The fire on the sand was still burning.
A burnt stench lingered in the air, refusing to dissipate.
When Rosie leaped back onto the ruined platform, the female mage immediately came forward to meet her.
“Rosie, what was that just now?”
“Lass Rosie, that was quite a shocking spectacle you put on just now!” The dwarf chimed in as he approached.
Rosie smiled slightly, nodding to the dwarf first before turning to the female mage.
“It was nothing. I just realized that was an untrustworthy demonic tree. To protect world peace, I purified it.”
The female mage wore a look that practically said, “Say that again.”
“Purifying a demonic tree... What does that have to do with world peace?”
“That tree can turn rats into ratkin,” Rosie explained. “You know how fast rats breed. Once they get out of hand, the consequences would be unimaginable.”
Anna massaged her temples and fell silent for a moment before finally sighing. “Fine, let's just go with that.”
Even though the tree had indeed been “purified” by Holy Light—at least, that was how it appeared.
But Anna didn't believe it for a second.
“Miss Rosie, what should we do with this rat? It tried to run away just now.”
Knight John's voice drifted over.
He was pinning the white rat's back with one foot, keeping it from moving.
Rosie glanced at the shivering white rat on the ground, then began putting her plate armor back on.
As she dressed, she said, “I'll give it some ‘re-education’ in a bit.”
“Re-education?” Knight John blanked for a moment.
“Haha! That's the funniest joke I've heard all year! Lass Rosie, you're quite the comedian,” the dwarf roared with laughter.
Anna watched Rosie in silence, her gaze filled with curiosity. She wanted to see how this girl, who had just “purified” a massive tree with Holy Light, planned to “re-educate” a rat.
A moment later, Rosie was fully geared up.
She adjusted her pauldrons, straightened the meteoric iron sword at her waist, and walked over to the white rat.
Seeing this, Knight John lifted his foot and stepped aside.
Rosie squatted down, raised her visor to reveal her face, and stared calmly at the white rat.
Its body was curled into a ball, its limbs trembling, with traces of blood still lingering around its snout and mouth from being struck by the shield.
“Little White, you're going to help me, right?”
Rosie's voice was calm and gentle.
The white rat stammered in terror, “No... Master will be angry... Master will kill me... No, no, I cannot betray Master...”
“How noble. I like people with backbone—oh, I mean, rats with backbone.”
The moment the words left Rosie's mouth, she slapped it.
Smack!
With a sharp crack, the white rat's head was whipped to the side. It spat out a mouthful of blood, leaving a stark, crimson splatter on the grayish-white stone.
“You're going to help me, right?”
Rosie asked, still smiling, her tone not changing in the slightest.
“No, no, Master...”
The white rat couldn't finish its sentence.
Smack!
Another slap.
This strike was even heavier, sending the white rat rolling across the ground as more blood welled from its mouth.
Rosie didn't stop, asking again, “You're going to help me, right?”
The white rat curled up on the ground, its body shaking uncontrollably as it mumbled a few incoherent syllables.
She picked it up by one of its paws and stared intently into its eyes.
“You're going to help me, right?”
As long as the white rat showed even a hint of hesitation, she slapped it without mercy.
“Squeak! Squeak!—”
The white rat's agonizing shrieks echoed through the empty ruins, starting shrill and gradually growing hoarse until only muffled whimpers remained.
Its fur was a disheveled mess, its lip split open, and blood had matted into clumps against its white coat.
Its body began to twitch involuntarily, its limbs flailing as its pupils dilated, its breathing growing weaker and weaker.
Rosie raised her hand. “Holy Light.”
Golden light enveloped the white rat.
Wounds closed, swelling subsided, and flesh knit back together...
It curled on the ground, panting heavily, looking as if it had just been forcibly dragged back from a nightmare.
Rosie gave it no time to catch its breath, picking it up once more.
“You're going to help me, right?”
The exact same question, the exact same tone, without even a shift in pitch.
The white rat shook its head, its lips trembling as it tried to speak, but Rosie's fingers had already clamped down on its right front limb.
