"Prisoner Kazak, you have to answer the questions truthfully. Otherwise you will be hanged by the gates, and I swear, you will be hanged tonight. Su Nuo's inquisitor repeated this sentence without emotion.

"I'm not Kazak!" The second master, who was beaten and bruised, shouted in despair.

"You're Kazak. According to information provided by our informant, the house was vacant. Only Kazak knew the exact address of the room. And you, Kazak, were preparing to meet with the traders, didn't you? ”

"My lord! I swear I'm not Kazak. Look at my eyes, that dog haggis kujit has brown eyes, I am bright blue, you see! Nice bright blue! I'm a Swadia! ”

By this time, the interrogator was already feeling a little tired, and the hours of interrogation did not seem to work. The Inquisitor didn't really care if the bandit leader was Kazak or not, as long as he admitted that he was. He just wanted to get it done. Tell his superiors: "Kazak has been caught", and then he can get the bonus and go home in peace.

"Yes, the case record says that Kazak is a foreigner. But I didn't say what color the eyes were. You debate pointlessly, you know? Admit it, I'll sentence you to a few years of logging in the upper reaches of the Bluewater River at most. But if you blindly provoke my patience, I think there is a gallows in Suno City. ”

"My lord! I'm really not Kazak! I don't know anything. I'm a commoner, and that Kugit bastard found me, told me to go to the hotel to see what was going on, and gave me a bounty of a dinar. I was so happy that I went, and you know, it took me a few weeks to earn a dinar. And then there was a misunderstanding, and lo and behold, that's it. The second master defended himself in an extremely sincere tone.

The inquisitor held a quill in his right hand, drew circles on the paper boringly, and gently touched his shiny forehead with his left hand, closed his eyes, and nodded. A jailer on the side came over and beat the second master with a strip of coarse cloth moistened with enough water, so that the second master's nose bleeds and tears flowed down his face.

The inquisitor waved his hand for the jailer to stop. The jailer continued to shoot left and right a few times, patted his shoulder and walked away. The second master cried, lowered his head and let the stains on his face drip down. The inquisitor looked at him and slowly walked up to the man. The inquisitor had interrogated this man for the third time since he had been brought in, but the man insisted that he had been instructed and did not admit that he was Kazak.

The inquisitor walked quietly and took the strip of cloth that the jailer had been holding.

"Who are you?"

"I ??? I am??? The innocent "inquisitor" developed a good skill of picking up strips of cloth decades ago when he was still an interrogator. Now, the inquisitor has to go back to his old job. The jailer on one side was greatly admired, and the inquisitor's movements were no more or less, precise and powerful, and at first glance he was an expert at picking cloth strips. The second master was also secretly surprised that the inquisitor looked kind, but he was so terrible when he was angry.

The second master's beaten head buzzed for a long time, and he heard a vague inquiry: "Who are you?" ”

"Me?? Be?? Civilians??"

Once again, the inquisitor had to make an effort to help the man tied to the stool remember who he really was.

After being knocked down, the head of the second master twitched and spasmed. The interrogator was also out of breath and took off his coat with the help of the jailers, sweating profusely. This is a contest of wills between two people, and if the interrogator fails to get this person to admit that he is Kazak tomorrow, the case will be handed over to another interrogator, which will be very bad for the inquisitor's performance appraisal at the end of the year.

"Who are you?"

"Okay?? I'm a thief???"

"Very well, is it a thief named Kazak?"

"No??? No! ”

The second master's first 'no' was weak, which attracted a rain-down blow from the inquisitor, and the second master could only shout the second 'no' with all his might. Sure enough, the inquisitor stopped, and the second master knew that this pause would not last long, and he had to use all his strength to convince the inquisitor in such a short period of time.

"Big?? Person?? Ahem. Am I really not?? Kazak, don't fight! Don't hit??? Listen to me, I'm not Kazak, but ??? I know where he is. ”

Ruda absentmindedly tapped his boots with a leather whip.

When he found out about the thieves coming out of the nest yesterday, he summoned an inspection and rushed to the third floor. This group of stupid robbers didn't leave anyone behind, only a few circus guys were here to help watch, and during the confrontation, the inspectors arrested a few of the most resistant, and then hurried all the way back to Suno.

Suddenly. Arcadio II and his little maid, as well as another young man who was caught, are now at the home of the tax collector. Last night's scene was boring for Ruda to watch, but it was a very touching scene: the tax officer and his wife stood on the side, smiling and shedding tears; Suddenly. Arcadio took his son in his arms, hugged him tightly, and then pushed him out and slapped him a few times, and so on; The little maid and another cold boy stayed on the side, preoccupied.

Ruda has seen too much at this moment, so he doesn't take it seriously. The only one who didn't catch up with this good situation was Zaitsev, who was brought back by Ruda yesterday when he tried to stop Ruda. Ruda didn't actually think about arresting Zaitsev, but yesterday he suddenly became interested in Zaitsev, who seems to be related to an internal strife within the robbers. Although it is likely that Kazak has been caught, Ruda feels that it would be useful to bring the slave trader back and ask him in detail.

