Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki

Book 5: Chapter 13-1: Improving the Drug "Shoji"

Book 5: Chapter 13-1: Improving the Drug "Shoji"

I had arrived in Bell Erucy. My purpose, of course, was to adjust and experiment with the drug. For that, I was working in a cell. Bell Erucy was originally a frontline base for the Empire, so it had plenty of facilities you wouldn’t find in a normal village, one of those was a prison.

?Medicine, give me the medicineee!?

Inside the prison, in a sturdy cell made of iron, a man with sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes was clinging to the door, screaming. I was looking at the man from outside the cell.

He was originally a very sharp-looking man, but now there was no trace of that. Perhaps because he had hit the door with his fists so many times, the bones of his hands were broken. Yet, he didn't seem to feel the pain and didn't stop hitting the door. He had scratched the walls so much that his nails had also peeled off.

?Do you want the medicine? Then, tell me everything you know.?

?…N-no, I can't tell.?

?Is that so? Then I can't give you the medicine.?

I turned on my heel. Glancing back, I saw the man with a face like it was the end of the world, desperately reaching through the gap. Looking closely, his whole body was trembling.

?I'll tell you! Everything, I'll tell you everything. Medicine, medicine. Give me the medicineee!?

I took out a white pill from my pocket, showing it off to him. It was the designer drug Shoji that I had made in Erucy.

?Good decision.?

This man was an imperial spy. He sneaked into Bell Erucy, which was accepting refugees, by pretending to be one of them.

He had been acting like an ordinary person, but to the trained eye, his movements were too polished, a sign of someone who had received training. Furthermore, when this man entered the town, he claimed to be "just a farmer, from a peaceful village with no experience in warfare." It was unnaturally out of place.

The most telling sign was his overly calm reaction when he was approached by me. His attempt to appear nonchalant was so exaggerated that it became suspicious. In a situation where it would be normal to be agitated, his calmness stood out. That's why I captured him and subjected him to the standard torture methods. Such methods would usually break a normal soldier, who would spill everything. But this man endured without going mad. At that point, I revised my judgment of him. He was not just a normal spy, but an exceptional one.

That's why he was a good subject for experimentation. It had been three days since I tested Shoji on him. The man who had withstood any torture was now reduced to a deplorable state, seeing nothing but the drug.

I did think it was inhumane. But I wasn’t kind-hearted enough to show mercy to a spy. Depending on his actions, hundreds of people from Erucy could have been sacrificed.

?Hurry, ask me, I'll answer, then give me, give me the medicine, quicklyyyy!?

?Here's my questions. What’s your real name, your position and purpose, and who sent you here? Speak.?

?I-I am Lieutenant Relic, assigned to the Empire's intelligence division, hi -my mission was to steal the elves' new weapon and bring it back, and if there was any suspicious movement among the elves, to inform the Empire… I was sent here on the orders of Captain Folie Markley. I don't know who gave the orders to my superior, I don’t know… It's true! Those are the rules!! I'm not lying… so please, please the medicine, give me the medicineee!?

Fearing that he wouldn't receive the drug for failing to answer my questions, the man kept repeating that he wasn't lying.

It must be true. If this was an act, then this man was the world's greatest actor.

?Here's your reward.?

I threw just one pill of Shoji into the cell. The white pill rolled across the dirty floor. The man crawled like a dog, picked up the pill with his tongue along with the dust and rubbish, and put it into his mouth, his face melting into ecstasy.

?Ah aa, aha ha ha ha, hooray, long live the Empire!?

As soon as he swallowed the pill, his trembling stopped abruptly, and he began to laugh loudly. With a vacant look, he laughed heartily as if he was having the time of his life, and even started singing. It was the national anthem of the Empire.  It was utterly ridiculous. A trained intelligence officer of the Empire, who was supposed to be concealing his identity in enemy territory, was singing his country's national anthem. Unbelievable. I watched him for a good ten minutes to observe the effects of Shoji. Then the trembling started again.

?Hii, one pill isn't enough, more, I need more!?

Again, he began to beg for the drug. This man had developed a tolerance to it, and its effects were wearing off more quickly. Even if the effective duration shortened, the withdrawal symptoms did not ease. Once it had reached this stage, it was the end of the line for him as a person.

?Can't be helped. Then, let's add another question. Answer this and I'll give you more medicine.?

?Anything, I'll answer anything.?

?Alright, then tell me the names and characteristics of the other spies who came here, besides you. Every single one. Miss even one, and you won't get the medicine.?

Normally, even if I said I wouldn't give the drug if he missed anyone, he would realize that there was no way for me to confirm whether there were any omissions, but this man no longer had the intelligence to realize that.

?Ah, besides me, there are four more. One is a woman, a toranje woman with red hair braided in three, slender, painted red nails, her name, Renifa. The second, a hobitoru, short, muscular, with brown hair, a man, his name, Naira. And then…?