Picking up the stone box, Ritzy jumped down the newly created hole. Falling into the basement and onto the pulverized stone that became sand-like.
Inside the basement, there were many stored valuables but not anything Ritzy could use. There were only gems, paintings, and wine bottles mostly.
Finding nothing of value here, Ritzy spread his Mana Presence out of the room, to see if he could find an exit. Luckily, Ritzy Mana Presence discovered a wooden rack of wine hiding a tunnel out.
Ritzy approached the wine rack and pushed it out of the way gently. Making sure that no noise would be made.
Going through the tunnel, Ritzy found a ladder at the end of it. With nowhere else to go, he climbed the ladder and found a weird wooden ceiling with light coming from the edges. It was a trap door.
Ritzy then controlled his Mana Presence to go through the small opening on the edges to see what was on the other side. His Mana Presence going to the other side, Ritzy found it was a safe room with humans in it.
Ritzy sighed, knowing what he had to do next. Not out of sadness, but out of continuous hindrances.
Opening the trap door, the people inside the room became terrified that their safe room was found.
Going inside, Ritzy was meet with what seemed a royal family of a mother and two children. The family seemed noble like because their clothes were made of higher quality and nicely designed but since they been hiding here for a long time. Their clothes were dirty and worn from so much continuous use.
Mother,
"Get behind me kids!'.
The kids ran behind their mother in fear, scared of the white wolf beastkin.
Ritzy slowly walked to the family and gathered mana onto his hands. Making a small bright light and then turning into two short swords.
The kids yelp in fear and the mother tried to calm her children while trying to hide her sobbing,
"Don't worry kids, the big bad wolf will take us to see our family again at least".
Ritzy hearing her comment, Ritzy realized he was still disguised as a beastkin and thought,
'I'm an idiot, with so many people I had to kill for dumb reasons, I was so bored of this that I thought I needed to kill them to hide my identity when it's already hidden. I almost felt bad for killing a mother after enjoying having a new family in this world'.
Knowing that he didn't have to kill the family to kill them, Ritzy stopped pouring mana into his swords, causing them to disappear. He then picked up the stone box and looked at her.
Ritzy,
"I don't care about you so you can live, just tell how do I leave this room".
The safe room was completely closed off from the outside. There were no visible doors or windows to get out. There was only a small stone tubes poking in from the roof to ventilate air and some moonlight to come through.
Girl,
"Get out of here you bad beastkin".
Boy,
"Why do you damn things even exist! You killed my father!".
The two children started crying out of fear for their lives.
Mom,
"You damn beastkin, I won't ever tell you how to get out of here. Since your gonna kill us, there's no point in helping you".
Ritzy was annoyed and said in a give up manner,
"You try to be nice and this is what you get".
Ignoring them, Ritzy went to the end of the room and placed his hands on the wall. Using mineral magic, the wall shattered creating an opening outside.
Ritzy originally had planned to leave and not ruin their safe house but since they didn't listen, he didn't care about breaking his way out. Causing the safe house to be ruined and the family to be exposed to the dangerous beastkin outside.
Going through the opening, Ritzy looked around him to see where he was. It seemed this place was the private residence of a noble family. There was a garden, stone gates, and the safe room was part of the mansion. Ritzy hypothesized that this must've been the mayor's mansion.
Finally, outside, Ritzy left the manor and went straight to the city's borders to escape while carrying the stone box filled with mana items and a wand.
Running through the city, there were no hiccups like last time. Few mercenary groups were scavenging the area, beastkin patroling, and places where beastkin and humans fought but none of them noticed Ritzy.
Going unhindered, Ritzy quickly arrived at the city border and used mineral magic to climb past the walls. This time though, he didn't care about making some noise so he planted the palm of his right hand on the wall and used mineral magic. The mineral magic terraformed the wall and created stone stairs that lead to the top.
Going up the stairs and on top of the wall, Ritzy looked around while spreading his Mana Presence, looking for any people that could see him. Looking around, he didn't see the main camp so he decided to walk on the city walls until he finally found his camp.
An hour passed and the camp was finally in view but this time he also saw the division tasked with patrolling the area just in case the beastkin did a surprise attack. Since he couldn't barge in, Ritzy took the opportunity to take off his disguise.
Ritzy untied the fox ears, tail, and whiskers.
Ritzy then sighed from having to continue sneaking around such weak people but then remembered something,
'Weak...Weak...I don't need to sneak around anymore. I'm a pseudo-noble and outrank them'.
Ritzy created more stone stairs and went down the wall. Reaching to the bottom, Ritzy continued walking, not bothering to hide his presence.
Walking for a mile, a group of knights finally noticed Ritzy. They were afraid at first but then noticed Ritzy eyes. It was the golden-eyed support knight for Benjamin they heard earlier in the night at the main camp before their shift started.
Knight 1,
"Are you possibly the support knight Jack we heard about?".
Ritzy was a bit surprised but then remembered that he was going under his real name when he was with Kevin.
Ritzy,
"Yes, why do you ask".
Knight 1,
"Oh, that's good to hear. For a moment we thought you were a beastkin that was escaping the city. Anyways, what are you doing here?".
Ritzy wasn't surprised by his question so he simply walked in front of him and extend his clenched hand.
Ritzy,
"Extend your hand".
The group of knights was confused and became skeptical but the leader of the group still walked forward and extended his hands.
The knight extending his hands to Ritzy, Ritzy stopped clenching and opened his hands. Causing a silver coin to land on the knights palms.
Ritzy,
"I hope this is enough of an explanation? Or does my title of a support knight under the Benedire's not guarantee at least this much?".
Originally Ritzy was going to use his real title but he decided to role with using his past name for now. He liked the feeling of being called Jack again
The knight was surprised and showed a face full of glee but before he took the coins, he looks at his companions. Looking at his companions, he saw all of them encouraging him to accept it since it meant one silver coin for each of them.
Knowing he wouldn't be in trouble for accepting this bribe, he took the coins.
Knight 1,
"I apologize, I didn't know. As an apology, would you like us to escort you back to camp? There might be other groups patrolling on the way back to camp so I wouldn't want them to misunderstand as well".
Ritzy,
"That would be splendid, with your group of knights here. I would be spared from much trouble. Please lead the way".
Knight 1,
"Of course".
When walking back to camp, they were met with many groups that approached them and every time they did, the knight would only give 1 iron coin to be shared for their group.
Ritzy felt a bit heartbroken that he overpaid the knight group with a silver coin but that was the cheapest appropriate thing he could give. He only had a box filled with mana items, silver coins, gold coins, and 20 copper coins on him. The twenty copper coins are too little for a bribe so he could only give them the next cheapest thing on him, a silver coin.