[Silver Ash] - Become The Strongest In Another World
CHAPTER 260: Interrogation

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In the middle of the boundless ocean, a small boat was seen sailing, letting the waves carry it in a predetermined direction.

Even though the little boat seemed completely ungoverned, the figure of the—blond man— calmly looked around while frowning.

It has been a few days since Cryll decided to go exploring. His journey aims to find Noelle, or at least, find a little clue about her.

One place he must visit if he wants to find traces of Noelle, is the island where he was once detained.

The thing was, he had been floating in these waters for a few days, without finding the slightest sign of the island's existence.

He had completely forgotten, that he was actually quite bad in terms of navigation. Especially, in a place where it is not possible to map a route, like in an ocean like this.

Of course it is not a problem for experienced fishermen or skippers, but Cryll is just an ordinary adventurer based on the mainland. He had never even crossed the sea before.

"It's a lot harder than I thought, but … "

Somehow, he felt that his goal was near.

It was nothing more than instinct, but it was that instinct that saved his life several times in the past. It is natural to believe it.

Cryll strengthens his vision, and observes everything around. As a result, he found a hazy silhouette, with a not-so-obvious shape.

"That … "

After trying to get close to the silhouette, he felt that his guess was very precise.

The silhouette slowly began to become clear, and the shape that lay behind the shadow also began to be seen.

What was there was an island, with everything on it already smashed to shapeless depths.

No doubt, it was the island he had been looking for all this time.

Cryll brought the boat closer to the small pier Noelle had once made, and without saying anything immediately jumped to that part of the island.

Surface's messy. Many buildings have collapsed, but they have not been cleaned up. That's just natural. After all, they never had a chance to take care of it.

"Now I've come here, but ... what should I do? "

One important key to finding clues about Noelle is this island—or rather dungeons that may be around this island.

The problem is, Cryll doesn't know how to get into that dungeon.

Last time, they all managed to enter the dungeon because of Terneth who activated teleportation magic on each person. But this time, there was nothing like that.

In fact, there was a very clear possibility that the dungeon was no longer there. That would be the worst possibility Cryll could think of.

"I think .. I should explore a little."

It was a choice he wanted to avoid. But that doesn't mean he has another choice.

The island has an area that even Cryll can't believe. What's more, there are many underground architectures whose route is like a labyrinth. It will be difficult to explore the whole.

Sighing for a moment, Cryll finally shook his head. "There's no time to doubt."

He then took out a piece of paper from the pocket of his robe, and wrote a few paragraphs explaining what he was going through, and what he was going to do.

After writing the message, Cryll immediately called a familiar animal of his own, and handed the letter to her. After that, the familiar animal disappeared without a trace as if it wasn't there, and Cryll could only look at it with a faint smile.

The message will be delivered to Stella. There shouldn't be any problems going on as long as Stella doesn't break her contract with a familiar animal.

"All right, let's get started."

The black robe he was wearing fluttered as the rushing wind struck him, and Cryll continued to stare intently at all the places he would explore.

This will be the first step to find Noelle.

...****************...

Severe pain hit her head as Noelle slowly woke up.

His eyes were open, and his forehead was wrinkled as his brain was experiencing a very severe dizziness.

Noelle held her own head, and gritted her teeth in an attempt to endure the pain, until finally, the pain faded, and her mind slowly turned clear.

Then he realized he was in a place he didn't know.

The bed he was in, a simple table with a porcelain cup filled with cold tea, and a wooden chair placed right next to his bed.

Right at the side, there was a slightly open wooden window, and Noelle could finally see the scene hidden behind it.

"What's going on? "

Noelle checked her own memories, and gradually began to understand everything that had happened.

(Yes .. I lost consciousness.)

His last memory was when Gild shot magic blindly at his body. Remembering that alone was enough to bring memories of not wearing for Noelle.

He is not usually caught in a fight. But his opponent is Gild, a magician with a lot of mysterious powers. It was natural for Noelle to end up overwhelmed like that.

"Haha, I think it'll be a stain on my record book" Noelle said, laughing in self-deprecation.

Right after, the door opened, and a man who looked to be half a century old appeared.

"Captain? "

It was Dolf, but his dull gaze, along with the wrinkles on his face with the hollows formed on the cheeks made him look older than Noelle remembered.

"You woke up on time. The show will start this afternoon."

Dolf spoke without hesitation, and with a very natural movement immediately sat on the empty chair there.

Seeing his movements, Noelle was convinced that Dolf had visited him several times. Quite often to the point that he does not need to look or think to sit in the chair that has been provided.

"How long have I fainted? "

Dolf breathing heavily. "About two days. If you don't wake up today, then it'll be three days."

