61 The Truth 3 - The Hidden Goal (1/2)

Early one when Stigma and Felix had left the scene, from where the guards tied. A branch from the tree above started changing its shape to that of a man. The man stood on top of a branch where the guards were tied, he was dressed in a black cloaked.

Strapped to his back was a wooden box which appeared similar to a casket, red seals and chains were wrapped around it but other than having a wooden frame. Nothing else stood out, except that each time the man moved his hand, the contents inside started to shake and chather as if something inside was alive.

Its overall height was about the man's height, nearing five feet. But he didn't show obvious discomfort in carrying a heavy luggage as he made a few strolls on the branch to look at the scene with a calm expression.

On his face he wore a painted mask that looked like a red faced monkey similar to what can be found in festivals. Unlike the three mask from Stigma's employers, which had no visible feature other than being black face mask that covered their upper face, this mask was meant to be disposed of after use as it covered his whole face.

”Some rats have gotten themselves involved with our plans...” After watching Stigma and Felix leave a few more meters, the man gave a soft whisper, unless one was standing right near his face, no one can hear what he can say clearly. But instead of a voice responding, the surrounding forest gave a groups reply similiar to that of an echo.

”Shall we dispose of them? Or should we ignore them and continue with the plan?” The way thevoices spoke in unison, was pleasing to the ears but made it appear as though the forest was alive. The man was aware who were the one speaking and didn't bother to survey his surrounding.

”.....Keep an eye on them. Nothing has been discovered yet by the guards, but those two on the other hand are completely different, and cannot be easily fooled or manipulated. Just to be sure, I will handle the guards here, they want the merchants to take notice, but all they will find only dead ends. Continue as planned without any delay...”

”Understood.” As if on cue, a strong gust of wind brushed past the area and carried blades of grass and leaves, along with the sound of branches being brushed past them.

After the area became quite and the wind faded away, the masked man looked at the guards and made a swift hand gesture, moments later the sound of a chattering came behind him where the boxed opened by itself.

As the chattering continued a figure stepped out from the box and walked beside the man. It's height was no more than four feet and had four arms with a different tool and one of them was a hook.

Without saying a word, the masked man eyed one of the guards and made a swiping gesture, the figure beside him made chattering noises and followed the action. The arm its swing was equipped with the hook landing on the nearest guard's neck.

The wound wasn't deep nor did it hit any arteries, but blood that was escaping was alarming and was pulled away. The hook on the guards neck was ripped out in one solid movement, leaving the hanging guard to struggle as he flails around from the unfamiliar pain and the feeling of blood flowing down his neck.

With their eyes blindfolded and their ears were covered with a wet cloth, they had no idea who was the perpetrator.

The wound wasn't life threatening and only tore a piece of flesh, but it was enough to believe that the guard's life was being aimed at. Using the same hook, the man did the same thing and attacked the other guards, with similar slash marks the one guard, it will lead to believe that the guards lives will be aimed next as a warning.

He didn't plan to kill the guards, as he had plan to use then in his plan. With a look of indifference, the man recalled the being inside his box using a few hand gestures, then walked away from the scene.

Suddenly he recalled something ,when he saw Stigma leave the cave carrying something.

'...So that is where it was hiding.'

***

When Stigma came back to then tent sought out his employers, he wanted to have a chat with them and see if they had something to do with the missing people, or had a rough idea who would use a similar method of killing.

Now Stigma was sitting cross legged on the opposite couch, with his left hand supporting his face hand and the other was petting a sleeping Kirin on his leg. If other looked at this situation, they would assume Stigma was a young master scolding his subordinates who were slacking of.

Before him were three people, two were siblings a younger brother and the older sister, along with a short woman who they kept in calling their leader.

While the little brother, with his pants on, had his face down the entire time sitting at the right, the little woman was still wearing a bathrobe with laughing expression on the center and the elder sister was trying to comfort her brother will trying not to laugh from the left.

Stigma's face showed indifferent, since he told the little brother to prove that he really loved women, he wasn't surprise to see him and the captain do the deed. Kirin didn't seem to care what was happening and fell asleep in Stigma's lap, while Hilda remained silent from when Felix found him.

He however had not expected them to their business in a where he was suppose to sleep, the smell of something familiar circled the room, so he assumed that it took them a while to finish their 'wrestling'.

Previously, with the little brother pants were on the floor with a big stain on it, his sister having a red face with a wet ragwiping the table, then the boss lady walk out the bathroom in a bathrobe. What else would Stigma expect.

When Stigma gave his comment and pointed out what he was seeing, a familiar scene of what happened last night continued. The little brother showing a face of being wronged, while the female members were trying to suppress their laughter.

