Chapter 230 - Have You Seen Any Criminal That Requires Medical Aid

Episode 223- Have you seen any criminal that requires medical aid

Eugene shook her head that was throbbing. The more she dreamt about her memories of her death, the more information she got out of it. The first thing she noticed from this memory was that the person who killed her might not be a male. However, she also wasn't positive that the person was a female. Secondly, a book emerged from the figure's chest and floated above her. 

In Euria's letter, she mentioned that her… fl -cough- fling -cough-, put a part of his soul in her body to destroy a part of the elder's soul if the elder were to kill her. What she was confused about was that Euria said that her -cough- fling -cough-, put his soul in her body. But what about the book that came out of Elder's chest?

There was no doubt that the book was Promissum. 

-Cough-

'Oh no.' Eugene's eyes were slowly covered in darkness. Her eyes stared straight at the ceiling as it slowly closed. It had been 10 minutes and she needed to sleep again.

.

.

Five minutes prior...

Soldiers were gathered together for a meeting at the Raden Military Base to discuss the future of the criminal they just apprehended.

"Salute to Lieutenant." One of the soldiers shouted and within a second, all the soldiers gathered around the table immediately saluted the incoming man whose body was, unfortunately, out of shape. The ground trembled from the soldiers stomping at the same time, and the sound produced from it was loud, loud enough for people to hear it from 15 meters away. 

The lieutenant nodded, saluted back to the soldiers, and walked to the forefront of the room. 

"What's the situation?" The lieutenant asked as he turned to the person in charge of Eugene. 

The soldier saluted and reported, "Reporting. The child is currently awake but will go unconscious in another 5 minutes. The child can not stay awake for longer than 10 minutes at a time and only is awake once a day."

"Criminal." The lieutenant muttered in a low voice. 

"... My apologies. Criminal." The soldier's hands were straight on his side as he corrected himself. Eugene's title was something he had to constantly correct after he began to sympathize with Eugene. At first, he didn't bother about who she was and only did his job. But after a day or two, reality sunk in that she was just a child. Though he saw her dismembering and slaughtering one of the bandits like nothing, Eugene's weakened state made him unable to see her as the person who did such a heinous act. 

He hesitated for one moment before saluting again, "The criminal needs medical help." 

The moment he said that the atmosphere around them turned cold and quiet. The lieutenant's eyes narrowed at the soldier. If he was correct, he had already denied this request four times now. 

"Have you seen any criminal that requires medical aid?" For the first time, the lieutenant returned the question to the soldier. Frankly speaking, there were no criminals in this world that received care and first aid. So why would they bend that 'logic' now?

"This… criminal is but a child." 

"Criminals are criminals. Especially this child. There has not been one. Not one single killing in Raden for 2 decades. 2 decades! This criminal deserves nothing but death, you hear me?" The lieutenant stood by his words and was firm with his thoughts. 

The soldiers gathered around didn't dare look at each other and could only keep quiet. 

"Rather than that. There is one more concerning matter." The lieutenant cracked his neck as he began. 

"The knights want us to hand over the criminal."

At this moment, the soldiers all turned to the lieutenant with widened eyes. Their faces were scrunched up and ugly as they couldn't believe what they just heard. 

"We did all the work and they want us to hand over the criminal for free. No way." The lieutenant slammed his palm to the table and his eyes narrowed dangerously. All the soldiers gathered in this room nodded and agreed with his words. 

"My promotion will be stopped because of this." The lieutenant shook his head, "There's no way I'm handing the spy for free." 

"...Promotion?" The soldier in charge of Eugene muttered speechlessly. 

The lieutenant nodded. "Yes, promotion. Not only will I get promoted, but you all will as well."

"...'' 

At this moment, no soldier could feel happy. They were more shocked and speechless. Everyone saw that there was something wrong with this situation and the criminal they caught however no one dared say anything. Sure, they wanted a promotion because promotion meant being sent to other cities in Xenperia. However, that did not mean they wanted to step over a possibly innocent criminal in order to get promoted. 

"Lieutenant. There is a possibility that the child is not a spy mentioned in the edict." One of the soldiers couldn't take it anymore and raised a concern.  Like the person in charge of Eugene, he had his suspicion that Eugene wasn't a spy or an agent sent from another country. The reason for this was because he could see emotions in her eyes that did not correlate with the details in the Emperor's edict. 

The Emperor's edict mentioned that a criminal organization, Exitium, was currently rampaging in Raden. This group wreck havoc across the continent and needed to be apprehended. The edict was for the soldiers and knights to capture these criminals, and to execute the criminals if they were children. These children wore green buttons, had green eyes, and had no emotions.  It is possible that the children will wear contacts to disguise their eyes, hence they are to observe the children carefully. These children were strong, and if not killed immediately, they will become stronger and a danger to the country. 

This letter was sent by the Emperor the morning they caught Eugene. On the way to surveillance Raden, they encountered civilians who 'accidentally' crossed paths with the criminals and showed them the way to the criminal's base. This helped them greatly in tracking down the criminal, however, when they reached the base, they only saw one child and one man. They were unable to complete the Emperor's verdict of capturing the criminal alive and were angered at the child for ruthlessly murdering the bandits they had to capture. That was when they captured Eugene and brought her back with them to the outskirts of Raden where their military base was. 

Other than Eugene being a child, the other reason why they captured Eugene was that the Emperor's letter mentioned no one but the criminal knows of this base. There was much evidence that pointed to Eugene being the criminal child mentioned in the letter which was why they caught her. 

But of course, their feelings changed after a few days. And that was because the child did not have green buttons on her clothes, her eyes were not green, and she had a little emotion. Just slightly. Slight enough for people to say she isn't emotionless. 

The soldier was brave and he continued, "The eye color mentioned in the Emperor's edict was green. This child has red eyes." 

The lieutenant was silent for a few seconds before he corrected the soldier with his low voice, "The letter also mentioned that they could change their eye colors using contacts."

"The criminal is the criminal mentioned in the Emperor's letter. Before the Emperor's edict arrived, the guild informed us of similar information. What more evidence do you need? Do you want all of us to be executed for not following the Emperor's orders?" 

"..." The soldiers were silent. They were silent because they knew that the lieutenant was right. If they did not follow orders, they would be executed. Normally,  the Emperor did not have any power to control them and only the Commander of the military did. But since the Commander of the military was not here in Xenperia at the moment, the control was handed to the military generals who are close to the Emperor. Which technically means that the Emperor had some control over them. 

In this deep silence, the lieutenant sighed, "I have asked for a trial." 

The soldiers all snapped their heads from the ground to the lieutenant in surprise. The edict mentioned that they have to execute the child, but did not mention that they could not hold a trial before execution. A trial is for criminals to prove themself and speak their stories. One of the only times criminals on death row had the chance to overturn the conviction before execution. 

No matter how incompetent the lieutenant was and how much he wanted a promotion, he believed in a fair trial. Though he would not bend the rules to give first aid to the criminal, he could not ignore the words of his fellow soldiers.. This was a position he was put in by his captain who was currently on a hiatus from the military.