Chapter 1414 (1/2)
Hydie stood next to Derek outside the interrogation room with her arms folded. They had been standing like statues for almost a half-hour, staring through the false mirror at the captured man in the goatee while he sat with his head bowed. Derek’s brow was furrowed as he considered the man.
Honestly, Hydie couldn’t stand it anymore. “What? What is it?”
Derek’s frown remained an immovable presence on his face. “This is… strange. We need to be careful.”
Despite Hydie’s previous boredom and Derek’s perpetual gloominess, she felt a spark of excitement. “Yea… we heard the rumors… but to think we would actually find the perp in such a short amount of time… hehehe, if he hadn’t tried to attack that kid while his older brother was upstairs… that fool-”
Derek’s gaze turned sharp. “...if he hadn’t, a fifteen-year-old would have died, Hydie. Why the hell are you laughing?”
“I…” Hydie flushed. Shame devoured her excitement as quickly as it had arrived. Her fingers gripped the still cuffs of her Order Ducis uniform. “I just meant… this is just like a crime show. Of course, I don’t actually want someone to die-”
“Then take this seriously. This man… he hasn’t tried to leave at all. Something strange is going on right now,” Derek’s gaze went back to the man within the room. “Since you love true crime so much… how well do you understand due process?”
“Err…” Hydie scratched the side of her head. Inexplicably, her nails caught on a small imperfection and ripped open a gash on the side of her face. Her mouth twisted as she produced a tissue to dab at the blood. “Due process… is lawyer related stuff, right? All the courtrooms and the judges. Honestly, I wasn’t so into that portion…”
Derek chuckled, which did a lot to rid Hydie of the anxiety she held in her heart since Derek had glared at her for laughing earlier. “Well… yes. Lawyer stuff. But more specifically, Due Process is related to the actions that a State can justifiably take against its citizens. In this case… This Lazlo Derran came to Kharon on a work visa that expired several months ago. As such… it would have been easy to just kick him out of the city and make him someone else’s problem, under normal circumstances.
“But now he’s attacked a minor with deadly force. Even worse, it was done in a very public way. That street was drenched in blood this morning. Even if word hasn’t spread yet, it’s only a matter of time. And when that happens… well, Kharon as a city will want justice.” Derek continued to stare through at the perpetrator within the room. “If we knew his affiliations, we could apply political pressure and use that as an outlet to alleviate Kharon’s thirst for justice. But as it is… we only have him.”
“So what?” Hydie asked. “Since he doesn’t have any backing… doesn't’ that make it easier? Just… punish him. We have laws in Kharon. What’s the punishment for using deadly force on a minor.”
“True… we have laws. And the punishment for his crime… is either imprisonment or having his Class destroyed.” Derek said slowly. He raised his hand toward the fake mirror in front of him as though to touch it, then stopped himself at the last second. His hand lowered back to his side. “But it isn’t that he doesn’t have backing; he just won’t speak of it now. I have no doubt that as soon as we make a final decision on his punishment, some entity will show up and make a stink. Considering the bloody scene… I have no doubt the tribunal will vote to cripple his Class.”
Hydie rubbed the bridge of her nose. This was… not the sort of crime drama that she had in mind during the pulse-pounding chase. “Well fine, let’s just throw him off of Kharon and forget about him… or otherwise, don't we have the backing of Randidly Ghosthound? Who would try and pick a bone with his city?”
“Randidly Ghosthound does not want Kharon to become the sort of city where the strongest individual can enforce any sort of justice they want,” Derek answered quietly. “Keeping him here and punishing him… Kharon doesn’t have a codified process for its justice; it really hasn’t needed to yet. Releasing him… people won’t like that. Stalling until we can make a framework to deal with him… is a morally questionable option. Honestly… now that we’ve caught him… it feels like we are actually the ones who have been caught.”
“Crippling a Class… it is a fraught method.” Derek cracked his knuckles and turned away from the interrogation room. “This is a test. Someone is sounding out the depths of Kharon with this man. Seeing what sort of spirit we have.”
“So what do we do to stop such a sinister plot?” Hydie asked. Her imagination quickly shifted from crime drama to international spy thriller. Perhaps they would need to meet a contact in a casino…?
Derek chuckled again. “The one good thing about being at our level is we might sometimes worry about the high-level stuff, but it isn’t our job to solve it. For now… we just go interrogate him. See if we can find out any details.”
“Oh. OH!” Hydie’s expression brightened as she hurried after Derek. “So are we doing good cop bad cop, or…?”
*****
From the very beginning, Tim had been relatively unsure about Delilah’s ‘sure-fire plan to have Tim not get bullied’ in the weird country that the Ghosthound had taken him to learn Engraving. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure he had been bullied in that first day. But after making Tim talk about it, Delilah announced that she would accompany Tim to that place next time.
He needed her protection, she had claimed. Tim knew she was just bored. But he didn’t mind. Seeing Delilah was… energizing somehow. Her determination and energy was infectious. And considering the difficulty of Engraving, he could use all the extra help he could get.
A few tantrums later, the Ghosthound threw his hands up in the air and Delilah was brought along with him as the Ghosthound teleported them to Tim’s new teacher, Lucretia. Honestly, Tim quite liked Lucretia. She smiled a lot and had hair that was a lovely lilac color. Even when Tim had needed her to explain things several times the prior day, she was always patient with him.
The only problem was her other students. As someone who had recently moved, Tim had some recent experience reading the attitudes of other children around him. And from the jump, the children of Lucretia did not appreciate Tim’s existence. Their intent gazes had followed him as Randidly Ghosthound took him to meet Lucretia.