Dante was lost in thought as Arianne remained silent during the ride, only to be surprised by how strangely quickly they had arrived. After spending over a month at the base and often going out on various assignments, Dante had a pretty good idea about the distances and vehicle travel time between many places in his area of activity, so the swiftness of their arrival had startled him. Looking at Arianne, she beckoned him to get out and opened her own door.

As soon as Dante got out of the car, he realised that the street, Boglund based on one of the signs, was utterly unfamiliar to him, be it the nearby buildings or the obvious scent of the sea, “Where are we?” Dante asked as he felt his throat slightly tighten.

“Normal procedure when someone goes missing,” Arianne replied as she began to lead way towards one of the nearby buildings, “When you didn’t come back before the curfew last night we had immediately changed locations.”

“Isn’t that a bit excessive,” Dante gasped, “I have only been gone one night.”

“As general advice for someone in our line of work, always assume the worst-case scenario when making preparations,” Arianne glanced at him with a strange smile, her previous silent anger changing into something Dante wasn’t sure how to describe, “If you had gone rogue or were captured by an enemy, that one night is enough for an ambush.”

“Do you and Damien really have so many dangerous enemies?” Dante asked, feeling his feet turn a bit cold. At his position within the organisation, any enemies of Damien and Arianne might also target him.

“The person you trusted yesterday might betray you tomorrow,” Arianne gave a vague answer as her head turned towards their destination. Before Dante had the opportunity to ponder about it, a man walked out of the building they were seemingly heading towards, someone Dante didn’t recognize. He appeared about twenty, wearing an ebony tuxedo and a top hat, both at a complete contrast of his nose piercing and the tattoo of a serpent coiling around his head. His stance was full of confidence, perhaps even spreading a sense of arrogance.

“So, you weren’t ambushed on the way,” he stated with a smile aimed at Arianne before she or Dante could speak.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think that you were disappointed,” Arianne replied with a scoff as she lead Dante to the entrance.

“I checked the formation you had set up,” the man ignored her snarky attitude and entered along with them as he continued the conversation, “I am once again impressed by your artisanry.”

“I had stayed up all night to set it up after all,” Arianne smiled, seemingly returning to normal, “I will have to add the overtime markup whenever someone else wants to use it,” she added and despite not really understanding their conversation, Dante clearly saw the corner of the man’s mouth twitch.

“Aren’t we technically part of the same organisation?” the man pleaded, his former air of arrogance gone in a moment.

“I am sure Damien will be willing to let you use one of his strongholds' formation if you are willing to drive for 2 hours,” Arianne kept smiling as she answered the man.

“Fine, fine, I get it,” the man sighed before his gaze sharpened again this time directed at Dante, “You know why I am here, let’s get this over with,” he added as he confidently lead the way, Arianne and Dante in tow.

“What exactly is going on,” Dante asked after a few seconds of deliberation.

“Although your story is very plausible, countermeasures against traitors need to be employed either way,” Arianne likely already expected that question, “Usually, that means some time of house arrest while some people you had never met properly investigate everything. Though that would take too much time, so I made you a shortcut.”

“A truth ward,” the man said as soon as Dante began to wonder what that shortcut was. Immediately, Dante connected it with the previous conversation about certain formation Arianne had made and the tattooed man was interested in using. Although it was something that Arianne had never mentioned to Dante, the name was pretty self-explanatory, moreover, unknown to all, Dante had actually already gone through a truth ward interrogation once before, in that strange laboratory on that night which still made him shudder whenever he remembered it.

“Are they that rare?” Dante couldn’t help but ask when he thought further. According to what Arianne said the closest one available was two hours ride away if the one newly made was excluded. Of course, he was clearly not asking if but why there were so few.

“Although they are among the hardest formations to make, that isn’t the main reason,” Lucas immediately read in between the lines and answered with a laugh, “The main issue is that they are extremely illegal and relatively difficult to hide in a city full of prying eyes like Giltport.”

“Are there really any laws which concern magic?” Dante asked with some doubt. As far as he knew, although magic was not deliberately hidden from people the idea of its existence was not widespread either. For most people, it came down to whether they believe those second and third-hand stories. Naturally, such a thing wouldn't occur if magic was very common or if it was a part of actual law books.

“Some rules don’t need to be written in order to be enforced,” Arianne answered with a smile which appeared a bit forced.

“That might as well be the slogan of the 6 mage houses,” the man nodded with a cynical chuckle and a grim expression. It appeared to Dante that both of them had experienced the meaning of those words first hand. With the doubts concerning the ward answered to satisfaction, there was only one more question on Dante’s mind as he looked over, or perhaps ever stared, at the tuxedo-wearing man.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“For obvious reasons, an unbiased witness is needed in a confirmation process,” Arianne seemingly read Dante’s mind, “Lucas here is of sufficient standing and reputation to act as one while I perform the examination,” During their conversation they had been walking through the building, passing many doors and hallways Dante barely understood that the place seemed to be some complex of small warehouses and storage rooms before they arrived at their destination. As their conversation drew to an end, they entered another storeroom filled with bookshelves. In a movement Dante could only describe as a novel worthy, Arianne actually pulled out one of the books, causing the small bookshelf it was in to slowly slide to the side, revealing a small chamber with only a bench touching all three walls.

