[Kliss Eliza Cessna - Equality Acolyte, the Overseer of Skyisle]

There was only one street in Skyisle. It was called “Longwoods Road”, a very plain name that fit this boring, tiny settlement located in the middle of a forest-covered valley in the Ishikaria mountain range.

The house number 45 at Longwoods Rd belonged to midwife Tamara. It was a ramshackle, decrepit-looking cottage. Mildew-covered, wooden beams precariously hung over red bricks. The structure was very overgrown with green mosses, weeds, and wildflowers. It sagged a little to the right, showing a lack of strong hands in the house.

According to the book of records, Midwife Tamara lived here alone. Her husband died when the Empire had taken Skyisle. He was one of the people that had foolishly attempted to resist the integration. I suspected that similarly, she wasn't a fan of our law and order.

The door of the slanted cottage looked far too small for my tall and fully-armored frame. I wasn’t worried about the local wards. When the Empire conquered Skyisle and replaced their false deity with Equality, our knights had found the Master-Ward-Key amulet in the church. The said amulet granted the local government - the Ishira priests access to any building in the entire village. As the new Overseer of Skyisle, I had inherited the key and had easy, worry-free access to every house in Skyisle. The local wards didn't even see me with it on.

I didn’t even knock on Tamara’s door. The armacus ring on my wrist unfolded itself forward, presenting a handle for me to grab. I flicked the armacus to [Disruption], squeezed the handle with my magisteel-covered wrist and aimed it at the door. It took just a single disruption pulse to blast the door from its hinges. Whoops. I stepped into the cottage, my armor clicking as I bent down to get under the cramped door frame. Damn these rube dwellings!

Midwife Tamara was sitting in her small, pastoral-looking living room. She looked like she was having lunch when I interrupted her meal. She dropped a bagel that she was eating. It rolled across the wooden floor. The cup of tea in her hand started to shake. I gave her a glare from the slit in my helmet.

“O-overseer?” She finally mewled. I saw a reflection of myself in a mirror that hung behind the trembling, old woman. I looked rightfully imposing in my full magisteel armor regalia. I stepped forward, my red cape fluttering behind me.

“Tamara Agatha Skyisle!” I barked. “You stand accused of falsifying information in the book of records. As the Imperial Overseer of Skyisle, it is my prerogative to execute you right here, unless you answer all of my questions.”

Tamara gulped.

“It was you who entered the name ‘Dante Alan Skyisle’ into the book of records, correct?”

“Yes, Overseer,” Tamara whispered, her face turning white in horror as she realized that her crime was exposed.

“Did you change the conception gender of the newborn from a girl to a boy in the book of records?” I demanded, aiming the armacus at her head.

Tamara nodded, tears sparkling at the corner of her eyes.

“Why?” I barked. “Do not attempt to lie to me! My armacus has a truth-seeking runespell!”

“Forgive me, Overseer!” Tamara broke down, tears raining down her face. “My Eye of Evaluation broke! During childbirth it showed me that the child was a boy, not a girl! I… I…”

“Did it?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” Tamara replied, her entire body shaking. “The result it gave was impossible!”

“What sort of a result?” I squinted.

“The boy is level six!” The midwife confessed. “One sixty four in Intelligence, seventy three in Soul!”

“An aberration with an unlocked Soul-Song!” I gritted my teeth. “So, you mean to tell me that five months ago you encountered an actual aberration and attempted to conceal its existence from the Overseer?”

The midwife cowered.

“A cursed child!? In my domain?!” I roared. “Idiot woman! Did you think you could get away with it?! What did the Alans pay you for this crime?”

“N… nothing. I was paid my usual rate! G-Georgi p-paid me for a new Eye of Evaluation!” Tamara cried. “I’m certain that it’s just a mistake, Overseer!”

I flipped through the runes on the armacus using my thumb and shot a lethargy spell at her head. She slumped down and her tea cup fell to the floor and rolled away, splattering tea everywhere.

“I will be back to deal with you,” I spat, sparing a glance to the passed-out body of the midwife. In Skyisle I was the judge and the executioner. Her crime was severe enough for me to end her life then and there, but I didn’t want to kill her. Skyisle didn’t exactly have a prison and there was only one skilled healer in the Village. With a deep sigh I steadied myself and decided to fine her with a hefty, ongoing levy. It was her first offence, after all. Maybe if she had to donate half of her income to the Church of Equality for a year she would learn a valuable lesson.

I marched out of her decrepit cottage, heading uphill to 117 Longwoods.

Cottage number 117 looked far better than most, but still quite rustic in terms of its architectural design. According to the Overseer’s log the house was inhabited by [Cassandra Alana Skyisle - Agromancer: Lv 20] and [Georgi Alan Agamemnon - Carpenter: LV 20].

I sent a wide, weak [Identify] pulse through the door, checking for life-signs. The ward offered no resistance to me. It was unlocked by the Master-Key amulet hanging on my chest. The answer came back from the armacus. [Two adults, one newborn.] Perfect.

I evaluated the door. It looked new and very solid. A disruption spell might not be able to handle something that was made by a specialized Carpenter if it was reinforced with his magic. I aimed the armacus at the keyhole and shot an [Unlock] spell at the lock. The door clicked open. I turned the thick, metal handle, swung the door open and stepped inside.

I knew that two level twenty’s could not fight against a level 24 mage in full magisteel armor, wielding a fully charged armacus stacked with level 88 spells. The patheticness of the locals was my advantage and the reason why a single Imperial Overseer was enough to handle this tiny, remote settlement.

