[NR] Why Are They Evil? - Chapter 788 (Patreon)

Jason crosses his arms as the Investigator’s carriage trundles down the road after Ref-ref. “So. What do we do now?”

Alexander shrugs, “Whatever you want. You heard the man. The case is clear and your group is free. Besides, there are more pressing matters to handle and even if you were at fault for banditry? Well, in doing so, you uncovered a much greater plot and would have been let off the hook.

“The kingdom is of the opinion that pardoning criminals who reveal crimes such as this is the wise way of handling things. Though, of course, there would be an investigation to make sure you are not the cause of the mess in the first place.”

Jason sighs, “Damned demons, keep causing problems.”

Alexander shrugs, “They are indeed damned by definition. Literally the scraps of sinner’s souls, stitched together from what remains after the karmic value of their sins in life have been mined out.”

Rosha frowns, “If the sins are already ‘mined out’, why are they evil?”

Alexander smiles, “Ah, note how I said the karmic value. You can think of souls in an afterlife like a candle. They are burned for incalculable periods of time, literally because each is unique and time doesn’t flow evenly, to release the karmic value earned while living life as a free-willed sapient. But when you burn a candle, despite how it may seem, there is still something left over.

“That soot is then used to create all the various servants of the other side. Though many of the Good churches would love to call me heretical for saying this. After all, an angel obviously can not be made in the same manner as a demon.

“Anyway, the soot is not burned free of evil. Rather, everything besides the evil is burned away. The emotions, the intent, the excuses, the act itself. All of it burned away, leaving pure sin itself. Which is why a demon is considered pure evil. It is a literal descriptor. The only difference between one demon of a certain type and another will be what they have experienced, but that experience can never change what they are.”

Then Alexander turns to Jason with a look in his eye, “Though speaking of, well, I do not really have a segue for this. Jason, you said, ‘keep causing problems’? Does that mean you have some experience with the nearby outbreak?”

Jason shrugs, “I was only there at the start. Got out as soon as I could.”

Alexander smiles, “Well, it would be helpful for us to know as much as possible. Understandably, that kingdom has been a bit tight-lipped about the whole affair. While wars of conquest between kingdoms are rare, a cheeky bit of ‘liberation’ has happened from time to time. Would you mind going over your experience? What with us potentially seeing some fallout of the situation.”

Jason sighs, “Fine. Sure, I’ll give you a rundown and let you ask some questions.” He turns to the others, “Looks like I’ll be busy for a little. Are you all fine with clearing up the mess here?”

Alexander gives a toothy smile at the jacklekin, “Oh, those three want out of here A.S.A.P. The Investigator saw everything and gave them tacit permission to skedaddle, so they plan to make good on that.”

The three jacklekin nervously chuckle as they speed up their packing.

Rosha looks confused at this, but Courtney pats her on the shoulder, “We can talk later. Right now our time is better used looting the money and packing up the campsite.”

Rosha shrugs, no skin off her nose after all, and turns towards exactly that.

Back with Alexander, the lionfolk has Tarse transcribe everything as he grills Jason over his experience with the demon outbreak years ago. This ends up taking much longer than expected as Jason both remembers more and less than expected on the subject.

As Jason had been there at the literal start of it all and managed to see things related to where the original attacks happened? He was able to shed light on the reasons behind many of those early decisions that kingdom had made. You know, before it went really wrong and resulted in there still needing to be cleaned up years later despite situations like this usually wrapping up in the first year.

While Jason was distracted with that, Rosha and Courtney are off to the side waiting, having already finished packing.

Rosha, “So, what was up with those guys?”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “Those guys?”

Rosha nods, “Yeah, those guys, the jacklekin.”

Courtney, “And their names were?”

Rosha stays silent.

Courtney chuckles, “Don’t worry, I’ve already put them out of mind as well.”

Rosha, “That doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten their names.”

Courtney, “Don’t worry, you’re normally better with names. This is just a moment of forgetfulness because of the stressful situation.”

Rosha sighs, “We’ll go with that. Anyway, why were they in a rush to leave?”

Courtney chuckles, “They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but the parent let them not only take the cookie in hand, but an extra one.”

Rosha, “What?”

Courtney, “They were smuggling goods as well and the investigator not only caught them, he let them take the other guys’ smuggled goods as well.”

Rosha, “Wait, they were smuggling as well? Why’d they stick around? I’d expect them to skedaddle!”

Courtney, “Maybe if murder wasn’t on the table. Plus, I don’t think they expected the Royal Investigator to actually bother with the situation. Most times this would be handed off to some flunky and not handled by the man directly, let alone with his personal attendant being there to sniff out everything. You don’t get to drive around someone like that without being someone important yourself.”

Rosha, “Okay, fair enough. Though if the Inspector knew they had contraband, why didn’t he get them for it?”

Courtney shrugs, “Why bother? Once again, someone like Ref-ref isn’t coming out for stuff like this often. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got tipped off that he needed to check on things by some seer or similar. A small group of smugglers is nothing to him. It is the demons that matter.”