"Hide? W-what could I possibly hide from you?" Esdeath stuttered slightly, her voice trembling as she looked away immediately, unable to meet Lortell's intense gaze.
"If I knew what you were hiding, I wouldn't have asked in the first place!" Lortell spat in anger, her voice sharp and cold like ice.
Esdeath could not maintain the eye contact at all. It wasn't that she was bad at lying; not at all. But her IQ always dropped drastically whenever she was around Lortell. Specially right now, being asked so suddenly by Lortell made Esdeath's brain almost freeze.
"Fuck, I chose the wrong timing. I shouldn't have asked so openly!" Esdeath cursed herself and her terrible timing, but what she didn't know was that Lortell had already started having suspicions about her for a long time.
Lortell's grip only tightened even more, the pressure making Esdeath's wrist ache. "Esdeath, look at me. I'm still asking nicely. Tell me what you are hiding?" Lortell said in an intimidating voice, a dangerous calmness in her tone.
Esdeath gulped, looking back and forth and deliberating for a second. Then she turned back slowly and tried to fill Lortell with her cuteness, her usual last resort.
She opened her mouth, saying in a soft, feminine voice, "I'm telling the truth—"
SNAP!
The next moment, a sickening snapping sound came from Esdeath's wrist. Lortell's fist, which was tightly gripping it, had snapped with such force that it was enough to tear the muscle tissues and break the bone.
Esdeath's wrist was completely ripped apart from her hand, and blood splattered out, staining the floor and their clothes.
"She is dead serious!" Esdeath thought to herself, her face turning grim. The pain was sharp, but the fear was sharper. She now understood that just talking casually and being cute wouldn't solve anything at all.
Lortell extended her hand, a faint glow appearing as she prepared to heal Esdeath's hand, but before she could, Esdeath's wrist and palm regenerated again, the flesh and bone knitting back together like nothing had happened in the first place.
Seeing this, Lortell stopped and sighed, the anger in her eyes replaced by a cold, calculating look.
"It seems you are not going to spill it out this easily!" Lortell said, the atmosphere of the room turning darker and heavier with every word.
Esdeath gulped her saliva again. She took a step back instinctively. "Shit, I need to think of a plan, but before that—" she said to herself and turned around.
"I should run away first!" Esdeath muttered, dashing towards the door with all her might.
She had an affinity with the space element, and just like Corin, she could teleport short distances.
So she was a bit confident about slipping away from Lortell's grasp, but the main problem was that Lortell had already put many barriers and restrictions inside the home. Any kind of teleportation would not work here.
Of course, that was to protect her home and her family, but right now, it became a perfect trap for Esdeath. She had to run out of the room to teleport away.
The world around her seemed to slow down. The dust motes in the air hung suspended, and Lortell's movements became sluggish, her thoughts dulled by the skill.
"I can do it... I can do it..." Esdeath muttered, her own movements feeling impossibly fast as she ran towards the door.
BAM!...
She didn't even bother opening the door. She broke right through it, splinters of wood flying everywhere as she stepped into the hallway.
A triumphant smile appeared on her face. "I did it!"
"Teleport!" she yelled, her body glitching, ready to tear through space and escape.
But before she could, a sharp tentacle made of blood shot out from the entrance and grabbed her, wrapping tightly around her waist.
It immediately cancelled Esdeath's teleportation and pulled her back inside with a powerful, yanking motion. Inside, the tentacle was growing out of Lortell's back like it was a part of her body.
Esdeath directly landed in Lortell's arms, and the tentacle turned back into liquid blood, splashing harmlessly on the floor.
It all happened so fast that for Esdeath, it felt like instead of teleporting somewhere else, she had ended up teleporting right into Lortell's arms instead.
"Why did I teleport here? No! I was captured!" the realization hit Esdeath like a ton of bricks.
Lortell's cold gaze dropped on her again. "You even tried to run away. So that secret really is big, huh?" she said, her voice low and dangerous.
Before Esdeath could say anything, Lortell dragged her inside their bedroom. Later on, she took out chains made from Yggdrasil metal and bound Esdeath's hands and legs with handcuffs, binding the chains attached to them to the bed and walls.
She didn't stop there; she even set up some extra barriers, did enchantments on the already powerful Yggdrasil metal, and also put some magical traps around the house.
"All done!" Lortell said, turning to look at Esdeath, who was now chained securely to the bed.
"You are not going anywhere until you reveal everything!" Lortell said solemnly, her voice leaving no room for argument.
