Cyril approached the door of his target's home and openly knocked on it.
Soon, a sound of footsteps could be heard that gradually became louder, followed by an unfriendly, ruffled voice.
"I am not going to your stupid party. Get away from me already!" His tone was quite annoyed.
"My name is Cedric. I am here regarding your overdue debt payment," Cyril replied without any shame with a professional voice.
The man behind the door went quiet. Then there was a sound of a lock opening, followed by a more wary voice: "...What's your company's name? Give me more debt details..."
The more he spoke, the more spirited the man became.
Soon he half-opened the door and angrily looked at this intruder. "Are you some kind of scammer? Bold of you to—"
His speech was interrupted as Cyril immediately thrust his hand at the first opportunity.
With a cold glint in his eyes, Cyril hit the man's throat, somewhat silencing the cry of pain.
Jeff stumbled backwards and fell on the ground, his hand stretching in the air to cast a spell.
Thankfully, Morpho immediately followed with another attack, hitting the man in the stomach.
Recoiling from pain, the man's movements were halted, and soon he was horrified to discover that his hands seemed to stop responding to him.
Not giving up just yet, he attempted to stand up using only his feet; however, by this time Cyril had already entered the apartment after closing the door behind him and was ready to attack again.
He hit the man on the stomach; this time the Heavenly Dragon's Judgement technique disabled his legs.
Cyril looked around the room and calmly walked up to an old sofa near the fallen man, taking a seat there.
Once Jeff recovered his breath, he sent a panicked stare towards the intruder. "Who are you? What do you want?" His voice shook slightly.
Morpho returned to Cyril's shoulder, and he relaxed on the sofa. "What can you tell me about Lapis?" He said in an authoritative voice.
"What? Those terrorists? I—Sir, please, this must be a misunderstanding! I wouldn't know anything about them!" The man replied in a very fearful, scared-for-his-life voice.
His delivery was pretty believable, though his fear was probably real.
"You don't have to pretend; I know you are responsible for the explosion at the steel factory," Cyril said the information the group relayed to him. A certain incident some time ago, a few people died during it.
Although the man tried to hide it, surprise flickered in his eyes. "I-I don't understand, sir." He almost yelped pitifully.
Though Cyril felt no pity over seeing an overweight, middle-aged terrorist crawling on the floor.
"If you say you don't know one more time, I will cause you pain," Cyril stated calmly, as a matter of fact, and asked again, "Tell me everything you know."
Then he turned towards Morpho on his shoulder. "Can you look around the room? See if there is anything hidden here."
Twitching her antennae as if to say, 'Leave it to me!', she flew up and began slowly exploring around.
The man looked at this cautiously, with sweat slowly forming on his forehead. He didn't say anything; only the fear in his eyes slightly intensified.
Cyril frowned and was about to say something, only Morpho happened to immediately discover something. She fluttered her wings in front of a dirty kitchen sink, refusing to fly closer.
Hoping it wasn't the infrastructure she discovered, he wordlessly approached and looked under it.
With a little more guidance, he removed the false wooden bottom and discovered a familiar-looking small box.
It reminded him of the one they found in another Lapis member's house. That one was protected by a spell, so this one should be the same.
Cyril picked it up and returned to the still silent Jeff.
"Well? Still don't know anything about it?" He shook the box in his hands; inside was the rustle of some papers.
"Sir! Please, it's really a misunderstanding! It's only my stash of money, along with a family heirloom. You can check it, even take what you need. Just please don't touch the ring my father left me!" He still maintained the same fearful behavior.
"One of the spells on the box should be a trap. If we open it, we'll get hit by a blast. This guy thinks he is so clever, huh?" Rhamn said with a sneer.
Cyril frowned at the man's refusal to cooperate. Since he had already warned him once, he approached him.
"Hold on. If you want to cause as much pain as possible, I can try something. We'll use our recent gains!" There was excitement in her voice.
Cyril wanted to use the usual Heavenly Dragon's Judgement to send mana on a rampage, but he didn't mind trying new things.
Not to mention that this was a criminal, so experimenting on him didn't affect his conscience that much.
Jeff tensed up, his slightly chubby body shaking a few times. "Please!" He repeated his innocence.
Cyril stood right in front of him and jabbed the man on his forehead with two fingers held together.
He didn't use the technique, only pretended to do so. Just in case the group was observing what was happening here.
A single droplet of blood was left there once he removed his hand, and it quickly moved on its own into the man's mouth. Cyril felt a drain on his mana.
Next, for a few seconds nothing happened. Jeff even stopped saying anything in confusion.
Though the sense of the unknown soon brought him an unexplainable sense of foreboding. He really didn't like this situation.
"You sure you don't know anything?" Cyril repeated one more time, in his eyes now a slight sense of pity.
Jeff stayed silent for a few seconds, his fear growing greater by the second. He didn't know where this young man came from, but he gave off a certain uncanny feeling.
His stare appeared normal, if a little cold. However, Jeff's gut was screaming to him that something was not right. He got the feeling before him was only a monster wearing human skin.
In the end he swallowed and nodded his head. "Please, sir, you only need to check the box."
Cyril didn't respond, only nodding in understanding.
Do it.
"Finally!" Rhamn exclaimed with joy. She was really eager to try this out.