The capture of the Marquis's son and his two subordinates was rather anticlimactic as all three ended up severely burned and tangled in piles of black vines in less than a minute after falling through the three portals opened by Yara.
The first to be captured were the two subordinates, who, confused by the teleportation and without any magical items to protect them from attacks, stood no chance of resisting. As soon as the two landed face-down after falling through the portals that had appeared under their feet while they were fleeing, Lucy's substitutes immediately appeared beside them and stuck two explosive papers on the back of each one, the explosion caused by these papers taking more than a quarter of their Health parameter. Almost fainting from the pain, they didn't even notice how Lucy's substitutes transformed into piles of black vines that started coiling around them.
As for the Marquis's son, although he resisted longer thanks to the protective necklace around his neck, his condition after being captured was much worse than the other two and Lucy had to urgently administer a health potion to him, as he was on the verge of crossing into the afterlife. The reason was that Lucy no longer had the patience to control her substitute, who had pinned the Marquis's son to the ground, to stick the explosive papers one by one on his back to weaken the effect of the protective necklace, as she saw no progress. So, she stuck the last five explosive papers all at once, which caused an explosion too powerful for the necklace, already half-drained of mana, to withstand. As a result, the Marquis's son was hit by a third of the explosion's force.
Initially, Lucy reproached herself for getting carried away, but after reflecting that there was no exact way to determine the amount of force needed to bypass the necklace's protection without harming the delicate Marquis's son too much, she managed to ease some of her guilt. It was similar to making an omelet: you can't break an egg without spilling a little egg white outside the bowl.
After removing the magic necklace from his neck and pouring a healing potion into the mouth of the Marquis's son, who was still immobilized in a pile of dark vines, Lucy took a moment to admire her work. She thought that, after such a reception, the three men would realize they were completely outmatched, and it likely wouldn't take long to get them to cooperate during interrogation.
The truth was that she wasn't very impressed by the combat power of the group sent by the Marquis to meet with the mercenaries she had defeated. However, considering that Yara and Silas had been accompanying this group initially, Lucy suspected the Marquis thought it would be a waste of resources to send anyone else, as the two were very capable.
"So what are you planning now? Are you going to give the three the same treatment as Gary?" Yara asked, approaching Lucy. The amount of mana she had consumed all at once by opening the three portals was greater than she expected, so she was a bit tired at that moment.
"Not yet. Gary's situation was special because I wanted him to be both as harmless as possible and conscious when we dragged him along while searching for the Marquis's son and the other two, in case we needed to ask him for directions if we didn't find anyone where you left them. Otherwise, I would have preferred him to have more fingers left for his interrogation...", Lucy said, turning to Yara. She wanted to demonstrate that she acted logically, not simply on impulse without considering the consequences.
It's unclear to what extent Yara believed Lucy, as she was already aware of Lucy's ability to turn black into white. Moreover, she had noticed that Lucy wasn't too thrilled by the greedy look in Gary's eyes when he first saw them, which might have influenced her decision to cripple him before asking even a single question.
"...Anyway, thank you for your effort, Yara. But tell me, haven't you used the second potion I gave you yet?", Lucy asked, noticing the sweat on Yara's temples and thinking that Yara should have recovered by now if she had used the mana recovery potion immediately after bringing the three men there.
"Well, I tend to use such potions only when absolutely necessary. In this situation, it's not a problem if I let my mana recover naturally...", Yara replied, intending to save the remaining high-quality potion Lucy had given her for an emergency.
"As long as you're not uncomfortable, it's fine. But I want to remind you that your new girlfriend is wealthy, so you don't have to be too hard on yourself just to save money...", said Lucy, who had no intention of being stingy with her lovers, as she intended to live by the saying "what's mine is yours" in a relationship.
'But I have no reason to complain. She looks extremely delicious right now...', Lucy thought to herself, staring obsessively at Yara's face. With her weakness for sweaty beauties, she could hardly resist the urge to jump on Yara at that moment.
"Lucy, when do we start beating them?", interrupted Rina, for whom the fact that the three men were already in a deplorable state wasn't enough to quell her fury. She was especially angry with the Marquis's son, not necessarily because of his blood relation to the one who ordered the kidnapping of the lionkins, but because of his intent to turn some lionkin girls into his sexual slaves. So, she planned to break every bone in his body.
"...You mean interrogating them?", Lucy asked, thinking it didn't sound very good to admit she planned on beating someone who couldn't defend themselves. It was easier for someone to see themselves as one of the good guys if they committed acts of violence to achieve a goal, rather than simply to satisfy a thirst for revenge.
"Yes, that too...", Rina replied, unwilling to change her wording, as she wasn't interested in subtlety.
"...Alright. We'll start soon, though I'm not sure if it's better to interrogate them one by one or all together...", Lucy said, not wanting to dampen Rina's enthusiasm. "If we interrogate them individually, it's easier to spot lies by comparing the information we get from each, but if we interrogate them together, we might get them to talk faster, as sometimes the fear of seeing someone else subjected to extreme suffering right in front of them can be more effective than pain in convincing a person to cooperate. On the other hand, interrogating them all at once might be more interesting; we could turn it into a sort of contest, like, whoever gives the most information gets to keep their legs...", she continued, undecided about how to proceed since she had never been in a situation where she had to interrogate more than one person at a time.
But before Lucy could ask Rina and Yara for their opinions, the Marquis's son began to struggle, his wounds almost fully healed by Lucy's potion.
"Yara, what is the meaning of this? Do you realize that if you don't honor the agreement with my father, your mercenary career is as good as over?"
It seemed the Marquis's son was smart enough to control his language, aware that if Yara didn't help him, he had no chance of escape and that the coming days would likely be extremely unpleasant for him. The way Gary had been treated was clear evidence that the two felinegirls accompanying Yara didn't follow any rules regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.
As for romantic thoughts, the Marquis's son had none left as at that moment, he felt as if he had been plunged into ice-cold water. Even his newfound passion for girls of the beastkin race had completely evaporated from his mind. Most likely, for a long time to come, he would tremble at the sight of tails and animal ears, even if they belonged to actual animals rather than human beings.
Initially, when he saw Lucy and the other two through Gary's eyes, he was so captivated by their attractiveness that he didn't even recognize Yara, whose face he had never seen, and he began imagining what it would be like to have them all to himself. However, after witnessing the delight in Lucy's eyes as she severed Gary's legs, all his fantasies shattered. He realized that encountering the three under his current circumstances was not a dream come true but rather a nightmare.