"Little sister, what happened to your b.u.t.t?"In a famous clinic near the center of Haradur City, a man is looking down at a woman lying atop a bed on her front.
The woman"s face seems flushed from pain. Even from above her clothes, one can see that her b.u.t.t seems to have… caved in, as if both her b.u.t.t cheeks are being swallowed by her a.n.u.s.
The day after the incident, after hearing news of it from lady Kesha"s old servant, the Amnon family sent one of her older brothers to check on her. That was this man, Alexandar Amnon.
After arriving at the clinic, Alexandar saw his unconscious younger sister who had gone through surgery under anesthesia. He went back once to report how bad her condition was to their father, and then came back today after he received news that she had awoken.
"It was all the doing of that devil Seth!" Lady Kesha spouted venomously.
Alexandar tried really hard to pry his eyes away from his younger sister"s b.u.t.t, which she had reflexively stuck out in order to reduce the pain.
"Seth… That should be Jamon"s wife, Mirun"s younger brother, right? To slaughter Fabin and do this to you, does he have some animosity towards our Amnon family?"
Jamon Amnon is Alexandar Amnon"s eldest brother"s youngest son. One year ago, to further tighten the relationship between their two families, an arranged marriage was done between that youngest son and Seth"s elder sister, Mirun Zefer, who was only 13 at the time. Currently, she should be 14, just 2 years older than Nala, and 3 years older than Seth.
The husband that Mirun was handed to was about the same age as she was. Even though it was rare for two kids so young to marry, it could be said that they were forced by the circ.u.mstances.
"Of course he has animosity for our family! Why else would he kill my innocent Fabin!?"
"Little sister, calm down and answer me rationally. You know that because of the pressure from the Bilin family, our Amnon family and the Zefer family must stand united. Else, not just half the city, but the entirety of Haradur city will fall into the Bilin family"s clutches."
In fact, the number of arranged marriages done between the Zefer family and the Amnon family in recent years was more than just a few. They were mixing their blood to the point that it seems as if their two families were preparing to merge. The deceased Fabin"s wife is also from the Amnon family. A daughter of a concubine from the Amnon family became the wife of Seth"s second brother, the son that was born from a servant mother, as well.
There was even talk of engaging Seth himself with one of the young daughters of the Amnon family. Though, due to what Seth did to Fabin, it can be imagined now that such talks will fall through.
All this blood-mixing is due to the power of the Bilin family that seems to have been rising nonstop in the last few years. Half of Haradur City"s properties has already been either forcibly taken or coerced over to the Bilin family"s side.
At this rate, the other two large families, the Zefer and Amnon families will eventually either be driven out or slaughtered. The family heads of both families have been growing quite a lot of white hairs over this issue.
"I know, big brother. I know, but I still want that thing dead!" Lady Kesha ground her teeth. Despite her vicious expression and hate-filled words, the embarra.s.sing posture she is currently in offsets any threatening vibe she could muster.
Still, Alexandar Amnon conceded.
"Alright. Father will also not forgive this act. He was as enraged as you are now when he learned that Fabin was killed. Even if Lord Zefer will not allow it, we will seek vengeance for you mother and son. But we cannot do it with our own hands. Do you understand? First, let us get that… injury of yours fixed." Instead of "injury", he was about to say "b.u.t.t", but quickly corrected himself, as saying that would be far too insensitive of him.
Hearing what her brother had said, Lady Kesha"s expression went from angry to depressed. "But that old doctor Liao said that fixing my… injury will not be easy. The ingredients alone for the bone resetting formula cost…"
"Don"t worry, little sister. I have the money! Father loves you enough to fork it out. Although even just the ingredients cost a lot, if we ask on behalf of the Amnon family, I"m sure old doctor Liao would discount the processing fee of the medication for us this once. Sigh, it"s too bad we can"t get him under our influence, else we wouldn"t have to pay as much as this."
For a doctor running a clinic in this city, if he didn"t possess sufficient strength himself, he would have long been captured and forced to work under one of the ruling families here.
When old doctor Liao first set up his clinic here some years back, there had indeed been some "ruffians" that tried to force him. Those ruffians broke down the old man"s door... only to get their legs broken after they entered.
Following that, a larger number of ruffians came, and set fire to the old man"s clinic. Those ruffians were caught, had their legs broken, and were then tossed into the very fire they had set...
In the end, old doctor Liao paid a visit to the families backing those ruffians, and came out with plenty of compensation.
Ever since then, no one dared to casually offend the old man.
"See, it is right here." Alexandar Amnon reached into his clothes and pulled out a shabby-looking sack. Then, his face greatly contorted.
"What"s wrong, big brother?" Lady Kesha asked nervously. Why did her big brother pull out a shabby sack?
"This… this is not my moneybag!" Agitated and greatly alarmed, Alexandar Amnon screamed loud enough to scare the pigeons off the roof.
…
"When that rich fellow finds his bag replaced with a sack and his coins replaced with pebbles, will he cry I wonder." Watching the pigeons fleeing off the roof of a clinic a few buildings away, Seth sat atop another rooftop, bouncing a garish sack of silver coins in his hands.
There was a rule set in the Zefer family, disallowing the children in the family from leaving the mansion grounds. This was to prevent the children getting kidnapped and held for ransom, a scenario which would greatly annoy Merab Zefer. This problem could be solved as long as he a.s.signs some capable guards to them, but he felt that would be a waste of those soldiers" abilities. Thus, unless his children have already reached a high enough level of cultivation to fend for themselves, or has already been married off, he wouldn"t allow them to go out alone.
Early this morning, before his father had went out, Seth had asked for permission to go into the city. Normally, for a child at Seth"s age, the strict Merab Zefer normally wouldn"t allow it, but after he considered Seth"s current strength, he thought it would be fine to make an exception and sent some guards with the boy. Besides, it"s rare that this son of his would ask anything from him.
Merab Zefer also knew that their relationship up till now has not been very close, so he took this chance to bridge that gap slightly by allowing this request. Never would he have thought that this third son of his would ditch his guards the moment they walked into a crowd…
"Unfortunately, that father is quite stingy with his money. He never gives his children any money, not unless they"re carrying out tasks for him outside. Even today, he only gave me enough to buy some candy."
To put it nicely, the lord of the Zefer family does not like to waste money on useless things. To be a bit more critical, he is just plain stingy.
"...But for such a rich guy to bring so much money out with so few guards, he must have been very confident in his own strength, or he was just asking to be robbed."
That was true. Alexandar Amnon had already reach the peak of the undying mortality stage. There would be little point to having many guards around him that are weaker than he himself. Thus, he normally would not bring too many with him, at least, not when he is walking in crowded areas. Since the guards that he brings with him are always all grown men, whom would usually look around at their own eye levels, all a good pickpocket has to be is short, swift, and silent, capable of staying in people"s blind spots and reaching into their pockets without them noticing...
It was not that Seth was specially targeting Alexandar Amnon. He does not actually have any grudge against the Amnon family, nor did he know that that money was going to be used to repair Kesha Amnon"s broken b.u.t.t. He simply saw someone that looked rich, and targeted his money.
"Well then, where shall I go to get the ingredients to make the fertility killing poison…"
…