A woman yelped as I stepped inside.

“Cassandra Alana Skyisle,” I said as I slowly turned towards the sound of her voice. When I saw the woman, I aimed the armacus at her head.

“I find you guilty of concealing an aberration. A most vile crime against the tenets of Equality! How do you plead?”

“Dante isn’t an aberration!” The silver-haired, blue eyed girl yelled back, a destruction spell forming in her right hand. “He’s a hero! He’s destined to…”

I didn’t let her finish. The armacus truth-sense rune told me that she believed that the aberration was a hero, just like many other fools before her. Guided by my Vow of the Overseer, my thumb automatically switched the rune to the one of destruction, to match the threat level of her spell.

She suddenly moved. My level was higher - I was faster than her. She was a threat to my life. Aided by my Vow, my finger pressed the trigger and Cassandra’s head detonated like a ripe watermelon, showering the room in blood.

I blinked. I had severely underestimated what a Level 88 rune-spell would do to a level 20 human.

“Cass! No!” A man screamed from the kitchen. It was undoubtedly her husband. The brown haired, hazel eyed man rushed into the living room. I aimed the armacus at him.

“Georgi Alan Skyisle, I find you guilty of concealing an aberration!” I yelled, my voice shaking. “How do you plead?”

“Cass! Cass!” He wept over his wife’s body. “By Ishira!” He looked back at me. “How… how could you?! You… you’re a monster!”

“Concealing an aberration is a crime against the tenets of Equality,” I repeated the script, suddenly feeling very nauseous. “The law is quite clear on this matter. You’ve lived under the wings of the Empire for seven years now.”

"My son isn't an aberration, you damned Redcape!" Georgi barked.

"Is he not level six?" I asked, my voice trembling. I tried to remain calm as I was taught at the Academia of Magic.

"He is," the man muttered, glaring at me with hate-filled eyes. He was undoubtedly planning to hurt me.

"So you admit to concealing an aberration?" I inquired. “You must realize that the punishment for this crime is death and…”

He rushed at me, a muscular hand aimed to strike me down. The Overseer's Vow held my hand steady, helped me press on the trigger ring. His body sheared in two, splashing my armor with a torrent of blood. I stared down at the fallen man as life departed from his eyes.

I shook my head, trying my best not to have a breakdown. I didn’t think that the locals would actually attack me so openly. Didn’t think that they had actually conceived and hid an aberration. This wasn’t like murdering beasts at the Imperial Academia in Cessna. These were people. I had killed a family. I didn’t want to kill people… and yet here I was, a servant of the Empire… the hand of Justice. I stood there, looking at the two bodies that I had decimated.

There was nobody left in the silent cottage to fight. My armacus-armed hand started to tremble. I lowered it. The nausea had built up beyond what I had expected it to. I sniffed, took off my helmet, bent over and threw up.

“I’m sorry…” I whispered to the two dead bodies. Blood was seeping across the living room. “You should have come to the Overseer’s office as soon as you found out. I didn’t want to kill you, but you’ve left me no choice. Forgive me.”

I made the sign of Equality at the bodies.

My words felt hollow, empty. They couldn't hear me. The couple was dead. I blinked, trying not to cry. The helmet in my hands felt heavy. There was just one thing left to do. To find the aberration and to end its life. A child. I had to… end a child.

“I can do this…” I whispered to myself, clipping the helmet to my belt. I didn’t want to put it back on, in case the nausea returned.

I stepped over the body of Georgi, heading deeper into the house. I would probably get my first ruby cross of Noble Heroism for discovering and ending an aberration which my predecessor had missed. The thought of wearing a medal did little to pacify my nausea and apprehension.

I sent another wide, scanning pulse through the armacus checking for life-signs. One ping returned back. Upstairs. The child was upstairs. There was nobody else in the house. My hands trembled.

The sound of a crying baby suddenly started to wail from overhead. I stepped towards the wooden, spiral stairwell, heading up. This was a home and I had ended its inhabitants and was about to end the last one…

“Equality steady my heart,” I prayed as I headed towards the sound of crying.

I stepped into the child’s room. The boy was crying in the crib. I lifted up my arm, aiming the destruction spell. It would be over soon. It wasn’t a human. It was just an aberration.

“F-forgive me.” My hand shook on the trigger. I couldn't press the ring without knowing. I flicked the runes selecting [Identify]. I took a step forward and aimed the armacus at the child. He had silver hair and blue eyes. The armacus' [Identify] spell struck his tiny body. He stopped crying, looking up at me.

[Dante Alan Skyisle - Unassigned LV 8]

“Level eight?!” I gasped, taking a step back in horror. This was a real aberration! A monster wearing human flesh. An undead, ancient ghost that had taken possession of a weak-willed human child.

[-1 in Soul] My Soul-Song resonated as my soul was struck with a terrible ache. My [Soul-Shield] and [Soul-Repair] skills kicked in and the pain ceased. The demon from the Astral Ocean wearing the flesh of a child was trying to feast on my very soul!

Dante looked at me, his piercing, blue eyes filled with absolute hatred. His lips moved as if he was trying to tell me something. I couldn't do it. I couldn't press the trigger even though I knew that this was an aberration.

"Aid me in this time of need," I prayed. The Overseer's Vow responded. My thumb rapidly flicked the armacus back to the [Destruction] rune on its own. I looked away from his eyes as my finger pressed the trigger.