That smile unsettled me. He seemed too sure of himself and came off as cocky. The Chieftain looked at me, clearly upset. "What is the meaning of this?"

I calmly replied, "He is cooperating. There is no reason to beat a cooperating man."

He raised his voice, "But he's slandering me in front of all the elders! I can not take that sitting down! Do you believe the murderer?"

"No, a murderer is the last man I would trust, but what if he wasn't a murderer? I'm not saying you set him up. I'm simply saying someone else just as likely could've".

The man spoke up, "It's clearly the Chieftain. Why else would he be eager to beat me?"

I ignored him. The Chieftain and I continued to stare at each other. Even though he was clearly unhappy, he eventually conceded: "Fine."

"Thanks for your reasonableness. Chieftain Ming." I said, offering my gratitude. He huffed dismissively, refusing to accept it. That was fine with me.

I turned toward the accused murderer. "Are you aware that the punishment would be much worse if your accusations are proven to be false?"

His smile faded slightly but didn’t fully disappear, "I have no need to worry because I tell no lies, Sage Jie Mins."

I nodded towards the guards, and they quickly left with the man, clearly not wanting to be the focus of attention after the stunt I pulled. I doubted the Chieftain would so blatantly set them up, but I still needed to make sure. The next man got pulled in as I was thinking about how I should expose people if they were lying.

I sifted through my memories, recalling every interrogation method I had heard off. I needed to bluff to get anything out of them, and this young fella was likely the most inexperienced among these thieves unless there was someone even younger. The young man looked around nervously, clearly not knowing how to react to being pulled into the council of elders.

"Hi, what can I call you, young man?" I decided to start this one off sounding kinder, yet I kept my face neutral to keep him from being creeped out.

"T-they call me T-Tao." He stuttered out, his eyes rapidly darted around.

I understood his nervousness, but it seemed too much for the situation. Did they indeed set up a cover story? Why would they do so? I would expect the Chieftain to kill them regardless of what they said. Did they simply get their story straight, just in case? Or did they know I would interfere in some way?

"Alright, Tao. I have a few questions for you, and I need you to answer them truthfully."

He nodded, nervously rubbing his arms together.

I continued, "Why did you attack the food storage? What was your motive?"

"I-I wanted to help feed my wife and kids," he replied more confidently.

Does he even have a wife and kids? He might, as it wasn't unusual to have a family young. He was maybe in his late teens. I couldn't quite put my finger on the exact age, though. I needed to throw him off if he was reading off a script. "What are your wifes and kids' names?"

"U-um… It's P-Pei and M-Ming." He went back to shuffling nervously.

The way he replied was definitely suspicious. So, I decided to consider that the reason he gave was false. What would be the true reason behind the robbery? Could it be…

I stood up calmly and approached Tao. The closer I got, the more nervous he became. Once I was standing in front of him, I leaned closer to the young man and whispered, "I know the truth, Tao."

He shivered, "I don't know what you mean, S-Sage."

I quickly surfed my memories to remember the first man we interrogated. "Jia spilled everything. Everyone who was involved, why you were involved, and what your end goal was."

"I-I-I don't kn-know what you m-mean." Panic crept into his voice. Yep, there was definitely something suspicious going on. Let's give him one more push.

"We told him that if he spilled everything, he wouldn't receive death for his actions." Murmurs started up around me at that. Tao tried to look around, but I grabbed his face, ensuring he wouldn't be able to look around, and slightly bent my knees to be face to face with the man. I felt somewhat silly in doing so, but it was the best method I could think of at the moment.

"If you are willing to tell us everything, I'll give you the same deal. You will be excused from your crimes and won't receive death for your crimes. You will only get this chance once, and I will give you three seconds to think it over."

He started shifting more, trying to get out of my grip. I held on firmly.

“One… Two… Three…”

Seeing him not fold, I mentally resigned myself but kept up the play. "Since he didn't take the deal, send him to the holding room for the execution."

The guards nodded before dragging him away. I didn't know if we actually had a holding room for execution or whether they understood my ploy and played along. When they were just about to leave through the door, he finally cracked.

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"Wait!" He screamed out.

The guards continued to walk him out.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! I'll tell you everything! Please!"

"Bring him back," I ordered the guards, and they dragged him right back to me, dropping him.

He folded, starting to sob. It didn't matter to me whether it was out of guilt or stress. All that mattered to me was that I had him. All I needed was to get all the information.

After waiting for him to collect himself, I crouched to his level. "Unfortunately, I don't have all day. I still need to talk to your other friends. I won’t give you another chance if you don’t speak up now."

"O-ok." He sniffed again before replying, "W-we were doing it because we were afraid of the plague. We wanted to grab as much food as possible and follow the herds south. I swear we didn't mean to kill any of the guards! We were trying to sneak through, but one of us got caught, and we broke into a fight."

He started to sob again, and I let him. Now that I had him open up, I gave him more time to calm himself. After a dozen or so seconds, he collected himself enough to continue. "I was gonna grab enough food for my parents and wife to survive the trip south. I swear it wasn't supposed to turn into a murder!"

