I approach the guard.

What the hell is happening. “Hey, what happened here?”

He looks down at me and says in an annoyed voice, “Move along, there’s nothing to see here!”

How rude.

I shake my head “No, I’ve been living here for the past few days, so I need to know if something happened?”

Is everyone ok?

However, the guard grabs his sword from his scabbard “I knew you looked suspicious! Damn cultist!”

What the hell!

I back off and throw the rug on the floor, fortunately he hasn’t attacked me yet.

“Don’t resist arrest!” And he lunges towards me with his blade!

I barely manage to dodge, and I shoot him with a <Steam cannon> on the ribs!

Some of the people on the street scream in panic and run away!

This isn’t arrest! This guy just wants to kill me!

The steam projectile hits him, and he recoils from the pain.

I shoot him another time with my right hand, and with my left hand I use the <Elizabeth’s puppet controlling strings>!

Inky black strings come out of my fingers and grab his ankles, while I hit him with the <Steam cannon> on the chest, and he falls to the ground!

I shoot him again in the leg for good measure and take his sword with the strings.

I throw it away, I can’t use the strings or the <Steam cannon> while grabbing it, so it’s useless.

He can’t dodge it, so the <Steam cannon> hits him, and now his shin is bending forwards, and he screams from pain.

Oh fuck, I can hear the people inside Timotei’s house rushing here!

Do I just run away?!

That should be the best option, this guy had 1 pattern, but I don’t know about the rest!

But before I can start running, the guards start coming out from the house.

I shoot at the first guard that I see!

If you guys want to kill me, I won’t lay down and take it!

“Damn cultists!” Another guard charges at me, this one has a spear! I shoot him, but it’s not enough to kill him, and he stabs me on the leg!

Goddammit!

It hurts!

I shoot him again, and we gain some distance from each other, but standing up is proving difficult now.

More guards rush here, and I’m surrounded by half a dozen of them in no time.

“What’s happening here?!” A young man in fancy clothes yells while running towards here, and all the guards react to his voice.

Is he some big shot?

“We’re just dealing with a cultist your majesty! Please stand back, he’s dangerous!” A guard quickly responds with a lot of respect in his voice.

“How the hell can I be a cultist?!” I quickly retort “You people just attacked me out of nowhere!”

“Then why are you covered on blood?! You have to have murdered someone!” It seems this guard has a loose tongue! “And you broke Alex’s leg!” The loose-tonged guard readies his spear again.

“This is my own blood! And the ink is mine too!” I immediately shoot him again, but the young man deflects the projectile with his own sword at a blinding speed.

He’s releasing his own pressure now, I’d say it’s on the same intensity as Timotei’s, maybe a little weaker.

It’s not really intimidating, even if I know I can’t beat him.

“Everyone calm down! I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding!” The young man yells in an authoritative voice, he sounds concerned too.

The guards look at each other, then lower their weapons after a moment.

I stop pointing at them too, I want to know what happened to everyone else, and I don’t think violence is going to help me here.

I’m bleeding out from my leg too, so I don’t think I could keep fighting for much longer

I also vanish the strings, I have no idea how they lasted this long or why are they black, but I’ll keep experimenting with them later.

“What is the situation here?” The black-haired young man asks, he sounds a little relieved.

I’m hearing more people rushing over here…

Is it really going to be fine?

Some guards help the first guy I shot down, the one with the broken leg, and the loose-tongued guard is the one to respond to the young man “We’ve had info that cultists of the <Fulcrum star order> have been staying on captain’s Timotei home, so we raided the residence this morning and arrested everyone inside, facing little resistance in the process.” He dutifully reports to the young man. “Truthfully, it’s hard to believe that the captain would conspire with cultists, so the only reasonable explanation is that his guests tricked him. And this man is incredibly suspicious, he’s drenched in blood!”

What the hell…

Who could it be?

It’s definitely not Bianca, I’m sure if she was the target they would’ve said something about it, and I really doubt she’s a cultist…

Antonia and her dad probably don’t have anything to do with this, they’re just merchants, and those care for profit more than anything else, so even if they deal with shady people they themselves wouldn’t be cultists.

That leaves Aurora and Felix.

Honestly I don’t know a lot about either of them, so it could be possible…

Aurora did know that one chant that could attract monsters too.

Of course, I’m sure this is all bullshit, I don’t believe any of my friends could be cultists, I simply can’t imagine it.

The young man nods and then looks at me, but before he can say anything, he’s interrupted by someone.

“Julius! Is everyone ok?!” A blue-haired young lady in a white robe runs towards us, she’s one of the people that was rushing over here, and someone else is behind her, a man that looks to be the same age as those two, but he’s very big, he has a similar build to Timotei, and he’s also wearing some really bulky armor.

Big pauldrons…

It’s a little offensive to me, seeing those big ass pauldrons, they don’t seem practical at all.

“My liege… haaah… please don’t… haaah… run so fast…”

See!

The poor guy can barely breathe with those things on!

How disgusting, seeing that made me want to take a shower even more.

Hmph, let’s try to ignore that guy…

The young girl starts casting a flashy looking spell, a big magic circle appears on her feet as well.

And a few seconds after that, I’m not feeling any pain, the stab wound on my leg has been healed.

How convenient.

I have to learn something like that!

Though will it be necessary now that I have Amalia?

Meh, an extra safety net couldn’t hurt.

This Julius guy looks relieved, and looks at me again and asks, “I don’t think you’re a criminal, I believe in the concept of innocent until proven otherwise after all.” He nods to himself, “So I want you to explain yourself.”

