15 Arrested?

Burne and Buccaneer stared at each other as the rest of the soldiers encircled Burne with guns and swords in their hands. 

"Who are you?" Buccaneer asked with a frown. "Are you from Drachma?"

He knew that no one would confess that easily but it was his duty to ask. He was the type to strike first and ask later but the altar had just been transferred to Amestris and he didn't want to mess anything up. 

Burne looked at the armed soldiers and raised his hands in the air. "Err… What is going on?" He asked in confusion. 'What is the Amestrian military doing in here?!'

"Answer the question! Are you from Drachma?" Buccaneer raised his voice as the soldiers pointed their guns at Burne's head. 

"No sir. I am just a travelling alchemist." Burne answered firmly. 'They are the military and not the state alchemists… at least that's good. I am glad that I destroyed the tablet before they came here.' 

"Can you prove it?" Buccaneer asked. 

"I am not sure how you want me to prove it." Burne said. "If you want I can use my alchemy as proof but I don't think I have anything to prove my allegiance." 

Buccaneer's frown deepened as he pointed his automail arm towards Burne. "Use an alchemic spell. But don't try to play us or you will be gunned down." 

Burne nodded. 

He could easily kill all of them as none of them were alchemists. He could impale them on earthen spikes even before they could pull the trigger. But he knew that it would be beyond stupid. He wasn't sure why the military was acting in such a way as alchemists were allowed at the altar. 

'Could it be because I entered the hidden chamber?' He thought and scoffed at his bad luck.

And surely, Buccaneer asked him about it.

"How did you find this chamber?" He asked.

"As I was checking the altar, I stepped on a tile that pushed forward a button on the altar table… And a stairway appeared when I clicked the button." Burne answered. 'Well, it's a partial truth.'

Buccaneer didn't seem like he believed his words but he still gave Burne a nod. "Now use an alchemic spell." He ordered.

"What kind, sir?" Burne asked. 

"Something small… and as I said before, don't try to act smart." Buccaneer warned. 

Burne nodded as he brought his hand down to the ground. All the soldiers had their weapons pointed at him— the moment he acted suspiciously, they would shoot.

Burne took a deep breath and pushed his hand on the ground. With the help of alchemy, he erected a small pillar as he transmuted the ground. 

Buccaneer and the soldiers looked at him in amazement but Buccaneer regained his composure within seconds and gave Burne a nod. 

"You are an alchemist but you haven't proven your allegiance. You will be coming with us to the fort. The major general will be deciding whether to let you leave or not." Buccaneer said, making Burne frown.

He was playing along till now because they were from the military but now it felt like they were going overboard.

"Sir, I don't want to be rude but… this altar is a free place to all alchemists as long as they are not from the state." He made sure to not show his annoyance. "So, may I know why I am being interrogated."

"You punk!" One of the soldiers pushed his gun towards Burne but Burne seemed unfazed. 

"That's enough, Thomas." Buccaneer said and looked at Burne.

"The rights of this altar have been given to Amestris after a discussion between Drachma and Amestris." He said. "So now if anyone enters the altar without the military's permission, it will be seen as an opposition to the government."

Burne was shocked at the revelation. The altar has been an independent place for a very long time and it surprised him that the nations suddenly decided to give the rights to Amestris. He had already destroyed the tablet so he wasn't worried about them discovering the secrets, but he was annoyed that he had to prove his innocence in front of the major general. 

'Attacking them is stupid so there is nothing I can do other than accepting.' He sighed and nodded. "Alright."

__________

__________

Mira was going through the files about Amestris' recent discussion with Drachma. Apparently, Drachma's leader decided to give the altar to Amestris as a token of their trust. 

Amestris was currently the strongest nation besides Xing but Xing didn't bother with political warfare so everyone's eyes were on Amestris. Thus it made sense to Mira that the nations would be wary of Amestris. 

