Cameron came by after lunch, which was a generous serving of fried rice with runny eggs and a few bacon slices. Victor was with him when they entered the main room we've been using for analysing documents. He wore such a serious expression on his face as he brought a shocking news.

"Lucian was the one who surrendered." I almost dropped the tea I was holding while waiting for them but before anyone of us reply he continued,

"He is willing to cooperate but will only speak to his captors, which in this case pertains to you and Melanie." He said as he bore his gaze on me.

I let out a weary sigh, "Looks like there's more work to be done." I shot a glance at Melanie, who was lounging by the windowsill with a cup of hot coffee.

After letting us finish our beverages, we headed out to the Police Office of Auburn City. It was located past the city square, and was near enough to the western gate. From there, the jailhouse they were using was right next to it, or so Cameron had told us. We travelled there on horseback since we wouldn't be needing the wagon to bring supplies but just the faster travel time.

Once we arrived there, a man in the same style of uniform of the Imperial Army, but with blue as the main color and accented with yellow, approached us when we dismounted.

"So you really did came back today." He said as he tipped his hat at us, "I am Commander of the Auburn Police Force, Jorge Halls." Cameron nodded at him while Melanie and I introduced ourselves to him.

"Mhm, the task force Captain I see." He nodded as he closed his eyes before opening them again, " So you are the one the prisoner was talking about. In that case, we have no time to waste. Please follow me." He said as he turned around and marched back towards the Police Office. We followed him inside and saw a few officers behind desks, working through paperwork. No doubt, they were still swamped with various reports and documentations regarding the raid and maintaining public order.

The Police Commander continued down hallways and making a few turns and even descend to an underground level, "This is where we keep valuable prisoners." He gestured to the walls that shined even without the need of a light, "These walls were made out of mana absorbing alloys. Though they aren't as effective to us, when one is enclosed with these walls, they would drop your mana levels to a considerable amount that you won't be able to cast any powerful spells as long as you're within them."

As we walked alongside this hallway, occasionally there would be spots where a rectangular glass window would be attached to the walls. The glimpses I've seen through them showed the insides of a cell of around two to three inmates. We kept walking until we reached a metal door at the end, flanked by two security personnel. The Commander gave a nod and the two guards responded with crisp salutes before opening the door to let us in.

Once inside, there was another wall divider made of glass. Through it, a person was sitting down with his shoulders and head drooped. As I was about to ask, the Police Commander explained,

"This is the interrogation and it's split with a one way mirror on our side. Whenever, a prisoner enters and exits we turn the mirror off so that they won't know that we're observing him." He then turned to face me, "You'll have to go in alone and get the information we need from him. But don't worry. We'll respond immediately if he does something."

I nodded at his brief explanation and prepared myself to enter the room. Cameron and Melanie would stay with the other officers observing us and I was to have free rein of how to extract the intel we need. With a deep breath, I entered the space on the other side of the divider.

With the sound of the door opening, the prisoner looked up in surprise and showed a relieved expression. I walked to the seat across from him and sat down. I gauged him for a moment and he looked exactly like how our target was described, Lucian, the one who spoke ill of the research division. Thus, our interrogation began.

"I believe you know why you're here?" I asked in a neutral tone but he was silent, and stared me down. I matched his gaze and for a minute, nothing but the faint sound of our breathing can be heard inside the enclosed room, that is until he let out a sigh of defeat.

"Yes." He muttered quietly as he looked down.

"Then you should know how this goes." I replied back, maintaining the neutral, emotionless tone. Again silence reigned for a half a minute before he replied back.

"I can't." He said, sighing again before continuing, "It's all too complicated." Then he turned his eyes on me, "That's why I asked for an Imperial Official. I know your secrets."

This time, it was my turn to clamp up. What did he mean by that? The Bureau's secrets? My personal secrets? I can't think too much deeply on this.

"Do you really?" I said, looking a bit amused, "Do you even know where that line of thinking would lead?"

He clenched his teeth and gulped audibly, "I know. My grandfather kept personal notes and I found them." He said as he met my gaze. "There were researchers on convicted criminals whose life sentences are long enough for people to forget about them. They were used, experimented on. Just remembering the details my grandfather wrote makes me sick."

I kept my gaze steady at him while he continues to look at something from a distance.

"Biological experiments, weapon experiments, hell even using them as live bait for other experiments." He exhaled a tired sigh from his now pale face. "The moment I finished reading one document, I couldn't stop and the more I read, the more I know what transpired, I knew in good conscience that we can't let this inhuman treatment of prisoners anymore. That's why I started those protests."

"And you noticed it wasn't attracting much attention right?". I slipped into his confession.

He nodded, "Yes. There were people curious but once they got wind that it was about the Imperial Government, much less the Research and Development Bureau, they lost all interest. But someone stayed and eventually the movement grew." his voice tittered as he continued.

I nodded at periodical intervals, not giving away that everyone else can hear his confession.

"But their affiliation, did you know about them being from the Federation?" I asked him in a sharp voice.

