“Wilma?” I called, as I rushed to her. She was within the Swords of Revealing Light I used to immobilize the ‘adventurers’ that called for our help, but it doesn’t seem like she is frozen because of them.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]But the stab wound in her back might be a different case. That might make moving a bit more difficult.

  I took a gentle hold of Wilma, even if moving her might be a bad idea, and took her quickly to Lua. As Lua got to work healing Wilma, I also got a card out of the Colle and activated it.

  “Diahe Cure Master.”

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  Between Lua’s healing magid the card I just activated, we quickly closed the wound on Wilma’s back, and I finally took a nice deep breath.

  As I turned back to look at the group of ‘adventurers’, the reality of what I just did hit me in the fabsp;

  A group of six people, frozen in pce by Swords of Revealing Light. And one small child, well, I don’t know if he is a child, but still. One small cat-folk, with a hole in his chest, caused by my sword. My sword, which I ordered to end him, and even threw at him.

  It didn’t quite make me feel sick, because in all hoy, he deserved it. But still, I did have a mild regret for what I did. I have the strength to be better, so I shouldn’t do things like that. I could have just activated a card like Shadow Spell or something else like that.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  “Alright. Brian. you … unfreeze one of them? I want some information from them.” Mariina said.

  She had of course woken up because of all of the otion, and we had caught her up to speed. And because she is the ‘one in charge’, I let her decide how to go forward. I didn’t really want to take charge of the situation, as I was still quite emotional, so I likely would make some… not so good decisions. So in all hoy, I was more than happy to let her take over the and.

  I ehe Swords of Revealing Light, took a good hold oher beast-folk, and dragged … her out. I think this one is a she, the other one is a boy. As soon as I touched her, the effect of Swords had on her was u took her a sed to catto what was happening, but as soon as she did, she began struggling and yelling.

  “Shut Up.” I said, somewhat quietly, while trying to make my voice sound cold. “You will answer our questions, if you don’t want to end up like your brother.” Admittedly, I have no clue if he is her brother, but they do look simir enough where that could be the case.

  I dragged her out of the Swords, holding her by the scruff of her neck. Even with her resistance, I was boosted by my Red-Eyes Bck Dragon Sword and Summoner’s Unity skill, so she would have to be extremely strong to be able to resist me.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]

  I tossed the cat-folk girl in front of Mariina, and then put my Red-Eyes Swht o her neck. She was visibly shaking, looking at my sword, then at me, then at Mariina, and finally taking a g her dead brother.

  “She will question you, and you will answer.” I said, before I let Mariina take it the rest of the way.

  Mariina squatted down so she could better look the cat-folk in the eyes, before she began her interrogation.

  “Do you know who I am?” Mariina asked.

  “...” The cat-folk didn’t answer, but she did shake her head a bit.

  “Why did you attack us?”

  “...” Again, no answer, just a small shake of her head.

  “Whie of you is the ohat summohe lightning tiger?”

  “... I …” This time, we got a one word answer.

  Wait? That tiger was a summoned monster? … well, I guess it breaking apart like that makes sehen. And this little catgirl is the summoner? I guess she does have a staff, so.

  “Good. Just keep doing that, and this will all end well.” Mariina said. Her voice sounded extremely calming, hopefully getting the catgirl to drop her defense even more.

  “Bring the one, please.” Mariina said.

  We didn’t get too much from the catgirl, but we did learn a few things. One, she has no idea why they attacked us, or who most of us are. Two, she and her brother, yes, the other cat-kin is in fact her brother, are sves belonging to one of the ‘adventurers’. Three, she summon a few cat monsters, the stro being that lightning tiger, while her brother is a tamer and the killer tigers that came with the lightning tiger were tamed by him, as were the forest lyhat attacked us earlier in the day. Fourth, they were ordered to kill the bearded dy, aka. Wilma, by using the tigers to take away our attention, and then they were supposed to run away. We were just a lot faster in dealing with the tigers than they expected, so they didn’t have time to run away. Or at least, that is what seems to be the case, based on the one or two word answers we got from the catgirl.

  Because of Mariina’s orders, I took the cat-folk back to the Swords of Revealing Light. Before letting go of her, I asked her to point out her Master, and she weakly poi one of the ‘adventurers’. Alright. So he is probably the one in charge.

  I set the catgirl on the ground, not quite gently, but I wasn’t hard on her either, making sure she had at least an alright position, before I let go of her ahe Swords freeze her up.

  Alright. subject shall be … let’s go with you. I didn’t pick the master of the sve cat-folk, as he is likely the leader, so let’s just leave him for st. Then we cross-examine him based on the info we get from the others.

  “Alright. Your turn.” I said to the ohat was the master of the cat-folk sves.

  We had gohrough the rest of them already, he was the st. We mostly got cursed from the adventurers, but Mariina was able to make two of them talk by crushing their fingers one by one. Lucky for them fingers are easy to fix with healing magic, but it would still hurt quite a bit.

  Just like all the others, the ‘leader’ struggled as I dragged him out of the Swords, but that doesn’t matter.

  Like with the others, I set him out in front of Mariina and pced my sword o his neck.

  “... look at me.” Mariina anded. Uh the cat-folk, she was using a very cold voice with the others.

  “Fuck off.”

  “Brian, if you would. I want him to look me in the eyes.” Mariina asked.

  This wasn’t the first of them she asked that with, so I knew what to do. I, not so gently, took a hold of his head and tur so that he was forced to face Mariina, while also pushing my left ko his back, just to make the position a bit more unfortable.

  “Do you know who I am?” Mariina asked. Every time, it had been the first question she asked, but none of them had answered her correctly.

  “A Bitch!” The man answered, so I pushed my ko his back a bit more.

