Chapter 23: The Interrogation
Although the duo of Reapers took the full brunt of the good-luck charm’s powers, they were in stable condition. Not only were their bracelets confiscated and their magic sealed off, they were thrown into the dungeon. The series of fires was put to a close, and it seemed as though everyone could start breathing a little easier.
Once everyone took a break to regain their composure, Jade, accompanied by Ruri, traveled down to the dungeon to proceed with the interrogation. The Reapers were locked away in a high-security section of sector five reserved for the most serious of offenders. They were in a “jail cell” in the technical sense, but instead of the dank and dirty stone walls that Ruri had envisioned, it was actually in pristine condition. It was a brightly lit room with a bed and table, separated off with iron bars. In fact, if the bars weren’t there, it would have been hard to even tell it was a part of a dungeon as both the floors and walls were spick and span.
The Reapers, as seen from outside the bars, had bandaged arms and legs but otherwise seemed to be doing just fine. It was a miracle they made it out of that devastation with such minor injuries—the miracle of Kotaro shielding them from the blast at the last moment, of course, and one that Ruri wanted the two to thank him for.
In their cell, the vigor the Reapers once had was now gone. Their expressions were melancholic, like a couple of death-row inmates awaiting their execution. Admittedly, they did attempt to murder a Beloved, so that made perfect sense. There was no possible way they would skate by with just a light punishment.
Jade took a step toward them. “I have a few questions for the both of you.”
The man quickly lifted his head, clinging to the bars and asking, “If we talk, will you lighten our sentence?!”
“Nonsense,” Jade replied. “Trying to kill a Beloved is not a crime that holds a ‘light sentence.’ Not to mention, you Reapers have killed people across multiple nations. There is no way I would grant clemency to people as dangerous as the both of you.”
“No, you’re wrong! Neither of us are Reapers!” the man responded.
“Right,” exclaimed the woman, “we’re not!”
The duo couldn’t refute the insinuation of being Reapers fast enough. While it could’ve just been an attempt at talking their way out of the situation, they seemed to be earnestly desperate in their claims.
Ruri and Jade looked at one another before Jade turned back to the man, glaring at him with a stern look. “Explain yourselves. You’re both Reapers, aren’t you? Ruri told me that you both called yourselves that.”
“N-No! We’re tellin’ the truth. We’re no Reapers!” the man exclaimed before launching into his life story.
“We’re originally mercenaries. We came from far away once we heard Nadasha was starting a big war, but it ended so fast that we never got a chance to find work. So, instead of getting paid, we ended up in the red. We couldn’t find decent work to help us earn money for our trip back to our nation, and we were at the point where surviving didn’t look likely, much less going back home. That’s when we decided to borrow the infamous monikers—Reapers. Once we did, we got a request right away. Two robed figures. We never saw their faces, but we jumped at the insane amount of cash they offered us.”
“People of the Church of God’s Light?” Jade questioned.
“I don’t know that much,” the man replied. “All I know is they told us to kill the Beloved and they had everything all ready for us. They gave us those bracelets and explained we could get in and out of the castle easily with them. We were simply told that we just had to kill the Beloved, and we followed their instructions to the letter.”
“What instructions?” Jade asked.
The man’s eyes wandered around the room before he took an audible gulp and hesitantly started to speak. “First, we had to infiltrate the castle using the bracelets and scope out the interior—especially the Beloved’s room, the kitchen, and the infirmary. We were told to carefully investigate the position of each of those places. We’ve been infiltrating the castle for the past few days. Then, at night, we’d sneak into the room of this nation’s Beloved, kidnap her, and throw the castle into chaos. Apparently, our client was aiming to do something in the confusion. Our instructions after we took her was to wrap her up in Spirit Slayer chains, make sure the spirits didn’t spot us, and dump her into the sea to kill her.”
“Why didn’t you take her after you killed her? Wouldn’t that be easier?” asked Jade.
“The bracelets are magic tools, so they react to mana. If she were dead already, then she wouldn’t transform into a rat even with it on her. That’s why we needed to keep her alive.”
That was a new revelation to Ruri. She assumed her own bracelet operated in the same way, albeit with a different animal transformation.
