Jacob is feeling awful. He is in prison for false arrest. Not to mention where he actually gets imprisoned right now. It’s not his first time in jail, but it's his first time in this prison.

The Old Prison.

It was called old not simply because the prison is old, it is old, old. Older than the kingdom itself.

Before it became a prison, it was rumoured to be an underground lair for an ancient ghost. The kingdom then used it as a prison for its special criminals.

Jacob can’t believe he is in the same jail that holds the most notorious criminals and hard-to-kill Demon.

It’s unfair.

The reason he got thrown into this jail in the first place wasn’t because of thieving. Jacob wouldn’t steal when he was working as a clerk.

It's a mistake, and it's not even his fault. Someone tricked him into performing a dangerous job.

It was just a normal day for him, he went to his job of working as a clerk after seeing Rivan wouldn’t wake up anytime soon. Leaving him to his Sister.

Everything was going smoothly until he received an assignment to deliver a letter to the King. It was strange because it was already evening, close to the end of his work shift. Jacob accepted it because the sudden task reward was lucrative and unexpected.

He should at least have a bit of suspicion, as most of his colleagues rejected it outright when offered.

When he arrived near the castle, a group of armoured men in red captured him without asking a question.

If not for a man in a mask who confirmed that he was merely a courier and had no direct connection to the person they were 'hunting', they would have immediately executed him instead of imprisoning him for a further investigation.

Jacob was then thrown into this jail. Over the course of a few hours, an increasing number of people find their way into the cells next to Jacob. Most of them are servants, and a few of them look like nobles.

The man in a mask came to his cell and told him he had made a mistake. Although the letter Jacob carries is indeed problematic, he is just an innocent teen accidentally warped into a Demon conspiracy.

Despite knowing he was innocent, they decided not to release him, as the Old Prison has a tradition that prisoners could only be released if someone bailed them out and filled out the documents in the church.

Anyone can be the person who bails him out, as long as they fill out all the documents with either the Church or the King permit.

The man said he will be busy for two days from now on, but he promised to bail Jacob out when he is free.

Jacob has been here for more than twenty hours.

“Sister can’t bail me out, Old Man Yarn should be busy with his shop, my boss is the one who got me here in the first place…”

Jacob came to the realisation that he didn't have any close friends. Friends who keep tabs on each other and help when they are in trouble.

“Hey You! Release me! I am the Count of Jouan, you mistakenly captured me, a loyal servant for the King! I don’t have any involvement with the Demons in the cap-”

“Shut up.”

The voice came from a man wearing a mask. He walked to Jacob's cell, and opened the cell door.

“You've been bailed out. Come on.”

Jacob is puzzled and can’t help but ask.

“Mister Knight of Conviction, I thought you were busy?”

Knight of Convictions class, an order of knights who serve directly under the King. They are absolute Crown loyalists, receiving orders only from the King.

Undeterred by their foes, they won’t even hesitate to cut down a foreign king despite the fact that they will die doing so just because the King ordered them.

This actually happened in the past. Not only did the Knights of Conviction manage to kill a King from the Empire, they also protected their own King from being in the centre of the Empire and escorted him back to the Kingdom of Heart islands against multiple hostile enemies.

They are famous enough that the System recognised them as their own class instead of just the normal Knight class.

They are all originally criminals who turn leaf into righteous class, Knights. It was said the King had a strong belief in this order. So did the knights have a solid belief for the master they served, the King.

They wore an iron beak mask as proof of their conviction.

“I still am, someone did it. Let’s go.”

The King Prison was divided into several layers, the deeper they were, the more miserable and strict the treatment the prisoners were subjected to. They are currently the most upper layer, so they quickly reach the door to go outside.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The man stopped and turned towards Jacob. He has been quiet the whole time here, reserving his own words.

Now the Knight is staring at Jacob with his deep green eyes. Jacob can’t see his expression under the mask, and his eyes reveal nothing.

“Are you squeamish?”

Surprised by the sudden question, Jacob didn't respond, and the man spoke.

“Beyond this door, you will be seeing something unsightly. Take my hand and close your eyes. I will guide you out if you don’t want to see it.”

Something unsightly? What is it? Why did the knight offer him such strange assistance? Is there something gruesome?

Jacob is too curious to not see it, and he should be able to hold it. He had seen many gruesome sights since the day he and his sister moved to the West district.

“No need.”

The knight simply watched and said,

“If you are changing your mind, immediately tell me. There is no shame in acknowledging one's flaw.”

They went outside. The castle walls afforded a view of the sunset. Jacob was led by the Knight to the nearest stair to the castle wall and walked from there in the direction of the gate.

They didn’t use the route via the castle's main garden but instead used the same way Jacob was carried to the Old prison that night. A second floor of the castle wall.

Soldiers and Knights of all affiliations are passing by, some of them are the infamous Inquisitors. The armoured men in red who almost killed Jacob that night.

They should be near the castle's main garden, and nothing seems particularly off.

