"Lies!"
The clicking of the cameras almost caused the skin at the back of everyone who could hear it crawl. If anything, they now sounded like the chitter chatter of what the ants would sound like if they endlessly crawled inside your ears.
The flashes of light and their whispers, all drowning the air as they pointed their attention to the woman who threw a stone at Rhys. The woman, however, did not seem to care for all the attention as her eyes were just completely locked onto Rhys; the anger and rage that her eyes carried, evident for everyone to see just from her trembling eyebrows alone.
"My husband... my husband would never ally himself with your... with your putrid kind! You are a demon! A disease to this land!"
Husband. And as soon as the woman uttered those words, all the reporters went quiet as they realized who she was — the wife of Lieutenant Stretcher.
"We should bail, Recruit," Ayesha deeply breathed in as she placed her hand on Rhys's chest and softly pushed him away, "Angry wives are not someone you can deal with, trust me."
"I do trust you," Rhys smiled and nodded.
"Good, then—" And before Ayesha could even take a single step away from their situation, Rhys took a step toward the problem, "Recruit, what are you doing...?"
"You are a heathen! The spawn of the Underworld!"
Stretcher's widow continued to violently point at Rhys, to the point she absolutely did not care about her appearance at all as her saliva went everywhere. There are guards around the building, but no one seems to care that there is a commotion — most of them even smirking as Rhys is bombarded with all sorts of drama and controversy.
There shouldn't even be civilians loitering around near a government building, and yet there was a crowd watching them from the other side of the streets; crowded, extremely so.
"It's you, I know it's you! The world might be blinded by your charm, but that is the mark of the Betrayer!"
"Ma'am, I—"
"Don't you dare 'ma'am' me, you fucking dregger!" The woman screamed from her lungs as Rhys got near her, "Go back to picking adamantines in the rotting fields! I don't care for the words that come out of your unintelligible mouth! Wh—What are you doing!? He's trying to kill me! Everyone, look at that, he's trying to kill me!"
Rhys was only trying to hand her something, but the woman just quickly dropped to the floor and started violently waddling her legs and crying. Of course, the reporters truly liked this a lot as they focused all their cameras; making sure that they were still going live.
As for Rhys, he really only just let out a sigh... before slowly and carefully sitting on the ground and... doing nothing. He just sat there, letting Stretcher's wife degrade and spat on him without end.
Ayesha, who was watching this from afar, could really only take in another deep breath and watch. Maria had told them that Rhys craved for the attention, and she was starting to think it was really true — but still, she did not look away and just watched.
Rhys probably spent several minutes there without uttering a word. Fortunately, Stretcher's wife seemed to have gotten tired as her voice started cracking, finally only letting her tears and cries speak.
And with her words finally silent, Rhys very gently placed something on the woman's lap.
Stretcher's wife turned to look at what Rhys just placed, only to see her husband's black dog tag.
"Ma'am. Your husband served the country for a very long time until he didn't," Rhys then whispered gently, but not gentle enough that the cameras couldn't pick it up,
"Stop it," Rhys leaned away, "Someone might be following us."
"Ugh, lighten up you silly hunk of a man," and as Stretcher's wife returned to her seat, her face suddenly started to wriggle and morph, and so did the tone of her voice; her hair, turning white — and if Lina or Agatha was here right now, they would quickly recognize this extremely average face as the impostor who pretended to be Lina back in Enkland,
"I think I deserve some compensation after everything I've done for you, no? You's a rich man, but all I ask is a good time."
"...Thank you," Rhys only sighed as he glanced at the woman.
"What are you thanking me for...?" The woman forced out a giggle, "You really confused me, Blackie. One moment you're threatening to kill me if I don't do as you say, now you're suddenly thanking me. But I think I've done more than you've asked already."
"You have, Heidi."
"First, instigating the riot, and now this," the woman, Heidi, let out a very long and deep sigh.
"And now you are free to go," Rhys then said.
"Well, I'd figure I'd stay, actually..." Heidi let out a small hum as she looked out the moving scenery outside the window, "...I don't wanna end up dead. Wilder's Harem, is it?"
"She would be useful, Rhys Wilder."
"What the—" Heidi almost jumped from her seat as she heard a whisper coming from behind the car. She looked back, only to see Maria just casually sitting there, "Where did this one pop out from then?"
Rhys, on the other hand, seemed completely unperturbed and only looked at Maria from the rearview mirror,
"Maria..." He whispered, "...Is it done?"
"As you ordered," Maria nodded,
"Natasha Stretcher will be found dead 16 days from now, hanging by the neck in their living room."
"I'm... sorry you had to do something like this again," Rhys breathed out.
"No," Maria, however, just smiled while keeping her completely monotonous tone, "Thank you for bringing me back to this line of work."
"...Hm."
"What in the—" Heidi could really only sit tight on her seat as she heard everything, "So... I'm part of the Wilder's Harem now, right...? Rhys? Boss?"
Heidi glanced at Rhys, who just kept on driving in silence, causing her to just take in a small gulp,
"I'm part of the Wilder's Harem now, right?" Heidi started looking around, "You...
...you're not going to kill me, right? Boss man? Your Grace?"