While I work to recall the brilliant defense that I had built for myself in anticipation for this event, Belfrost and his troops rapidly close the distance between us. "Anetor, you are being placed under arrest for the murder of Maximilious Xervel Cytride Phylangxthrope VIII. Submit now, or we will be forced to use more… forceful measures."
"Now, now, why don't we talk this out, dear commander? I merely found a soldier atop my own comrade, in what looked like an attempt to kill him. I struck out with perhaps a bit more force than necessary in our following duel only because I wanted to check in on my teammate as soon as possible, and this soldier was blocking the approach. That he died was certainly not the result of any intention of mine. And, I'll have you know that my teammate was found to be dead at the end of the battle by the hand of the one I was unintentionally too rough with, if that means anything."
"Are you done?" he asks, his tone unchanged by the marvelous evidence that I have presented.
"Yes, I am. Do you still intend to arrest me?"
"Yes, my order stands. We have ways to ensure that the truth is spoken during your trial before the general. Should you be telling the truth, you have nothing to fear. If you lie before the court however… well, I'd think up something a bit more believable if I were you."
[My, how nice of him, free advice! Still, I think that my excuse is fine enough, I'll just have to rely on the one about seeking justice. Gah! It's so annoying that they would have methods to ensure truthfulness in a trial, surprisingly just for a world like this. I would have expected the nobility to suppress any method such as that, intending to keep the results of trials based on standing. But of course, this one instance in which I would look for a crooked system to aid me, no such system exists. This world really is the worst, conspiring against me in such a blatant manner.]
"So, I ask again, will you come without making a fuss?"
I sigh, being clear to express my displeasure, before answering "I suppose, as it seems that I have no choice in the matter."
"Good. Now, give me your hands," he says, holding a pair of manacles. I do as he commands, placing my arms in front of me to be shackled. As soon as they are both locked in place, I can no longer sense the mana around me. I sigh again, this time mentally, thinking [magic suppressing manacles, eh? How fun; who doesn't like not being able to swing a sword and not being able to cast magic, all at the same time?]
Speaking, or, I suppose, thinking, of my sword, it is confiscated next. I have to bite my tongue to resist the burning desire to call the soldier who took it an imbecile for disarming someone who literally can't draw the weapon; I figure that such comments won't help my situation.
[See, my madness? I will master you yet! I have become quite adept at noticing your self-harming impulses, and now that I can think far faster than I can act, I can analyze my behavior before even acting to notice your subtle manipulations.]
"Come along," Belfrost commands, and I oblige.
"You are aware that I am supposed to depart this morning in only a couple hours, correct?"
"Yes, and if you are truly innocent of the grave offense of intentionally killing a fellow soldier, this will all be over by then."
"Is it really so grave an offense? I seem to recall the one I was too rough with only recently killing a fellow soldier in a previous training exercise and getting off with only a warning. Not to mention Reinhart routinely killing anyone who doesn't immediately surrender to him, seemingly with no repercussions." [And also not mentioning the fact that killing a soldier in any other sort of agreed upon duel here is common practice, I'm not really sure why killing an opponent in a training exercise is so different other than the fact that participants go in expecting to be safe from death.]
"There were special circumstances involved in Phylangxthrope's case, and as for Reinhart, special considerations are given to commanders fulfilling their duties."
['Special,' eh? That's a really fancy way of referring to the effects of having powerful friends. Still, it seems that most nobles aren't regarded too highly here; for him to get special treatment, he must be someone rather important. And I guess Reinhart being given special treatment makes sense; deciding to fight against a commander in even a mock battle is practically signing your own death warrant for most soldiers, discouraging such behavior in battle may very well be worth a handful of lives.]
We arrive at a building I have never before entered, a building only a short walk from the dungeon where Jorgenson was once held. The building is among the fanciest in this complex, made from smooth stone, with pillars holding up the entryway, which forms an arch high above. The walls are covered in elaborate engravings, but I have not the time to analyze them before being led inside.
