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"Can't what? Are you saying you're fat <span class="mu-i">and</span> stupid?" The Bandit King doubled down.
Bertha, now more than a little angry, stormed away, but then turned around with her hammer lifted.
You calm Bertha down again before she did something she'd regret, then you order her to take a breather and start packing your things for the trip to Centria. For some reason that seemed to make her extremely happy, and she went to work after giving you a smooch.
As for the Bandit King, Gerty used all of her experience in dealing with 'thieves, traitors, and scum', taking a very no-nonsense approach when talking to find out if he had any sort of military background or noble upbringing. The answer was, unsurprisingly, a staunch 'no'. Yet after Ayane spoke to him, she said that he was likely a merchant or some derivative of said class.
Cattleya took a more direct approach by employing the use of threats and intimidation. She even went as far as to tell him she once ripped off a guy's thing, and wouldn't be afraid of doing it to him. Unfortunately this didn't help in trying to get him to open up.
Everyone went back to the mansion, and Ruby then presented a plan to you, which ended up being a more convoluted prototype of good-cop bad-cop. You simplified Ruby's version to something you were more familiar with.
"An excellent way of putting it, darling." Ayane had said.
"So the plan is to make him have trust in the nicer guy, but making him nearly shit himself himself about the mean bobby?" Cattleya meowed.
"That's the quick of it, yeah." You said.
"There is no need to be modest when speaking about the intellect of my gallant Master." Ruby commented with a smile. "Since it's always apparent in the things he does~"
"It's so simple, yet it could change the way interrogation." Gerty was in awe of probably the most cliche interrogation method to ever exist.
"Anyway, back to what I was saying..." While you didn't mind hearing your slaves flatter you, there was still work to be done.
The Bandit King, with Cattleya's threats and Ayane's more diplomatic words, spoke about some deal he made with Rostchilde where he'd get payed by the man to steal and harass from his very own hotels. Not to mention the free loot he'd get from the town he hit, too. Unlike his past bragging, this actually seemed to check out with the things he did.
You had him write it out alongside his connection to Forthwythe and Riverdale. Not that it meant much more than the parchments he used as letters, but it could be useful to have someday.
Any further attempts at questioning didn't bring any new information.
"He might be saying this to bring them down with him, Master." Ayane said when you were all done interrogating him. Your kitsune was still not willing to commit to that idea, despite the evidence supporting it.
"It's quite clear his connections with Forthwythe and Rostchilde had some basis in reality." Ruby countered.
