It felt strange, annoyingly ticklish.

‘Knowing that it’s a meaningless statement…….’

“That’s right, you’re eating well.”

“……. ”

“Good girl.”

Riley, without any reply, accepted all the gruel he fed her.

It was just poorly seasoned gruel, but strangely, it tasted good.

(This is a time separator.)

After the medicine took effect and Riley fell back asleep, Gibnen rose from his seat.

He called Salk telepathically.

Scarcely had Salk’s words ended when Gibnen opened the portal and moved through.

The place he arrived at was a dense forest. The forest, with only lush trees growing, had no signs of human passage, not even a path.

“Five in total, is this all?”

“Yes.”

Gibnen looked at the five soldiers tied to the trees.

Perhaps because of the aftermath of the magic he had cast yesterday, they were bloodied and couldn’t even hold their bodies properly. However, unlike their bodies, their mouths moved freely.

“Sa, save us, we were wrong.”

“Please just once…… my wife and children are waiting. Show us mercy just once.”

“We, we just did what we were told. Please……. ”

Gibnen sneered as if it was laughable, squatted down and looked them in the eyes.

“You vermin who make money off people’s lives talk about family, and say you just did what you were told, so spare us?”

“……. ”

“Anyone would think this was a job you were forced into. Choosing this job was your free will, wasn’t it?”

These guys were always like this.

How many of the countless ones pleading for their lives had they spared?

If these rascals, who earn money by accepting orders to kill people, ignored that desperate cry for mercy and let them go, they wouldn’t have done this in the first place.

Gibnen recalled the way they had groped at Riley’s body, and soon grabbed one of them by the throat.

“You should think of it as bad luck.”

“Gurk!”

“It’s a phrase you guys use often.”

He had to face all kinds of assassins since he was a child.

The vivid image of his mother who died protecting him during his naive childhood still remained. These were trash not worth sparing.

If spared, would they quit this job? No, they would take the lives of others and make money again.
And anyway, keeping these scoundrels alive here, Count Ermaintz would kill them to destroy the evidence.

“Even if it’s not me, you will die to that old man.”

“I, I will testify! We can do it, we will confess. Everything…….”

“No, it’s not necessary. That mere testimony means nothing.”

Originally, calling the reporters through Salk, and summoning the knights was not for securing witnesses, in other words, for securing evidence. It was merely a sort of show.

Even if this incident is brought to the surface and taken to court, it will be buried, and even if it’s not buried, it’s obvious that proper punishment won’t be carried out, so what does their testimony matter?

The purpose is a deal, not legal punishment.

“I don’t like to dirty my hands directly.”

“…….”

“What can be done?”

Gibnen reached out his hands towards them. A light stretched out from his hand, enveloping them, and they instantly withered and turned to ash, scattered by the wind.

Literally, not a trace remained.

Gibnen brushed off his hands and got up.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Master.”

Salk followed calmly behind him, as if he had seen nothing.