“Two guards are missing?” the Count asked, a frown on his face as he heard a report. It was early the next morning, and the fort’s guard captain was standing in front of the Count.
“Yes sir, they should’ve been patrolling the halls last night, but by the time we had a guard shift change they were nowhere to be found,” the captain responded, sharing the same frown as the Count.
“Do we have any clue about what happened?”
The captain hummed as he held on to his chin. “The only thing we can say for sure is that they were supposed to patrol around a few of the empty guest rooms and the closest restroom…” realization hit the captain as he raised his face to look at the Count. “The restroom! That’s where that Chaerian was supposed to spend the night!”
The Count raised an eyebrow at the captain. “So you think the Chaerian was responsible for this?”
“It must've been! They’re the kinds that deal with Demons,” The captain responded with a quick nod. “I shall go find her immediately!”
The captain turned on his heels to leave the room before the Count could answer or give him any order, so the Count was left quietly humming as his eyebrows were furrowed. He had his doubts about what the conclusion that the captain reached, even more so after meeting this Chaerian. Still, he chose to wait and see what happened.
Not even ten minutes later and someone else barged into the Count’s office. The Count looked up at who had hastily walked in like that, only to see that it was a different guard. He wanted to shout at the guard for his disrespect, but noticing that this guard had rushed in, he decided to wait.
“Sir! The Holy Inquisitors have come to the fort!” the guard quickly said, heaving as he stood by the door.
“Inquisitors?!” the Count responded with surprise as he quickly stood up from his chair, “Have they said for what reason they’re here?”
The guard shook his head. “No sir, they simply… demanded to meet with you.”
The Count plopped back to his chair, massaging his temples as he contemplated for a moment. “Very well… please send them in.”
“Yes sir!” the guard quickly responded, leaving the office just as fast as he had come in.
“Not like I could deny them anyway…” the Count said under his breath once he was left alone in the office.
Another few short minutes later and the door to his office opened again. At the front, a guard was leading people into the office while looking at the robed figures with worry in his expression.
These robed people were all dressed in red and the symbol of their church engraved on both the robes and the hoods covering half their faces. At the front, judging by the shape of their body, was a tall woman, about the same height as the Count, who walked tall and straight, stopping in front of the Count’s desk.
She pulled back the hood covering her face to reveal her pale white skin, wrinkles on the sides of her eyes and half silvery hair overtaking what used to be blond hair. She looked down at the Count with an unreadable expression, something akin to a stern grandmother looking at misbehaving children.
“It has been a while since we last spoke, Mathias,” she said in a cold tone towards the Count.
The Count quickly stood up, doing a slight bow towards the old lady. “That it has, Your Eminence, Gregoria.”
She looked back at the Count for a moment, her expression still as unreadable as the one she had when she walked in. “I think you are well aware this is not just a visit to the fort.”
The Count looked behind Gregoria, at what could only be described as stone-faced people by the seriousness of their mouths—the only thing that could be seen beneath their hoods. “Yes… I can see that.”
“However,” she continued, her expression easing slightly, “we’re not here on a hunt either.”
The Count’s face also eased slightly once she said that. “Then, is it related to the lockdown or the issuing of Imperial Holy Knights to come to the city?”
Gregoria traced a hand over the elegant wooden desk in front of her, looking down at it for a moment. “It is by His Majesty that your position as Count is granted. The decisions that you make reflect, in great part, His will as well, and we—as the servants of the Gods—are only here to ensure that that which is sacred is upheld.”
Her hand quickly finished tracing the wood as she removed her hand from the desk to look up at the Count, who only looked back at her with a worried frown on his face. He wet his lips, getting ready to speak out, but she continued before he could say anything, “I’ll cut to the chase. We’re here for the Drokanian skull.”
The Count was taken aback as he looked at her with a confused expression. “What? What are you talking about? I don’t—”
The men standing behind Gregoria suddenly shifted in their positions as she coldly looked back at the Count. “Don’t try to act the fool with me, Mathias. Plenty of people were in that parade from yesterday when they saw the thing that your knights carried into the fort. So I’ll make it clearer: hand over the skull.”
The Count swallowed hard, as he looked between the men standing behind Gregoria and the old lady herself. “…Very well. We were going to dispose of it today, seeing as how it is an unholy thing, but I think it would be better off in your hands.”
“We understand, so you don’t have to—”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“My Lord! We caught the dirty animal, and I recommend we execute her immediately!” the guard captain shouted as he was returning to the office, making the Count turn to look at the office entrance with a perplexed expression, while Gregoria turned to look with curiosity at the loud man approaching.
“H-hey! What gives?!” Eden exclaimed as she was being pulled over by the guard and pushed from behind by the other guards he had with him.
“Quiet!” the guard captain shouted back, without realizing that there were more people inside the office. “My Lord we—”
He finally stopped when he noticed that there were very important people looking back at him inside the office, with Gregoria looking at both the half naked Eden, who was wearing her usual loose clothes to sleep, and the guard captain who’s face had gone pale at the sight of Gregoria and her escorts.
“What is the meaning of this?” she asked.
The guard captain quickly let go of Eden and dropped to one knee on the floor, bowing his head deeply as he did. “I’m so deeply sorry, Your Eminence! I didn’t expect there to be any visitor while we went out looking for this,” —he sharply turned to look up at Eden— “murdering beast!”
“Mathias…?” Gregoria calmly said with one eyebrow raised as she turned to look at the Count.
“I apologize as well, Your Eminence,” the Count said, his face scrunched up in shame, “we had a report of two missing guards from last night, and the guard captain assured me that this Chaerian was the only one who could’ve been close to their patrol route within the castle halls, so he went out to bring her in.”
