As she spoke, Elaine's eyes looked up slightly as if she was caught in a memory:
"I first started off reselling the coal and steel shipped from the western shore of the Loen Sea to Feynapotter, then bringing their tobacco, coffee, cocoa, and other specialties back to Intis. This was a coastal route, relatively safe, but competition was fierce. To get out of my predicament as quickly as possible, I saved up capital while striving to advance my Sequence, hoping to engage in the colony trade.
Unfortunately, just as I familiarized myself with the route and made a profit, I was plundered on my second trip to West Balam by the then 'Plague Maiden,' not 'Plague General,' Trissy. She only had one ship at the time, but she herself was very strong. My partner and I fought desperately but were unable to turn the tide.
She didn't have the habit of killing indiscriminately. She just took the goods, and… me…"
"As expected of an anomaly among Demonesses…" Klein listened quietly, suppressing his embarrassment with his Clown abilities, and asked expressionlessly: "How far did things go between you?"
"No!" Elaine denied instinctively. "She forced me! I… I didn't want to die. I had no choice but to… to endure it… and, and she was a woman!"
"Miss, there's no need to react so strongly. If I had asked whether you had crossed the line of friendship, you would probably have jumped out of the window! I, who am a relatively kind person… This is the gentleman beneath the mask of the mad Gehrman Sparrow… This is the real me…" Klein's expression was unchanged as he shifted the topic: "What cuisine do you prefer? Any dishes you especially like? Sweet, savory, or somewhere in between? What foods do you hate? Are you allergic to anything? Do you have any verbal tics? If so, what are they?"
"…"
Elaine felt like she was dreaming from these questions. It was all too unreal. She never thought anyone would ask her such things, like a suitor inquiring about the preferences of the object of his affection.
No, no suitor would ask like this! These are things you find out indirectly through chatting, or from other channels! No woman likes being interrogated this way! This is more like a questionnaire invented by Emperor Roselle… What does he want to do? He's asking all this with a completely straight face… I'm terrified… Elaine was silent for a few seconds before answering every question one by one under Klein's unwavering, cold stare.
Klein maintained his leaning posture and continued asking: "How do you usually sit? Do you have any habitual actions…"
The more Elaine answered, the more panicked and uneasy she became, with an inexplicable feeling that she would disappear as a result.
By the time this perplexing and frightening "survey" was over, her heart felt heavy, and she grew suspicious that a bad end awaited her.
Should she gamble and jump off the carriage when he wasn't looking? Elaine seriously considered this possibility. However, the other party showed no signs of making a move, leaving her indecisive, believing there was still hope for a peaceful resolution.
Having grasped Elaine's personality, habits, and preferences, Klein brought the conversation back to the "Plague General": "What do you know about Trissy?"
Elaine fell silent. Her lips moved a few times, but she couldn't bring herself to speak.
The carriage drove for a while longer before she finally smiled bitterly: "She has exceptional combat skills. She's good at stealth and curses, and can turn invisible and lighten her weight. She has mastered Mirror and Wand Substitution, Black Flames, and Frost. She can make enemies within a certain radius suddenly fall ill, including colds, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, and so on. The longer you fight her, the more severe the illness. Some Beyonders even died from sudden cardiac arrest. She can… can also create invisible threads to control her enemies. Her understanding of the human body is very deep. She can easily bring pleasure through touch… that kind of pleasure. She has an active Charm ability. Many pirates even give up resisting just to get close to her. She's usually… usually quite friendly, but cruel to her enemies. She likes to destroy the beauty the other party wants to protect, making them suffer intense mental anguish…"
Elaine didn't elaborate on how Trissy destroyed others' beauty. There were many cruel stories, as well as some funny incidents. This "Plague Maiden" once made enemies kill father and son, and also instigated an enemy's wife to betray him, letting him witness the scene directly.
"She really is a Demoness. A higher level than 'Joy,' Sequence 5 'Pain Demoness'…" Klein roughly grasped Trissy's combat style and asked calmly again: "Does she have any mystical items?"
"…Yes, a diamond-studded bracelet. As long as Trissy wears it, it's very hard to hurt her." Elaine hesitated but still revealed the "Plague General's" secret.
Klein asked a few more detailed questions, then straightened his leaning body a little: "Is Trissy helping the Demoness Sect traffic people?"
This was a question that had been on his mind ever since he heard it from the "Iceberg General" Edwina.
The Demoness Sect cooperated with Ince Zangwill, established ties with the royal family, and was connected to an underground ruin whose location was unknown. Trissy was helping them traffic people. Baron, identified by "The Hanged Man" as the director of multiple slave disappearance cases and the complete vanishing of a primitive tribe in the Southern Continent, appeared on the upper level of that underground ruin. The Beyonders guarding Backlund's biggest human trafficker, Capin, belonged to the Arbiter pathway, which was controlled by the Loen royal family, the Feynapotter royal family, and the militaries of both countries… These facts Klein was aware of formed a line, but he also didn't know what exactly it would unveil. The "Plague General" Trissy was a breakthrough point.
"What Demoness Sect?" Elaine asked back in confusion.
"You don't need to know," Klein responded calmly.
If you understood what a Demoness was, suspecting that the charming 'Plague General' who gave you pleasure was once a dirty old man, I'm afraid you'd lose control on the spot… You're welcome, I'm a good guy… Klein silently snarked.