Chương 137: Chapter 132. Back and forth

The longer the trial continued, the more Rayne felt like this was far from the first time Gredrick had interrogated someone. At first, he had expected Duke Hellar to lead most of the questioning because of his rank, but it quickly became obvious that House Lanrice had sent Gredrick to handle the trial for a reason. The man simply never stopped. One question came after another without pause, barely giving Rayne enough time to think before the next followed.

It felt deliberate, almost like Gredrick was trying to throw him off balance through sheer speed and pressure alone which was probably true.

"What was your childhood like?"

"I grew up on farms. Most of my childhood was spent working in the fields."

"Did you receive any training before joining the army?"

"No, I only learned how to fight after enlistment, but my house did educate me enough to read, write and do basic calculations."

"When did you get your first mana skill?"

"If I remember correctly, it was during the battles against the trolls." The questions continued immediately after each answer. At times, Gredrick barely even waited for a full breath before moving onto the next one. Fortunately, Rayne had prepared for this kind of pressure beforehand with Casper and Captain Edran. Still, the most dangerous part came soon enough.

Gredrick eventually leaned slightly forward and asked him to explain the two mana skills the army already knew he possessed—[Death Strike] and his boosting skill. For the first one, answering was easy enough. Most people in the army had already seen him use [Death Strike] many times, and it was fairly simple to explain. The second skill, however, was a topic he had prepared for the most. Even if he kept his face calm, tension still ran through him as he answered carefully.

Rayne avoided giving the actual name of the skill and instead only explained the effects it gave him, speaking vaguely about the increase in physical ability and the temporary boost to his stats. For a few seconds after answering, he waited, and luckily, Gredrick didn't push deeper into it. Instead, the questioning slowly shifted toward other matters. The man began going over Rayne's rivalry with Fredrick and even several of his conflicts inside the army over the last few months.

Rayne quickly understood what the man was trying to do. It was an attempt to paint him as violent and unruly before they went back to what transpired in the dungeon. And honestly, there was enough there to make it dangerous for him. Rayne had gotten into plenty of fights and small skirmishes over the months since most soldiers already hated him for his blood. Fortunately, Captain Verella occasionally stepped in before things drifted too far away from Fredrick.

Whenever Gredrick or Duke Hellar started focusing too much on Rayne's past arguments, fights and why others hated him so much, she redirected the conversation back toward the late noble. That alone helped more than Rayne expected. He didn't hold back when speaking about his rivalry with Fredrick either, if it could even be called that. At its core, it had always been simple. Fredrick hated him because he believed Rayne had stolen merits and recognition that should have belonged to him.

At least, that was how he saw it. The noble had never truly hidden his resentment, and it had only gotten worse with time. Rayne was also fairly certain that the people sitting before him already knew most of it through Axel's reports anyway, so there was little point trying to hide or soften anything now. Thus, he simply kept answering. One question led into another as Gredrick slowly guided the conversation toward the blood duel between him and Fredrick.

The moment it was brought up properly, Duke Hellar immediately leaned forward slightly.

"So," the duke said sharply, "you stole from Fredrick and still expect us to believe you did good by sparing his life afterward?" Rayne remained calm despite the accusation.

"I didn't steal," he replied evenly.

"I already told the same thing to Captain Edran, and that is still the truth." He paused briefly before continuing.

"You should already have reports about what happened. And yes, I spared him because I never wanted to kill him." This time, Rayne looked directly at Gredrick while saying the words, but just like before, the man's expression didn't change at all. Instead, he calmly asked, "But did you regret sparing him?" The question caught Rayne off guard for a moment.

He hesitated slightly, and for the briefest second, he thought he saw a faint glint appear in Gredrick's eyes, almost like the man had been waiting specifically for that hesitation.

"I did regret it," said Rayne after a moment. Duke Hellar grinned faintly at the words, clearly thinking of it as a brief confession, but Rayne continued before the man could interrupt.

"But only after Fredrick turned on me in the dungeon," he clarified.

"That was the moment I regretted it." His voice remained steady as he spoke.

"Before that, I didn't. After the duel, Captain Edran made sure we rarely crossed paths. He tried to let the anger between us cool off, and honestly…" Rayne paused slightly before finishing, "I didn't care about Fredrick enough to think about him much after that." Duke Hellar clicked his tongue in annoyance hearing that. Once again, his eyes shifted briefly toward the truthsayers standing nearby, but neither Truthsayer Jakab nor his apprentice reacted in the slightest.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. They simply remained standing there calmly. Rayne almost found it unsettling. Part of him wondered how exactly they were even separating truth from lies. He couldn't sense any mana coming from them at all, nor did he feel any strange pressure while speaking. Still, whatever method they used, they haven't called him out on anything yet, and that was a win for him.

Before the silence in the room could stretch too long again, Gredrick calmly moved onto the next question.

"But despite your disregard for Fredrick and his supposed hatred for you," he said calmly, "there were no further incidents between the two of you until the dungeon. Why?" Rayne stayed quiet for a few seconds, thinking over the question before finally giving a small shrug.

"I have no idea," he answered honestly.

"I was too busy with the quests given to me to care much about him." Gredrick gave a slow nod, as if accepting the answer without issue.

"Yet he was with your party when Captain Edran ordered you to go after the necromancer, if I remember correctly?" Rayne immediately nodded.

"He was with us." For a brief second, Rayne thought he saw a faint glint appear in Gredrick's eyes. The man leaned back slightly before continuing.

"Why was that so?"

"He broke command. He wasn't supposed to be with us, but he followed anyway." The moment the words left his mouth, Duke Hellar spoke up immediately.