As soon as I enter, I feel an aura far more oppressive than anything I have yet experienced. Yet, the aura is familiar, clearly belonging to General Lion, who sits in a chair on a raised platform. [It would seem that the general has been being lenient to us during meal times.]
I glance around, noting that the rest of the room is taken by a few rows of stone benches. Three soldiers sit rather nervously in the first row, one of whom is even sweating a bit from his anticipation. There is a small wooden door on the back wall, presumably leading to other rooms, and a few guards stand around the room.
To my surprise, both Lector and Reinhart are here. Lector looks at me grimly, and from this expression, my analysis of the situation immediately changes. [It seems as though this situation will be trickier to extricate myself from than I thought, considering that even Lector appears to be somewhat worried about it. Still, I do not regret my actions; that noble brat was a murderer, to dispose of him was fully justified.]
I am made to sit in the front row, next to the other accused murderers, before Lion asks Belfrost "Is this all?"
"Yes, Honorable General. These are those soldiers whose actions directly ended the lives of their fellow soldiers, though whether such was done with malicious intent must still be determined."
"Very well then. In order to facilitate an orderly, efficient, and just proceeding, these soldiers are to be made into slaves. Commander Lector, perform the procedure."
"Huh?! Slaves?!" one of the other accused soldiers cries out.
"Yes, yes, only temporarily. We must ensure that you cannot lie, this allows us to run the trial with utmost efficiency. This is in everyone's best interest, do not resist."
Lector withdraws a needle and three panels much like the one that I am bound to. Replicating the process that I have seen once before, Lector uses each of their blood to bind them to the control panels, demonstrating a mastery of sorcery.
[Heh? Since when is Lector adept with sorcery? I get that it is considered a branch of straight magic, but the methods are so different that it is often counted as a separate magic; so, then, since when is he a master of this magic? I've read that forming slave bonds is a rather high level sorcery ability, how could he be so adept in this magic without having used it in front of me since I arrived? Actually, how many magics does he know anyway? This makes him adept in elementalism, straight magic, alchemy, and sorcery, all to a high level. I know that he has studied extensively, beneath three separate masters over a period of at least a century, but this is absurd, to master so many schools of magic… heck, give him one more, and he will have mastered five magics, as Mustaine once did… Well, I guess this again just shows the depth of my master's ability.]
Once he has bound the three as slaves, he gives the panels to General Lion. "What about the fourth?" the general asks.
"He is already a slave," Belfrost explains. "I have his panel on me, just in case he had tried to make apprehending him difficult." He brings the panel up to General Lion, handing it to him.
[Eh? Why bring so many soldiers if you had such an unfair method? Well, at least I'm thankful that Belfrost didn't use it to forcibly take control of me.]
Once General Lion possesses all the slave control panels, he stares down at us. "Hans Fried first," he says, nodding to the soldier at the end of the row, furthest from me. "You will be truthful in your response to my following questions, understood?"
"Yes, sir," he responds, his confident voice at odds with his clenched and trembling fists. Well, I guess his trembling may be more due to the crushing aura Lion is putting off than to fear, now that I think of it.
"Good. Failure to be truthful will result in immediate death, so I implore you to answer honestly. Now: were you the one who delivered the killing blow to Frank Hersh?"
"I-I don't know, honorable general." By the fact that nothing happens to him, I can only assume this to be the truth.
The general then looks to Lector, who nods in response. He then waves his arm in a rather theatrical manner, and an almost holographic image appears. [Another magical method I have never seen from Lector? Seriously, how many secrets does my master hold?]
The images depict a spearman stabbing a swordsman, after which the spearman continues on in his formation and the swordsman falls to the ground. The image zooms in on the face of the swordsman before rewinding and zooming in on the face of the spearman.
Lector then explains "This method employs time and conjuring techniques to recreate past images, that this was the scene of the battlefield is certain. The soldier who fell after being stabbed is the deceased Frank Hersh; I have compared them, and to such I can attest."
