"Well," the dwarven arbiter started, "it certainly isn't 'lady'. I suppose knowing my name's fair enough though. I'm pretty famous in all of the western kriegs, to be honest. What on account of me being one of the only three arbiters that specialise in representing beastkin criminals this side of the Daylight Split. I'm Sonya Forgegulf."

'Ah, the dwarven legal system has lawyers for different species? Interesting. I wish I knew more about Milindo's legal system so I could compare it to something more local. Shame I only saw the abusive side of it,' Lone thought as he slowly stood up.

He had heard about the Daylight Split before in his research of the dwarven lands. While all dwarven kingdoms, kriegs, and even urds, answered to the greater council, they were split right down the middle by a massive ravine.

So big was this ravine that it almost stretched from one end of Teresta to the other - those sides being the northern and southern ends.

It was rumoured in myth to have been the result of a battle ages past, but Lone had failed to get any concrete information on it.

It was on his 'to visit' list though since he'd likely benefit from it with his Historical and Cultural Appreciation skill.

He approached the bars of his cell and put his hand through for a handshake. "It's a pleasure. Miss Forgegulf. Or is it Misses? Anyway, as you already know, I'm Lone Immortus."

Sonya glanced at his hand then arched her brows in disgust. "By the Stone, you must have very high social stats for me to even consider touching that grubby little paw of yours. I'll shake your hand once you've had a bath and not a second sooner."

Lone chuckled as he withdrew the offered palm. He sniffed himself a bit but shrugged. It was hard to tell you smelled bad when you were used to your own smell. Well, unless you were utterly rotten.

He felt he was doing just fine in the hygiene department, but he had been rigorously training and smearing himself all over his cell's wall for a week. And said week came right after having finished a full unwashed day of marching too, no less.

Just because he'd stripped down to nothing bar his trousers didn't mean he wouldn't be reeking like a landfill when stacked up against the comparatively pristine woman.

'You are talking to a short woman, we see. Soph is asking if she is competition or not,' he heard mentally, startling him a good bit.

'Sophie's striking up a conversation with me on her own? I was convinced she'd stay silent until I apologised...' Not one to pass up a perfectly good opportunity, Lone smirked and replied, 'Maybe. Depends, really. Does this lovely little dwarf who's going to legally represent me in court have anything against me being a surrogate brother to a teenaged foxkin who I feel responsible for?'

'Probably. Her mana gives us a feeling of reason and logic, vastly opposed to what we feel from yours. Regardless, we wished to only say we have spent some time thinking on our actions and words. We are willing to reconsider our views on Breena if you are willing to actually listen to us when we ask you to leave an obviously dangerous location,' Sophie replied in a cool and calm manner.

'I'll happily agree to that,' Lone answered. 'Both the shit with King Ralph and with Darkness were a mess and a half we could have avoided if I'd listened to you. Hell, if you want to, I don't mind leaving right now and booking it to the next country, kingdom, empire, or whatever else. Just come grab me and teleport us away, provided you have Breena with you.'

Sonya stared at him incredulously. "Why in the holy name of the Stone are you smirking and shaking your head?"

Lone shrugged. "I have the Insanity Resistance skill, if that answers any of your questions." He quickly lost focus as he listened to Sophie's response.

'Good. Finally, someone seems to have hit you over the head hard enough to see reason. No, we need not flee immediately. We agree it would be unwise to make enemies of the entire greater dwarven council over such a petty matter. We would like to suggest throwing your blacksmithing master under the bus since he has almost expired naturally anyway, but we know which hills to die upon and which to flee from,' came Sophie's answer.

Lone's smirk only grew. She was trying to change to match his views. Well, now he had even more motivation to do the same for her.

He made a vow in his mind to skip town the next time Sophie suggested to do so regardless of where they were or how important their task at the time was. Love was a two-way street, after all.

