Judine was hailed as a great judge, and she loved it. It was a great thing to be; all of her dreams collided as one. It was anything any awakened could wish for. The looks of respect lawyers gave her; the looks of respect other judges gave her as well.

  The hallways were filled with her footsteps, another trial for this day. A murder trial, a mother’s son ripped out of her arms by an arrogant noble. He didn’t even hire a lawyer, but Forsivo law required him to have one.

  She met with the lawyer once or twice, and this would probably not be the last one. Fire was in her eyes as she remembered the other head judge, Marxillious. And then the bribe that lawyer had offered her.

  “C’mon… We know he’s not guilty…” He had said, with the big pile of gold. But for Judine, that was pointless. She’d made enough as the head judge to live a lavish lifestyle and not work another day after a year.

  So she stared at the money, and simply made a mental note. “Then I hope you can prove that he isn’t.” She said before she had adjourned the meeting. And the trial didn’t go much different.

  The man’s lawyer looked nervous, glancing in her direction constantly. He knew he was caught, and therefore; she had information. And the nobleman’s future was in her hands. And the prosecution brought up a lot more evidence than the defense had done.

  She ruled in favor of prosecution, the noble was a slaver and thought he’d receive mercy. Let alone in her court; and through a bribe. Marxillious dealt irreparable damage to this nation.

  45 - Espionage

  Judine had quickly cast an invisibility skill. It was one of the few she got early on. And it was one of the most useful as the queen looked on at the pink haired elf flinging Pallad and Shammus across the city, and Clara’s vanishing.

  The queen didn’t even seem to notice her. And she was going to use that to her advantage. She was going to abuse that to her advantage as she slipped past the queen. The glowing crown seemed to call out to Judine, as though it was made for her or one of her party members.

  Judine kept moving forwards. Judine kept marching. The palace’s interior was strange but fitting. The plush red carpet greatly contrasted the light blue light shining through the windows from the cave. The crystal chandeliers also emitted the same blue light with hints of the purple of mana.

  There was a barrier high above the ground, probably where Clara was based on the flowing of purple and gold from within. Judine had to evade other guards. Battle was loud, it was clunky and it was something Bariton would’ve been better at evading.

  But, she managed. She kept close to the walls as guards approached, allowing the invisibility to sap at her mana as she awaited the knights to pass by the footsteps filling the halls echoing unnaturally against the marble walls.

  Judine dodges around, wondering where in the five hells this dungeon may be. She found all sorts of rooms; a kitchen full of chefs just running about, plenty of them wielding knives sharp enough to cut through the bone.

  The cleaver dropped every few seconds, splitting the flesh and the snapping of the bone filled the kitchen. Judine had slipped inside, and watched everything. They were cooking, even while the ground was shaking from the battle between Pallad and Shammus with that other elf.

  They were all elves as well. One of them was yelling at another peeling potatoes, which Judine found odd. The elf was doing fine while being yelled at, but was messing up constantly without.

  The elf seemed to glance up for a single moment and stared right into Judine’s own eyes, and the elf’s eyes flashed. He looked back down as the chef got back to yelling at him and a cut was made on his finger.

  Judine knew she had to get out. Those green eyes were unnatural; not because they didn’t fit the man’s face but because they matched those of Heavenly’s description from Clara and Shammus’s own later.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She quickly dived alongside the halls, finally finding a location that kinda looked like a dungeon. She disabled her ability and drew her personal crossbow. It was still loaded, which is something she thanked the System for.

  She liked all the little bonuses the system gave her. Even those unawakened still had mana, and could therefore Crit, but it was different for them. She had walked downstairs to find the most bleak dungeon she’d ever seen.

  She was a judge, so she constantly entered dungeons, many not so nice. But this one was more empty. It felt wrong, like a false dungeon hastily put together by someone else. It didn’t have the views of gore that the worst of dungeons had been filled with.

  It didn’t have the views of prisoners that seemed to give wardens a sense of pleasure. It was missing many things dungeons also had outside of brief descriptions others may give out. Of a dungeon, the stone walls and metal bars were present, but they were clean.

  Impossibly so if there were ever actually people held here. Or even the criminally insane. The self harm some criminals belittle themselves to make messes nearly impossible to clean, and it rusts the chains on their arms.

  And while those chains were present, they were new. Maybe freshly replaced. This dungeon isn’t improper, but that makes it abnormal. She continued walking, her footsteps on the stone filling the hall with an unnatural echo and a more unnatural lack of response.

  This was either an obscenely inefficient dungeon, or one that’s too efficient to avoid the damage to the bars. The bars were even still unscratched despite them being within reach of whoever was imprisoned.

  “That shouldn’t be possible,” A voice rang out, as Judine turned around, she saw the real dungeon unfold down a different hallway. It was silent besides her own breath… The voice had no real person behind it, or so it seemed to her eyes.

  Her gut said otherwise. Especially when her footsteps continued deeper in. Towards the darker part of this dungeon, with one cell in particular actually having blood flowing out from it. Her footsteps sped up in such a minimal way that it would usually go unnoticed. But in this environment it was the only thing to notice.

  She stopped in front of the cell and looked aside, and saw Bariton. Beaten and bloodied, with his blue eyes hardly even visible. His golden hair was matted with red as well. She looked at him with a deep sorrow nagging at her soul as she felt her lips tug down.

  Suddenly the voice had returned, “And the one true prisoner shows himself.” Judine twists her head just in time to see the person. He was wearing a suit, clearly well tailored for something, but certainly not battle. It was torn all about, and his face had a small goatee.

  “Why hello, the name’s Versaille.” He held out his hand, but the very thin flame of mana made Judine hesitant. “Not to worry. It’s a simple deal I offer. My name for yours.”

  Judine picked up on the subtlety of the simplicity. The speech patterns were careful, and the stressing of some of the syllables felt more recited similar to poetry. It was unnatural as well. “You can have my name later. I’ll save my friend first.”

  Versaille pushed his hand at Judine’s speech. Judine spoke the next more swiftly, carefully picking out the verbiage, “Well, rather not I think. I don’t think you shall have my name ever.”

  Versaille let out a swift laugh. “I view thy points… You are certainly careful. Not careless like he.” The beast flashed out towards Bariton with a flourish of his hands. “Then how about this? I release the man, and you take his place?”

  “No.” Judine’s voice was firmer. She could tell a glint in Versaille’s eyes that was just wrong. She continued on, “You release him free of charge unless you’d rather someone else learn of this conversation.”

  Versaille glared at Judine, squinting his eyes. “So that’s how you want to play. How about this? If I free him, you let me out too.”

  Judine noticed now, what Versaille was getting out of this. He’d fallen for a trick; and now was in the servitude of the elvish queen here. “...Fine, let’s shake on it.”

  The hand had a thicker flame of mana surrounding it as Judine took Versaille’s hand. The system spoke up as soon as the deal was made, granting Judine a look into the true nature of this deal.

  [Quest Created!]

  [Free the fae Versaille]

  [Condition: Kill Queen Inistia III thereby ending the deal between her and Versaille]

  [Reward: +5 Levels to party, Floor Skip Pass, Secret to Divinity for Bariton.]

  [Failure: Death]

  [Quest Accepted]

  Versaille snaps his finger as the chain holding up Bariton snapped and retracted into the wall. The door opened for Judine to rush forward towards the bard, giving him a small health potion. They were lucky to have stocked up on Floor 41 even if very miniscule purchases were made alongside the boat.

  Judine sighs as Bariton’s eyes open, and she hears his voice. “Damn, guess I passed out.”

  “I think you did a bit worse than that.”