Chapter 38 - The Barrel (1/2)
Before opening the lid of the barrel, Luke looked at the skinny boy next to him, Diggo, and held out a coin bag with one hundred and fifty silver coins.
Diggo opened both hands, and the half-wolf let go of the bag. Tlinc! The coins made a noise as they landed in the boy's palms.
”Thank you very much!” The brat said, excitedly.
”M-much thanks!” The other kids thanked him too, except for the short, dark-haired girl, who still had her arms in front of her belly.
Luke ignored her and turned his attention to the barrel in front of him, whose smell of blood was quite faint. He took the wooden lid and opened the barrel, inside there was watery blood and the smell became a little more uncomfortable.
A few red limbs were floating on the blood-soaked water. Without difficulty, Nathalia recognized the limbs like those of an ordinary Kobold from floor one. Among claws, feet, and hands, the small lizard head was the item that caught her eye the most.
With dragon-like scales with an elongated snout, it was noticeable that the mouth was tied by an already worn rope.
”Stand back.” Ordered Luke to the children. ”You too, miss.” The children and Nathalia promptly stepped back a little but were still looking curiously at the barrel.
The half-wolf, without even feeling fear, stuck his hand into the bloody water and picked up the kobold's head. When he lifted it out of the barrel, the head still pigging a bit, the children moved a little further away, muttering things like:
”Urghh...”
”Ah, gross.”
Luke began to unwind the rope that wrapped around the monster's snout. Since it was already quite weak, it snapped with minimal force. As soon as the half-wolf opened the kobold's mouth, huge teeth revealed themselves and, between them, another wet scroll.
Looking into the elf's eyes, Luke handed her the parchment, then looked at the children and asked:
”Did any of you see who left this barrel here?”
Everyone in the group denied with their heads, however, the same girl from before stepped forward.
”Yesterday, w-when I was walking back to my house, a b-big man passed by me. He was holding a k-keg over his shoulder and also whistling excitedly, with a smile on his face. A-at the time, I thought he was j-just a delivery man, but then Diggo opened the barrel today and found all this blood.” The girl explained.
Diggo stepped forward as well. ”Since we didn't want to get in trouble, we just closed the barrel and stayed to play soccer as usual.”
”Okay kids, now can you excuse us? This area is dangerous, stay away for a few weeks.” Nathalia said and tossed a gold coin into the air.
A chubbier boy caught up and ran off down the path that led to Cat's Eyes. The other children, frantic, started running after him as they shouted:
”Give me that, Beto!”
”Hey, she gave the coin to all of us!”
”I'm not giving it away ever, this here will change my life.”
At the same time, Luke looked indignantly at Elfa. 'Did those kids just earn the same thing I earn a month?' he thought.
Nathalia noticed his look and opened the scroll, to disguise her embarrassment. However, after so many open scrolls, that one should have remained closed forever. When unrolled, the paper flew out of the Elf's hand.