“Haaaa~” Sett leaned back in his chair, his palm planted on his forehead “sorry about that, back to our questions.” He looked over the paper again “even though the most important thing we wanted cleared up is already answered.”
[So, they just wanted to confirm the one part of their lie.]
‘The slave.’ As he said, they had already seen most of the fight. And they wanting to confirm only that really helped Mia, especially with her speech impediment.
“So just stop me if there is anything that needs to be corrected, alright?” He asked, preparing the paper for one final read.
“Ok.” Mia replied.
“Aright.” He placed the paper on the table and began the retelling “The group tried to apprehend an escaped slave peacefully, the crowd got unjustly riled up, the bea- Gaia are you serious with this drivel?” he tossed the paper behind him then slammed his hand on the table “They tried to snatch a slave, the crowd got angry, they tried to strong arm the crowd and you stopped them by freezing them without killing a single member, correct?”
“Yes.” Mia nodded, that was pretty much it.
“Truth.”
“OK! That settles that!” he reached his hand out towards Morgan.
Morgan raised her hands up above her head in prayer, the adornments atop her head shined, summoning a hole of light that produced a thin stack of papers that gently floated down and landed atop Sett’s open palm.
“There.” He got up, retrieving the papers he threw behind him “Their own inquisitor my left…” he grumbled, picking up the paper and comparing the two before throwing them both into his inventory.
Mia saw the comparison, the one Morgan produced was on whiter paper and cleaner. She wondered what kind of skill that was.
Sett sat back down “Alright, now for the next issue…”
Mia crooked her head, wondering what else was there?
The mood turned serious, as Sett spoke “You are fox beastman, correct?”
“Yes?” Mia didn’t understand why he was asking this, she flicked her ears and had her tail stand at attention to her side, emphasizing her racial features for him.
“Truth.”
“And your age was?”
“Eight.” She had already answered this, while technically she was an unknown age, at best 11, she had decided to just go along with what was plainly stated on her status page.
“Truth.” Morgan’s lie detector confirming this.
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Sett paused, taking a moment to think “And your purpose for coming here?”
“Lexon.” She had no reason to lie to them.
“Truth.”
“And the reason for you heading to Lexon is?”
“Get stronger.” Mia nodded to herself, she was so close to her goal of the apparent dungeon island.
“Truth.”
Another pause “…This might get a bit personal but if you can answer it, it will help. Like other beastmen here, they are fleeing Eldaha. You knew that kid was a slave, where you one as well?”
“…” Should she answer this?
She was conflicted, they appeared to be against the cult side, but she still was not completely sure she could trust them. Especially with her foresight knowledge of the actual church not taking action in three years, could Morgan be trusted? Sett has shown his distaste for them, but it might be an act?
No, she shrugged off the idea, if this was all fake then it was all so elaborate, and she didn’t think it was fair to judge Morgan based on knowledge from the future she didn’t know all the details about. If she was truly from the church and not the cult, or if that whole thing about being two parts is true.
“Yes, was.”
“Truth…”
“Haaa…” He shook his head “That changes things.” He reached inside his item box and pulled out another stack of papers that he placed in front of him “And a fox…your tribe is the closets, right? Did they uh…”
“…” Mia didn’t answer that one, not wanting to recall it.
“Right…” He flipped threw the papers, clicking his tongue “No one else…” He stood up, going to the door he swung it open “Someone bring be me the port logs!” he shouted, then shut the door, returning to his seat “We have a lot of refugees come through here, the cult making it all the more chaotic” he spat.
“Usually and after the incident, we kept them from doing anything too stupid. But recently they are getting cocky.” He sighed, sounding defeated “You wouldn’t happen to know of a reason why, would you?”
A bit surprised by the sudden question, Mia was left wondering what he could mean. She was in the forest for at least a week and the last time she dealt with the church was when she escaped with Hiro. Frankly, she did not understand the question.
[The cult situated at the dungeon.]
‘oh right, them.’ They were all camped outside the dungeon for some reason ‘what about them?’
[…what do you think they were doing out there?]
‘I don’t know, going into the dungeon?’ Mia guessed.
[…]
‘What? Why else would you camp next to a dungeon?’
[Ok, ignoring that they are camped outside a dungeon, where would they go next after they finished camping?]
‘…back home?’ she didn’t know what she was getting at.
[And if not home, where else?]
‘well the only other place I know of would be-‘ Mia shot up in her seat “here!”
Sett got up, taking some distance away from her “…excuse me?”
“Cult group, coming here.” She plopped back down in her seat, nodding to herself.
“…Truth.”
Sett shot a glance to Morgan “…how big?”
“Big.” She thought back to the camp, there were a lot of tents and people. “Lots”
“…Truth.”
Sett worriedly looked at Morgan “More than a hundred people?”
“Erm…” she tried to remember the exact number but, well, there were definitely more than a hundred “lots more.”
“Truth…”
“Where!?” Sett swung around to Mia’s side of the table.
“Lake dungeon.” Mia answered, having no idea if that was the official name, it was more of a swamp dungeon, but it was right next to the lake so… “west of here. Forrest.”
“Truth.”
“Those Ba-!!!”
“Hey boss I got the led- oh hey Mia!” Sewell had entered the room with a stack of papers in hand “Was looking for you till I got dumped with this… is this a bad time?” he stopped at the doorway, all eyes on him as an angry Sett came over and yanked the papers from him “S-sir?!”
“Thank you, now get out.” He pushed Sewell out the door and slammed it shut. “Now, I don’t care how long it is going to take…” he walked over to the table, taking his chair and slamming his armored butt in place “We are going to work getting every little detail we can out of that reserved mouth of yours.”
Mia gulped, knowing this was going to take awhile.