Chapter 07 : Signed By High Inquisitor Thelec

*Knock, knock !*

"Commander."

A middle-aged man was quietly sharpening his sword in his office, when he noticed the woman standing at the door.

"Hm, Captain Avea ? I believe it is quite early for your weekly report."

He slightly frowned when he saw this subordinate of his. She was supposed to be in the middle of a major covert operation, not in the HQ.

"...I have some important news to share. It couldn't wait, Sir."

"Come in."

The man gently placed his ornated sword on his desk and put a thin piece of cloth on top.

He then looked up at this unexpected visitor.

Avea was a stunning lady with dazzling golden hair tied up in a ponytail. Her soft skin was as white as snow, and one could see the tip of her ears slightly pointing upward.

The commander's scowl deepened when he saw her outfit. She wasn't in her Arbiter uniform, but instead, she was still disguised as a noble lady.

A thin veil was covering the upper half of her visage, and the dark green gown she wore was adorned with threads of silver and various pieces of expensive jewelry.

The woman bowed as she entered the office and lifted her veil, before standing straight in front of her commander's desk.

"What was so urgent that you couldn't even change your clothes before coming here ?" The commander asked with a stern voice.

The lady knew how severe was her boss. He was the kind of man to always follow the rules by the letter, and the rule was that all Arbiters had to be in uniform within the HQ.

Unfortunately, she didn't have time to change her outfit.

"Please forgive me, but the situation was urgent..."

Comfortably seated in his imposing chair, the commander sighed and gestured for her to continue talking.

"...we've found out a rank-4 threat in the middle of a residential area while investigating Crescent Moon. Whether or not it is one of their hideouts in the capital, it still poses a major risk to the people living nearby."

The commander's eyes twitched at the mention of a rank-4 threat. Those were taken very seriously, especially in the capital.

"What kind of threat ?"

"Beastmancy, an unrestrained Thaumiel-class beast. To be more precise, it is a two-headed Cerberus at the end of its infancy."

"Hm, a Cerberus... That's quite a rare breed, even in the Central Continent."

The commander's expression turned serious.

"Are you sure its master doesn't have a license ?"

"Yes, Sir. I checked with the Beastmancy department before coming here, but I couldn't find any registered rank-4 or higher beastmancer living near this area, nor any other person living in the entire capital that fit the same description."

The woman took a thin folder out of nowhere from her space ring, and placed it on her commander's desk.

"These are the only information I could find about this man."

The commander opened up the folder and read out loud the single page that was inside.

"Name : Lloyd Aurelion... Status : Commoner... Mana Heart : None... Profession : Merchant (store owner), Beastmancer (-redacted-)... Place of birth : Outer Continent..."

The Commander paused for a second, surprised to see a redacted line.

"Hm..."

After thinking for a short moment, he summarized the little information he had about this Lloyd Aurelion.

"He established his shop in Valora a bit more than a year ago, and he bought an entire building with royal gold from the Golden Whale Chamber of Commerce..."

Having finished reading the single page in the folder, the commander raised an eyebrow and asked his subordinate.

"Is that all you got ?"

"Yes, Sir... You know how the administrative officials work, they don't bother gathering more information than the bare minimum when it comes to commoners."

The man sighed, and peeked at the paper again with a pensive look.

"It's quite troublesome..."

"What do you mean, Commander ?"

"At first glance, except for the redacted line, nothing seems out of the ordinary. However..."

He pointed the signature at the bottom right of the paper with his finger.

"...look who registered his ID."

The woman narrowed her eyes to read the name written at the end of the document, before opening them wide in surprise.

"H-High Inquisitor Thelec ?!"

"Indeed. It is a common method used by these cunning fellows. They voluntarily sign certain documents so the people from other departments who dig for information would not cross the line and drop the matter. An Inquisitor's name bears the weight of the entire Inquisition, after all."

The woman was shocked by this revelation.

