>>5195120Vlad thought about coming up with a rebuttal, but his mouth was filled by the taste of iron as Farnese threw the chain onto him and pulled with all her might. Slowly taking him out of the quicksand as he limped around in one foot.
"I suppose touching me with your actual hands is out of the question?" Vlad wanted to prove he was human, but the mere approaching of his hand towards Farnese's face made her recoil.
"Never! You are tainted! Corrupted! Tarnished! The only touch you'll be receiving is the arduous fire of your cleansing!" The inability of listening to 'the enemy' thanks to her indoctrination mixed with the terrible comprehension of her feelings made Farnese judge Vlad worthy of the death row.
She wanted him dead even moreso than Guts, though neither of them could understand why.
"Don't be so hasty, commander!" Serpico places an oily hand at her armor, before wiping his hand on his clothes, it seems like he always dumbs himself down when talking to her, very much unlike how he talked when alone with Vlad.
"Vlad here has a personal connection with us, right? It should only make it easier to cross-examine such a personalised entity."
Unlike Farnese, Serpico did not want Vlad to be dead yet. He knew he was in fact, still alive, but taking that idea out of the girl would be a slow process. Suggesting torture over instantaneous death was the best he could do.
"...Very well. Take him upwards. Let's pretend this interaction never happened..." Feeling embarrassed at the loss of composure amidst her soldiers, she entangled the chains around the defeated Vlad and gave it to Serpico, climbing the rope to escape the ravine.
"I'm pretty sure there's a more comfortable way to restrict my movements..." Vlad complains after being dragged by Serpico.
"It's not meant to be comfortable, cur!" Farnese shouts in return, not wanting to hear him.
"I got a twisted ankle here, the least you guys could do is give me something to treat my injuries with. Oh, right! Phantoms can't take damage..."
"You know, my hands are starting to get very slippery right now..." Serpico threatens to drop him down again, getting annoyed at the banter of both parties.
On top of being stuck with a chain around his torso, the knights also put in the effort of tying his hands under his back and placing Vlad inside a cage. Without counting the guards, he was constricted by 3 layers of protection so he could not escape.
"Vlad? Never thought I'd see you here, young man." Azan was shocked to see a familiar face inside that cage. "It's a shame that these spirits are taking the form of such a previously honorable knight in training..."
"You too, Azan? Don't tell me you believe in this too! Farnese is going to burn me to a crisp unless I get out of here. How can you be ok with this torture, I thought you people had honor!"
"Torture? We never torture ones who are down, be it dead or undead." Azan concludes with the opposite of what Serpico implied. Who was telling the truth?
