Everyone in the room looked at Jack with fear, especially group which had escorted him here.
“Do not resist, otherwise we may kill you.” A soldier said.
“I’m heavily injured, and not in a state to fight. Please be gentle with me, you can kill me accidentally.” Jack said calmly. Everything was within his expectations. Obviously, the winners of the fight in the mine should have reported everything. Two soldiers grabbed him tightly, and one of the healers in the room walked closer to check on him.
“My body is saturated by life mana, please use as little life mana as possible.” Jack warned.
“Wow.” The middle aged healed said. “How can you be still alive?” He asked.
“I have my methods.” Jack said with a smirk.
“How is he?” One of the soldiers asked.
“Well, he will die within three or four days, and I can’t do anything. You can be a bit rough with him, but do not use magic on him, unless you want to kill him.” The healed said.
Two soldiers led him towards the Colonel’s building. The building had an underground bunker, and Jack suspected now, also a prison. They led him directly to the Colonel, though.
In the room, Colonel Christopher Forrest sat with Landon Hillman. The soldiers described Jack’s health condition. Colonel nodded to soldiers afterwards. “You can leave now.”
“Baron Landon Hillman claims you have brought a bomb to their meeting place that killed two members of the Greene family. Is that correct?” He asked.
“It’s true, but I didn’t know it was a bomb.” Jack started telling them everything from the start, by the arrival of the white clothed man interrupted him. The man betrayed a surprised face, but he quickly restrained himself.
“Baron Nikodem Greene. Please seat, we just started the interrogation.” Colonel said. Jack congratulated himself guessing the man’s identify. He wanted to know Nikodem’s version, and Landon’s version which should be what actually happened. Nikodem sat and looked at Jack, waiting for him to talk.
Jack continued. At some point, he told them about Nikodem’s murder attempt.
“This is outrageous.” Nikodem said calmly, but with a face of someone wronged. “I’m just a humble scholar.” He directed his next sentence to Landon. “Not only you have killed my family members, you are trying to sully my name. This person was obviously planted by you. I know about his condition. Since he is going to die soon, you must have bribed him with benefits for his family.”
Landon was calm, and replied. “I haven’t done such things.”
Colonel interrupted them. “Frankly, I would probably believe in what you said, Baron Greene, but this hunter came to me two days ago to ask a question. He mentioned a job for the Greene family, and I’m sure he was fine at that time. He didn’t have a reason to throw his life away.”
Nikodem frowned, with a thoughtful expression.
“May I ask, what this guy and Baron Landon Hillman have told you?” Jack asked Colonel. He wanted to know his situation.
“I see no reason to don’t tell you.” Colonel said and retold both versions. In Landon’s version, shortly after Jack’s escape, remaining Greene family members all took a last medicine to boost their fighting prowess. Jack wasn’t much knowledgeable about medicine and potions, but he knew Colonel was talking about a medicine people took in a hopeless situations, hence the name – last medicine. Such a drug boosted someone stats considerably, but death usually followed as medicine’s effect ended. Jack also knew high level individuals could survive with only their lifespan damaged, though.
It was hard to acknowledge this version. Essentially, Landon was saying everyone from the Greene family committed suicide to avenge their two members, even though they couldn’t be sure the Hillman family was responsible.
After that, Baron Nikodem came to the cave and accused the Hillman family, but there was no fight. They all went to the frontier to report the situation, and let the imperial court make a judgment.
Baron Nikodem’s version was very simple, he was busy with research, so he got a bit late to the cave, and all his family members inside were dead. That was it.
“You should arrest this guy.” Jack said, while pointing at Baron Nikodem.
“It’s Baron Nikodem for you.” He scolded Jack.
“Baron Nikodem is right, we need to respect imperial court titles.” Colonel said.
“I won’t.” Jack snapped. “This psycho tried to kill me! He should be executed.” Jack felt betrayed by the Colonel.
Colonel Forrest sighed.
“I’m afraid your version is also unbelievable. You are only in the 2nd tier. It’s hard to believe Baron Greene wouldn’t be able to kill you, and even more unbelievable is your statement, that you managed to feign being dead before him. Moreover, although your injuries are severe, you shouldn’t be able to recover to this degree after being bisected as you have said.”
Jack groaned in his mind. He needed more evidence.
“I have more evidence. I have managed to land a hit on this guy’s skull. Colonel can check that.” Jack said. Naturally, a bone could be mended with life mana, but just like with natural bone regeneration, there should be traces of the damage.
“We can check.” Colonel said. “Baron Greene, may I?”
“Sure, but there’s no need. I really was injured a few weeks ago in a fight with a monster. He must have been informed about this by someone.” Baron Nikodem said.
Colonel nodded, but decided to check anyway.
“Yes. There are traces of damage, but as you can hear, young hunter, Baron Nikodem claims the injury had nothing to do with you.” Colonel calmly said. Jack just wanted to hit Nikodem in his stupid face, but he knew he wasn’t able to so.
