Arc | Chapter. 40: Mind Breaker (Patreon)

Chapter. 40: Mind Breaker

There was a pause before Ceylon blinked, her golden hair moving to the wind as her blue eyes stared at me, and then she responded.

“What are you even talking about?”

“The Grand Duke, someone that was aiming to be the next king turned out to be this pathetic,” I said, shaking my head. “If the only determiner is wealth, then it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure Regis should be able to help too.”

“I… I can try?” he said from behind.

“Well, I’m sure we can figure something out,” I said simply. “And, Ceylon, if your family becomes royalty I doubt you’ll ever have anything to worry about. So it’s probably preferable.”

“I guess it could be⁠—” And she shook her head. “Wait, first we must leave, at least if you don’t want to spend like half a day dealing with questioning⁠—”

“Oh, then that’s not necessary,” Regis said, smiling.

“What do you mean?” Ceylon asked in confusion.

He held his smile. “You’ll see.”

And at that moment, the guards arrived sprinting. Six armored men rushed with spears in tow, they took a look at the surroundings before locking eyes on me. And at that moment, they all rushed to point spears at me. Though, Regis, who looked pretty much like some noble kid now, blocked the way.

“Move.” They commanded, but he shook his head.

“I’m afraid not, she’s with me.” With those words, Regis reached into his coat and displayed a golden medal.

There was a pause as the guards stared, a very long one in which they seemed to be trying to determine what it was, before finally, the leader spoke up.

“Arrest him too.”

“Wait⁠—”

And a spear was pointed at Regis’ throat. A sigh left me, as we were surrounded. Ceylon let out a sigh and I simply didn’t even react. If I was honest, the whole having to run away from punishing someone that tried to kill me didn’t sit right with me.

So, I decided to stick through with things, and go with the interrogation.

Agreeing with whatever the guards said, we were taken away to get more information.

◇ ◇ ◇

Terrel usually liked his job, even when things were hard. He was an Interrogator, and while he never tortured anyone, he was good at getting factual information due to his high class level. He was a level 70, soon to be B Tier. While his combat capabilities weren’t good or great by any metrics, his ability to get information was among the best in Draliz with the exception of the Royal Interrogator.

Needless to say, he was damn good at his job. Terrel was a prideful man, and always worked diligently. So when three people in the crime scene came, he wasted no effort in getting accounts from each one of them.

And today, he would get the truth of what happened in the plaza. Eye-witnesses said that a frenzied noble assaulted the white haired girl, and that the knife shattered before she flicked him away with one of her fingers.

It was silly, but that’s what the eyewitnesses said, and now he had to corroborate that with further information. All of his time was spent polishing his skills.

But that just allowed him to get the best testimony possible.

First was the nervous girl, she was a noble of sorts but he didn’t know her house ⁠— he hardly knew any of the houses if he was honest. But that wasn’t relevant, her words were confusing.

“Oh, that indeed happened, she’s a Medal of Bravery holder after all, it’s not like she’d back away from something like that. As for the knife shattering… I’ve seen it happen before.”

“How strong is she? Well, she’s C Tier.”

“As for the person that attacked him… it’s… complicated.”

Of course, Terrel couldn’t force her to speak so he stopped it there. His main priority after all was finding out what happened in a truthful way. After all, he seriously doubted a knife would shatter, and let alone someone would go flying multiple of meters and break through the ground from a single finger flick ⁠— even a punch from an A Tier individual would struggle to do that.

So, he moved to the next person. A noble teen, one of red hair.

“Huh, Miss Arc? I cannot speak of her status. I do not know why that person attacked her, but it is to be expected for the blade to break, she was quite generous in just flicking the man away if you ask me⁠.”

“Also, why do you people ignore the Token of Amity from the kingdom of Draliz, this is unacceptable.”

In the end, he had to explain that the last token was given four-hundred years ago to the Hermit, but that was only met with words of lunacy.

“I am the Hermit, can’t you see?”

So, for Terrel, the information wasn’t particularly useful. And to some extent, the kid was a bit delusional, speaking like an old man and stroking a non-existent beard at times. Overly prideful and quick to anger.

So that left, the last person. Arc, the person that was least likely to provide the facts, or even outright lie. Except, it wasn’t like he planned.

She scratched her head hearing his question.

“Well, where to start?” She tilted her head. “I guess, the Grand Duke lost everything because of me; I mean he was screaming about that when he came to kill me. Then, well he used a knife and it broke because it was too weak. I couldn’t really be bothered to get angry either so I flicked with my finger.”

And then, with that she shrugged.

Terrel blinked. “So, how did he lose everything?”

“Can’t say,” she replied casually. “This is to get the facts in regard to why I was attacked; those were the facts. A personal grudge. As for what happened? Well I just said it, and I know pretty much everyone else said the exact same thing.”

“So the knife did indeed shatter, and you did indeed almost kill a man with a flick of your finger.”

“It wasn’t my intention, but I suppose so. However, you could call it self-defense,” she said dismissively.

“Now, I ask. Why did the knife shatter?” Terrel felt… odd.

He was getting all the right answers but the absurdity of the situation made it hard for him to believe it. It was simply… surreal. Yet, there was nothing that proved that it wasn’t the truth. It didn’t make sense⁠—

“I already said it, it was weak,” she said, interrupting his thoughts.

Terrel paused.

This was… something that could give him the truth. Any average knife would qualify as too weak most likely. So didn’t that mean if she was hit by the same attack again the same would happen…? Except, that was insanity, but the woman’s calm demeanor somehow pushed him to say something about it.

“So you’re saying that if I stabbed you, the knife would shatter?”

