Chapter 172: Best Way to Use Truth
Inside the Knight Orders office, at the far end of the complaint hall, there existed a narrow corridor that stretched quietly into the depths of the building, leading toward a confined prison area that was divided into three separate cells. Although most criminals were usually transferred to the main Knight Orders Prison after their capture, these particular cells were reserved mainly for immediate detainment, as well as for those cases that required the Captain's direct involvement.
As Arwyn came to a halt in front of the iron bars, the loud and unrestrained shout of a grown man reached her ears from within the cell.
"Let me go! Let me go, you bastards!"
Two armored soldiers were struggling to restrain a broad-shouldered man in the cell. They were attempting to fasten a rope tightly around his hands, but the man twisted and thrashed them around in an effort to break free from their grasp.
The man appeared to be in his early thirties, his scalp completely bald, his dark eyes burning with defiance as he glared at them.
Arwyn raised her hand without haste and snapped her fingers softly. Almost immediately, two dark tendrils emerged from the ground beneath the man's feet, rising with unnatural precision before coiling firmly around his wrists. Before he could even process what had taken hold of him, the tendrils yanked him downward with such sudden strength that his body collapsed onto his knees instantly.
The abrupt loss of resistance left him unable to struggle any further, and seizing the opportunity, the soldiers quickly secured the rope around him before beginning to lift him toward the wall in preparation to hang him in place.
However, Arwyn's voice cut through the motion before they could proceed any further, "Leave him be."
At once, the soldiers froze in place, their bodies stiffening the moment they noticed her presence more clearly.
"As you wish."
One of them quickly stepped forward, his movements hurried as he unlocked the cell door and pulled it open. Arwyn lowered her posture slightly and stepped inside in one smooth motion, her long ponytail swaying gently behind her, its tip brushing close to the iron bars without quite touching them.
The two soldiers stepped aside immediately and offered her a respectful salute.
After a moment of hesitation, one of them spoke with a strained tone, "Lieutenant... I have a report to speak of. It requires your immediate attention."
Arwyn turned her gaze toward him, her expression unreadable, "What kind?"
The soldier briefly glanced at the restrained man before continuing, his voice controlled despite the underlying strain, "We somehow managed to capture this rebel, however, the situation outside has worsened as a result. His fellow associates attempted to stop us earlier, but after failing, they have begun attempting to break through the main gate. The main entrance has already been closed, so they are attempting to climb over it, as well as the surrounding walls, in order to reach this area. We have been holding them back to the best of our ability... but..."
Arwyn's eyes narrowed slightly, her tone remaining even, "But what?"
The soldier paused, as though choosing his words carefully before continuing, "The relatives of the victims from several unsolved murder cases have joined this rebellion as well. More concerning is that... they are standing at the forefront, shielding the others even as we speak. Because of that, we are unable to take direct action against them, regardless of how far the situation escalates. If we harm them, the townsfolk who have remained neutral until now may begin to support the rebellion."
He exhaled quietly, "If that happens, I believe you understand the consequences that will follow. The Captain is not present to calm them, and while they would listen to her without question, they appear reluctant to accept your authority. The rebels are clearly exploiting these circumstances."
The other soldier stepped forward slightly and added with urgency, "Lieutenant... if you consider concluding this interrogation quickly and return him to them unharmed, they may be willing to listen to us. We might still be able to negotiate with them."
Arwyn remained silent for a moment longer than expected... as she considered their words for a moment.
'They're afraid, huh? I can't blame them. One way or another, these townsfolk were the same people who brought the previous Duke to his knees. When compared to a governor, we knights are not beyond their reach if they truly decide to act.'
She inhaled slowly, "I will think about it."
The two soldiers exchanged a brief look, their unease becoming more apparent.
"B-but Lieutenant..."
"We don't have time for that!"
Arwyn's sharp glare cut through their hesitation, forcing both of them into immediate silence as they stepped aside near the cell door without another word.
Ignoring their reaction, she stepped forward, her attention returning to the restrained man.
It was then that he lifted his head and let out a harsh laugh, his voice laced with mockery before shouting at her. "Haven't you realized it yet? You have made a grave mistake, bitch! If you had any sense in that head of yours, you would never have dared to kidnap me in the first place. Now that you have crossed that line, just wait... just you wait until your arrogant asses are crushed by the very people you pretend to protect... it will happen sooner than you think!"
