Amber watched as some of the knights immediately were stunned into silence, while others seemed confused and lost. No one was happy about her confession, however the only one that seemed to still be composed was Volkar, who spoke towards her.
“Now, this claim is…”
“Ridiculous?” Amber asked.
“Yes.” He nodded. “But the title of Demonkiller of Laria is something that a few of us know, in fact we’ve talked about what kind of person this Demonkiller is. You’ve also proved yourself to be incredibly trustworthy.”
“Right.”
Amber expected to have to argue for her claims, but now, she didn’t really know where it was going. And so she let Volkar continue to speak.
“The situation with the demon cultists is something that we’ve tried to investigate, but as you’ve overheard the search has reached a dead end,” he said. “However, ever since re-opening the capital there have been gradual disappearances every month; or so I heard last I was at the capital two months ago.”
She slowly nodded, paying attention to what he was saying. A lot of the knights also nodded.
“And while your claims about the noble families are… ludicrous to say the least, it is something I’d like your help to confirm with some further questioning.”
“I don’t think there is much more to say about it other than all of the guards at the Resnar residence knew about it too,” Amber said. “Interrogating a guard should be possible.”
“The problem is that those guards have been executed because they failed to capture the killer of the Risnar’s family heir.”
“Oh.”
“So, I’d like to take you for formal questioning Amber,” he said. “I’d like to take you to the castle for interrogation and call upon the court mages to see if your words are truthful, and then depending on your words we will act accordingly.”
“So you mean arrest me for my crimes or go after the family instead?” Amber asked.
“Indeed, but arrest might be too much,” he stated simply. “Think of detainment instead at most.”
Volkar seemed to have entered professional mode, though the same couldn’t be said about the other knights. A very small portion voiced that it was a waste to go that far and to detain Amber right now, others argued against that. And some even said that they should go after the noble families immediately.
Overall, the people that wanted to detain Amber were very few, a lot of them actually wanted to go after the noble families immediately. The fact that she was friends with the Primordial Spirit and Terrel made most knights overwhelmingly inclined to believe her. Then after a few moments, she watched Volkar turn to the crowd.
“My squad will handle this, all of you remain here,” he said for everyone to hear. “I’ll take her for interrogation at the castle.”
At that, surprisingly, no one objected.
Then he turned to her. “We are departing now.”
Amber nodded and then, without so much as grabbing any equipment Volkar began to walk. She followed right after him and four more knights joined them. It was such a sudden departure that Amber didn’t know what to make of it, but as they entered the forest the reality of the situation settled in on her.
She really was being taken for questioning.
* * *
[Archer. Lvl. 130]
[Warrior. Lvl. 133]
[Mage. Lvl. 132]
…
Amber found herself walking for more than an hour, none of the knights had said anything, not even Volkar. It was awkward, and at the same time she felt on edge due to the tense atmosphere. It was a completely different ambience to the one in the camp.
She had a lot of things in mind, but the archer’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.
“I would suggest you relax.” He shook his head. “Neither of us believe you to be a terrible person, but neither of us believe your words completely either.”
“What are you even trying to say?” Amber raised her brow.
“He’s trying to say that we are all just doing our job,” the mage said. She was a woman. “And our job is to take you for proper questioning, so that your claims are verified. Nothing else, and nothing more. Also you are a friend of the Primordial Spirit, even if you get arrested you’ll get away with a slap on the wrist, plus all of the knights really like you, me included, so don’t worry about it.”
The woman shrugged and Amber relaxed with her words. While she was kind of aware that nothing truly bad would happen, it was good to have verbal confirmation.
She still didn’t like her situation but at the same time this was perhaps the best outcome for her. Amber knew that she was telling the truth, and this way she’d get some form of revenge towards the two families for what they did to Velda.
Of course, Amber wasn’t hellbent on getting revenge or anything, but this was a great opportunity to do so.
* * *
They walked for another two hours before some form of conversation was made. This time it was the mage speaking to her.
“So, you are the person that snuck into the tower a few months ago,” she said, examining Amber. “Being honest, I thought you were as good as dead.”
“Why?” Amber raised her brow.
“Because everyone knew only one or two people entered, that’s why the scouts didn’t sense anything when it happened.” She shrugged. “With only two people and more than six months without anyone coming out— well you can assume they are dead.”
Amber didn’t know what to say to that, so she just nodded.
“Anyway, I could never do that, so you have my respect, and well you have my admiration for befriending the Primordial Spirit too.”
