The Path of Madness

Chapter 8: Free

Aldric woke up with pain all over his body. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around him. He was in a dark, damp cell. The walls are rusted chains and dried blood, the floor is made of coarse concrete and there is a puddle of water on it. In front of him was a tightly locked iron door, and above his head was only darkness, there was no light at all except the dim gas lamp in the cell passageway.

He tried to get up, but felt something holding his legs and hands. He turned his head down and saw an iron shackle that bound his legs with the wall. He felt pain running from all over his body. He remembered what happened before he was brought here.

He was surrounded by a group of blue uniformed policemen carrying sticks and pistols. They put a gun on him and accused him of being Victor's killer. Aldric tried to defend himself, but they would not listen. They just keep pointing guns until their superiors come.

He has a rank mark bearing the name of the inspector. He watched her and gave orders to her subordinates. Aldric had a bad premonition with it, he tried to fight back and yelled yet they paid him no heed. They approached him then beat him brutally and dragged him with handcuffs in his hands to a blue horse carriage in the middle of the storm.

In the horse-drawn carriage, they began to question him who he was, where he lived, if he had any connection to the victim, whether he killed the man, what his motives were, why he was there. He tried to answer seriously. To be honest Aldric just wanted to curse them all, why did they just question him now. But he also thought it was normal. If he finds a horrible corpse with the person in the room. Then the suspect is clearly him, even though he is trying to say that he has nothing to do with it. Almost all murderers, thieves and other criminals will say the same thing. But he didn't know why they hit him, wasn't that too much.

They did nothing after that. Then they took him to this place, the dungeon under the police station. Here, they began to interrogate him earnestly. They began to look at things and details, such as why he was at the victim's house, what made him come in the middle of the storm, what his beliefs were. Honestly Aldric was a little confused about the question of belief but he still answered calmly that it was the church of knowledge. Then they started to ask questions.

Aldric replied calmly that he knew nothing. He's just an ordinary pub waitress assigned by Mr. Arthur, the owner of the pub where he works, to visit Victor's colleague, who is sick and happens to be in a storm when he's about to visit her. He explains that when he visited Victor, the door to his house was unlocked, so he went inside to check Victor's condition for worrying about him and planned to take shelter until the storm subsided. There he tries to find Victor and does not expect to find a corpse in one of the rooms. He also explained that when he found Victor's body, he was so shocked that he was silent for a long time when he saw it. Then the police suddenly came and arrested him.

He also asked them to investigate further and ask several witnesses to prove his innocence. She asks them to ask for testimony to Mr. Arthur, the owner of the pub she works at, Alice White, her brother, and Mrs Clara, the owner of the place where her brother works. He also explained various things about his daily life today. She started explaining that she was in the pub from 6 to 3 and went to where her brother worked, they went shopping for about 1 hour and then she sent her brother home for about 15 minutes and went to Victor's house before returning to the pub.

They just nodded and said that they would investigate and if he was proven innocent he would be cleared up, then they just left after chaining him up on the wall for security reasons. He accepted completely without a fight. Really if he fought back, they would definitely still chain him. So it's not the difference.

Aldric felt hopeless and helpless. He was not too worried about his freedom. If the policemen investigate properly, they will find that he is innocent. She was more worried about her aunt and Alice. If the police come to their house, and say he's a murder suspect. They will be very worried. He could even feel his headache now due to the barrage of questions and their nagging that would be given when he came home.

He could only pray that there would be no mistake in the investigation. He had already thought of some of the worst possibilities he could think of. As if the killer trapped him, the real killer was the upper echelon of the city, he used to be a scapegoat and other possibilities. Once again he could only hope that the police did the investigation properly.

A few days later, Aldric heard the sound of his iron door being opened. Once it has begun to saturate with prison food only bland porridge or hard bread and water. He finally saw two people coming to his cell. One of them had a pastor's clothes with a church symbol of knowledge and he carried a paper and a pen in his hand.

“Build, you!” one of them said as he opened the door of Aldric's cell.

Aldric whimpered in pain and got up from the dirty floor.

