Traitor of Humanity

Seth felt that something was off. If it was true that his father drank that poison, and the effect had struck, then why was there no investigation?

Being poisoned in his own home, Merab Zefer should have gone mad. He should have begun a wild search through the mansion for the person who managed to pour poison into his drinking water. It would not have surprised Seth if he had killed off a few maids or even all the servants in the mansion. That is, unless the poison had no effect.

Seth shook his head. That is highly unlikely. After he made that poison, he had found a mouse to use as a test subject, and gave it a single drop. The mouse shrieked, grabbed at its groin area, fell over on one side, and would not stop twitching. The poison had worked perfectly.

So, unless Seth was wrong about his father's cultivation level being at only the mortal stages, that poison should have worked on him as well.

The fact that there was no investigation must have been due to some other reason.

Besides, it was a fact that his father hasn't visited his mother even once this past month. The only change that happened in his father was that he seems gentler than before, but Seth could not tell whether that was just an act to gain his favor, or a change in personality due to a loss of masculinity.

Thus, Seth decided to take a wait and see approach. If his father turns out to have been unaffected, he will only have to make a stronger poison later on to feed to the man.

At this point, it was less a matter of helping his mother, but more a matter of his pride as a poison maker.

On the other hand, Seth's progress with Nala has been proceeding on at a steadily increasing pace ever since he made her his wife, or more accurately speaking, his fiance. With how these two kids have been holding hands while walking around the mansion lately, all the servants and soldiers have received the hint, and began to treat the little girlfriend of the next Zefer family head, with much more respect than before.

Their relationship had gotten so good that Seth was even able to invite the girl to stay at his bedroom overnight. Of course, at their age, they weren't able to do anything overly intimate. They would just play together some more, and then fall asleep after getting tired.

The one who was happiest about this was not Seth, who was finally able feel a girl's warmth again after nearly an entire decade. Nor was it the bashful Nala, who Seth would treat as a hugging pillow. It was actually the blue striped kitty, Gelard, who was finally freed from pillow duty.

Gelard thought as he rubbed his chest and belly. "Kitty's stomach is so very soft. Kitty's fur is also very comfy. But kitty does not like being the stupid master's head pillow. Kitty wants the freedom to sleep without feeling a pressure on his stomach. Kitty also does not like knowing that the stupid master will tie up kitty's arms and legs if kitty moves during his sleep."

…

Today, Seth took Nala out to the city square of Haradur City for a date.

Of course, considering what happened last time, when Seth had managed to ditch his guards out in the city, this time, twice the number of guards was assigned to watch over him at all times. After their failure the last time, these guards would be much more careful to not let Seth out of their sights. The constantly overlooking eyes made the two kids' date not exactly as carefree as can be.

The center of Haradur City is a place not owned by any of the 3 great families.

The reason why that is, isn't something like, out of mercy, the 3 great families decided to leave a place for the public to run themselves, but because of the various travelers and tourists that visit the city. More often that not, those travelers and tourists would enter through one side of the city, stay a night or a few, at an inn in the center of the city, and then leave through another side. Such people are not always weaklings that the 3 families can pick on.

Unforgiving mortality and heroic bearings are only the first two cultivation stage, the so-called mortal stages. Above those, are the immortal stages, and it is said that above the immortal stages, there are even more.

For the 3 great families in Haradur city, whom only have cultivators in the mortal stages, they cannot casually provoke anyone in the higher stages. Although it is rare, such people do pass by this city. If they are merciful, provoking them would just cost some compensation. If they are not, then a family wipe-out is not an impossibility. In fact, such a thing has already happened twice during the history of Haradur City.

Thus, the 3 great families would generally be more careful at the city square, and not try to flaunt their influence. Although, that is only them being more careful, and not them staying away from there.

Still, this has caused the city square to be the place where the common people of Haradur City can prosper the most, a free market where they don't have to obey every order of any big families.

"My wallet!" "My wristwatch!" "My sarcophagus!" "My truckle of cheese!"

Various screams like these can be heard throughout the city square. People kept having items stolen from them all over the place. Yet, no one has managed to catch even a glimpse of the culprit. Some people even got into fights with the people that they thought stole their items.

Over at a park, sitting on a bench, two children, a boy and a girl, were sharing an vanilla ice cream cone.

Suddenly, a blue striped kitty, walking on its two hind-legs, sauntered over to them, walking past the guards and arriving at their feet.

"Kitty finished his mission. Kitty got the gold." Gelard said as he offered up his booty. Bits of what appeared to be cheddar littered the corners of his mouth.

"Oh. Good job. Give me the wallets for now. The other stuff we'll cash in later. Here, want a ice cream?"

Looking up at Seth, Gelard's eyes widened. "Kitty steals lots of money for the stupid master. Yet kitty only gets a single ice cream with human slobber on it?"

"You don't want it?" Seth asked, as he lightly waved around the ice cream cone.

"Give it to kitty." Gelard received the ice cream with both paws and began licking it with his little kitty tongue.

The nearby guards, whom were watching over Seth carefully, were shocked as they saw an ice cream cone float in midair, being slurped away by "something" before their very eyes. They rubbed their eyes, thinking they might have been imagining things. When they came back to reality and still saw the same scene, they could only conclude with chilled hearts, that young master Seth is being haunted by an invisible ghost.