'Well, with Soph and Sophie, maybe a three-way street? No, four-way. To Soph and Sophie, then back to me. Two-way per personality,' he thought in amusement. 'Thanks for being so considerate. By the way, have you heard of the Taker scheduled to deal with me in the best-case scenario I'm not sentenced to death?'

'Indeed we have. The whole krieg has been talking about you and your coming trial with a disturbing amount of hatred and glee. They are disgusted an outsider knows one of their most valued secrets but revel in the opportunity to see you punished for it. Don't worry. I've already located this 'Taker'. I now can easily identify their mana,' Sophie replied.

Lone sighed in relief. 'Is it special in some way? Could you identify more Takers if need be? They sound like scary bastards.'

'The Taker themselves? No. This woman is as average as any I-ranker as far as her mana is concerned. The blindingly massive veritable mana sun that follows her, protecting her at all hours? Hard to miss,' Sophie snorted sarcastically. 'We suspect her guard is beyond the S-ranks. To compare, what you feel like when next to Gilbert is what Gilbert would feel like next to this man.'

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'Shame. Well, I'm hoping I can charm and lie my way out of punishment here. If I can't, we just skedaddle with your help. Beyond the S-ranks or not, with your control, you can teleport multiples times in less than a second. Anyway, I should get going. Any more time standing still here making faces and I think my arbiter is going to punch me in the face or kick me in the nuts,' Lone joked.

'You deserve nothing less,' Sophie laughed. 'Be careful, Lone and... and we-... I love you. We may not always agree with you and we worry for you, but our feelings for you are as firm as they are for Soph. Without you we would be incomplete.'

'I was just about to say the same thing. We'll have a proper sit-down to talk about all of this face-to-face once we're done here, 'kay? In more depth,' Lone suggested.

'We would like that. Not just us, but Soph too,' the usually stoic woman said softly before she cut the connection.

Lone cracked his neck then smiled at the utterly horrified dwarf in front of him. "Right, so, you were going to ask me stuff to ascertain all of the facts from my side, no?"

----------------------------------------

Sonya exhaled deeply from her nose as she slumped down into her seat. Seated across from her was Elric Greydron.

Just being in the man's presence put her on edge. This was one of the legendary inquisitors of the capital, after all.

A man more than 2,000 years of age as well as a powerful S-ranker. Who cares if he rarely, if ever, fought in battles and had gained most of his levels through non-combative means?

Sonya was only a D-ranker herself since she used to be an adventurer before the danger got to her and made her settle down to better use her more social skills as an arbiter.

No D-ranker in their right mind would ever think about not fearing everyone at B-rank or above, regardless of how they got that rank. And the man before her was two ranks above B-rank! A scary person indeed.

'His eyes are so dead. This guy's seen some real shit. Well, no wonder. He's an old bastard, after all. Regardless of if he gives me the willies or not though, I've seen some shit too. The sheer number of atrocities I've had to legally defend for some beastkin is... life scarring,' she thought as she cracked her neck and said, "He's coming here shortly. I got some guards to go fetch him."

Elric raised one of his sharp eyebrows. A terrifying monster he may be, but she couldn't deny he was a very handsome dwarf as well. The way his cheekbones sunk into his other features... The rise of his eyes as he looked from his papers to her... His powerful, sharp nose... His well-kept beard...

Well, she was feeling chills of another kind. 'Stay professional. He's older than your great-grandma, you stupid girl.'

"Why didn't you just bring him yourself? He's a D-ranker like you are," the man said though something about his tone made her think he didn't quite believe his own statement.

"The guy's nuts. I've dealt with plenty of demis in my 130-year-long career, but do you know what happened when I came to meet him earlier today?" Sonya asked.

Elric calmly shook his head. "You know the locals have no scrying enchantments set up here. Please, enlighten me."

Sonya scoffed. He was right about that. This was a poor krieg. "He was sitting there cross-legged looking kinda malnourished. I half thought he was dead for a moment. He then got up, offered me his hand, and politely greeted me like he was a noble or something. I've never met a more well-spoken beastkin in my life. Bastard spoke fluent Western Stone Dwarvish too. Elves can be that polite and learned, sure, beastkin though? They're wild tribal folk with their pagodas and their polygymy. This guy's just a kid, isn't he?"