The image then zooms back in on the face of the murderous spearman. "Is this you, Mr. Fried?" The general asks.
"Yes, it would appear that that person is me."
"So, would you agree that it is certain that you struck the killing blow?"
"Yes, Honorable General, such would appear to be the case. However-"
General Lion cuts him off, saying "Only answer the question I ask. Did you intentionally kill Mr. Hersh?"
"No, general, I did not."
A small smile appears on his face. "That is a relief to hear. Our large group training battles can be a dangerous place; that some will die is almost guaranteed. So long as their deaths are not brought about intentionally, we will not punish those unfortunate soldiers responsible for their deaths. Please remain until the end, so that we may remove the slave binding. Now, onto our next soldier."
In a process very similar to the first soldier, the other two prove my virtue of being unable to lie that they had no intention to kill their victims. [This trial is surprisingly fair. It is taken as a given that some soldiers will die in mock battles with participants of greatly differing strengths, and by not punishing those soldiers who ended the lives of others without intent, the military allows the participating soldiers to use their powers with much less restraint than would otherwise be necessary.]
By the time they get to me, a process that takes less than ten minutes, General Lion is clearly quite pleased that he has not had to pass down any penalties. "Anetor. As previously established, be fully truthful in your responses to my following questions regarding the death of… Maximilious Xervel Cytride Phylangxthrope VIII."
Whether the brief pause before the name is due to its almost unpronounceable nature or due to the prestige of its holder, I am unsure.
"Did you deliver the killing blow to Phylangxthrope VIII?"
Deciding to be a bit loose on my interpretation of his words, I answer him "No." I don't bother elaborating on my reasoning for giving such an answer, and I can only assume that my slave bond agrees with my reasoning. After all, one must understand; I did not kill him through a 'blow' which I interpret to mean a blast of wind; I killed him through a jab, which is certainly not anything that involves wind elemental particles.
"Really?" he asks, sounding genuinely surprised. Upon seeing that I haven't died from the preset functionality that has been enabled on my control panel, he gives a slight frown. "Lector!" he calls out.
As though this is a predetermined action, Lector conjures the hologram. From the hologram, my entire battle with the noble is displayed. I heave a mental sigh of relief at the lack of sound; if they had had it, they would clearly hear me state my murderous intentions and his surrender that I so casually ignored.
As with the previous three, at the end Lector professes that the one I killed is, in fact, dead, before zooming in on my face. "Is this you?" General Lion asks plainly.
My response causes surprise yet again as I say "No, that is not me."
[Heh heh heh, this is a pretty weak method of forcing truthfulness apparently. I can only assume that it punishes those who are willingly and knowingly lying, based upon the knowledge and perception of the one being interrogated. In this case, I am not technically lying by my understanding; after all, we are referring to a holographic depiction of a previous version of myself, that is what General Lion referred to. Such is not me on two levels; first of all, it is a hologram and only I am me; and secondly, with much more pettiness, the me it depicts is someone that I do not view as deserving of being referred to as 'is;' after all, the depiction is of me in the past, so 'was' seems better a descriptor to me than 'is.' And, based on the fact that I didn't just immediately die, I can only assume that this slave binding agrees with me. Honestly, they should have given the order such that I could not knowingly mislead them, or that I would have to answer based on how they would perceive a situation, as opposed to my own perception and interpretation of their question.]
Upon seeing that I am still fine, a mask of confusion crosses his face for the first time. "You are still alive, therefore you cannot be lying… yet this depiction is clearly of you, plunging a sword into a defenseless comrade… hmm…" After thinking for a moment, he asks another question: "Have you been being intentionally or knowingly deceptive during this questioning?"