With a gentle twist.
Crack.
The white rat let out a brief, sharp shriek that rang out terrifyingly loud in the quiet desert night.
Rosie let go, grabbed its left hind limb, and squeezed again.
Crack.
Standing a few paces away, the dwarf's expression shifted as he watched. He unconsciously rubbed his arms and took half a step back.
“What's the point of torturing it like this?” the dwarf finally spoke up.
Anna's gaze also hardened slightly. She parted her lips to speak but ultimately remained silent.
Rosie paused and explained, “These rats respect power, not kindness. I gave it a name and food before, but it didn't have the slightest intention of helping me...”
Before she could finish her sentence, she crushed the bones in the white rat's paw.
The white rat let out a miserable squeal.
“So, I have to use this more extreme method of ‘re-education’ to let it know... that I! Am far more terrifying than its current master!”
Rosie spoke those hair-raising words with a smile.
“Fine, do whatever you want.”
The dwarf walked away, adopting an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude.
Throughout it all, Knight John was the only one who didn't react.
To someone who had lived through war, such torture was commonplace.
Rosie ruthlessly continued her “re-education” of the white rat.
Once it had barely enough strength left to breathe, Rosie raised her hand again.
“Holy Light.”
The golden light enveloped it once more, popping its joints back into place and rapidly healing its wounds.
The white rat's body was perfectly intact again, but its eyes had changed.
Scrambling up from the ground, the white rat fell to its knees, pressing its forehead against the surface of Rosie's iron boot. It stuck out its tongue and began to lick the cold metal, over and over, making a soft, scraping sound.
Rosie smiled slightly. “Good, very good. Now tell me, how many Mammothkin are there? And where are they?”
The white rat raised its head and answered honestly.
A moment later, Rosie had her answers.
The Mammothkin were few in number, with only about twenty-odd adults and five children among them.
They lived deep within the prison facility and rarely came out.
And that big fellow who had spoken to her was the leader of the Mammothkin.
“What? That guy is actually their leader?” Rosie asked in surprise. “I thought he was just a regular Mammothkin administrator.”
The white rat nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, New Master. He is the leader. He is very powerful, very scary, very cruel...”
The more it spoke, the more terrified it became. Its voice dwindled until it was barely a whisper.
“What's there to be afraid of? I'm here,” Rosie said, patting the white rat's head.
The white rat quieted down instantly, curling up by her boot and no longer trembling.
Rosie organized the information she had gathered and briefly relayed it to the other three.
“You actually managed to ‘persuade’ it... So, what do you plan to do next?” The female mage looked at Rosie.
“Kill them all, of course. Leave none alive.”
Rosie spoke with absolute certainty, without a shred of hesitation.
The dwarf muttered, “That's not what you said when I suggested killing them earlier...”
“That was then, this is now,” Rosie countered. “With Little White on our side, we can find a way to seize control of the entire rat swarm.”
Naturally, she wouldn't reveal her true motive: that she had absorbed the demonic tree's power to increase her own strength.
Now that the tree was dead, instead of waiting for the Mammothkin to discover it and turn on them, she might as well strike first.
The first to strike gains the upper hand!
The wisdom of her past life's ancestors would never go out of style.
“That is indeed a solid alternative. Since the situation has changed, let's do it,” the female mage agreed after a moment's thought.
“I will follow your lead,” Knight John said, concise as always.
Rosie looked down and said to the white rat, “Little White, once we make our move, go soothe your kin and make sure they don't do anything rash. Understood?”
“Yes, yes. Whatever Master says, I will do. Little White will obey Master's orders. Little White will warn the others.”
The white rat nodded repeatedly, its attitude as docile as an obedient pet.
“Very well. Let us return in the guise of victors.”
With that, Rosie turned and leaped down from the ruins, walking toward the carcass of the giant sandworm.
She planned to find some shocking part of it to bring back.
Preferably something like the map of Yan—with a hidden dagger waiting inside.
Rate on N.U.
