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“You’re making a mistake,” Erza said. He didn’t resist as the white-cloaked one restrained him, though whether that was because he genuinely planned to go with them or because he didn’t need his hands to use his magic, Zeth wasn’t sure.

“Do not attempt to wrestle free from my grip,” the captain said to Rosalie. After a moment, she hesitantly stopped moving, allowing her hands to be forced behind her back.

“What are our warrants?” Erza asked. “What crimes are we suspected of committing?”.

“You are wanted for no crime,” the captain said.

“What?” Rosalie asked. “So you know you’re arresting a pair of innocent people?”

“Yes.”

“You are absolutely not allowed to do that.”

“No. Town guards may only conduct an arrest if a person is formally suspected of committing a crime. Inquisitors are under no such restrictions.”

“That’s ridiculous! Let me go this instant.”

“Please,” Erza said, “if you just give us a moment, I’m sure we can work out some sort of agreement with you.”

“Stop talking,” the captain commanded. It sounded like the Masks of Anonymity removed much of the emotion from its wearer’s words when converting their voice, but from the way the person was yanking on Rosalie’s wrists to force her arms into a painful position, Zeth had to assume they were growing frustrated.

A couple more inquisitors started walking over to the table, and Zeth slowly backed away as he watched, both wanting to know what in the world was happening, and wanting to ensure he didn’t get caught up in it.

As he did, Alfon, who had been silent so far, calmly stood from his seat. “Excuse me. My two companions seem to have a lack of understanding as to why this is happening—as do I. I suspect, if we understood the situation better, it would likely be far easier for all parties involved. Would you please explain your reasoning behind these two arrests?”

The captain looked at him, and for a moment, Zeth almost thought they were about to walk over and grab him to throw him in jail, too, but eventually, they said, “We are collecting information about the Blood Mage crisis in this town. These two individuals, while they are not suspected of being directly related to it, both are recorded as having unique information regarding the Blood Mages, so we are going to interrogate them. This man, named Erza, has been seen having a confrontation with one of the Blood Mages during a monster attack, and this woman, Rosalie, has been seen stating that she personally discovered a Blood Mage lair.”

“What?!” Rosalie demanded. “That’s what you’re arresting us for? I would’ve willingly given you the information I have.”

“Your opinion is irrelevant. We do not have the time to make a personal request of every individual we are interrogating. If this is to be a quick, efficient operation, we must not wait for our questioning to be convenient for citizens. You are under arrest. Now, come with us.”

“How can you claim to protect the people from criminals if you, yourself, are falsely imprisoning us?” she asked. “You are all liars, thieves, and murderers—the only difference between you and a criminal is that your crimes are sponsored by the empire.”

“Please,” Erza said, “we’ll go willingly with you—right now, even. There’s no need to hold us forcefully.”

“Enough,” the captain said. “You two are coming with us. Any further resistance will be met with—”

“Hold on,” Zeth cut in. He didn’t like doing anything to draw attention to himself, but the Inquisitor had said something that caught his attention, and he needed to figure out more. “You said you were interrogating more people? And you’re arresting them?”

They nodded curtly.

“Is one of them named Turin?”

“Why would you need to know?”

“He’s my friend; his house was broken into, and I’m worried he was kidnapped. Was that you?”

Once again, there was a pause, presumably as the captain did whatever they had to do to check this information. “That name is on the list—it seems the guards have record of him coming in and reporting a sighting of a Blood Mage in combat with a monster. I will double-check to ensure this individual is in our possession. If he is not, we will find you and take you in for further questioning regarding this incident.”

Zeth certainly hoped he was with them. Both because at least then he’d just be held captive and not actively in danger, and because in that case, the Inquisitors wouldn’t come for Zeth. Getting taken in and held captive for ‘questioning’ would likely be very, very bad. To the point where, even if they were technically law enforcement, Zeth also worried for Turin’s safety. Hopefully he’d be let out later today, after he gave them whatever information they needed.