“Not exactly what I'm saying, but that would indeed happen.” She raised her brow. “Is that even relevant?”

A sigh left Terrel. “My job is to get the objective and unbiased truth, and unfortunately the events of the situation are so hard to believe that I have no way to truly confirm⁠—”

“Then you can just stab me with a knife, or I can flick my finger at you⁠; you can choose.”

He paused. “Are you suggesting I attack you to proof the truth?”

“Sure why not?” She shrugged. “Rather that than spend any longer than necessary here.”

Terrel blinked.

This was outrageous⁠— and it was exactly what he wanted to do earlier. But… it truly was so bizarre and so far-fetched. What if the woman got injured? He could lose his job⁠—

“So, are you going to do it? Or rather, I want you to do it.”

“You want me to do it?” Terrel asked, taken aback. “What if you get injured?”

“I won’t, and if it helps I’ll stab myself,” she said with a hint of annoyance now in her voice. “This is taking a bit too long.”

“So, you’d try to injure yourself just to prove the veracity of what happened⁠—”

“Yes, so do it or I’ll do it myself,” she glared at him, and he shivered. “This is final.”

What⁠— what was going on? Terrel found his skin prickling, his mind telling him not to do it yet every fiber of his being was imploring him⁠— commanding him to do it. He had to, he had to put it to the test, but what if she was wrong; what would happen to him⁠?

“So?”

He panicked hearing her cold voice and his hands slowly trembled. He didn’t know the answer⁠— could he really break his moral code in order to test the veracity of the claims⁠— to do his job? His job was the most important thing to him.

“I guess I’ll⁠—”

“I’ll do it,” Terrel gasped. “I’ll do it, I’ll test out your claim.”

The woman raised her brow, but after a moment nodded and stood up. She just stayed there, her arms on her hips, her torso wide open waiting on Terrel to do it. He had a dagger too, it was on his belt. Slowly, he reached for the weapon with quivering hands and unsheathed it, awkwardly holding.

“Well, go ahead, try it.”

He gulped and approached her, his entire being frozen in fear. He was trembling, but he said he’d do it. The woman seemed certain too. So why was he so scared⁠— he just had to do it. Even if she was injured, there was a person listening in⁠; at most he’d be docked a week’s pay. Besides it was part of his job!

Terrel stood there for what felt like an eternity, debating himself about his job duties and fears, until finally the woman spoke.

“If you prefer I can just flick you instead⁠—”

“No!” Terrel let out a long breath, steeling himself, as he marched. “Prepare yourself, truth shall be revealed now.”

The woman just nodded and Terrel stabbed. The dagger collided and immediately exploded into thousands of pieces just as she said it would. It was… a fact⁠— all of this was reality, the claims from the eye-witnesses had proved to be nothing but the unbridled truth. And yet, as was a rule of life, sometimes the truth was best kept unveiled.

Terrel’s head began to pound, the world began to spin around him as he stumbled back⁠— something within him had just cracked. It couldn’t be. He grabbed at his sword and asked.

“Can I?”

“Sure.”

And he unsheathed it, with a frenzied scream he slashed only for the weapon to instantly shatter with mist. He saw the metal fragments hit the ground and splinter into nothingness almost as if they had been instantly frozen to impossible temperatures.

Watching that sight, something broke within Terrel. The headache became overwhelming as he emotionlessly spoke.

“You may go.”

The woman nodded and left the room, and then, a moment after Terrel broke down as reality stopped making sense to him anymore. Not even an S Tier individual could do that⁠— so what was it? How could this happen?!

His mind spun only to arrive at no answer⁠. Then finally he stared at the fragments of the weapons as a single thought passed his mind.

What⁠— the⁠— fuck!

And yet, deep down, a desire for a more complete truth began to well within him.

* * * * *

After the better part of two hours, we finally left the knight⁠— building or whatever it was. Barracks, I supposed⁠— not like I was familiar with the terms. All it had taken was forcing the interrogation officer to stab me, and promptly making him have a small breakdown for some reason.

It wasn’t something that concerned me, all I knew is that finally, I could move onto other things. Though, while Ceylon’s mood seemed relieved, Regis’ was quite annoyed.

“I am the Hermit and yet not a single soul believed me, what has humanity come to be.”

“Even if you were an old man, I doubt they’d believe you,” I said dismissively. “Besides, it’s best if you forget about your Hermit identity.”

Regis frowned. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to draw attention, if you’re going to stick around you’ll be an adventurer like me.”

There was a pause on his face, one of horror, and one of… acceptance and resignation. It was quite the weird thing to witness⁠ ⁠— I didn’t even think he was serious until this moment⁠. Finally with a small sigh.

“Fine, but I won’t dress any differently. That’s my… bottomline…” and he trailed off, as if he wasn’t sure if that was actually his bottomline.

A small sigh left me. “Okay, well aside from turning you into an adventurer, which I guess we’ll do in Ranedale. You must also help me.”

“Help you?” He raised his brow. “What could you possibly need help with?”

“I need to grow stronger without killing innocent things,” I said, making sure to emphasize the innocent part.

Regis paused, and thought. “That is… I’ll think about it, but if you want a non-committal answer⁠—”

“Arc!”

And at that moment, a man came from the barracks. It was the person that had interrogated me, calling my name as he immediately strode up to me, his expression weird.

“I want you to flick me,” he demanded standing before me.

“Flick you with my finger?” I asked in confusion, raising my arm at him.

The man nodded. “Yes, I want to see the full truth. The Guards won’t⁠—”

“Alright, sure.”

And I instantly flicked⁠— the air snapped and the doors of the knight barracks broke in that instant with an explosion of wood and metal.