Chapter 19: Krella

"My Son!" The man screamed the moment the face of the person in the bag became visible.

Struggling to break free from the people who held him down only to fail.

"So we also have a killer in our midst," Hozar the Lieutenant shouted at the top of his lungs, looking around with such an intense look on his face that no one dared to look at him.

The villagers lowered their heads and did their best to stay as quiet as they could.

Klaton and Mino weren't the exception as they distanced themselves from Hozar the most.

"Are you good?" Klaton asked Mino for the second time since they got to the village.

He had noticed how weird Mino was acting but the more time ticked by, the more glaring it became.

"You're acting weird!" Klaton opened his mouth to say even as he stood still by the carriage, where only a few of the Reds remained.

"I'm fine Klaton, I'll be even better if you stop asking!" Mini snapped back in a tone that Klaton would have never expected to hear.

It was so strange and worrisome that Klaton couldn't think of anything else as he watched Mino distance himself from him.

'What's wrong with him?' Klaton wondered, unable to follow Mino and ask considering the tension that was going on around them.

Klaton turned and glanced at the carriage where the human woman had been kept, only to turn away the very next second.

'They'll find out that she's human. Trying to help would only end up with us getting caught,' Klaton thought to himself, knowing that the best thing for her would be for her identity to be discovered.

"I don't care about the dead body! I'm looking for a couple of humans and I heard that they came to this village!" Hozar asked the medals on his dark jacket he wore glinting in the sun as he continued to speak.

His voice was deep and loud enough to bore right into everyone's ears.

"Now, I was sent by the king but I'm a good and just man! I'll leave everyone alone if you point out the humans to me!" Hozar continued with a small smile on his face, one that was too cold to be sincere.

"Otherwise, everyone here will bleed!"

But he was barely done speaking when the villagers began to speak one after the other, and over each other.

"Humans! We've never seen a human in our life. We buy the blood and drink only from Santors or Hornels," the leader of the Village instantly spoke amidst the loud murmuring going on around him.

"Humans! Where could we possibly find them."

"They are immediately sold off to the highest bidder. We can't even pay to get into the slave tower even if we wanted to!"

"SHUT UP!" Hozar snapped, his voice thundering at such a high pitch, high enough to put fear in everyone's hearts, including that of his men.

High-ranking Reds were unlike normal citizens since they had a bit of Royal blood flowing through their veins.

They didn't have additional abilities like the royals but they were stronger, faster, and had significant control over the lesser and weaker Reds.

"I repeat for the last time! Humans came here and I'll let you go if you bring them out!"

Jarra, the head of the Village shivered in fear from head to toe, as he slowly understood what the lieutenant in front of him was trying to say.

He didn't care about what they said or whether or not humans were in the village, if they couldn't bring at least one out, he would make them regret it.

"I-I can ask the villagers to make sure," Jarra slowly responded, too scared to deny the accusation again, knowing that as the village head his head would be the first to leave his shoulders.

"No, I'll do it myself!" Hozar replied, stretching out his hand towards his sword-bearer who instantly pulled the sword in his hand out of his scabbard, the shining gold handle enough to have everyone scattering back.

Hozar had barely clenched the sword in his hand when he went flying appearing right beside the village chief, with a bloody sword in his hand.

Even Klaton who stood some feet away was a little shocked by how fast Hozar had been, fast enough for his eyes to almost miss it.

Unlike Klaton, no one else saw Hozar move, up until Jarra's head fell to the ground with a light thump.

Blood sprayed in all directions, as Hozar stepped aside to avoid it, his sword the only thing that was colored red.

"I'm kind so I'll ask again!" Hozar began to speak in a much softer manner but he had only begun to speak when the villagers around him began to speak.

"A-ahh— someone appeared in the village last week, she looked a lot like a human," Mallo, one of the elders, began to speak.

"Yes-yes, a halfling Santor. She looked a lot like a human though. The more I think of it, the more convinced I am that she is," another opened his mouth to speak.

"Yes, a young woman! How could we have forgotten? She stayed in Krella's house right?"

None of them were sure that the woman they saw was a human but at that point, none of them cared.

After looking around and seeing no signs of her, the villagers were unanimous in their decision that the woman they had seen was a human and not a halfling Santor as they thought.

Rye understood what was going on and it was clear that although she had been forgotten, her identity was about to be exposed.

Still, regardless of the situation, Rye couldn't bring herself to willingly step out and declare herself to be human even to save the villagers.

'He might have killed the village chiefs but that was only to make them talk. There is no way he would hurt the Citizens of his kingdom,'

But the words had barely flashed through Rye's mind when she realized how wrong she was to think such a thought.

"Krella! Who is Krella?" Hozar asked, having heard the name being mentioned more than once.

Krella's eyes were filled with tears. She had tried to keep her two sons from running their mouths but her youngest had a foolish expression on his face, one that terrified her.

It would have been a different case if the servant in question was in their midst but Misha had just informed her that Shiya was nowhere to be found when the Lieutenant and his men appeared.

"I'm Krella!" Krella hurriedly said, falling to her knees right after she spoke, prepared to put all the blame on her head when she heard Jaius, one of her sons, start to speak.

He had barely begun when she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.