The terrorist adjusted his victim’s clothes and kept the branch and storage inside his storage. He wanted to throw the nasties away but Marla’s senses were sharp. She would pick things up from those items lying in the vicinity and get a fair idea about what happened here.
Eren had already used a low-grade healing potion on the cultist so that his blood loss wouldn’t affect what he was trying to say. Then he first asked a few questions about his organization and some insider information.
The cultist was already on the edge after experiencing Eren’s vicious nature. He was scared of him. So he told everything the latter wanted to know from him, and then some more of his initiative. He even assured his torturer that his line of questioning wouldn’t get revealed to his teammates.
The butcher gave the cultist his seldom warm smile that a certain someone was known to flash now and then. The former patted the latter’s cheeks and stood up.
Finally, Eren called his team members up from his ID stone.
“Did you find anything?”
Almera asked, expecting a hard no. But the butcher nodded his head before replying:
“We are about to. Ace Renar here wants to cooperate with us. You can ask your questions.”
“What did you do to him?”
Almera couldn’t help but ask. The guy looked like he was a tough nut to crack. She wanted to know how a teen managed to achieve what an Adept level ranker couldn’t.
“Almera, stop asking pointless questions. If the boy wanted to let us know, he wouldn’t have asked us to give him some private time with the cultist.”
Almera’s cheeks reddened a little when Marla came in support of the butcher. The torturer shifted their attention to the cultist again to ease anyone’s curiosity about what he did to the cultist.
“Small details aren’t that important. Ace Renar, answer your question with honesty when they are asked. Adept Marla, you can take the lead.”
“Alright. First of all, tell us all your identities, Ace Renar if that’s what your name is. And what’s your purpose of attacking travellers inbound to the city of Silvermoon.
And don’t tell me it’s about money. Because there are far more prosperous paths to do banditry on instead of this low-trade route.”
Marla folded her hands beneath her chest and replied. She had already ruled out banditry.
“Name’s Renar. As you must have already figured out, we are what you guys call cultists. We work for Beast Bloods. It’s an up and coming organization we have that works under a mysterious entity I don’t know much about.
I, like most others, joined Beast Bloods because I wanted to start my ranking journey without having to face the kingdom’s suppression. I wouldn’t try to sell my logic to you. Because I know deep down, you also agree with me on the fact that the ranking journey would have been much easier for all the rankers if the knowledge was made freely available.
But the law of equivalent exchange holds true even among us cultists. We have to contribute to our organization with our blood and sweat if we want to gain the ranking resources. It’s just that the cultists’ organizations are more willing to share such resources in masses.
This is where they have you beat. The kingdom wants to breed the elite in a controlled quantity. Whereas the cultists just don’t care if the ranker is a genius or not. They don’t care how far the ranker goes in their ranking journey with their talent, as long as they do what they’ve told to do.
Et voila! They have so many scapegoats like me and my underlings that they can just discard us anytime they want. Hehe! In a way, it would have been better if I obtained my ranking resources through the kingdom’s legal channels. My progress would have been slower. But I could have avoided being bossed around by scumbags.
Anyway! The reason we were attacking the travellers here was that we were ordered to do so. We were tasked with creating unrest in this region in any way we saw fit. And we chose this way.
Various squads within the Beast Bloods have been ordered to perform the same tasks in various regions across the Edinburgh kingdom. And more cultist organizations like ours have already joined hands and are currently working in sync.
You know, I’ve signed a mana contract with Beast Bloods that dictates that I don’t spill its secrets. Otherwise, I’ll regress in my ranking journey before dying shortly after.
The reason I’m still alive and talking to you is because of these chains. Now that I’ve told you what I know about the Beast Bloods’ current plan, I reckon I’ll die as soon as these chains are removed. It’s in your hands to take preventive measures against the backlash due to the contract breach.
Save me or let me die. Either way, the backlash should serve as proof for you to know that I’m telling the truth.
I only ask that you spare the kids that are with me. They haven’t even signed a binding contract with the Beast Bloods.
Agatha is the most innocent one among them. The kid has done nothing wrong yet. You can say that this was her first job at our organization.”
Renar stopped talking and looked at Marla afterwards. He was expecting her to ask him a question but all we got was a tired sigh and an empathetic reply:
“Some people just have a bad start. I know someone who faced a lot of discrimination in the kingdom and defected to the cultists in the end. What she didn’t know was that grass only looks greener from the other side. But it’s a mess no matter where you go.
So I understand where you are coming from. But making innocents pay for the hardships you had to face is never the right way to get what you want.
Acer Renar, I can’t completely nullify the contract you have with your organization even with my D-Rank prowesses.
So your ranking journey will regress for sure even with my intervention. It might completely halt as well. But what I can do for you is save your life. You’ll still live. Just as a normal, rankless nobody.
As for the kids that are with you, I’ll see what I can do about them at the city of Silvermoon. You all need to come with us to get your punishments and start a new life, however shitty it might seem at the beginning.
Just answer me one thing. The mysterious entity that you talked about. What more can you tell me about them?”
Marla only wanted to know about the person who was controlling the Beast Bloods from the shadows. As if she had already filled in the details of whats and whys from Renar’s explanation and the briefing she must have been given before taking up this mission.
“I… I’m fine with being rankless if it comes to it. Maybe I’m a failure as a ranker. But I might succeed as being something else.
Who knows? Hehe! So thank you for providing a way out for me and the kids. It might sound cliche, but we won’t forget the kindness we have been graced with.
As for that entity. I don’t know much about them. I only know that the Beast Blood’s head refers to them as…
The Ancients.”