The captain quickly stood back up, looking sternly at Eden. “And we’re sure to have caught the culprit! She was walking out of one of the guest rooms that we didn’t assign to her, and look! She was even carrying this strange weapon on her!”
From behind them, another guard walked forward, the large sniper rifle that Marcus used to carry was in his hands as he presented it forward for both the Count and Gregoria to see. The Count had furrowed eyebrows as he detailed the weapon, while Gregoria only seemed to have curiosity on her face.
“That is… an interesting tool,” Gregoria said, not moving from her spot.
“That is it, Your Eminence! No doubt acquired from some deal with the Demons. I ask of you for the immediate execution of this beast,” the guard captain continued, angrily looking at Eden.
“W-What?! Wait! Why?! I don’t even know what I did wrong!” Eden shouted with great panic at both the Count and the guard.
“Silence! You are charged for colluding with Demons as well as the murder of two guards! And you shall be punished for it!” the guard captain shouted back at Eden.
“What?!” Eden responded with shock, “I didn’t do any of that!”
The guard captain scoffed. “And who would believe the words of a dirty beast like you?”
Eden turned to look pleadingly at the Count. “Please, Count Howler, I don’t know anything about this!”
The Count didn’t immediately answer back as he simply looked between her, the weapon on the guard’s hand, and Gregoria. “We’ll…”
“Do you have any proof of this?” Gregoria asked the guard captain who seemed to be taken aback as he turned to look at her.
“Your Eminence, just the fact that she was hiding somewhere else with this strange weapon is evidence enough,” the guard captain said with some uncertainty in his voice as he looked back at the cold look that Gregoria was giving him. “B-besides, she’s a Chaerian, it’s better if we get rid of her.”
Gregoria kept looking at the guard captain, her bright gray eyes almost glinting white as she kept her eyes on him. The captain couldn’t help but swallow as he looked to the sides and every other place in the room, trying to avoid the Inquisitor. She eventually stopped looking at the captain to turn her eyes on the agitated Eden.
“Tell me girl, what is your name?” Gregoria said with the same cold eyes to Eden.
“Your eminence, you can’t be serious about—”
Gregoria turned to look over at the guard captain, a chilly glare directed at him. “Are you questioning me, boy?”
The captain quickly shook his head before dropping again to the floor on one knee. “No. I’m sorry, Your Eminence.”
She turned to look at Eden again. “Go on then.”
“Eden,” she responded, her worried expression lessening due to the calm Inquisitor in front of her.
“Then, Eden, please explain your side of the story,” Gregoria said, giving her a go-ahead with a wave of her hand.
“Yes,” Eden responded, slightly less agitated. “I was assigned to sleep in the lowest restroom of the fort, however… I didn’t feel comfortable staying there, so last night I decided to try my luck with Natalia, but she was already busy with someone else and in the end I begged Marcus to let me stay in his room, which is where I spent the whole night.”
Gregoria looked for a moment at Eden after she finished her short explanation before turning her eyes to the weapon in the other guard’s hands. “What about that weapon? The captain assures us that you were carrying that when they captured you.”
Eden also turned to look over at the large sniper rifle with excitement. “That is one of Marcus’ weapons. After we went hunting for the Alamarian Grand Demon, he threw it away and I decided to carry it. Luckily, Natalia didn’t take it away from me either, so I’ve had the opportunity to pay attention to every detail on it!”
One of Gregoria’s eyebrows twitched when she heard how excited Eden got about the weapon, but her cold expression returned just as fast the eyebrow had twitched. “I take it that Marcus and Natalia are part of the knights that brought the Drokanian skull?”
“They are, indeed. Quite the powerful knights from what my son has said,” the Count answered before Eden could.
Gregoria turned to look at the guard captain, who was looking down at the floor with frowned eyebrows. “Can you please bring these people in? That Marcus in particular.”
The captain pressed his lips shut for a second before responding, “Right away.”
The guard captain quickly left the office, leaving everyone else in the room with a somewhat tense feeling, as it seemed like Gregoria had gone into an Inquisitive mood, judging by the way she was looking at everyone else, so they stayed quiet for the time that it took the captain to return.
“My Lord, Your Eminence. We couldn’t find Marcus, but we found the other knight, so we brought her over instead,” the guard captain said as Natalia walked in behind him. She carried a slightly confused expression on her face.
Gregoria hummed, looking up and down at Natalia, who couldn’t help but frown at this action by the older woman. Gregoria eventually settled on Natalia’s eyes. “You… are not one of the empire’s knights.”
Natalia looked back at Gregoria, her blue eyes unwavering in front of the older woman’s cold look. “I’m not,” she said before turning to look over at the Count, standing behind Gregoria. “What is this about?”
“This is—”
“Straight to the point. I like it,” Gregoria spoke as the Count tried to give explanations, “I am High Inquisitor and Cardinal of the Lavina Holy Empire, Gregoria Belfree. That young girl over there, Eden, was brought over because the guards claim she killed two of the guards, apparently using that weapon.”
Gregoria pointed at the sniper rifle, making Natalia turn to look at it, only to then quickly respond with a shake of her head before Gregoria could continue. “Not possible. That weapon makes an incredible amount of noise when fired. Everyone in the fort would’ve noticed it.”
“Is that so?” Gregoria said, slightly raising her eyebrows. “We were also informed that the young girl spent the night with someone named Marcus, however, the guards couldn’t get a hold of him.”
Natalia turned to look over at Eden, a questioning expression on her face. Eden turned slightly red from the way Natalia looked at her, but quickly shook her head. “It’s not what you think! His was the only place where I could stay!”
“What?” Natalia asked, confused.
“We didn’t do anything! Really! I just quietly slept… next to him…” Eden’s voice lowered, her face getting redder as she lowered her head, realizing how she sounded now.
“Marcus,” Natalia said with a serious tone of voice. “Count’s office. Now.”