"Edris?"

The Crown Prince's voice drew him back into reality as Edris nodded with an assenting smile.

"Indeed. We should hurry."

Contrary to his words, the dark-haired man's steps showed no signs of haste as he trailed behind the group, towards the staircase. The reason for his reaction was simple: he no longer found reasons to intervene with the interrogation.

On his way to the Mage Faction, he had reorganised the entire situation with a calmer mind. Despite the chaos he caused back at the Slums, despite blowing up the site, and despite Ace being kidnapped—he still came back in one piece, with the culprit document, having saved all those Awakeneds from the Hunt.

Anyone with eyes could see that the traveller had done more than enough for the kingdom he wasn't even a part of. Even if Edris were to be interrogated, all he needed to do was tell the truth of what happened.

So, what exactly should he be worried about?

Indeed, he had initially tried to avoid the interrogation solely due to its low return. Aside from their troublesome and restrictive nature, interrogations, in essence, demanded free information from the suspect in the name of "pursuing the truth" and "bettering the kingdom."

Ace was affiliated with Edris by contract, and the faction would undoubtedly turn to him if their relationship were found out. Edris would never involve himself in something that didn't offer gains at least equivalent in value, which was why he wished to avoid the scenario at all costs.

However, this was no longer the case.

"Woah…" The beast tamer's voice disrupted his trance, and Edris looked towards the source of his astonishment.

A few minutes had passed since they started venturing up the staircase, and some magic was definitely involved in its functioning.

For one thing, the spiralling staircase extended far longer than seemed possible from the outsider's view. The passing from floor to floor appeared to be a discontinuous process. Despite all the steps they took, they could only cross from one floor to the next after a certain amount of time. So in the meanwhile, all they had to do was keep moving "up."

Edris gazed down at the people on the ground floor. Through the birds-eye view, he could now get a better grasp of its oval-like setup.

Interestingly, while they’d caused a commotion among the mages merely minutes ago, all attention had dispersed the moment they entered the staircase. He speculated that some sort of barrier filtered out the climbers from the outside, hiding them from the public's view.

Edris took another step, and the view took a steep dive down. It appeared that they had climbed another floor. The third now, if he counted correctly.

The Crown Prince mentioned their destination being the fourth floor, where Ace's interrogation planned to take place.

A silence had ensued upon them the moment they started climbing the stairs. Personally, Edris paid no mind to the quietness and used it to organise his thoughts. However, he could tell that the young beast tamer in front of him was growing restless.

"Come to think of it, what does the Mage Faction do?" Celio wondered out loud. "There are factions back in Adalan as well, but I thought that things like interrogations were supposed to be handled by the more administrative factions?"

"Looks like you know your stuff, boy." Saire's impressed voice sounded from the front of the line, and Celio scratched his cheek sheepishly. "The Mage Faction is unique to our kingdom and takes on a broad range of responsibilities, all related to magic. Especially those involving data inspection and research."

"You could say it's an integration of the other four factions. Not as extensive, of course. But since the other factions are all spread throughout the kingdom, it saves us both time and effort when dealing with occurrences within the capital," Dolan added.

"Indeed. Take the Dread Chamber, for example. The one we have here is a replica of the actual thing in the Risk Faction. Usually, those Risk people deal with crimes and interrogation, but for less severe cases, we try to avoid travelling all the way past Nolmes Forest."

Edris blinked. "A replica, you say?"

"Mhm." Slowing her steps, the archmage poked her head backwards, shooting him a grin. "But don't worry. Even though this one doesn't have all the crazy features in the original, it should be more than enough for peeking into someone's memories."

Giving her an absentminded nod, Edris began to think.

Indeed, if the faction resorted to any other interrogation methods, he’d still attempt to pull Ace out of the situation. But this wasn't just any kind of interrogation. Replica or not—this was the Dread Chamber.

Invented by Eins Everlund, another one of the Seven Conquerors, the Dread Chamber was considered the most effective interrogation method up to date.

Edris idly gazed down at the floors below them, contemplative.

