The fat blond-haired man in the front, his two childhood friends, and Nafız behind him was walking briskly in the narrow corridor. The place they were in was the emergency escape tunnels of the house of Augustus. One end was in the distant derelict house; the other end was in the secret doors in the various rooms of the mansion.
“Niko, I took this job by trusting your word. If nothing happens, as the female orc said, you will contribute the ransom money!”
The answer to Quintus’ whining came from the back of the line.
“Fatty, don’t you look like you still don’t believe the gold I showed you is real?”
None of the three friends, whose minds were drawn to the events in the Partheni household, could believe what they had seen. As they made their way through the dark tunnels, Quintus relived the events that happened before he left his friend Niko’s house.
“Who gave you the right to talk about my wife, miserable orc? If you cannot prove your words, I will ask your master for your head!”
The fat man was furious when his wife’s name was mentioned, and he forgot the purpose of his arrival. Meanwhile, his two friends did not know what to do. To take the orc’s head, the fat man must have been joking.
Apart from their abilities, which they witnessed, more than a hundred well-equipped orcs would turn them into mashed meat with a single word. Nafız’s laughter made the duo, who were thinking in fear and anxiety, startled. The female orc, who suddenly had a mountain of gold coins next to her, spoke with a laugh.
“Fat potato, if I’m wrong, this is all yours for the full ransom, but after hearing it, will you promise to do as I say?
“Ha-ha! Okay, deal, but I hope the gold in the inter-domain rings you bought from that Niko isn’t fake!”
The short fat man thought his friends were playing a trick on him, so he accepted the offer to return what had been done to him on his bad day.
“Quintus! Quintus! Come on, walk quickly; we’ll be late!”
Thinking about the events that had happened while Niko poked his back, Quintus regained his senses and stepped up. Shortly after, they were cut off by a wooden wall, and the voices of the two people talking behind him could be heard, albeit faintly.
“Astute, my son has been kidnapped. Help me!”
As the group got close to the wall, Athena’s voice reached the ears.
“Is that what you said was very important? Athena, look at what you called me to your feet when the whole city was at the mercy of a serial killer!”
Quintus listened with great attention to the conversations. It was only natural for his wife to ask the city lord for help, thinking she wouldn’t be able to keep his head down, but what about what they’re about to hear?
“You can leave work to sleep with me, but when I tell you they kidnapped my son, is it a trivial matter?”
As Athena gasped in anger after her scream resounded in the room, everyone in the tunnel behind the big showcase was freezing. The three friends turned their heads in different directions, but Nafız thought of the city lord’s glance at the arena. It was there that Nafız received the first signal of forbidden love; it would not be difficult for her to guess that it would end here.
Athena continued to burden herself with maternal instinct.
”You owe me! Remember who helped you end the line of the Partheni family? I made my best friend drink that cursed thing for you!”
“Shut up, stupid woman! Did you do it for me? Are you comforting yourself with this lie? You did everything because of your ambition and unrequited love; even your approaching me was for this purpose. I have no intention of helping in any way for the child you made with the idiot you married for the sake of stubbornness!”
Finishing his words, the city lord hurriedly headed for the door of the chamber; while Quintus extended his arm to the mechanism to open the secret passage. The ambitious husband was having a nervous breakdown, but a hand grabbing his wrist would have stopped him.
Only one word came out of Nafız’s mouth as Quintus turned his smoldering gaze towards him.
”Wait!”
The event developed very suddenly as if they knew each other; Athena said the same word as Nafız.
“Wait!”
“Epiphanes is your child, Astute!”
The words came out of her mouth, the City Lord’s steps stopped, and inside the secret tunnel, Quintus passed out and fell into Nafız’s arms. As his two friends moved towards the fainted man, the voices of conversation continued to come from inside.
“Athena, have you lost your mind? Telling this lie will not help you!”
“I’m not lying. Before I had a child, my husband and I were at odds. You were alone in my bed. I begin you! If I had not been in this situation, I would have kept the truth from you forever!”
Athena’s reasoning was logical, that if the public heard this news, they would not let her and her husband live in the city. Besides, he didn’t even know how the unstable city lord would react.
“Woman, all responsibility for your words is yours. If you are lying, the son will not be the only one to die!”
The shaking from the floor, along with the sound of the door closing hard, was proof that the young woman could not bear the tension and fell to the ground. When the servants rushed to help, the group waiting in the tunnel fell on the way back.
The buried secrets of the three noble families of the city of Parthenia were fully revealed today. With the final blow, old friends had painfully learned that their sins were not as innocent as in their childhood.
The City Lord, who came out of the house of Augustus in a fury, started to make full speed towards the place where his illegitimate child was being held. Around this time, the group, who had come out of the derelict house at the end of the secret tunnel, had gathered around Quintus, who had just woken up.
“You, you knew! How is that?”
Quintus spoke as he awoke, clutching the orc’s hands. His eyes looked as if he wanted what he heard to be a lie.
“From the day I picked up that clan smell from your kid, that scumbag community, I guessed it would come to this. He doesn’t even realize it himself, but there’s no way the smell of malignant blood escapes my nose, even though it’s so low in density!
Although Nafız’s sniffing of the young man in the marketplace that day seemed like an act that made people laugh, the truth of the matter was completely different. Countless Black Lily Clan members had passed through Mora’s hands while working on the Soul Binding Technique’s remedy.
“Quintus, calm down a bit. Let’s go to our mansion; there are things we need to talk to you about!”
The man, who was heartbroken in the first hours of the day and bowed to those he could not get along with since his childhood, was only breathing for a single thought when he learned about the cabinets behind him. Revenge!
“If there is something about the City Lord, you don’t even need to tell me. I will do whatever you want, but I beg you both, leave Athena’s punishment to me!”
His wife had only cheated on him and had a child, but his two childhood friends had a life debt from him. Quintus knew it was a ridiculous idea to ask them, but waves of anger swept over his head, and he seemed to go mad as he remembered his wife’s words.
“This is neither the time nor the place to talk about this. First, take a good rest!”
Tears were falling softly down Quintus’ face as his friends in his arms accompanied the fat man to walk.
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Life is a test, but it’s not much like other exams. Because sometimes, one wrong thing you do can take away all your right.
Dostoevsky
