System Change

Derek, with a handful of hair, dragged Katrisha out of the bedroom. She was pulling against him and fighting at his hand the whole way. When he made it out of the bedroom, he found a waiting Rayna, Richard, and Delilah.

“Come on.” He said as he continued out the front door.

The trio looked at each other, some worry in their eyes, before finally just following along behind him.

“Derek.” Richard spoke. “The Overseer is sanctioned by the King. What are you planning?”

“That’s right!” Katrisha yelled. “I was sent here by the King’s office! What you are doing right now is tantamount to treason. Release me at… Ouch!” She finished her sentence as Derek gave her hair a hard tug.

“Shut up.” Derek said to the woman, then looked back at Richard. “I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with her. She’ll definitely be punished, but how bad will be up to her. While not innocent by any means, she was not the one who gave the orders or did the act. But, like I said, what happens next depends on her, and so far, it isn’t looking good.”

Richard didn’t ask anything else.

After a few more moments, Derek and the group arrived at the intersection that doubled as the town center. He was right in assuming that the sound of him destroying the door had drawn some attention, as there were over a dozen people there, with more arriving every minute. There were also a couple of villagers in the distance that had seen him knock the two guards unconscious, who must have spread word around.

“This is good. Let’s wait a bit before we have our little trial. Is that okay with you?” He asked Katrisha. Before she could say anything, Derek spoke again. “It is? That’s great.” His anger had faded some once Rayna woke up, but it was still there.

More and more people came to the town center over the next few minutes. “That’s good enough, I guess.” Derek shoved the woman to her knees. “Don’t get up.” He said to her, of course, the instant he removed his hand, she turned as fast as she could and attacked him.

“Are you serious?” He said as he held her fist in his hand. He then let his aura spill out, and directed it as best he could towards the woman. “Listen, I really have no qualms about killing you right here and now. Hell, it might be better to do just that. It’d at least save me some time… But I’m giving you a chance here.”

Derek let go of her fist, and she dropped to the ground under the weight of his aura. She had looked terrified when she stared into his changed features as he unleashed his aura. Derek withdrew his aura. Katrisha did not try to stand again.

Derek bent down. “Now, here’s the deal. I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them to the best of your ability. I only want the truth. If I sense that you are lying to me, then I will just kill you, as I don’t actually need any information from you. Is that clear?”

The woman, under the eyes of dozens of villagers and adventurers, nodded fiercely in agreement.

“Good. Now, if you can not answer something because of an oath, just say that you can’t answer. I’m sure you are oath-bound on some subjects, right?”

She nodded again.

“How many?” Derek asked.

“Two.” She meekly answered.

“Good. Now, my first question. Did you know that the village was under protection?” Derek asked.

She nodded.

“Yet you still allowed my friend to be beaten and the other two to be kidnapped. Why?”

“I-it was only protected by a fallen noble house. Those that acted were from the City Lord’s house. House Torith.” She answered.

“You’re wrong.” Derek said, causing her eyebrows to rise. “The village wasn’t protected by House Gracefall. It was protected by Walter Gracefall, on his own honor. Do you know what honor means to that man?”

Katrisha stared up at Derek in shock. “But I heard it was only under his house’s protection. That’s what those adventurers said.”

“That’s probably what they thought, too. Do you expect regular adventurers to know the difference?”

“Still.” She said. “His honor is nothing against House Torith.”

“It was also protected by me.” Derek said.

“I don’t even know who you are.” As the interrogation continued, Katrisha’s personality was beginning to fade back into existence.

“That’s fair. I don’t feel like explaining it to you right now, anyway.” Derek replied. “Now, second question. What relations do you have with House Torith?”

Apparently, she took this question as Derek being cautious, trying not to offend a top noble house. She lit up at the question. “I am very close to House Torith. I have family that is part of the house. They won’t forgive you if anything happens to me.”

Derek almost laughed as he listened to the woman dig her own grave deeper and deeper. “Is that so?”

She nodded furiously. “That’s right. I’m sure the City Lord has already heard of this by now. If you let me go and beg for mercy, I may be willing to put in a good word for you.”

As if. Derek thought. “No, I don’t think I need you to put in a good word for me. Besides, did you not hear what happened with the City Lord a few days ago?”

“Huh? What happened?”

I guess it would take a long time without communication crystals for news to travel to a remote village. Even an up and coming one like this one. He thought. “It’s nothing that concerns you right now.” He replied. “Now, if I’m correct, you were given two storage rings as… compensation for not getting in the way. Give them to me.”

He had already seen the two rings she was wearing on her hands, and the one on a necklace around her neck when she was startled up from the bed.

“They are mine.” She said.

