>>5950261Maybe it’s a silver lining that the mage girl joined her comrades in slumber. You’re not sure how long it’ll take to convince a panicking woman that you’re not going to send her to the executioner's block for being mind-controlled. However, you can’t say the same for the Stranger, who you should be finding.
Unlike the inquisitor you enter the back room without fanfare, other than some precautionary looks inside to avoid an ambush. Your worries are unfounded as the only two occupants of the kitchen are in no state to offer resistance. The first, a woman has a rapier impaling through her shoulder and sticking the wooden wall behind her, due to this it looks almost like she’s standing slumped even though said rapier, her rapier by the looks of her scabbard, is the only thing keeping her upright. The other occupant, a large and unsightly man lies limp on the floor next to a cast iron skillet. By the blood covering the pot and the man’s broken nose, you can only imagine how he got into that state. But somehow both of them are alive, though with some grievous wounds.
The pattern of opening a room to macabre displays of unconscious commoners repeats twice more before you follow the sound of yelling, and whimpering into the establishment's wine cellar. Where you’re greeted with another uncomfortable sight, three women in various states of undress lie on the cold floor as the inquisitor himself stands over a sniveling man. A man desperately clutching the stump where his right hand used to be. Said hand lies discarded on the floor a few feet away, still with its brand.
Unluckily both men see you enter, and immediately the Stranger starts begging, “P-please! You have to help me! This stalker’s going to kill me!”
You ignore him, “inquisitor,” and nod to your “superior.” In reality, very few people are above you, and you know that.
“Is everyone taken care of upstairs?”
“For the most part, everyone who attacked me is unconscious.”
“-Wait! You’re with HIM?!” Both of you ignore the Stranger.
“Not dead?”
“It is well within my capabilities to defeat opponents without killing them.”
“Not sure I’d be able to, you MageKnights sure are scary.”
“My work is far less frightening than what I saw you’re capable of, inquisitor.”
The inquisitor hums but doesn’t refute your claim, “I’d like you to meet my new friend, one Keiji Hashimoto, our resident troublemaker.”
“Wait, this is all one big misunderstanding! You have to believe me!” The black-haired man says as his eyes dart for you to the inquisitor and back again.
“Ah yes, the big misunderstanding of why two separate inquisitors found you surrounded by a blossoming cult of predominantly young women who’ve been mind-controlled to obey you.”
He hisses in pain as he tries to stand up, momentarily forgetting he’s lacking a hand to push himself up with. The inquisitor's boot keeps him on the floor, “I know it sounds bad, but it isn’t what it looks like! I was just trying to make friends!”
