"This is the resistance! Surrender!" shouted a voice from outside. This voice was accompanied by the sound of thundering footsteps in all directions. The resistance had finally appeared and surrounded the building. That meeting from behind that the guards knew of wasn't an ambush on the resistance but an ambush on the lord himself. Was our presence even necessary in this mission?

"We have the will of the gods on our side. No matter what slander or libel you throw at us, it will go through one ear and out the other. We are united against your tyranny, Lord Brandon! All of that so-called blackmail material will be burned and we will be liberated. Surrender and your life will be spared!" shouted another resistance fighter.

Lord Brandon? So that was his name. Much better than using tyrant all the time. It made him seem more human. Meanwhile, the will of god sounds familiar. Claris must've joined hands with the resistance and convinced them to act. Even though we won, it was nice to know that we had reinforcements. It was all over now.

"Feel free to come in! I've already captured the lord and I was just about to destroy the blackmail! It's good to hear from the resistance!" I shouted out to them. Lord Brandon turned a bit pale. He had no way out now, he'd live but no more blackmail.

"Please help me. They're lying about letting me live. They'll put me in a jail cell for a few months then hang me," said Lord Brandon. I wasn't sure if he was being paranoid or realistic at this point. Claris was probably the only thing keeping the resistance from lynching Lord Brandon. Who's to say they won't turn on their word once our group left.

"No! All of you leave the building and surrender your weapons!" shouted a resistance fighter.

Chad finished healing Lord Brandon and said, "What should we do?"

"Obviously, we'll listen to them. We're on the same side after all," I responded.

"And Lord Brandon?"

"We'll figure something out later. For now, let's listen to their instructions."

I looked over towards Lord Brandon's sword and considered giving it back to him before we left on a hunch. It was a stupid hunch since we were going to surrender our weapons outside. I decided not to do so after taking a look at him. He was pale and shivering constantly despite being healed. Dangerous. It seemed like he could explode at any second. A weapon was not something I'd like to see in his hands.

Foa finally managed to get up and came over. The fox climbed onto Lord Brandon's chest and began licking his face. He did not respond and just let this happen. An utterly defeated man. That was the only way I could describe him. Everything he knew was falling apart and all he could do was quietly surrender. If this wasn't a completed mission, then I don't know what was.

We started going down the ladder one by one, other than Foa who rode Lord Brandon's shoulders down. When we opened the back door, we were confronted by familiar faces. Claris who was familiar to us but unknown to Lord Brandon and the resistance fighters that Lord Brandon knew but we did not. They had their weapons drawn and were ready for action. There were around five resistance fighters by Claris' side, with more surrounding the house.

"Claris, good to see you. We just finished the mission and got Lord Brandon to surrender. Did you hear anything from the gods about the mission?" I asked.

She smiled and said, "Yes, I did. The mission has been completed. All your stupid plans and killing were for naught as all we had to do was contact the resistance. I was surprised you managed to clear the mission before I arrived. Thankfully, you didn't kill him so you listened to me, at least somewhat," said Claris.

"So, no hard feelings about what happened before," I asked.

"No hard feelings. However, I think you're an ass," she said, much to my relief.

"I feel some hard feelings about being called a heretic, though," cut in Chad.

"I apologize for that as well. The gods have already told me that your power is not heresy, it's just creepy as hell," said Claris.

Chad shrugged and said, "I've heard worse."

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One of the resistance fighters started walking towards Lord Brandon. He ignored me and Chad, not seeing us as a threat. Lord Brandon backed away a bit and Foa jumped away from him. His eyes darted around before focusing on a man in the crowd.

"Vel, you bastard. The feeling of finding out my traps were duds was almost as devastating as the feeling you had when you found out your wife was cheating," said Lord Brandon.

A man from the crowd, presumably Vel, said, "Shut up. I will not listen to your dirty words."

"The man who your wife had an affair with is the man right in front of me. Now you will never look at him the same way, will you?" asked Lord Brandon.

The accused man shouted, "Shut up! We will not listen to your lies."

Vel said, "In one ear and out the other."

"Really now? You can say that now, but what about later? I have no reason to lie to you. Even if you don't believe me, there will be a tiny part of you that squirms inside you, digging away. Aren't you curious about the evidence I have of this?" asked Lord Brandon while looking inside the building.

