"So this is him..." Jack stared at the corpse with great distaste.

Peering up at Dana he clenched his teeth. On one hand, she had butchered the townspeople against his orders, slain the target of their investigation AND gone off on her own. And yet, she at least found the target while getting some intel before he died too.

Then there was the matter of the Lord that had triggered this debacle at all...

"You are certain he said their companions were heading into the monster forest to hide? The werewolf, parasite AND the demon? You have to be certain, you definitely heard him say the demon was with them?" Jack's hands opened and closed. Any atrocity could be overlooked if they captured the portal demon. The countless lives saved would make any other cost cheap by comparison.

"I am certain, Warden," Dana said with a dark look in her eyes.

Jack did not remember her hating him this much and wondered of being played for a fool by the Lord had angered her as it had him/ Perhaps...he should not have yelled so much when she first arrived. But still, had his temper really been so angry as to earn that aura of bloodlust?

"This information is valuable and will be the only reason I'm not executing you, Dana. Your actions have turned the townspeople against us, gods know that stupid Lord's advice already made the guilds hate us too. To think he would lie so brazenly that the adventurers were hiding them...despicable."

"The Guildmembers, they are safe?" Dana said with rounded eyes and bated breath.

Jack grinned, "aye Dana. They are safe, I meant them no harm. We just wanted to find the escaped prisoners amongst them, the fate of our kingdom demanded we work with speed. What has gotten into you? I had thought you didn't care for anything bar your faith and the cause."

Perhaps, jack thought, he had misjudged her. Seeing the shaven haired necromancer sigh with relief, he almost thought she was human. But then Jack remembered her record, the terrible atrocity that had put her into prison to begin with.

To think the sole living being who had willingly served the Plague King could so shamelessly return to the scene of her genocidal crime and then not even bat an eyelash about it? The depth of that kind of evil made jack shiver. And she dared stare at him as if he were the bad one here?

"You will join us in giving chase immediately. Luckily our assassin tracked them down to the monster forest and has already found a Willow tree they were recently waiting under before her returned. With both of you together, our forces will surely catch them in no time. You are dismissed."

Even though Dana should have been pleased, she instead appeared shocked.

"N-no, they are definitely heading deep into the forest itself. Most likely to hide," Dana said quickly, "they are a dim witted people - trying to find a hole to crawl within and stay out of our sight."

"Dana...thank you for this information. But Ozzy had already explained why they would take a path that would lead through the mountains and back into our kingdom. That path would be risky, certainly, but would evade the patrols I've sent along the king's road. I'm trusting his advice on this matter."

As Dana moved to speak again, Jack held up a finger.

"Not another word Dana, this is my decision. Now go get ready." Once the rebellious necromancer had left, Jack gestured for a crusader to allow the next appointment in.

Covered in gold and furs, the fat Lord Richmond had enough belly for four and chewed on a drumstick even as he came to their meeting.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"You should never make a Lord wait...Captain," Lord Richmond said as he sucked the grease from his fingers.

"And you should not lie to me. Even if I am no longer a Templar Inquisitor, I am still of the inquisition. I could have you hanged for that stunt with the Golden Goose. To think you would claim they were hiding the enemy when you really just wanted to drive them out of town..."

"What? They were there, my informants said so!" Lord Richmond huffed and puffed like a pig as he waived his jewelled fingers at the ceiling.

"With the Three as my witness, I swear it is so!"

"Then what about the Headless Hunters...?" Jack said as he clasped his hands together and gave the sweating Lord a long look. "You never mentioned that they could be hiding there, and yet my necromancer seemed to have been informed otherwise. Someone gave her access to the crypts too, and helped produce bodies under the false pretence that she worked with my approval."

The Lord seemed not to know what to say. After trying to hide a small smile, he finally sighed.

"Fine, I might have helped things along a bit. But that's because there was a demon in that guild, a monster too! Out of anywhere in Tariak I could think of no other place that was more likely to house heretics, monsters and demons than aGuild that already did so! So let's brush this matter aside, eh?"

The Lord's many chins wobbled with hope.

"Crusaders, take this man into custody," Jack snapped, the crusaders at the door seizing Lord Richmond's arms.

"Lord Richmond, you are charged with failing the duties of your station, multiple counts of manslaughter and corruption. Have you anything to say for yourself?"

"Y-you have no right! unhand me cretins, I am a noble, your superior!"

"I was given the right by the One. As punishment for your comes I sentence you to death by hanging. Take him away and see to it this filth in human skin is dealt with," seeing the crusaders drag away the red faced Lord brought only some small relief to Jack's heart.

Yet that relief was soon crushed again by the weight of the crimes his former criminals had already committed. He'd orders hands to be cut off, backs to be whipped and two would be hanged along with the Lord but...

Jack swept his hand through the mass of reports. No doubt many more had yet to even be reported. This would be settled when his force left however, no harm they could do in a forest filled with only monsters.

And should the demon be secured, this would all become well worth it.

Grabbing the fire-haired boy that had started this all, Jack admired his lifeless golden eyes. Such a good-looking crusader sent down the path of evil made the whole situation even harder on Jack. Although even he knew this boy wasn't so bad, there wasn't any way he could have known of the demons capture, or how disastrous her loss would be.

As Jack pondered what to say in his speach to the troops about the destruction of the heretics, a clump of his hair came off on Jack's hand. Then the face began to melt, and the body swiftly dissolved soon after.

"What the... what is this?"

Peering up at his remaining crusader, the woman shook her head.

"Then prepare the Guildmaster of the Golden Goose, i'm coming to meet with him. Tell him if he wants to remain in his station he should be ready to give me answers about...." Jack just waved at the dissolved body with disgust, grey goo drooling down his table to pool on the floor.

"And get that Necromancer to the Guildhall to meet me while you're at it. Something doesn't add up here."