The man’s appearance was revealed to them as they got closer. He was a middle-aged mercenary, to no one’s surprise, and he was wearing leather armor and uniform commonly seen from the Adventurer’s Guild in the region. A long spear was thrust into his midsection and impaled the man against the tree a few meters from the ground.

Like Red observed earlier, he was still conscious, drawing ragged breaths and holding onto the wooden shaft of the spear with both hands. Blood pooled under his feet, and it was surprising that the man was still alive at all, not to mention conscious.

His eyes were barely open, and he didn’t notice Red and Domeron’s approach until they were almost right next to him. When their figures registered in his mind, it was like he receive a shock to his system.

He started to mutter with a raspy voice. “H-Help… Please.”

The duo didn’t respond to him immediately. Red, for one, was examining the spear, and the wound inflicted upon the man.

He looked at Domeron and shook his head. “It’s through his spine.”

Domeron sighed and looked back at the man. “Do you feel your legs?”

“H-Help me…” His words didn’t seem to register in the mercenary’s mind.

The swordsman shook his head and nodded to Red. “Look around. See what you can find.”

Red followed his instructions. For one, the first thing he noticed were the tracks in the area. Whereas they had yet to see anything some kilometers back, right now the youth found several footprints in the ashen ground - a total of nine of them. The thing that concerned him the most, however, was that some of these didn’t seem to belong to humans.

Red frowned, but he kept investigating his surroundings. The tracks led towards the rough direction he and Domeron were heading earlier, that being towards the center of this dead forest.

The youth didn’t find anything else, so he returned to Domeron, only to find the swordsman inspecting the spear with a curious expression.

He looked back at Red as he approached. “Anything?”

“Nine individuals.” Red said. “Not all humans.”

“Not all humans?” Domeron frowned.

The youth explained. “Five toes, human shape, but bare feet, with clawed toes. Two of those.”

“… Could it be?”

Red nodded. “Ghouls. They’re working together with a necromancer.”

Domeron was silent for a long while, reflecting upon this revelation with an ugly expression. The youth himself wasn’t too sure what to think either, so he waited for the swordsman’s input first.

Their quiet reflection was interrupted by another groan from the man impaled in the tree. “P-Please… Help me.”

Domeron’s frown deepened, and he turned around to glare at the man. “What happened here?”

The man continued to mumble in an almost incoherent manner. “H-Help me…”

The swordsman sighed and grabbed the spear impaling the man with one hand. “This has gone through your spine. Even if we somehow managed to take it out without killing you, I’m fairly certain you will never walk again.”

The only response he got was some cries of lamentation.

Domeron continued, looking over at Red. “Now, this is a professional’s work. Using something like a spear to pierce someone’s spine without killing them? Not many people I know can do it.”

Red frowned. “Rickard?”

It was the bandit leader he met a long time ago back at the inheritance world. Since that fateful day, the youth had not heard anything about the man, but he doubted this meant he was dead.

“It’s possible.” Domeron nodded. “He did have a penchant for torturing his subordinates, too.” He looked back at the mercenary. “So, was it Rickard that did this to you?”

Tears of pain and suffering were pooling in the man’s eyes. “P-Please… Just help me.”

Aurelia snorted. “This is a waste of time! If you were at the Lesser Ring Realm, I could have already taught you how to extract memories from people!”

Red ignored her.

Domeron sighed with a disappointed expression. “This is the problem with dying people. You can’t really force answers out of them the old-fashioned way.”

With those words, the swordsman approached the impaled mercenary.

“We can’t save you, do you understand?” He said right next to the man’s face. “The spear is through your spine. We can’t just pull it out without the proper equipment or healing pills to compensate for your blood loss. Even then, you will never walk again. Is it clear enough to you yet? You are going to die here.”

The man let out a cry of pain as he heard those words, staring at Domeron with a pleading look. “Ugh… I-I don’t… I don’t want to die.”

“Don’t look at me like that.” Domeron said. “I wasn’t the one who did this. Whoever did this to you was quite deliberate. A precise wound, enough to be fatal in the long-run but not enough to kill immediately. They wanted you to suffer for as long as possible in this position before succumbing to blood-loss. Maybe if we arrived here some hours earlier, you could still be saved, but I’m not a clairvoyant, am I?”

The mercenary continued to cry as the weight of what was happening to him became clearer.

Domeron snapped his fingers in front of the man’s face to get his attention. “Now, don’t go wandering off just yet. We can’t save you, but it doesn’t mean we can’t help you get justice. Do you understand?”

The mercenary moved his head ever so slightly, as if to nod.

“Now tell me, what is your name?” Domeron asked.

