Born in Blood

Liam couldn't afford to waste time. He inspected Vamar's person, taking off the space-ring resting on his finger.

He began inspecting the room itself, hurriedly opening the drawers, cabinets and dressers.

His search was fruitful, as he managed to find a container of pills that varied in size and color. He quickly stored it in his space-ring, before leaving the room once and for all.

Through a similar route, he made his way to a cold storage room, filled with containers and boxes.

From the sounds of music still playing, Liam knew the bodies hadn't been found yet.

He silently entered the bathroom stall without being spotted, and changed his clothes back into the dark black robe — putting on his golden earrings — before making his way back to the party.

The celebration continued like usual, most of the nobles were drunk, their faces flushed as they continued to laugh and dance.

Liam couldn't help but look down on such people.

'Like animals, they waste their life. They could be doing so much more with their wealth and status, but they piss it away for nothing.'

He shook his head inwardly, heading by the banquet area and picking up a meal.

As much as he wanted to leave — to cultivate no doubt — he couldn't. He needed to wait until the bodies were found and fear made its way in the nobles' hearts.

Before long, multiple robed figures diverged to where Vamar's office was, and grave expressions were on their faces.

They first stopped the musicians from playing any music, before grabbing everyone's attention.

"Noblemen and women, may I have your attention please?" The strongest among them spoke, a grave look on his face as he swept the crowd.

The partiers shifted their focus to the guard, pausing all their activities.

"Master Vamar has been… assassinated. Reinforcements are arriving shortly."

Gasps resounded all throughout the floor, with looks of shock and horror plastered on their faces.

Liam himself acted surprised, blending in flawlessly within the crowd. Yet anyone who paid astute attention could tell his expression was a bit forced and unnatural.

"Vamar… has been murdered?!"

"Who could infiltrate a noble manor like this?!"

"Wait, did you catch the killer?"

The guard shook his head, plunging the crowd into chaos and panic.

Some started to run out the door - clutching the hands of their children - taking out their Jade's and calling for their guards, uncaring of how cowardly it looked.

Soon, all present nobles followed suit, pushing and shoving each other to exit through the main gate. Curses, screams and loud shouts spread through the air.

Liam wasn't one to hold back either, ramming those that stood in front of him.

"Move, dog!" He shouted.

The lanky noble in front of Liam wanted to retort and slap the young man across his face, but saw the golden earrings hanging from his ear.

Obediently, he made way.

The middle-aged coachman from before spotted Liam approaching and opened the carriage door.

"Well done, sir."

Liam shot him a quick nod before he sat inside the car, gazing disappointedly at the petrified nobles from his window.

'There's no way they're all like this. After all, that human who killed a dragon in my childhood has to be a noble, too.'

As the carriage started to move, Liam took out the black space-rings he stole.

'In the Binding Oath, there's nothing that prevents me from stealing, but I'm sure they'll inspect me… just in case, I won't take anything too valuable or take too much.'

They still had the 'Ora' imprints of their owners, but Liam slowly wiped it out with his mental energy.

Starting with the Monitor's ring, he inspected it.

The space was roughly 15 square meters in size. It contained a simple Rank-2 body tempering method — and miscellaneous like clothes and tobacco — but everything else was worthless.

'I'll swap my ring with his. The five extra meters could come in handy, and they probably won't notice.'

After completing the full transition, Liam wiped away Vamar's 'Ora' imprint and entered his ring.

Instantly, his eyes widened.

There was a full 50 square meters of space inside the ring, filled with various items such as pills, piles of glittering 'Ora' Stones, even techniques and spells!

Liam couldn't hide his greed from appearing on his face.

A moment later, he shook his head with regret.

'It's no use if I try to steal these. They'll eventually find out something is amiss, and I'll probably get executed. What use is wealth if I don't have the power to protect it?'

'...I'll keep the box of pills that he kept inside his drawer. There's only five inside anyways.'

Still, his ethereal eyes inside the space-ring couldn't help but stare at the items inside.

'What is that?' Liam wondered, his eyes fixed to a stack of parchment papers that looked to be inscribed.

Taking it out of Vamar's ring, he examined it.

The shabby writings on the parchment looked to be made entirely out of blood, but it still somewhat resembled a technique or method from Vamar's stack of techniques and spells.

'I should save this. I don't think they'll notice it's gone. I have a feeling it'll come to use later on.'

Before long, Liam had arrived back at the guild.