Shaula comes back to herself and recalls Tom mentioning a “tragedy”. She needs to know now about what’s going on. But, she relaxes her face and puts on her “noblewoman” persona once again.
"Your explanation is quite useful for my purposes… Though, would you mind explaining something to me? What did the twin moons do so badly today? What exactly happened?" She asks, a slight smile on her face, one that doesn't reach her eyes. Tom doesn't notice her animosity towards him however.
He wears a sad expression as he recalls what they did.
"I only heard accounts from my men, but apparently, they used one of our weapons in a sort of… well, unorthodox manner, let's say. One of them, someone who wasn't a mage, drank a vial of the stuff with no preparation. None at all! It resulted in a large fire that killed many of our kind… patriotic human supremacists, ones who loved our country and wanted to protect it from… Well, I pray Osva leads them all safely to their rest."
He looks up at the sky solemnly. He doesn't realize that Shaula is staring at him with her jaws clenched.
You pathetic little worm. You were responsible for it. You funded a fucking terrorist group! I'm gonna rip out your spine through your mouth, I'm going to chop you up and send you to your family, I'm going to–
"My heart goes out to them. I had no idea that they were so stupid. So many people who were agreeable to the Baron's needs… we need those race guardians to support our Baron! It's people like them who would join the Baron's army! What a waste…"
Shaula realizes something crucial. The people who Ajax had seen leading humans out of the square…
Could they have been Twin Moons members? Is that who he saw? A fucking terrorist group? Are you fucking kidding me? And he's… he must have been antagonizing then, not even realizing who they were or what they were doing… Oh no…
While she has these thoughts, Tom continues wiping away his responsibility for this outcome. He speaks as if he has nothing to do with them, as if he's just someone who made a mistake or two, rather than someone responsible for all that suffering and death.
"If they had just done what they were told, if they had just done what we paid them to do, then we could have captured that old draconid man much more easily! But now, we have so many people dying, humans! It's an outrage…"
It is at this point that Tom realizes what he's just confessed to. He was so occupied with trying to live that he didn't realize how he was admitting to funding and arming a terrorist organization, explicitly so the Baron could reach a higher status and gain more money and power.
He had confessed all this to a noble that was at the very least against the Barony.
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He had spoken about illegal activities that even the Baron wouldn't know about. Even if he could claim that he was tortured for information, what excuse would he have for humiliating the Baron by making use of a terror group and so easily admitting this to an enemy noble?
He would lose more than his position. His life would be forfeit. His family might be killed too depending on what the Baron feels about his actions.
"W-Wait! Even if you let me go now, I-I would be in deep trouble with the Baron for confessing all of this to you. I have a wife and two daughters! I beg you, heroine! P-Please! Please grant my family and I asylum within your territory!"
Shaula is pulled out of her swirling rage-filled thoughts when Tom kneels before her in a position that would seem to universally indicate supplication: prostration.
This is when Shaula realizes something.
She hears armored guards heading towards her direction. There were at least forty of them, but it sounds like there are more than that following behind. She can't discern the exact number from only the clattering their armor makes when they run. It seems like Tom had already done what she had wanted him to do.
Barden, Prisca, Jelli… they'll be fine now. Good.
She can guess that through some magical method the Captain sent a signal to his men to back him up. At the very least, if so many of his men are headed over here, they aren't going to be focused on Barden. Even if there are still a few undercovers in the crowd around Barden, she can easily deal with those scumfucks all by herself. She smiles widely.
"Pfft… hehehe…"
She tries hard to stifle her giggling. This was indeed the right path. All it took was for her to kill a few evil men and she had saved Barden's, Prisca's, Angelidis's lives as well as the lives of several others who would no longer need to confront the guards alongside her.
Tom looks at her slightly confused. She's able to suppress her laughter as she realizes that she has maybe two minutes to wrap this up and leave the area before his backup reaches them.
Enough of all this.
Shaula decides to drop her pretenses and sighs to herself. Her voice is exasperated but the anger she is feeling towards this man is not quiet. Standing in the presence of this man, a coward, someone who doesn't wish to take responsibility, a callous wretch… She's had enough.
"Haha… Ha… Wow. You insect." She starts.
However, Tom doesn't understand this term because insects are an animal native to Earth, ones that don't appear on Omicron. He looks up at her quizzically, though he starts to feel unsettled at her smile right now.
"You moron. You scumfuck. First, you admit to me that you're funding a terror group. One that kills innocent demihumans while you and your fellow cops turn a blind eye. You then admit to me that they killed a lot of humans after you ordered them to act today. That's one thing. That's bad enough, but then to not even accept your responsibility…"
"W-Wait, no! What are… Why are you saying all of…"
He sees her look down at him, her face utterly cold. He feels the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He has made a mistake. The woman was not actually as callous as he had assumed. He knows that there are many commoners like her who value the lives of humans and demihumans. He did not think he would run into a noble who thought in the same manner.
As he considers what kind of person the woman in front of him actually is, he realizes the many things he said to her. He didn't just confess his crimes and sins, he even bragged about them. He starts weeping at the realization that he's not going to be spared here.