One week later, inside a rectangle room that had only one big table and two chairs placed opposite to each other, Katis was sitting on a chair. He bowed his head and stared at the table lifelessly. Surrounded him were thick brick walls and a door attached to a wall in front of him. When the door opened, he was surprised seeing who stepped in.
Sitting in front of him was an old man, who had short silver hair and a small white beard on his lips. He wore a white button-down shirt combined with a necktie covered by a complicated coat that had the combination of three colors: black, light blue and red. He also wore a coat that had two colors: the outside was white and the inside was crimson red. He wore a white glove on his left hand while his right arm was protected by a silver armor arm which had some symbols on it.
When the old man sat down, Katis looked at him but he did not look directly at the old man's eyes. "Sir Charles," he greeted.
Looking at the long black hair man, the old man named Charles sighed in conflict. "I have never thought one day you will be in here" he crossed his arms and said. "Do you know why?" he continued.
"I hurt a friend of President Yuna," Katis looked away.
Even though Katis dodged his eyes, Charles seemed to not be bothered at all, he asked. "Tell me, what happened?"
"I saw a Suin man…" Katis started remembering. "I thought he was an intruder so I warned him not to move. But he ran away."
"And you chased while commanding the machine to shoot him," Charles added and moved his back slightly.
"Yes…" Katis nodded.
"Did you acknowledge that the machines were heavy arms with live bullets?" Charles asked.
"Yes," Katis responded weakly.
"Did you give him a chance to explain why he was here?" Charles continued.
"No, sir," Katis looked at Charles and excused. "But if he hadn't run away, I would have simply neutralized him and reported to President later. Also, nothing could be sure that even if I asked, that guy would explain either."
As Katis was making an excuse for his action, Charles seemed not to satisfy with his statement. "Even if he tried to explain, do you think you would listen to him? And before Yuna knew what happened to her friend, you already forced him to commit a crime he did not make, am I right?" he said and Katis had no response. Charles continued, "You know, I'm kind of secured when you are serious about keeping Reingar university peacefully. Thanks to you and everyone else in Reingar public security's effort, we have the safest place of Ritania and I can always feel less worried when King Aither can study here without being assassinated. However…" he stopped.
"It's my job to keep wrongdoers out of the university and punish them for their crime," Katis felt a slight relief when Charles praised him, but not for long.
"As the crime rate is very low, the rate of unjust punishments is also over the top. Do you know what it means?" Charles muffled while putting his arms on the table.
"I would rather put potential individual criminals on a cell instead of letting them roaming around." Katis insisted. He continued revealing his stubbornness. "Everything can be considered later."
"And that "consideration" of yours often takes years to solve," Charles sighed disappointedly. He crossed his arms again. He looked away for a moment before asking. "What makes you think putting everyone in a prison is a good way to keep security instead of investigating carefully and find the true culprits?"
"The time of an investigation often takes a very long time to be done. And at the moment we know who the culprit is, they might escape already." Katis did not hesitate in a single second to answer and showed Charles that he did not do anything wrong.
Charles crossed his fingers and placed them on the table. He said. "So, you just pick up some random person, toss them to a cell, torture and interrogate until they admit a crime they have no part in it."
"Even if there is a slight chance of them being the true culprit, we have to take it. It's always better safe than sorry." Katis leaned his body towards Charles as a sign to persuade him.
"And what about the bigger chance they are not the culprit?" Having enough, Charles shouted. "Don't give me that non-sense slightly chance crap to excuse your wrongdoings."
Katis was surprised of how angry Charles was. He had never seen him acted like this before. The Knight Commander of the Order of the Sword, who was known for his calmness and earned high respect from everyone never showed his anger to anyone, unless they really messed up. He said, "As I said, sir, I only want to protect the peace of Reingar."
"You don't protect anything," Charles sighed. He shook his head and continued, "You only want to show everyone your own selfish ego. And that ego is now having a prize to pay."
"What do you mean, sir?" Katis did not understand what he said.
