I haven't been down in the dungeons below the Town hall that often. If I recall, the last time I was here was when I was taken for an interrogation. It was during my uncle's death. They asked me what his state of mind was on the days before he left, what weapon he took, who he talked to. I suppose it made sense, but they treated it like a murder case, and not one of many suicides that occured.
It's the same as when I last saw it. A long hall of cobblestone, torches placed haphazardly on the walls. The air was moist, the floor was moist, everything was moist. Mold could grow here without even a thought.
There were four rooms here, two on each side. Each of them were locked behind a heavy steel door that only the head warden, Mr. Liddell had the key to opening. He accompanied us to the prisoner, the Valerian knight that Hana incapacitated and stripped bare. He was in the second room to the left.
The steel door opened with a loud, encompassing whine. As if the very halls wept for what had happened to its prisoner. This was the first time I had a long good look at him.
He was dressed in rags that the villagers had given him after the witch stripped him bare. He wasn't chained, he didn't need to be. He simply sat there, knees to his chest and his arms dangling above it.
He was a balding old man, disheveled, and sweaty. He had a beard that covered the low half of his face, and when he looked up at us, his eyes were still. Filled with determination, "Are you to be my executioner?" He asked me.
Executioner? I never recalled Hana telling me I was going to kill someone. I mean, I've never even harmed someone before let alone kill! "What, no!? No! Hana!?" I turned to her, and all she answered with was a smile.
"Goodness, no! We're not brutes," She replied, that smug smirk didn't irritate the old man like it did with me. He was definitely stronger.
"Valeria will not take kindly to one of their own being taken, they will come here in droves," He then glared at the witch, "They will look for who's responsible, and will destroy those who stand in their way."
"I know that, and I'd love to see them try," her grin was wide, threatening. I didn't know exactly what she had in mind but if it meant slaughter then I'd rather not be a part of it. Then she titled her head back, and sighed, "Sorry, that was a bit too much."
"Huh?"
"What?" Even the old man was surprised at her action.
"Look, I just want you to mentor this kid."
Mentor? Did I hear that right? She kidnapped a man just to get him to mentor me? "What the hell are you saying?" She patted my back twice and pushed me to him. I protested more but she simply ignored it.
"You… you want me to mentor her? Have you gone mad! I will have her head on a stake before you can even have me do anything like that."
The witch sighed, her fingers massaged the bridge of her nose as she summoned her wand and quickly fired an energy beam next to the old man. He flinched, a layer of fear at the face of death, "There, a threat. We can discuss payment later." She spoke with no hesitation.
I just stood there in fear, wondering if the witch would lash out at me next, but she never did. She simply waited for the old man to finish shaking, before he turned to look at me, "D-do I need to care for her too?"
"Eh? No? She can handle herself."
I was sort of offended at her casual remark, but she was right about that, at least. The one thing I have to be careful about regarding the witch was her overestimating me, but if this old man mentored me, then maybe I can reach something similar to what she wanted.
Still, that relied on him. He looked me up and down once more, as if to analyze every fiber of my being. It felt incredibly humiliating, but at least he wasn't a lecher. Not that I know, at least, "She has potential," He said.
I don't know why, but that bit of acknowledgement made me a bit proud of myself. Though I didn't feel like I had anything to be proud of. My only feat so far has been surviving that boar, but then again I only did so because of the witch.
If she had not been there, I would definitely be dead.
I wasn't about to do a huge power-up, that wasn't how this world worked. Then again, I haven't seen much of the world, perhaps things changed? Perhaps I could've survived, if I had that potential.
"Neat! We'll get you arranged and—"
"Wait," The old man said, "That payment. I'd like to discuss it now."
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"HIS DAUGHTER?!" The shelves inside the office room that Hana commandeered shook with the loudness of my voice. Of course I was going to be angry, what he suggested, and what she accepted was nothing more than madness, "You're going to kidnap a child!"
"Well what do you want me to do? No one's going to mentor you for miles, you know? And besides, it's not kidnapping, we're just going to fetch her to her father."
"Her father that's been MISSING for almost a day!"
"News doesn't spread that fast, you know."
She was busy writing something down on a piece of paper, her legs were swaying casually below the chair that's way too big for her. I didn't want to take a peak at it, maybe it was some terrible magic that she was going to cast on me if I didn't comply.
After all, she wanted me to come with her.
"Besides!" She added, "You've never been to Valeria before, have you? This is your chance to be a somewhat worldly person."
"Who the hell cares about worldliness if you're going to turn me into a damn fugitive? Do you want me to kill you?"
"Your tongue is sharp as ever, which is ridiculous since we've only known each other for two days, would you at least be kind to me?"
I slammed my fist on the table, she didn't even flinch. I even saw for a split second that she raised her pen so as to not damage whatever it was she was writing on that paper. It's clear that she was trying to get a rise out of me, but what I despised was the fact that she's doing this for her enjoyment. I was her clown, her terrible clown.
But I did want to see the rest of the world.
I've lived in this village for my whole life. Was this simply another thing that this vile fiend is trying to give me for me to trust her?
I gritted my teeth and stood back, "Fine. This is stupid, though. I'm gonna keep on that idea until you get it in your head."
She smiled, though still didn't look at me, "Stupid ideas tend to get smarter in hindsight, you know?"
"Yeah, maybe in your loony world." I looked out the window of the office. We were on the second floor of the village's town hall and from here we could see the rest of the village, busy at work and rebuilding. I saw Alisa tending to the farms in the distance, assisted by Lilus, I saw the old man—who introduced himself as Michael Carne, sat down by a broken house.
I saw him earlier helping out a bunch of people with rebuilding it, perhaps he was taking a rest. He was charmed too. Everyone was charmed, including me. Then, finally, "Done!" Hana said as she went down her chair, "Give this to your elder, it's instructions on what to do while we're away."
I read the instructions one by one, and was shocked by what I saw, "Hey! Wait!" But she was already gone.