After a lot of persuasion and talking, the little girl finally broke down and started crying.
The guard kept looking around with nervous eyes.
Jonathan just sat in the hallway, looking at the ground with dead eyes.
Kiara just looked with terror at the crying girl and the room.
"How are you with kids?"
Kiara was taken out of her thoughts when Nick addressed her.
Kiara just looked at the girl nervously.
"I have a little brother," she said.
Nick nodded. "I want to know what happened here," he said.
Kiara looked at Nick nervously.
Then, she walked up to the girl and softly started to talk to her.
Meanwhile, Nick walked out of the room and looked at Jonathan.
Jonathan didn't even turn to look at Nick.
Just the mental image of the room was too much to process for him.
The cruelty…
He knew how it felt to be in the darkness.
It was probably the most terrifying experience imaginable.
And this girl had been in the darkness for maybe even days.
Jonathan just couldn't comprehend what he had seen.
"This is who you're working for," Nick said.
Jonathan didn't look up.
"Where do you think the fat guy got this girl from?" Nick asked. "Getting something like this requires some connections."
Jonathan didn't answer.
"When we met Ardum for the first time, he tried to frame one of my people as a spy while we didn't even have any issues with each other."
"At the same time, he had a true spy in our midst."
"It was a 14-year-old boy named Pator."
"Ardum planted Pator on Wyntor's side two years ago."
"Ardum used a little boy as a spy, knowing fully well what happens to spies in the Melfion family."
Nick looked at the wall absentmindedly.
"I was tasked with doing the deed."
Jonathan turned to look at Nick.
"I found Pator crying and talking to a statue," Nick said. "He was saying that he regrets everything and wants to stop but can't because he's already in too deep."
"If he continued, he would feel like he was betraying his friends."
"If he stopped, he would die."
Silence.
"What did you do?" Jonathan asked.
"A spy is a spy," Nick said.
"I did what I had to do."
Jonathan looked back at the wall.
"The girl from Cycle has been spying on us for three months," Nick said.
"We noticed her three months ago already, but we didn't do anything since we were not ready for an open conflict with Cycle yet."
"For three months, she just randomly showed up in the night and in the early morning."
"A week ago, we were ready to do something about the spy, and I found her on our rooftop."
"She took out some kind of glass jar and was fidgeting around with it."
"I threw two spears at her."
"The first one shot through her body."
"The second one shot through her head."
"When we looked at her corpse and found the green substance, we knew why she was here."
"She was meant to act as a reason to go to war."
"Ardum keeps putting on a fake persona, and in order to get your support, he needed to unite you under a common cause."
"Think about the following questions."
"Why did she arrive during the night, in secret, for several months?"
"If she wanted to help us, would there have been an easier way?"
"Why is the little girl here?"
"Go think about these questions."
Silence.
Nick just kept looking forward without saying anything.
Jonathan just kept looking at the ground.
Several minutes passed.
"Her name was Sarah," Jonathan said.
Nick didn't answer.
"Sarah was always happy and helpful. She even taught me how to take care of our Specters."
Silence.
"Her shifts changed about three months ago, and her hours in the company got reduced," Jonathan said.
"Was there someone else that Ardum could have sent to do the same thing?" Nick asked.
Jonathan furrowed his brows.
"Neron was our spy," Jonathan said. "His job was to go undercover and gather information."
"Was?" Nick asked.
"He was also a spy for you," Jonathan said.
Nick snorted. "No, he wasn't."
Jonathan furrowed his brows.
"Wyntor said that to confuse Ardum," Nick explained.
After that, Nick explained in detail why Wyntor had confirmed that there was a spy and what Wyntor thought Ardum was actually doing.
Jonathan had difficulties believing Nick.
However, the things he had seen today made it difficult to ignore Nick's words.
Was it true?
Had Ardum actually played them for a fool?
The more Jonathan thought about that possibility, the more signs he saw that confirmed Nick's statement.
At some point, Kiara walked out of the room.
The girl clung to Kiara's thigh.
Nick just looked over at Kiara.
Kiara took a deep breath. "Her family sold her to a group of strangers," Kiara said with difficulty.
"They put her in this room."
"A couple of days later, Ste- the big man showed up."
The little girl started to shake.
"He did horrible things, and when she fought back, he put her in the cage to punish her."
"That was two days ago."
The girl continued shaking, and Kiara kept stroking the little girl's hair.
Jonathan took a deep breath.
Nick nodded and stopped leaning on the wall.
"Let's go. We're done here."
Kiara furrowed her brows.
"Just like this?"
"Yes," Nick said. "If you want to find justice, you are free to do so. It's 15,000 credits per corpse."
"But keep in mind. All of these guards also have families, and not everyone knows exactly what is going on at all times."
Kiara gritted her teeth.
"What about her?" she asked, gesturing to the little girl.
"I can leave her to you if you want."
"Keep her. Let her go. Hand her to an orphanage. Bring her back to her family. Do whatever you want."
Kiara furrowed her brows.
She was stuck with the little girl now?!
However, when she looked at the girl's scared eyes, she just felt pity.
She earned enough money to support another person…