During the interrogation (3/3)

"So in conclusion…"

After drying his tongue with the immense amount of words spoken, finally, Sebastian was able to say what he wanted most.

"This was all a misunderstanding!"

"Ohhhh~"

"I see…"

The two policemen inside the interrogation room showed clarifying faces, as if they had sniffed out the absolute truth of reality. Without being too exaggerated, all that was left was for them to applaud what Sebastian had said.

Officer Haoshu jotted down the last words and closed the notebook. The other police that was at the door thought and connected the things witnessed today: those fragmented pieces of information after Sebastian's explanation had become an undeniable event line.

They were totally convinced.

But still, for regulatory reasons, a few more questions for formality and rectifying the statement were needed.

Eventually, Haoshu interrupted the harmony existing inside the room.

"Well, whether his story is true or not still needs verification and evidence. But meanwhile, can you tell me where did you get this poisonous gas ability from? If you purchased it from somewhere, we really need the information."

What came after the 'if' was added later, as a message of 'this is nothing personal against you, we just need to know.'

To what Sebastian had to sigh.

The inevitable question arrived.

For the last easily forty minutes, Sebastian had kept saying the truth, but not completely and in full detail.

His 10+ 'illegal' abilities involved in this case were the things he avoided expressing. He would say the course of events rather than the step-by-step actions, like "I attacked them back" as a substitute for "I threw a fireball toward them."

Or "I used something to block their shooting" instead of bringing up the [pan] he could summon.

And as [Aggrievement - I'm telling the truth! (E)] could make them slightly convince themselves, they would think that he picked up something from the floor to execute the missing parts of the story.

But [Viper's pit. Lv.1] was an exception. Like Haoshu said before, the dozens of police that surrounded him were not blind.

It would be weird if they didn't ask about it, a response is demanded. Hopefully, Sebastian had already prepared an excuse for a while.

"It came from a manifested rat in my house. My marionette killed it without any problem since he doesn't need to breathe and is immune to these kinds of attacks. So after I opened its skull like the videos on the internet said, I found its gem." Sebastian used the same voice tone and attitude just like before, trying not to arouse suspicion.

But without being under the effects of the hypnosis ability, Haoshu was much normal, as well as perspicacious. Quickly, he followed the question with more inquiries.

"Where is that rat body at now?"

"I threw it to the trash."

"Can you describe to me how it was like?"

"What do you mean? It was a rat but bigger, that's it."

"What color was the gem?"

"Gray, almost transparent."

"The size?"

"About one centimeter wide if I remember correctly. When I pulled it out of the skull, I almost thought it was a broken bone."

Uninfluenced by the rush in Haoshu's voice, Sebastian answered the questions impeccably and at his own pace.

After these and a few more trick questions, Haoshu had to accept, perhaps 60%, the improbable but realistic explanation of the rat.

That was how skeptical this MDW officer was.

Hopefully, Sebastian had enough knowledge about the post-portal changes. Despite information continuing to be very restricted, deeply digging into the network allowed him to describe an object that he has never touched in real life.

There are always things that happen in other countries, filtered information, or pets of people dying, and it's either by an x-ray or autopsy, things come to the surface sooner or later.

"You almost killed two Handler with this… E-class ability. Don't you have anything to say?" Haoshu refused to just let things go like that, in his profession, it was fundamental to be greedy with information from suspects' mouths.

"Huh? Was it an E-class ability? I thought it was higher." Sebastian's voice combined surprise with disappointment.

"If it was D-class, you couldn't even absorb it." The officer at the door made the unanticipated comment.

"Hey!"

Haoshu reproached him with his eyes.

"Sorry, I… I'll keep my mouth shut."

"You should."

"Huh? What just happen? If it was D-class, I couldn't absorb it? What do you mean by that?" Sebastian noticed the interaction between them and immediately asked.

But neither the doorman nor Haoshu answered, leaving him anxiously intrigued.

Or that is the role he is playing.

Sebastian of course knows that the Manifester level is directly related to the class of abilities. One would think that as long as you have the gem, you can even absolve an S-class ability if you wanted.

But the truth is, Novitiate can only absolve E-class abilities, Handlers D-class, Matchers C-class, and so on.

Those things are not known by the public, along with other 'game rules'.

Having these kinds of information gaps, criminals are easier to give themselves away.

In other words, the previous questions asked were extremely dangerous, like dancing on the tip of a blade. With just describing a D-class gem instead of an E-class one, all Sebastian's previous efforts would've ended up drained into the pipeline. And he, wouldn't be here pacifically playing dumb with 'Oh, please tell me what did you mean by bla bla bla.'

"Don't get distracted, we're still talking about your ability," Haoshu intervened in the middle of his thoughts. "How was it so potent as to defeat not only one but two people a rank higher than you?"

"Well, usually it's not that powerful, if you gave me an open space, I could show you how this ability normally is. Because it usually looks green instead of black. But for some reason, today was different. I swear that when I used it against those two I only had the intention to screw them. I had no idea they could end up on ER."

Pure sincerity, [Aggrievement - I'm telling the truth! (E)] was activated.

"Fine, next question."

…

…

"Hey, Haoshu, how was it with your guy. I bet you expected a lot of things for the first day you got transferred to the MDW, but never thought your first job will be interrogating a 17 year old hahaha."

In the hallway, the two men met.

But Haoshu didn't have the mood to start insulting like he usually does, he looked distracted, which prompted him to say:

"It was weird."

"What do you mean?" The second man crossed his arms, curious about the continuation of this talk.

"That guy. Over the twenty years of my career, I have trained myself to never fully believe what a person being questioned says. Yet, for some reason, today, I believed every word he said." Haoshu flipped through his notebook as if he had missed something.

But nothing was found. Just his regular notes on the case.

"I mean, I kinda get why you felt that way. They were four scumbags beating up a practically a child, it's normal to feel empathy."

"No, I'm pretty sure it wasn't that. Maybe I should watch the records later."

"Well, mine was the opposite, I did not believe in any word he said…" The second man speaking was no other but the officer who interrogated Odell. "I feel like I lost valuable brain cells after talking to him."

"If it wasn't for the fact that both the man and the woman said exactly the same thing, I would have called the psychiatric hospital by now".