  “Answer correctly.” I quietly told him, putting even more pressure on him with my ko the point where he screamed out. Then I let back just a bit, so he could actually speak.

  “How in the fuck should I know?” He yelped, iween some grunts he let out.

  “See. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I ended him, as I lessehe pressure on his back. Maybe if he uands that all we want is answered, even if they aren’t the truth, we will get somewhere with this.

  “Yes. Just keep that up and we will be done soon.” Mariina agreed. “But since you don’t know me, I may as well tell you. My name is Mariina Sawyer, the fourth daughter of Earl Sawyer. And you, mister Fuck off, have just attacked my caravan. Do you know what the punishment for that is?”

  After hearing that, I felt just a tiny shiver in the man, so maybe he actually realized how badly he just fucked up. Now, let’s just get the info we need, so we … actually, I have no clue what we are going to do with them.

  “Alright. You go join your ‘friends’.” I told the leader as I tossed him bato the Swords of Revealing Light. I wasn’t careful with any of them, outside the little catgirl, because they holy don’t deserve it. They’d likely not have a good time when I release the swords, but that is their problem.

  We had both learuff, as well as not learuff.

  Ohey had no idea about us. As in, they didn’t actually knoere nobles.

  Two, they were actually legit adventurers. Just doing not so legit work. They had paid quite a bit of money for the two cat-folk, so they needed a loan for it. And were somewhat desperate to pay it off. So when the one holding their debt gave them an out, in the form of killing just one person, they agreed to it. We tried to find out who that was, but that is info we didn’t get. Even what we got was in bits and pieces from the five of them and might not be true.

  So yeah. Now we have a bit of a drum on our hands. What to do with them?

  “I think we should kill them.” Alice gave her opinion.

  “Agreed. For them to attack my Master, they deserve to burn.” Agunan agreed with her.

  “... are you sure that is a good idea? They are just people following orders.” Lua ented.

  “Are they?” I asked. “They had a choice. Pay their debt the normal way, but they picked murder. … I do feel bad for the sves though. They didn’t have a choice.”

  “Then just don’t kill them? But then we would o…” Alice didn’t say everything she wanted, because while Mariina does know about Monster Reborn, her panions don’t. At least I think they don’t.

  “It also isn’t quite that simple.” Mariina stated. “Here. Look at this sve mark.” She pointed out the dead catboy.

  It looked… Well, it was a bit different from the one Ria has on her body, but I ot tell the real difference.

  “... so, why is it different from other ones?” I asked.

  “It is an older sve mark. It has long since been made illegal ihree Kingdoms and the Hero’s try. Even the Crystal Empire has bas use. That is because it cks some of the protes the newer ones have.” Mariina began to expin. “This sve mark, uhe modern ones, doesn’t limit the orders the sve is given. For example, Brian, if you ordered Rhianna to kill herself, she wouldn’t have to do it, because the mark would protect her from that order. This one doesn’t. The same goes for orders to take other people's lives and so on. The modern one protects the sve from having to execute orders of that kind.”

  “... alright, but so what? Won’t they be free if we kill their master?” I asked.

  “No. That is the sad part. This seal… if their master dies, will kill the sve.” Mariina said. “It was made illegal for a reason. It is extremely inhumane.”

  “... alright. So we will have to keep at least the leader alive.” I deduced. “ that sve mark be transferred to be under a different master?”

  “It … but again, it is illegal. It isn’t on knowledge how to do that. We would have to get access to someone who knows more about it.” Mariina told me.

  “Ahat would know?”

  “The Sages should know. I think the Sage’s towers library’s limited se should have info about it.”

  “... I see. But there would have to be someone who transferred the sves to that guy, right? They would have to know, wouldn’t they?”

  “And do you think we get that information? No one will admit to it, as that will get them executed. And in all likelihood, there won’t be any proof of the transa.” Mariina reasoned. “But we should still warn the local lords that there is a sve trader in this area using this mark.”

  “Then perhaps we should just keep them all alive and head back to Pekkers? And because this is a special situation, I don’t mind if we use one of my ships for it.” I offered. “But at the end of the day, you are the one we are w for, so it is your call.” I reminded Mariina.

  “Well, since you are your airship, we should head back.” Mariina quickly decided. “We will head ba the m. I’m sorry, but you have to add keeping an eye oo yhtwatch. the others use that immobilizing card?”

  “Yes. Alice, Lua and Ria .” I firmed.

  “Good. Please do your best.” Mariina said, before her group headed back to bed.

  It was about time for me and Wilma to also say good night, as our turn guarding had e to an end some time ago, but I still had one more thing to do. Actually two. Or maybe even three?

  I first gave both Alid Lua two copies of Swords of Revealing Light, so they could use them on our ‘friends’. Actually, let’s just give Ria two as well. It isn’t like I don’t have enough of them. And they could e in handy, so why not? And maybe having more cards will help Lua and Ria get LV.3 Card Summoner, so that they have that deck feature.

  Then the sed thing. The dead cat boy. I used both Soul of the Pure and Blue Medie to heal up the hole in his stomach. Then after Lua checked his corpse out and said he should be fine, I dropped a Monster Reborn on him to resurrect him. Then, before he had time to wake up, I moved him to be ihe Swords of Revealing Light.

  Spoiler[colpse]If anyone asks, he didn’t die and was just badly injured, alright. That is the truth, if I tell people that is the truth. That is how it works, right?

  Last thing st. One quick request.

  (Laura, you Mia and Kekri look into that sve mark? Do we have ways of transfering the ownership to me with one of my cards? Like Snatch Steal, Brain trol or something like that? Or maybe just ask the system about how it works?)

  Spoiler[colpse](Yes. I’ll have it done by the time you wake up.) Laura responded, so I was able to go to sleep with a retively clear mind.