Soon, four of the five thieves fainted from extreme terror and a sense of suffocation.
Only the Scar-faced Man, their leader, remained conscious. He was buried in sand up to his head, his eyes filled with pleading and a total mental breakdown.
Caesar walked up to him and crouched down.
The shadow of his cloak loomed over the man, and within that darkness, two points of golden light ignited.
"I ask, you answer." Caesar's voice was devoid of inflection, every word dripping with a hellish, grim intensity.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Lord, spare my life! Spare me!" The Scar-faced Man was a mess of tears and snot.
"Osterburg's black market—or rather, the channel to obtain arcane leather—where is it?" Caesar got straight to the point.
"Arcane... leather?" The Scar-faced Man blanked for a second before nodding frantically. "I know! I know! It should be in the'Smelly Ditch'! The sewer district in the south of the city, that's the Gutter Rats' territory! They sell everything, as long as you can pay!"
"Very well."
Caesar had obtained the information he wanted.
He stood up, glanced at Cecilia, who was circling in the air with a look of feigned "obedience," and then began to loot the spoils of war.
A few coin pouches, totaling no more than a few dozen silver coins, and some ragged weapons.
Better than nothing, he supposed.
The Garchomp controlled the sand, wrapping up the five unconscious men and tossing them like trash through a temporary tunnel opened by Quicksand Abyss into the city's massive sewer System.
Afterward, the sand receded, and the ground returned to its original state of hard bluestone slabs, leaving not a single trace behind.
Except for a small bloodstain in the corner and a broken wooden stick.
"Done." Cecilia flew over to Caesar, pretending as if nothing had happened, and transformed back into her human loli head form, preparing to ride on his neck again. "How was that? My intel was timely, right? We coordinate absolutely seamlessly..."
She felt that this time, not only had she not caused trouble, but she had also performed a great service.
However, what greeted her was not Caesar's praise, but a cold, heavy silence.
Caesar stared at her without saying a word.
The smile on Cecilia's face gradually vanished. From that silence, she sniffed out the dangerous scent of a reckoning.
"Wh-why are you looking at me like that?"
"You think you performed well today?" Caesar's voice was very calm.
"O-of course! I spotted the enemies and even helped you interrogate them, I—"
"If it wasn't for you insisting on drinking, would we have wasted time here?"
"If it wasn't for you shouting in the street, would we have been targeted?"
"If it wasn't for you, you idiot, would I have to walk like a marionette?"
With every sentence Caesar spoke, he took a step toward her.
Cecilia was driven back by his questions, her little head shrinking back further and further.
"I... I was wrong, okay..." She finally couldn't hold out anymore, her voice turning cute. "It was just my first time seeing a human city, I was a little curious... I promise I'll never do it again..."
The little thing thought an apology would let her off the hook.
But she was wrong.
The "kindness" in Caesar's voice made her shiver: "You don't know you were wrong; you just know you're about to get beaten."
"Eh?"
In the next second, a massive Shadow Claw lunged out from beneath Caesar's cloak. With lightning speed, it snatched Cecilia out of the air, clutching her in its palm!
"Gua! What are you doing! Let me go! Don't you dare touch me, ao!"
Cecilia struggled desperately in his palm, her four little claws kicking wildly.
Caesar said nothing. Another Shadow Claw reached over, its two sharp tips precisely pinching a silver scale at the base of her left wing.
Cecilia's body tensed instantly as a fear originating from the depths of her Bloodline surged up.
"No... don't... Caesar! I was wrong, I was really wrong, ao? You can't do this, ao!"
Scale plucking!
For the Dragon Clan, this was not just pain; it was the deepest form of humiliation!
"Now you know you were wrong? Too late."
There wasn't a hint of warmth in Caesar's voice.
Rip!!
A soft sound was followed by Cecilia's shrill scream.
A scale shimmering with silver light was forcibly plucked off.
"Aooo!!!"
Intense pain shot through her. Cecilia cried so hard her tears sprayed out, her entire dragon body twitching.
Caesar didn't stop. His fingers pinched another scale.
"I'll never do it again! I swear! I'll never act up in the city again! Waaaaa..."
Rip.
Another one.
"It hurts so much, wuu... Is it too late for a reconciliation?"
Rip. "Ao!!"
The Silver Dragon's cries echoed through the alley.
Just then, the sound of footsteps and the clanking of armor approached from the alley entrance.
"Hey! Was that a sound just now?"
"Sounded like a scream. Let's go check it out!"
It was the city patrol guards.
Caesar stopped his actions and pressed the sobbing Cecilia back onto his neck.
"Shut up. Do you want to be caught and used for research?"
Cecilia immediately went silent, only daring to sob quietly.
Caesar pulled up his hood and quickly left the alley.
Back in the crowd, Cecilia was still mourning her plucked scales.
But soon, she discovered a much more serious problem.
Because the Secret Art of Transformation essentially involves the extension and reshaping of one's own cells, the plucking of the scales on her wings directly caused an issue with her human form's projection.
Two obvious... bald spots appeared in Hajime's beautiful long silver hair.
One was on the top of her head, and the other was on the back.
Commonly known as "North and South Exposure."
"...?!"
To hide this devastatingly ugly state and maintain her last bit of dignity, Cecilia had to carefully brush the surrounding hair over to cover those two bald patches of scalp.
She didn't even dare to turn her head casually anymore.
Because as soon as her head moved, the hair would slide away, revealing the "ultimate humiliation" she had suffered.
Garchomp felt the unprecedentedly well-behaved head on his shoulder and finally felt satisfied. He set off, quickly disappearing into the city's shadows before the guards could enter the alley... Today's winner: Demon Caesar!