Adui seriously overestimated the people of this world. He thought that as soon as the Viscount got the message that bandits attacked the Hampshire Manor, he would come running with his people. He would surely want to investigate the matter, and the game of cat and mouse that he liked so much would start. But the problem was, this world and its message relaying capabilities.

It has been 2 weeks since the incident. And till now, neither his father nor any men of the Viscount had returned.

Adui was a very patient man, at least that was what he used to think. But he was nearing his breaking point. For the last two weeks, he had been staying in the nearest village of the manor, with Martha. The waiting part would have gone smoothly if it weren't for her, at least that was what he thought. That woman had started becoming clingy and demanding, and it had become very annoying.

When he wakes up, she is there with him. She is there when goes to eat, shit and even when he goes to sleep. Sex does help from time to time, that woman surely knows how to make a man happy. But her annoying clinginess is making him think that maybe she should be his next target.

Also, another annoying part of living in that village was their accommodation. They had been staying in a mud hut, which was less than ideal. There was no mattress, nor proper bed sheets. They slept on a bed made from wood, which was not very least, comfortable. Especially during sex.

Adui had his own room in the manor. Granted it was a very small room, but it had a view and a fucking mattress. Now he was stuck here…

It started like a regular day, Adui woke up early in the morning. Martha kept sleeping, while he sneaked out of the village for a run and his regular training. While coming back he didnt forget about taking fish from the nearest river.

In order to collect and hunt fish effectively, the villagers had created a trap, which fish could enter but not escape. When coming home, he doesn't catch fish, instead, he just takes one of the traps and be on his way.

Not many people like that they took a fish from the traps that people of the village had set up, but as a noble and the son of Arnold Hampshire no dare to speak anything to him. That day was any other, and he was thinking about what he should do today, but when he got back to the village he saw a rally of 12 armed men standing at the entrance of the village.

Those men were wearing polished silver armor and had a huge flag bearing a bear insignia.

Viscount's men, he thought, and then he quickly started running back to the village.

The soldiers when saw him running towards them got alarmed. They had their guard up when he came to them, everyone had their hands on their blades, and they looked at him intently, "Halt!" the leader of the men yelled, "Identify yourself," he said.

"My name is Adui Hampshire," he introduced, "I am the son of Arnold Hampshire. Are you guys here because of my letter?" he asked.

The soldiers looked at each other and then told him to follow them. They then took them to the center of the village, where all the villagers had gathered. In front of the villagers were two knights sitting on chairs, bearing the insignia of the Viscount.

The soldier came to the knight and saluted them, "Sire, this Adui Hampshire. Son of Baron Hampshire,"

The knights looked at him from down to up, "So you are the twerp that was left alive?" Adui nodded courteously. He ignored the rude comment because the person before him was not a normal person. Looking at the brawny man's body, combined with the title of a knight, there was a high chance that the man before him was a mana wielder. And even though Adui was a noble, it was never a good thing to pick a fight with such a man.

"Come," the knight stood up, "I want to see what happened to the manor,"

He nodded and started taking the knight and his soldiers to the manor. From there the investigation started, the thing that Adui had been waiting for from the start.

"So, care to explain what happened here? And why are you the only one alive, while others in your family have passed away?" the knight asked. Then Adui told him about the festival of light that he had been visiting. The rest of the way, the knight kept asking him about that night, and what happened in the festival, interrogating him about the turn of events.

As they got to the remains of the manor, the man asked Adui, "Tell me what exactly did you see when you came back?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Adui nodded. With teary eyes, he described the scene, "The fire had extinguished. The body of the house butler was hanging from here." He said while pointing at the main gate of the manor, "And there was a knife in the man's stomach. I also found several wounds in the man's stomach. As bandits killed the butler in such a way, villagers believed that there was a chance that he was the one who led them to this place."

Then Adui took him to the back of the house, where he had the villagers dug up some graves, "I have buried all my family members here." He choked saying that, acting like he was really shaken up by the turns of events.

"And what about the safe of your household?" the knight asked.

"The butler knew the passcode," he said regretfully, "The safe was empty when I found it,"

The knight took a look around the property and eventually came to the guest room, which was the real motive of his and his party. With fire, the wooden walls of the manor had fallen, exposing the mana stone vault for good. "What about this one?" the knight asked the exposed vault.