"When you destroyed Miss Carrot's laboratory, did you even acknowledge what was inside?" Charles looked for Katis's response and as he expected, that man knew nothing. The Knight Commander continued. "Miss Carrot has been gathering a lot of viruses, or should I say, many types of disease samples from all over the Ritania. When you mindlessly and stupidly destroyed the lab, you also released deadly diseases that are capable of destroying the whole continent."
Startling, Katis started realizing his crime but he still kept his edgy stubborn. "But we have medicine to cure them, am I right?"
"No, you aren't," Charles muffled. "And yes, there are diseases can be cured, but there is not. Only the goddess Diche knows what kind of diseases were released and if they already spread to the rest of the Ritania or not. According to Miss Carrot, some diseases have a very high rate of infection and they can survive in some harsh environments. They can even spread through the air. Thanks to you, the whole Reingar is now in chaos. Everyone is anxious, the crime rate starts increasing, is this what you want?"
Seeing Charles was losing his calmness, Katis tried to reduce the heat of the conversation. "N-No, sir. I didn't think it could be that serious."
"Because you don't care anything at the beginning, except your ego," Charles shouted and slammed the table with his fist. After scaring Katis a bit, he caught a breath of calmness and continued. "Do you know that day, who was there?" he asked and obviously, Katis had no answer. "King Aither was there taking a walk inside the university."
Could not believe what Charles just said, Katis was trembling. "Excuse me, sir? You mean… the king…"
"You heard that right. My little, innocent king was having a beautiful day and you completely destroyed it. Not only that, you put his life on the risk," while talking, Charles's hands started shaking. "I swear, Katis, if anything happens to my little king, I will show you what the life worse than death is."
Looking at his eyes, Katis could not dare to look at them any longer. The infamous Knight Commander of the Order of the Sword was not someone you could mess with without consequences. He stuttered. "I'm… sorry…"
"You should be," Charles closed his eyes for a moment and tried to stay calm. Catching a breath, he continued. "President Yuna had mobilized resources and manpower to check what kind of diseases were released and compound medicine for everyone. In the meantime, you should pray for the Goddess Diche, repent your crime and ask her for forgiveness. You are now becoming the thing you want to exterminate your whole life."
When Charles stood up, Katis wanted to say something but he did not know what he should say. His mind was empty and he knew Karin was right, he did not simply screw up but created a disaster.
As he moved towards the door, Charles turned his head slightly and looked at Katis. "You are supposed to be given the death penalty but thanks to your works at a security officer and your part of the war in Perland, the punishment is mitigated but don't take it as a relief," as he finished his sentence, Charles slammed the door and left Katis behind.
Another week passed, on the top of the highest tower of Reigar, there was a cylindrical room which was used for the presentation of the Reingar student council. Inside the room, there was a big wooden table in the center. The room was built with a wall combined with glass windows. Each window had two light brown curtains. The room had a line of bookshelves placed bilaterally on both sides of the tables. Sitting next to the table was Yuna. She was working with some documents to make up for the mess Katis made. Helping her was the young and stunningly beautiful girl, who wore a pink uniform, Hazel.
"It should be enough," Hazel said while placing some paperwork for Yuna.
"Does Carrot ask for anything else?" Yuna looked at some documents and asked.
Checking the tablet on her hands, Hazel responded. "Currently, besides needing have more time to produce vaccines and medicines, she also gave a list of some ingredients."
"Make it a priority. I want to make sure Carrot doesn't lack anything." Yuna signed on some papers and gave them to Hazel.
While they were working, Karin opened the door and stepped in. "Lieutenant Karin reported."
"Oh, Karin, you came," seeing her, Yuna greeted. "How are things?"
"Everything is under control. Some individuals used this chance to seek profits and spread rumors but they are all arrested," Karin said.
Hearing that, Yuna doubted. "You… sure they are all guilty?"
"Don't worry, Yuna. I always check the case and look for victims and witnesses. You will be surprised that Karin has done a good job." Hazel comforted the young president.