Derek reached over the woman and took the rings off her hands. He also tore the necklace with the ring off as well. The woman turned her head around and glared at him, but he stared daggers at her until she turned back around.

Some gasps could be heard from those watching. It was unreal for most people to see someone appointed by the King treated this way, even if she did deserve it. There were those, however, who had been in the village at the time when Derek executed the noble adventurer. They made no noise and only watched in silence.

“You get ‘er!” A familiar voice came out of the back of the crowd.

Derek contained his smile as he looked up and saw Bart with his black eye and makeshift crutches. Ah, they didn’t say how recent his beating was. By the looks of it, it only happened in the last couple of days. Villages need a more proper way to heal. The people just don’t have a strong enough Vitality stat to remove the injuries quickly. Derek was thankful for his Vitality stat more than any other.

He moved his attention back to Katrisha. “Does your family work with or for the Torith family?” Katrisha hesitated to answer. “Remember what I said. You better answer.”

Finally, she nodded. “Yes. We do.”

“Good. What is it that your family does for Gerald and House Torith?” Derek made sure not to include any honorifics when saying the family head’s name. Maybe, with his disrespect of such a powerful person, Katrisha would understand more of the situation she was in.

She was silent for a while. “I can’t answer that.”

“Ah, so it’s damning enough that it requires an oath from anybody who knows?”

“I can’t answer that.” She repeated.

Derek nodded and didn’t continue that line of questioning. He would bring it up with Alanah later to see if she knew the connection.

“Do you agree that what you did to my friends was wrong?”

“I had no choice!” She argued.

“I didn’t ask that.” Derek said. “Was it wrong? Are you sorry for your actions?” Derek waited, but she didn’t answer. “Of course, you aren’t sorry for your actions. You’re only sorry about the situation they put you in.”

“That’s not…” She started, but Derek cut her off.

“Don’t lie. That was my condition.” He warned.

Obviously, Derek didn’t have a way to detect whether she was lying or not. He had no skill to do so, and even though he could feel her heartbeat if he wanted, he hadn’t practiced any lie detection methods. Hell, the ones he has seen were only from movies and books, so he didn’t even know if it worked like that. However, Katrisha did not know any of this.

“I regret being in this situation, but those women were only villagers… peasants.”

Derek shook his head. How big of an anomaly was Walter? Derek was one in five when it came to adult nobles not thinking villagers were scum. Six if he included Gerald, but he hadn’t personally met that man yet.

“Thank you for answering honestly.” He replied. “What kind of punishment do you think you should receive for your actions and inactions?”

“Isn’t this enough?” She asked.

It was true that what had happened was extremely embarrassing for her, but it was not enough. “No. You allowed an attempted murder for no reason, human trafficking, and you personally beat a good man because of the way he talks. This is not enough.”

She was quiet at that. While he waited for her answer, Derek looked through the storage rings. The one on the necklace was most definitely her personal ring. It had many sets of clothing and undergarments. There were wines and foodstuffs, as well as a small amount of armor and weaponry.

He shifted his focus to one of the other rings. It was near empty. All it had in it were some cooked dishes. This ring must have been one of Mal’s. After skimming the contents, he moved on to the last ring. Looking into it, he stopped. His dissipating anger rising again.

“When you took these storage rings, did you look inside them?” He asked.

“Of course.” She answered.

“So, you know the contents?”

“Yes?”

The ring he was holding was Brandi’s personal storage ring. It had all her completed crafts inside. It also had her Scroll of Resurrection.

“So, this…” He pulled out the scroll. “Was in your possession the entire time, and you didn’t even think about using it on a lowly villager? Even though it belonged to her friend in the first place.”

“I-it’s too valuable.” She said.

Derek was being a hypocrite here, as that was the same reason he used not to save Brandi’s father when he first arrived. Had he gotten a scroll from someone close to the man, and they all seemed like good people, which they did, he wouldn’t have even thought about it before using it. Derek could still use the excuse that he was in an unfamiliar world and still didn’t know what to expect. He could also use his time in the void as an excuse. But what excuse did Katrisha have? That it was too valuable?

He was already leaning towards death for Katrisha. Her closeness, and her family’s apparent oaths towards the Torith family had almost settled it. When he saw the contents of the ring, it was settled.

It would not be a painful death, and she wouldn’t see it coming.

While standing behind the woman, Derek channeled the void through his hand. With his palm, just as he did with the Void Beast, he struck the back of her head, destroying her brain in the process. The woman fell forward, dead. There was no ‘dying’ state with such damage.

Derek sighed and looked around. This was the same place he killed his first human in this world. It was almost as if this village center was Derek’s very own execution ground.

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