At last, he was out of his handcuffs. They had been unnecessarily tight. He felt his wrists with his opposite hands and looked up. The Viranil brother and that weirdly fashionable Lord Tristan who was still looking at him with amusement in his eyes were also there, along with a few more of the same level of people. Some of them had less mana in comparison, but that didn’t mean they were less capable.
“Who are you, boy?” one of the veteran men finally asked, breaking the silence.
What was he to say here? A normal boy who just wanted to join the army? There was no acceptable lie they would believe about his strength here.
“Maximus…”
The man looked at the commander, who in turn gestured to the female knight beside her. With pleasure, she punched his face with vengeance.
“F*ck, that hurt…” Damian spat out the blood in his mouth.
“What do you want me to say? I am just a man, a boy who, like you all, ascended in his trial and gained powers…” Damian replied, wiping the blood.
“My god, I have never seen a tougher child…” one of them spoke up.
“Mine only whines and complains all day…” another added.
“Where are you from?” asked one of them.
“Dawnstar…” Damian told the truth.
“What are you doing here?” asked the commander this time.
Hmm? What was he doing here? That was indeed a good question. What the hell was he doing here?
“Trying my best to survive. It has been really difficult so far, I tell you…”
“Your strength and unique abilities clearly imply that the Kiyama sibling did not bring you here; you came on your own. Is Ashenvale so cowardly that it sends children to war?” a rough-looking middle-aged woman said. She was the first dark-skinned human Damian had seen in Eldoris. Her hair was silky black, just like his, but her eyes were emerald green, making her look enchanting.
They thought he was a spy? Well, that would be the most reasonable conclusion to figure out his intentions.
“Enough with this. Just do it already…” Aramis said.
The knight, getting a signal from her lady commander, grabbed a piece of metal from the side and forcefully placed it in Damian’s hand. It was the status tool. If he gave them his information, he would truly be seen as a heretic and devil spawn with his godless blessing.
He didn’t care about the other stuff, even though they were important; his life was at stake they could get all the information about his noble house and his rare prestigious job but the godless thing was too abnormal to reveal to these people. If he revealed his status, not even the queen of Eldoris would be able to save him from the sun god zealots.
He would be hunted down all his life and possibly beheaded right here, right now. He would truly become Devil spawn.
“No…” Damian said.
“It is not a request, boy…” the knight beside him said, punching him once again.
Damian wiped the blood off and threw away the tool on the wooden floor.
“I said no… And tell this brute of yours that you sealed away my powers, or she would be minced meat by now…” Damian said a bit louder in his anger than he intended.
Everyone present looked at their commander as she stared at Damian with a piercing gaze. Only then did Damian realize what it was—the spell. No one here knew what she had really done. That made sense. The knight, on the other hand, was clenching her jaw tight as veins popped up in her head.
She raised her fist and was just about to hit him a third time when the commander raised her hand, and she immediately fell to her knees.
“He must be a mage…” said one of them.
“His physique is clearly tougher than first-rankers as we witnessed, and according to reports, he has mastery over a spear and uses some form of aura blade…” Lord Tristan informed his companions in his amusing tone.
“Boy, is revealing your identity really worth dying for?” asked one of the old veteran women, who wore a mage robe. She was also second ranker.
“It reveals my family name, and I do not wish for them to suffer the same fate. You are concerned I am from Ashenvale, right? I am not…”
“Family name?”
“You claim to be of noble lineage?”
“It is a valid enough reason I guess…”
“So now we are just supposed to trust his words? Ever since he came here, he has done nothing but told lies upon lies…” Lord Aramis continued his old job of fueling the fire against him.
“He knows what will happen if he refuses, and yet he won’t. We can’t force him to reveal his identity…” concluded another veteran with a sigh.
“Let’s just throw him in a cell until the war is over…”
“If what he said is true, without his power, he can’t send reports back to Ashenvale, even if he does unveil some of our information…”
“Didn’t you give a speech about being an orphan?” Commander Vidalia asked, a hint of veiled mockery in her voice.
“It’s not my dumb parents and their shitty honor and dumb traditions. I don’t care about that. It’s my siblings…” Damian lied once again.
“It’s a waste of time, as I said it would be…” said one of the high-level second-rankers next to Lord Aramis and Tristan, who had been silent from the beginning.
“A few days of torture will remove all his stubbornness…” offered Lord Aramis, seizing his chance.
“Ignore him. Not like Threadripper would be foolish enough to send a child with their secrets here to spy on us. Anything we get from him will be useless. Lady Vidalia has accepted him as her cupbearer. Let him serve her. It’s not like he can run from her.
If there is something about him, I am sure she will figure it out sooner or later…”