The soldiers standing guard in the bunker had lost themselves and practically turned into statues, but after freezing for a moment, the nurses quickly returned to their work. A female doctor welcomed the three people entering through the parted curtain of the white tent and immediately began to explain the conditions of the heavily wounded soldiers without losing any time.
"Border Castle Commander Pavlovich, we have started the treatment of our ten heavily wounded soldiers, but the situation turned out to be much graver than it looked. Their bodies have many wounds reaching down to the bone, and it is very clear these were made with the axe, the national weapon of the orcs."
Pavlovich, checking the soldiers one by one—who had at least two doctors and three nurses at their heads—saw the situation with his own eyes as well. In this way, he was able to notice the things the doctor skipped while explaining or couldn't guess were important.
The Turquoise and Diamond Leaf Merchant Guilds had made it a condition for the soldiers they dispatched to the region to have a tattoo done on a specific part of their bodies to identify which group they belonged to. The Turquoise Leaf Guild soldiers had a silver feather drawn on their left ankles, and the Diamond Leaf Guild soldiers had a black ring encircling their right forearms.
Pavlovich waited at their heads until he saw the tattoos of each soldier without exception; if the doctors were dealing with another part of the patient's body at that moment, his subordinates helped him achieve this. The soldiers' haircuts were also the standard army style, and getting wounded to the brink of death wasn't something to be done on purpose unless you were a psychopath.
"We're leaving, there's nothing useful to us here!"
Realizing he wouldn't get any information, Pavlovich quickly left the white tent just as he came, but he hadn't given up. He turned his direction back to the bunker where the orc captive was crucified. No matter what, whatever the cost, he would manage to get the first information about the orcs who entered their homeland.
The heavy metal hatch was lifted again; when his subordinates announced his arrival, the tension entered before anyone else, beginning to prepare the atmosphere for what was about to happen next. Nafız, taken down from the cross, was lying on her back on the cold stone floor, and her body was inside a bright dome of light.
At first glance, it could be seen that the small wounds were no longer bleeding, and the deep cuts were gradually healing. Not even ten minutes ago, she was about to fall into the cold arms of death, but now, her green skin that had turned white was beginning to regain its color.
"How much longer does she need to stay inside the Healing Circle?"
Border Castle Commander Pavlovich spoke looking at the wounded orc, but the answer came from a blond-haired man who wasn't in the bunker during his previous arrival. This person wore a white coat instead of a uniform, but this outfit wasn't in the style doctors wore, it was more like what scientists wore over their suits.
"We are using the most effective Healing Circle in the Border Castle's inventory, and it requires twenty-three hours and forty-two minutes for the test subject to fully heal."
There was no doubt the person speaking was a human, but the voice came out of his mouth in such a way that someone who didn't see him and only listened might think he was a mechanical construct.
"Mr. Engineer, we don't need her to be fully healed, just enough to withstand our interrogation techniques is sufficient. After we get what we want, the rest doesn't matter at all!"
The man, at whose name everyone trembled with fear even upon hearing it, was careful enough to say 'Mr.' before the engineer wearing a plain white shirt over his black velvet pants. The blond man he shared his idea with showed no reaction to this request; he changed the position of a few mechanical parts at the tip of the tube-like energy field Nafız was in and started speaking again.
"It will take five minutes and ten seconds for the test subject to reach the condition level you want. The maximum time you will have to interrogate her before she dies will be eleven minutes and forty seconds."
Pavlovich took off the cape he wore while going to the white medical tent again and settled into the chair his subordinates arranged for him to sit on. The soldiers moved to the parts of the bunker deprived of light, as if wanting to lose their presence, and the blond-haired man stood at the head of Nafız, whom he addressed as the test subject.
This person, clasping his hands in front of his chest, was writing something in his small notebook at regular intervals. Sometimes he approached the energy field and closely examined the orc inside, sometimes he went over to the mechanical parts he had just changed and mumbled something.
During this time, Pavlovich kept looking back and forth between him and Nafız in the healing process. While his subordinates behind him were motionless like statues, he was excited as he waited for the seconds to pass. Minutes felt like a century, seconds like a year, but no matter how long it took, every wait had an end.
"The test subject will be ready for your interrogation in thirty seconds. Your time is limited, you may start making the necessary arrangements!"
The blond-haired man, finishing his work, took a few steps backward without taking his eyes off Nafız and cleared the area for the soldiers preparing around the energy field. A long chair with a wide backrest was quickly brought in, and the straps on the armrests were undone.
Then a table with strangely shaped tools on it appeared. As syringes filled with colorful liquids followed it, the light-emitting energy field suddenly dispersed. A deep sigh roamed inside the dungeon, which was illuminated until half-dim with only a few light sources.
After opening her eyes, Nafız started coughing; the spits coming out of her mouth were accompanied by red liquids, but the soldiers didn't care about this situation. They lifted her body, delicate by orc standards, in a single move, sat her on the chair, and secured her hands and feet to the metal legs with straps.
"Speak!"
The first thing the orc, who was gifted a lifespan of only ten minutes, saw as she opened her eyes was the face of Border Outpost Commander Pavlovich. A pair of gray beads under his thick eyebrows looked as if they were trying to read her mind.
"Speak, how many of you are there?"
The man, taking on the interrogation job himself without leaving it to anyone else, asked once more when he didn't get an answer, but this time his subordinate pulling the nail on the female orc's index finger accompanied him. Nafız wanted to hold a thin moan inside her mouth, but Pavlovich's other subordinate forcefully shoved the metal tool in his hand between her lips to not allow this. When he pulled it back out, one of the orc's thin canines came with it, and Nafız's purple lips turned red, wet with her own blood.
"Speak, who is your commander?"
When nothing but melodies of pain was heard, the hand with the missing nail and the other were pulled until no nails were left. Along with the second canine in Nafız's mouth, all the teeth that would show when she smiled were extracted.
"Last seven minutes and thirteen seconds. How much longer will you wait to drop the barbaric methods and enlist the help of science? Although I don't know the answer, I suggest you hurry up!"
The man, continuously taking notes in the notebook he held on his lap, spoke after the unsuccessful torture attempts. These weren't the things Pavlovich wanted to hear, but he wasn't in a position to turn his back on his suggestion either.
"Administer the Truth Serum along with the Mind-Shattering Serum!"
The captive orc, who didn't let out a peep when the two needles pierced both her shoulders, became unable to control the drool flowing from the corner of her mouth after not much, ten seconds later.
"Speak, tell everything!"
Pavlovich's gradually rising voice rang out at its peak. He created such intense pressure that the orc, swaying with her hands and feet bound, could no longer resist it.
"Alright, I'll tell you; we were getting the goods from Arab Alyon. The second loading was done in the Wild Swamp, and I drove the truck all the way to the Hell Realm!"
"What are you saying?"
Pavlovich, whose heart leaped into his mouth when the orc he captured started speaking, couldn't hide his astonishment a moment later in the face of what he heard.
"What are you saying, brother? You kidnapped me, you'll tell, and I'll listen. I already have a thousand things in my blood anyway!"