The ghost has been staring at his own corpse for a while. Does he want us to get revenge on his behalf? Killing one person would be easier than eliminating a group.

Hmm? There's a lever here... I don't think it would be rigged to explode or anything... Shouldn't touch it though.

Unaware of my intentions, Sophie pulls the lever causing bricks to slide, merging together seamlessly... Phew. It didn't blow up. This is very elaborate magic. Did a bored noble hire a magician? A magician wouldn't have required a lever.

Ah, I was too distracted. How is Sophie doing? She's holding up better than I expected. Fear was evident, but she didn't turn away.

"How could someone do this? They did this for amusement! It isn't right..."

She realized it. I wish she hadn't... Seeing this side of humanity isn't what I wanted to show her. I could've lied. They did it out of desperation... they were hungry... they had no choice.

But could I have convinced her? Her intuition is rather accurate, as a Hero's should be. Deceiving her might've been difficult.

Bodies mostly untouched, only certain parts taken, left to rot on display. A hidden room prepared with magic, indicating wealth. They can afford food even if prices were inflated due to a minor shortage.

Infrastructure of a fortress town in particular is not so weak that food stocks could not last a mere two months after the last train arrival.

"What do I do, Claud? I'm... angry. I want to hurt whoever did this... We can't let them get away with this!"

Yes, yes, hero. We'll be sure to beat up the bad guys. Although all I want to do is leave.

How easy would it be for a noble in this city to pin the crime on two soldiers from an enemy nation...

I suppose we'll wait in here to catch the rat red handed. How do we deal with the rat bastard? I have no qualms with killing, but that may not be the case for Sophie. She said she wouldn't let them get away with this... But does she have guts to do what's necessary? I don't want to be hated for doing something excessive in her eyes, but having an enemy survive an encounter is how heroes get into deep shit.

I've decided.

I pull a pencil and paper out of her bag to write.

'We wait in secret to catch them red handed. However, even with all the insurmountable evidence, we may not be able to get a conviction. I don't have faith in justice. If we're unlucky we might even have the crime pinned on us. What do you want to do?'

I'll tell her all the outcomes I'm thinking about.

Killing was never an option, it has a lot of implications for the future. I don't want Sophie to become someone who kills villains. And it's not just because I don't want her to potentially kill me. I don't want her to get in trouble with the law.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Magic or no magic, the court system is broken. In fact, here it is worse. Numerous instances of Lie Detect not being admissible as evidence due to insanity or a priest being derided as corrupt.

Unanimous guilty verdicts by jury and judge being overruled by higher courts due to the possibility of transformation magic.

This world has a lot of shenanigans going on, alongside the usual bullshit.

This is why having status and wealth is important. If you have enough wealth and status, the impossible becomes possible. An obviously guilty person can be released, while an innocent person can be put in jail.

"I don't like this... All of this is just... terrible... I don't know what to do..."

I threw the question to her because I was at a loss for what to do as well. Few paths are available... None meet all my criteria.

Sophie probably initially planned to confront the culprit, catch and hand them to the authorities. This is a risky method, relying on other humans to not be biased. Gambling that judge and jury have clean personalities and also aren't corrupted by wealth is iffy.

A heavy-handed approach would be us killing or maiming the culprit. Vigilante justice to ensure punishment is doled out. Then run away. If no one finds out, we're completely safe. But if we're caught by forensics magic, we either become fugitives or prisoners. Framing it as self-defense might not be enough to get us off free, the fact that we're foreign soldiers complicates that too.

A bystander approach is the most viable. We walk away, move on with our lives. Pretend we never saw anything. Nothing complicated. Although I prefer this option, the ghost won't get his rest and Sophie's conscience will be hurt. Inevitably this will weigh on her thoughts for a long time. Failing the quest could have other bad consequences too.

"We can't even trust the law... This is unfair."

Yeah... It sure is.

"Claud... I want to... I want to help Mr. Ghost. No more people should be hurt. I don't mind even if others think we're bad people. We must do what we have to do."

'If that's your decision, I'll follow.'

"Also, after this I want to go home to Eindall."

Huh? She wants to go home?

It's true that once we've returned to our home country, the Empire has no obligations to extradite us, but I doubt she was considering that.

'Why do you want to go home?'

"B-because it's dangerous. It's safer to stay at home. We should get stronger and-"

I covered her mouth with my hand. She can't be serious, she wanted to leave on a whim and on a whim, she wants to return?

'Is this because of the murders? You shouldn't be scared of the outside world. The world has more to offer than just-'

"I am scared! Dangerous situations out of our control are bound to arise again, we should go home and train in the academy. We never needed to leave!"

She's freaking out because she saw dead bodies... Did it hit her? The realization that we could die. It's a little exaggerated in her head. We aren't as weak as these corpses on the shelves...

'Leaving was the right thing to do. We are growing out here regardless of whether we've had official training. Truthfully, we've grown more out here than in school. We shouldn't be scared of dangerous things; it will only serve as fuel for our growth.'

"But what if we don't make it? I'm scared of dying... I don't want to..."

She's panicking, breathing in extremely quickly. I would have never come down here if I knew she would act like this.

'You won't die. I promise I'd protect you.'

"No. No! No! That's exactly what I meant! I know you'll do your best to protect me. But I'm not sure I can protect you... because I'm scared... I don't know if I can do it... Let's just go back home, okay? We can safely get stronger. Claud's the calculative type that doesn't want to take risks, I know that. So, you like the idea of staying at home too, right?"

God damn it. We've already come so far. To circle back now would be to undo all the progress we've made. Not just in terms of distance but for her mentality as well. She'll regress to a weaker state than she was in before, I just know it.

I mustn't allow her to flipflop. She can't keep doing things whimsically. You've made your bed, now lie in it.