Guilty or Not?

The tension in the air grew until John felt that he was cornered, unable to lie about it any longer. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry... I didn’t realise what it was and as far as I knew, I was the only one in the world with magic,” he confessed as he willed the chastity belt out of his inventory and onto the table.

Surprisingly, this was the first time John had actually seen it out of his inventory. It essentially looked like a metal and leather bikini, but the material seemed a little more flexible than you might expect. As soon as it clattered to the table, Moira’s eyes widened in both shock and horror.

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t have any clue what it was and I was just testing a spell out, and I couldn’t think of any way to give it back. I guess I could have left it next to you in, uhm… never mind, or I could have tried to use the same spell to put it back without your knowledge, but I just never thought and, uhm, yeah,” John rambled.

Moira seemingly ignored his babbling and fished a shield-shaped amulet from under her armour. It reminded him of his own, even sporting a similar golden rose. The amulet grew until Moira was hidden behind it completely. For a tower shield, it was almost a work of art. The main body of it was a pearl white material similar to her armour, then there were golden accents around it all circling an ornate rose at the centre.

She turned slightly, bringing her back into view, and stabbed the point of the shield into the ground, before reaching forward, further than the shield should have allowed, and as she moved back, an ornate basket-hilted dagger followed.

John pushed his chair back, holding his hands up defensively. “Whoa, wait a minute. Surely we can talk about this, right? I mean, like I said, I didn’t even know there were people with powers when I took your… ahem, metal underwear,” John pleaded.

Moira looked up at him before drawing the blade across the back of her arm, causing John to cringe and look away, as it sent an uneasy shiver through his body.

“I have a theory. I need you to kiss me and heal my injuries,” Moira stated, seemingly unphased by her self-harm.

John looked at his mana; he had to do a double-take seeing how little he had regained despite the time it had been since he’d hit zero, only three MP. He noticed a fire icon next to the number indicator on his mana bar, and after clicking it, a window popped up:

Debuff: Mana Burnout

Duration: 10 hours
Remaining: 9h13m
Mana Regen altered (INT/75 per minute)

’That’s a harsh debuff, maybe I should avoid dropping to zero mana from now on,’ he reasoned internally. Looking at Moira’s bleeding arm, he accessed his inventory and pulled his old backpack out without a word. Opening it, he grabbed his spare shirt before he moved around the table and stood next to Moira who looked at him with curiosity and an obvious expectation.

“I can’t, I just depleted all my mana on Alison, and it hasn’t recovered yet,” John explained as he took hold of Moira’s arm and tightly wrapped the shirt around it, then held it up in the air. “We should get some medical help for this.”

Moira sighed. “Well, I guess that bit of theatrics was a waste then... how long will it take for you to recover enough to do the spell? An hour? Two? You aren’t going anywhere until you heal me!”

“I’m currently regaining a lot less mana than I usually do, so it’s probably going to take around twenty minutes or so until I can use that spell again,” John explained

Moira looked at him, slightly shocked. “Twenty minutes? That seems a little fast… and you said you are regaining mana much slower, what does that mean?”

John looked down. “I think I used too much mana earlier and now I’m kinda burnt out, normally it should take like seven minutes... Oh wait, I forgot about Meditate, I can actually regain enough in seven minutes, normally I could regain the same amount in around two and a half minutes as long as I was concentrating.” Not wanting to waste time, he activated Meditate and felt himself almost relax slightly as well as a warmth that slowly seeped into him.

“If it was the spell I thought it was, then it would…” John could hear Moira mumbling to herself while deep in thought before finally looking at him again. “You must be lying, there’s no way you could recover enough magic in that time.”

Moira scrutinised him, seemingly getting more agitated. “Don’t lie to me, John Newman!”

John rolled his eyes. “What could I possibly gain from lying about that?”

Moira paused again. “I… I’m not sure, but you have to be lying.”

John shrugged. “You don’t have to believe me. Like I said, I don’t gain anything and it’s not like it’d help me in a fight against someone stronger than me. If you were to fight me, I’d probably die instantly. In fact, I’m not sure how I’m even alive right now in the first place, I was sure that blue girl was going to kill me before I blacked out.”

