Chapter 96 - The Bloody Bounty - Part 3

After leaving the district, the Crescent Moon inn was in disarray, Aron and Evanora made their way to the main city gates and left the city entirely.

The beast sightings had been near the many settlements outside the city where the lower class citizens and farmers lived.

It had become quite dark and, unlike the city which had many areas still bustling at night, the outer region was dead silent. One had to know that those who lived in the outer settlements had little to no security from beasts that would sometimes wander into their fields or close to their homes.

Aron's gaze swept the area and could indeed see quite a few beasts eyeing him but unfortunately, they weren't the beasts he was looking for. 'Not even a mana beast,' Aron thought and clicked his tongue in irritation as he and Evanora made their way into forest.

"We're being followed by food," Evanora muttered without so much as glancing around, her sensitivity to mana was far beyond the norm like Aron's or those gifted mages.

"Ignore them, they won't bother us," Aron responded before releasing mana fluctuations from his body, this was a trait many mana beasts performed to ward off or intimidate enemies. The forest was teeming with all sorts of wildlife that Aron could not bother wasting time with. Be it large vicious carnivores or small poisonous insects and reptiles, they avoided Aron and Evanora like the plague once they felt the deadly aura of mana around him.

Aron came to a stop near a clearing and narrowed his eyes at what laid before him, the carcass of a large mana beast. It's pungent smell was what attracted him to it and it's state showed it had died quite some time ago.

As Aron approached it to investigate, Evanora began wandering around curiously. Aron crouched down in front of the carcass and ignored the pungent smell as he looked over it's rotting body. 'Claw marks... the flesh has rotten too much for me to narrow down what they could belong to though.' Aron sighed and tried to find other clues but the carcass was in too bad a state.

"The residue mana that could have been left from the attack has also dissipated..." Aron stood up and gave up trying to get answers from this, however, right then, Evanora came behind him and tugged his shirt while pointing in another direction. "More dead food," she explained and Aron immediately increased the scope of his senses.

The pungent smell he stood near became far more dense, but he could now also smell similar yet faint smells emanating from different directions deeper into the forest.

Without wasting time, Aron went to investigate each one, he was in no rush since the smell indicated they were dead for some time. Rushing would only lead to possibly missing important signs not only of the carcasses but the surrounding forest.

It held large and tall scattered, green, leafy trees with grass and flora that reached up to one's knees, making it hard to transverse through. The lack of trails clearly showed that people never made their way this deep into the forest many times.

Aron had spent about a good two hours carefully examining each carcass along with the surrounding areas for tracks or even signs of waste the attacking creature may have left. A creature's urine could sometimes be used to track it if ones scent was able enough but unfortunately, he couldn't find this.

"What killed all the food?" Try as she might, Evanora didn't even know where to start when it came to investigating, so she simply observed Aron like a curious child and asked this once he was done.

"I can't tell at the moment, whatever it was, it had to be a mana beast for sure, most likely a herbivore because I didn't see any signs of flesh bitten away from the carcasses. Its target must have been the fields of the farmers. All we can do now is check every now and then for fresh traces, there's a high chance it will attack again," Aron explained before the two left the forest entirely and returned to their lodgings.

At the front of the building, they found Claudia waiting with her arms crossed in deep thought. "You're finally back, I heard there's a fire that was started in a part of the city and according to the descriptions, it was you and her..." Claudia revealed, but Aron wasn't surprised and nodded at Claudia. "If someone tries to kill me, there's a high chance I'll kill them." Aron didn't go into detail and said just that before going into the building.

If it were a problem then he was sure the guards would have come by now but with Tukmar and Mahil, he wouldn't be held accountable for taking out a few nobodies.

Once inside, Aron parted ways with Evanora and went to his own room, it was late, so he would discuss some of what he found so far with Rose the following day.

However, once inside his room, he found Khalifa waiting with a complex expression on her face. She was clearly a woman who wasn't easily fazed, so Aron was curious as to what troubled her. "It seems you have bad news," he stated and, without replying to him, she took out a piece of paper and handed it to him.

The paper had a detailed drawing of Aron with the words "wanted" at the bottom with quite the hefty some. "It's one of the more popular bounties on the black market right now. I dug deeper and found it was issued because you're wanted for stealing the weapons of heirs to the major noble households..." Khalifa explained with the same complex expression.

Now it made sense why she was concerned. No matter Aron's backing, the major noble houses were no joke, so her organization being affiliated with him was more bad than good, so she was absolutely regretting agreeing to his terms.

Aron, however, snickered upon reading it. "So they lose to me then claim I stole from them, huh, they issued it on the black market too because they knew it would be embarrassing for the public to know they lost their weapons during the journey," Aron muttered, and Khalifa's expression relaxed a little, she expected Aron to be just as worried but he took it casually.

"Fine, it seems I hadn't crushed thoroughly enough. Make copies of these and have your organization spread them all across major cities while also leaking information as to why it was issued and by who." Khalifa was taken aback by Aron's instructions.

He wanted to be known throughout the continent? For theft? She thought this was crazy but upon thinking it through, she couldn't help but smile. The journey allowed everything from theft to killing and if all this had happened, then the noble families seeking revenge for this would greatly damage their prestige.

Not only did their heirs lose but they also went as far as issuing an underground bounty, how shameful would this look to the public, most especially the academy. However, soon her smile faded as she thought of something else. "But won't that mean you'll be targeted until the order is brought down?" she asked with concern because if he died then this plan would fall apart.

"If I don't set a large enough example, they'll keep underestimating my strength like you just now," Aron answered and said no more, Khalifa nodded and left through the window as quickly as she came.

'More importantly, I can finally satisfy my raging bloodlust..' A sinister smile appeared on Aron's face as he took a meditative pose and began sorting his thoughts.