As soon as the bald man finished his words, Arwyn's hand moved and struck across his face with such overwhelming force that the sharp crack echoed throughout the corridor. His head snapped violently to the side as a spray of blood left his lips and scattered across the cold stone floor. Along with it, a tooth or two seemed to have been torn free, rolling faintly before coming to a stop.
Of course, it would end up like this, she was wearing an armored gauntlet after all. Even then, the fact that most of his teeth still remained intact left her dissatisfied.
She moved her hand to the side as though she were about to rest it against something invisible. Just then, four thick tendrils rose upward from the stone floor beneath her. After reaching a certain height, they began to twist and coil around one another in a deliberate motion before shaping themselves into an intricately formed chair. Its structure was both elegant and unnatural at the same time.
Resting her hand on its top rail, she settled into it with effortless poise, her posture relaxed but dignified as she spoke, "You were saying something?"
The man lifted his gaze toward her, blood still trailing down from the corner of his mouth. Despite his battered state, there was not the slightest change in his expression.
When he spoke, his voice carried a deep and coarse edge, "Do you think you still have the time to sit down and chat idly by here, huh? I guess you surely do, or else those countless cases wouldn't have stayed unresolved the way they are now. If you had spent this time working with even a shred of sincerity, then perhaps—"
"Silence."
Before he could finish his words, Arwyn's body shifted once more, her fist driving forward with devastating force as she aimed straight for his face, but at the last possible moment, he tilted his head sideways just enough to evade the strike, causing her punch to miss its target entirely before slamming into the stone wall behind him.
The impact was so powerful that a web of cracks spread outward from the point of contact almost instantly.
Withdrawing her hand back, she flexed her fingers several times, as though checking whether the impact had caused any damage or not.
She spoke again, her tone steady, "I am not here to listen to your petty complaints, so speak properly… why did you begin this rebellion in the first place? And what motive drives you all?"
The bald man seemed momentarily shaken by the sheer force of her earlier strike, but he steadied himself just as quickly, his voice firm as he answered, "Isn't it obvious? We want your incompetent leader to step down, nothing more, nothing less, really. Someone like her doesn't deserve to be a knight, let alone a captain, someone who couldn't even solve a handful of murder cases despite the killer being a single person. Oh, and I heard there were more murders this morning as well… silly me, it almost slipped my mind."
He paused for a moment, then raised his voice, the restrained fury within it breaking through in a way that felt almost genuine, "After that, do you seriously expect us to sleep peacefully at night while knowing that there's a psycho roaming around and killing people without reason, where our so-called protectors do nothing but stand by like a bunch of cowards? How do you expect us to sit still and wait for the criminal to be caught, huh? How long are we supposed to wait? A week? A month? Or maybe a whole damn year, just to catch one person… how pathetic can you people get?"
He shook his head with open disdain, "Well, it doesn't matter anyway, you people never intended to solve those cases in the first place, which is exactly why we want you to get out of our town… we don't need you anymore, and perhaps we never did. We are enough for ourselves, or at the very least, we can defend ourselves better than relying on a bunch of outsiders, who have proven themselves to be useless time and time again. Are these reasons not good enough for you, bitch?"
Arwyn listened without interruption, even though the urge to strike him again surfaced more than once, especially when he spoke of her friend with such blatant disrespect, but she restrained herself, knowing well that there was no point in trying to reason with someone who had been reduced to nothing more than a pawn.
Crossing her legs with quiet elegance, she leaned back against the tendril-formed chair, the faint sound of shifting metal from her armor echoing softly, "This is so dumb. You are not fooling anyone here with that self-righteous savior act of yours."
The prisoner reacted immediately, his brows furrowing as anger flashed across his face, "How dare you say something so disgraceful? Do you take me for some kind of fraud, bitch?"
Her expression darkened, "Humans are selfish by nature, they do nothing if there is nothing to gain. And yet you expect me to believe that you rose in rebellion purely out of concern for victims who bear no connection to you whatsoever. Also, refrain from using safety as an excuse, when all you truly want is to tear this place down."
There was a hint of hesitation in his eyes when he asked, "What're you getting at?"
Arwyn tilted her head upward, her teal green eyes gleaming slightly as she looked down on him, "Oh, you know, I was merely wondering... what selfish reason could you possibly have for starting the rebellion? Is it for money? Or justice?"
