In an organized and broad room accommodating numbers of people, Sergeant Baron Gelfand called the rest of his subordinates for a conference regarding the incident. The assembly did not take long as Baron talked about only the necessary details.

Baron hates betrayal among companions the most. Knowing that someone had ratted them out about a piece of important information, his trust in his companions became uncertain.

She would be disappointed with me. Baron owes a lot to the former Monarch of Ubec, Dessia Adhilla. She was the one who took care of him back when he was an orphan.

"You can't just tell her to stop what she's doing, Hector. You know that more than anyone else," Baron said to himself. "Now, I need to tell her what happened and apologize deeply for my cowardice."

***

Khael felt a jarring pain all over his body when he woke up. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and it was the third time he had met an unfamiliar ceiling. He then shifted his gaze to see a cramped room with few people staring at him in wonder.

There are six of them having a dreadful look and condition. Moreover, it seems that they had it worse than him. Their appearance was of someone who hadn't cleaned themselves for so long, along with grim expressions. But Khael suddenly realized that it was more likely they were feeling pity towards him instead.

"I thought you wouldn't have woken up immediately. I was about to leave and come back later," said an unknown voice not coming from the group of men in front of him. "Now then, I want to ask… do you guys know each other?"

"Who are you..?" said Khael in a ragged voice as he looked where the voice came from. And it feels like he lets out a spike of thorns in every word he mutters. "Why-why am I here? What… are you going to do to me?"

The unfamiliar person ignored him. "So I assumed he was a part of your cult. Wasn't he?" It was only silenced that has been heard and the exchange of confused glances between them. "Come on, answer me."

"H-he wasn't! We don't know this young man," said one of the men.

"Ha, what a pain. Was this kid not belong to your cult? Well, whatever. For now, he will join you for a while until he decides to confess what he knows about 'her.'"

And again, it seems that Khael's thought was right about what this was all about. The 'her' was really about that woman in the portrait. It was the same way Grant and Dessia addressed the mysterious woman named Astelta.

"Rennar," said another voice from where the door was. "Lord Hector wants to see you."

"Sure," said Rennar. He then rose from his feet, and then he turned around, giving Khael and the rest an uncanny look. "Well, you guys should try to convince this kid to talk before I come back. If he does… you will probably be pardoned for your transgression, but if he did not… we'll have all night long with you singing suffering."

…

Khael's moment of rest wasn't enough to make himself stable, even from just sitting straight on the ground. For a few minutes, he ignored the few persons with him in the cramped room for him to focus on his recovery. He wasn't sure if they were being considerate of him when they were not bothering him or if there was something else behind it.

Khael feared the look on their face. It made him utterly worried and scared to say anything to them.

Suddenly. "Are you fine there, young man?" said one of them. It was an old man with a skinny complexion and a thin stature. He had a severe expression that tells how much he had suffered, just like the few men with him.

"Ah yes, I am fine," Khael answered. He was glad that one of them decided to talk to him. But he was worried that some of them still giving him a distasteful stare.

"You look… too young. How old are you? And… why are you here?" asked the old man.

"I don't know… I wasn't even aware why I was being taken and imprisoned here."

"What do you mean?" the old man asked curiously. "The only reason they would lump you with us is that you are being treated as a heretic, just like us."

"What? I don't even know anything about that. Just what do they want with me?!"

Khael was already at his wits' end. The fact that everything has turned worse than before. It made him lose all hope as if there was no way out of this. It was like he was being punished for no reason.

"So… you're telling us that you are not here for the same reason as us, right?" said another man, leaning towards Khael. "Where are you from? Did you come from Liloan proper as well?"

"...Pardon me, but… I don't know," Khael answered helplessly.

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"Hold it, Roldan," said the old man. "Let me talk to him."

"I am Gadorias. You can just call me Gado or elder Gado, whichever you want," then, the old man gave him an earnest gaze. "If it's fine with you, may we know what happened to you before you came here?"

…

Their conversation lasted only a few moments as Khael told them about his condition and how he ended up being taken and brought there. They told him their circumstances as well. They were suspected as a group of a religious cult that was forbidden in the entire country.

Despite having an awful condition, the old man is still well composed and thoroughly careful with how he talks. What made Khael uneasy was the old man didn't seem to confirm or deny the assertions against them.

"Roldan here is just the same as you. He was just miserably blended with us and was deemed by a false accusation."

"I hope this was fine to ask, but… is that true that you are a part of a religious cult?" asked Khael.

"We are," the old man closed his eyes as he continued. "We are worshiping nature itself and its desires as well. But they saw us as"

"Enough…" one of them impeded. "Could you believe some stranger suddenly appearing before us and telling us he had lost his memories? What if he was sent by them to gain our trust? So we can just blabber casually with him about the things they want to know because their crappy torture doesn't work!?"

"Enough with his bullshit and just kill us already! No matter what you do, you can't make us admit something you want to hear from us! We're just a firm believer of our own beliefs, and there was nothing wrong with that!"

The room then was surrounded by silence. No one realized except Khael that someone was on the other side of the door, just waiting and listening to them. He hurriedly turned his gaze there, and the rest of them followed.

The door opened, revealing Rennar and a tall man wearing eyeglasses with him.

"Oh, forgive me for eavesdropping. Though I was moved by how you stated your own resolved," said Rennar. "What a shame that we don't need that firm resolved to our session today. It would be a lot different and interesting than before if you asked me..."

"Don't mess with us! You dammed bastard!"

"Don't, Elgardo! We should-"

"I don't care, elder Gado! We're just living peacefully on our own! We are not a part of the cult that worships the Forsakens! We already told you that, but you never believe us!!" said Elgardo furiously as he laughed in distress. "Besides, we are all forsaken ourselves, aren't we? So what's wrong-"

"Elgardo…" Gado's voice withers in fear and worries when Elgardo suddenly collapses to the ground.

Rennar, expressionless, walks past Gado and the rest to get close to the squirming man in pain. He then held Elgardo's chin recklessly and pulled him closer to him. "The Forsakens terrorized the entire continent of Hibran for 600 years. Those monsters forced our ancestors to bear their offspring until our Lord Hibris freed us from hell. 'We are all forsakens ourselves,' you said, huh?"

"W-we got it! Please don't… don't make us suffer anymore! Just-just give us a swift death! I am begging you… Isn't this enough already?!" said Gado as he pleaded.

"Not gonna happen. You see… these collars you wear were connected to your mana veins as it continuously harvesting ambient mana in the surroundings," said Rennar. His face was void of expression. "You'll continue to suffer if you don't start to talk."

"Now then, should we start this already? For as long as this boy didn't confess what he knows about Astelta," he shifted his gaze to Khael and then gazed back at them. "This collar will continue to make each of you suffer from overloaded mana in your body. And while we're on that… for every ten minutes, this old man confessed nothing. This boy will lose one of his fingers."