This morning, Ruda received two letters. The first was a letter from the Tax Collector, inviting him to a thank-you dinner at the Tax Collector's Residence. The other came from the prosecutor's office, where an interrogator wrote to him that things had gone wrong and that it seemed that Kazak had run away.

Ruda pursed his lips, feeling that Su Nuo's inspection was a bunch of waste. At the same time, he was glad that he had taken Zaitsev with him. It was now morning when he had ordered a servant to bring Zaitsev, who was under house arrest, and he pondered how to interrogate the old ghost.

Zaitsev followed the servant menacingly.

Ruda squeezed out a smile and gestured to a seat to the side with his whip to invite Zaitsev to sit down. Zaitsev sat down unceremoniously.

"Sir, I helped my friend guard some slaves, but you forcibly snatched them and brought me here. May I ask you about your purpose? ”

Ruda said, "How many slaves? Which slave do you have to buy 2,000 dinars? Do you know who these are? ”

“????”

"Well, this involves a kidnapping case due to your involvement?? Uh, or rather, involved in this kidnapping. I had to bring you here. Well, I've looked into your profile, a Salander slave trader who does the best business. Haha, the market is not good, I heard that the councils of some cities in Rhodoc are already amending the constitution to abolish slavery, your prospects are not good, sir. ”

"Young man, you have far underestimated the human desire to oppress your fellow man. As long as the world does not go to hell for a day, there will be inequality. This is something that no one can change. Also, when it comes to kidnapping cases, I've traveled so many places, and I think what I need most is to pay attention to evidence, especially human witnesses, right? But you can ask the young men whom you have taken away, and although they are slaves of my friends, I treat them as guests, and they even have their own beds and their own servants. If you must say that this is a kidnapping, then I really don't know: I am just doing my duty to my friend. If I was to say that I was involved, you were involved, wasn't it? ”

Luda smiled heartily: "Second! Sure enough, there was a merchant's tongue. But I know that a businessman can't just have a tongue, he has to have a brain. What do you get out of doing your duty for your friends? If there's no return, why would you do it? ”

Zaitsev said: "That's right. In this way, this thing is an ugly thing. Well, according to you, it's a kidnapping, but since I didn't want to get involved too much, I didn't get into it in depth. But I still saw a glimmer of an eyebrow through observation, and I will affirm that I am only expressing my own guess. Well, my friend put those people under house arrest for some reason you know, you call it a kidnapping, well, since it's a kidnapping, there's going to be a ransom, there's a ransom, there's going to be a conflict of interest, so my friend was unfortunately betrayed, and you should be able to understand the rest of the things yourself. ”

Ruda thought for a moment, "But you still haven't told me what you can get?" ”

"Oh, I promised to keep care of these young men for my friend, and my friend promised to give me slavery of those who betrayed him. That's a lot of money, isn't it? Sir, I seem to have heard of you when I was in Dehrim, and you should know that now the Nords are working on the restoration of the war-torn agricultural system at Rudaburg, where there are countless new plantations, and where there is an extreme lack of labour, and where a sturdy slave is worth a great ????"

Zaitsev said no more, because his purpose had been achieved, and he repaid him for the rudeness he had done to himself the day before by uncovering the scars of the exiled lord of Ruda.

Ruda was as quiet as a stone, but the anger in his heart was rising. Zaitsev babbled on and on about the Nords being busy building new cities and villages in his hometown. Now that place has nothing to do with the glorious Ruda family, except that it is still called Ruda Fort. For a moment, Ruda seemed to see his father's hatred of iron and steel, as if he heard his father say: "You will never earn 500 dinars!" ”

The pressure is even greater now, "You can never restore the glory of the family!" Ruda's father has been dead for many years, and Ruda once thought that the pressure of his life came from his father's harsh requirements, but a few words from Zaytsev added these pressures to his shoulders again, and at this time Ruda was desperate to find that his father's words would follow him for a lifetime.

Ruda nodded, admitting in an aura that he couldn't hold Zaitsev down. Ruda quickly adjusted and greeted Zaitsev with a smile, which Zaytsev appreciated. Ruda gave Zaitsev a letter with the verdict of one of Suno's inquisitors on the merits of the case. Ruda smiled and said, "Your friend's name is Kazak. Do you know if what he does has anything to do with you, and whether or not you will cooperate with me in the future? ”

"In fact, the last time he went out was to capture slaves for me," said Zaitsev. You get the idea. So we owe no one anything, and if in the end he can't even bring me a slave, then he owes me. I just want you to understand this: I don't owe Kazak now. I don't have any obligations to Kazak, and working with you is a good choice, isn't it? ”

In his heart, Ruda despised the businessman's ruthless choice when he treated interests. But Ruda nodded approvingly on the surface: "Okay, about the next step of cooperation, I have a letter here, written by the families of those kidnapped, inviting me to a banquet tonight." I invite you to come along, so that you can see what kind of people your friends are messing with, and I can also ask the young men in your presence what kind of reception they have received from you. ”

Zaitsev knew that the trip would not be pleasant, but he had no choice but to agree. Whenever he was stressed, his neck would hurt, and the doctor said it was a genetic disease.