Chapter 265: Opportunistic Opposition

The trio of people on horseback—iron titans, considering they were all in Dark Plate—stared down at us. Ainash had already drawn her whip, Erani took a few steps back, and Sylvie slid to the side, away from us, as if to say ‘I’m not with these guys!’

They looked between us for a moment, then the one in front spoke—a hollow, feminine voice. “Where is Annor Ton?”

I blinked. They didn’t recognize me? I was wearing Light Plate instead of Dark Plate, but if they knew both suits of armor were summoned by the same Spell, surely they would’ve instantly known I was the same person.

My mind went back to what Index had said. They used a Spell other than Ethereal Armor to summon their sets of Dark Plate. So then, that Spell must’ve only summoned Dark Plate—not given a choice between the two. They had no idea their target was standing right in front of them.

“Why do you want to know?” I asked. “Also, how do you know his name?”

I was genuinely confused about that second thing. Maybe they’d caught the name ‘Annor’ from a conversation I’d had nearby, but I didn’t remember saying that last name aloud for a while.

“We did not ask you for a question,” the woman in front responded. “We asked you for an answer. Where is your ally?”

Sylvie took a breath. “He actually ran off in the middle of the night. After his conversation with one of you guys, he got scared and went off west. Opposite the direction we’re headed.”

“No, he did not,” the front woman said. Her horse took a step forward. “We saw him leave town with your group—minus this man in the shining armor, interestingly. Who are you?”

Okay, they had a pretty good information network. That said, they at least didn’t know where I was currently. So I was safe from attack—or whatever they wanted to do to me. But, standing here in Light Plate, my face was showing. And even if they didn’t identify that I was the same person as Annor, with the information network they had, they definitely would soon figure out who this face belonged to. Arlan Nota, the fugitive from the Koinkar Kingdom.

So then, if they’d figure it out soon…why not get ahead of things? At the very least, it would probably start quite a long conversation, and give us some time to figure out what to do regarding their Annor question.

“Ainash,” I messaged, “tell mother I’m telling them my name.”

“Well?” she asked, staring at me. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

Erani glanced over at me, curious, but made no move to stop me.

“My name is Arlan Nota,” I answered.

A moment of silence passed, broken for me by Index’s laughter.

“Man,” it said, “you should see their faces. All three of them just had their minds totally blown!”

What do you think of this move? I asked it. You didn’t tell me not to, so I assume you approve?

“I’m not an expert on negotiating. But your reasoning seems sound. Distract them with new info that they’d probably end up getting anyway. And if it makes them want to kill you, they were probably gonna do that anyway, so nothing’s really risked.”

“Is this some sort of trick?” the woman in front asked, her voice sounding like she was trying to hide her bewilderment. “Who are you, really?”

I chuckled. “I really am who I say I am. You don’t recognize me? I’m sure you’ve seen countless depictions of my face sent over here by those Demons hunting me.”

She stared at me. “Yes. The Demons. Well, I suppose if I’m speaking with the supposed expert on the situation, do you mind elaborating on why they want you dead? They never did explain that part of things very clearly.”

“Primarily because it’s inconvenient that I exist,” I said. “There was this incident in the beginning where I killed a Demon that had been attacking my allies, and they got all pissy about that, but I think at this point it’s become more personal for at least a few of them.”

“A personal feud. That’s what’s caused the quickest downfall of an entire kingdom in the past several hundred years? What has the entire empire scrambling to defend themselves in what they predict to be a war of worldly proportions?”

“Well, I get that it sounds ridiculous when you say it like that, but—”

“How could you ever expect me to believe that?” she asked. “You are clearly not Arlan Nota, as you clearly have just invented the most ridiculous lie you could think of to answer my question. The kingdom themselves gave an answer when they issued the bounty on your hand: that you have committed several crimes against both Demonkind and Humankind, and that you are a threat to the continued existence of the world. That you, if you are found in our empire, are surely plotting to overthrow the highest level of government and destroy us from within.”

The iron titan to the left of this central woman led his horse forward, looking down at me as well. “My lady, I feel that, regardless of the situation, killing this one would be best for our situation. If he is or is not who he claims he is, he’s better off dead. And either way, he will make a good example to show these other three what will happen to them if they do not tell us the truth when we get back to our original matter.”

