CHAPTER 141: INTERROGATION I

Interrogation I

"They want to see you guys." Osho and the others who had been chatting in a room that resembled a small lounge were interrupted when Mrs Jane stepped in and spoke.

She looked as impassive as ever, and she gave no one any signs of what she was feeling. Whether she was nervous or confident, they did not know.

The group shared a glance before nodding. They’d been preparing for this moment for the last few days, saying anything now would be pointless.

They all got up and followed Mrs Jane out of the room, and soon enough, they were led to a set of doors. According to Mrs Jane, these were interrogation rooms used to interrogate pretty high-profile criminals, so they all had adequate protection one would expect.

Osho wasn’t exactly fine with being interrogated like he was a criminal, but if going along with it would make this unsavory situation pass over them, then he’d gladly do it.

Moreover, if his plan worked, then the Citadel would gain a lot from this.

He felt slightly bad for the envoys who’d come to evaluate them as well as the students as the entire recruitment process had been put on hold for a week for the preliminary stages of the investigation to elapse.

Yes, preliminary, as they were going to investigate the corruption issue quite thoroughly, and the initial guess was that it would take a few months, perhaps longer.

Osho had no issues with this as the entire ordeal was simply weird. How they managed to infiltrate the Citadel ansodo so much damage needed to be studied... well, the Abyssal Scrounger was easier to explain as it could have easily just spread through a Beast Tamer in the wilderness who returned and multiplied from there, but how the Harbinger had emerged from Black Rock Chain without being detected prior to its emergence was just too fishy.

But those weren’t important right now.

Mrs Jane gestured to a door for each of them, and Osho took a breath.

’I still don’t see why I can’t come out...’ Gale grumbled within the beast space, and Osho said reassuringly.

’Trust me, alright? I need to handle this myself. Okay?’ He asked gently through their bond.

’... Fine. But the moment I feel like anything is wrong, I’ll come out and handle it.’ Gale replied, and the feeling he got from their bond let him know that he wasn’t bluffing.

’I don’t doubt that.’ He hummed and stood in front of the metal door that slid open.

As soon as it did, Osho was greeted by a pretty dreary-looking grey room. There was a single table with two chairs sitting opposite each other. There really wasn’t much to say about it.

What caught his eye, though, was the woman who sat patiently on one of the chairs.

Her hair was a deep shade of purple, to the point that it was nearly black, and it had been tied into a ponytail. She had a tall stature, as even while sitting down it was clear that she was a tall individual.

Her skin was slightly tanned but smooth, and she wore a simple black long-sleeve shirt and pants that accentuated her figure quite nicely, but Osho had a feeling that those weren’t normal clothes.

As soon as he entered, the woman turned to him, her dark purple eyes briefly inspecting him before she gestured to the other seat wordlessly.

Osho complied and sat opposite her.

As soon as he sat, he looked up to see her staring at him impassively, but intently.

Osho immediately knew what she was trying to do as he simply held her gaze, his body language betraying not even a hint of anxiety as he didn’t look away, though, his thoughts wandered a bit.

A few minutes later, the woman nodded, seemingly satisfied with... something, and spoke, her voice firm but not unpleasant as she took out a tablet, most likely to note down certain things and compare what he said to information she already had

"You must be Osho, correct? My name is Jessica." She said, and Osho nodded.

"Pleased to meet you." He replied politely.

She nodded at this and continued.

"We have a limited amount of time, so I will be a bit straightforward with my questions, if that’s alright." She phrased it as a question, but her tone indicated that it wasn’t.

Osho just nodded and let her continue, aware that she most likely had some means to tell if he was lying or not, even if he didn’t know what or where said means were.

"Alright. First question, could you please recount your first experience with the Skyblight Harbinger? Try not to leave out any details." She asked, and Osho nodded, his head tilting slightly before he nodded.

"It started during a training excursion our school took. We were halfway through an exercise when my beast noticed that something was off. We didn’t think anything of it at first, but then we saw the darkening clouds in the distance as well as the madness-inducing particles. Then we received a warning of an incoming Beast Tide..." Osho recounted the experience as best as he could, answering honestly as he left out no details, including how Gale managed to suppress the Harbinger with his bloodline long enough for Mrs Jane to deal a debilitating blow to the creature.

When he finished, Jessica showed no signs of surprise at his words, despite his pretty much saying that his Novice ranked beast managed to suppress an Elite rank beast that was an anomaly by pretty much all standards.

She typed some things on her tablet before continuing.

"Can you recount what you did during the time between then and the next instance you face the Harbinger?" She asked again, and Osho once more nodded as he began recounting what had happened, from the training he and Gale did individually to eventually breaking through to the next rank. However, he left how he created a ’tonic’ for Gale during that time.

"I see. Before we proceed, I need to ask, did you visit the Black Market at any point within that timeframe?" She asked, not considering if he even knew about the black market.

Osho shook his head.

"I see. Did you visit the Black Market at any point before then?" She asked, and Osho nodded.

"Can I ask why?"

"I’d like to keep that private." Osho responded curtly.

Jessica nodded, as though she’d been expecting a similar answer.

"Alright, then. Back on track, how would you describe the Skyblight Harbinger in detail?" She asked, and Osho paused for a moment as he genuinely considered his answer.

"... Wrong." He replied.

"Could elaborate?"

"It felt wrong. Everything about its existence just felt wrong. Which is why I find the ’blight’ in its name to be fitting. That thing wasn’t meant to exist. Its very presence was a stain on the world that needed to be removed. Appearance-wise, it reminded me of a Chimera. Its ’base’ body, so to speak, was that of an avian, but it had several traits that didn’t belong there. There were scales on some parts, tails that didn’t belong on a bird, certain misshapen limbs that looked almost stitched on, and an almost sick countenance despite how much power it wielded.

Speaking of, its abilities truly made no sense. It obviously went down the route of dominating the sky, but it was too inconsistent. It had physical strength unnatural for an avian-type beast and could unleash sonic waves. There’s also the particles that could induce madness and the corruption that a as tied to its wind and lightning magic that had the effect of infecting anything with pure Mana that it touched. Not to mention how it could fire its feathers like they were bullets and control the weather, making it a walking and flying unnatural disaster There was also its absurd regeneration as it was capable of healing from wounds that would be fatal for any other creature of the same rank. Moreover, its ability to control beasts was uncanny. I’m not well-versed on how large a beast tide led by a powerful beast can be. Or at least, I wasn’t, but after the beast tides happened and I did my research, I realized that the Harbinger was abnormal in that aspect as well. Then there was the final thing it did where it seemed to somehow give up its regenerative abilities in return for boosting its strength, allowing it to speed blitz all the Expert Ranks who participated in that fight." He went on a bit of a tangent as he said how he genuinely felt about the creature, and it was a lot.

Jessica didn’t interrupt him once and simply typed away, reminding him of Lady Haggai a bit with how she seemed to record anything she found interesting.

’I wonder why she doesn’t just use a sound recorder.’ He thought vaguely just as Jessica looked up at him.

"Thank you for that. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you recount the events leading up to your confrontation with the Abyssal Scrounger during the practical exam?" She asked, and Osho felt like her attention became a lot sharper.

It only made sense, though. Technically speaking, he was his only witness for that event.

With a breath, he started to speak.