[Hmm… intentionally, perhaps not, as I truly believe what I have thought regarding answers to each question. However, knowingly? Yes, I know that I am not answering based on how they think I should be, I am being knowingly deceptive… what if I were to mentally object to the word 'questioning,' and instead determine this to be an interrogation? No, that sounds weak even to me, and if I don't buy it then this will never work. Sigh… I guess I'll have to answer as they intend here, eh?]
My thinking takes only a couple of seconds before I answer "I suppose that I have been interpreting your questions in such a way as to provide answers that I knew would deceive you, yes."
"Why you-!" Belfrost roars out, drawing his sword.
"Commander Belfrost, put that away this instant!" General Lion roars in response.
"My-my apologies, Honorable General," Belfrost says as he sheathes his sword.
"Now, you," Lion says, looking back to me, "explain yourself? How have you gotten away with such blatant lies? And do not make any attempt to deceive us in your response."
"I will. But I recommend you remove those other soldiers first, alongside anyone else you wouldn't want to be able to defeat your poorly-made setup."
I expect him to reject my advice outright, but he actually does as I recommend. "You three, my apologies for interrupting your sleep to bring you here, you are dismissed. Come to me at some point in the near future and I will remove the slave bonds myself. All guards other than Reinhart, Lector, and Belfrost may leave as well. Wait outside until you are called back in."
Everyone does as commanded, the other three soldiers giving me a concerned look before leaving.
"Now, it is just us. Explain your methods."
"Well, first-"
"I order you, explain to us how you were knowingly misleading to such an extent!"
Not wanting to die a horrible death, I explain my reasoning. [I had hoped to use this information to negotiate a safe release, but… Well, at least I got out the other soldiers; that should increase the probability of corruption working in my favor, considering that Lector and Reinhart would certainly side with me in a conflict.]
"What type of lunatic would think that way?!" Belfrost cries out as soon as my explanation ends.
General Lion opens his mouth to speak again, and, contrary to my expectations that he would reprimand Belfrost, he instead asks me "Yes, I would like to know as well."
[How do you answer a question like that?! Still, I am locked into answering questions, so I suppose I have to come up with something…]
Eventually, I manage to come up with a response. "Someone with Master Madness Level 9 and Moderate Chaos level 9 for skills? I honestly don't know, but that is the best I can come up with."
"Master madness level nine, eh? I heard from commander Torrin after he acquired you that your madness was at a high level, but I don't know that I have ever encountered anyone more extreme in this regard than you. Still, I heard that the church determined you to be unlikely to pose a threat, and so your sale was allowed. Well, whatever; we must return to the matter at hand. I would assume that Mr. Phylangxthrope's death was intentionally brought about by your actions, correct?"
No longer possessing any reasons to try to mislead them, I answer "Yes."
"And what motivated you to do such a thing?" he asks, demonstrating remarkable ability at finding the obvious follow-up questions.
"He stood gloatingly atop the corpse of my teammate, unleashing powerful spells on manaless swordsmen that I genuinely believed would kill them if any landed. When I brought him begging to his knees, it only seemed fitting that I punish him for his sins… especially since I knew that you would fail to do so yet again, [General]."
"How dare you insult the general?!" the idiotic voice of Belfrost butts in.
"Belfrost, enough!" the general roars. "This is no place for your antics! If you cannot control yourself, I shall have you removed! Am I understood?!"
"Yes, sir," Belfrost answers, appearing somewhat deflated.
The general again turns to me. "Am I to assume that you intentionally killed your comrade as vengeance for the deaths of two of our soldiers?"
I only respond by answering 'yes,' not elaborating that that was only a tiny part of my reasoning for killing him, and such a reason accounted more for the justification of my actions than the motivation for them.
Lion thinks for a moment, before surprising everyone by saying "Reinhart, Belfrost, both of you leave. You need not return tonight. Especially you, Reinhart, your troops will be needing your leadership in just a couple short hours, you should get some rest."
"Yes, Honorable General," Reinhart responds, not sparing me even a parting glance. After a brief complaint that is shut down by the general, Belfrost leaves as well, at which point, there are only Lector, Lion, and I.