I soothed him, calmly saying, "I'm sure you didn't mean it, but it happened. Why didn't you surrender yourselves? The worst that would've happened was a slap on the wrist—not whatever this has turned into."

"I-I wasn't the one who started the fight. It was Bao who started it. Once he started it, the guards and our group began to pull weapons.

Before long, it had turned into a fight to the death."

I nodded gravely and asked him to give me the names. They didn't mean anything to me, but hopefully, someone in the administration would be able to use them. After he had given me all the names, I stood up. "Give Tao here his own room."

The guards nodded at me and walked him out; this time, they didn't stop, and the man didn't scream, although some sobs were coming out of him. I turned towards the elders and was met by an array of looks. Some looked at me with a certain level of respect, but most looked at me with warry faces and concern, or some even had disgust. This was probably because of how smoothly I lied to the man and how much I was able to get out of it.

"Tao will not be executed." I declared.

Murmurs broke out, and one even spoke up. "But he committed a heinous crime! He deserves death!"

I shook my head, "At this point, it doesn't matter. I have made a promise, and it will be kept. I am not saying he will go unpunished for his misdeeds, but death or torture will not be the punishment."

Surprisingly, the Chieftain said, "And what happens if I decide to have him executed?"

Was he trying to get back at me for stopping him from having the man that lied about the Chieftain setting them up, beat? "We will have a problem then. My promises are that. Promises. No one will break them."

We stared at each other before the Chieftain finally looked away. Hopefully, this confrontation wouldn't lead to something bigger. I didn't want a Priest allegation and conflict two-point-O from happening. I returned to my seat as the elders discussed all the information revealed.

"The council should interrogate the rest of the thieves to see if the information matches. If there are no inconsistencies, then he most likely didn't lie," I said. "But I do not want to be the one interrogating. Someone else can do it."

I got a few frowns, but I didn't mind. I did the hard work of getting the initial intel. The rest was up to them. After some discussion, they pulled in the next person. When it was revealed how much we knew, surprisingly few cracked. The most that would happen is that they froze up and paled. A few would continue acting like we were bluffing, and even fewer would spill everything. It might be due to the fact that a pardon wasn't promised, but since we confirmed that everything matched, plus or minus a few names, it didn't matter.

Once the interrogation finished, it was time to discuss the punishment. "I think death is suitable. A life for a life!"

There was a lot of noise, but the consensus seemed to be death to the thieves and murderers. The Chieftain looked at me, clearly expecting me to interfere. When I didn't, he nodded. "Raise your hands for the death penalty for all the thieves and murders that instigated the attack."

As all the hands got raised, I quickly interjected, "All but Tao."

The Chieftain looked annoyed at my interjection, but I wasn't taking any chances. "Raise your hands for the death penalty for all the thieves and murders that instigated the attack besides Tao."

This got a more mixed reaction from the crowd of elders, but the majority still raised their hands.

"Now that the most immediate problem has been addressed, we need to address the refugees. We cannot continue to let them run amok, as you can see where that has led us."

Murmurs of approval spread throughout the group of elders. I didn't like the direction he was taking. I thought I made it clear this was not how I wanted to address this situation. I frowned as he continued.

"For the safety of the city and our own, we need to suppress these people! They have come for shelter and food, and they have stabbed us in the back for our trust! All these people need to be assigned as servants so that they won't have the ability to stab us again. It is only fair!"

This time, there was a more agitated reaction in the council room. Everyone seemed to agree. I needed to step in. "Why are we punishing all for the actions of a few?"

"To make them hold each other accountable, obviously." One of the elders spoke up.

"But that would result in the opposite effect. People who want to leave will riot regardless of whether we suppress them or not, while others who would have originally wanted to stay will feel pressured and react in the same manner. The best course of action would be to punish the thieves publicly, to show what stealing from the city would result in." My stomach got queasy at the statement, but I pushed on, "I suggest that we offer to provide people with tools and equipment to get them out of the city if they choose to do so. That way they don't feel pressured to stay nor would they need a reason to steal in order to leave. Not a lot, since we need them ourselves, but since there has been an immense uptick in the number of animals in this land due to the plague. They can follow the herd south without worrying about food. "

It was the Chieftain's turn to confront me. "Why would we respond to crimes with reward?"

I shook my head, "We are not. Imagine a wound filled with pus; why bandage it and keep it contained when draining it will bring one to health quicker?"

Some murmurs were spreading around.

"He does have a point."

"Why keep the people that don't want to be here?

The chieftains started to slowly change shades. "We will not be rewarding crimes with rewards, no matter how you put it. All for punishing those ungrateful ingrates, raise your hand."

What is wrong with this guy? Why was he putting his foot down so heavily? The vote was getting close, and my heart started to sink as I realized I wouldn't win.

"I agree with the Sage."

I looked at my ray of sunshine, the Priest. He had promised to support me, and I was glad he kept his word.