"Why don't you just save us some time and cooperate, will you? I promise to spare your life. Don't make this harder than it has to be." Eira suggested to the frozen Leif, with a sword appearing in her hand from out of nowhere.
Leif was surprised at first, remembering he hadn't seen any treasure on Eira's body before they attacked her, but he brushed it aside as it was irrelevant to the current situation.
He remained utterly silent, his head looking down, refusing to even look at Eira.
It was clear that he intended to maintain his silence even at the cost of his own life.
Even Eira was slightly impressed by his demeanor, but that was it.
She wouldn't let him off so easily without extracting anything of value.
"If I had to take a guess, your boss is after Jarek, isn't he?" Leif's resolute face changed slightly, but he still kept his head down.
But Eira had caught that reaction.
It wasn't that difficult to come to such a conclusion.
Leif had already made his intentions clear from the beginning.
'You six, restrain her. If she resists, you can hurt her, but don't cause any serious injuries.'
Those were his exact orders.
"At first, I thought it was strange why you didn't want to eliminate me, even with such clear ill intentions. But now that I have thought about it, you clearly wanted to use me as a hostage, right?"
Leif's face darkened at Eira's question, which showed she had already uncovered their true motives.
But she wasn't done yet with her analysis.
"Your boss either isn't confident he can deal with Jarek, or he doesn't want to face Jarek directly if he has the choice not to. So I am probably his insurance against Jarek.
Additionally, knowing how much of a threat Jarek is means you have seen what he is capable of. Your boss is in the Myriad Dao Academy as we speak, isn't he?"
Leif's eyes turned to look at Eira with surprise when he heard the last question.
She actually managed to deduce this much in such a short amount of time.
Anyone who thought Eira was just a pretty face, or someone who was hugging Jarek's thighs for benefits, clearly didn't know anything about her.
While she might not be Brynhild's equal in intelligence, her mind is still impressively sharp.
She then continued, "Your boss probably feels threatened by Jarek's progress and the possibility that Jarek might enact his revenge upon him once he grows exceedingly powerful. So he is in a hurry to remove this thorn as quickly as possible. So your boss would have put his plans into motion by tomorrow if you had succeeded. Too bad he is destined to fail miserably."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Your boss thinks that Jarek's cultivation speed is what he should be afraid of. But how strong do you think the current Jarek is?"
Leif, having seen Jarek's matches yesterday, replied, "He is a peak Master."
"Yes, he is almost at the verge of becoming a Grandmaster, but that is his cultivation base. His true combat prowess is that of a peak Empyrean."
Eira's words caused Leif's eyes to widen as he barked at Eira. "Impossible! You are lying! There is no way such a thing is possible! Haha! Do you think I will believe such nonsense?"
Indeed, believing that someone had a prowess of six entire levels or two stages above his cultivation base was ridiculous.
Even the most talented in this world can only achieve a combat prowess of three levels higher than their base.
"Why would I lie to a captured enemy? How does it benefit me?"
"Don't you just want information about my boss? Isn't this just another one of your tactics?"
Faced with Leif's questions, Eira became silent.
While it was true that those were her intentions, she really wasn't lying.
But she now doubted whether the vampire would believe her.
Indeed, when Leif saw Eira turn quiet, he sneered, "Such tricks won't work on me. No one in this world has ever had or will ever have such a terrifying combat prowess. It's pure fantasy."
Eira sighed, knowing any more talk was useless.
"It seems I might need to interrogate the rest of your subordinates."
But Leif scoffed in response.
"Go ahead. See if you can get anything useful from them."
These subordinates naturally didn't have any knowledge of crucial information.
Indeed, this was just another one of Thrain's countermeasures.
Only Thrain, Luneth, and Leif would have any relevant information.
But it was becoming abundantly clear that Leif wouldn't cooperate even if he were beaten to death.
It was a pity that she couldn't pry any useful information from his mouth, and so she was left with no choice.
Eira extended her hand towards Leif's chest, a gesture that startled him.
Unexpectedly, he felt that the area around his chest didn't feel as chilly as before.
But that comfortable feeling didn't last long, as he felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Eira had thrust her sword into his chest, piercing his heart.
Such a strike made his strong vitality useless.
It was an attack he couldn't recover from, even if he tried.
"You bi...Urgh!" Before he could curse at her, Eira simply twisted the sword while it was still inside Leif's body.
It didn't take long for Leif to exhale his last breath, his death one full of resentment.
It was a feeling that both he and Mir had shared.
Eira did the same with the other vampires.
She kept the bodies frozen, waiting for Jarek to return and deal with them.
She didn't have the fire element and thus couldn't effectively get rid of the bodies.
All she could do was clean up the blood that had been spilled by her attackers.
Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, Jarek's second match had already ended.
And Thrain, who watched Jarek's match intently, had no idea that his plan had failed.