"I dont know what was in this vault," Adui confessed, "Father nor butler ever told me about it… But this was also empty when I found it,"

The knight then turned to one of the soldiers and nodded. The soldier then immediately took out a scroll from his satchel and passed it onto the knight. Adui sensed the knight sending mana through the scroll. That thing absorbed mana crazily, and then out of nowhere a translucent astral bird popped out of the scroll and flew towards the south.

"What was that?" Adui asked.

"Communication scroll," the knight simply mumbled and then passed the scroll back to the soldier. "Now talk to me about the bandits…"

***

That night, Adui sat in his hut with an angry face. He didnt know what he was supposed to do now. The knight took his statements, and just then started heading back to the Viscount's territory. During their interaction, the knight comforted him when he started crying all of a sudden. Maybe it was his acting, or the knight knew about his prior mental condition, when he suggested that he should go the capital and found employment.

When he enquired about his father, and when he was coming back, the knight didnt reply. But through subtle hints, the knight did suggest that there was a chance that his father had abandoned him here. And this is why the knight's advice of finding employment in the capital made sense.

And this all angered him to his core.

That was it? I committed a massacre, and the only thing that I got out of it was money, a whore, and some mana stones? Well, mana stones are useful, and so is money. But what about this whore? He then glanced at Martha, who was peacefully sleeping, naked, beside him.

He knew that this was the medieval times, and there were no such things as great detectives and forensic teams in this world. Still, he thought there should at least be someone suspecting him. The knight showed him pity, and so did the soldiers. None of the villagers are gossiping about him being the murderer. He had just pulled out the cleanest robbery, and no one was suspecting him.

This infuriated him.

Maybe, he thought, Committing murders is not the way to go. Especially committing murders of insignificant people like his family. Maybe I should kill someone important. Like the queen. It made sense to him at the time.

I could also pretend to be a heretic, and start massacring people in the name of the devil or something. That would set a target on my back. Thinking about the things the thing he could he fell asleep that night.

With the first rays of sunlight, he started preparing for the journey ahead. He bought a horse on credit from the village. Although the chief was reluctant to part with the horse, his attitude and noble status convinced him otherwise. After that, they borrowed some food items and a saddle for the horse. It is during that time Adui sneaked out of sight and went to the shit pit to get his stuff back.

His coins and the box were smelling so bad, that it took him hours and hours of washing everything to make the smell bearable. But in the end, he was able to get everything in order.

Martha was over the moon when she heard about the capital, as she had never been there before. And it was with the dawn of the second day they finally set out for the journey…

***

The night was upon them. After creating a small fire, Adui and Martha were sitting around it. They had decided to settle by a fast-flowing river. As they were gazing into the sky, Martha started to speak, "Adui." She said. "What do you think our future home would be like?"

Adui? No more young master? He then thought about it for a second then mentioned, "Dont know. Maybe somewhere crowded, in a big city or something," That way it would be easy to create chaos.

"No." She firmly said, "I think that we need to get a house in the outskirts, like the manor," For the past few days, he had been accepting her every request, playing his part as the fool in love. And the demands of this girl had been increasing day by day. She had now started ordering him around, which infuriated him even more.

"This is our chance to start fresh," she said. "With the money that you stole, we would be able to build a solid future for us,"

His whole body stopped and stared at her, "What do you mean?"

"You were the one that killed your family members, right?" She asked with a smirk, "I smelled something funny from your bag. So I checked it."

Will this change things. He said to himself and stood up. Came close to her, she looked like she was expecting a warm smile from him or something, but all she got was a cold face staring down at her. Adui started pumping mana in his legs, and when he was done, without a warning he kicked him in her face, making her face cave in.

Like a rag doll, her body flew to the nearest boulder and slammed into it.

If in his previous world, he would have let her go. But not now. He had not had his fun in this world. He cannot let anyone know about his secret, especially when he is so weak. He cannot have a gold-digging whore know his secret, who reveals it to anyone for a piece of metal

It is then his eyes lit up, "Oh oh oh…" he exclaimed, "Now I can try the new cleaver that I made the blacksmith make for me." Joyfully, he then went to his horse to get his stuff…