He'd heard about some details regarding the Dread Chamber in one of his previous jobs; the chamber was notorious for screwing up the mentalities of those who used it, but on a milder level, it was known for its ability to dive into one's memories.

The interrogated individual, thrown into a room oversaturated by mana, would unknowingly enter a stage of hypnosis as all their memories become exposed to its viewers. Every detail of their lives, from their time in the womb to the present second would reveal themselves through the mana overload.

The key feature to the interrogation laid within its absolute exposure, stripping bare a person's existence on both a physical and mental level.

The method itself was painless, maybe uncomfortable at the most to those unaccustomed to mana exposure. However, if the individual tries to resist, it would be a different experience.

But technicalities aside, Edris was more interested in a particular aspect of the interrogation:

The broadcasting feature.

While standard examinations between the interrogator and suspect involved the former actively recording the entire process, the Dread Chamber came with a broadcast system that absorbed the results to its last detail. Put simply, it acted as an embodiment of the individual's entire life, recorded and made accessible to all, without the individual being aware of it themselves.

In other words, as long as Edris managed to get his hands on the broadcast, he'd be able to access all of Ace's memories—without the latter catching on.

Edris never forgot the fact that he was still under a contract. One that required him to help Ace regain his memories. So wasn't this the perfect opportunity?

Edris was one who kept promises, but keeping a promise doesn't conflict with satisfying his own objectives.

The Dread Chamber would be the key to him gaining the upper hand in the contract.

Ideally, this interrogation would give Edris a general sense of the man’s origins, which he'll keep contained until Ace exhausts his value. A day Ace didn't regain his memories, a day he remained contract-bound to Edris and would work for him as a handy database.

"We're here." Saire's voice echoed from the front of the line, and Edris glanced up.

Before he had processed it, the view around them had changed again. The white steps under their feet vanished and were replaced with limestone tiles, and the elegant setting around them distorted into an office-like environment.

The archmage led them through an extensive hallway, passing through dozens of grey doors lined up on both sides. Eventually, they turned right at a corner, taking them to what appeared as the fourth floor's waiting space.

"The Dread Chamber is just at the end, but I assume you would like to see your friend first." Saire gestured with a tilt of her head.

The group’s presence led three heads to lift simultaneously. Among them, the man with spiky hair was the first to speak.

"Your Highness! Oh—Prophet Edris? Beast Tamer Celio's here too?"

Faren Ablemore stared at them with bags under his eyes, jaws hung in surprise. A number of inspection rooms spread behind him, identical to those they passed by walking down the hallway.

Putting up a polite smile, Edris looked across the round table, past the young mage from the Ablemores and towards the person on the other side of the window.

Back straight and arms crossed, Ace sat sternly in his chair as if he was a model for some portrait artist. The gleam of the white walls reflected off his skin, blurring the distance between the two.

At first glance, the man looked as ethereal as ever, but a closer look revealed his dulled eyes and paled lips. Edris squinted indiscernibly.

Ace's complexion had noticeably worsened from five days ago.

Although the white-haired man wasn't physically constrained, two mages hovered and loomed right behind him, paying attention to even his smallest movements.

Edris wasn't sure what entailed the conversation between the mages and Ace, but it was obviously enough to instigate extreme caution from the former.

"I heard you're planning to use the Dread Chamber?"

"Yes, Your Highness." At the Crown Prince's question, Faren Ablemore stood up and straightened his robe with a nod. "After conversing with this person, Ace, a sighted participant in the Slums event, the members of the Royal Brigade concluded that a more lucid account from the participant is necessary."

"Just talking?" Edris asked, and Faren blinked twice.

"Yes. All we did was try to ask questions."

Then what caused Ace to be looking like that?

"This person is Prophet Edris's friend," Dolan explained. "As with Prophet Edris, he also contributed to saving the hundreds from the underground explosion."

"He did?" Faren's darted between the two of them, then turned toward the white-haired man with somewhat of a perplexed look. He massaged the bridge of his nose. "He hadn't mentioned any of this or what happened at the Slums."

