Chương 56: (55) 2.8. A Tiny Discussion

"He didn't do it!" Vin repeated for what felt like the hundredth time, continuing to argue with the guard standing in the doorway. But just like all the previous attempts he'd made at stating Scule's innocence, the guard remained impassive. Vin may as well have been arguing with a statue for all the good it was doing him. Grinding his teeth, Vin stomped back from the guard, going back to pacing around the room aimlessly.

He had no idea what was going on, and he didn't like being in the dark when one of his friends was potentially in danger. After discovering Scule standing over the corpse of one of their own, absolutely covered in the man's blood, the village warriors had immediately taken him into custody. No doubt sensing that Vin had been about to make a scene, the elder had quickly intervened and pleaded with Vin to wait for her in the central room.

It was only after she'd promised that no harm would come to the petian until after she'd spoken with him and her people had investigated the crime scene that Vin had finally relented. Seeing as the petian was a complete stranger to these people, he was already lucky the villagers hadn't just attacked Scule on sight when they found him in such a compromising position. Tensions were running high, and he didn't want to become the spark that ignited this uneasy powder keg.

Even so, Vin wanted nothing more than to march right over to where Scule was being held and break the Rogue free. But there were two important things holding him back. First was the fact that his people and the village of Sakis were in the early stages of forming what would no doubt end up being a critical alliance going forward. The Earthers needed knowledge more than anything, and the stone warriors seemed to have that in abundance. The second reason was a bit more humbling.

He wasn't even sure if he even could rescue Scule. It pained him to admit it, but it was growing clear that all the time he'd spent around camp had affected his image of himself. Specifically, how powerful he was. Despite not even being a combat class, thanks solely to his limited spells and higher level, he was leaps and bounds tougher than most of his fellow Earthers.

Vin didn't like to compare himself to others, but he'd been unable to help but notice things like how much faster or stronger he was than practically everyone back in camp. But here in Sakis… Vin thought back to just a few of the things he'd witnessed but hadn't really given too much thought to. Samtha smashing her way into the noble's study over in Alka's abandoned town with a single skill empowered strike.

The fact that she'd been able to fight non-stop for over a day straight, despite being weighed down by armor made of solid stone. Hell, the elder, a wrinkly old woman that was more gristle than muscle, had just beaten him in a foot race barely an hour ago! They didn't show off much which made it easy to forget, but the warriors of Sakis were strong. Unlike his people, everyone else on Edregon had been given a three month head start over them.

And while some had squandered those months, like the people living within the citadel, the villagers of Sakis clearly hadn't. Vin wouldn't be surprised if just about every person within the village had either already prestiged, or was at least close to it. All that to say, he didn't like their odds of starting a fight with a few hundred people potentially around his level or higher. Not even factoring in that plenty of them were actual combat classes.

"So…" Alka finally asked, lounging on her side in midair as though there was an invisible couch in the middle of the room. She'd been surprisingly quiet all this time, but it seemed even she'd finally grown bored of watching him pace back and forth.

"…what's the plan?"

"There is no plan," Vin sighed, finally giving up his endless pacing and leaning his back against the cool stone wall.

"We wait for the elder to come tell us what they found at the crime scene, and then we argue Scule's case for him. You know as well as I do he didn't kill that guy."

"Do we though?" Shia quietly asked, the elf looking hesitantly toward him. Shia had spent the last hour sitting hunched over in one of the wicker chairs, tapping her foot incessantly and twisting her braid between her fingers. Vin could only stare at the elf in shock. His mouth opened, but he couldn't seem to form any words. Before he could get the chance, she hurried on.

"Vin, I like Scule as much as you do, but so long as we're stuck here waiting let's at least be honest… We've only known him for a couple of days. And we didn't exactly meet him in the greatest of circumstances either."

"There's a big difference between stealing and killing," Vin argued, unable to believe what he was hearing. Sure, Scule and Shia seemed to bicker more than the rest of them, but he'd thought it was just playful teasing. The fact that Shia was even considering Scule might not be innocent…

"Of course there's a big difference," Shia frowned.

"But it's not like stealing was all he did. He poisoned us Vin, before we'd even exchanged two words with him. If we hadn't happened to have methods of resisting it, who knows what could have happened."

"It was only a muscle relaxant…" Vin argued weakly, slowly sliding down the wall and landing with a thud on his rear. He wanted to believe that things would have turned out the same way even if they had been entirely at Scule's mercy, but Shia was absolutely right. It hadn't been more than a couple of days since they'd met Scule, and a large portion of that time hadn't even been spent together. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

While his initial meetings with Alka and Shia hadn't been great either, what with Alka possessing one of the stone villagers and Shia threatening to sacrifice and/or eat him, the two women had drastically different scenarios than the petian. He wasn't sure if it was due to their strange connection that had formed when Vin had unknowingly become her new anchor, but Vin had a strong, almost unconscious understanding of what made Alka tick.

The Slayer was exactly as she appeared to be; a ghost that just wanted a way to free herself from her own trapped existence. That's not to say she wasn't her own person with complex thoughts and ideals, but Vin could almost feel what kind of a person Alka was. And while he didn't have such a connection with Shia, he had spent a good couple of days in close quarters with her learning magic before they'd even begun traveling together.

