Chapter 183: Verdict

The villain of the moment was a middle-aged man, someone likely from the third line of the family. 

'I don't even recognize him,' Tom thought while staring down at the man's fat-covered face. 'But I can recognize why he went as far as to rape someone,' he thought, his own face remaining calm despite the hate boiling deep in his soul. 

"What?" the man took on airs, clearly unwilling to admit to his crimes. While there was a chance that he was falsely accused, the weight of the accusations was too big for it to be a random attempt of his former teammates to put him down. 

"Do I need to spell it out?" Tom asked, leaning his head over to the side. "From what I heard, you forced a girl from your team, my cousin mind that, into a sexual relationship. You apparently claimed that it was her way of paying you back for protecting your group in the dungeon," Tom stated, looking coldly at the man's face. 

"Again, what?" the man squinted his eyes, looking around only to lock his eyes on his team members. Given how there were only men of all ages left, it was clear that the murder accusation also involved the same girl. "Where is the girl that I seemingly raped? Where is your proof?!" he shouted, the sparks in his eyes only proving how certain he was of his situation. 

"You spent too much in the secular world," Tom squinted his eyes. "Cleo, would you be so kind?" Tom asked, turning his head towards his friend. 

"Are you sure?" the girl bit her lips. "We still don't know how my skill works. What if I fall into a coma again?" she asked, clearly worried about repeating the same mistake that she unknowingly committed before. 

"Worst case scenario, we still have the slime and more than enough stones to go around," Tom pointed at Cleo's shoulder only to tap his hand against the small pouch attached to his belt. 

"Why are you guys acting as if everything is decided?!" the middle-aged man shouted, clearly unhappy with how Tom suddenly went on to ignore him. "You accused me of something. How about you find proof of my alleged crimes first? And if you can't do it, then get on your fucking knees and...:"

The man didn't get to finish his sentence. Marvin stepped forward and gently slapped his face. 

And by gently, one could only understand it through the difference in the build of their skills. 

Without any buffs added to the attack, Marvin still used all his strength for the slap, yet it only caused a small amount of blood to rush to the man's cheek. 

"Next time you will foolishly run your mouth, you will die," Marvin warned, his eyes turning cold. 

Between the friends, light and empty insults were just a form of communication. But between Tom and a random uncle from the third line, there was no such relation. 

Right now, Tom was representing the absolute top hierarchy of their family. What's more, they were in the middle of a military expedition. 

No matter how right or wrong that middle-aged man was, Tom was well within his right to claim his life for no reason whatsoever, as long as he deemed it to serve the greater purpose. 

"Is this how you wish to rule the family?!" the man exclaimed, raising his hand to his cheek but wisely not taking any retaliatory action. 

"You two," Tom looked towards the two men who told him about the man's crimes. "Repeat out loud exactly what you told me," he ordered. 

There was a chance that this middle-aged man was wronged. Tom wasn't going to let that possibility go without actually checking it. But with no means nor time for a lengthy and detailed plan, he only had his instincts to rely upon. 

An instinct that used his augmented senses to pick up even the tiniest clues of the people's reaction and mimicry clues that they would do their utmost to hide. 

"When we were split, my fiance was with us in the group," the younger of the two uttered, throwing a hateful look at the man. 

But what was interesting was how the accused eye's widened in shock as he realized just who were the people accusing him. 

'Could it be that there is another truth to the matter?' Tom thought, puzzled by his observation.

The hate of the young man's face was real. It was a feeling that Tom could easily sympathize with. 

"Starting from the floor tenth, when the leader of the group was decided, she started to quickly distance herself from me. Even though she was acting as if nothing had happened... I could tell," the young man lowered his head and tightened his fists. 

"Wait, she had a fiance?" the middle-aged man opened his eyes in shock. "No, that shouldn't be possible... Unless..." the look in the man's eyes changed as he looked at the youth with pity. "If that's the case, then you should truly be happy that she died," he commented. 

"What do you mean?" Tom asked, slowly starting to make sense of the situation. While there were still some blanks and empty bits that he needed to fill, he could slowly start connecting the dots. 

The dots that the young man would never be able to see.

"I saw her die; we all did." The man calmed down, his face turning slightly sad. "I found it weird why she suddenly stumbled to the front where I was battling the monsters, but I considered this as an unfortunate accident..." he muttered, rubbing his own chin before suddenly casting a quick glance at the other of the two accusers. "Could it be...?" he mused, refusing to elaborate on what was going through his mind. 

"Stumbled?" the older of the two accusers stepped forward, his face tensing up. "You brought the fight towards our group! Don't you think that I didn't notice it!" he claimed, pointing his hand at the middle-aged man. 

"How about you tell everyone how you fucked her too, instead?" the man pointed out with a sneer on his lips. 

For a moment, the entire boss-room turned silent. In terms of changes, this was the biggest twist to the situation. 

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" the young man flared up, clearly unwilling to let anyone insult his dead fiancee. 

"I said the truth, boy," the man spat those words right into the young man's face before turning around and looking deeply into Tom's eyes. "I didn't rape that girl. The reason is pretty simple. I didn't have to," he said, ignoring the fuming kid behind him. 

"I can see that," Tom said, only to release a deep sigh. "I guess you were right in the beginning; I cannot see a shred of guilt in you," he added before moving his eyes on the older of the two accusers. "Tell me, was it really an accident? Or did you have something to do with her death?" 

If others were suspecting the real course of the events before, then Tom's words finally made them pretty certain about it. 

The middle-aged man didn't rape the girl. After all, in order for there to be rape, there had to be an unwillingness. And from the looks of things, that deceased girl was pure only in the imagination of her innocent fiance. 

"What do you mean by that?" the older of the accusers brought an expression of shock and surprise on his face... But before Tom's eyes, he could very well just admit his guilt. 

After consuming the golden stones, Tom's senses were brough to the point where he could barely handle all the information they were providing. 

The twitch of the man's lip, the fraction of a second when he attempted to avert his eyes, the gentle blush on his cheeks... All those small clues allowed Tom to guess what happened in general terms. 

"Let me change the question, then," Tom said, stepping forward and passing by the initial suspect only to stare down the new target of his suspicion's face. "Did you, in any way or form, influenced the death of that girl?" he asked. 

Tom didn't need to know whether he pushed her or not. After all, he wouldn't be able to sense a lie if that man actually kicked her instead. That's why he decided to ask about the situation in a way broad enough to include all the possibilities while focused to the point where the answer would decide the matter. 

"I didn't..." the man replied, backing off a single step and averting his eyes to the side. 

"I guess that settles it," Tom sighed before turning around and moving back to his previous position. 

'Should I let that kid deal with it?' he thought, sending a quick glance at the confused face of the young man. 

He then clenched his jaws to the point his teeth started to hurt. 

'No, he doesn't look mature enough for that,' Tom decided in his heart. 

He then turned back to the people he was talking with just a moment before. After a single thought, a spear appeared in his hand. 

"For influencing the demise of my cousin, sleeping with that man's fiancee, falsely accusing a fellow brother of the family, and inducing chaos during this military operation, I sentence you to death," he said in a deadpan voice, slowly walking toward the man. 

"Wait, what?" the man backed out a few steps, clearly unwilling to accept the direction the situation developed in.

He even kept the surprised look on his face when Tom's spear penetrated right through his chest, turning his heart into a bloody mess and ending his life.