It was the last night for Simyon, and originally, Raze was meant to cover it. He had been taken away in the morning, and there was no sign of him coming back anytime soon.
The children had even asked Mr. Kron about what had happened to Raze, but he gave lackluster answers such as, “They just wanted to speak with him.” Maybe due to Safa living a life without speaking, she had become quite versed in reading facial expressions, and she could tell Kron was lying.
Many of the children could too, as they had heard what the Red Brigade squad had said when they first arrived.
During the night, Safa had snuck into Simyon’s room. With Raze not being there, it was her turn to take over, and with not having slept much the night before, she was pretty exhausted as well. But all of those feelings nearly disappeared in an instant.
Simyon was constantly slapping the side of his face, which had swollen up a bit from him repeatedly hitting himself. There were scratches on the side as well, as he had dug his nails into different parts of his skin in a way to keep himself awake in any way possible.
“Someone… help me,” Simyon mumbled. “Please… Raze… is that you… Raze?”
Simyon hadn’t even turned his head, and even if he did, Safa was unsure if Simyon would recognize it was her instead of Raze. Immediately, she started to tear up.
What was she meant to do in this situation? How was she meant to help? The person that Simyon was calling for, wasn’t even here, and Simyon had no clue what had even happened to him now. If she did anything to inform him that Raze had gone somewhere, would his hope be lost?
Moving closer, Safa eventually climbed on the bed. She could see Simyon was still slapping his face, his eyes were fluttering in and out. It almost looked like he was having a seizure while awake. When she sat by his side, she went to grab his hand.
“No! No!” Simyon shouted. “I need to stay awake!”
With his other hand, he started to dig his nails into Safa now, drawing blood, but she didn’t shout and kept the pain in. If this was a way to help Simyon get through this, then she would.
Inside the cell, Raze was looking at the orange-haired girl with the beret hat on her head. She had stood out to him in the market stall that day, so she was easily recognizable, and the large man in the brown overcoat stood next to her.
“These two, they must be the two experts that were called in, but they aren’t dressed like members of the Red Brigade. I remember, the girl was even asking about me helping her out.”
“I thought we might meet again, but I never expected it to be in a situation like this. I thought it was too good to be true for there to just be a wandering Pagna warrior in a town like this,” she sighed.
The way Charlotte was talking made it sound as if they had already decided that he was guilty, which he was, but it still frustrated Raze to no end.
“Who are you guys?” Raze asked, wondering what it was that they could do that the others couldn’t.
“My name is Himmy, and this is my assistant Charlotte,” Himmy introduced the two of them as if they were in some type of formal meeting, even placing his hand out. “We are part of an organization that works with several clans across the continent.”
One of the Red Brigade members cleared his throat, interrupting them, clearly trying to inform them that this matter wasn’t so important. Himmy gave a glance back, and shook his head a little.
“You guys understand nothing about trying to get the truth out of people, but very well,” Himmy straightened his stance. “The important thing is, we will be the ones that will be running this interrogation. So we shall get to know each other very well.”
Letting Raze out of his cell with two standing by his side and one behind, they walked over to the main base. The large man was humming along as he stepped one foot in front of the other. The way he acted, it was almost as if the situation had occurred a hundred times, and this was just something that he was doing again, going through the motions.
After entering the main base, they walked to one of the large rooms that Raze had been in before. It was the room that belonged to Head Elder Yon. As they walked in, he was present with his back facing away from them.
“Raze,” Yon called out, saying his name in a tone the same way a father would who was disappointed in his own son. “I was hoping that things wouldn’t have come to this honestly, but too many coincidences have occurred that don’t stack up.
“Truth be told, these two were going to visit you at the temple, to question you about the day your family died. You see, they have their ways of getting the results that we need. Anyway, with what has happened to Von and him claiming it was done by someone with white hair, we couldn’t let you escape before learning the truth.”
Yon finally turned around and walked toward the exit, just before he passed Raze he stopped and looked him directly in the eye.
“For your sake, I hope it’s not you, Raze,” Yon said.
The whole situation, it felt like déjà vu to Raze before. Having been placed on trial, the truth of a certain situation was trying to come to light, and in the process, a world of lies had been unraveled, and all of the blame had been pinned on Raze.
‘How ironic, maybe this is what I deserve, but I wonder, why did the Elder leave the room? Wouldn’t he want to hear what happened from me himself?’
Not only that, but there wasn’t a single guard in the room. Instead, Charlotte just led Raze to the center before taking a couple of steps away.
“Aren’t you afraid?” Raze asked.
“Afraid?” Charlotte chuckled. “Why would I be afraid of a nobody like you?”
“I’m a Pagna warrior, and only you two are left in this room, with such a dangerous criminal. I’m surprised they would allow such things to happen,” Raze continued to say.
He was trying to evaluate the situation. If he took these two out, he could quickly use one of the crystals to teleport and open a portal to the other dimension.
“They left at our request,” Himmy answered. “What we do isn’t allowed to be seen by anyone, but don’t worry, you won’t remember what happened to you, whether you’re guilty or not. Honestly, I don’t like doing things this way, but I guess things are just so much easier when you have a helping hand.”
Himmy nodded towards Charlotte, who raised both of her hands up, pointing them straight at Raze, and her eyes started to glow slightly white, while her hair slipped out from her hat and started to float about in the air.
‘This… There’s no doubt about it, they’re using Magic! And in this world!’𝑂𝒱𝑙xt.𝓬𝒪𝑚