She was about to say thank you when Volkar spoke up.
“We are almost there, no more talking from now on.”
“Sorry,” the mage said.
And then, there was silence. Amber was slightly confused about what “ there” was exactly — since the capital was pretty far still. But she didn’t question it, instead she walked in silence.
Another hour passed before Amber saw a small dilapidated hut in the distance, but no one said a word. Even as they entered and the door was closed, it wasn’t until Volkar raised a black stick that he had pulled out of his pocket that he spoke.
“[Teleport to Anchor].”
And Amber blinked, she paused as they ended up in a relatively large room with guards pointing weapons at them. Though they were promptly lowered as they recognized the knights. Amber was confused, but she couldn’t really ask about anything as they began to walk once again.
* * *
They walked through various halls of the castle, and it wasn’t until they waited for Volkar outside a room that she decided to ask.
“So can you all just teleport back here whenever, and back there whenever?”
“Not exactly,” the mage answered. “Only captains have that tool, and the tool is linked to their mana signature— it is also linked to the vice-captain’s too I suppose. But it only allows to teleport between two fixed locations, meaning it cannot be used anywhere else but where the anchors are.”
“Huh, I see.” It was a lot more limited than Amber expected, but at the same time she was glad that she didn’t feel like she was missing out. “So that’s how the knights leave towards the tower.”
“That is right.” The mage smiled. “Isn’t it an amazing feat of magic?”
Amber paused. “I don’t know? I’m just a warrior.”
She scoffed at that, and the archer spoke a moment after, turning to Amber.
“Volkar is coming, and he is with your interrogator officers.”
Amber paused but nodded. And it took just a few seconds but eventually the bald knight arrived with two fancily dressed people. The two of them wore something akin to military uniforms, though she didn’t have too much time to appreciate them since Volkar said goodbye immediately.
“I’ll leave you two to it.” He nodded at the officers before turning to Amber. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Amber. Let’s see each other again, sorry for the trouble again.”
“Right, see you.”
With that, the group of knights departed and she was left with the two officers that seemed to already be sizing her up.
“We’ve been told of your claims and your admission of guilt,” the first officer said simply. “If your claims are true you won’t face repercussions and may even be awarded for your achievement.”
“But if your claims are false then you’ll be executed,” the other said.
“Right.”
Amber didn’t actually believe that claim, but given this was her first time being questioned so formally by anyone in her life, she couldn’t help but feel slightly tense.
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“It seems you understand,” the second officer said. “Let us go then.”
And just like that, she was taken for interrogation.
* * *
Amber found herself in a white room, though it wasn’t what she expected. It had a large desk which she sat behind, and a red carpet underneath, there was only a single entrance. And the officers were— missing. They told her to wait a few minutes ago, a few minutes that Amber spent burning herself with her sword and biting her tongue, all just to kill the time.
Though, once her skills had been maxed out the door opened and the two officers walked in— with a group of blue robbed mages.
[Mage. Lvl. 110]
[Mage. Lvl 102]
[Mage. Lvl. 130]
…
There were about six of them and all their levels seemed inconsistent, but they also didn’t seem to be here to attack her. Instead, they all lined against the wall to the side, for Amber and for the officers to see. The first officer began.
“The questioning shall begin.”
With those words, the mages raised their staffs and then after they muttered something, all of the staffs turned green. All six of them.
“This test will determine how truthful you are being, all six of them will remain green if you are telling the complete truth, if not they will turn red in accordance to how truthful you are being, and all of them will be red if you are telling a lie, do you understand?”
Amber nodded. “I understand.”
At that one of the lights turned red and the officer shook his head.
The second officer said. “You must be thinking about a loophole, don’t.”
Amber blinked at that before nodding. In all honesty, she was surprised that such a method for interrogation existed.
“I understand.”
At this all of the lights turned green, and the first officer began to ask questions.
“Is your name Amber?”
“Yes, what else would it be?” she felt confused.
The lights remained the same color as he continued.
“What is your age? Are you wearing a disguise?”
“Twenty-one now, I think? And no I’m not.”
Pretty basic questions I suppose.
“Where were you born?”
Amber paused. That’s a troublesome question. She paused, wondering what exactly to say, and the second officer warned.
“Failure to answer will have you arrested.”
She took a moment. “From a place whose location I don’t know, but it’s very far away,” she said. “That’s all I’m willing to say.”
The second officer frowned at that but the lights remained green.