As soon as they have left, Lion lets out a sigh. Talking to me, he says "I am in a rather tough predicament here. On one hand, the normal method for dealing with soldiers in a situation such as yours would be corporal punishment and incarceration in some form, considering that your actions were well-intentioned despite being clearly against the rules. While the penalty would be harsh, you would not be put to death, at least. However, there are multiple issues with this. The lesser issue is that you are set to depart tomorrow, and so would struggle to serve your sentence. The greater issue is that the noble you brutally killed was the heir to an immensely powerful house. His family have already been notified of his death, and they are calling for the head of the one responsible.
"While I don't generally allow myself to get pushed around in situations such as these, this house is very closely linked to the royals, they cannot be brushed off lightly. Still, I was prepared to do just that if you were truly innocent, however, you are clearly guilty. The situation is made much worse by the fact that he, a noble, was killed by a slave to the military. While the military generally tries to be fair to its slaves, that a slave could escape execution after killing a noble, whatever the situation may be surrounding it, such would be a scandal of immense proportion.
"If you were any other slave, I would immediatly have you put to death for intentionally murdering a noble of such standing. However, considering that you are my most esteemed commander, Commander Lector's, apprentice and name receiver, the situation is complicated."
He then turns to Lector. "Whatever the case, your disciple cannot remain a slave in the service of the military. If he got away from this situation with his life, a slave in service to the government killing a noble, the consequences would be immeasurable. So, this situation boils down to this: either he is executed in a few hours and handed over to placate the Phylangxthropes, or you buy him and take on the consequences. If you bought him, I would be able to easily redirect the pressure onto you, saying that I couldn't take your slave from you. It is likely that they would demand payment for the offense, with said payment would be immense, and that they would pit their mighty house against you. While I would recommend that you hand him over, the choice is ultimately up to you. In the end, it boils down to how much value you place in your disciple, that is all."
[I guess I see why he sent the others out, this sounds rather shady. Perhaps not quite so bad as I would imagine, but surely bad enough to infuriate characters like Belfrost. Still! Due to my relationship with Lector, there seems to be a way out of this situation!]
I figure that my relationship with Lector is so good that he will immediately volunteer to purchase me, whatever the cost; so when the seconds build into over a minute of him silently thinking, I begin to grow worried. [Master! Don't abandon me to this evil!] I cry out mentally. [Don't just leave me to die! Save me!]
Lector glances at me then, and I send a silent plea in his direction. Finally, he sighs. "I suppose I have no real choice in this matter. How much will buying this slave cost?"
[At least he chose to save me], I reason, [but did he really have to refer to me in such a dispassionate manner as 'this slave?']
"I prepared for such an eventuality," the general says, "though I had hoped it would not end in such a way. Thus, I have pulled the records of the slave's purchase, the cost he was bought for was four gold. Considering your long service to the kingdom, so long as you can match that, there will be no problems on our side. The slave will still be subject to fifty lashes as punishment, as a way to make up for him being unable to serve any sentence. The lashes will be carried out now, such that you will be able to depart in a little over an hour. While normally we would forbid the use of magic to heal the wounds inflicted by the lashes, considering your impending departure, we will waive that policy. Understood?"
While the general finishes talking, Lector gathers up the necessary coins and hands them over. [Whew… I thought I was a goner! Fifty lashes is basically a joke if I can be healed afterwards; so long as I look at it as a way to level my rarely-used pain resistance skill, I can count it as training. Furthermore, the general really can't be accused of corruption here; he sold me for the value that I was bought at, to wash the military of any responsibility of their own slave injuring a noble, and because I no longer belong to the military, he can get away with giving me the much more standard punishment of fifty lashes. My punishment is hardly light considering the circumstances, just merely reasonable when compared to the unjust execution of me that they would otherwise be forced to carry out, and far harsher than what that very noble went through as a punishment for his committing of murder.]