Not to mention that she had the backing of Erik, a practically demi-god like being that literally exuded peace and serenity from his very being. Scule… Well, Scule was backed by his tamed rat. Most of the time. Speaking of which…

"Hey, have either of you two seen Reginald?" Vin asked, suddenly realizing he had no idea where the rat was. Reginald hadn't been in the room when Scule had been discovered standing over the dead body, and the rat hadn't made an appearance since.

"Now that you mention it…" Shia blinked, no doubt coming to the same conclusion.

"No, I haven't seen him since you and I split off to speak with the elder."

"Want me to go take a look?" Alka asked, a bored look on her face.

"No, the elder requested that you remain here with us," Vin reminded her.

"Booo," Alka moaned, letting out a heavy sigh and slowly spinning her body until she was upside down. Seeing as she still looked as though she was lounging sideways on a couch, it was a bit strange talking to her like that.

"I'm bored!"

"Alka, we may be in serious trouble right now," Vin snapped, glaring at his ghostly companion. Shooting a glance at the guard still standing in the doorway, he focused on his Polyglot passive and made sure he wasn't speaking the stone people's language. Lately, he'd begun to notice that his passive seemed to make his words understandable by everyone around him unless he focused on a specific language at a time.

He didn't know if his passive was evolving or he was just getting better at using it, but he didn't exactly know how to find out.

"If they decide to execute Scule, there might not be anything we can do about it!"

"Pipsqueak probably should have thought about that before getting caught literally red handed," Alka drawled.

"Besides, that elder lady loves you ever since you brought Samtha's group back. Even if Scule did kill someone, I doubt she'd be willing to risk throwing her entire alliance with you up in flames just because of one little death."

"You really think I'm going to take political advice from the girl that died from poison at her own party?" Vin shot back, clenching his fist.

"Enough!" Shia shouted, jumping to her feet and slamming her staff onto the ground. The leaves of the twin trees seemed to billow under gale force winds for a half second, shutting the two of them up.

"I know you're both anxious. I am as well. Despite what I said earlier, I'm just as worried about Scule as the two of you. My master merely trained me to try and look at a situation from every angle."

"But!" She added, cutting Vin off before he could speak.

"… even factoring in how we originally met Scule and know almost nothing about him… That doesn't change the fact that he's risked his life for us on more than one occasion in the short time we've known him." Vin paused, realizing he was about to snap at Shia for even proposing Scule might be guilty in the first place. Taking a deep breath, he held it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly.

He willed the anger born from uncertainty and nervousness that was poisoning his thoughts to flow out with his breath, out of his body and away from his mind. Just because he was afraid, didn't mean he had to take it out on his friends. Meditation increased to lvl 17! 1, 700 exp gained. Vin dismissed the notification, unable to keep the slight smile off his face despite the situation as he practically felt the potential bursting out from within his core.

He now needed less than five hundred experience to hit level 20 and prestige, and it felt like his body was a coiled spring, waiting for that final push.

"He did keep that crazy sword guy distracted while the two of you stood there like idiots talking to the gods," Alka offered, crossing her hands behind her head and looking contemplatively at the floor, which was actually the ceiling to her at the moment.

"If you asked him he'd probably say that was just a happy coincidence while he was trying to steal an artifact, but I'd bet the best time to steal one would have been to wait for the guy to strike the two of you down and grab it while he was distracted."

"While I was healing Shredder and trying to keep Section C of camp from collapsing during the battle, I saw him pop up out of the ground a few times," Shia admitted, grinning at the memory.

"Despite the fact that nobody could understand him, more than once I watched him appear at the last minute in front of some poor sod about to get killed and intervene, yelling all the while about how much of an idiot they were while he distracted the monster or jabbed it with his daggers."

"He saved my life during my fight with the giant snake," Vin added, remembering how Scule and Reginald had appeared like guardian angels, barely avoiding the snake's crushing tail and risking their lives to weaken the monster for him and give him a fighting chance.

"If they hadn't hit him with that poison, I'm about ninety nine percent sure I would have died."

"I think that says all we need to know about the two of them," Shia said, finally letting go of her braid as her grin widened.

"I mean, I already trusted Reginald. But I feel better about Scule now."

"Yeah, I got a lot of respect for anyone who is forced to exist in a world of giants and still chooses to try to live their best life," Alka said, finally righting herself and giving Vin a nod.

"Don't ever tell him I said that though, or I'll deny it."

"That settles it then," Vin said, a warm sensation spreading throughout his chest as he smiled at his companions. Seeing them band together like this, thinking about all they'd been through in the short time they'd known each other filled Vin with a strange feeling he'd never really experienced before. It took him a moment, but with a start, he realized what it was he was finally feeling. Trust.

For what might have been the first time in his life, Vin looked around the room and realized he'd managed to find people he could put his trust in. While Scule wasn't here at the exact moment, the realization that he trusted each and every one of his companions with his very life was almost too much for the once lonely vagabond to handle. Knees shaking, Vin steadied himself against the wall with his hand.

Chuckling, he looked at his two friends, unable to keep the smile off his face as he took a deep breath and steeled his resolve. Whatever came next might not be easy, but they'd do it all the same.

"We're getting Scule out of wherever they're holding him."" Tonight."