“Well, we aren’t here to find out your mysterious origins, so I’ll continue.” The first officer nodded. “What were you doing on the day the castle was attacked?”
“I was kidnapping Velda Starkell and killing the Risnar’s family heir whose name I’ve forgotten,” Amber said simply.
The lights remained and the man nodded.
“How did you escape the Risnar residence?”
“I jumped out of the window and ran to a prepared safe-house with Liz, the knights lost us by then but we still left the capital through the sewers.”
Even though she was nervous, Amber had no plans to lie— unless it was absolutely necessary anyway. But so far, everything seemed to be going well.
“I see,” the first officer said. “How do you know the Starkell family is involved with the demon worshippers?”
“The family heir of the Risnar family declared that after negotiations, they had to include the Starkell family in their inner circle to get their hands on Velda Starkell,” Amber said with a sigh.
The officers looked towards the lights but nothing had changed, so the first officer continued with his interrogation.
“How did you get your hands in this information?” he asked with a frown.
“A view Enchantment scroll, though the heir also revealed that he was planning on using Liz as the sacrifice once she showed up to save her sister.”
“What kind of demon were they trying to summon.”
“A Flametouched Demon,” Amber said. “A demon they could only summon with someone that has a Flametouched class.”
At that the two officers nodded with utmost seriousness.
“Was it only the heir or is the entirety of the Risnar family involved?”
Amber thought for a moment. “He talked about not wanting to disappoint his parents.”
“So the heads of the house are involved at least,” the second officer gritted his teeth. “Do you know who is involved of the Starkell house?”
Amber shook her head. “No, all I know is that according to Liz, Velda was disciplined physically to the point of having line-like scarring across her body by both of her parents.”
“We shall look into that too.” The second officer nodded.
Meanwhile the first officer continued with his questions.
“Was this the reason you kidnapped Velda, to save her life?”
“No, even if she wasn’t getting sacrificed I would have still kidnapped her. Liz wanted to save her sister from an arranged marriage, she even heard her sister ask for that.”
The lights remained green and the officer nodded.
“Did you obtain anything from killing the heir of the Risnar family?”
“Aside from levels, not really,” Amber said.
“What have you done in the past eight months?”
“Climb the tower of the capital.”
There was a small pause before the officer nodded.
“I heard you befriended the Primordial Spirit, is this true?”
“Yes.”
“Was she told about the demon problem?” he asked.
“Briefly, and she found it funny.”
The two officers frowned at that but the lights remained green.
“Final question: do you know the Primordial Spirit’s name?”
“Yes.”
With that, the two officers nodded, and a moment after the green lights disappeared. Evidently, marking the end of this lengthy interrogation. Amber in turn relaxed, basically plopped into the chair, a long breath leaving her.
She was done with the interrogation.
A moment later the mages began to exit the room.
“Thank you for your time Court Mages,” the second officer said.
The Court Mages nodded as they exited the room. Amber supposed that was some kind of special title, but she wasn’t planning on asking about it. Instead she was leaving—
“Thank you for your time Amber,” the first officer said.
Amber blinked and watched as the man bowed.
“I am deeply sorry for this treatment, as a friend of a Primordial Spirit you shouldn’t be subjected to this. So I hope for your understanding,” he said apologetically. “Please know that all of the threats we made were empty, Volkar explicitly told us what happened at the camp.”
“Right.”
She kind of knew that they couldn’t actually arrest her or do anything by the time the interrogation started, so she didn’t really have much to say to the man.
And he continued. “If there is anything we can do for you don’t hesitate to let us know.”
She nodded at that and the man smiled.
“We ask that you remain here, I shall relay your truths to our Majesty.”
Amber blinked, and a moment later the officer stood up and left the room. And then, she was left with the second officer, the one that had been acting as the bad guy in the entire discussion. Though, he didn’t seem to have that demeanor anymore, instead he turned to her.
“As Clint said, I’m terribly sorry about the way we treated you, it’s just our job. Whether you are a friend of the Primordial Spirit, we are forced to do this in order to get as much information as possible.” He bowed, explaining. “If there is anything I can do for you—”
“Can I have some water?”
The man immediately nodded and left the room.
Amber never expected that being a friend of the Primordial Spirit essentially made her be treated like nobility, but she supposed it made sense given the king also had relations with Val’leri.
Still, they could’ve been a lot nicer about the questioning. She didn’t exactly blame the men, but she still would’ve given them the complete information even if they made no threats and asked their questions over a cup of tea.