An uncomfortable silence fell on the room. Moira seemed to be struggling to understand or come to terms with what John said and John being his awkward self didn’t know what else to say; instead, his eyes wandered.

As he looked around his eyes settled on the blade placed on the table. The hilt was extremely detailed and well crafted, the cage guard looked like intertwined golden rose stems with dull thorns, the handle had black leather with golden wire spiralling up its entirety, and the pommel was a rose that he guessed was either a ruby or some kind of red glass. The blade was double-edged and had two small spikes close to the guard, on one edge of the blade John could see just a small amount of blood.

“You guys sure love roses,” John said absentmindedly.

Moira seemed to jump at the break in silence. “It’s our religious symbol, so of course we use it often. You could say that about almost any artefact or bible, especially for priests or higher members of the groups,” Moira almost mumbled.

Moira sighed, leaning forwards and taking hold of the blade before moving her hand towards the back of her shield. A dark spot grew and the blade vanished within it, then quick as a flash she snatched the metal underwear from the table, storing that too.

“Don’t you ever dare tell anyone about those, this is the only warning you will ever get,” Moira said calmly.

John didn’t have any reply, but luckily for him, he noticed his MP bar. “Oh, I have enough mana now, I’m only going to be able to do this for a second; I doubt it is going to heal your wound, so we’re still going to need some medical assistance,” John informed Moira.

“I don’t actually need you to heal me completely, I’ll worry about the wound afterwards,” Moira stated, looking up at him expectantly.

He sighed before lowering himself down onto his knee. Now that he was looking up slightly into Moira’s bright green eyes, he leaned forwards, moved his hand to her cheek and brushed some of the stray red hairs away before he closed in. Lightly pressing his lips against hers, he cast Healing touch through them.

The window was exceedingly small, any sooner and John would have been far enough away, any later and the two would have separated, but the moment their lips touched, the sound of someone entering the tent froze John in place; what should have been a small peck dragged on for a moment or two until the silence was broken.

“Ahem! Exactly what is going on here?” a female voice called out, John **** himself back, resulting in his ass being firmly planted on the ground. Standing at the entrance of the tent was a familiar Asian beauty, he’d seen her around Ashcroft often enough to recognise her, though he’d never actually gotten a close look at her before, and definitely never noticed the amount of jewellery she wore: three piercings in one ear, two necklaces and several rings. She also wore a shirt that could have shown a lot of cleavage but due to her more petite build didn’t show a lot; the dragon on her shirt did distract from that detail though.

After staring at her for a while his gaze flickered to Moira, who sat with her eyes closed and a pink hue across her cheeks. He looked back to Kim before rapidly switching between the two. “I, uh, I can explain? Uh, i-it’s, uh, not what it looks like?” John tried.

“Really? Because it looks like the shield warden is injured, and the prisoner who should be in magic nullifying handcuffs is… being inappropriate to a high ranking member of a large organisation.” Despite her words Kim had begun to blush lightly.

“Enough! What happens in my interrogation is none of your concern. Though since you intruded, I will say it wasn’t without good reason. I think I have what I need, for now, and I have determined he is innocent, at least as far as the Red Scales go… You may have your time with him, but he will not be handed over to your care and he is to leave this barrier in one piece,” Moira stated. She stood gripping onto her shield, allowing it to shrink into its original state.

Holding the pendant in a way that allowed John to see, she extended her other hand and helped him up. In the process, she pulled him close and whispered, “I couldn’t help but notice your amulet, I think we are going to have another chat soon.”

Moira exited the tent, leaving Kim standing glaring at John.

“Sit, now,” she ordered, walking over to the seat Moira recently occupied.

John moved back sitting on the chair. “Uhm, I-” he started.

Kim quickly cut him off, “No, you speak when spoken to. You attacked a valued member of the Moon clan, almost killing her. Give me a reason not to do everything in my power to make you wish you could die.”

John abruptly stood taking a step back. “I don’t know what you are talking about, do you mean that Celeste girl? I barely even hurt her.”

Kim stood with rage in her eyes. Just as she took a step in John’s direction, the two of them were **** to look at the tent entrance as a commotion broke out, voices shouting, the sound of things being knocked over. “Get off me, and get out of my way!” the unmistakable voice of Kaen yelled before she breached into the tent with four people clinging to her and desperately trying to pull her back.

