Death, Devotion, Dissonance

"Yes. Or depending on the seriousness of the crime, either an Oath of Loyalty, or an Oath of Obedience," the inspector explained.

Evin frowned, feeling like he heard something similar just a few days ago. 

'Ah, I heard Leanne mentioning something about Albin's Oath of Loyalty not working as intended.'

"Have you heard of them before?" the inspector asked.

"Only their names."

"Well, let me enlighten you," the man cleared his voice and began speaking. "As you might've guessed, the Oaths are things exclusively made for criminal mages. The first and least powerful one, is the Oath of Restraint. If you take this Oath, you will lose the ability to kill any non-mage inside the kingdom. You are only allowed to harm them in self-defense, but the Oath might even refuse that, depending on the circumstances."

"How would taking an Oath prevent me from doing what I want?" Evin asked, confused.

"Ah, the Oath… isn't an oath in the literal sense of the word. It's a creature that resides next to your mana-core, that threatens to crush it if you try to break the details of your Oath. It also has the ability to restrict mana from entering your core, so you'll also be unable to use magic if it wants to prevent you from doing so.

Evin frowned, imagining the creature inside his heart.

"I see… I'm guessing the other two Oaths are worse than that?"

"Yes. With the Oath of Loyalty, you'll lose the ability to harm any of the kingdom's citizens and you won't even be allowed to destroy its property without good reason. You also won't be able to betray the kingdom and its secrets in any way, and after a couple years of living with the Oath, you won't even be able to think of betraying the kingdom."

"And the final one?"

"The Oath of Obedience. As the name suggests, you will have to obey the kingdom's every order, regardless of whether you want to or not. But don't look so scared. These are only for the worst criminal mages and so there are only a handful of people who had to take it…" the inspector said, sighing. "Now do you still want to be punished for your mistake today?"

"No..." Evin answered hesitantly.

"Good. You might feel guilty for your answer, but I can tell that you'll grow out of it pretty soon... Sigh, it's always the same with mages."

The inspector's last words caught Evin's attention, but something told him he shouldn't ask about it.

Instead, Evin focused on a different problem.

"Why doesn't the kingdom have every mage take on the Oath of Loyalty? Wouldn't it make their job so much easier?" Evin asked curiously. Obviously, he wouldn't want something like that in reality, but someone must've though about it before, right?"

"Then we give the non-mages too much power," the inspector replied, despite Evin thinking he wouldn't. "The Oaths feed on mana, you see. So they'd just die inside normal people. So in that case, if someone unfavorable takes on the throne, us mages would be in big trouble. We could even end up worse than 4th grades, slaving away for the kingdom's cause, whatever that is."

"I see… But in that case, wouldn't they just have the monarch take on the Oath?"

The inspector smiled, and shook his head. "It's not like everyone of the royal blood is a mage, you know? Sometimes, everyone in the royal succession can be non-mages… Ah, why are you even asking this, anyway? Go away if you don't want me to change my mind and assign an Oath for your little core," the inspector said and waved his hands dismissively. 

Evin thanked the man and made his way towards the receptionist, who directed him towards a mortician - a tall, lanky man with thin, graying hair. 

The talk with the inspector managed to distract him, but when he began speaking about his father's funeral, the gloomy mood took over once more. Eventually, Evin and the mortician decided on a burial three days later. Evin was rich enough to afford a pyre, which was said to be the ideal way to go… but he was afraid that no one would come to watch his father off except him. If no one came to a pyre, it was said to be bad luck. 

With the method confirmed, the mortician brought out the topic of bringing in the body, saying that for some extra coins, he'd be able to hire muscles to carry it around.

It felt unfilial for Evin to not move the body himself, but he agreed to pay extra, warning the mortician that the body was encased in ice. The pain from his foot was getting worse and worse, making it more and more difficult for Evin to focus on the problems at hand. 

After paying the man's money and giving him the key to his house, Evin decided to go to his dorm room for the day.

'I'll just fly there this time… No need to torture myself like this…' he was thinking, when he heard the receptionist's voice from behind him.

"Young mage, please wait a moment."

"What is it?" Evin asked, approaching the man.

"Just a few things I want to remind you. I know you're busy with everything that's happening, but these are all things you must consider," the man said, and listed a number of things that usually needed to be considered after a person died.

Listening to the words, Evin started to feel dizzy. The organization of a funeral lunch and its participants, the speech at the burial, the divide of Edmund's possessions, what to do with their house, Evin's official position in the kingdom, would he be considered an orphan or not, whether or not he'll need to be adopted, etc. etc.

Listening to it all, Evin decided he couldn't deal with all of that for now, and had the receptionist write it down on paper. He'd deal with all these problems tomorrow. Today, he needed to rest. He felt like he'd deserved that much, though the thought made him feel extremely sick with himself.

He'd hoped to sleep off these feelings, but the constant pain from his leg did not allow him the easy way out.