As I made my way towards the officer who probably wants to screw me or use me to screw others, I think those are the only reality options that are in front of me. I'm screwed and it's going to be very difficult to get rid of this officer, I think my best option is to deny everything he claims.
My destination finally came to a small, all-black building, because someone spent so much paint to make a black building. Did they do this to denounce that this is a building used for torture and interrogation type of evil.
"Officer Pine is inside room two, annoying boy."
"May you have a bad day too."
They really put a lot of effort into this building's climate, a poorly lit hallway that feels like I'm in a cheap horror movie.
Finally, my destination arrived, when I opened the door, I found Officer Pine sitting in a dark room in front of him at a table and an empty chair and the light is illuminating my chair more than the officer's.
This is so cliché it's cute. I never thought I would be in a situation like this.
"You must be the leader of the team that came from the training ground to carry out missions in the desert and frontier of the kingdom, please feel, what is your name?"
I sit in front of Officer Pine and realize I'm in more trouble than I expected. The officer is not just a warrior who has reached the final stage peak of the green core and he has the element of mind and wind.
He and the motherfucker who's been trying to ambush us in the desert, I thought they were thugs or the smugglers who seem to have a lot of integrity now, but now I'm pretty sure this officer wanted to interrogate my team in a spot with no witnesses and it would be easy to see get rid of the evidence.
He has so many soldiers loyal to them or he risked bringing in soldiers using a false story and interrogating us in secret away from the soldiers. I may not know his plan, but I'm sure he's annoyed with his plan going awry.
His cool, calm look now and just a theater, the squirrel he used to watch over us for over ten minutes tells me he's very much looking forward to this encounter. And now I'm very curious to find out what he wants, information on who is corrupt and works with smugglers, maybe information on where the smuggler's base is and we also have him after the fairy.
But for the latter I would say that this officer is here more to protect his own interests than to serve the kingdom by hunting criminals in the ranks of the kingdom's army.
"My name is Ulric. How can I help you today, Officer Pine?"
"Don't worry, I called you today to ask you some questions about your time in the area."
"I don't understand why the official would be interested in this, nothing much happened to my team."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Let's start at the beginning, what happened when you arrived in town?"
"This sounds too much like an interrogation, am I being interrogated Officer Pine?"
"Yes, maybe not. But I believe your best option is to cooperate with me or I may end up having to arrest you and take you to the capital for more intense interrogation."
"Nice way of threatening, do they teach that in your training? And a required subject for your division?"
"Answer my question, student Ulric."
"Okay, no need to be nervous. The day we arrived in the city was quiet, we bought some provisions, packed our mounts and gathered at an inn to leave, because of the rush we didn't have much time to have a nice, expensive and well-prepared meal before heading to the desert. That's a shame, I've always liked to do this before traveling out of town, and it's a kind of ritual to bring good luck."
"Are you sure? Haven't you had a date with someone? Like a merchant who works for the golden eagle group?"
"Who?"
"A blond-haired merchant with a brown cloak with green accents."
"No, should I have found someone? And also, this is a very precise question, am I being watched officially?"
"No, but I have witnesses saying you found a merchant who represents the golden eagle group. You seem to have met him at the inn and even went into a private room to talk to him."
"I understand your official confusion, I did meet a man at the inn, but I didn't know he was a merchant. He was interested about my armor, he found her craftsmanship very beautiful and exquisite, I accompanied him to a room because he was getting ready for a meeting that would take place there, I was passing on the address of the artisan who made my armor for him."
"He was very sad when he found out I wasn't from the city, when I said that the artisan who made my armor had her workshop in the south of the kingdom, he was very sad. I didn't quite understand it at the time, but now that you've told me he was a merchant it makes a lot of sense, and it's a shame your trading group doesn't do business in the south."
"So that's what happened?"
"Of course, but any questions?"
"Yes, but before you I wanted to confirm. Did you not know he was a merchant?"
"No."
"Have you heard of the golden eagle group?"
"No, as you know, this is my first time coming to this region of the kingdom. There is no way for me to know the trade groups that operate in the city."