“I promise I don’t have any terrorist plans or whatever,” I said. “Really, I’m just here to try and escape the Demons. Which, by the way, have you considered that they maybe lied? Y’know, evil world-dominating Demons tend to have the motivation to tell a fib every now and then.”

“Ah, the classic. ‘Everyone but me is lying!’” the woman mocked. “Unfortunately, whether or not you’re telling the truth, you are clearly on the losing side. And we do not typically side with losers.”

“I’m on the side of the empire,” I said. “That’s the losing side, according to you?”

The man on the side just chuckled atop his horse, like I’d said something funny without knowing it. 

I sighed. “Alright, if we’re gonna fight, let’s just get on with it. No sense in wasting time when we’ve got this whole Thunderbird thing to do after this.”

He shook his head as the woman’s horse stepped forward. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?”

“Uh, Arlan,” Sylvie said, “I’m no expert in negotiating with powerful people—actually, wait, I literally am—but you probably shouldn’t actively goad them into a fight.”

I looked at the trio of people, noting that the woman in front had drawn two glowing daggers, wielding one in each hand. Sylvie was right—I’d certainly rather get out of this without wasting Health, Mana, and possibly even a use or two of Time Loop—but I wasn’t sure what I could say to get out of this. I prepared to set my Spells loose at the tiniest hint of movement from my enemy.

Then, from beside me, I heard Erani take a deep breath and speak in a loud, confident voice. “Excuse me. How are you going to figure out how Annor obtained one of your suits of armor?”

The woman stopped, looking at her. “What?”

“How are you going to get the answer to that question? It’s obviously why you’re going through so much effort to find and question us, after all. I assume your plan is to get us to yield and give up his location, and then you’ll go over there and…what? Torture him?”

“What are you getting at? Are you begging us to spare him? If it will make you feel better, we will keep him alive through the process as long as you give up his location now, without—”

“You misunderstand. I’m not begging in any way,” Erani said. “I’m criticizing your approach. How, exactly, do you expect him to tell the truth in the middle of torture? Normally, torture functions well when you’re more immediately able to check a person’s answer to see if they’re telling the truth. For example, you torturing us for the location of Annor works perfectly well; we tell you a place, you go and look, and if he isn’t there, you know for sure we were lying and can ask again. But with asking something that only Annor could ever know the answer to, and that you can’t really check the truthfulness of, there’s no way for you to counteract the obvious downside of torture—people will make up whatever lies they possibly can to get out of pain.”

The woman scoffed. “You don’t think we have Truth Stones?”

“You don’t think we can’t work around Truth Stones?” Erani retorted. “Those things are a way to control the rabble and you know it. Any mid-Level Classer worth their XP has some sort of method prepared to beat them. How do you think we snuck a wanted fugitive like Arlan into the Empire without him being detected?”

She was technically giving up information here, but considering nobody had started tearing each other apart yet, she was certainly a lot more effective than I was at this. I supposed I was more skilled at escalating situations, not calming them down.

“What’s your proposition, then?” the woman asked. “You’re clearly not saying all of this because you’d like your last words to be a conversation about the upsides and downsides of enhanced interrogation. Supposedly you’re prepared to give us an alternative? Perhaps, if you’re prepared to reimburse us our damages, I could let you get away with telling us the method he used yourself, and you all get to leave with your lives.”

“No, we will not be doing that,” Erani said. “I was thinking of an exchange of different information.”

“And what would that be?”

“You’re currently speaking to Arlan Nota and his close allies, who have exclusive information about the goings-on of the Koinkar Kingdom and the Demons who currently control it. You are, as I understand things, part of a rather power-hungry group of people. So, I could imagine how being informed on the weak points of a falling kingdom could interest you—places you could attack, exploit, and eventually take over.”

“Or we could just kill him and turn in his head for a generous reward.”

“If you’re confident about the Demons paying that reward out to you. Which, considering I’m standing here next to my partner, I’m sure you can tell who I trust more in this situation. The Koinkar Kingdom is a valuable piece of land that is currently much more up for grabs than it ever has been. Would you rather you take control of it, or someone else? I’m sure you have some sort of rival who you would like to get a lead over in this race. And if you do not have one, the Demons are the enemy of Humanity; they are very much the rivals of all of us.”

