"Name?"
I kept my mouth shut, glaring down the black-robed freaks who were attempting to question me. It was hard to feel cooperative after being assaulted out of nowhere after all, and I had no reason to answer anything I didn't wanna anyways.
The man trying his shoddy attempt at interrogation eventually caught onto the fact I wouldn't be playing along with him and sighed. Walking over to the chair I was sitting on, he leaned on it slightly, tilting me backwards just a little.
For some reason, I couldn't remember much after I got jumped in the shrine. I must have passed out or something, because I woke up on the outcrop of a cliff, with the first rays of dawn shining into my eyes. To be honest, it wasn't a bad sight to wake up to, but the moment itself was partly ruined when I realized I was tied to a chair with my assailants staring right at me. I was still shirtless to boot, and the morning chill was starting to kick my ass.
"Hey buddy," the robed man started, clearly going for some sort of appeal. "We're sorry for… startling you earlier, but if you just answer a few questions for us then we'll let you go on your merry way."
I couldn't help but smirk at how much of a boldfaced lie that was. If nothing else, these people had guts to go along with their rudeness. "If you untie me, I might end up feeling a little more talkative. Just saying."
Upon me saying those words, the lady who did her best to leave a boot print on my abs picked herself up from her seating position at the edge of the cliff, walking over to my chair like the man did.
"Unless you feel like getting shot in the back as you try to run, I don't think you'd like that."
"As well, something you're forgetting-" with a forceful tug, she began to drag the chair, destabilizing her subordinate. His protests fell on deaf ears as she pulled me towards the edge of the cliff. "...is that we have the advantage in this negotiation, and that's not going to change."
She leaned my chair over the edge slightly, and I struggled to free any part of myself from my bindings. Still, If they expected something like this to break me, I was being grossly underestimated.
"I ain't telling you shit whether you throw me off a cliff or not, so if you're gonna do it, just get it over already!" I scoffed at the woman, and the wrinkles in her face creased slightly. However, it wasn't the expected look of annoyance.
"Throw you off a cliff?" She feigned surprise, enjoying whatever show and dance she seemed to be putting on. "Now why would we ever do that? I'm just showing you a little something that might loosen your lips a little."
Upon hearing that, my head whipped around to stare down at the bottom of the drop I thought I'd be falling down, my instincts warning me of whatever she could be talking about. As a reward, I was greeted with the sight of at least 50 people at the base of the mountainside we were on. From this height, it was impossible to make out any discerning features, but the one thing that stuck out immediately was their tell-tale black robes. Tilting my head upwards slightly, the sun was now fully visible and ready to begin its journey to the top of the sky, and right underneath it was the clear silhouette of my village, sleepy and unaware of what was about to happen.
The man behind me grumbled again as this went on, before stepping forward to the cliff's edge too. "Right now, your village is under suspicion of being tainted by the Apparition that's been detected around here recently, and if that's true, then." He stopped there, but what he was trying to say was obvious. "But if you cooperate with us and answer our questions, we'll be able to quell that suspicion and nobody gets hurt, okay?"
Pulling out a book and pencil from a satchel at his hip, he asked his question again.
"Name?"
At this point, I was all sorts of mad. I had no idea who these guys were, why they attacked me, and why they're threatening the village after me and big sis did so much to protect it. And now instead of some sort of ransom, they just want my name? At that moment, All I wanted was to lunge at the both of them, but my hands were quite literally tied. I really was at a disadvantage.
"...Giltia." I spat out my own name with gritted teeth. If it was answers they wanted, I'd just have to entertain them for now.
The lady holding onto my chair jostled me a little at that response. "Both your first and last name, kid."
I clicked my tongue, but before I could say anything in response, the man already started to speak.
"Last names don't have any use for us border village folk, boss. He probably just doesn't have one."
A 'hmph' was all she gave in response as she finally stopped tipping me over the edge, spinning the chair back around to face the man questioning me.
"Good!" He said, acting like the situation had gotten any better for anyone other than him. "Now that that's all smoothed over, we can do this nice and quick."
.
..
…
"Now, let me make sure I got it all right." The man flipped back to the first page and scanned over it once again before beginning to read it out loud. "Name: Giltia. 19 years of age. Rusty orange hair and dark eyes. Unemployed with no surviving family. No notable skills or experience in any particular field, but also no history of chronic illness. Anything else you want to share?"
By now, the sun was proudly in the sky, and I was entirely exhausted. He had grilled me on just about everything he could have thought of, from what I had been doing this week to my hobbies and even my first memories. It was easy at first to give roundabout responses instead of letting them into my life, but after what felt like hours had passed, I had begun to answer truthfully without realizing.
No, it was more like I had been drained of the energy to lie.
"Just get this over with." was all I could muster at this point as I stared at the ground, hunched over in my constraints. "You already know everything."
With a snap, the book in the man's hands was closed as he stuffed it back into his satchel, signalling the end of the interrogation.
"See? That wasn't so hard now was it?"
"Yes it was." The lady responded for me this time. I couldn't see her face without looking up, but it was clear she had become bored out of her mind from just her voice alone. "If I was him, I'd have taken being thrown over the cliff."
"Now don't say that." The man responded, seemingly worried there was still a chance I'd agree. "He did what we asked, so let's act in kind, no?"
A few seconds of silence passed, and after that came the sound of grass being stepped on and the ruffling of clothes soon after.
"Ow!" The man yelped like a kicked puppy. "W-W-Wait, stop!"
However, she didn't seem willing to quit whatever she was doing just yet. "I said it before and I'll say it again: I'm your commanding officer, so don't order me around, got it?"
More footsteps played out, detailing one backing away from the other. I finally raised my head to see the man clutching his ear as the lady walked back to the cliff face.
"Squad!" Her voice rang out, bouncing off the rocks and into the encampment underneath. I couldn't see them, but it was obvious that all the black robes at the bottom must have been looking up at her by now. "The operation is cancelled! The village has not come into contact with the Apparition!"
Cheers rang out from below- Wait, cheers? I couldn't understand a damn thing going on in the heads of these people, and the confusion must have been visible on my face, because the man spoke up.
"Don't think about it too hard. We all simply hate working."
Acting like that answered much of anything at all, he moved forward to position himself directly behind his boss, standing at attention.
"Boss! Shall we prepare to move out?"
"Yes, we shall." She responded, futilely attempting to wipe the fatigue off her face with her palms. "Prepare a separate carriage for all three of us."
"Yes boss!"
As the man marched away after receiving his orders, one last thing stuck out to me.
"'T-Three of us'?" I gulped, my voice wavering a bit at the surprise. "You don't mean-"
"You see anyone else up here kid?" the lady spat back, answering the question with one of her own. "Of course you're coming with us."
I felt something in me snap at that, and all the anger that had built up through this entire ordeal bubbled back to the surface.
"You jackass! You said you'd let me go after I answered your dumbass questions! Untie me already!"
Not even sparing me the frustration she gave to her subordinate, her voice came across coolly, entirely unbothered by my demands.
"What, they don't have lies this far from the capital either?"
As I heard the sound of horses getting closer, a wave of defeat washed over me. I hadn't even had a chance to mourn my own big sis, and now I was going to get dragged away from my own home by crooks. I had always been warned of wannabe kidnappers from other villages, but I never actually thought it'd happen.
The village would be safe, but the same couldn't be said of me.