章 15: A Guide on How to Torture [4.4]

I reached up and touched the thing around my neck. It was a metal collar that was perfectly sculpted to my neck. The collar had intricate magic symbols on it making it not your average metal collar.

I frowned, "Yeah… What is this thing? I tried to use magic and I was shocked."

"It's to make us powerless and to prevent us from using magic. That way we can't escape or hurt our captors."

So it's basically just an electric dog collar? Hmm…

I leaned forward to look at the symbols on the boy's collar closely.

He leaned backward in surprise, "W-What are you doing?!"

"Trying to see if I recognize the symbols so I can get us out of these things."

I rubbed my chin. I don't recognize these markings. It looks like I still have much more to learn. However, I wonder….

He shook his head, "Don't even bother. You only felt the shock from the lowest setting. The more you use mana, the stronger it gets. You would pass out before you could even use mana to do something simple."

I don't have my wand, but it is possible I can break this collar in another way…

A dark grin spread across my face revealing the chaotic thoughts that lay underneath. The boy next to me felt his mouth shut instantly at the sight. He scooted away unconsciously with an ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He spoke a bit afraid of the answer, "What are you thinking?"

"Heh heh… If you need to turn off the lights, why not blow the fuse box?"

He blinked in disbelief, "Eh? Fuze box? Lights?"

I began to channel my mana which immediately caused the collar to shock me. I grit my teeth as the shocks grew more and more intense. I burst out into crazed laughter.

With electricity, if you want to overload a system you just need to put in so much energy that the system would explode from being unable to withstand it.

So wouldn't this collar be the same? All I need to do is pour so much mana into it until the collar can handle it no longer.

I struggled to maintain my consciousness as my mana increased more and more. My eyes grew bloodshot as my jaw tightened in pain. The corners of my vision grew darker the more I pushed myself. Sparks shot out around the collar, covering me completely like a metal pole attracting lightning. The collar shocked me so strongly I felt myself nearly passing out.

But I refuse to give in.

My stubbornness alone gave me the strength to continue.

The children all quickly scooted away in a panic as the air around me grew crisp. The children could see their breaths turn to fog from the sudden chilliness in the air. The collar was going haywire as it attempted to shock me to get me to stop. The sparks grew more and more erratic until finally, there was a strong burst of air.

A blinding light exploded, causing everyone in the room to look away due to its brightness. When they looked back, they could see white snow falling from above as it glided peacefully to the floor. The children ahh'd at the sight of those snowflakes. The only child that wasn't staring at the sudden snow was the boy who was bruised and beaten. He had wide eyes as he stared at me with his mouth agape.

I held my head and rubbed my neck that had been burned from the shocks. It feels like my body is being stretched and squeezed. Everything hurt as I fought to stay conscious. My voice croaked out in an odd tone, "Ouch ouch ouch… Why did that hurt so much? Ugh… My head feels like it is splitting open…"

The boy blinked in shock before he finally shrieked out, "Did you just destroy that collar?!"

Sure enough, the collar that had been around my neck was now laying on the ground in pieces.

Hearing the commotion, the guards burst in. "What the-"

I rubbed my neck to alleviate the pain. I could still feel what seemed to be an electrified grip crushing my neck. If not for the oddly comforting feeling of an ice pack over it, the pain would be far too unbearable.

I glared at the intruders feeling irritated by the pain, "Inside voices please."

The burly man quickly pulled out a wand, "She broke the collar!" He went to shout out a command and I quickly scrambled to prepare to block it. However, before he could, the little boy who had been beaten nearly to death just a few moments before charged at him. He rammed into the man, knocking him off balance. The wand shot out a bright yellow light that collided against the ceiling.

I took advantage of the confusion to use my mana once more. My soul felt like it was set on fire as my skin grew colder. The room dropped several degrees and the men suddenly wanted to run away. However, they couldn't even lift their feet. When they looked down, they noticed ice slowly climbing its way up their legs, immobilizing them. They went to scratch off the climbing ice but found even their hands were now encased in blocks of ice. They were unable to use magic to free themselves by the mysterious icy grip which held them.

The smaller man shouted, "How?! She doesn't even have a wand!?"

I flipped my hair, "I'm not a weakling that I am crippled without my wand."

Really? Just because I am a little girl, you don't think I will be strong? Although, I could feel that the ice I created was much sloppier and less accurate than when I used a spell with my wand. Not only that, but now I feel so drained… I suddenly want to take a nap...

The children and the two men looked at me with expressions of either horror or shock.

I crossed my arms and looked back at the two men unabashed. I thought aloud, "Now what should I do with them? Selling children is definitely a bad thing to do. Would that warrant a death sentence? Or should I just beat them up a bit?"

I guess I should ask the one who suffered the most at their hands.

I turned to the battered boy, "What do you think?"

For a moment, he looked surprised that I asked. Then his face grew serious as he began to think. Although he was filthy and in horrible shape, the look he was giving looked extremely mature. He had a natural-born leader written all over his face. After deliberating, he finally spoke. "Don't kill them."

They breathed out a sigh in relief.

It's not like I was intending to kill them… It's not that they didn't deserve it, but rather that I have never killed anyone before. How could I be able to kill?! I was an art curator before this! Not an assassin!

His eyes then flashed with resentment as he sneered, "You need to make sure they are alive so we can torture them for information."

I tapped my chin, "Information, huh?"

He nodded, "There has to be an organization behind this, right? What if they know something valuable?"

I don't think I could torture them. I'm not a cruel person. But...

I turned to the children, "Drag them in and shut the door."

The children didn't know what they should do and looked at the boy for guidance. He nodded at them and they dragged the two icicle men inside and shut the door. They then all crowded in the farthest corner. They didn't know whether they should be more afraid of the men who had kidnapped them, or the girl who literally just broke her magical collar off by sheer strength of mana.

I stepped in front of the men and rubbed my hands together with a grin, "Alright. Interrogation time. Now, I don't really know how to torture people. I think I remember reading that you could put bamboo under fingernails?"

Both of their faces paled. Even the burly man had given up on appearing to be strong.

I shook my head, "But that would mean releasing you from your ice handcuffs, and I don't want to do that. Hm... I guess I will just have to be creative."

Both of the men had a look on their faces that read: She's just a little girl. How bad could it be?

I clapped my hands, "Aha! I got it! Okay, you two will answer my questions. If you take too long, lie, or just anger me in general, then that ice will slowly climb up until you are completely encased in it."

The burly man found his courage once more. He spat out, "We aren't afraid of a little girl."

I tapped the ice block on their hands, "Do you feel that? Your hand is already getting frostbite. Do you know what that means? It means that it will be irreparably damaged. You will have to cut it off or suffer from necrosis. So, if you were smart, you would be afraid of this little girl."

The burly man lost his courage once more.

The boy let out a cough of disbelief, "What?! I thought you just said that you didn't know how to torture!!!"

I looked back at him with an innocent expression, "I don't. Actually, this is quite mild. Wouldn't you agree?"

He gulped and looked away. He made a mental note not to anger the person who believed slowly freezing someone to death wasn't torture. Even the men bound wanted to cry from the bottom of their hearts.

They much preferred the bamboo idea.