Kim ran her fingers through her hair and muttered something in a language John didn’t know. On closer inspection these people didn’t look like the knightly types he’d seen before, they all wore light training gear with Asian characters on them. One of them abruptly stood straight, letting go of Kaen and turning his attention to Kim before bowing. “We’re ever so sorry, we tried to stop her but she wouldn’t listen and she barged into one of the Order’s tents before demanding something from Tricia, then she stormed her way over here.”

Kim sighed. “Just… let her go, please, I will deal with her. Please just make sure she didn’t cause too much trouble with the Order.”

Kaen was released and the others vanished out of the tent, apologising as they left. Kaen, on the other hand, stormed her way towards John, pushed him back onto his chair, and sat in his lap, draping her arm around his neck.

“I forbid you from killing him!” she stated firmly. “Oh, or hurting him!”

Kim sat back in her chair and planted her elbows on the table before rubbing her temples and letting out a loud long sigh. “First off, you should know better than to act the way you just did, you will project a bad image of the clan, and we will be having a long talk about it later… Secondly, what? You can’t forbid me, you seem to forget sometimes that I outrank you. Give me one good reason that I shouldn’t.”

“There are lots of good reasons! First, he healed me. Came in while Moira was havin’ her go at him and she said she didn’t do nothin’ about healing me up; asked a bunch of the knights, they all said Moira was the one who should have healed me,” Kaen explained.

“Would you please address her correctly, Kaen, Lady Brighton, you shouldn’t be referring to her by her first name no matter how familiar you get,” Kim admonished. “And so you think he healed you, but you wouldn’t have needed healing in the first place if it wasn’t for him.”

Kaen laughed nervously. “Yeah no… Funny story, that was also my fault. Couldn’t sense magic on him but got a strong hit of dragon.”

Kim sighed. “Why do I get a bad feeling about this?”

“Well, yeah… how often do I get to interact with smart dragons? So while I was a little ramped up, I challenged him and he said no, and I may have been a little fired up and tried sparring anyway… and then, uh, well, probably easier to explain after you see this.”

Kaen threw a black triangle that opened up before projecting into the air.

Kaen rushed towards John from the pews, while his back was against the back wall. His eyes were tightly clamped shut as Kaen drew closer and closer, arm pulled back aiming her fist directly for John’s head.

His eyes shot open, no longer showing even a hint of white and now burning with a magenta hue. John’s claw seemed to solidify more, condensing and becoming more spiked. He kicked off from the wall and his spectral claw collided with Kaen’s fist; the metal crunched, breaking apart and knocking her back, tumbling and rolling until she managed to catch herself unsteadily on her feet.

Kaen smiled widely as she pulled off her other gauntlet and smashed her fists together before running back at John. This time, when she swung, John took hold of her fist using her own momentum to push her into the wall and knocked the wind out of her.

John looked down at her and smiled, showing several sharp teeth he previously didn’t have. His grip tightened like a vice around her hand. Kaen cried out as the bones popped and crunched, then he turned towards the main section of the cathedral. Throwing Kaen through the air and into a far pillar, causing it to split and send debris in the direction of the altar.

Kaen began falling towards the ground and John surged forward, snatching her out of the air by the throat and slamming her into yet another wall. His free hand balled into a fist that swung towards her; Kaen managed to bring her arms up but the **** was too much, breaking her arm and smashing it against her face, making her head bounce against the wall.

He pulled back once more before an older gentleman appeared behind him, slamming his open palm into the back of John’s head, causing both John and Kaen to fall limply to the ground.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please give me your thoughts in the comment section, in a direct message or in my branch discussion channel in the discord. Hearing back from you is greatly appreciated.

Also leave a LIKE on the chapter, it really helps me see which chapters are more well-received than others, as well as being a little bit of motivation.

I'm sure you know by now but I have a buy me a coffee account. All the money goes back into the story and if you join as a member you gain access to my private discord, early looks at commissioned art and early chapters.

Finally, I would like to give a special thanks to my Members:

HungrySkate
The_Magnar
Mekkkosadx
GhostReaper
Atreides
And the other members that prefer not to be mentioned