I stood in the middle of the slaver camp amidst a pile of bodies.

Not all of the slavers were dead since I intentionally left the executives alive and some of the other slavers were still laying on the floor groaning in pain while bleeding out.

Carrey was seated on the ground, having been scared out of her wits when she found her comrades having been reduced to their current state.

I stepped on the bodies of the slavers to walk over to her, my swords still dripping with the blood of the slavers that I had cut down.

The rest of my Shadow Guards remained where they were, though they were all staring in Carrey’s direction which only made the air feel more imposing.

I stood in front of her, the Trasif literally shivering in fear as she watched me approach her.

"Wa... Wait!! Wait!! Wait, wait, wait, wait!" She cried, throwing up her hands pleadingly. "I... I will submit! I will submit to you! Mistress! Mistress!"

She tried to reach towards me again but her wrist was grabbed by Katsuki before she could reach me.

Oh, looks like they’ve recovered enough to be moving around again.

Katsuki was giving Carrey a death glare so intense that if looks could kill, her glare might have the same effect as Srii’s presence.

"Katsuki?" I called out to her, worried that she might just kill Carrey right there and then.

"Do not worry, Mistress. I am aware of what we need. Where and who is your leader?"

Carrey’s mouth snapped shut and she averted her gaze.

Katsuki pulled at the Trasif to force her to look at her.

"Do you think you are in any position to keep quiet right now? You think I wouldn’t do anything to get an answer out of you?"

Carrey started to cry, "Please!! Please don’t do this! Mistress! Mistress!! Please!!"

I tilted my head at her, "Why are you not even willing to tell us that? Are you still planning to help your leader or something?"

She shook her head quickly but still chose not to answer.

I frowned, "Is it because you’re under some kind of enchantment that might end your life or curse you if you were to say something about it?"

She did not respond again and merely looked down at the ground instead.

Katsuki was having none of that as she delivered a backhanded slap across the slaver’s face before pulling her by the hair to force her to look at me.

"Mistress is talking to you so you do well to look at her when she’s talking."

Damn... I think Katsuki is even more pissed at her than I am... And I think I know why...

She probably blames herself for allowing this girl to trick us to this point and got us into this trap despite Carrey being under her direct supervision.

Obviously I do not blame her since I was the one who decided to buy her and there was no way Katsuki would go against my decision to begin with so I would say I bear the fault of letting this happen.

Speaking of which... I’m going to need to have a stern talking to with Eins on making sure things like this don’t happen again.

Carrey looked up at me after being forced to by Katsuki, the Trasif literally shaking in fear right now.

I leaned closer to her, "So are you going to tell us who your leader is or not? Or are you unable to do so because you might die after saying it?"

She shook her head.

"Are you saying no to the first question or the second question?"

She shook her head again.

Katsuki slapped her across the face one more time, "Stop trying to be difficult. Do I need to start breaking fingers before you cooperate?"

Carrey hesitated again so Katsuki went ahead to grab her hand to pull it up by her pinky finger.

There was then a loud crack as she snapped the finger, breaking it without any warning and prompting the Trasif to scream out in pain.

Katsuki turned to me, "Please leave her to me, Mistress. I’ll make sure to get the answer out of her."

Mmm... I guess she wants to do some stuff to her that she doesn’t want me to directly witness.

Well, I trust her with that so I nodded and stepped back.

I then turned to the other girls, "Could you girls also start interrogating those that are left? We want to find out who and where the leader is. I’ll make sure to heal them so that they don’t die so no need to hold back."

At the sound of that, the girls all had grins on their faces and started advancing upon the remaining slavers.

Odeta went straight for Franco which was a surprise because I thought she would choose to torture the muscled guy instead.

I guess she still felt unsatisfied by their fight where he ran away instead of facing her.

This was why I didn’t actually kill any of the executives of course, since I wasn’t sure if only one of them knew where their leader was so I decided to keep them alive for now.

But don’t get me wrong, I fully intend on killing them all once I’ve got what I need.

The other girls also started to pick their victims... Err... I mean, their interrogation targets to start their work.

And Ather, of course, brought out her easel and started to paint the aftermath of the battle as well as the scenes of torture my girls were inflicting on them.

I let them have their fun since they weren’t able to do so after they were affected by the trap that drained their stamina and mana away. I have no doubt they were definitely frustrated at their condition and wanted to take that out on these guys.

That’s why I left them to it and approached Eins, wanting to settle something else with her instead.

I crossed my arms at her, "Eins."

"Master," She greeted me with a bow.

"You have some explaining to do."

"I’m afraid I do not understand, Master?"

"You can read my mind. You know exactly what I mean. Why did you not tell me that Carrey was secretly working for those slavers this entire time and those times she was ’kidnapped’ was really just her willingly going to them?"

Eins tilted her head at me, "I did tell you she willingly went to them, Master."

"Yes, but you didn’t tell me that it was because she’s one of them."

"Because you did not ask, Master."

"Don’t you think you should have at least told me about it since she was a threat to me and my girls?"

"But she wasn’t, Master?"

I narrowed my eyes at her, "What are you talking about? Didn’t she just literally set up a trap for us and tried to kill us? How was she not a threat?"

"Because even if she did all that, she would not have been able to succeed. We would still be here and prevent her from harming you, Master."

"But shouldn’t you work on trying to prevent such things from happening in the first place?"

"Master did not request that of us."

"But you didn’t think that this would have hurt me in any way? Especially since you must have at least overheard she was planning to set up this trap, right?"

"She would not have succeeded, Master."

I gestured at the pillars, "Those had sucked my mana dry right? What if she had also prepared something that would dismiss all of you or even prevent you from coming out of my shadow?"

"She did not have something like that planned, Master."

"Is that why you decided to stay silent on it, then?"

"It was because she never was a threat, Master. As you had shown earlier, they were not even able to stand against you without your mana. You were technically never in any danger from the beginning.

I sucked in a breath before breathing out.

Arguing semantics with her is useless I suppose.

I guess that’s one bad thing about Shadow Guards... They aren’t actually autonomous... Or more specifically, I guess they just take their commands too literally.

That means I might need to set some more ground rules if I didn’t want this to happen again...

"Fine, fine... In that case, let me give some standing orders for you. I want you to report to me about anything and anyone who you find are planning on or attempting to do something that might put me or the people I care about in a situation that I would prefer not to be in. Would this order have made you report to me about Carrey’s plans?"

"Yes, Master. Shall I interpret that as something I will have to do from now on?"

"That’s right."

"Then I will strive to do so from now on, Master."

Alright, that’s that dealt with... Hopefully this doesn’t happen again...