Upon reaching the 4th floor, Saivas began listening for signs of life.
Being greeted by nothing but a symphony of snoring, he peeked through the nearby window.
'This is his room, but is he here?' Saivas wondered while scanning what looked to be a barracks of some kind
There were about 4 beds jammed into the rather compact space. Currently, only 2 of them were occupied.
One was filled by a burlesque looking man in his early 30's. He was covered in ginger hair, and WAY more naked than Saivas would have liked.
'Gross! You'd think with bunk mates he'd have some decency' He inwardly cringed
Trying to erase the image of the man's "Excalibur" from his mind, he turned to his left.
On the other side of the room laid the target, also sound asleep.
'Well this is just great' Saivas thought
His plan was to use air magic to nullify the sound waves trying to leave the room. Then all he'd have to do is use earth magic to restrain him while he asked him his questions. Perhaps with a little bit of "Incentive" to cooperate at that.
Now it was going to be an even greater challenge.
'If at any point his partner wakes up then I could be in trouble. Given his size, I'm not confident stone handcuffs would hold him'
Not to mention his mana flow. While it wasn't light blue like his father's, this man had a respectable polished yellow stream of mana.
'Being in law enforcement, I'm sure he knows how to use it too' Saivas lamented
'I guess there's only one thing for it huh?' Jason interjected
'What do you mean?' Saivas replied
He already knew the answer, he just wanted to be sure.
'We need to take out the big one first' Jason explained
Of course Saivas already knew that.
The mission DID have a low chance of success if he let him sleep and just put a sound nullifying field around his target's bed.
However all it took was one throw of a shoe to get his attention, one bump in the night, one after hours urge to pee. If anything at all happened, it'd all be over.
'We can always try again tomorrow night' Saivas suggested
'Who's to say it won't be even worse tomorrow though' Jason flatly replied
At that, Saivas went silent. He had never killed anyone before after all. Could he really justify killing this man just to lower his risks? Surely there had to be a better way, right?
A few ideas formed in his mind.
'Maybe I could wait until our target is on rounds, then intercept them? We already know their schedule after all' He offered
'Our target only goes out during the day, and we can't go out during the day' Jason retorted 'Even if we could, there would be far to many witnesses out in the city during the day'
Saivas kept thinking 'What about one of his lackeys? Maybe they are bunking alone tonight? Or maybe they are out on rounds at night, we might find them!'
Jason wanted to share his optimism, however...
'This man is our most likely suspect. It seems that every time there is trouble, he is involved. If we target the lackeys, we're more likely to be wrong. Also, in case you haven't realized yet, anyone we end up interrogating is going to have to die'
Saivas trembled at those words. He already knew this, but it didn't make it any easier.
Sure he could hide his face, he could even disguise his voice with air magic.
But he was a toddler, there was no disguising his height or stature. It would only be a matter of time before they found him if his captive was allowed to live.
There was a knot in his stomach, he really didn't want to have to kill anyone. But Jason was right, the chances of him being discovered were too high otherwise.
And if they WERE discovered, Saivas would be the one to wind up dead.
'I'm doing this for father' Saivas inwardly chanted
'I'm doing this for our future. If I can help it, I will NOT do this again' He inwardly promised, ignoring the fact he most likely would have not 1, but 2 deaths on his hands by the end of the night.
He stood frozen for about 5 seconds, before eventually gritting his teeth.
Commanding his mana, he stopped the vibrations around the room from escaping using a mana field, creating a zone of dead silence.
Simultaneously, he used earth magic to create earth tendrils from the bed frame. He then commanded them to wrap tightly around his target. Ensuring he could not escape.
Since triple casting was still a bit too much for his mind to handle, Jason handled the... other part.
Saivas looked away.
Under his guide, Jason commanded the stone on the ceiling to form into a highly dense, sharp spike. He urged the molecules to condense as far as possible, and tapered the end down to almost a microscopic level.
With a simple command, he sent it plummeting straight down at breakneck speeds.
Or well, break heart.
The other man was dead before he even awoke. Blood began escaping his chest and coating the floor.
Saivas nearly puked when he heard the sound of flesh being torn apart.
He thought of the family this man might have.
He thought of the life he surely might have lived.
He thought of the fact that this man was most likely innocent of the crimes committed towards his father. This man truly was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He wished so desperately that he could have been outside the field of silence before it had happened.
But he already wasted his only wish, so now he could do nothing but endure. There was no time to regret.
After all, upon being restrained his target had awoken. It was time to have a chat.
———————————————
Seeing the short masked figure, the man in question almost laughed.
Alphonse Lockheed was no rookie after all, he had been in this village's guard for the last 7 years!
He was in his late thirties, and stood at a modest 5'8". There were wisps of gray in his otherwise short brown hair, and he had a lean muscular physique.
Not only that, but he even had a bright orange core! Sure it wasn't anything of legends, but for his position, he was definitely overqualified.
Looking into his eyes, it didn't take long to recognize the look of a battle hardened killer. Sure he was in semi-retirement now, but this man had clearly seen war. How could he feel threatened by a child barely up to his waist?
Suppressing a laugh, he called out
"Hey there kiddo! That's a nice mask you have there" He smiled convincingly "Are you lost? Do you need me to help find your mommy and daddy?"
What followed was a swift kick in the cheek.
"I'll be asking the questions here" Saivas said coldly, using air magic to create the illusion of many different voices.
Alphonse started to laugh!
Sure he was a bit surprised at the kid actually managing to damage him a bit, but it's not like this level of pain was unusual to him. He was about to tell this kid to run home and mind his own business.
Until he noticed the dead body of his comrade laying behind the child in question...
"Rupert? How? HOW?!" He screamed
'Rupert was almost twice as strong as me! How could this kid have killed him! Even catching him in his sleep, there's no way he should have been able to pass through his ambient courvant!'
Still looking at the long, sharp piece of stone sticking out of his protege's chest, he had to accept reality.
He tried to attack his captor, but he was tightly bound. Even if he wanted to cast magic, he couldn't make the proper hand weaves.
With a renewed expression of defiance, Alphonse yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Guards! Comrades! Intruder alert! A strange child has broken into our barracks! He even killed Rupert!"
Looking at Saivas with a mocking grin, he waited for his brother's in arms to crash through the door!
10 seconds had passed
30 seconds had passed
1 minute had passed
Still, there had been no response.
With his confidence wavering, Saivas finally decided to fill his captive with despair.
"I suppose you're waiting for your friends to come. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm afraid they can't hear you. Don't worry! I'm sure you and I can have a grand old time! Just the two of us!"
His chipper voice was betrayed by the cold emptiness expressed by his mask. Approaching slowly, he walked over and stared him down through the emptiness of his mask.
"Now, as I mentioned before, I have some questions for you"