Surprisingly, Yuna said. "If you said so."
Later, after finishing her jobs, Yuna, Hazel, and Karin came to an elevator to come down. When they were walking on the corridors, Yuna was relieved that things still went normal. The students were chatting and spending time with their friends without worry. Looking out from the windows, they could see the students were playing sports joyfully. Saying goodbye to Hazel, Yuna and Karin headed to a sickbay, where Al was taken care of.
Looking at him, Karin remembered what happened between him and her. She then turned to Yuna. "Yuna, can I ask?"
"Of course," Yuna nodded.
"Do you think I am a bit of… how should I say?" Karin was struggling to tell what was in her mind. "Like… I always thought the best way to prevent crimes is to arrest those who are responsible for…"
Understanding what she meant, Yuna said. "You're not doing anything wrong, but a bit of carelessness. Let's say…" she stopped before continuing. "When there is a case, if someone accidentally appears near the crime scene, you will lump him as he is the one commit it. So you grab him, throw him in a cell, interrogate him until he says he is the one responsible for the crime. Instead of investigating carefully to find the true culprit behind, you just accuse innocent people. This is when you are wrong."
"I see…" the young swordswoman nodded. "When this man slapped me, I realized that no one had ever done that to me before. Do you think because no one points out my mistakes, I keep doing them without consideration?"
"You can say that," Yuna added but she was glad that Karin finally considered more on her actions. "Al might go a bit overhead, but he wasn't mean. He wants you to open your mind a bit so you don't make any more mistakes. Do you remember what he said?"
Karin nodded. "Not always I encounter people weaker than me. If he hadn't been mercy, I would have been killed."
Seeing Karin did not fully understand what Al meant, Yuna started thinking and explained to her. "It's not really the main point. What he meant was when there is a crime scene, you should take time and investigate carefully. If you imprison an innocent person, you will give the true culprit a chance to escape," she continued. "If you do that, you are no better than those you hate. And yes, if you just mindlessly charge ahead, you likely will get killed if that person is stronger than you. And don't forget, not everyone is patient enough to explain to you and defend themselves from your attacking. It's even worse if that is the true culprit."
After thinking very hard and Yuna seemed not to bother waiting for her response, Karin slowly realized that she was not doing as good as she thought. She looked at Al and turned to Yuna. "I still don't understand fully yet but… I will definitely consider more if there is a case needed to be solved," she smiled.
"I'm looking forward to your success," Yuna brightly smiled.
In the evening, inside Yuna's restroom, the young president was working a little more to make sure everything was doing fine. After that, she started thinking of Al. She then asked. "Karzan, are you there?"
"Always," her guardian appeared immediately. "Do you need anything?"
"Not really, I just want to ask something," Yuna looked worried. "Do you think Al will wake up?"
"Hard to say," Karzan responded. "Although he can still be considered as a divine being, in terms of the constitution, he is the weakest among us, even weaker than Ras, the same as his healing ability. Whenever Ras is hurt badly, he will be in a dormant state and will wake up eventually but for Minos…" suddenly, Karzan felt uncomfortable when he spoke that name.
Seeing he stopped, Yuna asked. "What's wrong?"
"No, nothing," Karzan shook his head. "Honestly, I would rather call him Al than Minos. I like his current name more than his real name," he said.
"I can't agree more," Yuna smiled. "Can you continue?"
"Of course," Karzan smiled back at her and spoke. "So, as I said, every time he lives, Al always has a very weak physical body. Surely, he is stronger than normal human but he still has a weak constitution comparing to me and Ras. If he is seriously wounded, he can die, physically, and reincarnates to another life."
After Karzan had explained, Yuna felt a bit sad but she still had a strong positive mind. She asked. "So, is there a chance for Al to wake up?"
"Definitely, he will, but we have to wait for a while," Karzan comforted her and Yuna seemed to be glad when he said so. They chatted a little more before Yuna went to bed.
