Chapter 30

POV Change: Locke

He was so close, so close to finding something. Every time he activated his intuition skill it tickled him, teased him that the person he had imprisoned was the right person, but no evidence was to be found.

The only indicator of criminal intent was his dagger and even that wasn't that weird. Among Beggar having a weapon in case of being robbed was standard and so Locke was grasping at straws.

But there were so many weird things about Isaacs's residence like the suits he owned were extremely nice and afforded only by the very rich, yet a Beggar had a few. Such wealth wasn't incriminating but it was highly questionable.

Locke kept looking feeling as though he was slipping down a slope of second-guessing himself when he finally made a connection.

His face, he recognised his face. It was from when he was at the police station, and he saw that the officer looked exactly like him. But what could Locke do about this information?

Nothing, so what if they looked similar? People do, it's not a crime to look similar to a police officer.

Locke thought for one last time, his head had been through the wringer today with the amount of use of his skill and the mental draining of hesitation and doubt and finally, Locke realised that if he could prove that Isaac had impersonated a cop, he was alright.

He had failed. Locke didn't want to admit it. His dream of being the best and brightest was now over and Locke had now realised he had put an innocent man in jail for his own self-pleasure.

He wanted to feel like it was over, that he had saved people one more time. He wanted to feel powerful again.

More people had been harmed, an innocent was in jail and Locke was responsible for it.

And it all came crumbling down.

A life of ambition and hope fell to a vexing criminal and war Locke was powerless to do anything towards. He had grown up following his father and ever since he died he had been pushing back grief in the name of his dreams.

His heart shattered like a pane of glass.

The one thing Locke promised to do was fight for justice and he locked away an innocent man. He promised his father that he wouldn't overthink his skill and yet here he was. He wanted to help others, and become a beacon of justice and yet...

Locke didn't know.

His father was wrong. Justice itself was flawed. If he had only killed the Detective when he first saw him none of this would have ever happened. If he just killed the leader of the factions, the war would have never started.

Strength, Locke needed strength. He had tried it the normal way and it simply didn't work, so, he was going to try it his own way. A better, more efficient way that actually dealt with the issue. It wouldn't leave him waiting because of bureaucracy, no, he would fight for what he felt was right.

Locke said sorry to his father. May he rest in peace and let his son tip the scales of justice in favour of his own views and beliefs.

That day Locke's class shifted from Detective to Demon Of Judgement

Locke didn't disagree with his class name. He knew what he was going to do was highly illegal and incredibly hypocritical, but if society gained more than it lost by his presence then he, as a public servant would do his best to benefit the masses as much as possible.

His first goal was to rethink his ideals. So much was shifting in Locke's mind that he could hardly keep up and whilst classes didn't completely change the personality of the person, when the person levelled up they tended to fit a certain stereotype.

Locke didn't want to become the classical demon; his father had told him those stories when he was young. He wanted to be a demon of justice and so would have the corresponding beliefs.

So Locke calmed the situation and apologised for his actions. He personally said sorry to the suspect and led him out of the building himself. As the police hadn't revealed they had detained a suspect no backlash would result from Locke's actions and so he mostly got off scot-free.

He did take a hit in terms of reputation and the captain may take his intuitions less seriously from now on, but he had far more success than he did loss, and he couldn't always be correct.

Locke then took a sick leave. He would then sort his weak mind out and perhaps have a break.

Then he would come back, and the City of Darter would bathe in the blood of justice.

POV Change: Seth

Very confused was an accurate assessment of Seth's current mental state. He was caught and then let go...

Apart from a nice reminder to not leave evidence, Seth didn't really know what he should take away from this.

One thing he did want to do was gather a new identity. The interesting thing about his ID was that he had a fingerprint next to his class and name and picture.

So if they tested his fingerprint then they would have found out his real identity but in this little escapade nobody checked his fingerprint, This was likely due to the fact he wasn't being sent to prison or just because nobody got around to it.

To be fair Seth was only in the cell for about 3 hours and the police weren't exactly well funded. They were well armed by The Order, but they weren't well funded by the city.

Anyway, Seth now had his returned dagger in hand and was back outside on the street. It was odd, he was so close to it all being over and yet he acted so, normal.

He even found that trash thing and looked back into the holding cell.

