In a room filled with all sorts of corpses, an old man who was messing around with the corpses twisted his head to look at Asa and let out a remorseful grumble, "I've long wondered how that skinny skinny monkey suddenly remembered to deliver the goods to my doorstep today, and he actually didn't haggle. I should have known that cheap goods are no good."
Asa wanted to support himself, his hand just propped up on the ground, his chest burst with a cone of stabbing pain, let out an agonizing wail, and paralyzed to the ground again, re-broken ribs interlocked with each other, the pain was so intense that he didn't even have the strength to speak anymore. The old man ignored him, whining to himself as he fiddled with the body.
Taking a few breaths, Asa strained to swing his head around to look around. It was a very large room, or rather a very large house, with a simple structure, a very high roof, a very wide space, a very wide door, and several very large glass windows high up on all four walls, giving the room a very bright appearance. Every body inside could be seen clearly.
Said corpses is not very accurate, because in addition to more than a dozen complete corpses, there are dozens of mutilated corpses, as well as countless bubbles in glass bottles of various organs, were placed in varying heights of the shelves and countertops. The house was a complete display of human bodies. Asa was lying surrounded by a male naked corpse and several arms and legs, while the old man disemboweled a female corpse.
After a footstep, there was a knock on the very wide wooden door and a voice shouted from outside, "Old man Sandro no? Open the door." The old man shouted back, ", to come in open it yourself." The door pushed open and a dozen heavily armed soldiers walked in. A few of them immediately let out low gasps of surprise as soon as they saw the furnishings inside.
A small captain-like one asked the old man, "Do you have anyone else here?"
"People?" The old man called Sandru nodded, "All the people placed here are people, what kind of people do you want to find yourself."
"I'm asking if you've seen any suspicious living people that you haven't seen before."
"I haven't seen this one, and I haven't seen that one." Old man Sandro said pointing at a couple of soldiers. The soldiers face twisted a bit as they looked at the finger pointing at them, it had just been pulled out of the female corpse's belly and was covered in blood and some other kind of liquid.
"This old man is like this, today there is a prisoner escaped from the city's prison, a very vicious and cunning spy, also killed all the people in the prison, including the two fat and skinny ones who always sell corpses to you. The culprit is still hiding in the city now, and we have been ordered to investigate." The squad leader said.
"The spy has not been seen, and there is no one hiding here, so if you want it." Old man Sandro put his head down and fiddled with the body.
"Everyone be careful everywhere. Remember, it's a male in his mid-twenties, slightly taller, dark hair and eyes, and a wound on his left hand. Also remember, once you find out don't talk to him, immediately kill him on the spot. This is an order from Lord Duke Mrak, I think this guy might also have some evil magic, so everyone beware." The captain gave the order in a dignified manner, and the soldiers slowly dispersed to check, with a few still stumped in place, holding back the feeling of wanting to vomit with full concentration.
Orders from Lord Mrak? Asa couldn't make a sound, but he heard it clearly. Although he didn't know how he killed all the people in the prison and then escaped here when he was injured like this. But he also heard that 'kill immediately, don't speak' very clearly just now.
The good thing to do now is to close his eyes and continue to pretend to be dead, and wait until the crisis in front of him is over. But as luck would have it, the light in this room was sufficient, and his appearance was clearly seen, including the bandage on his hand.
"Hey, you guys, come look." Old man Sandru pulled something out of the female corpse's abdominal cavity and proudly displayed it in his hand as if he had seized a remarkable discovery "I'll bet this woman didn't procreate, but she had an abortion. I can't believe someone in the king's city does this kind of thing."
'Wow-' 'Vomit-' The two soldiers next to the captain finally couldn't help themselves and vomited. The sound was like contagious, and several other soldiers vomited one after another.
"Fuck-, who the hell brought the soldiers?" The captain jumped to his feet as his boots were showered with vomit. Looking at the other soldiers starting to vomit one after another, he himself took another look at what old man Sandro was holding in his hand, with a couple of tendons attached to it inside the female corpse. A burst of nausea, called out, "Close ranks close ranks, quickly go quickly go." The soldiers immediately ran out like they were fleeing.
"Hey, clean up for me before you go." Old man Sandru took a few steps after him, cursed, came back and closed the door, then cursed and came over to Asa, stared at him strangely and said, "I don't know how you managed to go back and kill Skinny Skinny Monkey after being dragged here as a corpse."
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Only then did Asa see clearly that this was a rather tall old man, clad in a monk's robe that was so dirty that he could no longer see the color. Because of the gray bearded hair that covered his face and the silk threads of the robe were tangled together, his features could only be seen in a limited space. The only thing that could be seen clearly were the eyes, which were black and white, without any traces of dullness that should be present at his age.
"I don't know what's going on either. If you knew they were looking for me, why didn't you give me to them?" Asa asked breathlessly. The broken bones in his chest wailed with every word.
