Feeling the warm blood on his face, Calron felt his mind go numb.
This was the second time someone else’s blood was on his face and he suddenly felt the source pool inside him burst with excitement. The Blood Legacy was thirsting for more blood and it started to ignite Calron’s urge to kill.
Fighting the new instincts inside him, Calron bit his lower lip in order to draw pain to distract himself from the bloodlust. Elias had warned him before that it was extremely difficult to restrain the Blood Legacy once one started killing, so he had cautioned Calron to remain alert whenever it activated itself.
Meanwhile, Fatty had tears pouring down his face. This was the first time he had seen someone die in front of him, and his soul shook from the intensity of the grief he felt for the poor man’s death.
“Damn this bastard! He got his disgusting blood all over my uniform!”
The captain spat while looking at the corpse on the ground.
“Take that cage, and let’s head back to our station. I need to change out of this filthy uniform.”
Hearing their captain’s instructions, one of the guards picked up the cage and the rest soon followed behind the captain. The beast inside the cage mewed softly but put up no further resistance.
Seeing the guards depart, the rest of the crowd slowly dispersed. A few servants came on stage to retrieve the corpse and to clean the stage of blood.
“You kids should not have watched that. Here, wipe away the blood from your faces.”
An elderly woman chided the boys while handing them a piece of rag. Sights like these were common for her, but looking at the tear-stricken face of the chubby one, she felt her heart ache for his lost innocence. The other skinny child’s expression slightly confused her, but she didn’t bother to dwell on it.
“Uh, thank you ma’am! I’ll take my friend somewhere else.”
Thanking the old woman, Calron gently dragged Fatty away from the gory scene. Taking the rag, he carefully wiped the blood off Fatty’s face and used the other side of the rag to clean his own face.
“Hey, Fatty, are you alright?”
Calron softly whispered to Fatty after finding him a spot to sit.
“Huh? Yea, big brother… I just didn’t expect that he would brutally kill him in front of this many people. I’m fine, don’t worry, big brother. This was not my first time witnessing someone’s death.”
Fatty slowly responded after wiping his tears away on his sleeves.
“Let’s go! There is still that place I wanted to show big brother!”
Fatty exclaimed while cheerfully dragging Calron behind him. Calron knew Fatty forced the lightheartedness, but they both needed to forget the gruesome sight from earlier, so he didn’t say anything.
After treading through the various shops, they arrived at an upper district that appeared to have a lot more wealthy people wandering around. The shops were also more ornate than the ones Calron had seen previously at the start of the market. There was also a greater number of guards stationed here.
“Big brother, this place is the called the “Crown District”! This is the only place within the entire Vernia city that sells luxury items like high ranked cores of magical beasts, top elemental techniques and even previous weapons of famous cultivators!”
Fatty’s words sparked Calron’s interest.
Cores? I’m not interested in them for now and Teacher probably has better cultivation techniques anyways, but I do need a weapon! I wonder how long Teacher will take to recover; I wish he were here to advise me on what weapon I should train in.
While Calron pondered this, Fatty jumped up in excitement.
“Big brother! There is the thing that I wanted! Hehe, this is my one lifelong wish and if I fulfill it, then I wouldn’t mind dying the next moment! Let’s go!”
Seeing Fatty’s outburst, several passing customers gave weird looks towards them, but Fatty did not seem to care. Drool was seeping down the corner of his mouth and suddenly Fatty ran towards a shop several meters away.
“Hey Fatty, wait!”
Calron cried as Fatty was sprinting over. This was the first time Calron had seen Fatty ever put this much physical effort into anything, so after his initial astonishment, he soon ran after him while hysterically laughing. The reason for Calron’s laughter was the way Fatty was running.
Fatty had both his arms pointing back while his upper body was leaning forwards. His chubby legs zigzagged through the crowd and at one point, Fatty bumped into a little girl of three years old and snatched away the biscuit she was eating. The little toddler erupted in tears, as her mother comforted her and spewed curses at Fatty at the same time.
Far behind, Calron cracked up a grin and rushed to catch up to Fatty.
As soon as he arrived near Fatty, the scene he saw stunned him!
It was a food stand.
Various kinds and cuts of meat were displayed elegantly at the side, while several youths were running the front of the shop by taking in orders from customers. There was a sizeable waiting line, so their dishes must be high in demand; however, Calron did not understand why there would be such a fuss for food?
Locating Fatty near the line, Calron walked towards him. Fatty was literally drooling at the sight of meat cooking nearby and initially paid no attention when Calron tapped him on the shoulder. Calron then poked him in the side.
“Eh? Oh, it’s big brother! Isn’t this awesome, look at all that meat! I wish I could stuff all of them into my mouth but big sis only gave me a few silver squares.”
Fatty lamented while looking at the three silver coins in his hands.
“What? You actually have silver squares, and you still don’t think that’s enough? Punk, you want me to smack you?”
Calron exclaimed while pretending to smack Fatty. For Calron, silver squares were a currency that was only for the wealthy! A poor family only needed bread and some meat for survival, as what use were luxurious items when even their daily survival is at stake?
Calron had never known the feeling of starvation, as his parents would sacrifice their own share of what little food there was, so he would not have to sleep hungry. Recalling memories of his parents, Calron felt his heart throb in anguish, but he forced himself to suppress those memories.
“But these are the meats of high ranked magical beasts! The one I want is that cut of Flame-tailed Buffalo, a third rank magical beast! Its meat is supposed to be juicy and tender, and I heard one of the disciples talk about how it just melts in your mouth. Don’t you think that sounds like the meat of your dreams?”
Seeing Fatty talk so passionately about this meat, Calron felt like slapping himself on the head. He had been wondering from the start why Fatty had been so focused on reaching this place, and after knowing the reason, he didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
This Fatty had told me that he would show me something good, but instead he just wanted to eat some new delicious foods! Damn this idiot! He only thinks about food all the time… sigh.
Calron could only complain inwardly, as anything said to Fatty at this point would just fall upon deaf ears.
“I’ll just take a look around. Fatty, meet me here in an hour, alright? I don’t know this area well, so if you leave without me, I’ll tell Gretha to not give you dinner!”
Faced with threat of no dinner, Fatty abruptly turned his face towards Calron and nodded his head vigorously while stating,
“No need to worry, big brother! I promise I’ll stay here and wait for you, even if I get hungry, I’ll still wait!”
Calron smiled at Fatty’s sudden change of attitude. He learned that anytime you threatened Fatty with the loss of a meal, he would listen to any demands you’d make! Shaking his head with a smile, Calron turned around and left.
After leaving Fatty, Calron wandered the Crown District for a while. He saw many shops that sold items from high ranked pills to rare jewels. He wanted to enter the shop selling the magic beasts’ cores, but the shopkeeper refused to let him in.
“Brat, go look somewhere else! This place is not for some runt like you!”
The shopkeeper irritably gestured for Calron to move along.
Slightly dejected, Calron continued to explore the district. Some of the shopkeepers were nice and let him come in, but most were conceited and refused to let Calron near their shops.
“You’ll dirty my shop, piss off kid!”
Calron ignored those kinds of shopkeepers, and after a while, he decided to return back to Fatty as it was almost the time he said that they should meet.
Just as he was about to turn around, he felt a slight tingle from his father’s locket in his chest.