Chapter 120: Monsters Don’t Shiver
The moment Elsa shook her head,
Walfred instantly sprang from his seat and charged at Vernon. In the blink of an eye, he grabbed the man’s head and slammed it into the floor.
Whaaam!
"Gurk!"
Vernon let out a short scream.
In the meantime, Walfred pinned him down hard with a knee, subduing him. Then he seized one of the man’s arms and used [Rapid Freeze].
Crackle, crack!
"Aagh! Aaaaargh!"
At the agony of his body freezing alive, Vernon screamed his lungs out. After freezing half of the man’s body, Walfred spoke in a dry voice.
"From now on, you answer my questions."
"Wh, what, wh, what are you...?"
"The strange phenomenon from two weeks ago. What it really was, and what happened there. Talk."
There were three pieces of information Walfred wanted.
The first was the question he had just asked, about the strange phenomenon. The second was the reason there was snow of pure mana inside the Skinwalkers’ bodies.
’And the third...’
Information about the frost-attribute Boss Monster that had to be somewhere around here. But he planned to ask about that after resolving the first two questions.
Meanwhile, the moment the question ended,
Vernon cried out frantically.
"I, I don’t know! I have nothing to do with it!"
"...Nothing to do with it?"
"That’s right! I don’t know what the strange phenomenon is, and I never even went on the investigation in the first place!"
To think he’d deny it this shamelessly.
Walfred let out a hollow laugh.
"Besides, if you had questions, you could have just asked. Why would you do this to a per... Wait! D, don’t tell me you think I’m one of those monsters?"
"..."
"If that’s it, you’ve got it wrong! I’m not a Skinwalker. I’m human!"
He kept insisting on his innocence.
His voice carried enough conviction that anyone who didn’t know better might have changed their mind.
But right then,
"Nuh-uh."
Elsa shook her head.
Then, as if driving in the final nail, she said,
"Smells different. Not human."
At those words, Walfred placed his hand on the ice fused to the floor. A moment later, an ice axe created by [Frozen Weapon] was in his grip.
And then,
Thunk! Crunch!
with a gruesome sound,
Vernon’s right arm was severed clean off.
"...!? Aaaaaargh!"
Vernon let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Yet even with part of his body cut off, he didn’t change into a monster’s form.
’So the disguise doesn’t come undone until it’s dead?’
That seemed to be the case.
Having learned something new, Walfred spoke to Vernon, who was groaning in pain.
"I’ll ask one more time."
"Hrk! Ngghh...!"
"How did your kind get into this shelter? And where did you scavenge the snow of pure mana that’s inside your body?"
Walfred asked again and again.
However,
"I, I don’t know! I told you, I’m human!"
Vernon kept insisting on his innocence.
Instead of answering, Walfred swung the ice axe and lopped off the man’s left ankle.
Thwack! Crack!
"Aagh! Stop! P, please, stop!"
Vernon wailed pitifully.
The torture and questioning continued after that, but even with all four limbs severed, he refused to the very end to admit that he was a Skinwalker.
And a little while later,
Splat!
judging that no more information could be gained, Walfred blew the creature’s head off. Its body soon turned to jelly.
"Human, my ass."
Damn monster.
Walfred furrowed his brow.
After kicking the Skinwalker’s corpse aside, he opened the door and stepped out. Then he called over Colton and Donovan, who were waiting at the end of the corridor.
"Hunter. What did you need... Hk!"
"Wh, what in the world..."
Colton and Donovan flinched hard as they entered the room. Severed arms and legs, along with no small amount of blood, covered the floor.
"The man named Vernon. Did you know him?"
"Of course. He was a close acquaintance of the Pharmacist. That’s why he gladly volunteered for the investigation of the strange phenomenon... W, wait. Don’t tell me!"
"That’s right. This is Vernon."
"...!?"
The two sucked in a sharp breath.
They looked considerably shaken. Walfred, on the other hand, spoke with an indifferent face.
"Clean this up quickly and send in the next person."
"U, understood...!"
The two hurriedly began tidying up.
Meanwhile, Elsa shoved her hand into the body of the Skinwalker that had been posing as Vernon.
A moment later, from within the dark red gore, she pulled out a chunk of snow shimmering with blue light.
"Hehe, found it."
Snow of pure mana.
At the sight of Elsa popping it into her mouth and munching on it like candy, Walfred smiled awkwardly.
"...You’ve got a strong stomach, Elsa."
"Stomach? What’s that? Is it yummy?"
Walfred didn’t answer.
Before long, once the room was roughly back in order, the screening resumed. From then on, every time he encountered a Skinwalker, he showered it with questions alongside torture.
But there was little to show for it.
’I don’t know why, but...’
The Skinwalkers never stopped imitating humans until the moment they died. No matter how brutal the torture, he simply couldn’t get the information he wanted.
And as a result,
Walfred realized torture was useless.
Splat!
Then there’s no need to waste time.
From that point on, the moment a subject was revealed to be a Skinwalker, Walfred smashed its head in first.
The work went much faster after that.
And through this process, Walfred realized there was a way to tell humans and Skinwalkers apart even without relying on Elsa’s nose.
"Cough, cough!"
"Was this room always this cold...?"
"Whew, aren’t you cold, Hunter?"
Because Walfred’s [Cold Emission] had filled the room and sent the indoor temperature plunging, more and more people complained of the cold as time went on.
Like these, everyone who complained about the cold was confirmed by Elsa to be human.
On the other hand,
"P, pardon the intrusion."
"Hello. I was told you called for me..."
Those who showed no particular sign of shivering even after entering the room were, with high probability, Skinwalkers. The reason for the difference was simple.
’The presence or absence of cold resistance.’
After the world froze over,
every monster had gained resistance to cold and freezing. That included the Skinwalkers. As a result, they gave themselves away without even realizing it.