Day 19, Second Month of the Winter, 599th Year of New Age calendar.
I woke up to the cool and salty morning breeze hitting my face along with the warm rays of sun.
If not for the crushing pain I felt all over my body, I would have enjoyed waking up to it.
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling and a familiar view out of the window.
"You woke up."
A man wearing a dashing knight uniform spoke. His uniform was Black mostly and there was an emblem engraved on his left-side chest.
The emblem of a Turtle and the engraving was gold in color along with three stars hanging on top of the turtle.
He had black hair, long and tied up in a ponytail and a sword covered with red scabbard.
He came forward and helped me sit up before introducing himself.
"I am the captain of the Kurma Familie's Knight Order. My name is Nakra Kurma. You are Tej, aren't you? The genius spirit magician of the Mage Gazette. I wish we met under better circumstances."
When he spoke up to that point, I finally remembered the tragedy of last night.
Starting from the burning figure of Mia, bitten off fetus of Noah's wife, and finally burning down the entirety of the Anta Ducal Family.
I started sweating as the image of the man in black came to my mind.
"Please Calm down. Have some water."
Only when Nakra spoke did I realize that I was shivering.
"Did anyone survive?"
Nakra pursed his lips and said with a sigh.
"Not many. We accurately don't know the exact number of deaths and casualties. We cannot even recognize the corpses of people…."
Nakra continued to give the account of what happened.
After I passed out and the perpetrator left, few people saw him leaving through the North Gate, the only path into the city by land, which means he was moving into the kingdom.
But no one knows, which direction he went.
He might even gone into the woods for all we knew.
The Kurma family was already sending a few delegates to Anta because of the Draconic Shark. The few people from the magic tower who were not attending the banquet got the news of this and contacted the Magic tower of Kurma City.
The Kurma family, which also happened to be the nearest Ducal from Anta sent their delegates. Of course, the news also traveled to the other nobles like counts, viscounts, and marquees of the Anta Duchy.
However, most of them were already in Anta estate when the tragedy struck along with their night orders and they were not spared either
According to Nakra, only ten to twelve people were alive within the estate grounds, when they finally managed to reach here.
It wasn't much, but at least I understood the situation.
"Any other clues about the perpetrator?"
I asked Nakra.
"The only accounts we had were from the citizens who saw him moving in and out of the city, but no one actually saw his face and couldn't say much about him.
Actually, I came to you for that exact reason.
I was once told that you are good at tracking and investigating and since you were one of the few that happened to be at the scene, I was hoping you could help us out.
The delegations from various Duchies are already on their way and the Royal family is also sending some special investigators. They asked us to collect as much information as possible to speed up the process."
"Of course, I do have some clues that will help you with the investigation a lot."
I channeled my mana trying to get my camera out of the storage, but it wasn't there. I was panicked and almost lost it for a second before Nakra spoke.
"You might be looking for one of these things."
He stood to the side and I saw a table with a few things and among them stood my camera, for which I heaved a sigh. The other things… there are some rings, jewelry, and some other accessories, that might have fallen beside me with all the commotion.
"That box thing, can you pass it to me please?"
Nakra did.
I opened the camera's back slot and took out a storage device. It was a gemstone used in storage artifacts. From it, I took a few crystal plates. They were small and thin. I pulled the bedside table forward and cleared with Nakra's help before spreading some parchment paper out.
I used some inscription ink to lay down some runic patterns and placed the crystal plate in the middle.
I chanted some spells and injected the mana into the inscription.
The runic patterns disappeared into the plate before they spread out once again all over the parchment and turned into a crystal clear image. The plate which previously had some vague lines and images disappeared.
It was the 'photo' of my world.
The image showed the scene of the man in black holding his scimitar against the neck of Duke Anta.
I felt exhausted and I was sweating all over. I didn't recover from the previous night yet. I need a lot of rest and some medication even, before I become a function mage once again.
Nakra looked at the Photo in awe. That might be the first time he has seen something like that. There were other methods to record stuff, but ironically there was stuff to record videos and even voices, but there was no stuff to record a perfectly still image with such clarity.
The videos were not really accessible to the public because the equipment needed for that was way too expensive. The gazette does publish some images once in a while, but it was done by some painters, and no matter how skilled, it was always artificial and there was always some missing element.
A photo, however, captures everything as it is.
"This must be your famed magical capturing device." He said as he looked at the camera.
I smiled and said.
"I haven't recovered yet, so I cannot do more images that I captured. However, you can make copies of that image. You can go to the Gazette office at the magic tower. Sir Alister…"
I paused and felt my mood turn even sour.
Sir Alister was at the banquet the day before.
"Tej?"
Nakra prompted.
