Late Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

"I'll get straight to the point… What is a halfie like you doing cooperating with the Tower?"

Her eyes went wide with shock and fear. "How do you know about half breeds?"

-She hasn’t connected the dots yet, huh…- "That's because I'm a dragon."

"..." She didn't quite know how to respond as she broke into a cold sweat.

"Alright now answer my question, why are you helping humans?"

Even though she still had a touch of disbelief on her face, she clearly understood that I could kill her and ended up caving. "My father told me to assist the tower in whatever way they asked when I was young, and ever since then, I did just that."

-So she was basically sold into the tower. Do they know she's a 'dragon' though?- "What were they asking you to do?"

"Um... Over the past few years, it was mostly to find and retrieve strong mana cores, through hunting or stealing, but recently they wanted me to use my identity as a 'dragon' to take over Kaelallan from the inside…”

-So they really did know...- "You do understand how illegal that is, right? Not only you but everyone connected to your identity will be executed."

Her anger suddenly worsened as I spoke. "How so? Wasn't that a law of the pure dragons? We’ve already split from those jerks. Plus, do you think I'm the only half-breed helping the tower? There are too many of us for you jerks to handle." Her arrogance had started to show again, and it just pushed all the wrong buttons.

-You must be kidding, right?- Getting closer to her, I increased the pressure from my aura severalfold and looked deep into her eyes. "You seem to be gravely underestimating the strength of real dragons."

Her face paled once again as every ounce of arrogance drained from it.

But that was when something suddenly clicked. -Wait… If there are that many halfies assisting the Tower, they obviously wouldn't be doing it without compensation, so…- It was a bit of a stretch, but it made several stray dots suddenly connect. -Is the Tower the human organization funding the rebellion?-

The theory was a missing puzzle piece that made everything suddenly fit together, but no matter how good it was, it was still a theory with no real evidence backing it up. -But if I do manage to find evidence, my job with Oliver will get immensely easier.-

As things were currently, I was on my own against the Tower, and although I wasn't too worried about fighting an organization of humanoids by myself, with the halfies and rebellion involved, things were bound to get dangerous, but things didn't need to stay that way.

Now, all I needed was to find some concrete evidence connecting them to the rebellion and then simply let the elders do the dangerous part for me.

-But as for you...- Turning back to Maria, I decided to ask something from a different angle. "Do you know anyone in the Tower related to the rebellion?"

She stopped moving for a moment and hesitated before speaking. “Will you let me live if I answer honestly?” She wore a pleading look, but I didn't really care.

“I'll think about it depending on your response.”

There was another short moment of hesitation before she spoke up again. "At the bare minimum, my superiors tell me the harder I work, the more I'm supporting the rebellion…"

-Well then!- Immediately confirming my theory of them being connected, I fired off several more questions, the answers of which just steadily reinforced my theory.

But eventually, I ran out of questions to ask and finally let down the silencing barrier and called out to Father.

"What is it, Vasilias?" He wore an odd look, but I didn't pay it mind.

"I'd like you to try and question her. She seems to know some really important information, but I'm not sure what exactly to ask that could help us look for evidence…”

Although he was a bit confused, he seemed to understand the gist of it. "Okay, but what information should I aim to get out of her?"

"She's a halfie with the Tower, and the Tower knows she’s a halfie. I also have reason to believe the Tower is connected to the rebellion."

Father's face immediately turned serious as he wasted no time jumping over the stone barrier.

Seeing him disappear behind the wall, I let out a sigh of relief. “Haah…” -Even if she doesn't know enough to draw any concrete conclusions, she might be able to give us hints on where to look for it…-

- ~~~ - (Omnipotent)

*Clang* *Clang* The noise of blades clashing filled the dusty air in the cave, but it quickly mixed with the rage-filled screams of a certain man.

“You think Kaelallan can face the Tower?!” *Clank-Shing* “AAAGHH!” The executive let out a gut-wrenching scream as he fell to the ground after having his legs cut off. When he looked up, he noticed Lawton's massive sword looming over his head.

“Even if we can't... WE WILL STILL FIGHT!” *Shing-Crack* Lawtons greatsword cleanly cut off the man's head before continuing into the ground and shattering the floor.

*Rustle-Thud* As he fell onto his back in the middle of the room, Lawton let out countless heavy breaths.

It had been a long and arduous fight, but at long last, Lawton managed to come out on top. “Hah.. hah..” Lawtons strength was by no means low, he was actually quite a monster, but this executive gave him a real run for his money. “That was.. too close…”

They were fairly evenly matched throughout the entire fight, each dealing significant damage to each other before Lawton finally got through an opening and chopped the executive's legs off, but this also left Lawton with several serious injuries.

“Sh*t… I need to make it back to the city!” Forcing himself up, he looked around the room and ripped a large piece of cloth off the wall to bandage the huge gash along his arm.

Just before wrapping it up though, he grabbed a bottle of booze from the table and drenched the cloth in it.

-Okay.. 1.. 2.. 3..- "Aaarghh!" Gritting his teeth as the alcohol seeped into his deep and open wound, he hastily finished wrapping it and tied off the ends with a bit of rope.

The cloth didn't take long to start filling with blood, but now it had become a race against time.

Turning to the door he dashed out and started heading back to Kaelallan in a hurry.

He was already exhausted from the fight, so the running started pushing his fatigue beyond its limit. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him to the point that he even ditched his priceless armor to lighten up.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long before he arrived at the castle gate, but he was immediately met with resistance. "Halt sir!"

Seeing a huge demihuman man sprinting towards the castle was bad news to the gate guards.

But as the knights drew their weapons and prepared for a fight, their captain yelled out. "That's Lawton Keen! Let him through immediately!" -How is he so heavily injured?!-

Immediately realizing the severity of Lawtons wounds, the gate captain cleared a path for him, letting him into the city without issue.

But Lawton didnt stop to thank him at all, he simply blasted through the main gate and sprinted all the way to the royal barracks, leaving a trail of blood the whole way there.

Throwing open the door to the medical ward by the training grounds revealed a few other knights that got caught up in the prison incident and a couple of doctors.

The doctors each recognized Lawton immediately, but their looks only took a moment to turn to shock. "Sir Keen, what are you-Oh goodness!! Get some alcohol and stitching equipment quickly!"

Seeing his pale face and the blood-drenched cloth on his arm, they knew he was in trouble, but before the doctors could even come to help him lay in a bed, he collapsed to the ground.

*Thud*