Chapter 504: Pre-Departure Outlaw Event (1/2)
Chapter 504: Pre-Departure Outlaw Event (1/2)
The following morning arrived quietly, the first rays of sunlight filtering through the endless canopy of Muro Forest. Lokamanya City stirred awake with its usual rhythm—beastfolk merchants opening stalls, younglings rushing across woven vine bridges, the sounds of animals harmonizing with the pulse of a thriving city rooted in nature.
For the Regalons, the day began without urgency.
Almond stretched on the balcony of their rented manor, inhaling the crisp forest air tinged with dew and resin. Below, the city’s veins of rivers and mossy pathways shimmered, alive with the steady bustle of citizens preparing for another day.
“Feels odd,” Big D said, perching on a stone, turning to Kexell, who was nursing a cup of steaming brew. “We’re supposed to be Grim Outlaws, but right now, it feels like we’re just… ordinary residents.”
“Sometimes that’s exactly what we need,” Kexell replied with a grin, ears twitching as he sipped. “A calm day before a bloody night.”
“I would also like to meet some beautiful cat ladies.”
“…”
By mid-morning, they split into groups to handle odd jobs. Silvester, Julian, and five others took a task escorting a beastfolk caravan to a harvest site in the forest, while Krala, Neo, and others joined Admiral Rudra in assisting with heavy construction of protective magic towers in the western ward as the city was doing its best to enhance its defense and offense against the threats.
Almond and Lily spent time gathering information, skimming through printed news-sheets in a local hall, mingling with the crowd as a pair of lovers without drawing suspicion. They also took a job later since they still had three hours to spend.
The job was to investigate the disappearance of hybrid twins belonging to a dwarf and a demon couple.
Almond and Lily looked at some items regarded as clues and went on searching.
An hour passed by…
Almond and Lily were walking on the northwest side of the city, on one of the branches of a tree where a small town was situated.
It had borders and only had a single entry/exit point.
Seeing Almond and Lily coming, the guards who were peak Grim Residents, same as Almond and Lily, crossed their spears.
“Do you have a town pass?”
Almond took out a badge and a paper. “We are doing an investigation. We don’t need any pass.”
*Clang*
The guards clashed their spears, their eyes narrowing.
“You can’t enter this township of Lord Rug without his town pass.”
But in the next moment, both of them suddenly felt like they were thrown into a pit of darkness.
All senses lost.
Lily’s eyes coldly gleamed as she completely ensnared them.
Both guards just stood with their heads diagonal, eyes white.
Almond held them in spatial confinement to prevent them from even twitching a muscle. They couldn’t speak, and Lily’s debuffs completely disabled them from even using their powers due to the difference in qualitative power of their foundation.
A second later, the guards regained their sense of hearing.
“According to the rules we read, jobs taken from War Tower cannot be impeded by any authority of the city except for the leader and council of the republic.”
As Almond finished speaking, both guards were freed from the nightmare where the death god’s hand was ready to take them.
Their legs were already jelly as they couldn’t stand, and the moment they saw Almond and Lily again, horror filled their eyes as they fell on their butts.
“Sit down and do your job.”
“If not, I’ll feed you to these demons.”
From the shadows of the guards that were right in front of them due to the setting sun, they saw menacing eyes and ghastly maws in them as Lily’s cold voice rang in their heads.
“What did you find?” Lily asked as she and Almond stepped through the gate and entered the quiet township that seemed to be lively on its other side.
“This place is under the authority of a member of the republic council.” Almond finished reading the memories of both guards and found some information.
Lily raised her eyebrows. “No wonder the guards seemed haughty.”
“Apparently, he was a legendary figure as a Grim Student and shone after that as well, but then his progress halted. He is still a Grim Adventurer right now.” Almond narrowed his eyes. “But that may not be the case. His position may have changed to something else because this town reeks of something disgusting. I saw something nasty in their memories.”
However, Almond couldn’t help but feel that what he saw was just the tip of the iceberg.
Almond and Lily walked around. There were food stalls, restaurants, and such with the town’s residents, but also many rich people in the party area.
Apparently, this town was one of the ten famous party spots in this republican city. Most importantly, it was one of the only three places where people could eat beast meat.
Generally, beast meat wasn’t allowed in the city. There was plenty of exotic vegetables grown in the forest that meat wasn’t necessary at all. There were hundreds of meat-like veggies with various tastes, and tens of thousands of other thriving species of vegetables, nuts, and fruits, not to mention the combination of those stuff with spices and cooking techniques. There was no end to the path of culinary in this city.
But for those who wanted meat, they could eat at three areas in the city. The meat in those three places also came from outside the forest because killing beasts in the forest was prohibited. So the meat was brought in via the trade relationship this city had with other forces outside this forest.
…
Almond and Lily were investigating at a rather famous spot of the city—Oasis of Life Plaza, after Almond finally got a clear result from his Spirit Rift Trace, a technique he created to trace the spot where the latest aura reading of those twins was located.
Oasis of Life Plaza had the biggest variety of meats, a collection of clubs, bars, casinos, and a pocket dimension resort.
Almond and Lily entered and ordered drinks at a bar.
There were mostly Grim Residents, but a good number of Grim Students as well.
But Almond and Lily could also sense strong auras of a few peak Grim Students.
Naturally, they were not enjoying the vibes but using their means to investigate this place.
Almond was sending spatial oscillation echos around him, gradually building a live map of the plaza as the Spirit Voiderran Eye, a type of Spirit he recently created for the mining heist, was acting as the catalyst for the live map.
The eye could absorb information of the echoes and observe everything, which then would filter into different things in the map for Almond.
’It’s ready.’ Almond shared the live map with Lily.
Both of them began exploring the live 3D map in their heads as the echoes continued to work and provided constant live data to the eye.
But this technique was a bit draining, costing 500 Life Force per second.
Suddenly, both Almond and Lily froze as they saw the underground part of the map and entered one of the halls.
Five women and five men, consisting of three beastfolks, three humans, and four elves, were ensnared by some magical glowing ropes as they floated without their control.
They were completely naked, crying, shouting, and begging.
But forty-something people in the hall were sexually and physically torturing all of them.
This was the hall that Lily saw and froze.
As for Almond, he saw a bloody hall hanging with skeletons and meat.
The skeletons eerily resembled humanoids, especially those belonging to children aged from five to fifteen.
Almond and Lily’s eyes were utterly cold. The underground area of this plaza was hell.
There were tons of games in which people played with the lives of others and tortured them.
Not even sparring kids.
’I am angry.’ Lily looked at Almond. ’I want to kill.’
Almond got off the table. ’Let’s submit this job as failed first. Fast.’
[Almond: Regalons. We are adding a small outlaw event before we depart. Are you all free?]
[Natalia: Only you two are left. All of us have finished our jobs and are chilling. Just one hour left before it’s time to go. What are you doing?]
[Lily: Since you are gathered in the courtyard, we’ll be there soon.]
[Rudra: What’s the plan?]
[Almond:…you can call it Massacre Fiesta.]
[Kexell: Whistles!!! Let’s fucking go. Is it fine if I eat them? After I turned humanoid, I haven’t eaten people, and I am kind of craving them ever since we arrived here.]
[Almond: Yep. They are exactly the kind that deserve to get eaten.]