A sigh left her as the man re-entered the room with a glass of water, which she took.
She wanted to leave, but now it seemed that she had to wait until the king was made aware of what she had said— which she supposed was fair given it was well, the king.
And so, Amber waited as the minutes passed.
About ten minutes later, the door opened and the first officer came back.
“The King of Cytel requests your presence.”
Amber blinked. “Wait… what?”
* * *
Not in a million years did she expect to have an audience with the king. Even though her armor was sparkling, she still had some grime in her face and her hair was disheveled— needless to say it wasn’t the best first impression. Though, neither seemed to even care about that. Not even the random guards around the castle that had never seen her before. No— instead all of them bowed in her presence and looked at her with great admiration, all due to her new-found status.
It had taken Amber close to a minute to process that she was meeting the king, and now that she had processed it—
“The king awaits your presence,” the officer said pushing the gigantic two double doors open. “This is as far as I go, please go in.”
Amber nodded and walked into the massive hall. It was reminiscent to the one in the one-hundredth floor of the tower, but surprisingly less opulent. Though the ground remained lined with a red carpet and there were banners all around the room as well as knights whose levels were question marks to her.
She continued to walk as her eyes landed on a figure sitting on a throne with golden accents and red cushions. Given the adorned crown atop of his head Amber could figure that he was the king. He had graying hair and a smile on his aged face. Next to him, there was a mage with black robes whose face she couldn’t see.
“Welcome, Amber the Demonkiller of Laria,” the king said, his voice echoing for everyone to hear. “Thank you for coming.”
Amber smiled, it wasn’t as if she could just refuse to meet the king, even if she was a friend of the Primordial Spirit.
“I’ve been informed of the rather alarming information you’ve delivered.” He nodded to himself. “And I’ve decided to pardon you for killing the heir of the Risnar family, Noah Risnar.”
“Thank you for your pardon.” Amber slightly bowed, but in reality had absolutely no clue if that was the right thing to do.
The king smiled at her. “I was informed about your friendship to the Primordial Spirit, who I’ll call Vi, for short.”
She decided to listen to what he is saying.
“Considering you are a friend of Vi, you are a friend of our kingdom, so don’t be so tense,” he reassured. “Like any Primordial Spirit, she takes friendship very seriously so doing anything to you would be a very serious offense.”
I kind of knew that already. Amber nodded at that.
“That said, I’m relieved at the information you have brought us, we have sent a group of knights to take the Risnars and the Starkells into custody for interrogation.” He nodded with a smile but a moment later his voice turned serious. “And then we will purge those demon worshippers.”
Amber remained silent and allowed the king to continue talking.
“And I wanted to thank you for that, but I also want to thank you for the help you’ll bring during the extermination of the demon worshippers.”
Amber blinked. “Help with the extermination?”
The king raised his brow. “You want revenge for what happened with Velda Starkell do you not? From my brief research you are very close with Liz, her sister.”
“That is true, but I kind of thought you people would take care of it?” Amber scratched her head. “I mean, the allure of levels is great and all but I’d much rather fight monsters than humans, having them pay at the hands of your kingdom is enough revenge for me.”
The king blinked at that, evidently too stunned to speak, and Amber took her chance.
“Though, I’m glad my information has helped.” She smiled. “But as you know, I’ve spent eight months in the tower and I want to see my friends more than anything, so I will take my leave now.”
With those words Amber turned around and began to walk away. Some of the knights reached for their swords but the king hurriedly called.
“You brutes, you already know she is friends with the Primordial Spirit, don’t attack her!”
Amber smiled— she couldn’t really be stopped.
“What if I offer you a reward?” the king called as Amber was about to reach the double doors.
She paused at that, and turned.
“A reward?”
The king nodded. “I will offer you a reward if you help us cull the demon worshippers from the capital.”
Amber blinked. “What kind of reward?”
Not everything was sure to interest her after all.
“What if I offer you a sword? But not just any sword, I can see the great power in yours already, so what if I offer you this:” The king turned to the mage. “Show her the sword.”
The mage raised his staff and then— hit the butt against the ground, whispering something that she couldn’t hear.
A light flashed before the throne of the king and vanished just as fast. However, Amber paused as she saw a gigantic sword inside a glass casing. It was larger than her current sword and way thicker, however that wasn’t what attracted her, no. There were pulsing lines of blue around the sword, similar to the ones in the cube.
“A divine weapon, one created by Vi herself.”