The incident yesterday had become a subject of conversation to many residents in Farbarus City. One person died while one boy was hospitalized when they knew the news. Only the guests of the auction knew what kind of terrifying experience they witnessed while the rest of people could
only imagine what kind of encounter people at had that night. People died every day so for the residents of the city, it was just a casual news. Even though so, it seemed the nobles treated it seriously. One of the reasons was because Claire and Teres represented their families to apply for emergency situation. The council never thought there would be a day when these 2 families delivered the same messages at the same time. Usually, there were only disagreement between them so they would never join on the same thing.
At the moment, there was a feeling that these 2 families had to unite their strengths first to face the unknown enemy. It was because Claire and Teres was already a great wizard, yet they couldn't contend with the man named Joker. The curse he sowed had already claimed one soul but both of them could only do nothing. Despite their hopelessness, they knew they couldn't
fight the clown alone so they asked the support from the council. Once the
decision had been made, Joker would be hunted across the kingdom.
While everyone had their own agenda, Baston was slacking off at the best inn that could be found in the city. The bed was softer than the first one, even he wanted to hug it more and slept for a few hours. Not to
mention a great view, his room even had a specially designed butler and maid to serve him. The room couldn't be clean and shiny anymore since the treatment was the best.
"Sir Baston, your breakfast is here…" the butler knocked the door gently.
"Come in. Put it at the table beside me…" Baston yawned, looking at the window.
The butler opened the door slowly while the maids served the breakfast. Such treatment was already considered the best of the best here. Some people even said you would have the same treatment like the king here.
Baston of course couldn't prove it since he never saw how the king got his breakfast anyway. After all was done, the butler and the maids excused themselves, leaving Baston with the breakfast.
The inn here called breakfast, but when Baston saw it, the table was full of dishes. There was a soup, porridge, fruits, bread, pancakes, and any other else he couldn't describe it. The fat boy sensed the butler
brought a whole kitchen here, but he thought it was just the style of this inn. Unfortunately, he just didn't know the usual way about this treatment.
The king might have a sumptuous meal, but he didn't need to finish it. The various dishes on the table supposedly to satisfy his taste so as not to make the breakfast became boring as the time passed on. In the
summary, the leftover food here was a common thing. Many nobles also liked this
style which they were served many dishes everyday, but they have rights not to eat them all. Unfortunately, Baston never thought so.
He didn't want to waste the food, so he patiently enjoyed all of them. Luckily, he was a fat boy to begin with so he was capable to keep all of it inside his stomach. By the time he finished the breakfast, the day started to shift into noon. He wanted to get up, but the stomach forbade him to do it. The butler and the maids came again, yet they were surprised that Baston could finish it alone. They thought there would be many leftovers but, all of them were savored by the fat boy in the end.
"Thank you for the food. It's delicious…" Baston complimented then gave the butler a tip, "This is for you and the maids. You can divide it by yourself."
"Thank you very much, young master!" the butler beamed with smile along with maids, "If you have any request, you can call me."
"Alright, I won't take the lunch today by the way. It's because I have somewhere to go so you can just skip it."
"Yes, young master. Then I will handle the dinner for tonight."
Baston nodded before the butler and the maids left him alone. Such a sumptuous breakfast had already made him full, not to mention the next lunch and dinner. He was afraid he would blow up if he dared to take the lunch here, so he found an excuse to avoid it. Anyway, the holiday would end in
a few days so he didn't need to eat everything in this inn every day. Waiting
for an hour, he finally got up from his bed and went to Rembrant's store. He wanted to know what kind of impact that he accidentally inflicted to the father and his son.
When Baston was there, everything just ran as usual. There was no change as far as he could see in the store. Since Rembrant and Panto couldn't be found there, he thought perhaps they needed a time alone to calm
down. Before he could go out, Panto just came out from his room and noticed the
fat boy. He quickly rushed ahead and shouted his name.
"Baston! Where are you going?"
Baston turned around, looking at Panto who ran quickly to him, "Well, I just want to visit to check your condition. It seems you're fine,
so I don't need to worry much about it."
"Thank you very much for your help yesterday…" Panto suddenly hugged Baston.
The fat boy was in bewilderment because the boy just hugged him out of nowhere. Fortunately, they didn't make a commotion so people didn't notice them. Either way, the feeling wasn't good since Panto was a boy. If it was a girl, he could then embrace it like a lover but he doubted a girl wanted to hug him.
