The fat blonde man in front, his two childhood friends and Nafız behind him were walking with quick steps in the narrow corridor. The place they were in was the escape tunnels of the Agustus house built for emergencies. One end was at the derelict house in the distance, and the other end was at the secret doors in various rooms of the mansion.
"Niko, I embarked on this business trusting your word. If something doesn't come out as the female orc said, you will contribute to the ransom money!"
The answer to Quintus's whining came from the very back of the line.
"Fatty, you still don't seem to believe that the gold I showed you is real?"
None of the three friends, whose minds went to the events in the Partheni house upon the words they heard, could believe what they saw. While advancing in the dark tunnels, Quintus was practically reliving the events before leaving his friend Niko's house.
"Who gave you the right to talk smack about my wife, you miserable orc. If you can't prove your words, I will ask your master for your head!"
The fat man got very angry when his wife's name was mentioned and forgot the purpose of his arrival there. Meanwhile, his two friends didn't know what to do. Taking the orc's head? The fat man must be joking.
Apart from her own abilities they witnessed, more than a hundred fully equipped orcs would turn them into meat puree with a single word of hers. The duo, thinking in fear and anxiety, would be startled by Nafız's cheerful laughter. The female orc, beside whom a mountain of gold coins suddenly accumulated, spoke laughing.
"Chubby, if I am wrong, all of this is yours, exactly the amount of the ransom, but do you promise that you will do what I say after what you hear?"
"Ha ha! Okay, deal, but I hope those gold coins in the interspatial rings you took from Niko are not fake!"
The short fat man thought his friends were playing a game on him, and accepted the offer with the aim of returning what was done to him in his hard times to its owner.
"Quintus! Quintus! Come on, walk a little faster, we'll be late!"
Quintus, thinking about the events experienced while Niko poked his back, came to his senses and quickened his steps. A short while later, when their path was cut by a wooden wall, the voices of two people talking behind it began to be heard, albeit faintly.
"Astute, my son has been kidnapped. Help!"
When the group got closer to the wall, Athena's voice reached their ears.
"Was this the very important subject you mentioned? Athena, look at what you called me to your feet for while the whole city is at the mercy of a serial killer!"
Quintus was listening to the conversations with rapt attention. It was quite natural for his wife to ask for help from the city lord thinking he wouldn't bow his head, but what about what he would hear in a moment?
"You can drop everything and come to sleep with me, but when I tell you they kidnapped my son, does this become an unimportant issue?"
While Athena panted angrily after her scream ringing inside the room, everyone in the tunnel behind the large display cabinet froze. The three friends turned their heads in different directions, but the city lord's brief look at the arena fell into the female orc's mind. Nafız had received the first signal of forbidden love there; it wouldn't be hard to guess that the matter would end here.
Athena continued to press without holding back with maternal instinct.
"You owe me! Did you forget who helped you to end the lineage of the Partheni family? I made my closest friend drink that cursed thing for you!"
"Shut up, stupid woman! Did you do it for me? Are you consoling yourself with this lie? You did everything because of your ambition and unrequited love; even your approaching me was for this purpose. I have absolutely no intention of helping for the child you made with the idiot you married out of spite!"
While the city lord finishing his words headed towards the door of the room with quick steps, Quintus extended his arm to the mechanism to open the secret passage. The ambitious husband was evidently having a nervous breakdown, but a hand grabbing his wrist would prevent him.
While Quintus, seeing the female orc, turned his gazes scorched with the fire of anger towards her, only one word came out of Nafız's mouth.
"Wait!"
The event developed very suddenly; as if they were aware of each other, Athena also said the same word as Nafız.
"Wait!"
"Epiphanes is actually your child, Astute!"
The words came out of her mouth suddenly, the City Lord's steps stopped, and Quintus fainted and fell into Nafız's arms inside the secret tunnel. Just as his two friends made a move towards the fainting man, conversation sounds continued to come from inside.
"Athena, have you lost your mind? Telling this lie won't benefit you!"
"I am not lying, things were bad with my husband before I had my child; there was only you in my bed. I beg you! If I hadn't fallen into this situation, I would have hidden the truth from you forever!"
Athena's thought was logical; if the public heard this news, they wouldn't let her husband and her live in the city. Also, she didn't even know what kind of reaction the unstable city lord would give.
"Woman, the entire responsibility of your words is yours. If you are lying, the son won't be the only one to die!"
The tremor coming from the floor along with the sound of the door closing hard was proof that the young woman also couldn't withstand the tension and fell to the ground. In the moments when servants rushed to help, the group waiting inside the tunnel had set off on the return path.
The secrets covered with earth of the three noble families of the city of Parthenia were completely coming to light today. With the final blow, the old friends had painfully learned that their sins were not innocent like in their childhood years.
The City Lord, leaving the Agustus house in a fury, started to head towards the place where his illegitimate child was held at full speed. Around this time, in the group leaving the derelict house at the end of the secret tunnel, they had gathered around the newly recovering Quintus.
"You, you knew! How can this be?"
Quintus spoke clinging to the orc's hands as soon as he woke up. His eyes were looking as if wishing what he heard was a lie.
"I had guessed it would come to this since the day I smelled the scent peculiar to the clan, that community of filth, from your child. He isn't even aware himself, but even if its intensity is very low, it's impossible for the smell of malicious blood to escape my nose!"
Although Nafız smelling the young man at the marketplace that day seemed like a behavior going no further than making those around laugh, the truth of the matter was completely different. While working on the cure for the Soul Binding Technique, countless Black Lily Clan members had passed through Mora's hands.
"Quintus, calm down a bit. Come on, let's go to our mansion; there are subjects we need to discuss with you!"
The man, whose heart burned in the first hours of the day and who bowed to people he couldn't get along with since childhood, became able to breathe for only a single thought when he learned the schemes turned behind his back. Revenge!
"If there is a subject related to the City Lord, you don't even need to tell me. I will do whatever you want, but I beg both of you, leave Athena's punishment to me!"
His wife had only cheated on him and had a child, but his two childhood friends had a life debt to take from her. Although Quintus knew it was a ridiculous idea to ask this from them, waves of anger coming from his heart hit his head, and he felt like going crazy as he remembered his wife's words.
"This is neither the place nor the time to talk about these; rest well first!"
While his friends taking his arms accompanied the fat man to walk, tears were gently falling to the ground from Quintus's face.