"But you appreciate meeting them."
"Why do your official think that?"
"You seem to know where this trade group operates."
"I know, but you're the one who told me this now. If that man is a merchant of a group I've never heard of, it's natural to think that they operate in this region and not in the south of the kingdom."
"I see, how about we go to what happened on your missions?"
"Because the officer sir would want to know about it. There's nothing interesting in my report, lots of sand, desert beasts and a dark cave. Nothing interesting."
"I disagree, how about we start with your mission on smugglers."
"I can tell you, but as far as I know my report should go straight to the examiners, you can ask them for a copy later. Wouldn't it be better that way?"
"No, I trust oral reports more than written ones. Do I need to remember what will happen to you if you don't answer me?"
"You are very stressed. This mission ended very quickly; we were very lucky. We went to the border and I found a trail we followed it, but the second trail I followed we found the smugglers' base and when we attacked and killed most of the smugglers. The survivors blew up their base to cover their escape, they must have fled through a tunnel to the other side of the border, we heard more explosions later so they must have buried the tunnel."
"Luck is a good way to put this sequence of events, you found a group of smugglers who had been operating without being found for months in less than a week. Impressive."
"It wasn't that fast; I got the story down very succinctly so you don't waste your time on insignificant details. But I have to admit that it was a very smooth mission, the examiners were really wrong about the difficulty of this mission, the smugglers were very weak, there were almost no gray core warriors."
"Insignificant stunts. This is a very wrong way to do a report, you should put this kind of details in your reports because they are very important, how about you improve your narrative of this mission."
"So, you want details?"
"The more the better. How about you against me because there were only weak fighters taking care of such a profitable operation, it would be normal to have at least one green core mage or warriors taking care of a squad like this."
"I think the officer is not listening to me well. Maybe it's better if I write the report after I get back to the training ground, so the officer can calmly read what happened and I'll answer all your questions through a letter. I promise to answer any questions you have by reading my report quickly in a letter, it will be my priority I promise."
"Very thoughtful of you, but how about answering my question now."
He is very angry, he has a vein pulsing with anger on his forehead and the mind probe he is using against me which is useless as I am protecting myself with my aura, but that doesn't stop him from using his mind element to the limit, if he puts in more energy, he won't be able to hide his mind probe.
I'm very lucky that the mental element used of this miner is very accurate with the illusion element, it works very well when the target is not aware of the attack, but when the target is aware of the attack, he not only loses the surprise element of the attack but also the mental attack's effect and penetration ability decreases by a good margin.
"Of course, of course a green-core warrior or mage might exist in that operation, but didn't you consider the possibility that he might not be there or he could be inside the tunnel? Several smugglers fled through the base tunnel, otherwise the tunnel would not have been blown up the way it was."
"So, the leader of the smugglers ran him from a band of students?"
"He may have thought that we were just the scouts for an even larger unit that was ready to attack them after besieging the base, we could be the bait to lure them out of the base. Their leader must have chosen the safest option and retreated when the location of his base was discovered."
"Perhaps you have recovered any merchandise, material or smugglers?"
Is he after some of the smugglers' items? Will it be the fairy? That would explain why this officer wanted to search us.
"No, if there were some materials or merchandise at the base it must have been destroyed by the explosions. And we didn't even leave them alive either, we killed every smuggler we got our hands on. Our mission was to eliminate them, not arrest them."
"Did you not want to investigate the identity of the smugglers?"
"Why would we do something useless like that? Even if we got some information, it would not be reliable or news to you, our mission was to eliminate the smugglers and not destroy an entire organization that operates in more than one nation. If you want to eliminate the smugglers you should do it yourself and not wait for students to do their work."
The idiot's calm face doesn't reflect the wild aggressive behavior his aura and elemental energy is having inside his body, this officer is ready to attack me anytime he wants and he really wants to do it but he can't. Will today be the day I will see the legendary event of a person coughing up blood because of their anger and hatred?
It must be some sort of reflux caused by tension or circulation in the warrior's aura.
"How about we continue?"
"Of course, feel free to ask me more questions.