"Where did senior go? Is he going to be okay?" Mavenna asked as she wiped away her tears.
It had been a little over two hours since Ning had left. After they were done sobbing, they gathered around the ones that died. It was a terrible night and they had many losses.
But they couldn't let those losses drag themselves down.
They didn't care about the bandit's body; those would be taken care of by someone from the town. Lord Canon had sent his own son to help them take care of the bandits.
The villagers were very grateful for the help.
The total number of people that died in the bandit attack was around 11 on the villager's side, while the injured were around 30. Everyone who fought against the bandit even a little had some injury on them.
The Lord's son went around with people to deal with the injury of whoever was injured.
"Sir, all the injured people have been treated and the bandit's corpses have been burned," A guard told Kell.
Kell got close to the guard and asked, "Did you find out why they were all cut apart like that?"
The guard got quiet too and whispered, "I tried asking around, but everyone is keeping a tight lip about it. Not a single one of them wants to speak about it. I think they are hiding an expert in the village."
"That makes sense," Kell said.
"Alright, let's move out," Kell shouted and turned to leave. But just then, he saw someone approaching from far away. "Who is— "
"Senior!" Famir shouted and ran forward. However, when he reached near, he stopped. He turned around and caught his sister who was also running.
Ning had a serious look on his face, more serious than anything the two siblings had ever seen. Behind him was a naked man, all bloody, being dragged since god knew where.
Ning ignored the two siblings and walked to the center of the village, right next to where Kell was standing at and threw the man in front of the villagers.
The villagers gasped when they saw the man. The man had no eyes, no ears, no fingernails, missing toes, half his skin missing, and the other half burnt.
Ning looked to the villagers and said, "This is Khrom, the boss of the bandits that were behind today's tragedy. Do what you will with him." Then he left.
The villagers, the guards, and even Kell himself were stunned. Kell looked at the half-dead man in front of him in horror. "T-This is Khrom?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Doctor, wait!" Kell shouted. "You said this was Khrom? Where did you find him? How did you find him?"
Ning turned around and glared at Kell, who took a step back after seeing the anger in Ning's eyes.
Ning ignored the son and turned to the crowd. He didn't say anything else and simply nodded towards them. The crowd hesitated a little, but then Jangar walked forward.
"This is the bastard who is behind my father's death?" he said angrily. He looked around for a broken piece of wood and started beating Khrom with it.
BAM BAM BAM
The crowd shuddered with every hit. Then, another man who had lost his wife in the attack tonight also walked forward and started beating him.
Then came a father who lost his son.
A mother who lost her daughter.
A wife who lost her husband.
A daughter who lost her father.
Everyone from the crowd picked up a piece of wood or stone and started barraging the man on the ground. Even as the hits landed on him, the man never made a sound. Ning had made sure to gag him properly so that he didn't make a single sound.
Ning watched from the side and was constantly getting ticked off as he looked at the man getting beat. Just before coming here, he had asked the man a few questions.
The answers he had gotten were something that was constantly eating up his free thought and made it impossible to think of anything. He started remembering what had happened an hour ago.
"Why did you send people to attack the village?" Ning asked Khrom who was down on his knees.
"W-What villager? I-I don't know any village" Khrom said.
"Don't lie to me bastard," Ning said as he pulled what remaining hair Khrom had on his head. "I will just kill you right now," Ning said.
"Wait— I-I'll speak," Khrom said. Ning waited for him to speak.
"I- I was ordered to attack the village and kill a few people there," Khrom said.
"What? Ordered?" Ning was surprised. Who would order a boss of the bandit? Or was Khrom not the boss after all?
"Who ordered you?" he asked.
"I- It was Canon. It was that bastard Canon!" Khrom said.
"What?" Ning was surprised. "What do you mean Canon?"
"We-We have a pact with each other. He lets us hide out here and doesn't come after us, and in return, we do a few things he asks," Khrom said.
"Like?" Ning asked.
"I don't know. It's usually just secretly killing people that we find in the forest or poison someone's food in the village," Khrom said.
"WHAT?!" Ning pulled his hair tighter. "You are lying!" he said.
"N-No! Believe me. We've been doing that for over 3 years ever since we came here," Khrom said.
3 years. That was around the time Jangar's brother died, a lumberjack who was crushed by a tree he cut. Thinking about it, he also remembered another thing Jangar had mentioned.
'The village is cursed. Every month or two, someone dies here.'
Ning couldn't believe it. What Khrom said matched what Jangar had said.
'Sh*t!' he thought. While it was possible that Canon was doing all of these, it was also possible that Khrom was simply lying. Ning had no way of finding out either.
'I wish I could use Supreme Dominance on him right now,' he thought. Unfortunately, he was all out of energy. 'Fine. I will learn about the truth once I get energy later on,' he thought.
And then, he tortured Khrom a little more before he started dragging him throughout the tunnels. Everywhere he went, Ning killed the bandits and freed those who were captured.
Once he got out of the tunnel near the town, he then dragged him all the way back to the village.