“Step inside,” she instructed and Dante followed. As soon as Dante entered, he felt the magic envelop him, causing a strangely familiar sensation to rise within him while he sat down.

“What city are we in?” Arianne followed up with a strange question, her hand touching something on the wall or bookshelf that Dante couldn’t see from within the chamber.

“Giltport,” Dante replied after pausing for over a second. In fact, he had expected these strange questions based on his previous experience and only pretended to be startled by them.

“What is your gender?” she continued and Dante answered those questions one couldn’t get wrong, “How many limbs do you have? Are you alive? Is your heart beating?” only after those did Arianne looked over at Lucas and stated: “The AE is up to 5, confirm that you believe that is enough.”

“Alright Dante,” Arianne looked back into the chamber as soon as Lucas nodded his head in affirmation, “I will ask you questions now. Think about them carefully and answer them as truthfully as possible,” she waited for Dante to nod, “First of all: Was what you had told me about the events of last night what you believe to be the truth?”

“Yes,” Dante clearly articulated, trying his best to not let his slowly accumulating tension show on his face. If the questioning only affected the events of last night it would be alright, however, there were a few secrets Dante had told no one about, namely the events of the night he regained consciousness.

“Has anyone approached you with a premise of betraying me or the organisation, or had anyone attempted or otherwise persuade you into doing the same thing?” she carefully constructed the question, trying not to leave any gaps or wiggling room.

“No,” Dante could answer with an easy heart.

“Do you have serious malicious intent that goes beyond pettiness towards me, Damien or the rest of the organisation as far as you are aware?” she continued.

“No,” Dante still easily replied. The only people he would have such evil intent towards were probably the researcher Rebecca, whoever the mysterious Azure she had spoken of was and the 3 zealots who had tried to kill him. Though the fact that his thoughts were once again brought to that night made him uncomfortable.

“In the past two months, had there been any inconsistencies in your memory?” Arianne said.

This time, Dante took some time to consider. Although he could hardly recall the entire month, he was pretty sure there was no such thing, “No,” he eventually answered.

“And finally, would you be willing to betray me or Damien for wealth or other gains?” it was a question a bit out of the blue. Thanks to Arianne’s own teachings, he noticed that unlike the previous questions it did not talk about the entire organisation, only the two of them. If the whole organisation was involved, Dante might have a hard time denying any inclination towards perhaps helping himself a bit by picking another distasteful teammate’s pocket or perhaps eventually betraying a teammate Dante found too ‘evil’ by his own standards to leave alone to satisfy the still existing desire for justice in his heart. However, when it came to only Arianne and Damien, one was a powerful mage who understood Dante to a dangerous degree and the other was an unpredictable mastermind with immense influence, “No,” was an easy answer to give.

“That should satisfy you, right?” Arianne glanced at Lucas who nodded, “In that case, get out of my base,” she added a bit harshly.

“In that case, I will be looking forward to our next meeting,” Lucas bowed with a smile as though he hadn't noticed the obvious displeasement Arianne had with his presence, tipped his top hat and left the way they had arrived. Arianne did not bother supervising his departure.

“Who is he?” Dante was curious as he started getting up from the bench.

“Stay seated,” Arianne commanded before answering, “Lucas Houndmare, ironically a man as slithering as the snake on his face. He is the go-to Giltport arbiter when it comes to small and medium gangs or individual serial criminals. It could be said that he is the man who can get every lowlife and thug in the city to do his bidding from fear of getting on his bad side. He occasionally takes some who show promise to work as his bodyguards or subsidiary arbiters. Most of his considerable income comes from taking a cut in every dispute he or his people solve from which he gives another cut to Damien in exchange for borrowing the organisation’s backing.”

“Is such a business so lucrative?” Dante did not comment on Arianne’s obvious dislike of the man.

“All monopolies are lucrative,” Arianne shook her head, “Being an arbiter for such people requires certain reputation and Lucas is making very sure that anyone who could intrude on his domain either starts working for him or stops being capable of such work. But enough about him,” Arianne tapped on something beyond Dante’s sight again, “I turned the ward down to 0.5,” suddenly her smile turned wide and Dante felt a horrible premonition, “Being able to effectively lie under the effect of a truth ward is also an important skill, especially for a mage in our line of work. Although it won’t do you much good if you are the singular interrogation focus, you might end up in a situation when the other party is fishing for someone guilty in a large group of people. In that case, in order to save both time and resources, they would usually only calibrate the ward to 2 or 3.”

“I just came back from the hospital, shouldn’t I be able to rest?” Dante attempted to make an excuse with a strained smile as he felt his chest tighten.

“Nonsense,” Arianne’s smile grew even wider, “It would be such a waste to calibrate the truth ward again without using it for at least few hours.”

Arianne had done quite a few things that day. Personally picking him up, wearing different clothes than she usually prefered, got angry over some of Dante's actions from the previous night as he recounted them and finally she withstood the visit of a person she obviously disliked. All of that must’ve caused Arianne a not-insignificant amount of frustration. And Dante knew first hand that Arianne was the kind of teacher who took her frustration out on her pupils. He audibly gulped and then surrendered to his fate.