Chapter 218 - Investigations

While the high society was scrambling to ensure that they would not suffer the same fate as the Vesalas, the investigation team were doing their best to progress quickly in their matters.

General Farauld, Leon, and Joab tried their best to extract information to the captives, Hasta and Igor. But despite their efforts, the two dark knights refused to divulge any critical information. 

On the other hand, Kayden, Eli, Nathan and Keren were burying themselves in a mountain of books and archives in which the Temple and the Imperial Family collected. Every document contained records of cases related to curses. 

Keren and Nathan teamed up to analyze all the historical archives, their main goal was to figure out the origin of the curse magic. 

Working alongside them were Kayden and Eli, who were focused on figuring out the effects of the curses on the body. Their tandem focused more on medical records in an attempt to also find a clue on how curses could be cured, avoided or countered. 

In the meeting room, the team gathered to report their progress before the day ended. 

Eight outstanding people facing each other with faces that were serious and focused. They sat solemnly in the meeting room where the fiery light of the dusk softly entered the glass windows. 

The High Priest opened a mechanism to turn on the flicking indoor lighting and looked at the rest signaling them to start the meeting. 

"There was no progress as to the interrogation of the captives. I request the High Priest's permission to employ harsher methods of interrogation. So far, questioning and putting them to mental stress were not working for us." General Farauld spoke for the interrogation team. 

"What methods do you propose?" The High Priest asked with caution. 

Being the leader of the Temple, he was extremely against inhumane torture. He will not allow such methods to be carried out in the premises of the Temple. This was also why Leon's team could only use questioning and psychological methods to induce the captives to talk.

Even if a captive was up for execution, he would not allow any killing to be carried out within the Temple's premises. At most, he will turn them over to the governing Emperor or the Temple Knights to be executed on the designated site.

"I would propose the Imperial torture methods." General Farauld furrowed his brows saying his idea straightforwardly, regardless of the strong aversion of the High Priest against physical torture. 

"I disagree." The High Priest rejected flatly. 

General Farauld could only sigh, he nodded at the High Priest helplessly, as if he already expected his answer. "Alright, but then keeping this method would really make us waste a lot of time. Do you have any ideas?" He then looked at the rest, asking for their opinions. 

The entire team contemplated for a good moment. 

"Could we use something like a spell or potion to force them to tell the truth?" Eli asked, thinking that since magic and potions were prevalent in this world, it was not that impossible to have something like a truth potion, right?

"I am afraid that would be impossible, Inventor Eli. For there was no successful news yet for this particular potion. Nor was there any existing spell that forces the target to tell the truth." Joab and Keren coughed lightly and replied to Eli in a gentle manner. 

"Oh.. I see." Eli replied. If that was the case, they could only think of new tactics to interrogate the captives without the use of torture. 

But before they all could resign to the status quo, Kayden shyly raised his hands and responded, "Err, actually I have been working on this potion for quite some time… It's just that, I don't intend to publish this in public."

Aside from Leon, Eli and most probably the ever mysterious High Priest, everyone appeared to be shocked upon hearing Kayden's words. 

It was because to the eyes of these people, Kayden was just a normal doctor in the name of Einz. They were not aware that the doctor in front of them was actually the legendary doctor Kayden who has been missing for a couple of years now. 

"Is it true?" General Farauld, Nathan and Joab asked with their bodies trembling in excitement. 

As knights, one of the most tedious tasks was to extract information from criminals and suspects. Having the potion was actually something that would save time and energy for people like them.

"Yes, however… The potion could only be used once and for a short span of three minutes. The main ingredient of this potion was the highly poisonous rock freesia of the mystic woods. The potion contains a non lethal dose but anything more than that would cause the person who ingested it imminent death..." Kayden explained, detailing everything that the team had to know about the truth potion. 

Hearing Kayden's words, the group weighed the pros and cons of using Kayden's truth potion. 

"Then, let us only use this as a last resort. It would be a waste to use it early on and realize that we have not prepared our questions carefully." Leon expressed his opinions, to which everybody agreed. 

"Alright, let me and Nathan search through the resources in the Farauld Institute to see if there's any alternative way to induce a confession without inflicting physical damage." General Farauld also agreed and proposed. 

"We'll do it on our side too." Keren also expressed her support. 

With the agreement on the interrogation it was the other team's turn to report. 

"Based on our records, we have discovered three possible ways to deal with curses: First would be using magic that is far stronger than the damage capacity of the inflicted curse. This was true with the case of Queen Tehila's hand being inflicted by a malicious curse. With the presence of two S class mages, the curse was forced to dissipate out of Queen Tehila's hands." Eli explained with a serious expression. 

Since this was the matter of the curse, the Emperor and the High Priest divulged the cases of curses that happened within the Imperial Family. That includes Emperor Valentin's drugging incident and the attempt to disrupt the renewal of the treaty through Queen Tehila. 

However, the two elders decided not to reveal the incident of Elise's drugging that forced Leon to take her virginity and have Little Han. They see that this was no longer necessary for the investigations. They want to spare Little Han of the after effects of this truth being out in the investigation records.

"The second method was to actually fulfill the conditions of the spell. However, all of the conditions were even far more damaging to the victim than death. This was true to the cases of the Emperor's wedding night and three other known cases." Eli continued her explanation with a straight face.

"The final method was to use the priest's spiritual powers through spoken blessing. However, the records showed that this method could only alleviate the pain of the victim and delay the curse's effect for quite some time. All recorded cases led to the death of the victim.

Nevertheless, even after knowing these three ways, all of these were impractical and too hard to implement. One, we do not have many mages stronger than the A class level. Two we do not have any methods to detect these curses from the body of the victims, much less know if this curse was a conditional curse. Lastly, the priest's divine blessings were not strong enough to counter the curse." 

After hearing Eli's report there was a gloomy expression looming on the group's surroundings. Finding a solution to the curse seemed so tricky and almost impossible. 

The available solutions did not also warrant peace of mind to them, for it was as Eli has said - impractical and hard to implement.

Observing the helpless expression of the team, the High Priest let out a soft sigh and finally spoke, 

"Well in fact, there was one case that I, myself, and the Emperor had witnessed. This particular case showed how the curse could be directly dealt with. But, I had to impose all of you to increase your sworn oath to the heavens. For this one involved the truth about the Oracle."

The group was shocked about this, especially Joab and Keren who belong to the Temple Knights.

A case connected to the oracle? Could it be that an oracle has been fulfilled?

"We swore to the heavens, let the guardian of the sky, earth, water, fire and air watch us maintain the secrecy of the matter that the High Priest has to reveal! May this oath remain until such time the beholder permits!" They all swore with a determined expression. 

The five guardians heard their call and a multicolored array appeared on top of their heads and immediately sank in their chests where the heart is located.

Finally seeing the oath ceremony complete, the High Priest nodded. 

The rest of the group looked at him with anticipation.. For them to directly hear the news about the Oracle, was something that made their hearts nervous and fearful at the same time.