“Anyway, I have already requested for the imperial court judgment, and a court official with a truth detecting magic tool will arrive tomorrow. Until then, I’m forced to put you in prison, Mr. Jack.” Colonel continued. “I also need to inform you, Baron Greene, that you need to stay within headquarters’ territory. I’m not going to arrest you, but should you leave, I’m going to put you on the list of wanted criminals. I have already told the same to Baron Hillman.” Colonel concluded.
“Don’t worry, I’m innocent, and I have nothing to fear. I will wait for the official to clean my name.” Baron Nikodem said with a face of someone offended by the accusations.
Jack was escorted by two 3rd tier soldiers and put in a cell. Jack looked over, and tried to cast some magic, but he failed. ‘Essence is pumped out from the cell. The walls are also enchanted to repel earth mana.’ Jack didn’t know whether the cell was prepared especially for earth mages, but he wouldn’t be able to move the walls with his magic spells.
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Jack didn’t plan to escape, though. He knew it was nearly impossible even in his prime condition. Also, he had nothing to fear from the truth detecting magic tool.
Ding… Your Pain Tolerance skill has reached lv. 31
Jack felt bitter. He wanted to fight for humanity, but he was thrown in prison. ‘Even though I only stated the truth…’ Jack had nothing to do in the cell, so he thought about the past, and his choices.
Jack never had great dreams. He had wanted to be a strong warrior, be safe, maybe be a noble, but who didn’t? Jack never wanted to be a human king, for example. Jack’s dreams in that regard didn’t change, but his image of a noble warrior defending humanity was slowly crumbling down. Jack wanted to defend humanity and his family, but he understood now, that his dreams were idealistic. Humans were also fighting with each other.
Jack thought it was wrong, but he was only a small character in the great scheme of things. He had to adapt. Someone interrupted him.
“You have a visitor.” A soldier said. Stanley came.
“Hey. I heard you had a rough day,” Stanley said with a bitter smile.
“You can’t even imagine. Aleena tried to kill me once again, though this time, he used a baron from her family.” Jack described the events that led to his imprisonment. Jack’s friend was from a city, Jack hoped he had some advice. Stanley took calmly most of the events, but Jack’s wounds shocked him.
“Well, I would say your legal situation isn’t bad. The imperial court is going to find the culprit one way or another, they are very persistent about such cases. Your main problem is your health and the next evolution.” Stanley advised after some time.
“I can evolve any time, I have reached level 25. I haven’t checked the evolutions, though, I was kind of busy.”
Staley shook his head. “You may even die choosing the worst evolution, your wounds are too serious. There is a way, though. Military headquarters and many nobles have an evolution assisting magic spell. The military normally is only using it for the most talented, and you have a chance. Frankly, Colonel will probably give you some leeway, since you are going to die otherwise.
Jack frowned. He had never heard about such a spell. “How does the spell work?”
“Well, the spell is using corpses of higher tier life beings, and changes them to kind of food. The spell is feeding your body directly with it, so you can keep the volume of your muscles. The spell is ideal for the current you.”
“Why haven’t I heard about it?” Jack thought the spell was a little too good to be real.
“The costs are too great. You need ten times body mass of the same tier monsters as the tier you want to evolve to for the spell to work. The military can’t just let everyone use the spell, or we would have nothing to eat. Moreover, they only need 3rd tier monsters for your evolution, but a 3rd tier needs 4th tier monsters. It’s not cheap. Generally, only nobles use the spell for their children on the regular basis.”
Jack sighed. ‘This is the reason Aleena is so strong physically, even though she is nearly a pure mage. She never had to retrain her muscles after the evolution.’
“Thank you.”
“Actually, you should tell the Colonel that you have killed a 4th tier monster. This may be enough on its own.”
“I haven’t.” Jack shook his head. “Lillie killed that wolf. I barely dealt the finishing blow.”
Stanley nodded, but continued. “You shouldn’t forget about your own contribution. Besides, don’t you want to live? You have to compromise sometimes.” Stanley advised.
Jack replied after a while. “I don’t know. I need to think some more about it. Should the lie be revealed, I would be a criminal.”
“Just tell them the truth. Nobody would believe you have killed a 4th tier completely on your own anyway.”
Jack sighed. “Tell me more about the court. I want to be prepared for the trial.”
“I have already told you, that won’t be a problem. Frankly, I have asked about the Greene family, and I can already tell you the real mastermind.” Stanley said with a laugh. Jack was bewildered. ‘Is Stanley a super detective?’ Jack thought. Stanley laughed once again. “This is a way simpler than you think.” He said, and started the explanation.