The captain looked over at the other Inquisitor, gesturing to Zeth. “I heard you say this man’s name was Valerian, yes? That name, too, is on the list.”

“Last name Valerian, but his first name is Zeth.”

“Ah. Then it seems these two are the only individuals to take in from here. We will depart now.”

“Wait,” Zeth said, “are there other people with that last name that you’re trying to arrest?”

“Hm? Yes. Do you have any aliases?”

“No, no,” Zeth said. “That’s not me. But those other names—what are they?”

“You have no reason to know that,” they said curtly. “This conversation has gone long enough. You two, come with us or face execution. Now.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

At this point, they were surrounded by the entire group of Inquisitors, and so when they marched, Rosalie and Erza were forced forward. The rest of the patrons had backed against the walls, giving the soldiers a wide berth as they led their new prisoners out of the building.

Once they were gone, the doors shutting behind them, Zeth was left alone by the table with Alfon.

“Well, that is certainly unfortunate,” Alfon stated, sitting back down at the table.

“Are you seriously okay with this?” Zeth asked. “They’re practically holding the entire town hostage.”

“The Inquisitors are far too powerful a group to attempt to subvert. It is pointless to worry about something you can do nothing about. They may be overenthusiastic with their punishments, but I would not assume they will kill such large swaths of innocent people from this town. Erza and Rosalie, as well as anyone else they are holding, will likely be released soon. It is unfortunate that the bounty is no longer ours to claim, but at least the Inquisitors are serious about solving what is such an extreme problem.”

Alfon seemed like he was ready to keep hanging out at the tavern and order some lunch, but Zeth had no interest in continuing this conversation. With the Inquisitors gone, he rushed out of the silent building, out onto the street, and began heading toward his home.

He needed to find his mom and Sophie and get them out of there before the Inquisitors showed up.

When the house came into view, Zeth was relieved to see no Inquisitors around. But upon drawing closer, he saw the door hanging open.

“No, no, no…” he muttered, speeding up his pace.

But before he could even reach the house, he saw the familiar sheen of that white armor and porcelain mask pushing through the doorway. An Inquisitor walked through, followed by his mother, stumbling forward as she was shoved forward by another that was following behind her. She tightly gripped Sophie’s hand, who walked meekly alongside her.

Zeth stopped in the middle of the road.

As they came closer, he saw blood running down his mom’s cheek, with the front Inquisitor’s gauntlet splattered with red as well. They fucking beat her into submission? He may have disagreed with her parenting, but these people were far, far stronger than a random Classless mother. There was no excuse to break into her house and punch her in the goddamn face.

His eyes went to Sophie, at least seeing her uninjured. His mind did, though, go to the ritual circle he’d given her the previous night. If these people found it while they were taking her in…

But he told her to erase the circle the moment anything went wrong. She must’ve done that, right? He couldn’t know for sure without asking her, though.

So, clenching his hands into fists, he continued walking up the road, trying to talk himself off the ledge of just lunging forward and beating the shit out of these assholes.

As they approached each other, Zeth’s mom recognized him, and moved to run ahead and meet him. The moment she made the sudden movement, though, the Inquisitor behind her drew their sword, whipping their arm around to hold it tightly against her throat. “Do not try to escape.”

“That’s my son!” his mom shouted, but she didn’t take another step. “Let me tell my son what’s happening. Please. He has to know.”

“What the hell is going on?” Zeth asked, walking up to the Inquisitors. “Why are you taking them?”

“These two are on record as being up-close witnesses of a Blood Mage,” the Inquisitor explained. “They will be detained until we have received satisfactory information from them.”

He tried to control his voice. Getting angry wouldn’t help his situation at all. “Where? In some jail cell? How long will you be keeping them?”

“We have set up a central base outside of your town which we will be operating out of. Witnesses will be kept there. You will be able to visit any imprisoned friends or family, though not today.”

“You can’t just take my family away like that.” He looked down at Sophie. “She’s nine years old. You’re going to throw a nine year old in jail for no reason?”

