Chapter 40
For Aquila, he had simply passed out and woken up to find that ten days had gone by—but regardless, the sight of Gilesha after such a long time was something to behold.
Perhaps because he had been buried in the darkness of the underground dungeon for so long, his face was pale, his cheeks were hollow, and his faded navy-blue hair was dry and brittle.
No matter how one put it, his appearance was a far cry from anything resembling good health.
“Where are the others who were in the underground dungeon?”
“The close associates were moved elsewhere. After someone tried to free them last time.”
That meant that since then, Gilesha had been completely alone in this underground dungeon, where not a single ray of light reached.
His arms and legs were bound tightly, so he couldn’t even move properly, yet his eyes—having caught sight of the faint light—still gleamed fiercely.
Even though he squinted from the dazzling brightness he hadn’t seen in a long time.
But what was even more of a spectacle was…
“Mm—mph…!”
He couldn’t even speak properly because a gag had been forced into his mouth.
And it wasn’t cloth.
It was likely a specially crafted item meant for mages.
As expected of House Reschenhardt, they apparently possessed such magical restraint tools.
“Is that gag there to keep him from biting his tongue and killing himself?”
“Yes. If there’s one available, it’s faster to use a tool than to inscribe a formula on the tongue, so I obtained permission to borrow it.”
“And the bindings on his arms and legs?”
“Restraints that suppress magic.”
Heinen answered Aquila’s questions one by one.
‘Tying him up four times over just in case he tries something—now that’s luxury confinement.’
Clicking his tongue, Aquila looked down at Gilesha, who was writhing violently with his whole body.
‘I’ve seen him beheaded or have his eyes gouged out, but this is my first time seeing him with a gag. You really do live long enough to see everything.’
In nearly every loop, he encountered Gilesha.
And they were always enemies.
It wasn’t that they had never joined hands—but the sheer number of times Gilesha had stabbed him in the back…
Having personally experienced how much easier things became after capturing Gilesha and smashing the Dark Guild, Aquila never showed him mercy.
The moment he offered even the slightest kindness, Gilesha would always appear at the most unexpected timing to interfere with Ark.
‘Damn bastard…’
A face so familiar it was sickening.
You’d think his emotions would have worn down by now, but every time he saw it, he felt the urge to kill him on the spot.
Aquila’s cold gaze swept over Gilesha.
Then he noticed something odd.
‘The cursed prosthetic arm isn’t there at this point.’
Gilesha normally had a prosthetic arm on his left side, but right now his arm looked perfectly intact.
It seemed that at this stage, he hadn’t yet suffered an injury severe enough to lose it.
‘Well, it’s not important. I’ll just look up the prosthetic arm later in the character description…’
Cutting off his thoughts, Aquila stepped closer to the writhing Gilesha.
Eyes that looked as though they wanted to tear Aquila’s throat out.
The closer Aquila came, the sharper the killing intent pouring out of Gilesha’s body became.
Sensing it, the knights moved to step forward, but Aquila extended a hand behind him to stop them.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Aquila Reschenhardt.”
“Mm—mph…!”
At Aquila’s calm self-introduction, Gilesha struggled even more violently.
From what Aquila had observed, Aquila’s name seemed to act like some kind of powerful switch to corrupted cultists.
‘Corrupted cultists are usually docile, but they react to certain words. This name might be one of them.’
Aquila crouched down in front of him, resting his elbows on his knees.
Then he propped his chin on his hands and looked down at Gilesha with a relaxed expression.
“Even if I want to talk, I won’t be getting any answers with your mouth blocked.”
“Since he can’t use magic anyway, we could loosen it briefly.”
“What if he bites his tongue and dies the moment we do? And with how much he’s thrashing, he could probably leap up and bite me even while crouched.”
“No! Shouldn’t we just kill him?!”
“That won’t do. We still haven’t extracted any information.”
Shen shouted immediately and grabbed Aquila’s shoulder, gently pulling him back.
His posture—trying to protect his young master at all costs—was admirable, but Heinen cut in with a stiff tone.
He was still here precisely to bring Gilesha to Ianpel.
Aquila, having lost his balance slightly due to Shen’s pull while crouched, waved a hand as if to calm them.
“It’s fine. He’s gagged anyway… Hmm, but seeing him like this, it does feel a bit unsafe.”
Since Aquila had his back turned to the other four, all they could see was his red hair—but Gilesha alone could see Aquila’s face, faintly illuminated by the light.
“…I’ve changed my mind. Let’s interrogate him together after we move to Portplum instead.”
Aquila was smiling.
As if he had come here for the sole purpose of showing that expression.
It was a bright smile that didn’t belong in this place.
So instead of bristling, Gilesha slowly stopped moving and looked up at him.
What on earth was so amusing that he could wear that expression?
Gilesha was instantly swallowed by doubt.
“…Huh? Are you sure that’s okay? You could torture him or something—well, you don’t have to.”
“Torture? Shen, you say frightening things.”
“Just in case, Young Master, Reschenhardt has plenty of tools.”
“Cahena… maybe you shouldn’t be saying things like that in front of priests?”
“Well, what does it matter? Let’s take this chance to really show how scary Reschenhardt can be.”
“By Raspalara, my goodness…”
“Deputy Commander Cahena! You’re frightening Lady Yujelia! Please refrain from remarks like that!”
“No, why am I the only one getting scolded when you said it too…?”
