After venting the pent-up frustration in his heart, the young man walked along the dimly lit street.
Unlike the bustling markets in this body’s original memories, the city of Gillis at night was somewhat desolate and quiet.
Here, with the tacit approval of Marquis Batius, a basic level of multi-racial integration had been achieved, granting other foreign races the right to enter the city and do business with humans.
But even so… as a border city, its economic foundation was still quite poor.
Surrounded by Gobi deserts, it was the territory of the Antfolk.
No farmland, no livestock… instead, adventurers and mercenaries had become the main source of economic support here, making the city’s economy as unstable as the mercenaries themselves.
Today you might be eating meat, tomorrow you might not even have soup.
And from these characteristics, one could see… how terrible the public security in this place was.
Mercenaries didn’t care, but for ordinary people, walking the streets at midnight was definitely an unwise choice.
Especially unfamiliar young people.
But… before any local ruffians or mixed-blood foreigners could come looking for trouble…
Franlot was already roughly grabbed by several men!
Before he could even resist, he was kicked and punched into a deep, dark alley.
“Mmgh!?” The boy was thrown onto a pile of garbage. Besides anger, his face also held a trace of bewilderment.
“Well, well, look who it is? Isn’t this the second son of the Duke’s family? Didn’t I remind you… to sleep well tonight…”
“Hahaha~ What else would you expect from a Duke’s second son? Quite the taste, lying in a garbage heap?”
“You know, you’re right, we really did find him a nice spot~ It’s soft and comfortable~”
Listening to the taunts from ahead, Franlot looked up… and saw the face of that soldier team leader, Fukadi. Behind him were several somewhat familiar faces.
Probably all his former lackeys.
Only, these guys were no longer wearing leather armor, but had changed into clean gray cloth clothes… clearly, it was their off-duty free time.
Whoosh! Before Franlot could even utter a word, Fukadi in front of him already punched him in the face!
Intense pain followed by a gush of nosebleed!
HP -12
“Kid… I don’t know what bastard you are, but the young lady is not someone you can offend…”
As Fukadi’s words fell, countless fists and kicks once again rained down on his body!
HP -1 HP -3 HP -5
[Negative Effect: Bone Fracture]
[Negative Effect: Concussion]
Countless prompts flashed before his eyes. If Franlot didn’t have the four Mall Coins in hand to restore his injuries… he probably would have really been beaten to death in this alley by these soldier thugs this time.
Of course, possessing “Stag’s Strength,” he also wanted to fight back, but unfortunately… Fukadi and his group weren’t ordinary street thugs; they were regular Border Guards.
Each had Bronze Rank strength, and even Fukadi, this little team leader, was already approaching the mortal limit, the threshold of Sub-Bronze Rank!
Although none could be considered masters, beating up an ordinary person like him… was all too easy.
“Hey! What are you doing!!”
And just as Franlot was feeling somewhat desperate… a clear, bright voice rang out from the deep alley entrance!
This voice also made the guys in the midst of the violence stop their actions, looking towards the alley entrance in confusion.
There… at the alley entrance stood a slender figure, wearing light armor, with a sword at her waist. She was a brown-haired girl, probably around 16 or 17 years old.
And at a glance, it was clear this girl wasn’t purely human, the reason naturally being the pair of cat ears on her head and the tail behind her that was swishing rapidly.
“Hmm?” Fukadi gave Franlot another kick in the abdomen before slowly turning his head to look at the catgirl at the alley entrance.
“Milpas…? You’d better not meddle in other people’s business.”
Milpas… Team Leader of the third squad of the City Guard, a mixed-blood of a foreign race.
Her appearing here didn’t surprise Fukadi at all.
Because this one was famously known in the City Guard for liking to meddle in others’ affairs, having grudges with many of the city’s hidden forces…
Putting it nicely, she was kind and had a sense of justice.
Putting it not so nicely… she was indeed a bit foolish, unable to read the situation, a reckless greenhorn…
“Fukadi? Instead of resting after your shift, you’re here bullying people!” Seeing that the person before her was, in a sense, a colleague, Milpas seemed even angrier.
“Heh, beating people up is also a form of rest~ Isn’t fixing up trash considered rest?”
Fukadi gave a hollow laugh, glancing around at his brothers, and everyone burst into loud laughter.
However…
Looking at Franlot lying in the garbage heap, covered in bruises and trembling slightly, Fukadi also knew it was about enough.
Accidentally killing this guy, he might really end up not currying favor but stepping on a landmine instead.
“But since you, from the City Guard, have come, I suppose I should give you some face…”
Before Milpas, her little face flushed red with anger, could say anything, Fukadi shrugged and waved his hand, signaling his brothers to stop.
Originally… given Milpas’s personality, she should have taken these bastards to the City Guard station.
But the guys on duty at the station and these soldier thugs were the type to drink together at night for fun; taking them there would be useless.
And besides that, the injuries of the boy in the garbage heap were more pressing right now.
Her beautiful eyes glared fiercely at the retreating figures of Fukadi and the others, and the girl quickly ran into the alley.
“Hey! Are you okay?”
‘Okay… if I didn’t have Mall Coins, I’d have been beaten to death already!’
His heart was crying without tears, but Franlot couldn’t show it now.
He just gave a helpless, bitter smile, his still somewhat clear eyes looking at the catgirl before him who seemed very righteous, her two cute ears twitching from time to time.
“Can… I have something to eat? I’m starving…”
This was their first meeting. The guy who was beaten half to death, after being rescued, didn’t cry bitterly, didn’t show hatred or shame…
But… wanted to eat?
The little catgirl blinked, feeling that this bruised and battered guy in front of her was really somewhat different.
Unconsciously, the girl felt… a slight curiosity towards him.
And the gears belonging to the Child of Destiny seemed to also shift slightly into place at this moment, driving the other gears…
To gradually begin turning.
Half-asleep, half-awake, some fragmented images gradually became clearer…
The girl seemed to see… the setting sun slanting west, the slightly chaotic Royal Capital due to certain events.
Everything was already over…
On the execution platform, the girl who had just been struggling, begging, threatening…
Now had her red eyes half-open, pupils dilated without any spark of life, her slightly pale little tongue sticking out halfway…
Her body hung like a flag, swaying gently with her disheveled white hair and the wind…
She was dead, and according to the Kingdom’s tradition, the corpses of the executed were to be hung on the execution platform for three days and three nights as a warning to others.
[She really deserved it… they should burn her again!!]
[Yeah, how many people died because of this demon?]
[Wahh… my two sons died on the front lines… damn witch! Give me back my sons’ lives!!]
[Sigh… but now that the witch is dead, I guess the war will end soon, right?]
Similar chatter continuously drifted into her ears from the surroundings…
And what these people below didn’t know was that on the hanging girl’s corpse above…
On her body, concealed by the white prisoner’s garb… clusters of black feathers were gradually growing, and beneath the feathers…
Were pairs upon pairs… of unsettling crow’s eyes.
Caw… Cawaa!