He shrunk himself, "I didn't know at the time. Honest. The only time I knew was when there were already different cells throughout the city. At that point I knew I wasn't safe anymore and that the Empire would have my head for inviting extremists." He looked distraught and resigned.

I nodded, "I see. Since you recognize you faults, you know what they'll charge you right? An as Imperial Citizen you should know some of the consequences." I laid it out on him as heavy as I could. "However, with cooperation in ridding of these extremists from Imperial Territory, you can lessen your sentence, and depending how much we clean, a pardon maybe." I said, leaving some enough light at the end of his struggle.

He looked down and tired at the table between us. A melancholic silence was between us. It was broken after a minute when I stood up.

"I'll give you time to think things through, I'll let the Police Commander know. He'll reach me when you come to a conclusion."

I left the room and was greeted by impressed reactions by those on the other side of the room.

"Well done task force commander. Now that we have his confession of other cells, we can dispatch an team to assist you in ridding our city of these terrorists." The Police Commander, Jorge, said as he clapped my shoulder.

Cameron meanwhile had a faint smile on his face. "Well you heard her captain. Let Lucian decide on what to do next and just call on us again. For the meantime we'll go over the reports we already have and start working on cleaning duties."

The police officers instead all replied with crisp salutes and the three of us left the building entirely.

Back on the surface we mounted our horses again and made our way back towards our estate.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What do you think he'll do." Melanie asked, which was unusual for her. I thought about it while I rubbed my chin.

"I think he still wants what's for the best for the Empire. So he'll cooperate, though the extent is still up in the air." I said to which Cameron nodded and added his own thoughts,

"These Mages from the Federation are also hard to subdue with all their mana-induced inventions for the sake of Mage supremacy. I doubt they shared anymore than what he needed to know so we still have to make thorough investigations on our end but the added help from the Police Force here is a welcome one."

Once we reached the estate, we all head towards the central command room where all the documents were sorted. Victor was asleep on the couch while it was up to Joran and Rona to sort out the rest of the documents.

"Call Ian, we'll have a situation update." I announced and Joran got up and left the room.

After a few minutes, the two of returned and we woke up Victor to brief everyone on our next steps.

I stood as straight as I can, much like how the higher-ups in the Imperial Government usually project themselves and addressed everyone.

"Lucian, the Imperial Citizen who surrendered, confessed his involved with the protests, and confirmed his possession of top secret RND Bureau Intel. Furthermore, he also confirmed the existence of multiple cells of Mages from the Federation inside the city. The Police Force stationed here will be helping us in investigating their locations." I searched everyone's faces and they look had looks of focus and determination.

"In line with our directive, we would need to seize these intel Lucian possess, and rid the Mages from Imperial Territory. Any questions?"

Nobody raised a concern and I gave a nod to Cameron for him to take the floor.

"Team assignments will be changed. Ian and Victor will follow up on the leads we'll be getting from Lucian and from what we already have. Melanie and Captain Tessanya will continue to periodically visit Lucian to ascertain his cooperation."

We all nodded at his decision since it was pretty straight forward. With how Lucian ended his confession, it looked like he might be providing us with everything he knows while the rest of the team pursue the leads we already have gathered from previous investigations.

"Good. Now get some rest everyone. Things will only get busier from now on and stay vigilant at all times." Cameron reminded us before dismissing our gathering.

"Alright everyone you heard Cameron, let's all take it easy until lunch!" I loudly proclaimed and we all took a break from poring through the documents and reports we have until lunch and once it was ready we all ate leisurely, savoring this break in our duties.

At around an hour after lunch ended, I approached Melanie again to talk about our schedule.

"Considering that Lucian might decide at any day, do you think we should help on following the leads or do we just keep on patrolling near this estate and the Police Station?" Melanie shifted her to attention to me, her eyes clear and focused, despite not showing an emotion on her face.

"I will agree with your decision Captain. But if you're asking for my preference, I'd like to take out some of these leads for the meantime. It would free up more people's schedule for unforeseen circumstances." She said.

I nodded, "Okay. Fair point. We also have the local police patrolling the area and we can't risk destroying more of the city after the incident from before." I made my decision. "Alright then, we'll consult with Rona with what leads we have most concrete information on."

We made our way towards the central room we've been using as our command room where there were more tables inside shelves with the documents neatly arranged on them. Rona was already sitting down and reading through an unsorted stack. Joran also came back to deliver more documents. I approached Rona and asked,

"What can we check on for tonight Rona?" She looked up from the paper she was reading. "There should be some isolated farmhouses down south, so far those are the only kinds of temporary housing we can confidently say were rented by the Federation." She pointed to one of the shelves in the room. "The addresses of the houses that were rented in the last month or so are over there. You can list them down in a separate paper to bring with you when you go investigate." I nodded, "Got it then."

