abcnovels
Chapter 216: Piggy Goes...
Chapter 216: Piggy Goes...
Chapter 216: Piggy Goes...
?
Within a normal household in the Ebonreach, the smoke of roasted food filled the air with a savory aroma.
The mother of the family stirred the pot of stew that was simmering on the stove and saw that it was about to be ready.
By the table, her husband flipped through the pages of the newspaper and shook his head.
"The unrest by the Imperium City is getting worse," he muttered out loud. "It is only a matter of time before the war starts."
Hearing that, his wife looked at the stew absentmindedly; the stirring stopped, but then she quickly resumed, trying to push away the anxiety that was creeping into her mind.
"In the war of the gods, we, the Originals, will be the foot soldiers." He said with a sigh.
"They cannot force us to participate." His wife said.
"Oh, they can." He said. "They're, after all, protecting us from the horrors of beyond the wall, and the least we can do is help in the war."
"The food's ready!" She shouted and placed the steaming pot on the table.
From the living room, their two daughters ran in and took their seats by the table.
All of them said their evening prayer, thanking God for the delicious meal they were about to enjoy.
After doing so, they eagerly served themselves large portions of the hot, comforting stew. Thum-
Then, some strange sound came from under the floor.
Only the eldest daughter heard it.
"Did you hear that?" She looked around in confusion.
"Hear what?" Her father didn't hear a single thing.
While others were confused, the floor by the table cracked as if someone was hitting it below the ground, and then it broke apart.
The tablesitters stood up and retreated to the corner of the small kitchen.
From the hole, a hand started to reach out, grasping at the air.
After pulling himself up from the hole, the man looked around with a yellowish grin.
Seeing the scary man, the father of the family rushed to the door to shout for help. They were close enough to the Mercenary Street for someone to hear his shouts of plead.
However, the scary-looking man grabbed him by the head and smashed his face into the floorboard.
"Father!"
"Oy, oy, don't you dare to do anything that you'll regret." Timothy, the scary-looking man, said with a grin. "Sit still, like a little good Original, and nothing will happen to your pretty daughters, alright?"
Hearing his words, the father of the family paled, nodded through pain, and then was thrown to the same corner where the rest of the family was.
Through the hole, three more figures emerged, their eyes glowing with malice.
As the last person coming from the hole, Victor Vash looked around the place with a cold, calculative gaze.
"Tie them and clog their mouths." Victor commanded and walked over to the window, peeking at the streets through the slight gap in the curtain.
Timothy, and the two others tied the family to their respected chairs and clogged their mouths with cloth.
Their eyes welled with tears.
"Your daughter sure is pretty, mister runner." Ishaan pinched the cheek of the eldest daughter and licked his lips.
"Mmh!" Through a clogged mouth, the father of the family screamed and tried to push the man away from his daughter.
"Hmph." Ishaan just smirked and joined Victor by the window, for now leaving them alone. "What's the plan?"
Victor narrowed his eyes and said, "We need a map. Search this place. I would rather know where I am heading before going anywhere."
"Mmh!" The father screamed to him, clearly recognizing him as the leader of these thug- looking people.
Victor walked over to him and removed the cloth from his mouth.
"What?"
"Just tell me what you want, and we'll give you it!" He said urgently.
"Y'know where Crimson Hounds are located at?" Victor asked.
"They're... um, in Mercenary Street."
"More detailed, please." Victor said, his tone becoming more forceful.
"There are like a hundred guilds; I can't remember every one of them." The father sighed.
Victor stuffed the cloth back into his mouth and said to him. "If you plan on being useless one more time, I'll rip your windpipe out."
"Fuck!" Aarush kicked one of the drawers shut. "There's not a single fucking map!"
"Nothing here." Timothy said while going through the living room's stuff.
"Found nothing in their room." Ishaan said, but twirled an underwear around his finger. "Except this one~"
"We'll have to visit the map store, then." Victor said. "Any volunteers?"
Not a single one of them spoke a word.
"Ishaan," Victor said.
"Why me?" Ishaan grimaced.
"Because you are the youngest." Timothy made a mess out of his hair. "And the least intimidating-looking."
While Ishaan was not pretty by any means, he didn't have tattoos and piercings like the other
three.
"Fine!" Ishaan clicked his tongue and pointed at the eldest daughter. "However, I better have one turn with her because of the hard work I am putting in!"
She paled like a ghost after seeing him point at her and felt like biting her tongue to escape
that fate.
"Change your clothes." Victor said. "Take some from his wardrobe."
"You better have some good clothes, bitch." Ishaan slapped the father of the family in the head and headed to his room to find some spare clothes.
Victor then asked from the father of the family where the nearest map store was-this time,
he knew the location.
A short while later, Ishaan had changed his clothes-now wearing a worn tunic with white trousers and black boots with long laces.
"How do I look?" He asked with a mischievous grin.
"Slightly less uglier than normal." Timothy grinned. "Don't do any stupid shit out there,
alright?"
Victor then whispered the location of the map store to him.
Ishaan yawned, opened the door, and saluted Victor before stepping out into the street.
Victor closed the door with a slam.
He didn't want to risk any bystander suddenly catching a glimpse of the tied-up family, so he
just closed the door as soon as possible.
When Ishaan just stayed on the doorway, saluting, he felt like just pushing him out and
closing the door.
"So reckless..." Victor clicked his tongue.
...
Through the busy streets, Ishaan walked with his hands buried in his pockets, acting like a
common thug with his legs spread apart and posture proud.
While he was dressed in ordinary clothes, his walking style was something that stood out
among the other pedestrians.
'The map store wasn't far...'
After a moment of looking around, he found the map store tucked away in a small corner of
the street.
The entrance was currently blocked by a thin-haired man, who was talking with his friends and playing some chess by the table.
As Ishaan was about to push past him, the thin-haired man stopped him and said.
"Where're you going, boy?"
"Inside the store." Ishaan said with a grin. "You stupid or what?"
"Excuse me?" The thin-haired man's eyes turned cold, and his friends stood up as well,
surrounding him with their superior numbers.
"You heard me." Ishaan grinned.
"You still have a chance to walk away, scarless." The thin-haired man said coldly. "Or you'll
leave here with a permanent reminder of your stupidity."
"Oh, scarless?" Ishaan pulled up his shirt and revealed a network of scars crisscrossing his
torso. "I ain't someone without any scars."
"Those scars..." The thin-haired man's eyes shrank. "So ugly..."
They knew that to receive those scars, the man before them had done some hideous deeds in
his past. "Hahaha..." Ishaan stabbed his finger through the thin-haired man's neck. "This piggy goes
to the market!"
SPURT!