Chapter 165 — What Happened in the Kant Territory
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 3
Piyun stood nearby, fairly preening: "Didn't I tell you, my potions and rites are very effective—this incense especially. The firmest mind will lose itself in its magic…"
It was indeed as the little old man said. The whole room was filled with the thick, almost nauseating smell of incense; though Piyun's rite was over and the incense no longer carried any spell to cloud the mind, Gao Yang still wrinkled his brow at the stench—even Amber beside him cried out: "Whoa, old man, are you trying to smoke bacon?"
"The way you're fumigating them, most people would confess even without the potion," Gao Heng had to add a breath-protection effect on himself before he could bear to stand in the room. "I'm starting to suspect your rite is just knocking them out with the smoke. What has magic got to do with it…"
Piyun nodded, chuckling: "You've hit the nail on the head, actually. Many years ago I considered improving this spell—I thought, never mind the potion, even fumigating the subject with dung would do the trick. Unfortunately my tutor beat me for it the moment I raised the idea, and I had to give it up. But you've reminded me this time—maybe…"
"Don't you dare try it!" Gao Cen glared at the little old man. "If you really fumigated these two with dung for an hour, even if they were willing to confess, I wouldn't be willing to ask!"
Piyun immediately shrank his neck, looked over Gao Song's brawny build, and made a preliminary judgment that this unearthed legend could take on his tutor twenty times over—and so decided to abandon his bold "improved rite" plan.
Gao Yang, meanwhile, frowned at the two mercenary prisoners, already far gone. They stared blankly at the ground before them; the potion, the ointment, and the incense had dragged them into a state between waking and dream, in which they could no longer tell whether they were answering questions in reality or leafing through their own memories in a dream. Until the magic faded from their bodies, they would answer almost any question.
"It was the Kant family's…" Gao Yang began, but had no sooner opened his mouth than he suddenly forgot the name of the Kant family's current ruler, and turned aside a little awkwardly: "Hetty, who holds power in the Kant family now?"
Hetty turned her head slightly away: "Viscount Victor Kant. An old viscount, well on in years."
"Right, Victor Kant," Gao Yang turned to the two mercenaries. "Was it he who sent you to catch slaves?"
The mage among the two mercenaries seemed still to resist, but the mercenary captain spoke first: "Yes… Viscount Victor Kant sent us to catch the refugees of the wild for him… but not as slaves."
"Not as slaves?" Gao Yang's brow furrowed. "Then for what?"
"To help him…" the mercenary captain began, still answering with a dull stare, but midway through the sentence he suddenly raised his head, fixed his eyes straight on Gao Yang, and broke into an eerie smile. "Enter a dream, Lord Gao Yang Cecil."