“So that’s the information you’re offering in exchange for your life? Some nebulous ‘weak points’ of a kingdom that’s currently, according to you, in control of some of the most dangerous beings currently walking the Overworld? And you expect me and the rest of my allies to find it more valuable to take the risk of capturing that entire kingdom, rather than just killing you where you stand? Young lady, I do not believe you understand the position you’re in.”

Erani took a shaky breath, obviously having run out of steam in this negotiation. But she’d taken it in a very good direction; she just didn’t quite have the improvisational skills to stick the landing. If we could turn these iron titans against the Demons—even if they were motivated selfishly and had no wish to help us—it would still put a massive roadblock in the way of the mounting invasion, and may even solve the entire problem without us ever needing to step in harm’s way.

I took a step forward. “How about one little tidbit of info to tide you over? We know something that I’m confident will change your mind.”

She sighed. “I’m beginning to think you’re stalling for help to arrive. Or perhaps you’re keeping us busy while Annor Ton escapes somewhere? I’ll give you five seconds to impress me, and if you can’t, I will—”

“Koinkar is dead.”

There was a long pause—much longer than five seconds. Eventually she spoke. “...What?”

“King Koinkar has been killed,” I repeated. “I’m not sure how, but it was probably by the Demons. I’ve spoken to a royal guard herself who believed without a shadow of a doubt that he’d been killed and replaced by some shapeshifter, or his corpse was being puppeted by some other form of Demon magic. Either way, he’s no longer around. There is, in fact, no rightful ruler of the Koinkar Kingdom left. The only reason the Demons have any hold on that place is because the citizenry has no idea.”

She backed up by a few steps, clearly lost in thought. And the two other iron titans flanking her were as silent as she was.

“Feel free to do whatever you can to check that info; I’m certain it’s correct. And there’s a lot more where it came from regarding the information we have about the politics of the Demons themselves. We know about infighting, certain subordinates being booted from the ranks, and which Humans have been granted high-up positions within the Demon ranks. Feel free to kill us. But if you want any of that info, we need to be alive, and we need to be cooperative. Leave us alone right now, and forgive whatever grudge you have against Annor for wearing your armor, and you can have it all later on.”

“What’s the timeline for this other information you speak of? When would you deliver that to us?”

“We’ll barter for it,” I said, feeling the swell in my chest of knowing the hooks have been sunk in. “When we need something from you, we’ll seek you out and give you some more info in return for your help.”

“No,” she said. “Everything you know in exchange for your lives. That is the only deal I will be running by the council. And do not even attempt to offer such an insulting deal again, if you value your life.”

I laughed and took a step forward. “Alright. Let me offer you the same deal once more. You get what I just told you, and we’ll give you the rest in exchange for whatever services we may need in the future. So? You gonna kill me now?”

I felt Erani’s hand on my arm, squeezing in a way I understood to mean something along the lines of What the fuck are you doing? But I held my gaze at her. I knew her type; I knew how her entire group functioned. It was the exact same as any bandit gang—act as tough as you can and pretend you’ll never back down, and everyone will think that there’s no option but to submit to your every demand in order to avoid a fight. But, just like any group of bandits, when the chips were thrown down, and they were faced with someone equally as unwilling to back down—someone whose strength they had no idea of…

“As a courtesy, I will try to see what the council thinks of your offer,” the woman said. “But understand that this very well may end with you waking up with a knife in your throat. You have taken a major risk, treating us the way you have. You had better hope to the gods that it pays off.”

With that, she and the two people flanking her turned their horses around and took off. I breathed out, a satisfied smile spreading across my face as I started to feel the thumping of my heart that always came from a nice, intense conversation.

“Arlan,” Erani whispered to me, “‘wake up with a knife in your throat?’ Are you sure that went well?”

I shook my head. “They aren’t gonna do any of that. Wouldn’t have told us if they were. No, that whole threat was just done to save face since I called her bluff. She was happy to take the offer I gave her and was just trying to get more out of us through the use of threats.”

“We are not killing bad guys?” Ainash asked, watching them walk away. I almost felt bad for her, feeling the disappointment dripping from her voice. Poor girl had gotten herself all hyped up for a fight, and then the situation was resolved peacefully.

“Not for now, at least,” I responded. “But don’t worry. We’ve got some monsters to kill anyway.”