Esdeath chuckled awkwardly, trying to diffuse the situation. "C'mon, Lortell, I can't just lie down like this all the time. Is this some kind of role play? BDSM? If you have that kind of fetish, then I won't refuse. You are free to do whatever you want, but don't scare me like that!" she said, acting all innocent, though her heart was pounding in her chest.
Lortell didn't say anything. She quietly walked towards her, then got on the bed on all fours, and sat lightly on Esdeath's belly.
Her long hands extended, reaching towards Esdeath's neck. Even one hand was big enough to almost wrap around her entire neck. Her long red nails tipped against Esdeath's neck skin, but she didn't choke her. The threat was there, a cold, sharp pressure against her skin.
Instead, Lortell's expression became dim, like she was in great pain. "Look, Esdeath, I don't want to hurt you. You know that, right? Hurting you hurts me as well. So don't make me do it," she said softly, yet her words felt very dark, full of a warning that was worse than any shout.
Lortell had worked as commander of the third squadron for years. For Lortell, the only way she knew how to take out a secret from any person was through torture, bloodshed, and violence. She knew no other way.
"So be a good wife and tell me what it is. Is there someone blackmailing you? Some S-rank? Did you make some contract with a demon or an angel?" she asked, her voice a low, intense whisper as she waited for an answer, her patience wearing thin.
A few seconds passed, with both Esdeath and Lortell looking at each other without blinking, the air thick with tension.
Lortell pressed her lips in slight anger. It felt like she was about to use violence, but then she stood up and got out from the bed. She turned her back to Esdeath and then turned her head around slightly, giving a side glance at Esdeath.
"I'm giving you some time. But remember, the longer you take, the more violent I'll become!" Lortell said, walking out of the door and dashing it shut with a loud thud that echoed in the silent room.
"Phew..." Esdeath exhaled deeply, relaxing her body fully, having a moment of pure relief. Sweat appeared all over her body from the sheer tension she had been holding up until now. Her heart was still racing.
"Two consecutive wrong moves. I shouldn't have run away like that; I should have faced her with confidence instead!" she muttered to herself, her voice shaky. She pulled her hands and legs slightly and felt the cold, heavy weight of those chains and handcuffs.
"Physical force won't be of any use!" she sighed, relaxing her body again, feeling a wave of hopelessness wash over her.
Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. "The more time passes, the more violent she'll become," Esdeath thought to herself, remembering how Lortell gave her that side glance as she spoke, with a look of anger and coldness on her face.
Esdeath's cheeks flushed quickly. "So cool!~" she said, a strange mix of fear and admiration in her voice.
"I love her so much!" she added, a small, dreamy smile forming on her lips despite the situation.
She took a deep breath again and calmed herself down. "Well, focus on the current problem first!" she said to herself, looking around the room. It wasn't that Esdeath wanted to hide anything from Lortell, but the main reason was that this matter was just too complex.
What is she going to explain? That she was a hitman in another world and ended up transmigrating in the game she used to play?
Or that the game she played wasn't a game at all, and she and Esdeath were the same person? Explaining this to Lortell in a way where she could understand the whole situation and not misunderstand anything was very, very difficult.
"For now, my goal is to escape and think of an excuse or something I can tell to Lortell to make her think that this was my secret!" Esdeath calculated, but both options felt quite hard. Specially the second one; any lie would surely be detected by Lortell quite easily.
"Let's try from the basics!" Esdeath thought as she used her affinity with the space element to bypass the handcuffs and chains. Her body glitched slightly, turning hollow as if she could transpass through the solid metal without an issue.
But before she could complete it, a magic circle appeared in the air, and a blood sword summoned immediately.
Woooshhh!...
The sword cut through the air and stopped just inches away from Esdeath's neck, so close she could feel the cold energy radiating from it.
Gulp!...
Esdeath gulped and lay down quietly again. "Okay... I'm not doing anything. Chill!" she said out loud, as if Lortell could hear her words from another room.
Right now, Esdeath understood that escaping from here with just her own effort would be almost impossible. She started rolling her eyes and making weird expressions as she thought of ways where anyone else could rescue her.
"Selene? Likely not. Lortell will forcefully convince her to not do anything, and if she does try it..." Esdeath sighed, imagining the conversation.
"Most likely it's the Predictor, I mean his team. But how would they know that I'm actually trapped here? Everything was going fine till now. She'll only start having suspicion after two or three days... what will happen to me till then?" Esdeath thought to herself, the situation seeming quite fucked up for her.