Chapter 51: The calm aftermath after killing someone (1/2)

Chapter 51: The calm aftermath after killing someone

This wasn’t the first time that Han Shuo had killed someone, but compared to killing forest trolls, the impact Han Shuo’s heart received from slaughtering Claude was exceedingly great.

After all, forest trolls were a different race from him, and were renowned robbers. Han Shuo killing them felt as natural as killing magical creatures, but Claude was completely different from them. Han Shuo had been forced to kill him because he knew within his heart that if Claude didn’t die, Han Shuo could put all thoughts of peacefully living his life in the future out of his mind.

Watching Claude weaken and sag into a pool of blood, Han Shuo felt a bit numb in that moment. There was an empty feeling in his heart, he hadn’t hesitated when he made his move, and it was only when he watched Claude die in front of him that a feeling of nervousness grew in Han Shuo.

Claude was a noble, and the youngest son of the commander of the Empire’s Gryphon Legion. If news of this matter leaked, only death awaited Han Shuo.

Gazing at Claude’s corpse, Han Shuo stared dumbly into space for a while. His originally slightly panicked expression became more and more resolute and harshly cold.

Finally, Han Shuo rearranged his clothes and stood up, walking up to Claude with a calm face and rummaging through his clothes. He poured out a few gold coins from his money bag, a crystal card, and some scattered medicine.

After thinking for a bit, Han Shuo only put away the gold coins. He set aside the potentially incriminating crystal card and Claude’s other belongings.

A little skeleton, wielding a bone knife, appeared in front of Han Shuo after his incantation had finished. Han Shuo searched out a desolate clearing as one man and one skeleton wielded bone knife and dagger spent a few minutes digging a deep hole. After burying Claude in the hole, Han Shuo carefully cleaned up the traces of blood that Claude had left behind. He even slowly covered up the traces in which he’d fallen down and rolled around.

Circling around the forest patch and confirming that no clues had been left behind, Han Shuo did not return along the original way. Rather, he made an additional circle and dug a deep hole to the north of Drol, burying all of Claude’s belongings. Finally, he returned to Drol using another street.

He did all this because he was careful and cautious. They hadn’t garnered anyone’s attention on the way to the forest with Claude earlier because Claude had intentionally done so.

Now that Han Shuo had killed him and carefully buried his body, logically speaking, no one should discover it. Even if someone unintentionally discovered Claude’s body, Han Shuo had taken all the belongings off the body, creating the impression of murder in the course of robbery. These things happened quite often in the town of Drol and should be able to conceal the original reason of death.

After Han Shuo had dealt with these loose ends, he concealed himself in the surroundings of the hotel of Irene and the others for the next two days, silently observing the movements of the light major students. He discovered that whether it was Irene or Beacher, none of them came looking for Claude. It looked like they thought that Claude had wronged them first and so left him alone.

Claude was certainly the one who understood his bodily condition the most. No matter how he tried to explain under those circumstances, it was more than likely that not many would believe his words, and judging from the timing in which Claude had come for him and his understanding of the psychedelic aphrodisiac, he more or less surmised that Claude had come looking for revenge as soon as he’d sobered up, and hadn’t had time to explain anything to Irene or Beacher.

After two days of observation, Han Shuo finally relaxed and let down his guard upon seeing that Irene and Beacher made no moves to look for Claude and only focused their attentions on spending money as they visited various weapons and armor vendors as well as pharmacists.

At dusk on this night, Han Shuo did not venture out again to keep an eye on Irene and Beacher, but instead stayed inside to quietly practice magic. He repeatedly expanded the width of his body’s meridians and improved their pliability.

Han Shuo was seated primly on the edge of his bed, completely naked, sweat pouring down his entire body, starting from his forehead. The tendons of his body jumped as they bulged out like endless numbers of worms moving through the surface of his body. It looked even more cringe worthy and scary than even the most evil tattoo.

During this entire process, a sudden tremor ran through Han Shuo’s mind as he sank into a senseless realm. For the moment, he forgot himself, forgot time, and was like a sculpture, without life. Only a faint hint of black splendor circulated beneath his skin.

Dondondon.

A sudden round of fierce knocking abruptly awakened Han Shuo. When Han Shuo came back to himself, he took stock of himself internally and understood that he must have unknowingly sunk into the demonic mental state just now.

Dondondon.

The knocking was still continuing and Han Shuo was a bit irritated that his training had been interrupted. He grabbed a random towel and wrapped it around himself, saying with irritation, “Coming. Coming!”

When the door was opened, Han Shuo received the shock of his life. The irritable expression on his face vanished without a trace as it immediately transformed into a smiling face. He said merrily, “Eh, it’s you guys. I’ve been waiting a long time for you. You’ve finally come back.”