Inquisition

- The Great Hall -

"...I see..." Yu An Xue's father, the Yu family patriarch, spoke quietly.

We were currently in the Yu family Great Hall, the center of the vicinity and where most official business took place. It was even more magnificent than the elder's hall, both larger and more exquisitely designed. The exterior and interior were both filled with the color white, and I couldn't help but wonder if the Yu family just really liked white or something.

After the head elder passed out from fear, the four of us - Yu An Xue, Feng Mian, Qing Yue, and I - had dragged him to the great hall, where Yu An Xue informed her father of the circumstances.

The other elders didn't stop us (they were grateful to us for showing them a side to the head elder they've never seen before), and the few servants we ran into on the way back said nothing since Yu An Xue was with us. I was the one who carried the head elder on my back, by the way. I wasn't about to make a girl my age carry a disgusting old geezer like him.

When we burst through the front door with an unconscious disheveled elderly man with us (his own brother, at that), the patriarch was bound to be suspicious. After Yu An Xue glanced around and hinted to him with her eyes, he immediately ordered all present servants to leave the room and spread the news: No one is to enter the great hall until the patriarch says so. This only made him more confused, but after some explaining from his own daughter, he gradually began to understand the situation and appeared to be deep in thought.

"So...what you are trying to say is, my brother - n-no, the head elder - has something to do with An Yan's disappearance years ago?"

When he said 'An Yan', he was referring to Amethyst - Yu An Yan. Similarly, he intimately called Yu An Xue just 'An Xue'. Seeing as how Yu An Xue has already went on for a whole 15 minutes retelling the events leading up to the fainting of Yu Niao, I decided to let her take a break, and spoke up.

"Indeed. Although we aren't sure what exactly he did, there's definitely something suspicious about him," I replied. "His extravagant reaction proves that."

The patriarch, Yu Ao, sighed. "Yes...you are right. I still do not wish to believe it, but the facts have already been laid bare."

Ignoring his remark, I continued. "What's your plan once he wakes up?"

The patriarch looked away and clenched his fists. "I will...ensure he talks."

I smirked. Everything was still going exactly according to my plan.

*****

- Half an Hour Later -

30 minutes has passed. Yu An Xue, Feng Mian, Qing Yue, the patriarch, me, and the unconscious head elder were the only ones in the room. The patriarch, Yu Ao, had already ordered everyone else to leave the room. It made sense, since others, whether it's a servant or a noble, hearing about such a scandal wouldn't be ideal for the family or its reputation.

By this time, the sun had set, and it was getting late. Our school's curfew was 9 PM, and it was currently 8 (I had checked Qing Yue's phone). Just as I was about to get ready to leave (Qing Yue and Feng Mian would follow me, of course) seeing as how the head elder didn't seem like he was going to wake up today, we heard a grunt from the shacked figure in front of us.

Yu Niao, former head elder of the Yu family. Now chained to a wooden cross-like structure, placed before the patriarch, his own brother. Yu An Xue and Feng Mian sat to the left of him, while Qing Yue and I to his right (she had forced me to sit with her).

"Mmngh....where is this...?" Yu Niao muttered to himself quietly.

The patriarch, seeming to have been waiting for this moment (we all were, actually), spoke first, voice filled with anger. "Yu Niao...do you know your crimes?"

"H-Huh?" the former head elder blinked a few times as if unsure of what was going on, and widened his eyes as he realized he was chained, and now in a prisoner's clothes.

...As a side note, I was the one who tied him up and...changed him, and it was not a pleasant experience. While switching his clothes, I had my eyes closed the entire time and thus took multiple tries to get it right, but it was worth the trouble. I'm not gay, and definitely don't have a sexual attraction to old geezers.

I glared at the patriarch with killing intent when he asked me to do so, but Yu An Xue, Feng Mian, and Qing Yue were in the room apart from myself and the patriarch (who couldn't do it himself due to his position), and so I complied, albeit extremely reluctantly.

The wooden cross and magic-restraining chains came directly out of the patriarch's Space Locket, a Space Element Magic Artifact used to store things - that apparently had endless space inside of it. This made them highly expensive, but it was no surprise the patriarch of one of the Four Great Families of Shenzhen could afford one. Still, I wonder what kind of other things he had stored in there...

The head elder, Yu Niao, continued to look around in fear, and shut his eyes once more, as if pretending this isn't real. He then began violently shaking, attempting to shatter the chains shackling him. But it was no use. It didn't take long for him to realize they were magic-restraining chains, and definitely not breakable with pure force.

After a while, he tired out and the rest of us just watched him without an ounce of pity as he panted heavily. The patriarch, temper boiling, spoke again.

"I shall ask you again....do you know your crimes?"

"H-Heh...I don't know what you're talking about," Yu Niao panted, glaring at his brother, seated so comfortably in the patriarch's throne that was supposed to be his.

The two brothers stared at each other in silence, both equally angry at the other, though for different reasons.

"How long are you going to keep acting for?" Yu Ao asked, now with a hint of killing intent.

"Acting? Hmph. Even if I did do anything, you think I'm going to just tell you?! AHAHAHA!" the other brother cackled evilly.

The patriarch took a deep breath, as if calming himself. "One last chance. Do you know your crimes?"

"I don't know what you mean, ahahaha!"

Yu Ao shut his eyes and exhaled deeply amidst his brother's mocking laughter. When he opened his eyes once more, they were filled with a new determination, and a glint of hatred.

The man before him was no longer his brother.

He was an enemy, a culprit behind his beloved daughter Yu An Yan being taken away from him, and his other daughter's despair.

Just now, he had severed any remaining kinship he felt for Yu Niao. The two of them sharing the same blood, being born from the same parents, carried no meaning anymore. He was just an enemy, nothing more.

Yu Ao glanced at the person once known as his brother with regret one last time, and closed his eyes lightly. Cutting off any lingering emotion, he then spoke the words that would seal the fate of the man before him.

"...It is time to use the Yu family's long-sealed Domestic Law."