But it didn't mean that she trusted the other nations. Mira believed that Drachma had some hidden agenda behind giving the Altar to Amestris. 

She sighed as she kept the file on the table and leaned back on her chair. 

Times were tough but she had to be cautious at every instance to make sure that the peace between the nations didn't break. 

'I hate politics.' She groaned.

She joined the military to prove herself to the world and to make her parents proud. But soon she started enjoying her work and before she knew it— she had climbed up to one of the highest ranks. She was the first woman to receive such a high position in Amestris and she was also one of the strongest women. Even without alchemy, she was feared in both the state and military. She had trained in countless forms of martial arts and her swordsmanship was only inferior to the Führer himself.

As she decided to rest for a while she heard a knock on the door. 

'Just when I thought of taking a break…' She sighed. "Come in."

The door opened and she saw Buccaneer standing behind it. 

"Oh, Buccaneer. I didn't expect you to return so soon." She said with a smile. "So did you find anything of interest?" 

Buccaneer scratched his chin. "Well, about that… there is something that you need to see, major general Armstrong."

Buccaneer said, inciting Mira's curiosity. 

"And what might that be?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Buccaneer steadied his posture in front of the major general. "We have caught a spy… we think." He said, causing Mira's eyes to widen.

"What?!?"

__________

__________

Burne wasn't handcuffed or even tied up, but the soldiers kept a close watch on him as he sat on the sofa of a large hall. Despite not being handcuffed, he still found the situation very unpleasing as he had planned to test out the things he had learnt, yet now he was forced to sit and be interrogated. 

He sat on the sofa while watching the clock ticking on the wall. It was past three in the afternoon and he hadn't eaten anything in hours. He was too engrossed in the altar's secret that he forgot to take care of his health. But it wasn't the first time that Burne had forgotten about food. 

He rubbed his stomach and seeing his movements, the soldiers immediately pointed their guns at him.

"Sheesh… I am hungry." He frowned. "No need to point your guns at a hungry man." 

He decided to think about alchemy as it lets him ignore the hunger.

'With what I learnt, I can improve my fighting abilities.' He thought. 'And it will also help with crafting items as I will be able to work for long hours due to less loss of energy.' 

He thought about the mass conversion. 

'I should be able to work on the finer details with this technique and this might also help me to find new elements.' He smiled. 'Arranging the mass was the most difficult thing in the past but now I should be able to do precise conversion... and with hydrogen, I should be able to fill up the leftover gaps.' 

'As for my offensive spell, I should be able to use rapid-fire moves like hydrogen bombs and earth spikes. And maybe… just maybe I can control the explosive spells without blowing away an entire city.' His smile grew bigger which confused the soldiers. "This should help to control the elements like sodium, francium and caesium to their fractions… which means controlled explosions… but I shouldn't test radioactive elements just yet. So no francium for the time being.'

As he was thinking about alchemy, he heard the soldiers greet someone. 

"Good Afternoon, ma'am!" They greeted in unison which caused Burne's ears to ring.

'What the- Why do you need to yell so loudly.' He thought with a frown.

But that frown turned into shock as he saw the person that the soldiers were greeting.

He saw a beautiful pale-skinned woman with straight waist-length blond hair that was relatively curled at the end. Parts of her hair covered her right eye. She had long eyelashes with deep blue eyes and puffy lips which seemed almost unnatural to Burne.

Burne had seen a lot of beautiful women in his journeys but no one came close to the beauty of the woman that stood in front of him.

"Bloody hell… you are gorgeous." He muttered without even realising.

__________________________________________________________________________

[A/N: Nothing much to say… so enjoy?

Chapter would have been early but one of my discord mates told me to write a ToG fic… I ain't sure about making it a main story but I still wrote the ch 1 xD. So, this chap's a bit later than I expected.

Like always, leave paragraph comments next to errors and mistakes for me to fix them later.]

[Discord Link: https://discord.gg/DXwDzxSAED]