Except for the smell.

Jacob already had an idea of what he would be seeing, as on the way, several more knights and servants are passing by and carrying eerie things in a strecher from where the main garden is located.

From a distance, the second floor of the castle wall will provide a view of the main garden. They will soon be able to see the main garden, where the banquet took place last night.

Last night, the main garden was filled with hundreds of nobles and their families.

It’s like a fairytale, people are slowly dancing to an elegant tune. The servants seamlessly avoid the nobles, who completely disregard them. The tables boast an abundance of appetising food.

From a distance, the ballroom is barely visible. There are a dozen men in red standing around it, and Knights of conviction surround who is supposedly the King.

The King personally hosted a banquet that was so luxurious it felt like a paradise.

Now it had turned into something of a nightmare that no sane man would imagine.

“Can you handle it?”

Jacob averted his gaze from the dreadful garden. At one point, the Knight of Conviction turned around and approached him.

“How… What… happened?”

“Let’s keep walking first. The faster we leave this, the better.”

And they did keep walking.

The putrid smell of corpses is strong. Is it because the wind is pushing it into their position?

“Most of the nobles of the Kingdom are working together with the Demons. Not just Demons items or Demon Class, the Demon races from the Demon world also work with them.”

That’s… surprising. It’s an open secret that some nobles use Demon items and have Demon class subordinates, but they now directly working with the Demon world?

"We don't know why they made such foolish decisions, but the King was furious when he learned about them. The one thing he hates the most is treachery. He gathered his capable, loyal vassals and armies, including us, to prepare the hunt.”

“What you saw in that garden was a special trap for rounding up most of the traitors, and the hunt went extremely well. Too well. The Inquisitors we invited are too excited about it.”

Inquisitors, the infamous army of the Church that specialised in hunting the Demons around human society. They won’t hesitate to implicate the innocents.

People said their red uniforms were originally light blue before being drenched in the blood of Demons. Their methods are more violent than those used by most members of the Demon Race.

“The King, although angry, won’t let it muddle his reason. He ordered us to spare the innocents and his unaware loyal nobles, including the noble servants.”

That explains why the Old Prison receives so many servants.

"Your survival, too, is the result of the King's wise decision. Without His Grace, you would have undoubtedly become a target for the Inquisition last night.

“Please be grateful for the King.”

Jacob gazed at the back of the Knight. What he said is correct, but he doesn’t know why he should be grateful to the King.

Last night, he was pretty sure the Knight knew him. Especially because the Knight called his name before Jacob introduced himself.

~~~~~

Jacob broke out of his preoccupation.

“We arrived.”

Huh? Where is he?

Jacob stopped walking and looked towards the man who bailed him out.

He doesn’t know him at all. The man also said he wasn’t familiar with Jacob. The man is able to bail him out so easily because he appears to be a reputable lawyer and is acting at someone else's request.

Jacob is still reeling from what he saw—that the only thing he paid attention to were some of the things the lawyer said.

He was walked outside the carriage owned by the lawyer.

Outside, it's already night. The moon already revealed its presence, and the Stars aligned with their usual Constellation.

“Go there, you will see my employer.”

The lawyer's finger guided Jacob to a man wearing a black outfit. He's sitting near a fountain, surrounded by birds. Jacob could barely make out the figure, and the only person he could think of with such clothes was only one man.

“Rivan?”

“Oh, so that’s the old man's name, and you know him. I should go now, I have more clients to bail out.”

Immediately, he closed the carriage door.

“Old man?”

The lawyer leaves without answering Jacob, and the carriage speeds away from the slightly busy street.

Jacob hesitated for a moment before taking a step towards the man.

He isn’t familiar with the road, so it means he is currently not in the West district. Jacob could concentrate on determining his location, yet his mind remains stuck by what he witnessed in the garden.

When Jacob got closer to the man, he finally noticed his details.

The man in black wasn’t Rivan. His hair was gray like that of an old man, and a shovel lay on the ground next to him. Rivan has pure black hair, he isn't Rivan.

“A Gravekeeper?”

The old man stopped staring at the fountain, slowly turning his body towards Jacob.

Time seems to have stopped for both of them.

Jacob's eyes widen at the face he sees.

“Jacob, it’s been awhile.”

He was the Gravekeeper who once helped Jacob and his Sister.

How did he stand in front of him?

It’s impossible.

He should be dead.

Jacob even watched the old man's funeral in person.

He now directs his friendly, wrinkled smile towards Jacob once more.

The last smile Jacob saw was before the Ghost of the City brutally murdered the old man the next day.

The first victim of the Ghost after went missing for a very long time.

~~~~~

I open my eyes.

The dream's continuation lingers in my mind. The dream I am experiencing next should be about how the misunderstanding was resolved but left open a new world for me.

The world of the Library.

The familiar ceiling greeted my face, and a melodious voice rang from beside me.

“Rivan, can I ask you a favour?”

It's the voice of Kunti, but she looks different.