CHAPTER 43: CH 43: CONSPIRACY?

"Are you fully sure that he has left the capital?"

"Indeed, I am. He has been seen the last time at the harbour. We estimate he must have taken the waters to run to Jae Kingdom."

David stood silently against a wall,hearing two adults converse with each other.

The rough voice who had asked the initial question, returned. "Another annoyance, why don’t these vermins just die and let us do our work?"

A deep sigh, one filled with tiredness, followed the conversation.

"Anyway, we have important work to do. When is the next shipment coming here?"

A joyful chuckle broke out from the lips of the second person. "Calling live humans as shipments is diabolical, Marshall. But yeah, we need to wait for some time before they can reach the destination from where they shall then be sent to us. Recently border securities have tightened for some reason."

"Yeah, that Alex finally decided to come out of whatever depression he is in. The problem isn’t him though...that queen is more annoying." He clicked his tongue as if mesmerizing some butter memory.

"You still haven’t changed. Too hot blooded. I know you want to remove her but we still need to be cautious around her."

"Yeah yeah, I know. So what did you call me here for? They shall notice if I am gone for long."

The other person, who seemed quite clever to David, replied in a conspirational tone.

"Well...the Blood Moon is in a month away."

"And what of it?"

"We have been planning something magnificent to light up the Windsor Kingdom with. Let’s say...what if monsters ran rampant at every corner during those three nights?"

A stunned silence followed the declaration as David’s eyes widened in horror. What were these people even planning?

He could understand that they were talking small steps, all leading to the usurping of the king from the Windsor throne.

’And every damn time, the commoners are the ones who need to face the most destruction.’

He realised he needed to get stronger to atleast survive in case of a chaotic future.

’But a Marshall...seriously? That’s like the highest position in the military or something.’

But he didn’t want to remain there any longer. If a Marshall catches him spying, he was just as well as dead.

He started moving away when suddenly, a twig snapped below his foot.

Instantly the conversation stopped, no wonder alerted.

"Who is there?" came the rough voice of the Marshall.

’Shit, no!’ David silenced his steps using his element as he ran away fast.

After what happened to be several minutes, David stopped at a narrow alley,as he leaned downwards, breathing heavily.

He peeked out of the alley to search for anyone on the streets. He remained in that position for few minutes, not daring to move.

After seeing nobody appearing, he finally sighed in relief. "Well, that was a close call."

***

"Pardon me! Pardon me! Have mercy on this poor man." A man groveled on the ground, his hands clasped in a silent prayer as tears and snots fell down his face.

Around him, several other corpses lay hapazardly, blood drowning their clothes from their stab wounds.

"Ah no, that would be unfair to your friends right? You should have probably said that when you guys attacked me out of nowhere." In a sly voice, he added.

"Actions have consequences, buddy."

Saying that, David slashed across the groveling man’s throat, who tried holding and clutching around it with his fingers. His desperation was palpable but he could only watch as his life spilled on his fingers.

David watched the notification appear for gaining another soul fragments.

’For now I have confirmed the following - humans and monsters give you soul fragments. However plants and normal animals roaming the planet aren’t the source for it. Interesting.’

After that, he started his journey back to the venue with a pocket filled to the brim with coppers and even one shiny silver.

En route, he came across few gang members at few locations where he had killed members of the same gang before.

The corpses still lay onnthe ground as the new batch of these goons stood before them, each of them acting like a big shot detective.

"Thank you for the free meal." David bowed slightly after he had killed the last member of this second wave of goons.

Walking down the road, he discarded of the bloodied spear, not wanting to bring himself into risk with the authorities.

Afterall, what he has committed wasn’t just a single case if murder. Rather he had left a trail of dozens of dead bodies in the village.

’Truly I wonder who shall now he more scared - the leftover members of the gangs or the common people?’ He chuckled lightly at that thought.

Eventually, he reached the crossroads at dawn.

"Hmm, I do need a set of new clothes." He muttered as he looked at his bloodied clothes.

He took off this shirt and threw it in a rather nauseous smelling dustbin.

He figured that for now, the few stains on his trousers could be waved off as a consequence of fighting in the Sihapi contest.

Then he walked in the cold, half naked as he reached the hidden spot where the nameless girl still slept peacefully.

Silently walking upto her, he took away her short sword without making any noise, after which he once again walked but this time towards the market section.

There he bought a set of clothes for himself, which he quickly changed into. Then at a local blacksmith’s shop, he bought a sword for himself. And a short sword of the same fit as the one the nameless girl used in the contest.

The coins clinked in his hands as he countedthem meticulously before placing fourty coins on the counter.

"Here you go."

"Thank you for your patronage, sir. I hope to see you again in the near future."

David could only smile as he walked out of the small shop of the blacksmith.

He hardly had any money for buying all these things once. How would he even think of visiting this shop again with such a poor financial condition?

Then he went to a roadside food stall which nhbthe looks of it, had just opened their shop.

Holding the coins in his pocket with one hand and his growling stomach with the other hand, he asked.

"What’s the best thing you got here? I want two sets of it."