" ……… "

It was an unexpected thing even for Noelle.

No matter how severe the wound he was in, he shouldn't have fainted for that long. At the most, maybe only about a day.

Looking to the side, Noelle discovered Dolf had deepened the frown on his face, and he once again sighed heavily.

"There's a lot I want to say and ask you, but .. You'd better change your clothes. We'll be attending the show soon."

Noelle had been thinking about this ever since she listened to him a moment ago, but she still did not understand what Dolf was saying.

"What way? "

Dolf turned his head to the side, clearly not daring to look at Noelle. Then, his heavy and faint voice appeared containing many mixed emotions.

"This is ... the day of Tian and Rita's funeral."

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It was somewhere located in the northern block of the city, not far from the residential area.

It is the largest cemetery in the city, with an overall size of about six hundred square meters.

In one part of the cemetery, a group of people dressed in formal attire with all-black accents stood around two newly excavated burial pits.

Some people seemed to be crying in sadness, and some could only lower their heads without knowing what to say.

Among them all, was one young family with a little child in his father's arms.

The mother knelt on one of the tombs, and the makeup quickly faded as tears came out uncontrollably.

Incidentally, the sky was overcast, and rain would occasionally fall on his head. The husband tried to calm his wife down, but it didn't work.

Not far from their location, Noelle who was wearing a black formal suit only stared blankly at the two tombs.

One hand holds an umbrella the same color as her clothes, while the other hand holds a bouquet of flowers.

According to what Dolf said, the crying woman was the living princess of Tian. In his lifetime, Tian had only married once, and had one child.

It hasn't been long since her mother died, and now her father is gone. It was clearly a heavy blow to the woman. Moreover, his age was still fairly young.

Noelle turned to look at one tomb.

When compared to Tian's tomb, Rita's tomb was clearly quieter.

No one cried, and there were few people who paid their attention to her.

Rita is an orphan who has no family. The number of his acquaintances could also be counted by the fingers, and that too was only limited to the people in the Nautica bar.

There was only Louen, who was staring at his headstone sadly.

The rain slowly grew heavier, and Noelle hid her eyes behind the black umbrella.

Felice was not present. Noelle didn't know the real reason, but she had a guess.

Moreover, all the people who came were only the closest people, and representatives of the church.

Shortly thereafter, several others came, carrying two coffins in each group.

There are two options for the funeral process, one of which is buried with the coffin, and the other is through the cremation process. The ashes of the cremated person will then be buried in a different place from this place.

The woman's cry broke even more as the coffin containing Tian's body came, and she couldn't help but approach him.

Her husband in the back tried to hold her back, and the woman slowly quieted down and fell down with tears covering her entire face.

His son was a baby, but he cried in response to the cries of his mother.

Noelle and a few others just kept silent as they watched the coffin slowly being lowered.

Finally, the coffin filled the dugout, and everyone prayed at the same time.

After it was all over, one by one people left the cemetery, and several others wearing full uniforms as church agents appeared.

There were six of them, and they walked up to Noelle.

"Noah Ashrain's? "

Noelle already had a guess as to what was about to happen, so she didn't panic too much.

"Yes." Yeah."

"Can you come with us for a minute? There's something we want to ask you."

Noelle turned and looked at Dolf. The old man simply nodded.

"All right."

Without a hint of hesitation, Noelle followed after them.

Surprisingly, they did not put handcuffs on his arms at all. Instead, they allowed him to be free to make any movements. But of course, Noelle wouldn't do anything sloppy here.

He continued walking following the guidance of the church agents while feeling the gazes of many people directed at him.

...****************...

The distance between the church and the cemetery is quite far, considering that the cathedral is in the center of the city. But the journey passed very quickly as they took Noelle in a chariot belonging to the church.

They all took Noelle to a room in the basement, and asked her to wait until an interrogator arrived.

While waiting for the person in question to come, Noelle did a little question and answer session with Noir.

(Is there a brief explanation as to why I was brought here? )

『Hehe, do you really want to know the answer? I'm sure, you have a good feeling.』

(Well, there's no need to answer now. You better save that answer for later. Because now .. )

Noelle slightly smiled as several men in church robes attached to their bodies one by one entered the interrogation room.

One of them sat right in front of Noelle. He was a man who looked old, probably the same age as Dolf.

Despite that, the atmosphere and aura he emitted was completely different from Dolf's.

If Dolf was the embodiment of a good-natured middle-aged man, then this man was a very assertive person, and was difficult to talk to.

The man looked at Noelle with slight pressure, but Noelle was not affected by it at all. Noelle kept her expression as neutral as possible.