“H-Harold…” the man said.

The swordsman smiled. “Now, that’s good, Harold. Tell me, do you have a family?”

“I… A-a son.”

“Does he live in town?”

The man shook his head. “T-The… Capital.”

“That’s for the better.” Domeron nodded. “At least he won’t be caught up on this. That being said, we don’t want him to live his whole life without getting closure on what happened to his father, do we?”

The man looked increasingly desperate. “P-Please…”

“Now, keep following me here, Harold. For us to help you get justice, we first need to know who did this to you. So tell me, do you know their name?”

“I… I-” Before the man could finish his sentence, he fell into a coughing fit, which he only recovered from almost thirty seconds later.

Domeron waited patiently for his reply. “Who was it, Harold?”

The man tried to speak, but all they could hear was indiscernible noises, which made Domeron frown.

“Were you accompanied by a necromancer?” Red asked.

The man nodded with weak movements.

“Were you also accompanied by ghouls?”

The man hesitated, but also nodded.

Domeron frowned. “Was Rickard with you?”

The mercenary shook his head this time.

The swordsman was a bit surprised, and he looked over at Red.

The youth nodded. “He’s not lying.”

Domeron sighed and looked back at the man. “Are you working for Gustav?”

The man shook his head.

The swordsman was silent at that. He and Red exchanged glances, and in their mind they already knew what the next question would be.

“Are you working for the imperials?” Domeron asked.

As soon as the man made to move his head to answer, there was a blinding flash of light in front of them. This was immediately followed an instant later by a deafening rumbling that shook Red to his very soul.

Both he and Domeron were thrown back a fair distance away from where they were standing. For what felt like an eternity, all Red could hear was a ringing noise in his ear, and he couldn’t tell which was was down or up. He was completely dazed, but he felt a familiar tingling sensation in his body, as if resonating with something.

“.. ed… Red! Wak… up!”

As his hearing started to recover, he heard Aurelia’s frantic voice in his ears. He shook his head, as if trying to dissipate the confusion that struck him.

“Finally!” Aurelia said. “I thought that lightning fried your brain!”

Red was still confused. “… Lightning?”

He looked around to where he had just stood. There, in the dead tree that the man was impaled at, there were smoking remains of a human corpse suspended by a likewise charred spear. In his dazed state, it took Red a few seconds to understand that this corpse was the mercenary they were just speaking to.

“Ugh… What the hell?!” Domeron’s voice came from a few meters away from him.

The swordsman, likewise, looked at the corpse with complete confusion and bewilderment.

“The lightning struck as soon as the man was about to answer something regarding the imperials.” Aurelia said. “I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.”

Red frowned, but by the side it seemed like Domeron already had the same conclusion.

The swordsman grunted. “Goddamn Imperials!”

Neither he nor Red seemed to have been wounded by the lightning, but being this close to this kind of explosion was disorientating, to say the least. Which was why the youth was rather surprised by how quickly Domeron seemed to recover, considering he was right next to the man when the lightning struck.

Red also got up and approached the man’s body. A quick examination of the mercenary’s charred corpse was more than enough to tell him there was nothing left intact in his body.

Domeron also approached him from the side. “Well, at least we have confirmation about who’s behind this.”

Red frowned. “They can just do that? Strike people with lightning?”

“Not as far as I know.” Domeron shook his head. “As far as I know, this must be the result of some kind of magical contract or oath. Perhaps the consequences for breaking it were being struck dead by lightning, which I guess happened when he tried to answer whether he was working for the imperials.”

“Isn’t the lightning pretty much confirmation of our suspicions, anyway?“

“Yes, but I doubt these kinds of oaths make specific distinctions. An act of betrayal is an act of betrayal at the end of the day, and if we knew he was working with the imperials, couldn’t we have used his testimony as evidence about them working with Necromancers?”

Red sighed. “Did they come prepared for every eventuality?”

“Any that we can think of, yes.” Domeron nodded. “We are dealing with a powerful organization that has conquered half of the known continent, kid. You should give up on trying to outsmart them right now.”

“Those are the words of a stupid mortal!” Aurelia said. “With me at your side, who can’t we trick?”

Red didn’t respond to either of them. He looked over at the tracks in his surroundings.

“Do you want to track them?” Red asked.

“Yes.” Domeron nodded.

“They have two ghouls with them.”

Domeron smiled. “With a good plan, we can kill dozens of enemies stronger than us.”

Red frowned. “Why do you think they impaled this mercenary here?”

“I’m not sure.” Domeron shook his head. “Do you want to go ask?

Red sighed. “Lead the way.”