Cain

Yep, this seems about right.

My entire body was wrapped up and bound unbearably tight, although they knew that wouldn’t contain me this time, so they trapped me in a metal coffin as well, leaving only my head sticking out.. From looks alone it seemed to be the heat resistant material that gave me so much trouble as well; they also covered my head with a glass bulb. So I wouldn't be able to escape this arrangement even if I somehow managed to convert my entire body into fire and jet myself out of the coffin through the head hole. On top of that, heavily armored guards all wearing the heat resistant armor lined the dark room I was in.

"Does that metal stuff grow on trees?" I murmured to myself. They produced so many countermeasures specifically designed against me in such a short time frame, and with a metal like that I had no idea how they managed to heat it up to a degree where it became malleable enough to forge with.

"Hey I have a question for y'all , what's this strange metal called? Seems like it doesn't melt no matter how much heat I put into it, so I don't really know how you can forge with it either."

I get no response.

"This cage is pretty well constructed, but I do know a way to get out of it if you don't answer my question." This was a half bluff, in reality, in such a confined space, the theory I was testing could very well cause my body to rupture from the inside.

Murmurs arose across the guards after my proclamation. I guess they decided to play it safe.

"It's called rosemetal, and there's a way to make it malleable without heat." The guard then goes silent and doesn’t elaborate any further.

Well that's good enough for now. There's really nothing I can do with this information at the moment. I was just curious. "Thank you for that." I said then closed my eyes. I hope Yesenia does her job right.

Yesenia

"We will now start the trial to determine the fate of the Tetsudo known as Cain." An oldish booming voice rang out,

"He's going to be extremely valuable when it comes to pushing this war. I can assure you that without him our defeat is guaranteed." I spoke up first.

"And he still killed one of our men, nearly killed half of our leadership all at once, including you, and escaped to work with an assassin from Oliviand." Stronl said. She was a tall, well maintained women. To describe her in a single word, everything about her just screamed order, from her tightly wrapped hair, to her pristine and crisp uniform.

"And he fully intends to face the consequences of his actions. However, there's no doubt he's on our side now. His actions have been completely consistent with his words."

"So his claim that he despises all us royals is true as well?"

"Well..."

"Even if he's on our side, there's no reason to believe that he'll work and listen with us."

"I'll keep him in check."

"With what powers? The instant he decides he doesn't want to listen to you he can just mow you down."

I bite my lip, the conversation had quickly shifted to put me on the defensive.

"Yea it's a big risk. What other option do we have before we all die though? Answer that question before I'll answer your questions."

"Simple, from some of our reports it seems like one of Oliviand's Tetsudo had fled from the order and is now in hiding, and the other one had gone to The Eye alone for the time being. We still have another Tetsudo that can easily turn the tide of battle for us."

"Yea and imagine when the other Tetsudo returns from The Eye and we're back to the same spot we were previously, you're making the wrong decision here."

"Trust me, I would love to have another Tetsudo to add to our forces, but he is just too volatile and uncontrollable. When he for some reason, began to camp out in the middle of the town and scare all the residents away. When I tried approaching him, he displayed obvious hostile intent, blowing up the ground in front of us, and when we persisted, he looked like he was about to jump off the statue and attack us directly."

"He was-"

"Keep in mind, this was right after you promised to take care of him after he was initially captured. We trusted you to do so and this is what ended up happening."

Ah this is getting pretty bad, I can't think of much of a retort for what she's saying.

"He was trying to get the assassin's attention after we spent all day searching for her." I said, digging myself an even deeper of a hole.

"You did what?" She said in a vehement tone.

"What's wrong with that? If Cain ended up being a bad person the only person who gets put into harms way is me, and we were looking for someone we needed to find anyways. Were we just going to ignore the person who killed 13 of our guards?"

"What were you going to do if the Tetsudo linked up with the assassin and decided to work with her? Hm? And what came out of that search anyways, did we actually kill the assassin or did she escape without a scratch?"

I hesitated and didn't respond, the real answer to this question would undoubtedly land me in trouble and secure Cain's fate, but if I lied about it then Stronl would immediately figure it out.

"I just trusted him." I said, ultimately deciding to tell the truth.

"Princess..." Stronl looked at me and took a deep sigh. "You trust too many people. A lot of times the trust had been misplaced, yet you still do it. Oh sorry, I forgot; you're no longer a princess." Stronl added at the end there.

"You're right, and I'm sorry I can't provide more solid reasoning than this, but I know that letting Cain help us will become a major step forward, and from what I've seen interacting with him, he's not that bad of a guy. Brother, Rainel, Crux, you guys can attest to this right?"

"Well I wouldn't say that- oof" Rainel started to speak but quickly got a slap on the head by Crux.

"Yes, I was one of the first people to meet him and I can tell that the one thing that that Tetsudo isn't is a dishonest person. He will help us and follow through with it I swear by it."

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Stronl closed her eyes and nodded for a bit. "If even Crux is vouching for him then... let me speak face to face with that Tetsudo for a while. If I like what I hear then I'll support you guys, and don't worry, I won't be petty and double down if that happens." Despite her crushing me at wordplay as usual, she seemed to be somewhat open minded about it.

I slowly nod. Stronl definitely has a strong read on people's characters when she first meets them, if she ends up being convinced then a lot of the other nobles will follow suit, and we'll have our victory.

Cain

"You here to kill me?" I ask as I meet face to face with the lady I remember seeing in the square; she was the one who told me to surrender peacefully.

"I might be, it all depends on how you answer my questions going forward."

"So Yesenia at least made you give me a chance." I said.

"Yea, you should be grateful that a person like her even exists. A person who you nearly killed twice on your own selfish whims."

"Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking all that straight when I got here... Nah, that's not right, that's just the type of person I was at that time I can't lie." I say with a feigned calmness.

"And how do I know that you've changed your ways? If we trust you and you go out of control, that's going to be the end of the road for us."

"I... I don't know how to prove that to you. All I know, is that I don't want to hurt anybody right now."

"Including our enemies?"

An air of silence hangs then hangs between us as my thoughts dart back to my time with Gleek.

"No, not them either, but if I have to I will."

"That's a strange answer, there was no need to say that first part yet you still did, do you think you're an honest person or something?"

"No. I'm not, and I will never be, I'm just trying to make up for all the things I did wrong in the past."

"Like what?"

"Thinking that I was something greater than I really was."

"So what are you then?"

"I'm small, smaller than an ant and I never realized that."

"And you still think that? At this very moment?"

"Yes, and that's something I'll have to live with forever."

"Is that so..." The woman said seemingly ending the exchange.

We stare at each other for a couple more seconds, her eyes were seemingly observing my very mind. As the seconds pass, sprinkles of doubt gradually begin sprouting up in my mind.

“Do you think you’re a good or bad person?” She finally asks after a long pause.

I bite my lip. What do I think of myself now? The dynamics have changed immensely, I haven’t really had a chance to pause and dwell on it.

“I still think I’m a bad person.”

“Wrong answer, I’ll give you one more chance.” Stronl immediately says.

Does she want me to say I’m a good person? Is this is the test she’s putting me through? Is she saying that there’s no room for self-loathing if I’m to join their side?

“Then…” I hesitate, Stronl looks at me expectantly as I begin to talk. What else could she want? How is this even a test in the first place when there are only 2 options and she gives me two tries? “I think I’m a good person.” I finally say. Maybe this is just a matter of conviction, I have to say it with my heart.

Stronl stares at me for a while longer.

“Wrong answer once again.” She sighs. “How disappointing.” She says as she picks up a spear from out of my sight, for a very small moment she adjusts her grip and then drives it through the glass bulb.

The room lights up with a flash of fire as the spear passes straight through my head, and I escape the confines on reaction. The dozens of guards in the room ready their weapons and begin charging forward as this happens.

However the woman doesn’t even blink. She brings her spear back and continues thrusting. With no chance of dodging at her speed, I'm forced to have to let the spear go through me over and over again, quickly bringing on the symptoms of fatigue. In desperation I reach out my hand and blast the entire side of her room in flames, however she slams her visor down and manages to back away before anything damages her.

How did this happen? I thought I was being earnest, why did she reject me? An endless amount of confusion ran through my head as my mind began to work overtime in an attempt to find a way to escape. As I stopped blasting fire into the other side of the room, revealing a completely unharmed group of people, I switch my energy to wind and hold out my arms and spin around knocking the clustered group of people back into the walls. I then spot light filtering through a tiny window up top in the corner of the room. I immediately make a dash for that window, shattering it, then flowing through the small gap as a flame. My mental state being drained to its last legs. I spiral through the sky, dizzy and delirious my mind not quite realizing that I was in free fall.

As I thought... I just can't work with these people. I think as I break through the surface of the moat. Slowly sinking to the bottom of the heavy, murky water.

Stronl

"He's gone." I bite my lip as I survey the muddy water. We got here as fast as we could after we had heard the splash from far down, but any and all traces of him had vanished. I looked to the side to see Yesenia stomping her way towards me, her emotions clearly running high.

"What happened in there?! Why is he gone!?" She shouted at me angrily

"Princess." I said, purposefully ignoring her decision to renounce her title. "You were right, he isn't a bad person."

"Then why did you do this?! We could have had an incredible ally! He had nothing but support, and you just threw it away!"

"Princess. The way he is right now, even if he supports us he won't be able to offer us any meaningful help."

"What are you saying!?"

"He’s immature. The only reason he wants to help us right now is most likely because of you. What will happen if you die then?" I say calmly, concealing the true reason why I rejected him.

"I don't… I can't understand you, why is that any reason to do this? Was it because the man he killed was in your unit?”

"That knight was simply killed as a result of the war, nothing more." I say, and then walk away not allowing for any further discussion.

The man named Cain was truly a self-absorbed person.

Cain

I warm myself up in a forest outside the city. I didn’t need to drift in the moat for long before I managed to mentally recover and run away.

I had made sure to vaporize all the water stuck to me as I left the moat so I wouldn’t leave a trail. I light my finger up like a match and stare at it holding it extremely close to my eye. By nature, Tetsu cannot affect the wielder directly in a negative way. How specifically this happens is different for every energy, but for fire, I can’t feel any heat from my own flames, unless I ignite something else.

I throw another branch into the small campfire I started.

Why, why, why, why, why! Am I still untrustworthy? Do they think I’m still going to betray them? Or maybe they were just afraid of my power. Did they not want someone who could hold any power above them, even if I had no intention of doing so? They’re complete cowards!

Dark thoughts continue festering in my mind as I stared at the pit of fire flickering and burning, eating up at the tiny branches. I’ve already shown my remorse, they’re the ones who need to be bigger and better.

I lie down and cover my eyes with my arm. What should I do now? Should I go back and make contact with Yesenia?

…There’s no way we’ll be able to work together anymore. Going back would just cause more trouble for her. Then is it all hopeless?

Or… Do I have to prove my worth to these damned royals before they’ll accept me?

…

Accept me? Why do I care if they accept me or not? All I need to do is fight. If we aren’t going to work together, then there’s nothing stopping me from doing whatever I want. I push myself off the ground and stand up.

I take one last look at the city behind me, then begin walking into the distance.

Alright, then it’s decided, time to travel to the front line.