Old man Sandro glared and asked back in a matter-of-fact tone, "Why should I give you to them?" With force, he held up five fingers and shook them. "You're worth five coppers to me. Five ouch."
"I'll pay you back later if there's a chance to escape." Asa was completely overwhelmed by the situation in front of him. Carrying such heavy injuries on his body, he had somehow become a wanted man, and that 'don't speak, kill on the spot immediately' command left him without even a chance to defend himself.
"No, it doesn't look like you'll have a chance to get out of town. I can come over here as well, probably even the women's restrooms in town are finished. What the hell did you do?" The old man asked.
"Just saved the Duke's daughter from the swamp."
"And then slept with her in the process? Make babies? Or sold into a brothel? Give it to a slaver?" The old man's associations were rich.
"Escorted all the way to Bracada."
"That's quite a special way for the Duke to be thanked." Old man Sandru shook his head, "But what reason there is in it doesn't interest me. There's just a shortage of men here, so you can come work off your debt. You won't be able to run away anyway. With such a big battle, they won't let their guard down until they've captured you."
Asa fumed for a while and replied feebly, "Seems like that's all there is to it. Just have to ask you to find a way to get a doctor-priest first." His voice had begun to slur because of the immense pain.
Old man Sandro looked over and reached out to touch Asa's chest, both hands suddenly grabbing the ribs on either side with a drag and a pull. Asa let out a yelp, feeling like a couple knives had been shoved inside his chest and twisted, and almost fainted again. Only after he took a breath and came to his senses a bit did he realize that the broken bones had been joined back together without a hitch, and that even the pain was almost gone. The treatment that a dozen priests in Bracada had been busy all morning to complete, this old man actually seemed to be like a magic trick, just a casual touch and it was healed. Although Asa didn't know much about magic, he could probably guess that this was an extremely high level healing spell.
"Three months." Old man Sandru said.
"What?" Asa didn't know what the old man meant.
"Cure you of this and you'll have to do it for three months here at my place."
Asa hastily held up the left wrist, which had been crushed by the werewolf, and asked, "What about this?"
Old man Sandru unwrapped the bandage and took a closer look, letting out a roadside money-picking sigh, "At least three years."
In the Duke's residence, in the study of Lord Duke Mrak, the Duke frowned in a rare manner as he listened to the report of the king's capital's close guards who had no luck.
Knight Clovis stood straight next to him. Even in this mood of rage he didn't lose his temper in the slightest, he was still so majestic and unassuming in his demeanor, expressing the concept of 'Knight' appropriately.
However, his gaze with his head lowered to look at the floor from time to time revealed a look of anger that was hard to suppress.
The Lord Duke didn't blame him; the Lord Duke would never blame anyone or lose his temper with anyone. It was just that Clovis could not forgive himself for actually committing this big blunder, a blunder that could potentially lead to the failure of the entire plan, and even jeopardize the safety of the Duke and himself.
The Duke suddenly asked, "Why did you kill all the people in the prison?"
Clovis replied, "I was afraid that something had leaked inside that soldier."
"How can a man be in the mood and leisure to talk to someone when he is somehow locked up?" Duke Mrak slowed down and said in an aggravated tone, "The important thing is that you did it without even asking about the situation. How did that soldier introduce the jailer? How about knocked out? How did he run out? Something meaningful can definitely be found if every detail is clearly known." The Duke once again jumped to conclusions. "You are too young and impulsive. Be patient and think about the problem from a quantity of perspectives to discover more than one solution."
"Aye. I will make every effort to catch this soldier by all means."
"Think about the problem with more angles." The Duke repeated it endlessly. "It's not possible to get too attached to the traces, someone might be curious. Just leave this matter to the Konohagakure." The Duke thought for a moment, "The chances of a problem aren't great, that soldier probably won't know why he's being hunted and won't dare to report it elsewhere. Let's just do what we're supposed to do. You go back now, and remember that in front of the others you must not show any traces of your association with this fugitive."
"Yes."
Looking at Clovis' back, the Duke's brows remained furrowed. This was a very ambitious young man, very capable, very hardworking and ruthless, definitely a good deputy, a good subordinate, a good pawn to use. But it is unlikely to be a person who can achieve great things.
If you have too much desire, you will block out your reasoning. Paying too much attention to something, you won't be able to feel and grasp the whole picture of things and the subtle changes in it. Attracted by a leaf, you cannot see the whole forest.
If you are too ambitious and do things too ruthlessly, there is no room for turnaround. Too much is too little.
There is also a huge family behind this young man. The Ernie family is a tired and powerful family, there are many high officials in the dynasty, and there is no lack of giant businessmen in the wild, and he is precisely the eldest son of one of the head of the family, definitely a perfect marriage partner. But he is definitely not a good husband.
It's hard to live with someone who puts too much stock in fame and fortune. This kind of person always has eyes only for himself.
Sighing in only his own study, Duke Mrak suddenly felt a little tired.