"Even dogs know when to shut up."
The moment Liam's cold voice rang out, the screams died down in an instant.
Some women shut their mouths by covering them with both hands while others pressed their lips together as if their life depended on it.
Meanwhile, other women and Derek looked at Liam with an incomprehensible glimmer in their eyes.
Their eyes were fixated on Liam rather than the woman he had murdered mercilessly.
"Is there a problem with what I just did?" Liam asked, his eyes shining dangerously. His good mood seemed to have dispersed with the final comment of the young woman, and the result of his pent-up anger and the bad mood was lying on the ground.
The women and Derek shook their heads vigorously, while Liam nodded once.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Good for you."
He turned over to Felicia and Jennie, who stared blankly at him. They might have not known Liam for long, but they could tell that the Halfling was rather patient and trying to help. It might not look like this always because his outside appearance and attitude made it seem as if he was a rowdy who knew nothing but to kill and let his claws speak, but he was actually pretty patient.
For someone like Liam, who had been in a good mood because of the fortune he had earned, to end up killing someone in front of everyone, was quite a shock.
"Now that this issue has been taken care of, we can get back to the trial."
Liam looked at Felicia and Jennie, ignoring their complex expressions and the fear in their eyes as he asked,
"Where do your parents live?"
Without context, the question sounded extremely ridiculous to Derek and the other women. Their minds were still blank and they were not too sure whether they ended up in the wrong movie, or if they were missing out on something very important.
To them, it made no sense that Liam would suddenly ask about their address, not less than a minute after he killed one of them. Did Liam not know what shame was?! Or at least have some decency?
However, Liam made things even worse for the women as he retrieved the Livra Orb, demanding it to devour the corpse of the dead woman. A few minutes ago, they had been talking to the woman, and now she was dead while no trace of her existence had been left behind. Even her blood seemed to have been devoured!
A few women collapsed on the ground, unable to cope with the psychological burden of the things that had happened right in front of them, while others began to cry.
Only a few were able to retain their calm to a certain extent. They shivered, felt goosebumps and their minds were in a mess, but they didn't cower in fear or avoid Liam in any way.
It hadn't been long since they had been rescued by the Halfling, but his personality was easy to read for most of them. His shell was hard, and he had gone through a lot, which resulted in the use of violence to solve most issues in the most efficient way he could think of, but his inner core was still soft and gentle.
He sought intimacy and love, without realizing that this was actually the case.
"My parents live near the outskirts of Sila. The city is the next closest city to Stura, which you call the Golden City. The distance between the two cities is only around 30 kilometers. It shouldn't be impossible to reach Sila in the next few days…right?" Jennie asked, her eyes already watery from the bombardment of insults and the lectures she had been forced to endure in the last hour.
She knew that she had to grow stronger as quickly as possible, but that was not as easy as everyone made it seem. Even if it might be easy for others, who said that everyone had the same starting point, in the first place? Jennie was still reluctant to kill others. She didn't like that Liam killed the young woman just for going against his words.
Obviously, Liam was now feared by the others, which made it much easier to rally the other women and order them around, but she couldn't help herself and wondered if there wouldn't have been a better way to solve this mess.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmLiam knew that there had been a better way, but this way would have required more effort and time. It would have made him seem as if he was shying away from violence against humans, or the members of his group. And in the long run, this would have caused a lot more problems.
He had chosen the most efficient way to solve the problem at hand, nipping it in the bud though it was not 'the' best approach.
"My parents live in Sila. If they behave like I think they will, they're either waiting for me near Mom's fencing dojo, or they're looking for me at the school. They will quickly realize that the school was run over by tens of thousands of rats, which means that they will go to the gym, where they will find out that Olivia and I left with you.
Maybe they will even find Kian and Rex, who will then tell my parents that I am doing fine. So, how about we take a look at my Mom's Dojo first?" Felicia asked after revealing what her parents were likely to do now, or what they have already done.
'Both are nearby. That doesn't really help me gather too much information about the Jula Valley and the surrounding regions.'
Liam had two major reasons to help Jennie and Felicia to search for their families. First, he wanted to keep using them as his valuable assets. If he rejected their request, the girls were likely to leave. Their Soultraits were actually too valuable for him to let them leave like this.
He could hit two birds with a stone by joining them. They could search for their parents while he could research the Jula Valley's environment, information about other races that may have settled down in the valley, the habitats of monsters, and so on.
Unfortunately, it looked like his research would be extremely short and turn futile if they had to travel only around 30 kilometers to find the girls' parents.
'Looks like I have to reach deep into my pockets to solve this problem then!'