I mean, that concept sounds lovely and all, but I am a criminal.

I participated in the sycamore auction and enslaved Amalia, that can’t be legal.

And I am drenched in blood too, isn’t it more reasonable to assume I’m somewhat dangerous?

This guy is definitely an idiot.

“My name is Octavius, and I’m a journeyman blacksmith.” I quickly pick up the rug again… I definitely don’t want any of these people to find out what inside this thing. “About two weeks ago, me and some other people, including Timotei, were captured by the <Sycamore gang> while traveling from Paprika to here, and some of us managed to escape with his help.” Without him, that Simon guy would’ve just killed us, though at the end it was thanks to Bianca and Makoto that we left without many injuries, in fact, only I was injured…

I should train more…

“After we managed to leave their hideout, we were left without any money, and Timotei kindly offered us a place to stay.”

Julius nods and seems satisfied with himself, but the young lady doesn’t seem so satisfied.

“But why are you covered in so much blood?”

“I injured myself in the hideout of the sycamore gang, and it was a very complicated one at that, the blood is thanks to a potion I had to take to heal it.”

“You’re lying.” Julius says immediately. “The fact that this is your own blood is true, but you aren’t drenched in it because of the potion.”

The hell is this guy saying?

The young girl glares at me, it’s clear she’s suspicious of me now.

“Well, I guess it’s not exactly because of the potion, we had to chop my arm off, and then the potion would grow a new one.” I lift up my left arm and show it off. “That’s the reason I’m drenched in blood.”

Pauldron gulps “That’s… I can definitely say I’m glad I’m friends with Ecaterina.”

The young girl has a sad look on her face “Why didn’t you go to the church? I’m sure I could’ve healed you…”

I could have tried that?

Goddammit…

Well, I’m an atheist, so I guess it’s fine.

Yeah...

“While that’s true.” Julius smugly shakes his head “It’s not the real reason you’re drenched in blood.”

The young lady and Pauldron look surprised.

“H-how much blood does he have, if his arm was cut off and then caked himself in even more blood?!” Pauldron says in a very loud voice.

This guy…

What an annoying ability.

Did he cast some sort of spell?

I sigh “I fucked the alchemist after growing my new arm, and accidentally threw my clothes into a puddle of my blood.”

Julius face is pretty funny now, I don’t know what answer he was expecting, but it’s definitely not what I said.

Pauldron and the young lady have a similar look on their faces.

It kinda reminds me of Makoto, he had a similar air of awkwardness whenever he would ‘trip’ and fall on top of Antonia.

These guys don’t have a lot of dignity as big shots if I’m being honest, the guards were barely fazed by what I said.

How pathetic.

Julius coughs loudly “It… it seems you’re saying the truth! But as you can see, no lies can escape me.”  He crosses his arms. “Are you a cultist?” He says in a serious voice, but I can’t take this fool seriously anymore.

I shake my head “I’m not.”

Julius nods and makes a hand movement, and after a moment, most of the guards disperse, going back into the house, and some go back to do their duty, only the loose-tongued guard and the one I fought first remain here.

Julius has 3 patterns, so they must think I’m not a threat to him…

And they’d be right, frustratingly enough.

With my current power I can’t beat this idiot down.

Hmm, I have to make sure of something first.

“There’s a cow in the barn and a painting in my room, you guys haven’t touched those, right?”

“We definitely will now!” the loose-tongued guard is quick to retort as always.

“You definitely don’t want to touch the painting! I didn’t see any women in your group earlier, so unless you want one of the guys to discover the pleasure of one, you really shouldn’t touch it.”

“You serious?” The loose-tongued guard… That’s a mouthful, I’ll call him mike from now on.

Mike seems worried.

“H-he’s saying the truth…” Julius looks uncomfortable.

“I’ll warn everyone then!” Mike quickly runs into the building.

Sigh, my head hurts like hell, everything is so loud now…

“Could I just go and pick up my things? Or at least the cow and the painting?”

Julius has a complicated expression “I shouldn’t be much of a problem, I’m sure you’re not a cultist.”

 

* * *

 

I quickly take the <Dead man’s sycamore painting> and grab Maria, but only those two.

I couldn’t even get a change of clothes..

The house is a mess, and the guards are searching every corner in it.

It’s honestly makes me really mad to see this.

But I have more important things to worry about at the moment.

I leave the house with Maria at my side.

Julius and those other 2 aren’t here anymore, it seems they have other stuff to do.

I don’t really care to be honest.

Hmm, I’m not too worried about finding a place to sleep or eat, I have a lot of money now.

But how do I get everyone out of jail?

…

I don’t love this option, but I could have Amalia break them out of the dungeon.

Of course, I have no idea how strong the enemy forces would be, but if they’re confident in keeping Timotei in there, then they should be able to fight Amalia.

I think…

Maybe I could try to negotiate their freedom?

I have a lot of money right now, I really don’t mind using some of it to help them out.

And of course, I’m confident in my abilities as a smith, I can probably use that to my advantage.

With who do I have to negotiate though?

That Julius guy?

There’s someone else that comes to my mind.

The young mistress of the <Basil clan>, a girl named Valentina Basil, I’ve met her once before in a… meeting thing.

Some political nonsense, Master stopped taking me to those rather quickly.

She’s about my age… and hopefully reasonable enough to negotiate.

Honestly I kinda want to break them out by using violence, it sounds fun.

Sigh, I take Maria with me, and begin walking.

It seems I can’t take it easy just yet.