She never bothered to check the signature at the end of ID documents, so she had no idea the Inquisition used such a method.

"At least, it does remove some of our suspicions ; this store owner shouldn't be part of Crescent Moon if he has been registered by the Inquisition, even more so if a High Inquisitor did the procedure."

The woman remained silent, but the commander could see that she wanted to say something.

"Sorry, Avea, but you'll have to forget about this lead. I'm sure this Inquisitor Thelec is already aware that you inquired about this unknown store owner. I doubt it would please him to learn that someone he personally registered is being investigated by an Arbiter."

The commander knew better than anyone not to mess with the Inquisition.

Publically, the Arbitarion he was in charge of and the Inquisition were two faces of the same coin. They had equal status, power, and responsibilities...

But in reality, it was in name only.

Even if the Arbiters also had the habit of conducting secret investigations, they remained civil servants first and foremost. Their means to fight crime were straightforward, and their internal policies were quite transparent to the citizens of Valor.

The Inquisition, on the other hand, operated on a completely different level. They were a shady institution that was extremely secretive, and the scale of their operations was nothing like that of the Arbitarion.

There was a reason why the Inquisition of the Kingdom of Valor was known across the entire Central Continent to be ruthless in their action, yet invisible in their movements.

All of their trainees were thoroughly handpicked by the most prominent Lord Inquisitors of the Order, and the few who were skilled enough to survive years of extreme training and become fully-fledged Inquisitors were all powerhouses to be reckoned with.

Whether it was infiltrating the most dangerous criminal organizations, spying on the most affluent companies of the Central Continent, gathering intel alone in the furthest and most hostile regions, or even plotting assassination and coup d'états in foreign countries... The Inquisitors were without a doubt among the most capable servants of the Royal Family, answering only to His Majesty.

Rather than a simple counterintelligence organization, the Inquisition was more like an adaptable Order that would go to any length necessary to fulfill the objectives set by the Royal Family, the House of Valor.

This was the reason why each Inquisitor wielded such an unmatched decisional power, and they weren't bound by the laws and decrees of the Kingdom.

The Arbiters under the Commander's order already have a lot of decisional power to carry out their missions, but even they have a limit they can not cross. It wasn't the case for an Inquisitor.

The little information that is publicly known about the Inquisitors is often via hearsay among nobles and officials, but the Commander knew the truth : the Inquisition controlled tightly any rumors about their order to their advantage.

What you hear about them is only what they want you to hear.

"...Does that mean that we should ignore a suspicious person just because he may be related to the Inquisition ?! What about the unrestrained Thaumiel-class beast roaming free in his shop ??" Avea asked loudly, a tinge of frustration in her voice.

The commander sighed at his naive subordinate, but he didn't blame her.

Avea just recently relocated from the countryside to the Capital City after being promoted to Captain for her impressive deeds in the north.

Despite being an experienced and competent Arbiter, she was not as well informed as her superior about what was going on behind the scenes in the capital.

"Then tell me, Captain Avea, what do you want to do ? Mess with someone that had his ID registration signed by a High Inquisitor, maybe ?" The Commander asked sarcastically, but with a grave voice.

He would surely lose his patience if this subordinate of his still decided to pursue the matter.

"Yes. I can investigate him without anyone knowing-"

...and as expected, she did.

"YOU FOOL !!"

The commander slammed his desk, a vein popping out on his forehead.

"Did you not hear what I just said ?! Am I talking to wall, perhaps ?! Or are you too stubborn to not realize what it means to mess with a High Inquisitor ?!"

"..."

Silence weighed inside the room.

The commander regained his calm, and tried to reason with his subordinate one last time.

"Listen, I understand that you want to do the right thing. Compared to these devious guys from the Inquisition, that's what we've always taught you to do as an Arbiter. However..."

The commander got up from his seat and placed his hand on Avea's shoulder, staring at her with cold eyes.

