"Um... Brother Lehende, that's not how you use truth serum."
Watching Lehende force it down the Muggle's throat until the man was foaming at the mouth, Leonard could not help silently observing a second of mourning for him.
"That's not how you use it? Then what, do you apply it topically?" Lehende froze at once. He had never been to a Muggle hospital.
"It's a bit complicated to explain. Forget the truth serum, I'll do it." Leonard pushed Lehende aside, walked up to the Muggle, and used Legilimency directly.
"Legilimency?" Norman looked at Leonard in surprise, then at Lehende.
Legilimency was by no means some basic spell. A wizard who mastered Legilimency was called a Legilimens. It was the kind of magic complex enough to be treated as its own profession, so its difficulty went without saying.
In any case, neither he nor Lehende had learned this magic, nor had they even learned Occlumency, the specialized magic used to defend against it.
If this child, who looked only thirteen or fourteen, could even master a spell like that, then what kind of background did he have?
Faced with his good friend's questioning look, Lehende could only shrug helplessly.
He had only just learned that Leonard could use Legilimency himself. He had thought he was already overestimating Leonard, yet Leonard's displayed abilities had still startled him.
This boy was a monster. It was one thing for him to be unusually intelligent at such a young age, but his magical talent was enough to make anyone jealous.
If he could trick this kid into becoming his son-in-law... that would not actually be a bad deal.
Leonard had no idea what the two adults behind him were thinking. He was focused on examining the Muggle's memories, trying to find something useful.
Against Muggles, this kind of magic was much easier to use. With no magical defenses in place, Leonard could directly pry through every memory in the man's brain.
Very quickly, Leonard had reviewed all of the Muggle's memories, and a trace of change appeared on his face.
"Well? Did you find anything?" Lehende asked.
Leonard nodded. "I saw it. This person's memories don't contain the concept of Raven, but they clearly know wizards exist, and..."
At that point, his expression grew heavy.
"And what?" Norman pressed.
"And they've been capturing wizards for research, and they've succeeded more than once." Leonard's face turned grave. "This man alone has taken part in five operations to capture wizards. Aside from this failure, the previous four all succeeded."
"That's impossible!" Norman cried out in shock. "How could mere Muggles possibly capture wizards? That's... that's complete nonsense."
"Leonard is probably telling the truth." Lehende stroked his chin. "Muggles seem to be quite good at making some very interesting equipment. Look."
As he spoke, he took out the things he had brought back with him, two tranquilizer guns.
"I haven't figured out exactly how these things work, but the needles inside are very interesting. Once they pierce the body, they automatically inject the liquid inside. That liquid has a powerful anesthetic effect. Even wizards can't resist it."
Lehende handed the tranquilizer guns to Norman and Leonard. "If you used a weapon like this for an ambush, an ordinary wizard would have no ability to resist."
By ordinary wizard, he naturally did not mean himself. With one transformation, Lehende could simply ignore that anesthetic.
"Wait..." Norman looked at the tranquilizer gun in his hand, then at Leonard. "Is this the weapon you were talking about? This is also... a gun?"
Lehende also looked at Leonard with interest. From the sound of it, Leonard seemed rather familiar with this sort of thing.
Which made sense. Leonard came from a Muggle family, so maybe he had seen them before.
"Sort of. But this is called a tranquilizer gun. It's not the same as the gun I was talking about." Leonard toyed with it a little, but the thing was too light in his hand, and he lost interest almost immediately.
"This thing isn't lethal. Compared to a handgun, it's far less dangerous. It's basically a toy." Leonard tossed the tranquilizer gun aside.
"How is that possible? This thing is way bigger than the handgun you mentioned. It looks more powerful," Norman said skeptically.
"Heh..." Leonard gave a soft laugh, loaded a tranquilizer dart into the gun for Norman, and said, "Shoot that Muggle once."
"Shoot? How do I do that?" Norman looked a little lost.
"Like this. Aim, then pull the trigger." There was no skill involved with something like this. Leonard was not expecting Norman to hit a target properly anyway, so he just had him stand in front of the Muggle and point the barrel at him.
With a light pop, the dart struck the Muggle. His body twitched, his head lolled, and he passed out.
"Interesting." Norman narrowed his eyes at the dart in the Muggle's body, pulled it out, and examined it carefully in his hand. "It's pretty fast. If you weren't paying attention, it really would be easy to get hit."
"That's still not the real thing..." Leonard took out the pistol and stood ten meters from the Muggle. "You two stand to the side and watch carefully."
Then he raised the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
The huge report echoed through the basement. Norman and Lehende both jumped and stared at Leonard in surprise.
"That sound is pretty startling." Norman stared at the tiny pistol in Leonard's hand that had somehow made such a huge noise. "But it only startles you, right?"
"No, Norman. Look at the Muggle." Standing beside him, Lehende had been focused on the Muggle being used as a target. A bloody hole had appeared in the man's shoulder, and blood was flowing out.
An injury like that still had not woken the Muggle in pain. That anesthetic must have been a strong dose.
"When did that wound appear?" Norman was stunned. In disbelief, he checked the wound and confirmed that it was fresh, then looked toward the pistol in Leonard's hand.
"That wound was caused by that thing?"
"That's right. So don't think wizards are all that much better than Muggles. In front of a weapon like this, everyone is equal."
Leonard tossed the pistol to Norman and smiled as he fumbled awkwardly to catch it.
"So, gentlemen, would you like to get your hands on a few more of these weapons... and study them?"
Norman looked up, his eyes shining. "You mean..."
"You found the people behind this Muggle?" Lehende asked. "Is it Raven?"
"Whether it's Raven or not, we go first and find out later." Leonard said, "We need to move quickly. Their mission failed, so there's a good chance they'll run."