"My father wants to meet you. Do you have a time?"
"Well, alright then…" Baston pondered, "Let's go."
Panto walked ahead, followed by Baston behind him. The path to the office was long-winded but they finally got in there. When Rembrant saw Baston, he suddenly hugged him just like his son. Baston was only dumbfounded because it was already the second time a man did it to him. Both of father and son were really the same.
"Ha… ha… ha… Young master Baston, I'm sorry I don't visit you at the inn. I'm just afraid I will disturb your relaxing time."
"It's alright…" Baston nodded understandingly, "How about you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Thank you for asking. If you didn't protect me before, I might not even stand here today. Just the first victim already made
me shivered down terribly, not to mention when the clown pointed at me. I just felt my doom was near and it was my time to meet the maker."
"It's good that you're safe and sound. Still, I'm afraid your loss is imminent since the ice bead is stolen…"
"It doesn't matter. The important one is I still keep my life tightly. By the way, the down payment I gave you before, you can just keep it. Since you already sacrificed yourself yesterday, how could I just take it back? If my colleagues heard it, they would scold me for becoming ungrateful."
Baston smiled happily, sighing inside his heart that Rembrant didn't ask for the money back. The reason he picked him to be one of
the victims was because Baston wanted the old man to think he already struggled much to save him. When Rembrant remembered this, he wouldn't dare to ask for his money again since the ice bead couldn't be sold in the end. Fortunately, his arrangement was a great success.
"What happened after that?" Baston was still smiling.
"After you fell unconscious, me and my son hurriedly brought you to the nearby healer at the clinic. He said there was no wounds in your body, so he couldn't heal you. After that, I brought you to the best inn we have in this city."
Baston nodded, seemingly understanding the explanation but inside his head, he knew the course of the action. He was just pretending to be unconscious before so as to convince everyone at the venue. Of course, there were no sighted wounds since it was just a drama performance. Even though so, it made everyone at there believed this type of curse was untraceable. Because even the magic couldn't detect it, no one couldn't stop it easily unless the
clown himself made it stopped.
Rembrant continued, "For the auction itself, everyone rushed out to their homes as soon as possible. With the help from Herbiens and
Versance's family members, everyone was sent safely. Most of the guests were scarred silly with only several of them who quickly went out from the city. Afraid that the clown came here again, they moved everything to another city. Merchants like me and anyone else didn't have a capital to move around since our base was here. Still, I don't know whether it will affect our business."
Panto added, "I also heard an interesting information. Both of VIP nobles from before decided to hold investigation in the surrounding here. They even already dispatched some of their personnel to this city. During our conversation, they must be on their way here. I believe the city will be
more crowded than before with the addition of them. For the rest of it, I didn't know since it was a secret."
Baston was pondering something before he found out his existence here in this city might also be investigated. The personnel would
start at the guests first before moving up to others. The fat boy might be prioritized since he survived from his death. Anyone would be curious over what he had experienced at that time. To tell the truth, Baston didn't know what kind of explanation he would tell if someone asked the question. It was just his own performance and nothing else.
After the long conversation, Baston then asked Panto when he would get back to the academy. The boy said it might be a few days longer since he worried about his father, yet when Baston urged him as soon as possible, it reminded him about something. Perhaps, the clown was part of the cult so their presences here might be just endangering everyone in this city.
The first time he knew about this cult was from Baston. The fat boy said before that he was being targeted by them. Many days passed after that, so he thought it was already safe, but as soon as he remembered the recent incident, the boy found out it was a coincidence that he was always involved here. Slowly, he convinced himself that the cult was still looking after him, but it seemed they didn't know his clear picture.
If the man named Joker was really sent by the cult to hunt him, he should recognize his prey, but the fact said that it seemed he didn't know anyone around here. He just picked his victim randomly when the first man succumbed to his death. By the time Joker picked his father, Baston interrupted
it from the side. The fat boy then successfully replaced his father when he
confronted the clown one by one.
There were many questions Panto wanted to ask, yet he kept it inside his heart. He believed Baston always had his own agenda. The matter about the ice bead also seemingly had connection with the cult. He started thinking what if he put the ice bead on the auction, knowing that the cult would steal this thing. In his mind, Baston probably wanted to end the cult once for all so his safety would be guaranteed. He was sure of his unreasonable hunch even though in the reality, Baston was never meant to do so. The fat boy only wanted to survive in this world, yet he caused many misunderstandings to several people at once.