"Nice try. That's an obvious lie. You're so desperate that you're making stuff up instead of using the legitimate blackmail you have. Mathias has been my best friend for over ten years, there's no way he would do something like that. Isn't that right," said Vel while looking at the man who was approaching Lord Brandon.

"R-right," said Mathias with a light stutter, his back was to the rest of the resistance fighters. From my point of view, I could see his eyes darting back and forth and his face was sweaty.

"Mathias, are you alright?" asked Vel.

"Just fine. I'm just... I'm just emotional about this whole situation," replied Mathias.

Lord Brandon continued to back up until he bumped into me. I was blocking the door to make sure he couldn't get away. Not that it really mattered since we completed the mission. After all that effort to defeat him, letting him run away would be dissatisfying.

"I have more. Even if Vel believes in Mathias, you can't ignore everything I say!" shouted Lord Brandon.

I started to get annoyed with this whole situation. All these so-called resistance fighters were hesitating constantly. They only sent one guy to grab the lord and he's just standing there trying to clean the sweat off his face so he doesn't look suspicious. The rest have their weapons sheathed and are watching over this situation as if this was a show. A few of them even smiled when Lord Brandon shouted he had more. Despite their talk of ignoring the stuff he says, it seems more like they want to hear it. To end this drama, I covered Lord Brandon's mouth to keep him from talking.

"Enough with this crap. Where are we taking him? I'll bring him since you're all taking your sweet time. Get someone trustworthy to burn the sacks full of blackmail," I said.

With those words, the resistance stopped dawdling and started doing what they came there for. I guided Lord Brandon to the town's main plaza, where the people who hadn't participated in the resistance were waiting. The guard who we killed's family was there, glaring at us. I didn't even care at this point; I wanted to get this over with and then go to sleep. One of the resistance fighters that I didn't know the name of walked up to Lord Brandon, who was now gagged with a piece of cloth. He held a piece a paper and began reading off of it; a list of crimes against the town.

The entire time it was read out, Lord Brandon was squirming around. I held his arms behind his back to keep him from removing his gag or running off. Eventually, he went limp in my arms. He had given up resisting and accepted his fate.

"...Normally, the punishment for such an amount of crimes would be death. However, the gods have deemed that he should not be killed. Therefore, his crimes amount to a life sentence," finished the resistance fighter.

"Isn't that the same as a death sentence," said Chad.

"Pretty much. He'll either sit in jail or do manual labor until he expires. However, he won't be directly killed," I said to Chad before turning to Claris and asking, "Satisfied?"

"I... wait, what? That can't be right?" said Claris while frowning.

"This is how the world works. You've got to face reality. While it's true we can do these missions without killing, that won't always bring about the best result," I said to Claris. I was hoping to convince her to abandon her way of thinking as it could compromise us on future missions. Future missions? That would be a real nightmare.

"No, not that. The gods have spoken to me," responded Claris.

"Please tell me it's not another mission," I said.

"It's not. The gods want us to bring Lord Brandon with us as our new companion," said Claris.

What? The tyrant we defeated is now our ally? How nonsensical. To make things worse, that implied there would be more missions. A nightmare came to life topped off with a new headache. How should I have reacted to this situation?

"I'm going to bed. You handle this shit. I'm done," I said while walking towards the bar we started the mission at. I didn't even bother checking the reactions of my comrades.

Once there, I found the bartender glaring at me inside. It seemed like he kept himself neutral during this conflict. Judging from how empty the bar was, a tyrant getting overthrown was bad for business. Thankfully, he didn't start shouting for the guards like last time. I recognized one or two of the people sitting in the bar as resistance fighters that helped surround the lord's manor. That meant that the bartender was aware of the situation. I took a seat myself and ordered some food and booze. A room to sleep in? No, this was my bed tonight.

Throughout the night, more and more people piled in. There was a lot of cheering and people buying everyone in the bar drinks. Turns out I was wrong; a tyrant getting overthrown was great business. It simply appeared to be bad during the actual overthrowing process. After taking advantage of a few free drinks, I managed to fall asleep despite the ruckus.