The two positions were so close and yet they were also incredibly far. One was in the free world and the other led to a path of solitary confinement and maybe even death.

But death was the ultimate freedom. Seth found that one laughable.

Life was the ultimate freedom, as death cannot choose to be alive but those alive can choose to be dead.

Seth felt almost too wise, he was starting to sound old and old equals death, so he chose to dumb it down a bit.

The situation was so random and so odd that Seth didn't really do anything but wander the streets of Darter looking for something to take his mind off the subject.

It was like hearing you had failed on something important, something that has a long-term negative effect. The brain takes time to calculate these things and really the heart doesn't want to accept the news, so they work in harmony to distract themselves.

Drinking, gambling, and walking was what Seth did. Until the sun rose, and fatigue caught up to him Seth finally wandered home.

He came in like an idiot and stubbed his toe on the door frame. Pain echoed into Seth as he stumbled onto his bed. It was comfortable. It was freeing. Seth was home.

Seth woke up with one of the worst hangovers he had gotten since he had arrived in this world. Drinking with Richard was one thing, but this time Seth took it all in.

After he removed last night's food in an unusual but effective way, Seth finally started to come to terms with what had happened.

He was arrested. They had searched his house. He was nearly caught. They had taken his snake. He was not caught.

That was what he had been told at least. He was told he would get compensation for the damages to his house and that was it. Locke himself had been so apologetic to his new drinking buddy that Seth was even a little weirded out. It didn't fit his character and so Seth wondered if anything dramatic had happened.

Nope, Seth found nothing. The war was still warring and otherwise, the news was full of political crap.

What would he take from this? Well, Seth now raised the importance of leaving less evidence and allowing for escape routes so that the situation could be avoided in the first place.

It did anger Seth that his first confrontation after training for 3 months left him giving up and just surrendering but it seemed he made the right call. Seth wanted proof though, that the time and sweat he had given to his training was worth it, so he decided to do some good for his local community.

It was time for a gang cleanup.

Called the Skulls Of Temptation they were a mean group of Gang Members who joined together to extort and harm the city's property. These were the leeches who gained from the blood and sweat of the city's lowest earners.

So Seth had no issue beating them black and blue and so he did. Cutting off the head of the snake just left a power vacuum that led to more innocent deaths, so Seth simply warned them that if their actions continued they were all going to die.

He cut off the ear of 4 Gang Leaders that day and although he came out with a broken shoulder and several bloody wounds, it was nothing a bit of healing couldn't fix.

He may have also stolen most of their weapons but that was for the city as Seth was obviously a hero. Seth thought himself to be an equal amount of good and bad, a nice harmony.

He got healed at the local church, they provided healing services for a pretty penny, but Seth wasn't too worried about that aspect. He was more worried about him being a demon and him walking in a church.

It was fine though, and Seth quickly healed.

He was now done with the minor tasks; he had done some good so now he had to do some controversial bad. Seth would argue it was good, but it never hurt to cover your bases. The target...

The City Lord himself. Seth already had a particular design of a vault he owned, and Seth guessed it contained money the Lord didn't desperately need so Seth was happy to take it out of his hands.

Before that though, Seth needed to get his snake back.

Arriving at the City Sect offices Seth had to apply for a course to get a permit and only then could he reclaim his pet.

3 days of absolute nonsense later, and Seth finally was legally allowed to have Ouro. He was lucky he was a mythical beast of Seth and was tempted to cook him up.

Obviously, he would never do that, after all, snakes taste terrible. According to his instructor for the course, he had mild rage issues towards his pet and that was how he showed love, but Seth thought the old quack was waffling.

Nah, he liked his snake. Although he was big and he had to do a 3-day course, which was a waste of time, he got his snake boi back and that made up for it.

Back to work, for him and his snake.

Now Seth wanted to make a perfect heist of the Lord's mansion and he had a perfect opportunity in 27 days that the Lord and pretty much the entire city was going to be focused on the duel between the two faction leaders.

The Lord himself wanted to use the opportunity to regain Darter's lost population through a thriving event such as the duel and so was creating a colosseum and was spending big on marketing.

Seth already had the safe blueprint, so he just needed better information on the Manor's security and layout. To gain this information he had to look for its blueprint and what better place to find it than in the Darter Museum?