"Hmph. You better be."
After waiting for Ulbert to calm down a bit, Henry asked again, "So, what information did you get?"
Ulbert exhaled. "It's as we thought. They were using that village to set a trap for Gazef Stronoff. His own kingdom's nobles sold him out to these guys because they were afraid their influence would be cut off. As for these soldiers, they're mostly useless. They don't know much. Only their captain had some access to a more valuable intel, but its not really worth mentioning."
Nearby, Nigun Grid Luin remained chained separately from the others. Like the regular soldiers, he had been kept alive on purpose.
His condition was terrible—burn marks covered half his body, several fingernails were missing, and one eye was swollen shut. However, compared to the others, he was actually receiving "special treatment." He hadn't been skinned yet. But now that Ulbert had gotten what he wanted, he simply wanted to toy with him a little more.
Ulbert walked toward him slowly. "Now then, Captain Nigun… shall we continue?"
Nigun glared weakly. "...You monsters...!"
Ulbert crouched down in front of him with a smile far too cheerful for the situation. "Correct."
Demiurge stepped forward politely. "Henry-sama, thanks to the interrogations, we have successfully confirmed several key pieces of information regarding the new kingdom, the Slane Theocracy."
Henry raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Demiurge handed him several neatly organized documents. "The Theocracy worships six beings they regard as gods. It is known that these Six Gods arrived six hundred years ago and taught the humans here their knowledge and wisdom. They also possess elite Scripture units far superior to ordinary soldiers. The Sunlight Scripture, in particular, specializes in the suppression and large-scale annihilation of demi-humans."
Henry flipped through the pages casually. "Six gods? Mm."
"We also confirmed the existence of multiple neighboring nations from the soldiers' memories—especially those who traveled for trade," Demiurge continued. "The Re-Estize Kingdom is the one we already knew. Then there is the Baharuth Empire, the Dragon Kingdom, the Council State, and several demi-human territories."
Henry nodded slowly. "So we have to make the map even bigger."
"Indeed."
Henry give the documents back to demiurge and active [Triad of Eternal Sight] then began walking toward the soldiers.
Even though ordinary soldiers lacked access to state secrets, they still patrolled castles, guarded roads, escorted nobles, and traveled between cities. Small fragments of memory became useful pieces when put together—hallways, guard rotations, castle entrances, barracks, hidden stairways, supply routes.
Everything mattered.
Henry placed his hand against the forehead of one soldier.
A soft blue light pulsed.
Immediately, fragmented memories flooded into his min—a castle corridor, torch-lit walls, a noble arguing with priests, an underground passage, city routes, military posts.
Henry narrowed his eyes. "Oh?" He smirked slightly. "Now this is useful."
Ulbert looked over while black flames crackled around his arm after done tormenting nigun. "Find something interesting?"
"Parts of the royal palace structure, some Interior layout too."
"Ohhh, nice."
Henry looked at the floating map projection and began adding new sections. Soon, additional territories appeared beside Re-Estize.
The Slane Theocracy.
Roads to other nations.
Military checkpoints.
Religious strongholds.
And adding marks on Possible border patrol routes.
Demiurge observed the updated map with visible admiration. "As expected of Henry-sama."
Henry shrugged casually.
"These guys might not be useful for high-level information, but their guard rotations are really helpful for map gathering."
Behind him, another scream erupted as Ulbert resumed his work enthusiastically. "Don't worry, your friends are contributing to society."
One of the remaining conscious soldiers cried desperately, "Please… please just kill us…"
Ulbert tilted his head. "Hm? But Demiurge has already suggested a much better use for you, don't you remember?"
The prisoners' faces turned pale.
Near the wall, several freshly prepared sheets of skin were being carefully dried of the blood using magic, while the rest were stored in special boxes to prevent damage.
Demiurge spoke calmly, as if discussing ordinary office supplies. "Human skin possesses acceptable compatibility for low to mid-tier magic scroll production. Letting it go to waste would be inefficient. These soldiers are producing quite a few mid-tier scrolls, and even a few higher-tier ones."
Henry glanced at the operation briefly, muttering "...Makes sense."
He had absolutely no intention of stopping Ulbert.
Or Demiurge.
Honestly, this entire scene was pretty standard by Nazarick standards.
Ulbert grinned wildly upon hearing no objections.
"See? Henry gets it. We just need to convince Momonga later."
"I'm just gonna stay out of your hobby."
"My hobby is art."
"Your hobby is crimes against humanity."
"Semantics."
Even Demiurge gave a wide smile at their exchange, causing the remaining soldiers to shiver with fear and hopelessness.
For a moment, the atmosphere felt like the old days.
If one could ignore the screaming.