So they gave their side of the story and Stigma gave his take too understand.

”So let me get this straight, when the little brother came back from outside from his stroll, he found the elder sister had made a bowl of hot soup for them mixed with a lot of dried squid and potato. Halfway through the cooking she made a mistake in mixing the spice powder, because it was a waste to dispose of it, she still ate it anyway. What she mixed in however was chilli powder and the amount was about a cup full, so her face turned red from eating the spicy soup for over an hour.”

”The leader however was the type to take very long baths that usually take about two to three hours, she didn't know what was happening outside and assumed it was nothing but rough housing. Unable to watch her eat through the entire spicy bowl of soup, the little brother tried to take it away from her but struggled and had splashed the whole soup on his pants. With the hot and spicy soup on his nether regions, the little brother took of his pants out of desperation and gave a panting expression trying to air out the heat and tingling sensation, and the sister whipped out the remaining soup on the table and was about to be finished, then I entered the same time the lady boss got out of the bath. Is that right?”

Removing the towel on her head, the leader gave a path down on her hair and nodded her head with a grinning expression. This entire time these three had not let their guards down and still wore their black mask, if Stigma didn't knew any better, they were doing everything incognito until they left the market.

”Yup, about sums it up! This man here won't last a round with me in a fight, so you can't expect him to keep up if I wanted to ;wrestle' him in bed. But I have to admit, you made a good joke from the timing there, do you have a natural talent in making dirty jokes.”

”...Please don't make me earn a painful skill such as that.” With his face still bowing down, the little brother covered his face to cover his shame. Plus, he had no intention on becoming an expert of dirty jokes but a powerful figure where no one can can control him.

Looking around he could still see Dusk on standby, if he wasn't wrong Dusk can't stay invisible for long and had to change back to be visible for a few seconds. Surprisingly, none of the three were complaining about an invisible being inside the tent, so Stigma didn't ask for secrecy sake.

When he gave the mental order from before, it only shacked its head from side to side, indicating that none had tried to take his possessions . He then told it to stand behind him and wait for further orders.

”So did you meet your friend? And what is that cute thing on you lap.” After a while, the elder sisters face had returned to her natural color, and she ate a piece of fruit instead.

”This one is Kirin my familiar, he was the one I talked about last night. As you can see its injured so please don't bother it to play for a while.” Lifting Kirin from his legs, Stigma faced Kirin in front of them to see a reaction. Even if they were lying and were the actual perpetrators, Kirin would react to them not just by sight but from smell as well.

So far, Kirin didn't react violently and only yawned at them, causing the elder sister to react with delight as her chest swayed side to side, making the leader glare at her chest. The little brother looked for a moment but bowed down again with the look of defeat.

Having a familiar wasn't rare for them, but having a young familiar is considered lucky and many female cultivators always wanted a cute familiar like Kirin as a pet.

”I can see it was injured, so why did you bring your familiar here, I can see you put on a special tool to let it enter the market, but you have to understand in bringing it in a slave market. Bringing a familiar is not actually a good thing since it only make it easier to take it away.”

The leader tried to get closer and tried to pet it but Stigma pulled Kirin away and stood up.

”How!!?!?” After hearing those words, Stigma responded with a shout and raging expression, slamming his foot on the table and causing Kirin to wake up and whimper at him to calm down.

'If that was the reason as to why Kirin was targeted, then I would hunt down the bastard and treat him like an animal! No one harms my friend and get away with it.'

The three however were not fazed from Stigma's reaction and the elder sister volunteered to explain. Although Stigma only gave his name yesterday, they had a rough idea what Stigma's personality based on the market observation and interacting with him, he was a precocious child and wasn't the type who would hurt people unless provoked.

After coughing a few times, the sister began her explanation.

Having a contract beast is something enviable, but those in the top Tiers find it to be nothing special, being a newborn doesn't change the fact it is still weak. Those in the Mid Tiers would take a fancy, but they would find it more of a cute pet and store it within their collection, since they also have their own. The lower tiers and below would think they are easy money for selling, dead or alive.

Each time a newborn is found from a Cultivator, interested buyers would put up a bounty of an astronomical price that would temp any fool to step forwards. Since killing or capturing a full grown Heavenly Beast is suicidal on their level, they would risk their lives in capturing the newborns, which by itself is a high risk but with high return.

But if they capture and delivering a newborn unscratched, it is considered the highest paying profession in the market, in other words poaching. And for a rare beast, even they higher Tier Cultivators won't waste time and hunt them themselves.

But finding and capturing a stray was too difficult, so they choose another method in finding them, they just had to find and kill owners that have one and take them by force.