The incident happened very suddenly.
So suddenly that Lann found it somewhat absurd.
His neck, as he fell, happened to get caught on the spine of that hefty commercial tome.
The force from the weight of his over 100 kilogram body directly snapped his cervical vertebra.
When he fell, Lann noticed it, and Alia saw it too, but neither of them paid any attention.
Not only did they not care, even Ubank himself didn’t care!
Apart from a moment of instinctive panic when he initially lost his balance, Ubank didn’t think he’d suffer any mishap from a mere fall.
Until his neck hit the book spine and made a crisp "crack" sound.
It was only then that Lann’s hand, which was lightly resting on Alia, suddenly stopped, and he abruptly turned to look at him.
And at that moment, what the Demon Hunter saw were just his gradually dilating, bewildered eyes.
Even for someone like Lann, who strives for calmness and precision in combat mode.
Upon facing such a situation, he couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment, then suddenly blurted out a curse in Chinese.
Alia, who was almost calm by now, was startled like a frightened little bunny.
Lann quickly moved to Ubank’s side.
He didn’t care one bit that this scumbag was dead, but the information in his brain was his only clue!
Who knows if a Warlock can make the dead speak?!
Lann wanted to save Ubank, but upon getting closer, he knew with just a glance that the man was lifeless.
The side of Ubank’s neck, beneath the skin’s protrusion, even showed the outline of his vertebrae.
This Skellige brute, his hair sprawled to one side, lay in a pool of blood on the ground.
Due to muscle spasms, drool leaked from his mouth.
Pupils dilated, there was no saving him.
Lann scanned the situation roughly and understood the gist of it.
As Ubank stood up, his only functioning foot stepped on grease spattered from Alia’s plate.
The plate had been placed on the large table.
Just like that book, a gift from Gant Odim.
This was no coincidence.
Lann already had a suspicion in his mind.
It was, at least, not a "coincidence" or "accident" in the traditional sense.
Killing twenty-seven professional warriors in disadvantageous terrain hadn’t fazed Lann’s hand in the slightest.
But as he reached out to retrieve the book that killed Ubank, he furrowed his brow, unusually indecisive.
With a "whap," the book was pulled out, and the limp corpse fell into the bloody mess.
Lann pursed his lips and crouched next to the corpse, casually flipping open a page.
"Coincidentally" at that moment, a drop of blood fell from the ceiling, hitting a line of text.
— "Merchants must strive to maintain their necessity to clients, at any cost! Failing that, the day of their bankruptcy isn’t far off."
The crimson blood droplet made that line stand out starkly on the whole page.
Slowly closing the book, Lann’s face appeared very unhappy.
This wasn’t a coincidence, wasn’t an accident.
This was something crafted by a being capable of altering reality, transcending time in foresight... a prank!
Alia approached the Demon Hunter a bit timidly. Where he was now, there were more bodies than elsewhere.
Lann closed the book in his hand again and placed it flatly on the floor.
"Then, does it mean we won’t be able to find those children about to be turned into slaves?"
Alia asked timidly, a tone quite different from her usually bold demeanor.
"Actually... as your Attendant, I should’ve taken care of that book, right?"
Lann shook his head gently.
"This isn’t your fault, Alia. The person who sent this book isn’t a friend. Even if you hadn’t been busy eating, I’d have just tossed it on the table and checked out."
The party involved was Gant Odim. No matter what decision he made, the book’s purpose had been predetermined.
It was meant to eliminate the lead Lann had captured and leave him, like a bankrupt gambler, with no choice but to sign a contract.
A contract drafted by the opponent.
Lann didn’t intend to explain the whole story to Alia. For such a creature, whether one more or less person knew was utterly irrelevant.
Better not burden the kid with worry.
The necklace on the Demon Hunter’s chest began to tremble faintly, and shortly after, with fluctuations in air pressure...
With a "boom," a portal opened in Lann’s room.
"Hey, Lann, you... ah!"
A red-haired beauty in a daring evening dress gracefully stepped out of the portal.
But before she could finish her greeting, the slick blood beneath her feet caused her to lose balance.
Lann promptly stood up, reaching out to catch the stumbling Triss.
With the incident involving Ubank, seeing someone fall now made him anxious.
Held by Lann, Triss blushed almost inexplicably, avoiding eye contact.
"Oh, th-thank you! You saved my evening dress... My God! What happened here?!"
When pulling her arm away from Lann’s hand, Triss, caught up in the moment, hadn’t even noticed the severe disarray around her.
The center of Vizima’s trade district! The finest locale in all of Temeria, hosting a top-tier hotel!
Was this a slaughterhouse?!
The shock quickly drained the blush from Triss’s face.
Anyone who knew her understood she possessed an unwavering focus when driven.
"Sorry, Lann. I didn’t anticipate the enemy’s power and audacity would reach such extents... In the heart of a trade district!"
Given a Warlock’s intellect, it didn’t take Triss long to grasp the situation.
"However, I assume my apologies might not be significant to you at the moment; where’s that ’tongue’?"
At this mention, Lann’s face darkened as he silently turned toward Ubank’s corpse.
Triss was taken aback; she’d just sensed in the Language of the Heart that Lann’s thinking seemed unusually calm, not like someone mad with rage.
"What happened? Give me the nod, and soon he’ll be speaking. Why so hasty?"
"It wasn’t me who killed him." Lann simply shook his head.
"He died in an accident... Don’t ask further, just tell me if your magic can make the corpse speak or not."
Lann understood that if Gant Odim left a corpse behind, it meant he believed there was nothing Lann could do with just a body.
But out of sheer reluctance, Lann still inquired with Triss.
"You mean necromancy?! No way! That’s a forbidden magic!"
Triss exclaimed in shock.
While Lann didn’t grasp the technical terms, he understood the situation went as expected.
Yet giving up was not an easy feat for him.
"Forbidden? Does it need some kind of casting permit? Is the use of this magic monitored? Any leeway?"
Triss shook her head in exasperation, just about to explain the dangers of necromancy.
But the Demon Hunter furrowed his fine brows, cutting her off with a gesture.
Listening intently, as if catching a hint of something.
"There’s a squad running on the street, armored, at least two hundred... Security force?"
Lann grit his teeth hard.
These guys were well taken care of in Ubank’s pocket.
But that was for Ubank, and the big shots backing him.
The security force turned a blind eye when Ubank led his men around town and when he broke open room doors.
However, once Lann had slaughtered these scumbags, with no one left to tip them off, they immediately smelled something fishy and headed straight for the inn.
A scatter of over twenty isn’t the same as a full contingent of two hundred.
Lann turned and swiftly asked Triss.
"Can you still teleport us?"
Triss was focused, deeply in her working state.
"Shouldn’t be a problem."
"Then teleport us near the outskirts of Vizima. With the security force having reason now, plus the backing of the forces behind them, they’ll surely take major actions to find us once and for all. We can’t stay in the city."
Lann grabbed Alia, using his other hand to lift Ubank’s corpse.
"I haven’t set a teleportation rune outside the city; I can only guarantee landing near Vizima, don’t expect precision."
Triss looked at Lann worriedly, but the young man nonchalantly nodded.
"As long as you don’t teleport me into a rock, I don’t care where."