Ilaria charged at him at high speed. Before impact, I could hear a calm, "Oh my," from Rudolpho. He raised his mace in slow motion, although, everything seemed to move much slower than him. With a loud thud, his mace hit Ilaria's head. It made a sound similar to that of metal hitting metal.

"Oh, my lady. I am only here to punish the one who did this-" he simply looked around, obviously referring to the destruction of nearly the entire town, "-to such a beautiful town. Am I to take the fact that you attacked me as a confession of your guilt in this matter?" he asked calmly.

I hadn't even noticed that things began moving at normal speed again.

"DON'T MOCK ME!" Ilaria yelled as she jumped at him.

He once again moved in slow motion. Although she moved much slower. Rudolpho stepped to the side and brought his mace upwards, hitting her right in the chin and hurling her upwards. After a few seconds, she began moving at normal speed again. She flew upwards, towards the sky until the only thing that I could see was the golden flame around her. I could also feel mana naturally flowing back into my body and it became easier to breathe.

"Now that that is taken care of," Rudolpho said before he approached me. "May I ask your name?"

I coughed as I sat up. The feeling this guy gave off made me sick, it was sickening, it was so bad that I didn't know how I held back the need to throw up. It felt like something was crawling beneath my skin while someone was rubbing faeces all over me. I had a strange taste in my mouth, my eyes were itchy and I shuddered a little every few seconds.

"Altair," I said.

"Altair? What a name," he said. "Now, I don't want to accuse you of anything, but... you wouldn't happen to have anything to do with this?"

Shit... what do I tell him?

'Say she was trying to kill him... and mention that organization... Pergament was it?' Ira suggested.

'Let's hope this... person, doesn't try to kill me afterwards,' I responded.

'Oh, he's just with the church. Only good experiences,' Ira said.

I needed to hold back laughter I knew would be strange.

"S-She... she tried to kill me," I said. "I-I found their hideout a-and... they all, they all wanted to kill me. I-I had to defend myself, right? A-And, she got angry at me. She... she tried to kill me, please help me!" I said as I crawled towards him and grabbed the pieces of cloth hanging from his belt.

I was disgusted with myself but if it meant I could get my revenge then I'd do anything. The man looked down at me with his calm and kind green eyes.

"Of course I will help you, it is my duty after all. But, if you would not mind, could you tell me whose hideout you found?" Rudolpho asked.

"T-They... they called themselves Pergament," I said after pretending to think for a few seconds.

For a split second the look on Rudolpho's face changed, it became much more serious. Then he smiled at me.

"And what did you do with the other members of this... organization?" he asked me.

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"I... I had to kill them, they... they didn't leave me any other choice," I responded, trying to sound scared of something.

"It is alright, my child, you needn't worry about a thing. I will take care of this... vile woman," he said.

As I looked up I could see the golden shimmer of her mana approach us.

"Must have landed on a flying island... lucky bitch," Rudolpho whispered so quietly that I could only hear him because the air seemed to be silent even when he was only whispering.

The way his voice seemed to stop all other noise could be compared to the way Elvia had talked. I let go of the pieces of cloth hanging from his belt and crawled backwards as I saw Ilaria approaching us.

"RUDOLPHO!!!" she yelled, louder than she had yelled before.

"Scum," Rudolpho said quietly as he put on his helmet and began swinging his mace.

With a loud swoosh, he was blown upwards. He didn't even jump or anything, he just moved upwards, towards Ilaria. I couldn't quite see it but I was sure he wasn't actively moving his arm. It must have been his magic. With a thud so loud that it shook the earth far beneath them he hit Ilaria and she came crashing down to the ground.

She was nothing but a bloody mess at this point, barely breathing. Rudolpho landed next to her, not making a sound or whirling up dust as he landed as if there was no momentum at all. After that Rudolphos snapped and then turned back to me.

"I am terribly sorry but, since this is a matter of great importance, you will have to accompany us to fort Kalrim," Rudolpho said in a calm voice.

I nodded slowly, having no idea what was going on at all. This seemed crazy to me. Like one of those old internet videos I saw of a fish getting eaten by a bigger fish which then got eaten by an even bigger fish and that would go on forever. Was this a situation like this? Would there always be a bigger fish?

'Yup, and one day we might even reach the biggest fish of all..' Ira joked.

'And who would that be?' I asked, internally rolling my eyes.

'Oh, I doubt anyone knows that,' Ira responded.

I could suddenly hear carriages approaching us and shortly after I saw them. There were five carriages, all pulled by a pair of massive dogs. They had long and shaggy fur and were creme white with dull-looking black eyes. All of them looked so identical that it was almost surreal. The carriages were also large. The dogs were all a good five metres tall and the carriages around six, maybe more.

"Get this woman into the prison carriage and get this man into my personal one, I'd like to have a talk with him!" Rudolpho said loudly.

His voice was commanding.

"Of course, sir," the driver of the first carriage, a man dressed in a dark purple robe with golden lining responded.

A hood hid his face but I could see that he was quite tall and had broad shoulders. He wore a belt over the robe from which a mace, like the one Rudolpho had be it a little less... magnificent and grandiose looking, hung. Another one dressed the same approached from a carriage further back. That one collected Ilaria, lifting her as if she was nothing while the other one came to me and offered to help me up. I accepted his hand and he pulled me up. The man was smaller than me by more than just one head and I looked down at him, trying to hide the look of disgust I wanted to make. All of them seemed to be human since all of them felt disgusting.

"Please, follow me," the man said.

I nodded and followed him to the first carriage. He opened the door and let me step inside. I felt a little overwhelmed. The inside of the carriage looked more luxurious than anything I had ever seen in both my lives. The walls were patted with dark red material, there were two couches, one at each end, that were large enough to serve as beds. There was a table between them, an armour stand, two wall shelves hanging above the doors with blankets, cups, bottles of what was probably liquor and more, most of it tied down so it wouldn't fall over.

"Feel free to rest," the man said as he closed the door behind me.

There were also five windows, one in the front, one in the back, one on each door and one on the ceiling which let in light. There was also a sliding trapdoor that was currently retracted at one end of the ceiling window. I whistled once.

"Gotta say, being rich in this world seems quite amazing," I said, letting out a chuckle afterwards.

'You should see Babylon if you think that this is something luxurious,' Ira said.

'Babylon?' I asked.

'Capital of the continent, the only neutral city that has anything besides beggars,' Ira explained.

Somehow the name Babylon was familiar but I didn't remember anything about it. As I stood there, looking around the carriage I felt tired and exhausted, deciding to take the man up on the offer I lay down on one of the large couches and closed my eyes, instantly falling asleep.