"More like he hasn't mentioned anything useful at all," one of the mages grumbled, dark circles also visible under his eyes.

"On the first day, he would answer at least some of our questions, but after that, he stopped speaking all at once." Another mage laid out her hands with a sigh. "It's not that we're trying to make things difficult on purpose. But it's hard not to be suspicious after seeing his reaction."

Stopped speaking completely?

Edris raised an eyebrow. Even though Ace lacked common sense, it shouldn't be extreme to the point where he couldn't hold a coherent conversation. Simple matters such as recounting an event or answering questions shouldn't be a problem.

Unless…

"But even though he played a helpful role in the Slums event, I'm afraid we still need to hold a further inspection due to the faction's regulations. But that can't be done without the participant's verbal consent…" Faren's voice trailed off.

"I can help with that," Edris said, a response which caused both the Crown Prince and Faren Ablemore to turn to him in surprise.

Dolan gave him a careful look, asking if he was really okay with proceeding with the interrogation. Edris merely responded with a half-hearted shrug.

"It'll make things easier for everyone, no? Plus, we don't have anything to hide."

"Thank you for your understanding, Prophet Edris. Really." With prominent dark circles dragging his complexion, Faren looked like he might cry any moment from now.

"No worries. I apologise for the trouble my…my friend here has caused. Ace is quite unique, and can act a bit irresponsible at times." Edris wore a rueful smile as he spoke. "I'll try seeing what I can do."

"Can you really do that?" Faren sighed. "He's not a suspect or anything, so we can't exactly force him into the Dread Chamber. If you could get him to cooperate with us, that would be perfect."

"I can try, but I'll need to talk with him alone first. That way, it's easier for him to loosen up to others. You see, he's really shy of strangers." Edris said, emphasising the latter half of his sentence.

Since the glass wall separating him and Ace was one-sided and soundproof, Edris threw out all types of lies shamelessly.

At his proposal, the Crown Prince ordered the mages to empty the inspection room, leaving only Ace and Edris. Even though those from the other side of the glass could still observe their actions, they could no longer discern the conversation within the room.

"Ace."

At his voice, the man looked up from his seat. As always, Ace's eyes held a coldness to them, and within his dark pupils reflected Edris's approaching silhouette. The next moment, Edris was standing right in front of the long table where he sat.

"Long time no see."

When he first heard about Ace's uncooperativeness from the Crown Prince, Edris thought it was due to the man's eccentric personality. However, he soon dismissed this initial belief after hearing the specifics from Faren Ablemore.

Edris gazed toward the white-haired man with his usual, gentle smile. Unfazed by the latter's silence, he leaned forward so his back faced the people outside the glass window. He bit into his thumb, and a bead of red formed on his skin.

A strand of dark hair grazed past his cheek at his motion. Edris tucked the strands behind his ear, revealing the earring on his helix.

"How are you?" He brought the same hand towards Ace, giving him a lofty pat on the shoulder. "How have you been?"

Indeed, he had overlooked something. Something important.

Aside from Ace's amnesia, there was something a more fundamental reason behind the formation of their contract:

Linkage.

During his way here, Edris had wondered why Ace didn't simply teleport back to the inn but instead let himself be retained in the faction for five days straight. Now that he saw the man in person like this, the answer was as clear as day:

It wasn't that Ace chose not to—he simply couldn't.

Despite his vast potential, Ace had an inherently weak affinity to mana. This was why he needed a vessel, a linking point between him and the external environment. In the beginning, Edris was the only one who could hear him, and residing in his consciousness was what allowed Ace to draw the missing mana back into his body and replenish his energy.

"It's been five days."

At that moment, Edris heard a buzzing noise reverberating around him. Faint at first, growing stronger by the second, the noise wasn't coming from around the interrogation room but from within.

— Five days, sixteen hours, twenty-one minutes and seven seconds.

Ace's familiar deep voice echoed in his head, and Edris's lips curled up.