"Are you Noah Ashrain? " ask the man.

Noelle nodded once without any special changes to her expression or tone of speech.

"Yes." Yeah."

"Then do you know why we called you here? "

Pretending as if she was thinking, Noelle then shook her head without saying anything.

Seeing that response, the man before him glanced at the other man, who then responded with a brief nod.

(Can he detect lies? )

If that is the case, then all is exactly as Noelle predicted.

Noelle did not know the reason why the church worker took her in for questioning, nor did she know what happened as long as she lost consciousness.

Even so, he had a premonition that this would be a troublesome interrogation.

If he was really going to get an interrogation, then there would most likely be someone who could read his thoughts or lies. Such a person was quite troublesome to deal with, which was why Noelle made some small preparations.

The first, was the reason why he prevented Noir from explaining the situation.

If Noir talked a lot about the situation as long as he lost consciousness, then it would open up an opportunity for the other party to pry for information.

They could have asked if she knew anything about it, and Noelle would definitely not be able to lie, considering she already knew everything thanks to Noir's explanation.

That's why, with Noir not explaining the situation to her, Noelle would be spared the detection of lies. He could smoothly answer 'no' to the question, and the examiner would not place any suspicion on him. Because basically, Noelle did not know anything.

"Then do you know what happened at the raid? "

The man before him, clearly knew that something had happened during that mission. Noelle didn't know if this man had come to the scene or not, but it would be best if Noelle kept up with the scenario she had created.

"No. Actually, my last memory was when I lost consciousness. I don't know what happened back then."

Noelle wasn't lying. That's the truth.

Once again, the interrogator before him turned towards a man, and got a small nod.

(The person can definitely detect lies. It's my luck.)

If she could only read lies, then the one who benefited here was a Noelle. He had already prepared the scenario in such a way that reading the lies would be useless.

Conversely, if the person could read minds, the situation would become more complicated. Noelle still had no way to prevent this kind of mind domain ability.

Of course, if his opponent's abilities were weak, he could still withstand it. However, it is impossible for the church to choose such a weak person to be a staff interrogator.

"It looks like you don't know anything. Then, another question."

Noelle fixed her sitting position as if preparing for the question. Small details like this will greatly affect his acting.

"About your contract, which god made you a contract? "

"King Siasat Minerva," Noelle replied without hesitation.

The name of a god cannot be faked. It was a rule understood by everyone who made the contract.

If the person before her knew about this rule, then she should not hesitate against the answer Noelle gave.

For a moment, the man continued to look at her, and then sighed.

"All according to the report your boss gave you. All right, one more question."

The man slightly lowered his head, and his gaze became even sharper. Highlight his eyes as if through the depths of Noelle's eyes, and read everything within them.

Of course, it's not all real. It was a feeling Noelle received as the man looked into her eyes.

"Noah Ashrain, or Grei Noctis. Which one is real? "

"Isn't it clear? Of course the first. Grei Noctis is the identity I created to gather information from the Bounty Hunters."

There is no point in masking the relationship between Noah Ashrain's identity and Grei Noctis. Precisely, if Noelle insisted on covering it up, it would only make her become even more suspicious.

"Of course I understand that. After all, the target is a big side. Changing identity is necessary."

"Then–"

"But it keeps me curious."

The man returned to his position, and tapped on the table with one finger.

"Over these two days, I've been investigating everything about you, and the result is that I didn't find anything. The first time Noah Ashrain's identity appeared, was at a military district train station. I wonder what you did before."

Noelle smiled wryly.

"I haven't had an identity document since I was a kid, because my whole family died before they could make it for me. After that, I went with the adventurer troupe, which I then considered my own family."

"But, the group of adventurers who were babysitting me was killed, and I had to continue the journey alone. Finally, after a long journey, I reached the Republic, my own homeland. Does that story touch your heart enough? "

" … Not at all, but it doesn't seem like you're lying" the man said, glancing at the man with the ability to detect lies.

It's just like Noelle thought. That lie detection ability also doesn't work on something he himself doesn't know the truth about. Especially, after being mixed into an even more complex story.

"Alright, for now you've escaped my interrogation. Please leave now, or I'll kick you out."

"Thank you, I'm going out on my own."

"Ahh, don't leave your neighborhood for twenty-four hours. For some reason, you should be under house arrest."

Noelle smiled wryly and got up from her chair. Then, he came out of the interrogation room.

In the interrogation room, the interrogator's head smiled as the veins protruded on his forehead.

"Stupid, who would believe such a story. You'll only get away with it today, but not later. Hey, you! Hurry up and get the agents to observe him for the next two weeks, and report to me every day."

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