The Prince Of Magic

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After telling his retainers to act properly, Hadrian was guided to a chair that was behind the light stand.

Since the light was intense enough to avert one's eyes from looking at it directly, the chair was positioned a few meters away from it to prevent the prisoner from seeing him. If anything, by the time the latter is awoken by his retainers, the only thing that the prisoner would be able to see was the profile of his body, not his face.

As a precaution, Hadrian used a few minutes of his time to fix the roof by altering the broken glass into metal via alchemy to prevent the light outside from coming in once the sun rises, causing the light stand to be the only thing to brighten the whole floor.

In turn, the area quickly became dark, which is what Yan needed to set the mood of the interrogation and make the prisoner feel intimidated.

Normally, the young mage would cast an invisible barrier around himself to prevent someone from seeing his face and appearance.

But after reading through the man's background, he felt not to since the former has no magical heritage.

The result of the automaton's 'scan' was not that deep, merely scouring for the target's basic information, such as their name, age, and etcetera.

Earlier, Hadrian had the automaton dig a bit deeper, such as the target's past and recent memories.

He would have had the artifact search whether the man had any relation to Prelati, be it directly or indirectly. But due to the interrogation being set up, he had to restrain himself from doing so.

With Yan and Kieran present, at least he would not need to repeat what he found in the man's head.

The only thing he would need to do was to make sure the latter spoke truthfully throughout the session.

Speaking of the automaton's scan results…

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Full name: Jonathan Winston

Birthday: June 25

Gender: Male | Age: 22

Height: 180cm | Weight: 83kg

Occupation: Businessman (Former) | (Accountant (Current)

Background (Incomplete):

Born in Italy, but moved to America at the age of 8 years old. Recently graduated from the Lambert University of Texas with a Master's degree for accounting.

Likes to travel, but eventually settled down in Canada, Vancouver.

No wife, no family. Likes to do flings every now and then, but prefers on being single for most of the time.

Travelled to Europe, France solely for the purpose of searching for his sister, mainly to ensure her well-being and bring her back with him in Canada.

Status: Unconscious. Currently held in captivity for interrogation by the heir of the Moon and his aides.

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Reading the results of the scan, Hadrian stared at the text exclusively visible to his eyes with a blank expression.

He wondered if it was just him or if the automaton gained a sense of humor.

Shaking his head slightly with a sigh, Hadrian forced himself to focus on the situation.

"Heh…" The foul-mouthed retainer grinned.

*SPLASH*

"WHA!?"

*BANG*

"AAACK!?"

In one smooth motion, the amber eyed retainer poured the cold water over the top of the man's head, rousing him from his sleep violently.

Then, with a wide smirk of mischief, Kieran threw the empty bucket at the side of the accountant's head, which sailed true and rendered John to cry out in pain as it caused a pink mark to appear on the side of his forehead.

Yan sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Was that really necessary?" The assassin asked in a deadpan tone, staring at his comrade with half-lidded eyes.

"No, but it felt good anyways." The amber eyed retainer said in nonchalance.

"Course you do…" Yan huffed, shaking his head at his comrade's antics.

Then, in unison, the two retainers turned their attention to their target, who whimpered as he felt the cold air from the morning breeze that somehow made its way into the abandoned warehouse.

The man, John, tried to look up, but winced when a bright light met his eyes, causing him to close them as he felt a sudden disorientation from the intensity of the only light glaring down at him.

Shivering from the cold of the water and the air, combined with the headache he felt from being hit by something, John tried to push through the discomfort and slowly lifted his head up.

Blinking his eyes to adjust to the brightness, the accountant panted as his gaze went left to right once he finally regained a bit of composure.

From where Hadrian was sitting, the panic that settled in John's eyes as the reality of his current situation dawned on him was clear for him to see.

If not for the information he found from his mind, the young mage would have felt pity for him.

But, due to the situation, Hadrian remained calm and neutral to John's predicament.

"W-what…? Where am I? Why… why am I tied up?" John rasped, c.h.e.s.t heaving as he panted, grimacing from the slight pain on his forehead and the headache caused by the light's glare.

Tilting his head, Hadrian raised a brow when he noticed the thick ropes (the one used for anchoring boats when ashore) holding the Caucasian man down into the chair, digging into his skin and causing pink marks to appear whenever he tried to move.

Unfortunately, no matter how much force he used to move, the ropes would not budge, not even shifting despite his efforts.

Seeing the look of frustration on his face, Yan and Kieran can only laugh at his futile efforts to escape his restraints.

'These two-bit villains…' Hadrian thought, giving the two retainers a deadpan expression behind their backs.

It was in that moment that John shifted his gaze in his direction.

With knitted brows, the man wore a mixed of expression as he squinted his eyes to take a closer look.

No doubt, the man was trying to see through the shadows that cloaked around Hadrian from his point of view.

The glare of the light did not make the matter easier for him as well.

Rather than that, a pair of blood-crimson eyes looked back at him instead, calm, calculating and cold as they glowed lightly in the shadows.

Alas, John's actions did not go unnoticed as Yan and Kieran moved to gain his attention.

Stepping closer, Kieran's right hand whipped out at the man's face.

*SL.A.P*

"Ngh?!"

The back of his hand made direct contact against John's temple, making the latter snap his head in the other direction by the force of the sudden assault.

"Ey, pay attention to us." The amber eyed servant said, cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah, we have business with you." Yan added with a cold smirk.

"Ngh… what business? I don't even know you people!" John spat out, grimacing from the pain as he slowly lifted his head to look at them.

"Obviously." Kieran scoffed, crossing his arms over his c.h.e.s.t as he stared down the man coldly.

"But we know about you, so why don't we get down to business, shall we?" Yan stated with a strange smile.

Glancing at the long-haired assassin's face, Hadrian knew what that smile meant.

He can only hope that the accountant would not be so difficult and answer them truthfully.

Otherwise, he feared the poor man might not make it through the next day by the time Yan intensify the level of his interrogation.

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