Nala however, despite currently being unable to see Gelard just like the guards, did not seem all that shocked by such a scene.

"Nala, some money just came in. Is there anything you want to buy?"

A question mark seemed to appear above Nala's head. "Where did the money come from?" The way that Seth had phrased it, it did not sound like the money came from their father.

"They were gifts from some very kind people." In his mind, Seth thanked those very kind (rich) people for coming into town. Otherwise, the mission he had sent Gelard on, would not have brought back any harvest. He had no interest in robbing poor people after all.

"...Then, I want to buy clothes!" Nala exclaimed. Although she was slightly suspicious, no one had ever taught her to worry about where money came from. She only knew that money was useful for getting many things. All the money that she and her mother ever had access to came from her mother's side of the family, and that wasn't much. Now that Seth is saying that he'll buy her things, she was naturally happy. If possible, she wanted to replace that closet full of hand-me-downs with a fresh set of new clothes.

…

Turning time back a little bit, back to this morning, some time after Seth had set out from the Zefer Mansion, an anonymous letter had arrived at the Bilin family. Due to the importance of letter's content, it made it all the way to the head of the Bilin family, their old master, Rook Bilin.

From his facial features, Rook Bilin looked to be just like any other old man that you can find sitting on a park's bench, feeding bread crumbs to the pigeons. His hair was gray, and he had lots of wrinkles. But despite his old age, the muscles of his body did not appear any bit inferior to the younger Merab Zefer's.

In an aged voice, he asked the man before him. "Klark, what do you make of this letter?"

The man named Klark, is the second son of the old master of the Bilin family. In terms of martial arts, not only could not he compare to his elder brother Throm, but he could not even compare to his younger brothers.

Martial arts is an activity that requires accurate coordination of the body. Not every person has such a talent, and unfortunately, Klark was one of those "not every persons". Even his eyes are not very good, requiring him to wear glasses since a young age.

Luckily, Klark had a different talent.

Out of all of Rook's sons, Klark had the best brains for business, and was thus, told to focus on that. Almost all of the Bilin family's businesses were left to Klark to run. As he is too weak, Rook also does not need to worry about him starting a mutiny once the position of family head is passed onto Throm. He was sure that Klark would continue being a valuable support for the family.

What Klark would say that would prove him to be right.

"The Amnon family is trying to make us do their dirty work." Klark declared, completely sure of himself.

Rook nodded.

The letter's contents were as such:

'Seth Zefer has left the mansion at 10:00 AM today. He has headed towards the city square with 8 guards at the peak of the unforgiving mortality stage.'

"This is obviously a follow-up to the previous letter that was also sent in anonymity, the one telling us that the 11 year old third son of Merab Zefer's has broken through to the heroic bearings stage." When Klark had received that letter, he did not believe it. It should not have been possible for a child so young to reach such a stage in a mere mortal city like Haradur city. If a child of the Zefer family was able to do so, then he would be a great threat to their Bilin family, a threat that they should not allow any chance to mature.

Thus, Klark sent some people out undercover, to secretly bribe a few of the servants at the Zefer family mansion for information. What he learned was shocking. Although he did not confirm for a fact that Seth had managed to break through to the heroic bearings stage, he did learn that the eldest son of the Zefer family, Fabin Zefer, who was extremely close to the peak of the unforgiving mortality stage, was personally killed by the 11 year old Seth.

This raised his suspicions.

Did Seth somehow mount a sneak attack on Fabin to kill him? Did he poison him to weaken him first and then kill him? Or did he coerce some soldiers into working together to kill him?

But if it was any of those cowardly methods, then surely that Merab Zefer would not forgive him.

Thus, Klark concluded there must have been some truth to what was in the letter. At the very least, Seth should have reach the peak of the unforgiving mortality stage, which would still make him enough of a threat to warrant that they move to kill him before he matures.

Also, when Klark found out that Fabin Zefer was killed, he was sure that the sender of the letter was either Fabin's mother, Kesha Amnon, or someone else from the Amnon family. For better or worse, it seems that their Bilin family has yet to grow into a big enough threat to prevent the Amnon family from scheming against their ally, the Zefer family.

It is just too bad that these letters cannot be used to expose the Amnon family's traitorous ways, and to make their alliance with the Zefer family break down, since they do not have any concrete proof that the Amnon family, and not just some random spy, was the ones who wrote these letters to them.

"So what should we do?" The old master of the Bilin family casually asked.

While thinking that it would be better to test the next family head of the Bilin family rather than him... or perhaps it is only because that next family head is currently lying in bed due to injuries, that the old master is bored enough to ask him instead...

Klark answered. "While it is displeasing to be used by the Amnon family, I do think it is better that we dispose of this threat ourselves. Although it is possible that if we wait long enough, the Amnon family may lose their patience first. Due to how they at least have to keep up the appearance of being the Zefer family's ally, they would not want to openly attack Seth, who Merab Zefer has already declared to be his successor. If they hesitate long enough for the kid to grow to the point where he can escape our grasps, then we will be the ones regretting it the most."

"Then who should we send?"

"About that..." A sly glint momentarily appeared behind the glasses of Klark Bilin. "I think we should get our own helpers to do the work. If they succeed, then that will be good. But if they fail and some of them die, then although their boss will get angry with us, we might be able to get them to help us accelerate our plan to wipe out the Zefer family, and in turn, the Amnon family, by several years."

…