Vargas knew better than to make a scene and surrendered without a massacre.
The villagers tied him like a piece of smoked meat, but no beatings—missed opportunity. He had it much worse; Konrad would've said a little bruising was fine.
But for now, the locals accepted him, even if Zoltan was suspicious.
The elder threw the captain into an empty warehouse, and boy, he needed that to calm down.
"You piece of shit, you'll regret this," Vargas shouted. "If I don't return, the town's guard will—"
"What?" Konrad interrupted. "Piss themselves?"
"You backstabbed me," the captain of all people accused him.
A shadow shifted under the door, and Konrad paused.
"I didn't," he shrugged, checking for the eavesdroppers, giving him time to think. Even if no one in Aset suspected that the Green Mage was gone—"I committed to my Good Cop bit."
"What?!" Vargas looked at him as if he had come from another world. Which, well—
With the suspicious shadows gone, he took a deep breath, trying to explain it.
"You never heard about the, uh, Inquisition's Good Cop, Bad Cop thing?" He remembered too many sayings that made no sense in this world. "It's an interrogation technique."
The captain's eyes narrowed. "You worked for the Inquisition?"
"Of course not, but my Father Alastair talked about their methods." He did not, but it was easier to lie than to go into details. "You acted like a jerk, so I thought you played the Bad Cop."
More confusion. The boy took a deep breath.
"Bad Cop scares the captive, Good Cop shows sympathy. Didn't you notice Zoltan answered me but ignored you? I was gaining his trust. And saved you from the mob, too."
The captain raised an eyebrow, straining against the ropes.
"Then why don't you untie me?" he grunted.
"Well, I have to figure out what happened with the mage and find a way to unlock his secrets first," Konrad explained. "I'll help you escape tonight and tell you everything I've found."
"Ambitious much?" he kept trying, but the rope only got tighter.
"Don't worry, you'll go back to Aset, but—keep Zoltan's illusion a secret, to uh, save face."
The captain shuddered. "You've until midnight to convince me."
If only it were that easy to deal with Zoltan, too.
"Dunno what you're scheming, but I don't trust you."
This was the first thing the scammer said, which was funny coming from him.
"You needed my crystal for your illusion, right?" Konrad already hated what he was about to do. "I'll give it back and ensure that nobody in Aset finds out the truth."
Zoltan's vinegar smell got worse as he leaned closer. "Why'd you do that?"
"So you're not executed," Konrad whispered. "And you'll teach me magic."
That earned him a laugh.
"Boy, you have humor," Zoltan noted, snatching the crystal away. "How could I teach you when I know almost nothing, either?" Then he paused, adding. "And it's not like I trust you now."
"Your illusion was pretty impressive." Konrad focused on his praises. Zoltan shrugged.
"Light magic's the weakest. Once you know the basics, you can bend light at your will, but—"
"That's it," the boy interrupted, "Teach me the very basics. The simplest of things. Please."
That got the illusionist pondering for a while, then he waved him to follow.
"I, uh, have the Book of Light, but the rest is in shambles. Don't touch anything,"
That warning was unnecessary.
Konrad soon realized where that god-awful vinegar stench came from.
"This is where I recover my master's notes." Zoltan pointed at his tools, scattered within the ruins. "I collected and dried thousands of pages and categorized them."
He walked to a tub to stir an angry green liquid. Fumes stung their eyes as parchment dissolved.
That smell clung to him like a shadow, and Konrad hoped he wouldn't end up the same.
"Here, I add in glowing ink to the notes, then comes the acid. What's left is a fragile, almost transparent page, but legible text." And the sourest smell known to mankind.
Well, the result was better than the burned, moldy, or faded originals.
How did everything end up like that?
"You've notes on what your master was working on when the tower crumbled?"
The ruins seemed centuries old, but the Green Mage disappeared only half a year ago.
"Nothing. No traces of him, either," Zoltan shook his head. "But the villagers said he was in the tower, and all their crops withered away."
Did he experiment with an aging spell?
For all he knew, it could've been a failed time travel attempt, or a successful one, too.
"And how's progress?" Konrad asked, nodding towards the scattered pages.
"Slow," the illusionist sighed, "it's hard to tell which page belongs where, and I have a lot of other things to do as well." Yeah, like stealing expensive crystals and scamming the townsfolk.
He had to remind himself that they were on the same side.
"I grind mana crystals for the glowing ink," Zoltan showed him around. "And need new ones to power my Artifact of Greater Illusion—which you broke." So that was that contraption?
"I returned the crystal," Konrad rolled his eyes. "Why don't you rebuild it?"
"You fried the circuits," he complained. "The town's soldiers would be here before I finished."
On that note, Konrad had something to offer.
"I'll deal with the Captain," he claimed. "But he won't keep his mouth shut if you don't help me."
"W-what do you want?" Zoltan tried and failed to rein in his shaking.
"Told you already," the boy waved at the magic notes. "I came here to learn from the start. Before I got robbed, beaten, forced into a scheme, and all that, thanks to you."
The illusionist paled, wringing his hands, but didn't respond.
"I could find many ways to get my revenge," Konrad pushed further. "But that'd have the village massacred, and I'm not heartless. As long as I can learn magic, I don't care about the rest."
He looked Zoltan straight in the eye.
"Keep that stupid crystal, restore the illusion, and I'll make sure the Captain keeps his mouth shut. You'll do your best to teach me, and I not only forgive you, I'll save you, too."
If only he felt as confident as his voice sounded.
But when it came to getting control over a situation, he somehow always figured out the right things to say. Was it because of the promise Lu made?
If so, he had better take full advantage of it.
"B-but how will you convince him?" Zoltan asked, now shaking, too.
"Vargas? That's easy."
Konrad grinned, giving him a quick rundown.
"I'll help him escape tonight, and promise him to uncover what happened here. I'll ask him to help my investigation by keeping everything secret until I get results."
Zoltan paled, nodding along, chewing his lips as if considering the idea.
"And if I teach you the basics, he'll stick to his words?" he asked.
"He'd lose face if he admitted that your master's gone for a long time, but stands to earn a fortune if I became a wizard." In a sense, it was true, and that was the captain's goal, too.
It was odd to manipulate them while giving them both what they wanted.
"Fine, I'll teach what little I know," Zoltan offered a shaky hand, but pulled him in, drowning him in that sour smell. "But if that bastard talks, you'll be next in that tub of acid."