Chapter 152: City Watch (2/2)

However, the one leading them wasn’t the city watch captain who was fully-armored as usual, but an adolescent who was dressed in flamboyant dyes and had an arrogant air to him. He was clearly a noble whom the captain of the city watch submits to.

The young noble then drew out a wanted poster and showed it to the children, and the portrait unsurprisingly showed Mufasa.

“Have you kids seen this person recently?”

The trio did not hesitate to shake their heads.

“Tch. Are you sure this acquaintance of Marni Wilf often met these three brats?” The young noble asked, turning to the captain.

“Yes. That’s what our contacts told us.” The captain answered respectfully.

The young noble clicked his tongue in irritation, but when he was about to leave with the soldiers, he inadvertently noticed the cauldron hanging over the children’s bonfire—it used to be a helm, and it was one rarely seen around these parts.

Smiling sinisterly, the young noble paused and conveyed his orders to the captain. “Take those brats away! Have someone stay here too, so that the fellow would know to come find them at the city watch’s base.”

“Would he offer himself for these brats?” The captain asked puzzledly.

“No idea. But they are nothing more than dirty peasants, so it won’t matter if they die.” The young noble thought nothing of it. “What matters is that we get him, and torture him for Marni Wilf’s weakness… That merchant has a fat stock of resources that the people in the city have their eye on! The earlier we get him, the better!”

Hence, the city watchmen who never flinched from bullying townsfolk charged forward menacingly at once with their orders, capturing the three children and even awarding Simba a punch for his struggling, leaving him battered and bruised.

For some reason, the young noble felt great annoyed that the brat was glaring at him fiercely and unyieldingly despite being wounded.

“Two hostages are enough!” He then pointed at Simba. “We’ll get rid of this one right here so that that fellow would know that we’re being serious! Let me think… right, cut off his head and hang it over the door!”

The soldier who had been pressing a hand over Simba’s head did not hesitate to draw his sword.

“Wait!”

That was when Mufasa leapt off the roof.

***

Mufasa had felt ill at ease from the very start, which was why he returned to check on the children.

He certainly did not expect to see something so infuriating like this.

Mufasa could not help feeling fearful after the fact too, because Simba would have died for no reason if he had been late.

“Aha! What did I say?!” The young noble looked delighted as if he had hooked a big fish.

“You are wise, my lord.” The heavy-armored captain beside him licked his boots immediately.

Mufasa stared at the two of them in bemusement. “Why would you do this? Aren’t they citizens of Lancaster? Or is the purpose of the city watch not to protect her citizens?”

“Citizens? You are wrong there. Only those who pay their due taxes every month are citizens, while these are nothing more than sewer rats, scum of the city barely surviving on scraps.”

The young noble never faltered in his words and then pointed at Mufasa. “But all of that has nothing to do with you now. Guards, take him!”