NOVEL NEXT Chapter 89 "Captain Rose Epsten"
Looking at Ray, Erina, Yamin, and Osbon couldn't help but think about Ray's utterly dismissive attitude.
Though Erina didn't want to believe his words—especially those aimed at the integrity of the Temple—she still felt a chilling compulsion to investigate the situation fully.
That's when she spoke, her tone cold but steady.
"Even if I want to believe your words, I cannot accept your claims, especially those against the Temple, until you explain how you gathered this information and why you, an apparent outsider, are so deeply involved."
Ray shook his head slightly, a cynical smile playing on his lips, and began to explain.
"It started a few weeks ago," Ray began, his voice taking on the low, steady tone of a storyteller, which only made the details more terrifying.
"I was in the city square when some men dragged out a woman. They called her a witch, a traitor, claiming she conspired with night creatures and publicly burnt her alive."
Ray paused, his eyes hardening as he recalled the scene. "I saw her face. I saw the pure, undeniable fear in the eyes of an innocent woman, who was burned alive in front of so many people."
"I was there looking at the scene but the moment their eyes landed on me, they bolted. They ran as if they had seen a ghost."
Osbon immediately interrupted, frowning. "Why would they run from you? You are a stranger to them or you really are a ghost, perhaps?"
Ray gave a quick, amused glance to the Vice-Leader. "Perhaps. But the reason is quite specific, Vice-Leader Osbon. I'll tell you that later." He returned his focus to Erina.
"After that, I couldn't shake the suspicion," Ray continued. "Later that night, I was sitting in a bar—. An older man working at the bar. He knew the burnt woman.
He swore she was innocent, that she was pious, and that she had been unjustly taken by the people of Willson after she was accused of being a witch."
The color drained slightly from Tez's face. The possibility of such abuse of power was a violation of their sacred oath.
"I wasn't satisfied by his words," Ray admitted. "But the seed of doubt was planted. I began to ask around discreetly. I eventually met a couple of city garrison knights—their answer was same as the guy from the bar."
"From there, I investigated deeper. I focused on the issue and decided to go and meet the three family—That's when I found the met one of the three ruling families—the Epsten family."
Ray let the name hang heavy in the air, he paused, letting Erina and others absorb the information.
"They were sickened by Zeth's depravity but too terrified of the temple's authority to speak out publicly. They told me everything. How Zeth was using his position to force women, and even kill them when they resisted or became inconvenient."
Ray leaned forward one last time, his voice chillingly conclusive. "The incident of the woman burning in the name of a witch was also because of him.
It was a brutal message to anyone else who dared defy him. That day, I found out the Willson and Dorian families are also deeply involved in this racket.
They lure innocent women, or capture them outright, to supply Zeth's twisted entertainment. They provided the safe house, the victims, and the cover story. Zeth was not a hero as you see him. He was a predator."
Ray finished his account and sank back into his chair, watching the reaction of the three officers.
Erina, Yamin, and Osbon all had hard-to-believe expressions. It was a long, complex narrative of systemic evil that defied their rigid understanding of the world.
Yet, Ray's detail, his certainty, and the public nature of the burnt woman's death made it impossible to simply refute his claims as the raving of a fanatic—not until they had the proof that he was lying.
After a moment of grim silence, Erina spoke, her voice dangerously quiet, cutting through the heavy tension Ray's long confession had created.
"If all of this is true, then why did the Epsten family not report this, or why did they lie in their official report?"
Ray chuckled, a sharp, humourless sound. "Don't you see for yourself? Look around you."
He gestured toward the door, his eyes sweeping over the three officers. "Your knight insulted me the moment I approached this place.
Your Vice-Captain attacked me without knowing the reason, and your other Vice-Captain was even ready to kill me.
Then there was the way you and these two were threatening me, only calming down because I promised you the reason for Zeth's death!" he said, meeting each of their eyes.
Yamin, Osbon, and Erina were silent, forced to listen to the undeniable truth of their own arrogant actions.