As Cahena turned to Shen with a dumbfounded look, a calm voice—different from the others—rang out.
“There is certainly risk in removing the gag, but even if he bites his tongue, there are people here capable of healing him.”
Heinen continued speaking steadily, even as the conversation grew noisy.
His words carried the resolve not to let Gilesha die, even if he tried to.
Of course, it was a declaration that completely ignored Gilesha’s own will to die.
“And Ianpel would be more pleased by the fact that you can extract information ‘first’ rather than interrogating him together. However, I should inform you that there is no obligation to do so.”
At that, Aquila finally turned around.
In the leaking light, he saw the silver helmet glinting faintly, and the thick lips pressed together neatly beneath it.
‘To think someone could deliver such tactless remarks in a voice like that.’
The others also fell silent and looked at Heinen, but he remained calm.
Because he was sincere.
Aquila let out a short, incredulous laugh and shook his head.
“I’m not trying to please him. I just thought leaving him alone might make him quieter later. Doesn’t he still look full of energy, writhing like that?”
“Hm. It does look that way to me as well.”
“And anyway, we’ll need the Temple Knights’ help to deal with the Dark Guild. Wouldn’t it be better to interrogate him all at once, rather than me clumsily bringing things up?”
“Who are you calling clumsy?”
“But since you came all this way after not looking in on him until now, I wondered if there might be another special reason.”
Regardless of Cahena suddenly voicing her doubts, Heinen continued calmly.
He didn’t bother mentioning that Aquila had only just woken up after being unconscious for ten days and had come straight here.
There was no need to say it.
Aquila curled the corner of his mouth slightly as he looked at Gilesha, who had now completely stopped moving.
“I just wanted to see if his smug face was still intact, but he’s livelier than I expected. At this rate, he really might bite his tongue, and I don’t want to see that.”
“…Understood.”
“And please refrain from saying you’re doing this for Ianpel. It gives me chills.”
“My apologies.”
Heinen bowed immediately.
Having received the apology, Aquila wiped the expression from his face and turned forward again.
He’d explained at length, but there was no particular lie in what he’d said.
He genuinely had wanted to check Gilesha’s condition first.
The others seemed to think Aquila had come to the underground dungeon to interrogate him right away, but that had never been his intention.
If he interrogated him, he’d have to bring up the Revelation—and Gilesha would never speak about that, even if it killed him.
This man would truly choose death over divulging that secret.
And there was no need to ask about Celsia either.
The system had already told him what House Ludovica was.
Most of all, the thing others likely expected most from an interrogation was the location of the Dark Guild.
But for Aquila, that was the most useless question of all.
He already knew.
Better than any Dark Guild member.
So well that it felt familiar—like his own home.
‘If we’d caught some other suitable Dark Guild member, there’d be no reason to keep this guy alive. Damn, he’s ridiculously lucky.’
Seven-tenths of Aquila’s reason for wanting to wipe out the Dark Guild was Gilesha himself.
But if Gilesha was already here, he could just dump the rest of the Dark Guild matters on Ianpel.
Which meant…
The real reason Aquila had come to the underground dungeon was simply to mock Gilesha for being unable to speak.
That was truly all.
“Well then, let’s just leave him be until we move to Portplum. Keep him alive—just barely.”
“Yes! I’m good at that!”
“…I’m learning a lot of new sides to you. May I leave first?”
“Yes. Everyone else, please leave quickly too. It’s cramped.”
“Mm—mph, mph…!”
“He’s telling us to hurry up and leave. Let’s go.”
Aquila deliberately twisted Gilesha’s words and gestured.
The underground dungeon was spacious, but Aquila truly intended to leave Gilesha as he was.
As he stood up and brushed back his red hair, Yujelia went out first with an exasperated expression.
Shen hurried after her, trying to mutter excuses.
Heinen moved next, and Cahena lingered a moment longer, looking at Gilesha, before turning her back as well.
Finally, as Aquila approached the door, Gilesha let out a desperate sound.
But thanks to the gag, it never formed into anything resembling words.
Then, just as he was about to leave the underground dungeon, Aquila suddenly stopped.
After checking that the others had gone ahead, he turned his head slightly.
“Wait your turn, Gilesha. I’ll kill you the way you want.”
A voice far colder than before echoed through the underground dungeon.
“Mm…!”
Gilesha’s eyes widened as far as they possibly could.
Of course they did—he had never once spoken his own name out loud since coming here.
Not even in front of Celsia Reschenhardt, a devoted servant of Helitica.
Bathed in light, Aquila’s hair still burned red.
That was the last color Gilesha saw.
Creak. Slam…
As the door closed, silence fell over the underground dungeon.
Gilesha sank back into the darkness.
But for a long while, he couldn’t even breathe properly, replaying what he’d just heard in his mind.
***
Aquila emerged from the underground dungeon looking refreshed.
He turned his steps, intending to check on the restored garden and its surroundings.
But he was immediately caught by Shen and Yujelia.
They’d allowed the dungeon visit only reluctantly, and wandering around so much after waking up from ten days of unconsciousness was bad for his health, they insisted.
Aquila’s protests were completely ignored by the two overly protective guardians.
Cahena “helped” by tucking him under her arm and carrying him back to his room, while Heinen offered a brief farewell.
Aquila… decided to just give up.
And that night, after dinner.
The one who came to visit him was the man serving as the acting head of House Reschenhardt in place of Lexenbert, who had departed for the Frost Forest—
Aquila’s second older brother.