“And were there any other assailants?” The cop, who’d introduced herself as ‘Orianne Delvaux’ over half an hour ago asked.

“No, like I have been telling you, there were only those four. And perhaps a fifth, but I didn’t see them, as they were following me around town.”

“Then how do you know that there was a fifth?” Orianne asked.

“I knew that there was someone following me, but I didn’t see any details.” I said.

I had to stay as vague as I could, unfortunate, with certain questions, as I didn’t want to bring up Cain. I couldn’t straight up-lie either, since Orianne was an Oracle who specialized in these kinds of interrogations. Her ‘social interpreter’ sub-class seemed to be custom-made for her line of work.

“Aright, I’ll drop that for now. Let’s go back to these four people. Are you sure you have no prior connections with them, especially Mathieu?”

“Who?”

Truly, with everything going on, I could not be bothered to remember any of their names.

“Mathieu Boucher. The Weaponsmith.”

“Oh, right.” I could have figured that out by process of elimination, since he was the only one whose name I didn’t know. “No, I have never seen them anywhere, as far as I can recall. I was stopped by an officer for an ID check a few weeks ago, but that was definitely not him.”

“Hmmm…” Orianne scribbled something down in a notepad.

She seemed unsure of where to take this line of questioning next.

After they apprehended me, by which I mean after they handcuffed me and took me aside, on the promenade, to question me, they quickly realized that I was not a threat, nor a flight risk (all thanks to Orianne and her skills). So, they un-cuffed me and left me with Orianne for a one-on-one discussion.

I had tried explaining everything to her, but with the stress of the situation, and physical exhaustion slowly catching up to me, I had struggled to put coherent thoughts together. Which was why this woman was slowly walking me through everything I had said.

“And the Americana man,” I spoke, bringing the cop’s attention back onto me. “I don’t know who than can be. Will you be looking into it?”

“You said he hired them to kill you?”

“Yes.”

“That sounds a bit extreme.” Orianne dryly stated.

“I’m telling the truth.” I insisted, knowing that the cop knew that already. “They were trying to kill me.”

“Listen…” Orianne looked at me with a compassionate smile. “I know this must have been a very stressful situation for you, and I am not doubting your honesty, you did call us after all. But-” She paused, trying to think of how to phrase her next words nicely. “You are what you are, and at the end of the day they are ones getting shipped to the hospital, and not you.”

“But they were the ones to attack me!” I almost snapped at the cop. “All I did was defend myself!”

Orianne nodded.

“We will be looking into that as well. All that I ask of you, on behalf of the police department, is that in the future you call us before starting this kind of ordeal.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but my mind went blank on outrage, as I could not think of a singe thing to say.

“Is it because I am a S ranker?” I asked, when I finally regained a bit of composure.

“I’m sorry, I can’t comment on the subject.” Orianne replied, but her face said it all.

“Then if you don’t have any more questions, can I go home?” I asked with a flat tone.

“Yes, we will contact you if the need arises.” She nodded.

I headed back, under the bridge, and up the stairway that led to the main road. I noticed the magic bomb-team, or whoever they were, was still there, despite having deactivated the artefact almost as soon as they’d arrived. The police team was also busy taking pictures of all the bloodstains and other traces of the fight. I doubted they’d ever study them in any way though, if their attitude towards me was anything to go by.

As I stepped off the stairway and onto the sidewalk proper, I took in a deep breath of cold air. My mind was scrambled, like an egg for lack of a better comparison. I wasn’t sure what to think about anything anymore, and I felt as if I was about to shut down emotionally any second.

But first I needed to find Cain.

Thankfully the boy popped from an alleyway, the second I crossed the street.

We silently walked towards my apartment. The streets were too empty for anyone to notice us, and both of us were too tired to care if we did in fact get noticed.

“I’m sorry.” Cain suddenly spoke.

His voice was quiet, and void of that usual touch of sarcasm.

“Whatever for?” I asked, matching his tone.

“The fight. I miscalculated. I thought I could take them on, but my MP ran out so fast. I thought it would be fine, it was always fine before, but they all had such diverse types of weapons… I wasn’t prepared.” He explained in a steady voice.

I smiled, with a smile that didn’t reach my eyes, and patted him on the head. At that moment, that was all I was capable of, between the emotional exhaustion and my sore limbs.