Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Volume 3

Chapter 10: The First Job Completed

Now then...time for a little interrogation.

Who should I try first, the man or the woman?

The bug-eyed lady was clearly terrified at this point. She was making muffled "Mmm!" sounds and trying desperately to squirm away from us. It was kind of titillating, to be honest... but let's put that aside for now. If I took off her gag now, I had the feeling she'd start babbling a bunch of frantic nonsense. Seemed smarter to wait until she'd calmed down a little.

As for the lizard-man... I couldn't really tell if his expression had changed much, what with the reptilian face and all. It did kind of look like he may have gone a little pale, but it also seemed like he was watchfully observing his surroundings. His eyes flitted from Eris's face to Ruijerd's, then to mine. I had the feeling his mind was completely focused on the question of how he could get out of this alive.

It really was a shame Ruijerd had killed their buddy. A short-tempered tough guy like that would've been the easiest nut to crack by far.

At this point, maybe we should just take off both their gags at once? We could take one of them into a different room, interrogate them separately, then compare their answers afterward.

Yeah, let's give that a shot.

"Eris, stay here and keep watch on the woman for us, okay?"

"Got it," Eris answered with an energetic nod.

I pulled the lizardman to his feet and promptly marched him out of the room. Once we were far enough down the corridor that our voices wouldn't carry back to his friend, I stopped and removed his gag, making sure not to give him any chance to bite me.

"I've got some questions I'd like you to answer."

"Sure, sure! I-I'll tell you whatever you want to know! Just don't kill me!"

"Fair enough. As long as you talk, I'll let you go."

"Eek!"

I'd smiled brightly in an attempt to reassure him, but for some reason the lizard-man flinched back in fear. Maybe he wasn't quite as cool-headed as I'd originally thought.

"Why do you have so many animals caged up in this building?"

"We...p-picked 'em up off the street."

"Hmm! That's really impressive! And where did you find them all exactly?"

"Uh, well, I mean..." The man's eyes darted between Ruijerd's face and mine. Was he really planning to continue lying at this point? "J-Just...around town..."

Okay, that barely even qualified as a lie. The guy had a clever-looking face, but maybe he wasn't that bright after all.

"Wow, no kidding! There must be animals lying around for the taking all over the place, huh?" I paused for a moment, then fixed him with my fiercest glare. "Look, buddy. Do you think I'm stupid just because I'm a kid?"

"No, no! N-not at all!"

Yeah, that didn't really work. With this body, any attempt at intimidation seemed to come out kind of ridiculous. I was only ten years old, after all. Ah well. *Guess I'll have to scare him a bit.*

"Explosion."

With a sharp snap of my fingers, I set off a small fiery blast right in front of the man's face.

"Gaaah! Yowch!" It singed the tip of his nose nicely. "Wh-what the heck are you doing, man?!"

Naturally, I chose to ignore this question. "Do us both a favor and think a little harder about your answers. You don't want to die, right?"