Kornacis, Money District, outside the Gambler's Den.

With a swinging pendulum necklace in hand, a bushy-bearded man in a top hat and tattered coat sat on the sidewalk.

The pedestrians were avoiding him like a plague, pressing onwards with nervous glances as they hurried past.

"Ahh~"

The bushy-bearded man turned his gaze to the Gambler's Den—it was a building with bright lights—and the sound of cheerful laughter spilled out from the open doors.

Every now and then, people left the Gambler's Den with either smiles or grimaces on their faces after losing a whole month's worth of pay.

In that moment, a brown-haired man stumbled out of the Gambler's Den, sweating furiously like a man on the run.

His right arm was dangling uselessly on the side. Covered in white sheets that were stained with blood.

"…"

The bushy-bearded man turned his gaze to the pendulum necklace, and while it was swinging, it followed Jake, pulling itself towards him.

"Degenerate gambler, who would've thought?"

The bushy-bearded man said with a raspy tone, as if there was something stuck in his throat, and then he followed Jake down the sidewalk.

While the pedestrians were avoiding him, they were also avoiding Jake, as they noticed him bleeding after coming out of the Gambler's Den.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had just happened.

Since Jake had spent every bit of his money, he had to walk all the way to Tumbler's Street, where he lived with his mother.

It was a long walk, about two hours, and when he entered his yard, he reached his left hand out to his right-side pocket.

It made him awkwardly have to reach out to the pocket to grab his keys, and Jake gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Come on, fuck! Please!"

He slid his left hand inside his pocket and tugged the keys, but they got stuck in the corner of his pocket.

He felt like crying, as the pain was already overwhelming, but he couldn't even retrieve his keys properly.

"Excuse me, do you have money for poor old me?"

Through the open iron gates, the bushy-bearded man approached him with a hunched back.

"Huh?"

Jake turned around, and after seeing the homeless man, he blew a lid, and with spit flying out of his mouth, he screamed.

"Who the fuck are you? Get the fuck out of my yard, right at this instance, you homeless bum!"

With that, he turned back to the door with keys in hand and muttered under his breath.

"Fucking leeches. Get a job, and stop bothering the honest citizens, pieces of shit. Just a waste of space, these homeless bums!"

In that moment, he felt something hard touch his back, and when he turned around, he saw that the homeless man was holding a black revolver.

"You should mind your words. Why don't you open that door, and we'll go inside? What do you say?"

The bushy-bearded man said.

"H-hey, I am sorry. I-I have had a real shitty day, so please, d-don't do anything hasty!"

Jake said, put the key in the lock, and opened it, then felt a hand touch his back, which pushed him inside the house.

The bushy-bearded man followed, closed the door, and then kept pressing the revolver against his back.

"Money, where is it?"

"I-I don't have anything. Please…"

Jake's lips trembled, and then he was forcefully turned around before being pushed down on the steps of the stairs.

"A nice house you got. And you say that you don't have anything."

The bushy-bearded man said with a scoff.

"I-I just came from the Gambler's Den. I have lost all my money there. I really don't have anything left, so please, let me be…"

Jake said, the desperation evident in his voice, and then he felt the pain of his right hand go up his arm like a flaming snake.

"Shit! Shit! I can't even afford a fucking doctor because I am broke!"

He screamed and smacked his left fist against his knee, trying to hold back his tears, but failed. The searing pain was too much to bear.

"Tch, tch. What a pitiful sight. I am homeless, yet I look more presentable than you. I hope the gambling was worth it."

The bushy-bearded man looked with disgust at the crying man, who could only blame his current situation on himself.

"Jake, is everything alright down there?!"

In that moment, a shriek of a middle-aged woman came from upstairs, and it sounded like it belonged to Jake's mother.

"Let my mother be… She doesn't know yet that I've lost all the money."

Jake said with a pained groan.

'Does his mother also know that he stole Madam Agnes's funds? I need to question her as well.'

The bushy-bearded man whacked the revolver across Jake's face, knocking him unconscious, and then made his way up the stairs.

"Jake…?"

In her nightgown, a tired-looking Ada Meredica walked out of her room, and after seeing the revolver-wielding man make his way up the stairs, she screamed and ran inside the room.

She put a chair under the doorknob, hoping it would buy her some time, but the bushy-bearded man just kicked the door down.

"Well, hello there."

The bushy-bearded man pressed the revolver's long barrel against Ada's forehead, and she trembled like a leaf in the wind.

"P-Please, don't hurt me!"

"Your son told me that he lost all his money gambling. Tell me, is he lying?"

The bushy-bearded man asked and put his hooked finger on the trigger of the revolver.

"L-Lost all the money?"

Ada whispered in disbelief, then she gritted her teeth and screamed.

"JAKE! You lost everything? What are we supposed to tell my mother now? I told you to use only half of the money!"

She thought that her son would answer back, but it was silent, and then her eyes shook as she asked in fear.

"D-Did you kill him?"

"What a disgusting family."

The bushy-bearded man said, then slammed the butt of the revolver against her head, knocking her out cold, and then walked out of the house.

While making his way down the sidewalk, he ripped his face off—taking off the Human Flesh Mask.

"It will break her if she finds out what her family did. She is old, and something like that could put her over the edge."

Aren clicked his tongue with a sigh and slid the Human Flesh Mask into his pocket to hide it from prying eyes.

He didn't want to carry an actual mask of human flesh in plain sight. It would frighten everyone who saw that.