177 Perhaps This Wasn't Something I Was Meant To See

After forcing… Ahem… Asking one of the sailors about Emilia's whereabouts, I managed to track her down to a rather secluded part of the ship.

There were several other Nekomata sailors around who looked like they wanted to stop me, but for some reason they quickly backed off the moment they saw my face.

That kind of made me curious why they were acting like that, but not enough to distract me from my current goal.

Eventually, I made it to an area where several armed Nekomatas were gathered, though their attention wasn't on me as they seemed to be preoccupied with what was happening at the centre of the room, forming a circle around it.

A Nekomata I did not recognise was forced to stand in the centre of the room with his hands tied to the ceiling and a pair of iron manacles wrapped around his feet. Standing in front of him was Emilia whom I would have stormed up to if she didn't punch the Nekomata across the face at that exact moment.

I stopped at the edge of the crowd and no one seemed to notice me as I joined them in watching the spectacle.

"Last chance you little piece of shit, tell me what I want or I'll make sure you fucking regret it!" Emilia swore, a far cry from the usual proper and polite lady that we saw before.

The tied up Nekomata grimaced but maintained a defiant attitude, "You might as well just kill me… You useless bitch."

Emilia brought her knee up and smashed it right in between his legs. I'm pretty sure I heard a crack from there as well and I couldn't help but wince a little. I wasn't alone either as a few other guys also grimaced at the sight.

He tried to double over in pain, only to have the ropes pull him back by the wrists and force him back to a standing position.

Emilia then gestured to one of her people who was standing at the side and he immediately stepped forward to hand her a thick metal bar.

Without wasting any time, she took the bar with both hands and swung it at her prisoner's left knee, snapping it with a loud crack and making his leg bend the opposite way.

The man screamed out in pain, only to have his other leg also smashed in by Emilia, leaving him hanging awkwardly by his hands as both his legs were now unable to support his weight.

Emilia reached her hand forward and grabbed him by his hair, pulling him up to face her, "Last chance you fucker."

The guy only groaned, either too in pain to answer her or that was still a show of his defiance against her.

She smacked him across the face with the bar, hard enough to knock a tooth out.

Emilia paid no mind to him and gestured to another of her sailors standing at the side, "Sit him down and grab my tools."

One of them brought a chair forward and the prisoner's hands were untied from the ceiling while they binded his waist to the chair.

Emilia started tying up her hair in a bun before putting on what looked like leather gloves just as a table with various knives were brought out to place in front of the prisoner.

A rather large sized Nekomata moved behind him and chained his freed hands to the table, forcing his palms down on the surface.

I watched as Emilia took her time to stroll towards the knives, the female Nekomata looking at her prisoner with disdain.

"I may have neglected to mention this, but I do not like people who waste my time. And those that do, I make sure that they suffer for a long time where death would be considered a blessing."

She then went to the table with the knives and picked one that looked like a butcher knife, testing the edge with her thumb.

"I gave you a chance and you squandered it, so I'm going to enjoy the next few hours with you."

Without so much as a warning, she brought the knife up before swinging it down on the table, chopping off the poor guy's little finger in a single, deft stroke.

"AAARGGHHH!! WAIT! WAIT!! I'll talk!! Please stop!! No more!!" He screamed.

Emilia lifted one of her feet to step on his chest, pushing him back as she leaned her weight on it, "Go on then, where are your companions? Waste anymore of my time and I will make sure you suffer even more."

"Nnngghhh… Huff… Huff… They… They are spread… Around the ship… We… We infiltrated in as… As guests and staff… But I don't know who… Uggh… Who they are…"

Emilia leaned more weight onto her foot, "Surely you have something that you reveal to the others to show that you are their companion, yes? What is it?"

"A… A code… We… Ugh… We blink at the other party five times quickly… Then they… They respond with the same…AHHHHH!!"

Emilia had interrupted him by cutting off the little finger on his other hand abruptly.

"You piece of useless trash, do you think you're the first one we've caught? We already know that's your signal that one of you guys have been compromised. Do you want to keep wasting my time?! You think this is a game? Well then let's fucking play!"

She smashed the back of the guy's hand with the handle of the knife, shattering the bone inside.

Emilia lowered her foot to step on his crotch, "Last chance, you little shit!"

"Uggghhh… Fucking… City pet scum… You're scared aren't you? Scared that we wild ones would bring your little ship to AARRGGHH!"

Emilia had shut him up by shattering the bones of his other hand. She must have also realised that the guy was not going to give her what she wanted so there was no need to listen to him anymore. Thus, she went ahead to stuff his mouth with a piece of cloth to stop him from talking.

After that, it was a good hour and a half of her torturing the guy, starting from slicing the digits off of his hands one by one.

She then started slicing his body up with another knife, carefully cutting him bit by bit to ensure he doesn't bleed out too quickly.

It was obvious from the way she handled him that this was something she had done multiple times before.

For the last cut, she grabbed him by his hair and tilted his head back to look him in the eye while also exposing his neck at the same time.

With deliberate slowness, she brought up her knife to place it on his neck before dragging it across, all the while still maintaining eye contact with him.

The man gurgled and struggled weakly but he was already weak from the torture session from before. All he could do was wait for Emilia to finally drag the knife across completely and let him bleed to death.

She really wasn't kidding when she said she was going to take her time with him.

Once the blade passed by his neck completely, Emilia stepped back and nodded to another woman who quickly stepped forward to cast a healing spell on him.

His fingers were still amputated and his kneecaps still busted, but the cuts he received were slowly healed up, bringing him back from the brink of death.

"Lock him up, make sure this guy is tortured every other hour," Emilia ordered, pulling off the gloves she was wearing to toss them aside.

One of her henchmen went up and passed a towel to her, allowing Emilia to clean off the blood on the blades and also the splatters that had gotten on her face.

She untied her bun and shook her hair free, "Clean this up. Look for the other fuckers who are hiding on my ship and root them out. Don't show these pathetic savages any mercy, got it?!"

"Aye, aye captain!"

The other guards in the room started to disperse so I quickly cast my [Shadow Wall] to hide myself in the darkness.

Surprisingly, a few of them still looked my way and frowned, noticing me despite the fact that I was blending in with the darkness.

A few wanted to approach me but for some reason, someone would then stop them and pull them away.

It was only later did I realised they could see me despite the spell because they're Nekomatas… Most of them have exceptional night vision so my spell was kind of useless against them…

A new thing I learned I guess.

Thankfully, Emilia did not notice me and went out through a side door, so I casted [Shadow Glide] to chase after her.

Despite all that had happened earlier, I still have not forgotten why I was here!

I had to weave through the crowd to get to her but it wasn't too much of a problem since everyone seemed to be avoiding me for some reason.

Reaching the door, I slipped past it and tried to look for her, only to realise I was standing in what was obviously a patisserie with all the various different desserts arranged around the room.

Sitting on the lone table in the centre of the room was none other than Emilia, munching away on a plate of cakes while her table was also piled full of various other sweets.

"Mnnnn!! Double chocolate velvet cake!! Having some sweets after a torture session is a definite must! Now… Should I have the blueberry pie first or--"

"You tricked me!!!" I screeched, pointing an accusatory finger at her.

She was so surprised by me that she actually fell out of her chair and the cake splattered all over her chest and neck.

No!!! Not the cake!!