“The Greene Count is dying. This is a public information, I only had to ask a few questions.” Jack also knew it, he got this information from the Colonel. Stanley continued. “It’s obvious he will take the blame. He had to be the mastermind. From what you have told me, I can deduce he wanted to take all the blame while making it look like his subordinates didn’t know anything, and were only executing his orders.”
Jack thought it indeed made sense from a certain point of view, but… “Why would he do that in the first place?”
“There can be various reasons, but generally, he probably just thought his clan would be better without those guys.”
Jack shook his head. “This is a madness. Won’t he implicate his whole clan? People may think them a family of murderers!”
Stanley smiled bitterly. “You are mistaken about the killing. Imperial court and most of nobles don’t care about dying people.”
Jack was surprised speechless for a second. “But the investigation… What about the imperial laws?”
“I mean, imperial court is trying to preserve human lives, but they don’t care as much as you may think. Their attitude is a bit like a commander leading his soldiers into battle. He wants his soldiers to survive the battle, but he knows many will die. He won’t mourn for every single one of them. An individual life is meaningless for him or her.” Stanley waited a second, and continued.
“As for the investigations, this is their way of maintaining stability. You should remember imperial court is executing criminals. They just want to be the only institution with the right of killing other people. Different people have a different view on the world, the value of human life and people worthness. The old Count probably thought those dead guys are worthless and killed them. Many people may think he had done the right thing. He is going to the Black Guard anyway, but this was probably his plan from the beginning. He would sacrifice his life in a fight with monsters, and people would think him a hero who had done the right thing, and then died for the humanity.”
Jack shook his head. “This is all wrong.”
Stanley smiled bitterly. “Such is the life.” They sat in silence after that conversation, Jack was thinking.
Jack had read historical texts, and he could deduce a few facts. People had been most united at the beginning of the first empire, and the current, second empire. Humanity had been on the offensive at that time, increasing their territories.
At present, people were fighting each other for resources. Naturally, it was impossible for the situation to deteriorate to a civil war or a rebellion. Monsters were a clear enemy of humanity, that was clear. However, humanity was incapable of easily taking away resources from them. It was easier to take monster materials from a human, than from a beast.
Jack sighed. He had no control over imperial court politics, nor he wanted to. Jack was just a son of a farmer, he didn’t know anything about the strategy. He couldn’t tell whether abandoning frontier fortifications and moving ahead was the right way or not, but Jack could at least analyze his own situation.
Jack wanted to become a baron and send his remaining family to a city. He wanted more strength, and better magic. He wanted more levels and better equipment. How should he do it? The answer was simple. ‘I need to take the example from the current nobility.’ Someone had already found a way, Jack just had to follow it.
This was an important moment in Jack’s life. He decided to change his priorities. Rather than fight for the humanity, he decided to fight first for himself, then for humanity. ‘I should behave like Aleena,’ Jack thought. He naturally didn’t like it, but Jack had to acknowledge he was too weak to use emotions in decision making. Half a year ago, there was no possibility for him to make such a decision, but now, after many hardships, he was a way more mature.
“I have decided.” Jack said. He was resolute, he wasn’t going to say something like: ‘I’m going to change tomorrow,’ he immediately wanted to adjust, though Jack was inexperienced in such a way of thinking.
“What?” Stanley asked, a bit startled.
“I will no longer hesitate. I’m going to bring down Baron Nikodem. Screw him. It’s no longer about the justice, it’s about my life. Also, I’m going to tell them about Aleena’s attempts on our lives.”
“She can take revenge by telling the official how we left her before. Moreover, that would create an open conflict between you and the Greene family.”
Jack smiled. “Stanley, I already have a conflict with them.”
“Yes, but you were only defending yourself. It’s different from purposely creating problems for them.” Stanley said.
Jack thought for a while and nodded. “I’m reluctant, since the occasion is so good, but you are probably right. I will be only a 3rd tier hunter, without a backing.” Jack sighed. He wasn’t going to hesitate hurt another human, but fighting the Greene family had no benefits for him.
“Fine. Now, tell me more. Can the court official be bought?” Jack asked.
“Theoretically, yes. Practically, any side can protest a verdict, saying the official wasn’t neutral. It’s rarely practiced, as there is a large fine for a protest without a merit, but the Hillman family would do that, if the Greene family had bought the official for real.”
Jack nodded. “What would happen next in that case?”
“Five officials, including some trustworthy senior officials would jointly investigate everything.”
“Is there a way to deceive truth detecting magic tool?”
Stanley frowned. “Probably, but the spell have to be very advanced, I would say 6th or 7th tier at least. I suppose it may be easier to create a tool to hide half-lies, but in your case that won’t save them.”
“Ok. Thanks Stanley. I really owe you.”
“Yeah. I hope you will survive to pay me back.” Stanley said with a smile and left the prison.
Jack suspected that Baron Nikodem had a tool or a spell to lie successfully to the officials, as he had taken calmly Jack’s words. He even had said he would like to wait for the trial, but was that really the case?