"And why would he do that?" the duke asked sharply.

"He would have been far safer remaining in the shieldwall and fighting ordinary undead. From every report we have gathered, he was more than capable enough to survive in that situation." Rayne frowned faintly.

"How would I know that?" But Gredrick pressed on before the silence could settle.

"I still want to hear what you believe. Why do you think he followed you?" With every word, Rayne felt the tension in the room grow tighter around him. It almost felt like Gredrick was slowly leading him somewhere, carefully building toward something he still couldn't fully see yet. Rayne didn't understand the exact purpose behind the questioning, but instinct told him there was a trap hidden somewhere in it. And unfortunately, he already knew the answer to the question.

The problem was whether he could truly say it aloud. For a brief moment, his eyes shifted toward Truthsayer Jakab. The old man remained completely still, but his narrowed eyes almost seemed to challenge him to lie. In the end, Rayne had no real choice.

"I believe Fredrick broke command to follow me because he wanted an opportunity to finish me off," he said carefully. The room remained silent, so he continued.

"In the dungeon, surrounded by undead, nobody would have cared much about how I died. Everyone was already focused on killing the undead in front of them." His voice stayed steady even as the pressure around his shoulders increased.

"And he got that opportunity when I chased the necromancer down one of the pathways." For the first time since the trial began, Gredrick actually smiled. It wasn't a large smile, but seeing any emotion from the man at all immediately made Rayne's stomach tighten.

"So," Gredrick said slowly, "you truly believe that a noble with a bright future in the army willingly risked his own life against a necromancer that even Captain Edran would think twice before facing, all to kill a forsaken, much less one with the Frayser bloodline?" The question lingered heavily in the room, and at once everything clicked in Rayne's mind. Gredrick was making his explanation sound irrational, extreme, almost delusional.

Because when spoken aloud like that without the knowledge of Fredrick's personality, it did sound absurd. Why would a noble throw himself into such danger just for a forsaken soldier? But Rayne also knew the answer to that. Hatred. Fredrick's hatred toward him had stopped being reasonable a long time ago. Still, even understanding that, Rayne could feel the pressure settling more heavily as every pair of eyes in the room remained fixed on him, waiting for his next answer.

For a moment, Rayne almost felt like the air around him had turned heavier. The way Gredrick had phrased the question was done to make him sound insane, like he was some paranoid soldier who had killed Fredrick in cold blood and then convinced himself he had been justified afterward. Even when he glanced toward Captain Verella, although her face remained calm as always, he noticed the faintest tension in her eyes. That alone told him enough. The room stayed silent while Rayne thought.

One minute passed, then another. Finally, Duke Hellar tapped his fingers against the wooden table with visible irritation.

"Speak already," he snapped.

"You cannot take this long to think. We do not have the entire day." Rayne let out a slow breath at the words. He already knew what the duke wanted him to say, but if he said that, the trial was certainly going to end with a harsh punishment for him. Both Duke Hellar and Gredrick only wanted his head, and his next words would seal whether they would have it.

Hence, he took more time, disregarding the duke's words, trying to get an answer that would save him, and something finally hit him when he recalled Gredrick's own words. Then, he immediately answered.

"Yes, I believe Fredrick wanted to kill me." Gredrick immediately opened his mouth, likely ready to say how absurd that sounded due to both of their status, but Rayne spoke before he could.

"And I disagree with your words," he continued.

"Fredrick did not have a bright future." That caused a slight pause in the room.

"Our squad leader, Axel, made him party leader before me," Rayne went on calmly.

"But he failed to gain proper merits." His eyes remained fixed on Gredrick as he spoke.

"And after the blood duel, his position in the squad became even worse. To the point that a forsaken like me was getting promoted over him instead." Rayne leaned slightly forward in his chair despite the cuffs around his wrists.

"What do you think a noble would feel when everything he believes should belong to him starts going to the lowest kind of soldier instead? He hated me. And honestly, he had plenty of reasons to." For the briefest second, Rayne almost thought he saw Captain Verella smile faintly, and before either Duke Hellar or Gredrick could respond, she spoke.

"I believe Rayne's words have merit." Duke Hellar immediately turned toward her with open disbelief.

"Are you truly choosing to believe a Frayser?" Captain Verella didn't react to the accusation at all.

"What he is saying isn't nonsense," she replied evenly.

"The truthsayers can confirm that, and the reports we reviewed already stated that Fredrick failed to gain enough merits for any promotion again and again." Her gaze shifted briefly toward the duke.

"It makes perfect sense for him to resent Rayne." Duke Hellar scoffed loudly.

"Everyone resents him. He's a Frayser after all."

"But only Fredrick attempted to kill him," Captain Verella answered without hesitation. The room immediately grew tense again. Rayne almost felt relieved seeing the attention shift away from him. If the two of them kept arguing, it would buy him more time to think and breathe. But before the argument could properly continue, Gredrick suddenly leaned slightly forward, placing himself between the two.

"Duke Hellar. Captain Verella," he said calmly, though there was enough firmness in his tone to stop both of them.

"I believe we are drifting away from the purpose of this interrogation." They both sighed, but didn't speak more and Gredrick looked back toward Rayne.

"I accept your explanation," he said evenly.

"The truthsayers have given no indication that your words are false. Also, I believe we have heard enough for now to reach a verdict." The moment the words left his mouth, Rayne's stomach tightened heavily. Duke Hellar nodded after giving Gredrick a sharp look, then turned to Rayne.

"Why don't you get out of here, forsaken? We will discuss the matter privately and call you back once a decision has been made."

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