CHAPTER 31: THE EVIL TOWN’S GUARD

Knights could bully the weak.

For them, even killing a commoner or two in broad daylight was a crime easily erased with a bribe.

At most, such acts earned them a notorious reputation, making them feared rather than respected.

But a commoner killing a knight, no matter the reason, was taboo.

Simply put, it was a dishonourable act, worthy of death.

If Ray’s killing of Kane was discovered, he would be branded an irredeemable criminal and executed in public!

Irredeemable criminals.

They were considered lowlier than slaves.

Once a person was reduced to such a status, they were stripped of all they had achieved in life.

Their properties were confiscated, their direct family was sold into slavery, their wealth was looted, and they were publicly executed in the most venomous and gruesome way imaginable to make an example out of them and warn the masses that the kingdom’s rules mustn’t be defied!

"I can’t allow such retardation to befall me."

Ray lacked the strength to challenge the world. Otherwise, he would have gladly smacked some sense into the nobles and royals who devised such unjust laws.

Yet, even in his bitterness, he understood their reasoning.

Mortals had little to offer the kingdom’s survival or prosperity.

In contrast, beast tamers bore the power to hunt down the kingdom’s enemies, defend its borders, and expand its territories.

Thus, to ensure their loyalty, the crown showered them with privileges and elevated them to a position where they could trample upon slaves and commoners without worrying about the consequences!

Taking a deep breath to rid himself of unnecessary thoughts, Ray hurried to erase all traces of his crime.

He stored the corpses and Kane’s sword into his interspatial ring, then unleashed scorching fire from his mouth to vaporize the blood staining the courtyard.

Next, he gathered every precious item he had left in the open and put them in his interspatial ring before tying a thread around it, slipping it over his neck, and tucking it beneath his shirt.

His shirt was black, high-collared, long-sleeved, and made of thick cotton. With winter drawing near, he had bought it to keep warm. Not even a faint outline showed on it despite the fact that the interspatial ring was hidden beneath it.

"With this, it should be hard to tell I committed a crime or own something of value. Even if the guards came to inspect my house for no reason, I won’t attract unnecessary attention and suffer a loss."

Although it seemed like a lot of time had passed, everything that had happened from the moment Ray heard the guards approaching until now happened in mere moments.

His efficiency was terrifying!

Bam!

The door to the courtyard burst open.

Ray looked over and saw a group of seventeen heavily armed men and women barging into his house.

Each of them wore a plate that showed their status. Sixteen were iron rank beast tamers.

One of them, a young man with hawk-like eyes, a sharp jawline, and a strikingly handsome face that gave off an arrogant charm, actually bore a bronze plate, marking him as a bronze rank tamer!

"Tristan. Geoffrey. Tina."

Ray recognized a few of them.

Some had tortured the original owner when he was locked up in prison, while the rest were notorious throughout the town for being ruffians who used their status to bully the weak.

They feared the strong, so of course, they had never dared to offend a fellow beast tamer or a higher noble.

Thus, they managed to keep their jobs and lives despite their many flaws.

"What’s with this atrocious behavior? Why have you forced your way into my house so late at night?"

Ray wasn’t certain what they were here for, so he held his anger back from bursting out. If it turned out they had been mobilized by Ashclaw to cause him trouble, then he would kill them and make it seem like an accident.

He had already done it once.

He didn’t mind doing it again!

Tristan’s gaze swept through the courtyard. Only after finding nothing suspicious did his grey eyes focused on Ray. "Are you Ray, the owner of this place?"

"Boss, it’s him. I know him from his time in prison. When he was locked up, I used to take extra care of him under Ashclaw’s request," Geoffrey said.

His voice was loud and grating, like the sharp caw of a crow, extremely unpleasant to hear.

He didn’t mind gloating before his victim as he didn’t give a damn about what Ray thought of him.

It was because, having tortured him for months in the past, he saw Ray as nothing more than a bug to be crushed beneath his feet whenever he pleased.

"It’s me." Ray also nodded.

’He is alive???’

Hearing that it was really Ray, Tristan tried to suppress his shock, but his eyes gave him away.

Ray could tell this bronze-ranker was stunned to see him alive.

’Ashclaw is behind this too.’

He connected the dots and reached a chilling conclusion.

Ray thought, ’If I’m not wrong, Ashclaw meticulously crafted an insidious scheme to kill two birds with one stone.’

’Tonight, if everything had gone according to his expectations, Kane would have killed me before being killed by the town’s guards for murdering an innocent, loyal citizen.’

’Without a solid justification, nobles are forbidden from killing one another. So they needed to pin him with a crime that would warrant his death.’

The justification required to kill a noble could be fabricated, although it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

For example, if Kane had succeeded in assassinating Ray under Ashclaw’s order, the town’s guards would have been able to testify that they executed Kane out of righteousness rather than personal vendetta. That would have been more than enough to absolve them of the sin of killing a noble.

’Ashclaw, you bastard, you’re as cunning as an old fox.’

’I can’t wait...’

’... To kill you.’