Chapter 268

Leon thought for a moment and asked, "Your Mom used to use magic that could probe the memories of prisoners. Do you know how to use it?"

The three sisters looked at each other and then shook their heads in unison.

"You guys haven't learned such useful magic?"

"You learned it?"

"I didn't learn it either, hehe—oh my god!"

Noa raised her hand and elbowed her father.

Ah, those days when I was flirting with the Dragon Queen...

"So what do we do now? Torture is useless, and no one knows memory-detecting magic. Are we just going to wait it out like this?"

Aurorla said, "The Knife Trio went to the manor but didn't find Nacho. They should immediately notify the Empire to launch a search operation. We don't have much time, so we need to hurry."

However, although we wanted to do it as soon as possible, we didn't have a good way to get those two guys to talk right away.

After a moment's thought, Leon suddenly spoke.

Do you know about... the Prisoner's Dilemma?

Leon opened the door to the storeroom, where only Nacho was present.

His hands and feet were bound, and he could not move.

Seeing that it was Leon who opened the door, Nacho snorted coldly.

"You monster... why can't you just stay inside the pipe? It's been twenty years, what are you doing coming out again?"

Nacho has regained his composure.

Regardless of whether Leon was resurrected or for some other reason, he did indeed cause trouble for Nacho.

But Nacho's twenty years haven't been wasted.

He looked at Leon and said slowly,

"Ah... no matter what, I've fallen for you. But... even so, the current situation is quite troublesome for you, isn't it?"

Leon stood in front of him, looked into his eyes, and remained silent.

"You were so eager to kidnap me, wanting to get information about the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale from me, so that thing is very important to you, isn't it? But you don't have much time left, otherwise you wouldn't have risked getting involved with the royal family."

"If you can't get the information you want out of me, then even if you kill me, your plan will remain stagnant and will only attract the attention of the Empire."

"The Silver Dragon Clan has been disbanded, Casmod. You have no backup. If you fail, you will suffer an even worse fate than I have now. Am I right?"

Twenty years in officialdom had taught Nacho some of the ways of the game.

If both sides have chips in their hands, then don't rush to admit defeat.

He looked at Leon smugly, as if showing off his current status to this immortal guy.

"Yes, you're right."

Nacho was taken aback; he hadn't expected Leon to admit it so easily.

Nacho pursed his lips, intending to continue analyzing the current situation, laying out all the unfavorable conditions for Leon, and putting a lot of pressure on him.

He enjoys the feeling of being disliked by others, but not being able to get rid of them.

Then, Leon took out the dinner knife he had just used in the restaurant from his pocket.

Nacho panicked and swallowed hard. "What... what are you going to do... You can't kill me, you don't dare to kill me. I'm a member of the royal family, and I have the information you need. If you kill me, you'll never know where the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale is!"

"Moreover, moreover!—After this, you will not be able to capture anyone who knows this information again. The current empire will be on high alert at the slightest sign of trouble."

"No matter how strong you are, you can't possibly catch a member of the royal family in such a tight net!"

Leon rubbed his Zanzhu acupoint impatiently. "Are you done talking?"

"..."

"Your adjutant Scott, just told me the location of the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale. So..."

Leon shrugged, feigning regret. "You're no longer of any use to me."

As he spoke, Leon brandished the knife in his hand.

The blade gleamed with a chilling light, which flickered in Nacho's eyes.

"No, that's impossible, Leon, you're bluffing me."

Nacho suppressed his anger and fear, "Scott would never betray the Empire."

"Whether he'll betray the Empire or not, I don't know, but he definitely betrayed you ten minutes ago. My men have already knocked him unconscious and taken him away. Once he wakes up, we'll leave the Empire. As for you..."

Leon extended his knife and patted Nacho's face. "Think about it, if you died, who would take your place?"

These words were like a fuse, completely igniting all the emotions in Nacho's heart.

He struggled violently, but his hands and feet were tightly bound, and he couldn't move at all.

Seeing Nacho's intense reaction, Leon chuckled inwardly.

Sure enough, the old man has climbed to his current position and is now hopelessly mired in the allure of power.

Master was right, these officials are all the same.

"Alright, behave yourself. The more you move around, the less accurate my knife will be. If you suffer too much pain when you die, I'll feel really guilty," Leon said slowly, his 'hypocrisy' practically written all over his face.

As soon as he finished speaking, the knife slowly moved toward Nacho's carotid artery.

The blade slowly cut into the skin, and blood seeped out.

"Wait a minute!" Nacho suddenly shouted.

"How?"

"Scott... what did Scott tell you?"

"You don't need to worry about that. Anyway, by this time tomorrow, I'll probably be swaggering out of the Empire with the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale. Well, you probably won't be able to see that scene, what a pity."

The knife continued to slowly move downwards.

"Scott only knows where the dragon scales are stored! He doesn't know the shift change times or passwords for those positions!"