“Witnesses will be provided food, water, bedding, and other amenities necessary for survival,” the Inquisitor said curtly.

“That doesn’t fucking matter!” Zeth said. “She’s a child!”

“Zeth,” Sophie said, looking up at him. Her eyes were sunken, like she’d gotten no sleep the previous night. Had she been up the whole time working on the ritual circle he’d given her? She continued, “Don’t. They’ll hurt you.”

The moment she spoke, the guard in the back, still holding the sword up to his mom’s throat, reached down to grab her. But his mom spun around, apparently not caring about the blade against her neck, and shoved the Inquisitor’s arm away, pulling Sophie into a tight embrace. “Do not touch her. I’ll go with you, but you will not touch my daughter.”

In the brief moment of disturbance, Zeth met Sophie’s eyes, doing his best to send her a questioning glance that asked, ‘Did you get rid of the ritual circle?’

He had no idea if she’d pick up on it, or if she did, that she’d realize what it was he was asking. But thankfully, Sophie seemed to instantly work it out, and sent back a subtle nod, with a look that Zeth took to say, ‘I handled it.’

Zeth felt the slightest bit of relief at that. At least she was safe from the worst-case scenario of them finding the circle. He tried to tell himself that the Inquisitors would keep their witnesses safe from death or discomfort if they were trying to get information out of them, but he really didn’t know anything about them or their practices. Surely, though, they’d try to avoid killing them, if at least to avoid a riot. He already had no idea how they expected to deal with the angry mob that would inevitably form after they imprisoned so many innocents, but he doubted they’d want to make it worse.

“Step aside, citizen,” the Inquisitor said, the dead eyes of their mask staring at him. “Do not interfere with official business.”

He hated doing it, but Zeth forced himself to take a step back, allowing the officers to pass him by undisturbed, his two remaining family members in tow. He wanted nothing else but to attack, but not only did he have few methods to do so right now, it would also clearly be a horrible idea to provoke them. He simply had no options but to let this happen for now.

But then he thought of something. Something Rosalie had told him about, so he had a believable story as to why he knew it.

“Listen,” he said, “I want to believe you’re here to help us. So I’ll tell you what I’ve heard. Rosalie—you have her on your ‘list,’ or whatever—told me about what she’d seen with the Blood Mages. If you want to find them, you need to look in two places: underneath the dead mayor’s house, and inside the guild offices. She found tunnels running underneath Garon’s house that led to a gigantic lair. They’ve probably already destroyed the tunnels and covered them up, but check the guild offices. The mining guild, Otis and Roul’s—they have a whole office building that she says is full of ritual circles. In the storage closets. If you want to find the Blood Mages, search there as soon as possible. The guild is connected to the cabal.”

The Inquisitor looked at him. “You said a woman named Rosalie told you about this?”

“Yes. You already have her imprisoned. I saw you take her. And when you find the Blood Mages in those guild offices, you let my family go. Got it?”

“I will let the captain know to ask her about that.”

“Good.”

With that, they walked past him. Zeth’s eyes lingered on the drop of blood running down his mom’s cheek as they left. If they dared lay another finger on his family like that—especially if they touched Sophie—he would stop at nothing to kill every last one of them. These people were already barbaric. But they at least had the excuse that perhaps his mom had genuinely done something like attempting to attack them with a knife when they burst in, and they just protected themselves. However, they’d be in prison now—completely helpless. If he came to learn that they did anything more to these innocent people, he would have no choice but to conclude they were pure evil. He was giving them once chance. One.

The moment they were out of sight, Zeth turned and began heading back to his base. If they wanted to interrogate people and find the cabal, fine. If they wanted to falsely imprison people, they could go ahead. They could spend their time figuring out whatever they wanted.

While they did that, he’d be watching their actions. He’d be making sure they didn’t take one wrong fucking step. Because he’d be preparing in the meantime. He’d be growing stronger. And if those Inquisitors proved themselves to be his enemies, he would completely annihilate them.