Fanatic

The plan for today was quite simple:

Bait out the culprits by openly taking all the books that were distributed.

The plan itself was working well as we had simply walked up to youths who left the bookstore and asked for the book the weird guy gave them. The problem the suspicious group ran into was that the teens who were given the books had no loyalty to the robed man. They simply handed the books away, and most likely they wouldn't even read it.

Because of this, they handed over the books without questioning it at all, and it wasn't long before I noticed a robed man approaching us. From his posture and tightly clenched fists I didn't think he was happy with us.

Redzigan casually stood between the man and me, shielding me from any potential attacks, while calmly addressing the man.

"Is there something you need from us?"

"Yes, I wanted to know why you're confiscating my books? I don't believe I am hurting anyone by giving out my books for free."

At that moment Redzigan put her hand onto her sword, and stepped forward to stand right in front of the man.

"So you're the one giving out these books. I need to talk with you."

It was at this moment the man realized something was wrong. He immediately turned and began running. Redzigan took off after him, and I followed further behind. It only took a minute before the hooded man was backed into a dead end. Panicking, he was looking around trying to find a way out but there really was no way out of this alley other than past Redzigan.

I arrived, panting heavily, and put my hands behind my head to calm my beating heart. The man had seemingly given up, and was now glaring at us while taking up a defensive stance. Redzigan put her hand out, signaling for me to stay back, and so I took a short step backwards.

Since Monday, I had learned a lot about the people at the academy, not just limited to the students.

I had learned about Redzigan obviously.

Redzigan was also known by another moniker:

Fire Empress.

Her command over fire magic was incredible. Her unique way of modifying traditional spells made her extremely versatile. For example, she revolutionized the way fire was used, by modifying fire so that instead of hurting people it would only cauterize wounds.

This made it so that fire mages could potentially save lives that were previously considered lost causes.

She now lived up to her title as well. The man was about to cast a spell when chains made of flames bound his arms and legs together.

"The chains will burn the moment you try to cast a spell. The more you try to complete the cast, the hotter it will burn."

Perhaps not believing her, he suddenly burst into flames, causing him to scream.

Redzigan watched in disinterest as she waved her hand, causing the flames to extinguish, freeing the man from his agony. His robe had burned to a crisp. Understanding the situation he was in now, he collapsed to his knees and lowered his head in defeat.

I walked up to the man, and crouched down beside him. Up close I saw a dragon tattoo on his back right shoulder. Noting that tattoo in my mind, I began to question the man.

"What's the spell on the book?"

"I-I don't know... I was just told to hand them out to kids who came out of the loan office..."

I pondered that for a moment before throwing a haymaker his way.

Leaning close, I whispered quietly so that only he could hear me.

"Is this part of your God's plan to appear on our planet?"

Immediately he shivered and looked at me in horror.

"H-H-How do you know that?!"

Redzigan had a questioning look on her face, which actually ended up being useful for me.

I gestured with my head towards Redzigan.

"She's not in on it..."

I leaned close again.

"You didn't think your god was the only one? The God I serve already claimed this city... Now that we know you're trying to encroach on our territory, we might have to wipe you out.. Unless you can compensate us?"

Believing this was his chance to salvage the situation, he began to confess everything to me, and even went as far as telling me that he had a spatial bag that had over 1000 gold. He promised to go back to his priest and get an official meeting set up.

Smiling, and putting the bag into my pocket, I patted him on the shoulder. Standing up, I walked over to Redzigan and whispered quietly to her.

"He thinks I am from a rivaling faction. He said he will go back to his leader, and try to set up a meeting... His leader definitely won't fall for this flimsy lie, but we can find his hideout by following him. What do you think, teacher?"

Looking at me for a moment, she nodded and pulled out her phone. She released the chains on the robed man, and stepped out of the alley. Pretending to leave, she made a quick call to someone and disappeared. I knew she would never leave me alone in a potentially dangerous situation, I knew she must have eyes somewhere nearby.

I dramatically walked back to the man with my arms in the air.

"It's all taken care of! We will not impede on your business any longer. However don't forget to make a proper tribute now that you know this isn't your territory to act recklessly on. With this, our business is concluded for today. I will send that woman here in three days."

Looking at me with reverence, the man bowed deeply towards me while holding my hand with both of his hands.

"Thank you so much for your mercy and understanding! I will head out right away!"

I smiled as I led him out of the alley and let him run off in the distance. I felt my phone vibrate, and I checked it briefly.

[Leave the area. We will handle this.]

A text from Redzigan.

'The only person to have ever texted me... And it's my teacher.'

I made a funny face before heading towards the bookstore. Now that I had gotten some free money, I planned to go on a spending spree.

With a light heart, and heavy pockets, I made a quick stop before going back to the academy.

****

"Priest! Priest! I have big news!"

A man in a dragon mask turned around, and looked at a man who was making a big scene.

"Acolyte Ester, what are you... What happened? Your hair is burnt and you have burn wounds?"