Driven by fear and rage, Nacho decides to use intelligence to save his life and his position.

If it were simply a matter of dying, Nacho wouldn't be afraid.

From the moment he seized power, he knew he might face such a day.

But Nacho couldn't accept that Scott would take away the status and power he had worked so hard for over twenty years.

Absolutely unacceptable.

"Oh? This is betraying the empire. Aren't you afraid of being found out later?" Leon asked unhurriedly.

"Just pin the blame on Scott," Nacho said.

Upon hearing this, Leon raised an eyebrow, understanding the implication of the words. "Yes, sometimes the dead are more useful than the living, because the dead can't speak."

As a classic scapegoat who believes "the dead are more useful than the living," General Leon knows this all too well.

He took out paper and pen from his pocket and threw them in front of Nacho. "Write down everything you know about the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale. If it doesn't match the information Scott just provided, I'll kill you all."

Nacho struggled to pick up the pen with his bound hands and began to write rapidly.

They were completely unaware of General Leon's barely suppressed smirk.

Ten minutes later, Leon came out of the storage room, and coincidentally, Noa also came out of the storage room next door.

The father and daughter exchanged a glance, and on each other's faces, they both saw two words:

It's done!

"Wow! It actually works!" Mu En once again became her father's little fangirl, not holding back her praise.

Aurorla had never seen such an interrogation method before; it was entirely based on verbal sparring to extract information.

"If two or more prisoners of war are captured, the Prisoner's Dilemma is almost an unsolvable interrogation method."

Leon explained,

"When faced with the Prisoner's Dilemma, Nacho and Scott have only two choices: remain silent, or betray each other."

"But they can't communicate directly with each other."

"So, is it better to use silence to protect one's comrades, or to use betrayal to safeguard everything one has... Hmph, who knows?"

"However we choose, the initiative is in our hands. With a few simple interrogation techniques, extracting information will be a piece of cake."

Mu En let out a long "Oh!" and exclaimed, "That's amazing!"

Although I don't really understand, my dad is still (II) Lin Yu wu⊙⑨ (III) Liu Jiuqun chat is so amazing!

Leon and Noa checked the information provided by the two people and found that the location of the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale was exactly the same.

"Then what do we do with them?" Noa asked.

"Knock him out and keep him here temporarily as a hostage."

Leon said, "Since we don't know if there will be other troubles in the future, it's always good to have hostages as bargaining chips. And even if the Empire doesn't care about their lives and is planning to fight to the death, we still have time to deal with the two of them."

Noa nodded. "Understood. I'll set up Illusion magic here first, so that the Empire's people won't find us."

"Good."

Leon looked down at the intelligence report in his hand.

Once you obtain the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale, you can activate the Reversal Magic.

He wants to go back.

He has to go back.

"Losweiser... wait for me, you must... wait for me."

Under the cover of night, Leon led Noa through a secret passage in the outer wall of the Imperial City.

This area will not trigger the alarm of the perception barrier, and it is far from the main road inside the Imperial City, so patrol teams generally do not come here.

According to the intelligence provided by Nacho, this secret passage was built five years ago and is known only to people of his rank or higher.

It has to be said that the lowly civil official back then has made something of himself, working hard to reach such a high position today. It seems that working for the Empire's Royal Family is quite a desirable job.

But Leon didn't have much time to reminisce about his "old colleague"; he needed to find the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale as soon as possible.

Based on the intelligence provided by Nacho and Scott, Leon and Noa sneaked in from the outer perimeter of the Imperial City.

Just as Nacho said, there weren't many patrols around the secret passage, and Leon and Noa easily found the location where the Heart-protecting Dragon Scale were stored.

It was an underground facility with only one entrance visible above ground, guarded by four fully armed guards.

In addition, there is a sensory barrier with a level of security no less than that of the outer wall.

If we force our way through, we will inevitably trigger the barrier's countermeasures, and if the time drags on, we will attract even more enemies.

Only the four guards can dispel the barrier, allowing visitors to enter and exit safely.

Leon and Noa pressed themselves against a wall, observing the four guards.

"Nacho's intelligence mentioned things like passwords and codes."

Leon said, "To get into that underground facility, you have to give the guards the right password."

"So, we're going to just walk right over there and give them the code?"

"This is the only way, because the guards here don't change shifts. It's the same four people guarding here all night long, so we don't have any time to sneak in."

Noa blinked and asked, "What if they recognize you?"

Although twenty years have passed and many personnel changes have occurred within the empire, Leon was a well-known figure twenty years ago, and moreover, his appearance has not changed at all, so there is still a risk of him being recognized.

"Hmm... that is a problem, after all, my handsome face is quite recognizable." Leon couldn't help but seriously consider the question.

Three black lines slid down Noa's forehead.

His Mom loved his sense of responsibility, his bravery, his selflessness and strength, but did she also love his narcissism?

Mom, I think you're really hungry.