I went to the shelves she pointed at and skimmed through the documents. Mostly these are addresses were small to medium sized farmhouse were up for rent for a set number of days for tourists and city visitors since this is an agricultural city which most of its improvements are geared towards food production and distribution. There were a lot of addresses on the list but there are only less than half of those being marked, signifying that they were just recently rented in the past month. It was only written down how long ago it was rented out.

"We'll take these two then." I took a smaller paper from the desk and written down the two addresses that were near us. "Here." I gave the paper I now folded to Melanie and bid our farewell to Rona.

Outside the house, we mounted up on our steads and made our way to the first address. The first house was located a bit to the southwest, not visible from the city gates, so we'd be getting that out of the way first. The second one was located near the western gate, so we'd be going there last. I spurned my mount forwards, galloping through the paved road across the farmlands outside the city, with Melanie not far behind.

We reached the first house once the sun was past its peak, it should be halfway towards the third bell now. The first house was a smaller house compared to the other houses closer to the city but had a lot more land to the house proper that wasn't part of the farmlands it owns. We moved our horses to one of the fences and tied them there for the meantime. When we approached the front door, there was notice from the city government posted on it that the property was under investigation of suspicious individuals. Pretty irresponsible for the officials to post a notice and not have any security personnel monitoring it but I guess that's what happens there isn't much available people for everything.

The door was unlocked so we let ourselves in. None of the interior decorations and furniture were moved, or so I hoped since it looked like they weren't moved nor used recently. We moved around the rooms at the ground level which were the living room, a kitchen, a dining room, and the bathroom. There wasn't anything out of place there but there were signs of where movement happened such as some leftover cloth or blanket was out of place in some areas or some miscellaneous items in random places like a smoke pipe in the living room or a portable mirror at the bathroom.

"It seems this house was rented out recently and the occupants were gone in a hurry." I said aloud as I pondered about the evidence we gathered at the living room. Melanie was opposite me on the couch writing things down in a portable notebook. "Though we still can't rule out if those occupants were from the Federation." I thought about how any of those evidence can link this to the Mages from the Federation but it's circumstantial at best. "Alright." I stood up from the recycling chair, "Let's check the second floor, and see if we can find anything in the personal rooms."

The stairs were located near the front door, just before you could reach the living room. Once we ascended the stairs, there were three personal rooms at the second level, one was on the right immediately after you reach the top, the other two was at the other end of the corridor opposite each other. I turned to look at Melani and she responded in a nod.

We positioned ourselves in an entry-breach type position to the first door, though we didn't fully channel our artifacts yet. Melanie was acting as the backline and I would be the frontline. After a brief exchange of nods again, I opened the door and braced myself for immediate action, but like the first floor, the room the void of any inhabitants. Though the bed blankets inside appeared to be disheveled and the window was slightly ajar.

I groaned, "Not strong enough evidence but it would reinforce the idea that the occupants were caught off-guard and how to act fast." I approached the window while inspected the bed. The view past the window showed the fields around the eastern side of the house, vast lands of wheat stretched as far as the eye can see. There were also the occasional stagecoaches running across the road and some small dots in the distance which might be farmhands tending to their fields.

"Found anything Melanie?" I asked as I turned around. She was now inspecting the bookshelves and the wardrobe cabinet however she just shook head, "Nothing significant, just bits and pieces of signs of life."

We did the same as the first room for the remaining two rooms. The first room was a dud as well. Just the bed in disarray but the window was closed. However, in the third room, there were boxes of unknown origin with no identifiers of its contents.

"Looks like we found a solid lead." Melanie and I scoured the room to look for any clues such as papers or documents that the occupants might've used to write down the contents or any other means of communication.

While focusing my efforts of searching, I was startled by a surprised cry from behind me, "Did you find anything?!" I whipped around and saw Melanie was holding a beaten-up notebook of sorts. "I found this under the bed, looks like its owner was hiding it from whoever or whatever happened here."

We settled ourselves on the bed and read through the notebook. There was no indication of who the author was, just that the writings inside were random numbers, words and locations in the empire. "Looks like its solid evidence of an espionage. We'll take custody of these boxes as well when we get back." We continued reading and eventually we reached the last entries, which had some ominous things written down.

It's been a week already since we started but communication between teams broke down. The peculiar thing is that the communication became silent, ignored, and similar instances. Without the others, our mission cannot be fulfilled. I will do my utmost to complete my mission. Glory to mages!

That at least cements that this owner was of dubious origins and highly connects them to the Federation, but the entry below it is more concerning,

We're under attack. I can hear the commotion downstairs. I have to buy time for my compatriots. We will not be defeated here.

That's the last page with an entry. I place a finger under my chin, "Looks like the occupants here were attacked and vanquished." I took a glance around the room, "But the attack looks too clean, with minimal signs of struggle. What could've attacked and wiped them off?" Melanie chimed in, "We can't be sure that they were wiped off, they could've been abducted or were subdued quite fast and peacefully."

I nodded, "Right, all we have right now are speculations." I stood up and headed towards the corridor, "We found enough here, we can report this back. We better hurry and reach the second house before night falls."

"Agreed." Melanie nodded as she closed the book.