"...sometimes, we have to put our pride and sense of justice aside. Some people are better left alone, Avea. This case left our jurisdiction the moment a High Inquisitor was involved. Matters in the capital aren't as simple as they are in the countryside."

"...Yes, Sir."

The lady bit her lip.

She was visibly irritated that she couldn't do anything about such a big menace to the common people just because of a mere signature at the end of an insignificant document.

"I know it's frustrating, but think of it this way : if this store owner truly had ill intentions, why nothing special happened during the entire year he spent in Valor ?"

The commander paused and locked his piercing silver eyes on Avea, before adding.

"If you want my personnal opinion, I think this shop owner is nothing more than a member of the Inquisition in training. I heard their trainees are assigned a mission to complete in solo during their last years of formation, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case with this guy. He's most likely a soon-to-be Inquisitor, living undercover in the capital."

"...Then why doesn't he at least follow the law and restrain his beast inside the capital ?"

"Well, I'm also pissed about that... but who knows what's going on inside the head of those freaks. Inquisitors are trained since their first day to confuse friends and foes alike ; trying to find meaning behind their actions is pointless, trust me."

"..."

The lady lowered her head.

She didn't expect that even her Commander, the renowned Caeleth from House Dawnfeather, couldn't do anything when it came to the Inquisition.

"Don't worry, it's not because I told you to forget about it that I won't do anything on my end. I'm also pissed that this guy let a Thaumiel-class beast roam free inside his shop. Even if he works for the Inquisition, he should show a minimum of étiquette inside the Capital. Tch."

The Commander wasn't upset when a member of the Inquisition broke the law ; this happened frequently, and he had become accustomed to it over the years. He was enraged because this guy did it so blatantly, not afraid in the slightest about the consequences of his actions.

Just the thought that even the trainees of the Inquisition had no regard for the Arbiters made his blood boil.

"Do these bastards think we're a bunch of pushovers, or what ?"

Caeleth understood the need of the Inquisition to deal with the issues that could not be resolved under the law by the Arbiters, but he couldn't accept that a mere trainee would show such disrespect.

It was infuriating.

"I'll file a complaint to this High Inquisitor Thelec about this, but until then, do not do anything."

"...Yes, Commander."

Caeleth returned behind his desk and laid back his tired muscular body on his seat.

"What about Crescent Moon ? Was that the only lead you guys found out this week ?"

"Yes, Sir... We've spread out our research to another residential area, but we didn't find anything suspicious so far."

"Sigh... Alright."

Avea could see the exhaustion on her commander's face.

"Return to your squad for the time being and resume your investigation. The more time passes, and the more we're getting pressured by the Royal Court to find a clue about Crescent Moon. I fear they will remove us from this case if we do not provide satisfactory results by the end of the month."

Caeleth pinched his nose with a fatigued face, before adding.

"I'll soon hold a meeting with all the Arbiters on this case and the teams of Vigilantes assigned to them who took part in this operation, so you better be prepared."

"Yes, Commander."

"Good. Now leave, and don't forget to keep your nose away from anything related to the Inquisition."

"..."

"In case you didn't understand that was not a suggestion, but an order. I hope I've been clear, Captain Avea."

"...Yes, Sir."

Avea left the office with a cold face, and a bitter taste in her mouth.

'You may be afraid of the Inquisition, Commander, but I'm not.'

For some reason, her instinct was pushing her to visit this mysterious shop again. She felt that the owner of this place was more than meets the eye.

Even if this store wasn't related to Crescent Moon, she didn't plan to let go unpunished someone who let a Thaumiel-class beast roam free in the middle of the capital.

When she remembered how carefree the store owner was when he greeted her, while his beast was feasting on the floor... She knew that something was amiss with this store.

'Inquisitor or not, who would be crazy enough to welcome his customers with an unrestrained beast that can raze a village to the ground...?'

Either this mysterious store owner was a total moron... or the way he acted had a deep meaning that Avea failed to understand.

No matter what, and despite her commander's orders, she was now more determined than ever to uncover the truth.