Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Chapter 163 - Trial's End...?

Endra had to wait for Alvich's answer. The old man decided he needed to summarize the day's events once more, as things were getting a bit out of scale. Endra did not know why. He seemed smart enough that he didn't need to pause like this. And Endra's arguments were logical enough. 

Was he just prudent like that? Careful not to make the slightest mistakes? Or was he trying to buy time with this move? Whatever it was, Endra had no power here. He could only hope for Alvich's permission.

Two minutes later, Alvich reached his conclusion. "The boy is right. We've seen many fabricable proofs, but nothing concrete. I would like to see this young myself as well."

Baron Armbron's wife looked distraught, but spoke no complaints. The Baron himself only sighed slightly and led the group to Lyudvik's room. 

"Boy, you there?" he said, knocking on the door. 

"Father?" 

'So he hasn't run away? Sounds cheerful enough…' 

"You know we talked about you being suspected for a trespassing, right? Well, they need proof that you're sick, so they're going to enter your room now. Ah, ah. Don't complain yet. It's something done under the kingdom's name, so you have no right to refuse. There's only a difference between them barging in and you opening the door yourself."

"At least give me a few minutes to dress up!" the boy replied. 

"Two minutes top," Endra said to the door. 

"Now, as we're waiting," Alvich spoke. "We need to consider what we'll do if he's actually sick."

Endra shrugged and created a barrier of air around himself and the old man. "Infections mostly pass through the air, touch, fluids and sometimes animals or insects. If he's got an STD, it's most likely fluids, so we're probably okay… but just in case, I'll keep the air from his room tucked inside his own."

"You've studied medicine before?" Alvich asked.

"Heard about it somewhere."

"You sound quite confident, though."

"The person that told me sounded the same, so I'm only borrowing his confidence."

Alvich didn't press further and waited for Lyudvik's invitation. Eventually, they entered, and was greeted by the sorry state of Lyudvik. He was exactly how he described himself, but worse. His skin was some white shade of pale, with rashes showing from his neck. He was sweating from his forehead, his hair looking slightly damp.

"Oh, my child," the baron's wife exclaimed. "Tell us who this woman was and we'll immediately find who she was."

"Is it him?" Endra asked Ssatsko.

He also matched Ssatsko's description almost perfectly, with the same build and the burgundy hair. The only thing that was missing was the supposed wound on his hand, that Ssatsko described. 

"He looks very similar, but I can't be sure," the old man replied.

"Alright."

"Who is this kid?" Lyudvik said, looking at Endra.

Endra smiled. It was only the second time he heard those words today. He expected to hear it a lot more.

"I'm the one who suspects you of the trespassing," Endra said. "Sorry for the interruption if I'm wrong."

Looking at the young man, Endra used every method he knew to distinguish illusions, some he learned from the Academy, some he devised himself. He couldn't find anything suspicious. 

"Well, now that you've seen me sick, can you leave?" Lyudvik said. "And don't you dare speak of this to anyone!"

"Of course, young master, just another moment," Endra replied. "Uh, Inspector Alvich, can you use that device which traces World energy usage?" 

"Haven't you seen enough?" the baron's wife spoke. 

To this Endra responded by making himself look exactly the same as Lyudvik, with the pale face and the disgusting rashes. 

"Empress's horrors!" the woman gasped, taking a step away from Endra.

"I'd love to act lazily, but the existence of magic overcomplicated things a bit, you see?" Endra said and nodded to Alvich. 

The latter brought out the same device Evin must've saw being used in his house. As it worked, Evin saw how the World energy traces became visible in Lyudvik's room. Most of it were of Qanatohm energies, mixed with a tinge of Seyethe; and they were mostly around random objects in the room. Cups, books, towels, etc. 

"Like to move objects using a little bit of Telekinesis, huh?" Endra asked. 

"Yes," Lyudvik replied. 

There wasn't any traces of illusions on Lyudvik's body. There were some dark purple traces on his hands, which were presumable from him grabbing those objects he levitated, but other than that, he was clean. 

Endra looked at the scene and couldn't find any faults. The scene felt natural, a bit too natural. 

"There's no way these devices can be fooled, right?" Endra asked.

"There are ways, but as far as I know, only High-Mages of Lochra are able to do it," Alvich replied.

They both looked at Lyudvik and thought the same thing. The young man definitely wasn't High-mage material. 

"Well, I guess this is a dead end," Alvich said, then turning to baron Kasna, asked "Do you know anyone else that might be suspicious?"

"Let me see…" 

The two men started talking about other potential suspects and Endra prepared to leave. 

"I'm sorry for bothering your family, baron Armbron," Endra said. 

"Oh, don't worry," the average-looking man responded with a smile. "If I was in your shoes, I would've done the same. I'm not even sure if I'd be able to be so thorough as you are, though."

Endra nodded, but just as he was about to turn back, he noticed a giant wound on Lyudvik's palm. But the wound closed up right in front of his eyes, and when Endra looked towards Lyudvik's face, he saw a mocking grin. Endra looked at Alvich, but the old man was too focused on his conversation with Kasna. 

'The hell?' Endra thought and looked back at Lyudvik again.

He still wore the prideful smile and was waving at Endra with his left hand, almost flaunting it. 'Come on, you know I did it,' the gesture seemed to say. 

'He's baiting me,' Endra realized. 

Knowing that, decisively, he turned around and walked away from the room, careful for an attack from behind. He stood behind Alvich, feeling he would be the safest there and thought about what he just learned. 

'I definitely wasn't hallucinating,' Endra first established. 'I went a bit crazy for a while, but I'm way past hallucinations at this point.'

With that out of the way, Endra thought about why Lyudvik would taunt him like that. Did he want Endra to make a scene? Start screaming that Lyudvik had a wound on his hand? Insist that he was the attacker? 

But who will believe Endra? Certainly not the baron's family. Perhaps Alvich, but the man was more logical than he was emotional, so even if Endra managed to perform his most convincing act, Alvich wouldn't move. After all, there were possibilities that Endra was right, but certain possibilities were too unlikely to consider. 

'Such as Lyudvik being a High-mage capable of masking the traces of World energies…' Endra cursed. 'But if he's a High-mage, then why would he run away from Ssatsko last night? Or was that all his plan in the first place? Was this whole thing some kind of fucked up way to send a message that his family was not safe? But who would do something like this in the first place? In the first place, who's so influential to move High-mages at his beckon?'

So many questions.