The man was taken aback at first, but then he burst into loud laughter that echoed into the corridor. When he spoke though, his voice seemed distant, as though it had sunk into a place far deeper than the present moment, "You caught me, huh? I should've expected it anyway. You're a knight so, any kind of information is just a piece of paper for you."
His expression turned somber as he lowered his gaze, the earlier laughter leaving no trace behind as a heavy silence settled over him, "And yes, you're right... I do have a personal reason to start all of this. All of us do, really. Well, you see, I once had a bright and cheerful son, a child who would fill the house with noise even when there was nothing to be excited about. He had always dreamt of becoming a full-fledged adventurer ever since he was a kid. Eventually, he did become one. However, on his very first adventure, he had failed to return from the dungeon alongside his party. All of them were simply... gone."
He paused, though it was less of a pause and more of a struggle to keep his voice steady, then he lifted his head and looked into her eyes with a furious gaze that trembled under its own weight, "I had reported it to the guild back then but it was already too late, they said they would search and they did try, but they found nothing, not even a single trace that could prove they were ever there. So I had no choice but to file a missing case with the knights, I thought at least you people would do something more. I was unsure of what you did, but a few days later, you guys declared him dead. There was no body shown to me, not even a part of him, nothing that I could hold onto, nothing that I could bury. So how did you assume he was dead? Did you even search the dungeon thoroughly even for once? And why did you blame the monsters when there was a chance that he might've been abducted, or worse, murdered? Answer me."
Arwyn let out a quiet sigh as she listened quietly, though there was no visible change in her posture.
His last assumption had not been entirely wrong, in fact, there was a strong possibility that the man's son had become one of the test subjects used by Queen, perhaps reduced into something that could no longer even be called human. But there was nothing she could do about that.
She looked at him.
His expression had crumbled into something fragile, his anger barely holding together the grief that threatened to spill out at any moment, as though he stood on the edge of breaking but refused to fall.
Eventually, she spoke in a neutral tone, "I do feel sorrow for your loss, however, we are not the ones responsible for your son's death. Whatever happens inside a dungeon always remains a mystery. There is nothing that can be done to uncover it, neither by me nor by you. Therefore, you must accept it as it is, and move forward, even if it proves difficult."
The bald man sneered, though the expression lacked strength as if even his anger had begun to wear thin, "It's easy for you to say unless you experience the pain of losing someone precious yourself. I had hoped you'd understand me if I tell you everything, but I was wrong, or perhaps I had hoped too much. You are all the same… every last one of you bastard nobles is rotten to the core."
Arwyn shifted slightly, her gaze drifting to the side. If there had been a window nearby, she might have looked beyond it without a second thought.
'Losing someone, is it...'
She remained silent for a moment, then she shook her head slightly as she dismissed the thought before it could take shape, "So, you started this rebellion only because your son never got the justice you believed he deserved while using these murders as an excuse to bring us down once and for all?"
The bald man did not answer, though he did not need to, the way his jaw tightened and the way his gaze hardened had already made it clear enough.
'I should've just stayed in the office room.'
She touched her chin lightly, her legs still crossed as her posture remained relaxed, though her eyes had sharpened once again, "In that case, tell me... who was it that ordered you to start all of this?"
The man found himself momentarily at a loss before he immediately spat back, "What the hell are you talking about? I am the one who started this, together with those who supported me and wanted justice just like I did. Do you think everything I have said so far has been nothing but lies?"
Arwyn smiled, though there was no warmth in her expression, only a cold stillness that made the gesture feel more like a warning than anything else, her voice laced with quiet venom as she spoke, "Oh, they're not, trust me. Everything you said is, without a doubt, the truth. And that is precisely why I find you all the more suspicious. Why would you reveal the truth to me when I haven't even started the interrogation yet?"
The bald man hesitated, but no words came out of his mouth.
She remained silent for a moment, her gaze lowering upon him with a quiet intensity that seemed to press down on his very being, "Is it not because you can get away with this far more easily than telling lies? Is it not the most convenient way to fool even a lieutenant like me so that I do not push you any further into revealing what you are hiding, so that I simply close this matter believing… you are nothing more than a foolish father seeking justice for his son's death? Tell me… is that not the best way to use truth?"
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(Chapter Ended)