“Also, our instructions were that once we killed the Nation of the Dragon King’s Beloved, we’d come back and kill the Beloved of Cerulanda. We were simply following orders. We weren’t trying to kill because we wanted to; we had to in order to keep ourselves alive. So, come on, show us mercy!”
“Please!” pleaded the woman.
Ruri was clearly discomforted by these two individuals trying to argue that their hands were forced into murder.
“Whether you were instructed or requested to do so, it was a murder plot, and one that will not be taken lightly,” Jade said in a voice so low it practically came from the depths of the earth. After all, one false step and Ruri would have died. His rage was justified.
Seeing the two trying to excuse their way into a lighter sentence after everything they’d done filled Ruri with rage as well. She hadn’t forgotten the man’s twisted smile before he pushed her off into the sea.
Seeing the anger emanating from Jade, the man swallowed his words. “I’m sorry! I won’t do anything bad any more! So, please... spare us.” The two tossed their pride by the wayside and proceeded to drop to the ground and grovel.
Jade looked down at them with a cold stare, saying, “Do you honestly think that spouting those empty words will pardon you of your deeds? This is not some misdemeanor. You two attempted murder. You will both be punished to the full extent of our nation’s laws.”
The hope instantly drained from their faces, and they both slumped in their cell.
However, someone else present raised an objection—that someone being Rin. She howled while flapping around, her bright red eyes open wide. “That is not good enough!!”
Kotaro nodded in agreement. “They tried to kill Ruri, our contract-bearer. This is no crime to be tried by some nation’s laws.”
“Yes, but...” Jade stammered, completely understanding how Rin and Kotaro felt. It was clear from his scowling face that he wanted to rip the two to shreds right here and now, but as the king of a nation, he was bound to obey his nation’s laws.
“There’s no way you’ll consider executing them, then?” Rin asked.
“That’s correct...” Even though they tried to murder a Beloved, the laws of the Nation of the Dragon King would not allow the death penalty. Compared to other nations that would put people to death simply for stealing, the Nation of the Dragon King was far more humane; they would punish to the fullest extent, but their fullest extent wasn’t death.
Rin and Kotaro were extremely dissatisfied, finding the punishment far too light. Jade knew how they felt. Even considering the possibility that the spirits’ retribution would plunge the nation into danger, a part of him wanted to put them to death. But Jade couldn’t bring himself to do something so offhandedly.
As she looked at the perplexed Jade and the snarling Rin and Kotaro, an idea popped into Ruri’s mind. “So, how about this? Would you mind if I were to give them a little punishment, Jade-sama?”
“What do you plan on doing?”
Ruri looked at the two wannabe Reapers’ faces and smirked. “First, we’ll get some catnip,” she started, as if going through a recipe.
Jade raised his eyebrow in suspicion. “Okay, then what?”
“We have those bracelets that turn people into rats, correct? We’ll use those to turn them into rats.”
“Okay...?” Jade played along, not yet following the plan.
“We’ll cover them in catnip and place them in a small cage so they can’t turn back into human form. One about this size,” Ruri said as she pulled out a small iron cage from her pocket space. It could fit in two hands. She had just so happened to find it when she went into her pocket space before. “So, once we put them in this cage, we’ll throw it to a bunch of hungry strays. Spending the whole night like that will be their little punishment.”
A short pause descended upon the room.
“Uh, Ruri?” Jade spoke up. “Wouldn’t the hungry cats tear them limb from limb if we did that? That’s not what I’d call a ‘little’ punishment by any stretch.”
“Oh, don’t worry. They’ll be in a cage, so they’ll survive... Maybe.”
The mental image of hungry cats tearing a couple of rats to shreds reached the pair, and their faces turned deathly pale.
Ruri brought her mouth over to Jade’s ear and started to whisper something so that the two prisoners couldn’t overhear. “I’ll place a magic barrier over the cage so that the cats won’t eat them. Of course, I won’t be telling them that since I want to scare them.”
Ruri had been pushed into the dark depths of the sea and forced to experience the slow, looming fear of death firsthand. She wouldn’t be satisfied until they felt the same level of fear she did.