"Never mind that sir! Today I was distributing books when someone began collecting all of them. Angered, I confronted them, but as I thought I was in deep trouble one of the people turned out to be from another God's following! He told me that as long as we paid the right price, we would be allowed to conduct our business without worry!"

After listening to the half naked man, the man in the mask made a disheartened face.

"Ester... This man, he didn't follow you, did he?"

Ester shook his head vehemently.

"No sir, he just let me go."

"Then... The other person who captured you... Did you see them when you left?"

"Huh? No sir, she left after the man talked to her."

The man in the mask reacted immediately.

"EVERYONE PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"

Immediately after, before anyone could get their bearings, the door that Ester had entered from blew open.

A tall woman entered, followed by dozens of men in armor, with their weapons drawn.

"Capture them alive if you can, if not."

Spells began flying out.

"Their deaths won't bother anyone."

Screams quickly filled the underground bunker.

****

[Mission complete.]

A light appeared before me, quickly forming into a book, which I picked up after it finished materializing. Wondering what book they could have given me, I opened it up and read the first page.

[Truth Serum Gas]

My hands trembled as I held the book.

'This book... It must be so that I can extract more information from the Outer God's followers.'

Smiling, I kicked my feet up and began to read the gift the gods had given me. That night I spent the entire night reading and practicing how to use the truth gas. It was an advanced spell tome, meaning that it was much harder to understand than any other book I owned. I believed I had a slight advantage to learning it, as I had an understanding of modern medicine, compared to most people in this world.

The goal was to modify the gas so that it almost fully numbed a person's nervous system. The next step would be for the gas to then cycle through their bloodstream, to eventually reach the brain, and force the victim to release dopamine into their brain.

The combination of the two was as far as truth serums worked in my past life, but this world was one where science and magic could work together to produce things outside of common sense.

I wanted my magic to cause severe hallucinations, and numb my victim's senses. With these effects, I hoped to put my victims into a dreamlike trance and use that disorientation to extract the truth. Since this was a mix of magic with science, I had to improve the strength of my spells to be able to penetrate someone's magic resistance.

As excited as I was, I couldn't avoid the call of sleep, and I fell asleep while reading.

****

Sunday passed by in an instant and it was already Monday. I was currently sitting in the classroom, reading a tome and waiting for class to start. I had managed to just barely cast the truth gas spell, but I hadn't made progress on the other spells.

The current one I was reading was called Poison Fog. It created a large cloud of fog that completely blocked off vision. While I was learning it, I had a spark of inspiration.

'What if instead of using my mana to spread the fog, I just create the fog in a small ball, and let the fog spread naturally? Why use mana to spread it when gas spreads naturally?'

Realizing that inefficiency I altered the spell. I began to practice the spell in a totally different way. I continued practicing the process of creating small clouds of fog.

The door opened loudly and Redzigan walked in with another man following behind her. The first thing I noticed was that Redzigan's right arm was in a sling, and she had wounds on her face.

"Class I have business to attend to today, but you will continue your day. This is Sir Roberts, he will report to me on everything you guys do today, so treat him with respect. Gideon."

I raised my eyebrows slightly.

"You're to come with me."

Nodding lightly, I stood up and grabbed my bag. Walking down the stairs, a leg suddenly stuck out from the side, and I just barely managed to avoid it. Catching my balance, I turned and saw Alan pretending to be oblivious. I was about to approach him and retaliate, but decided it wasn't worth my time yet. 

I simply turned and joined Redzigan. Noticing everything that happened, she didn't say anything. Instead we immediately left, and began heading towards the academy gates. After walking for a while, we eventually arrived outside a heavily guarded compound.

At the front gates were two heavily armored knights. They stopped us at first, but then they recognized Redzigan. Opening the door for us, they let us walk past.

We walked further into the compound until we came to a set of stairs heading underground. This was also guarded by two knights, but they let us past as well. Walking down, we came to pass prison cells, and eventually arrived at another guarded door.

"You're free to pass Redzigan, but we have to ask who your companion is."

"This is Gideon Alabaster. He helped gather the information for the raid on Saturday night. I am going to let him interrogate the prisoner briefly."

Although hesitant, they didn't defy Redzigan's orders. They eventually opened the door, and inside I was able to see a man with his face brutally beaten in. On the table to the side was a mask.

A dragon mask.

"Who is this?"

I asked, as Redzigan and I stepped into the interrogation cell.

"That's what we were hoping you would know. I don't know what you did to trick that guy yesterday, but maybe you could do it again."

Redzigan said this while shrugging casually, but I knew it wasn't that simple. Someone trusted me greatly.

"I get the idea behind it. Unfortunately I actually don't know how I would be able to trick him. He's probably further up on the food chain than that first guy."

Redzigan let out a sigh of defeat, seeming to have expected this, and turned around to leave.

"Well, nothing we can do about that. Let's lea-"

"But I think I can still help."

She stopped and turned around quietly. She stood against the side of the door, and crossed her arms. She jutted her chin out, signaling for me to start.

