CHAPTER 11: Confessions of a Not-So-Satanist
Scene: City Dungeon, Interrogation Room
Dark stone walls. Enchanted torches flicker ominously. Three stern officials from the Holy Tribunal, dressed in golden-trimmed robes, stand behind a cracked stone desk. Across from them, chained to a chair with scorch-proof runes, sits a disheveled man with tangled long hair, scuffed armor, and eyeliner smudged halfway down his cheekbones. Beside him: a busted guitar fused to a glowing amplifier with rope, twine, and maybe a shoelace stolen from destiny. The amp hums faintly, like it's dreaming of violence.
Raiko stares at the ceiling, softly humming a melody that makes the torches flicker with dread.
---
Interrogator 1 (stern):
> "State your name and your purpose, outsider."
Raiko (grinning without fear):
> "Raiko. Metalhead. Slayer of riffs. Prophet of the power chord."
---
Interrogator 2 (confused but trying to look scary):
> "You stand accused of conjuring a forbidden sound... corrupting the tavern air... and performing a ritual of auditory terrorism called... quote... 'The Blackened Screech of Saint Promeefius?'"
Raiko (offended):
> "It's called 'SATAN PROMETHEUS,' and it's a banger."
---
Interrogator 3 (eyebrow twitching):
> "You repeated that name twenty-three times over a demonic harmony. That's very close to necromantic incantation law."
Raiko (shrugging):
> "Honestly? I was just riffing. Most of it wasn't even words."
---
Interrogator 2 (slowly):
> "You… freestyled a summoning chant in a forgotten dialect of demonic Latin?"
Raiko (thinking):
> "…Dang. That explains the smoke and the screaming furniture."
---
Silence. The interrogators glance at each other, visibly unnerved. The amp lets out a low, sinister wub.
---
Raiko (suddenly cheerful):
> "Anyway, if you're gonna execute me, I've got a request."
Interrogator 1 (suspicious):
> "…What kind of request?"
Raiko (grinning):
> "Make it METAL."
---
Raiko (rising from the chair as far as the chains allow):
> "Hang me upside-down, let a thunder wyvern scream as you do it, stab me with flaming drumsticks, throw my ashes into a volcano shaped like a skull. That sort of thing."
---
Interrogator 3 (genuinely alarmed):
> "That's… That's horrifying."
Raiko:
> "That's showmanship."
---
Interrogator 2 (frustrated):
> "We just asked if you're a cultist!"
Raiko:
> "I'm a solo artist."
---
They turn to the report scrolls.
Interrogator 1 (reading):
> "No confirmed casualties… only five citizens fainted, two ran screaming, one began what witnesses called a 'violent interpretive dance battle with a table.'"
Interrogator 3:
> "And one chicken laid a boiled egg."
Raiko (nodding):
> "Metal."
---
Outside the room, behind a two-way illusion mirror:
Yu-Riella munches honey nuts while leaning on a guard. Noona stands behind her, arms crossed, eyes locked on the man inside.
---
Yu-Riella:
> "Sooo… that's your husband?"
Noona (calm):
> "Yes."
Yu-Riella:
> "You okay? Wanna cry? Roast him?"
Noona (flat):
> "No."
Yu-Riella:
> "...Then what are you gonna do?"
Noona (quiet fire in her voice):
> "I'm going to bring him home."
—
Yu-Riella (muttering):
> "Wait, he triggered that clause? No bail until the Trial of Noise? Who even wrote that law?!"
Guard (whispering):
> "Temple of Harmonic Sanctity. Bunch of ex-bards with grudges."
—
[TO BE CONTINUED]
— Author's Note —
If your music summons smoke, floating furniture, and boiling eggs… it's not noise. It's art.
Also, shoutout to interpretive dance battles. Underappreciated form of resistance.
– H. Behevras
—
© 2025 H. Behevras | First published on Royal Road
Do not repost without permission.