Ray continued, pressing his advantage. "Do you think the civilians, or even the people of the Epsten family who are technically under your protection, will say something when you and all the other people of the Temple have such an arrogant attitude?"
"You mean..." Erina began, her voice barely a whisper, but she didn't complete the thought.
She remained stunned, realizing how profoundly wrong their attitude of unquestioned authority truly was, and how easily it could silence the truth.
As the three officers were digesting the full implications of Ray's indictment of their culture, Ray provided a direct path to confirmation.
"There is a Captain in your squad who is part of the Epsten family; she must know something. You can confirm your doubts from her."
Rose Epsten is Called the moment later.
Osbon, who had been the most vocal in defending the Temple, spoke up, his voice tight. "There is indeed a Captain under me, named Rose Epsten."
Erina wasted no time. "Call her immediately," she ordered.
A few tense moments passed before a young woman in the uniform of a Temple Captain entered the hall.
Rose Epsten looked alert, but confusion clouded her features as she saw the grim expressions of Erina and the two Vice-Leaders, and the strange civilian seated calmly amongst them.
Her initial thought was that she was being called because of the commotion she had heard earlier.
Erina got straight to the point, bypassing the usual pleasantries. "Captain Rose, I need you to tell me everything you know about Vice-Leader Zeth's death and the circumstances surrounding it."
Rose frowned slightly, glancing nervously at Osbon. "Captain, I don't know much, but the official report we received from the family was quite clear.
They found out that the Vice-Leader of the Delta Squad fought bravely against the night creature and saved the lives of the people of the city, but he was ultimately sacrificed his life. However, the night creature was heavily injured, and—"
Erina's anger erupted, stopping Rose mid-sentence. She slammed her palm onto the map table, making the glasses jump.
Her eyes flashed with stern fury. "I am asking for the truth, Rose. I want to know what your family knows, not the made-up story they gave and I knew from this gentleman that you know the real truth!"
Rose froze, her eyes wide with shock. She looked at Ray, the strange civilian who had brought this chaos, her eyes wide with bewilderment and fear.
She didn't know who he was, but here he was, claiming she knew the secrets her family had sworn to bury.
Seeing her eyes fixed on him, Ray spoke, his voice calm but authoritative. "I spoke with your family, Captain Rose.
They have told me everything, and I believe you also know the truth but kept silent because of your position, or perhaps your family's safety."
He had hit the right nerve. She hadn't reported the truth not out of malice, but because her status as a Captain was lower than Zeth's as a Vice-Leader, and with her family's life on the line, she couldn't take the risk.
Speaking out would have been suicide, not only for her career but for her entire family. She was bound by terror of losing them.
Ray, seeing her hesitation and the internal battle raging on her face, spoke again, his tone sharp and stern.
"If you don't stand for the truth now, your family will be seen as co-conspirators.
They will be exposed as culprits who assisted a criminal and then lied about it. Do you wish to see that fate?"
The thought of her family being ruined, arrested, or worse, executed for complicity, was enough to shatter her silence.
"No!" Rose spoke, the word breaking free in a desperate cry. Tears welled in her eyes, not of sorrow, but of helpless fear and relief that she finally had a lifeline.
She looked directly at Erina, bypassing Ray. "Leader, he is telling the truth. I know the reality," she confessed, the dam of fear finally bursting.
"The official reports are lies. My family was forced to comply. Zeth... Zeth was a monster."
Rose swallowed hard, visibly composing herself with the discipline of a Temple officer, though her voice still trembled.
"We found out shortly before the burning incident that the woman was innocent. My father tried to speak up, but Zeth used the full force of the Dorian and Willson families to silence him.
They made it clear that if we didn't show the publicly support the narrative of the woman as a witch, they would use their influence within the Temple to brand us as heretics and our fate will be same as that woman."
She took a shaky breath. "When the news of Zeth's death came, we were relieved. We covered it up with the simplest lie. My family was complicit in the cover-up, not the crime. We did it for survival, Leader."