I smiled lightly as I walked towards the man restrained to the chair. He looked up at me with a smirk on his face.

"You won't break me boy. You think I haven't been through torture? I won't tell you anything."

I continued to walk up him. I walked around the chair he sat in, and confirmed there was a dragon tattoo on his back right shoulder. Confirming what I wanted to, I placed my hand on his shoulder and leaned right next to him.

"I don't believe in breaking my toys."

I then pulled my mask down slightly, and exhaled a deep breath. Light blue gas billowed out, and found it's way into the man's nostrils. Even though he jerked his head away he couldn't escape the gas. It wrapped around his face and entered his nose. Once it all went inside him I stepped back slightly.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect, as he began thrashing around angrily.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?! WHAT WAS THAT?!"

I walked around the front of him and pulled a nearby chair to sit on. Sitting quietly in front of him, I pulled out my phone and began monitoring the time. It was my first chance to test my truth serum spell on a living person.

It was another minute of manic screaming before he suddenly became incredibly docile. Like a switch had been flipped. I looked up at him, and inspected his expression.

There was no more malice, or defiance. He simply looked comfortable. Smiling lightly, I noted that it was less than two minutes for the gas to take effect, and began my questioning.

"Who are you?"

With a smile, the man looked at me, but I felt he wasn't looking at me. Instead he was just looking in my direction. What he saw? I couldn't know, but he trusted it.

"You know me! It's me, Marlon Vessig!"

I glanced briefly over my shoulder, and Redzigan had a look of pure shock on her face. She was looking back and forth between us, but when she saw me look at her she belatedly realized why I was looking at her.

Quickly she opened the door and shouted.

"BRING PAPER AND PEN! HE IS TALKING!"

Shortly, three men came in and began taking notes. Asking various questions, and trying to piece together what was going on.

I stayed to apply the gas when it would wear off, which happened twice, but thankfully there were clear signs of the gas wearing off so I could react in time.

At the end of the interrogation, there was nothing left to ask, and his fate was sealed. With a swift slash, his head was separated from his body, and his body lost all it's strength. Tragically he died with a smile on his face.

Redzigan began walking me towards the surface, while asking me questions.

"Thank you for your help getting that information, but I have to ask... What was that gas you used?"

"It's a special gas I created. It makes the person hallucinate, and their brain relaxes so much they forget they are awake. They then feel extreme happiness, and they're more than willing to answer our questions. It might not work on someone who is prepared, but I bet you most people aren't aware this exists."

Nodding, Redzigan didn't ask any more questions, instead offering some advice.

"I will keep this a secret, but it is very likely the knights from before will report on this to the king... Don't let yourself become a slave. Become an asset."

I nodded. I agreed with Redzigan. I appreciated her advice as it reminded me that I should be careful of how I let myself be treated.

To summarize what we got from the confession though, it was a much bigger scheme than we thought:

The books were set to cause the readers to go insane at the flip of a switch, and using that panic the cult would kidnap all the children they could. Their plan was to then convert these kidnapped children into future zealots for their religion.

I also learned more about the Outer God as well. Their name was unknown to Marlon, but the higher priests knew. Instead Marlon only knew the description of the god.

A dragon. This Outer God promised to turn their followers into dragons too.

It would be nice if that was the end of it, but we learned that there was significant corruption within the kingdom already.

The circle of nobles.

At least 30% of all nobles in the kingdom were corrupt. Taking bribes to turn a blind eye, while some were directly involved and that wasn't even the extent of it. They tried getting more information, but Marlon didn't know anything more.

With this information, the Inquisitorial guard would take over, and they told me they owed me one. If I wanted a spot in the future, they would give me a spot. Oddly enough being an inquisitor wasn't a bad option. However for now I was just a student.

Since I was a student, even if I just did a great service for the kingdom, Redzigan was still making me catch my afternoon classes.

Since it was currently our lunch break I was training my poison resistance as we walked. Over the past week, although I still wasn't immune, I had at least developed a resistance to my poison. I was no longer reduced to being powerless. I could resist the loss of strength, and the dizziness was reduced to a simple headache.

Happy with seeing my training prove effective, I treated myself to a nicer meal. In the cafeteria there was the free buffet area, but there was a second floor with a restaurant vibe. This floor you could pay for a meal made by onsite chefs.

I paid 10 gold for a gourmet seafood soup, and let me tell you.

It was one of the best things I had ever tasted. Savoring this treat, I allowed myself to enjoy myself for the first time since I came to this world.

****

Physical training went as usual. I focused entirely on improving my cardiovascular endurance. For some reason Alan still hadn't bothered me. I felt that it might have something to do with me leaving with Redzigan this morning. Perhaps he feared that I had connections, and he didn't want to mess with me until he figured out if I had some sort of backing.

It was kind of nice nice not having to pretend to be a noble. So far I had been left to do my own thing and train in peace, but that wouldn't last forever. I had bought several tomes, but they were not as offensive as I needed. They were incredibly tailored to utility.

But I would get the chance to showcase my skills soon enough.