A house that was being built had disappeared, torn down by an unknown someone.

The argument about the true culprit went on for a while, but because no one had any proof, it eventually came to an end without finding any answer.

Although he was surprised, Roo didn't care too much about it.

After all, it wasn't his house that was torn down, nor did he have a very good relationship with the family whose house was being built.

In other words, it just wasn't his problem.

Not just him, many sentient people, across most races, are like this. Unless something threatens themselves or their interest, they would not actively get themselves involved.

Roo proceeded with his daily routine.

Next day,

"It happened again!" Someone shouted, early in the morning.

"My house!" Another scream came soon after.

Roo walked out of his small 1 person house, walked in the direction of the voices and soon found Too again.

"What with the commotion?"

"Another house that was still being built was torn down last night." Too said, looking a bit amused. "This time, it happened in the opposite direction of the village."

"Ooo..." Roo thought for a moment. "No one saw the culprit again?"

Too shrugged. "No one sleeps in incomplete houses. The owners of the unfinished houses usually sleep in their friends'."

"No one heard anything either?"

"Some people heard something, but they thought it was the usual monster sounds at night. You know, this forest has a lot of monsters that only move around at night, though they never enter our village because they don't like the warding scents we toss around."

"...Well, since it's already happened twice. The village should be more vigilant next time, right?"

"Yeah, guess so. Did you have breakfast yet?"

The topic changed. They chatted a bit more and then separated.

The night of that day, the victims of the house theft and some of their friends patrolled the village and stood vigil, waiting to catch the thief.

But the thief didn't show up that night.

When morning came, the villagers thought that the thief had been scared into giving up and won't come back. They relaxed and went back to work.

The 4th night,

with no one standing guard, another house was torn down.

"OoOOOO~!" My house!" A ko-o knelt under the sun, crying and being comforted by his friend.

This time, it wasn't an incomplete house, but an already completed house of a stage 2 ko-o warrior, that was torn down while the guy was inside it.

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"How did that happen?" Asked Roo curiously.

Having gotten near the site earlier than him as usual, Too answered, "The poor guy was tied up, gagged, and blindfolded while he was asleep. He heard it all happen as the culprit tore down his house plank by plank, but he never caught a single glimpse of it happening."

Roo shivered as he imagined the scene and the helplessness of the victim at the time.

Too continued, "If his friend didn't notice him shivering in the wind this morning, he never would have gotten out of his binds."

Knowing that he also lived alone and could fall prey to the same operation, Roo silently made a decision, to cast a touch alarm magic tonight on his door and windows. Although said magic can only last a few hours at his level, it can at least give him some peace of mind.

News spread quickly in the village of only some hundred people.

This time, a lot more people grew worried.

It was at a time like this that someone grew noisy in the village square.

"Everyone, do not worry! I, your Prince, Solo, will handle this! I will protect your homes!"

Then, the prince went on to talk about how despicable the culprit is and how he will execute him after catching him.

Roo scoffed, seeing clearly that guy doesn't care for helping others.

Is he trying to gain people's favor to remain as a prince when the next king is chosen?

Roo knew that some races choose their ruler by something called majority vote, but ko-o society is not like that. He doubted that the prince, who like most ko-o, don't care to learn from other races, would try to copy them. Then what is he thinking...?

Unfortunately, not as many people were as suspicious as the village's only ko-o scholar.

Many who were worried cheered for prince Solo, showing the arrogant ko-o male their support.

"Ooo! Prince, we support you!"

"The prince is better than we thought, isn't he?"

"And he's also handsome."

"I can't believe there was a time I thought he was stupid."

Such voices came around, a part of the reason being that there are no other ko-os making declarations like this now that the former king is dead.

Roo lamented the stupidity of his people and walked away.

Tonight, another house was torn down.

Prince Solo did nothing to catch the culprit that night. He did not send people to patrol, nor did he have any guards watching the village.

Instead, noon the next day, Prince Solo brought his group of followers, surrounded, beat, and captured an injured stage 3 ko-o warrior with broken arms by the name of Yuo.

"You brats! What did you ambush me for?! Let me go right now!"

The beaten Yuo was angry, as he was dragged to the village square.

People gathered because of the noise.

"My people!" Prince Solo started shouting. "I, your Prince, have brought to you the culprit that broke down your houses!"

"What?! That's not me, you stupid- Oo!"

Prince Solo struck the tied-up Yuo with the hilt of his stone sword, stopping the older ko-o warrior from speaking.

Many ko-o villagers were confused.

So was Roo. He went into thought.

How could it be Yuo? The guy's arms were broken from fighting the faux kats when the army was defending the former town from the little monsters' invasion. He helped to delay the enemy so that more of our people could safely escape.

Then, Roo remembered something.

Yuo is one of the few strong ko-o warriors remaining from the older generation that has a chance at becoming the next ko-o king.

Then, what Solo is doing right now is-

Before Roo could put his conclusion into words, Solo shouted again.

"I'll execute him right now!"

"Oooooo!!"

Sounds of muscular ripping, bones breaking, and a ko-o's cry of pain. Before any of the spectators could speak up, Solo had already slashed and killed the defenseless Yuo.

Roo felt his legs go weak. He was terrified. He did not miss that gleeful expression on Solo's face as he made the kill.

"Prince Solo, how could you kill Yuo?! He was clearly not the culprit!" An older ko-o in the audience started said.

Prince Solo, whose good mood was ruined, pointed at the speaker. "He is an accomplice of Yuo. Drag him out and execute him too!"

And the prince's followers did exactly that, without hesitation too.

After that older ko-o was killed, no one else spoke up. Everyone just looked away.

That night, against the hopes of some stupid ko-os that bought the words of prince Solo, another house was broken down.

Next morning, many people thought disdainfully, wondering what excuse Solo would have for killing the wrong culprit.

But to these people's shock, Solo did not make any excuses. He just ambushed another of his rivals for the position of ko-o king with the help of his followers, labeled the older ko-o warrior the culprit, and executed him.

This happened the next day too.

Roo did not understand. "How can someone be so cruel to his own people?"

As far as Roo knew, although rivals for the position of ko-o king did kill each other for the position before, they did so in honorable and open duels, not using evil schemes like this.

(If Gosh were to see this, he'd probably relate it to the witch hunt.)

Soon, Roo will learn that he underestimated the cruelty of prince Solo.