Vanya Gredi

There exists people that you never expect to ever meet again. Mostly strangers you've met on the street somewhere, in Toma's case, it was this elven girl. Toma never really expect to see anyone that he has met outside the Empire ever again. Most of them wind up getting themselves killed somehow, while others just disappear without a trace.

Toma never predicted that he would meet this girl ever again, Toma barely even remembers her. It's Toma's policy to forget all of his "clients" after all.

However, this one girl Toma was not able to forget. She was one of his first clients and the most unforgettable. Her camp was raided by a human knight order, they took everything and killed everything. The only thing they left behind was the things and people they vandalized so much they weren't worth anything anymore.

Toma arrived only a single day after the incident and helped the people still alive back to health using holy magic. He then distributed food and helped them back on their feet. This was all normal for him, it's his service after all. Everyone was thankful for Toma helping them and offered any service that they could possibly think off, but Toma refused all of them. Despite refusing every sort of payment, there was one girl that just didn't give up on paying him back. Her name was Vanya Gredi, she used to be the leader of the camp and felt that it was her responsibility to pay him back. Eventually, Toma agreed to one of her services, it was simply to spend a day talking to her. Toma at the time felt that talking with her would be easy as he could just ignore what she said.

It would turn out that this wasn't the case, Toma had underestimated Vanya. She had used a magic spell to force words out of him, this was magic that was normally used for interrogation. But in this case, it was used to create a relationship. Basically, Vanya had forced Toma to speak openly to her, talking about his feelings and so on. After a while of talking, Toma started to develop feelings.

"Toma, what are you waiting for?! Kill this elven assassin!" The Emperor commanded, snapping Toma out of his trance.

Despite his Emperor's orders, Toma was unable to kill Vanya. Toma was just standing there and after a while, he lowered his weapon. Then suddenly, out of nowhere a golden rope tied Vanya's hands together. Toma looked back and saw that the Emperor had used a decorative rope to capture Vanya.

"Toma! I don't know what is going on, but I want you to replace that rope with a normal one. Then, we will have a trial to decide her fate, and I want you to explain to me afterward what happened!" The Emperor demanded.

"Y-Yes, my lord-!" Toma said, and then he heard someone run off in the distance.

"Ignore it, Toma, just make sure you are prepared for the trial," The Emperor said, and sat down on his throne.

"I understand, my lord," Toma said and started to replace the decorative rope with a normal binding rope.

Some time passed and the trial was starting, with the fate of the elven prisoner as the main topic. The nobles were eager to have her executed publically, Toma couldn't help but feel some kind of guilt for not being able to save her. The trial went on as expected, no one objected to her execution, the only thing really debated was how she was going to be executed. Most people suggested that she should be burned at the stake like most other races were. Some others thought that they shouldn't be so brutal, and just behead her like normal prisoners. This was all expected.

"Err, can I say something?" Out of nowhere, your most typical noble appeared.

"Of course, what do you have to say?" The judge said.

"Well, I was going to deliver something to the emperor, per his request. When I saw the capture in action..." The noble was getting on dangerous ground. Toma was getting worried.

"And well, I saw that the Holy Knight Toma Boroi was unable to kill or capture the elf and the Emperor had to do it himself!" The noble said aggressively and pointed towards Toma.

"Is this true, Toma!?" Toma didn't answer and the court was getting restless.

"Toma, if you don't answer we are going to assume that this is all true!" One of the nobles shouted.

"Can't this be taken as treason against the Emperor? I mean, having connections to other races is strictly forbidden," One of the imperial princes suggested.

The judge pondered on it for a while, and then he said, "You're right, having connections to other races is forbidden," The judge felt silent again, he then looked towards Toma and shouted, "Toma is to be put on trial for treason against the Emperor and Empire!"