“If that will satisfy you, then so be it,” Rin said.
“Quite,” agreed Kotaro.
With Rin and Kotaro’s approval, Jade also accepted the idea, assuming this would ensure a safer conclusion than letting the spirits personally punish them. “Fine, then. If that will satisfy you, we’ll make the preparations.”
Ruri went to the cell and flashed a somewhat devilish smile at the man and woman. “Try your best not to die, now.”
“Eeek!” yelped the two. This plan was, of course, designed to ensure that they wouldn’t die, but since the pair were clueless to this fact, they were stricken with fear.
Ruri reveled in delight as she imagined the comical sight of the two rats sitting in a cage, holding each other in fear as the cats waited right outside, clueless that they were perfectly safe.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
After their talk with the Reaper imposters was through, Ruri thought they would be leaving the jail, but Jade proceeded to travel deeper.
“Do we still have business here?” asked Ruri.
“The member of the Church of God’s Light suspected of hiring that pair of fake Reapers is in a cell further back,” Jade replied.
They went through one door and then another until they finally reached the front of a certain cell. Euclase, Finn, and Claus were already standing there. All of them were peering into the cell, looking perplexed. Upon Ruri and Jade’s arrival, they cleared a space in front of the cell.
“Has he said anything?”
“No, he is keeping his lips sealed. And we cannot employ harsher interrogation methods against a child, either...” Euclase said, heaving a sigh and holding a hand against their cheek.
“A child?” Ruri asked as she slowly approached the cell and looked inside.
There, a boy who looked no older than ten years old, dressed in a black ninja-like outfit, sat on his bed. His mouth was practically a straight line, and he glared daggers at Euclase and the others.
Ruri was not only surprised that the captured member of the Church of God’s Light was a prepubescent child, but the boy in question looked familiar.
“Noah-kun?!”
“An acquaintance of yours?”
“We’ve spoken a few times in town. Why is Noah-kun...” The child inside the cell was the same child from the skewer vendor that she’d met several times in town before—Noah.
Ruri stared at Noah in wide-eyed shock. Why was he in the cell the member of the Church of God’s Light was supposed to be in? The answer was clear to her, but her mind couldn’t keep up.
Noah was just as shocked as Ruri. He got up from the bed and rushed over as if he was going to grab Ruri’s lower body. However, the bars impeded him and his hands didn’t reach her.
He violently gripped the bars and shouted, “Why are you here?! Those two were supposed to kill you. Why are you still alive?!”
Faced with Noah’s intensity, Ruri was at a loss for words despite having a million questions. Hearing the question, “Why are you still alive?!” from a small child—from such an innocent face—positively floored her. Noah clearly wished her dead.
“...They couldn’t kill the Beloved. It’s all over... I could have seen mom and dad again if they’d just got the job done...” Noah said, his voice sounding as if his hopes and dreams were just crushed before his eyes. He limply slid to his knees on the floor. “I’m sorry, Dad, Mom...” His bitter murmuring echoed throughout the silent dungeon.
It seemed as though Noah was keeping something to himself. The tone of his voice broke Ruri’s heart and she forgot about his death wish from a moment ago.
“You want to see your mom and dad? In that case, we can help you do so. If you tell us everything,” Jade offered.
Noah listlessly looked up at Jade, turning his reproachful gaze from Euclase and the others to his king as if doubtful that he’d grant the wish of the castle raider who had caused so much panic.
Jade, however, completely disregarded that assumption. Not a single person around thought Noah, a mere child, had plotted any of this. Jade most likely wanted to investigate Noah’s background and smoke out any cohorts as soon as possible, which was why he offered to help.
Noah, however, seemed none too pleased with the offer. “There’s no way you could do that. Only the leader can. I’ve already failed once. This was my last chance. It was my last chance and I blew it... I’ll never get to see my mom and dad ever again....”
Noah sat slumped on the floor in a trance. Jade and Euclase proceeded to address him, but he didn’t make a peep.
Neither did Ruri. She couldn’t find the words to address Noah, the individual with a death wish for her and the very person plotting with the Reapers to take her life.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login