“Am I going to be released?” he asked in a calm voice.

"You'll be released after a few tests." The policeman answered while looking at the priest.

The priest nodded and walked towards him. He took out a small book in his pocket, then he asked him some of the same questions as a few days ago. Aldric was a little suspicious, whether the book the priest was carrying was a special tool that could prove something or just an ordinary book where his testimony was written there. He still answered honestly according to his question asked, even he answered the same all questions as a few days ago with no difference at all.

The priest only glanced at the book and closed it after a while. He looked back and nodded to the police behind him.

“We have proved that you are innocent,” the pastor replied while thrusting paper and pen to Aldric.

Aldric was a little confused as to why they had submitted a short test and directly tried to free him, he tried to throw his thoughts behind his head.

He took the paper and read it. A statement was made stating that he was innocent of Victor's death and that he would keep everything he saw in Victor's house a secret. He will also be compensated for wrongful detention. Under him was a condition that he should sign the clause above and swear to the gods according to his belief. And some writing about what punishment he would get for breaking it.

“Alright, now swear to the god,” The priest said as he pointed upwards.

Aldric raised one hand over his head and spoke his vow. The memory that was in his head.

“I swear to the god of knowledge that I will not spread anything I see in Victor's house and if I break it I will be punished according to the mistakes I made."

Aldric let out a weak sigh then he looked towards the priest who was nodding at him.

“Can I get out now?” Aldric tried asking while looking at them.

"Yes." Yeah." The police answered briefly while trying to open his shackles.

“Let me know what caused my colleague's death?” Aldric asked carefully.

The policeman just kept silent trying to open his shackles and the priest just smiled as he said. "You better not know anything for your own good."

“Alright." Aldric answered briefly. He asked just curious and after the priest said that, he did not want to know anymore.

“It doesn't matter to you. Most importantly, you have been proven innocent. We have heard testimonies from Mr. Arthur, Alice, Mrs Clara, and several others who know you. They all said the same thing, as per your testimony.” The policeman who had already removed his handcuffs said sharply. "And remember not to spread the secrets you see according to the content of the agreement.

"Good." Aldric answered while holding his aching wrist. Aldric was relieved to hear that.

“Alright, now you are free,” the man said as he walked out of Aldric's cell. "Don't forget to take your compensation and your belongings in the administration section."

Aldric nodded following behind them.

......................

Aldric walked right out the door of the police station. He felt the sunlight touch his skin and fresh air fill his lungs. He felt a long-lost freedom from himself.

Aldric had a happy smile on his face. He thought that prison was not so bad. But he erased those useless thoughts in his head.

He thought that way because the compensation he received was 50 REPLs, roughly comparable to the 3 weeks he worked. He thought of buying some things for his family with it. She hoped that at least she could comfort their anger a little, because she made trouble and made them worry. So he went to the city center. She went around to several shops and picked things that were suitable for her aunt and brother.

As the sunlight became more and more stinging he finally finished shopping, the items he chose were scarves and hair ornaments that cost 8 REPLs and 7 REPLs. The scarf is made of wool with a floral patterned white color with a bead on the end. While the hair decoration in the form of pins that are carved to form flowers with silver color. She wanted to give the scarf to her aunt and the hairpiece to Alice. He also did not forget to buy desserts such as plum pudding and bread pudding. Plum pudding is one of the popular types of pudding here. Although the name "prem" is used, this dish does not always contain true plums. It is usually made from a mixture of flour, dried fruit, spices, and fat. The price is about 2 REPLs, quite expensive for just pudding. While bread pudding is a dish made from bread that is not fresh, milk, sugar, eggs, and spices. This is a good way to make use of the remaining bread. It only costs 0.5 REPLs. This makes it a food that is quite popular with women and children. Because the price is cheap and the taste is good.

He heard the sound of church bells marking 12 noon. He hurriedly walked home to his house. It should have been about a few hours before Alice and her aunt came home, she wanted to take a bath first. His body had an unpleasant smell. Even the merchants were frowning when they saw him.

He started walking towards his home with a light heart while thinking about their reaction when getting a reward from him.