Elric nodded. "25 years of age is what he claimed. I noticed the language too when we last spoke. Apparently, he's fluent in many dialects. His human lover is too. Their Crimson Foxkin companion only knows four languages though. That isn't important, not for our investigation at least. Please, continue making your point."

"Right, well, 25 year old, 9 tails, 3 awakenings - no clue what that black is all about though - and the fucker speaks to me like he's a king or something? Okay, not the weirdest thing ever. I can handle that. I'm experienced," Sonya said.

"Indeed. I trust there's more to this though. I only petitioned for you to represent him since you are so experienced in doing so for beastkin, Miss Forgegulf," Elric responded.

'That and because you have the hots for my widowed great-grandma. Another reason I shouldn't let him turn me on. You should go on a quest or two to impress her since she's the guildmaster of the greater capital's Adventurer's Guild, you creepy old man,' Sonya privately commented.

"Well, what happened next really threw me for a loop. Can you believe this? The guy just started staring at the wall behind me. I thought he got a notification or something. Maybe a rare stat boost outside of levelling. Charisma or Charm since he almost got me to shake his disgusting hand," she said.

"I assume that is not what you have concluded to have happened," Elric replied patiently.

"And you'd be right. The foxkin then started closing his eyes, opening them, pacing a bit, sighing, making hand gestures. He did all of this for a good 5 minutes. It was... it was like he was talking to someone. I swear by the Stone, he was having a lengthy conversation that he walked away from feeling far, far more jovial than he had going into it," Sonya tried her best to explain.

Seeing Elric frown made her want to just go back in time and avoid saying such foolish things if he was just going to up and not believe her. Even if she was an arbiter, she was quite literally magically contracted to never lie. The best she could do was stretch the truth or avoid saying it. Elric should have known that.

Sadly, Sonya had no affinity for time magic. Nor space magic. Nor had she spent millions of years studying the field of time travel. Even the best of the best could only go back a few seconds at most, after all. That wasn't nearly enough time to erase this whole conversation.

"I see. Well, you're most certainly telling the truth since this room has had its enchantments boosted since last week. Expensive, but needed. We'll question him on this when he arrives if it comes up," Elric said with a sharp nod.

Sonya's eyes widened. "This is a questioning chamber?"

Elric nodded once more. "Yes. A tier 3 one. It was only at the first tier when I initially interrogated Mister Immortus a week prior to today."

"... Is this legal? I need to be on his side, in case you forgot. I got the basic rundown of his story from him just before coming here, but I can't rightly agree to the use of such enchantments unless he, too, agrees. This is highly prohibited without his permission as the defendant of the case," Sonya said in a very professional manner.

"I know. I have a feeling he'll appreciate the upgrades, in truth. We'll ask him immediately upon entry. If he says no, we'll move to another room for your part in this then I'll bring him back alone to discuss some things," Elric said calmly though he frowned, clearly not having intended to add that last part.

Sonya frowned. "He may be getting accused of a very, very, serious crime against our people, but he has his rights. You won't be speaking to him alone. The fact you already have is very concerning."

Elric smiled. "I'm glad you're a professional when it comes to your job."

He said nothing more, not even trying to address her worries which only made them spiral out of control even more.

It was then that a knock at the door came before it opened slightly. A guard saluted at Elric briefly before stepping out of the way so the foxkin following him could enter the questioning chamber.

"Hey! You again. Nice to see you... uh... I never got your name," Lone Immortus said as he happily placed himself in the open seat next to Sonya. "Nice to see you too, Sony- Woah! These enchantments got a major upgrade, huh?"

'What the... He knows about that? How? Is he a mage of some sort? But... he has no magic from the reports I was given?' Sonya groaned in frustration.

There was barely anything worse than not knowing everything about your client. 'This case is gonna be draining. I can feel it in my bones.'