"I am sorry, I might not be able to go to the magic tower right now. I will give you my letter. Go to the Gazette office, there a reporter apprentice can help you make copies using the printing machine.
You can use that for now."
"I asked the Healer earlier, he said you will recover in a couple of days. Until then, don't worry about this Investigation. Just focus on your recovery."
With that, he left.
I slumped back into my bed and looked at the grey stone, ceiling for a while thinking about the incident from the night before.
It all happened so quickly.
A Ducal Estate. Filled with many other nobles like Barons, Counts, Viscounts, and Marquees, a lot of them, and all of them were accompanied by many elite knight orders and mage orders. All gathered in one place.
And not to forget dozens of mages from the magic tower's numerous departments.
All it took was one man and his two beasts.
They just walked through everyone.
The Ninth Ranked Knight, Duke Anta, couldn't even lift a finger in retaliation.
The image of the shivering duke at the end of that pointed scimitar entered my mind.
'Just how strong is he?'
If even one of the strongest people in the Kingdom or even the continent and the planet, a Ninth Circle knight cannot do anything, who can stop this man? Various questions popped up in my mind.
For the next couple of days, I was alone in that room gazing at the sea or the ceiling. I barely got any sleep and that made me feel a bit fatigued. The only grace was that didn't affect my mana recovery.
I got my strength back and was ready to get discharged.
"Hold on, please. You cannot just barge in here. This is a recovery room for the patients."
I heard a familiar voice. It belonged to the nurse who took care of me in the last two days.
"Get out of my way, Miss. This is an official investigation ordered by the King himself, I can enter wherever I want. And I am also sure that he is ready to be discharged."
I frowned at the voice that followed the nurse's.
The door of the room was opened forcefully and the Nurse was pushed inside. A young man entered.
A man with crimson hair and matching armor. A Saber adorning his back. A huge and cocky grin on his face.
I frowned at the sight. I was in the middle of changing my attire which would have made me mad regardless of the person, but the person that came in only made that mood even worse.
"Hello, Tej. We meet again."
The young man greeted.
"Likhma, if you don't mind, I would like to exchange the greetings after I am done changing in the privacy of my room. So, if you could excuse me and get out of here."
"I am sorry, no can do. I am here on behalf of the Daksh Bureau of Investigation to escort you to meet the Officer In charge of the Investigation of the Anta Estate's Tragedy.
It is a matter of national security and not a single can be wasted when apprehending a suspect, ensuring that they don't escape.
So, Mr. Tej. I would advise you to cooperate and allow me to escort you to meet the Investigating Officer."
I frowned.
"Are you calling me a suspect?"
I frowned at this.
"Unfortunately, yes. So, please do not resist. Even though I personally prefer that you do."
As he spoke two people came in. One Sixth Circle Knight and a Seventh Circle Mage.
The Knight came forward with a set of special cuffs.
"I will cooperate and you can…"
*BAM*
Before I could even finish my sentence, I was slammed to a wall and forcefully cuffed. I was brought.
"You can talk leisurely in front of the office in charge."
Likhma spoke with that same cocky grin and dragged me out.
I was still in my robes meant for the patient. Half open too.
My upper body was completely exposed and half my lower body too. I felt humiliated and angry.
I didn't speak though. Not until I was dragged to the crime scene. Where another man with the same Crimson hair, but with a much taller build, much more age, and a much bigger saber adorning his back was examining the crime scene along with a lady with beautiful platinum blonde hair neatly tucked into a big bun, that one could mistake for a round cushy pillow.
The Knight and the Mage that came along with Likhma saluted to the two people and they finally spotted me.
The lady looked at me and frowned.
"Why are you in cuffs? Likhma, why did you arrest him?"
Likhma stood in attention and said.
"Inspector Dhana, the suspect resisted our attempt to escort him here smoothly. We were threatened by the unpredictability of his spirit magic and had no choice but to arrest him."
"You…"
The older man with the crimson red hair frowned and looked at Likhma.
"Likhma, I told you before you joined the Bureau. You need to cut your petty bullshit. You cannot act out on your biases. When was it ever mentioned that he is the suspect? Did you determine it on your own, on what authority?"
His voice grew harsher and harsher with every passing word.
I looked at both of them and almost chuckled. This scene was so damn familiar. Likhma Paras and Dharma Paras. The two genius brothers of the Paras family, one of the nine Ducal families, and the sons of the arguably second strongest man of the kingdom. Duke Paras.
The scene was so familiar because the responsible and older Dharma Paras always and I mean always had to clean up the shit for his younger and impulsive brother Likhma.
Likhma might be oblivious to this, but he didn't know that he picked the wrong time to stir this shit with me.
Because I was pissed since the incident and he gave me the proper outlet to vent. Not with power, but with authority.