The man then went into an alleyway located just on the outskirts of the city. This alleyway looked empty and desolate as and no one could be seen and the houses look unoccupied and run-down. The man then went inside a shabby four-story building.
As he went inside, a clerk who was dozing off suddenly looked up and when he saw the man's face, his expression lit up and he put on a bright smile.
"Mr. Bram, what brings you here?" The clerk spoke as respectfully as possible.
"Potential package." The man, Bram, lowly said.
The clerk seemed to understand what he meant and he gestured to guide Bram.
They then went to the fourth floor. Along the way, there were some sounds of pleasure coming from the rooms they passed by. As they went into a large room at the end of the hallway, the clerk stopped.
"This is as far as I can go, Sir Bram."
"Good. Now scram." Bram threw a coin purse to the clerk who skillfully caught it. His smile grew wider as he bowed to Bram then left.
Bram continued traversing the room until he was in front of a desk. Along the way, wails of what seemed to be children kept ringing on Bram's ears. His left and right were all filled with cages filled with children of different races, all with blank expressions. There were human girls, beastmen, and there were also a few humans with small horns, or dragonborns.
The public didn't know the truth about the alleyway Bram's at. Few only took notice of it by day because it was really on the very outskirts of the city, which makes them a bit hidden and away from places with high concentration of people. The truth was that it was actually a slave den! The children there were all either kidnapped from the streets or bought from other people.
Bram sat in front of the desk. There was a young man in his 20s sitting there lazily with a human little girl sitting on his lap. This human girl was wearing a tattered oversized shirt and the young man continued to fiddle with the girl's hair. Surprisingly enough, the girl's face doesn't show any emotion, and she was only drooling with deadpan eyes.
"What's the matter?" The young man stopped what he's doing and looked at Bram.
"Business as usual. Can you not do that in front of me? It's disgusting."
"Tch. As if you don't enjoy this job you have. Hypocrite."
"I enjoy my job because of the money, not the actual business you're running, Val. Also, what's with that youthful look? Why the fuck do you always want to look young?"
It turns out this young man in front of him is actually older or at least as old as Bram!
"Fuck off. Mind your own business! Alright, you've wasted enough of my time. What's the fuss?"
The 'young man' suddenly changed appearance. From his youthful look, his face started having wrinkles and his muscles started sagging a bit. His hair suddenly just disappeared, and his entire bearing changed. He now looked like a bald slightly old man. It was the true appearance of Val, who liked to change his appearance using mana.
"I saw some good seeds on the square. Four of them, all high-quality dragonborns."
"What? Are you sure they're high quality?"
"Yes, their appearances are very good compared to the usual children you see and they looked to be of noble birth. I don't know which house or family they are though, but from what I saw, they had an old man and a middle-aged man with them. Both of them looked very ordinary, so I'm guessing their nobility is just low."
"What's the appearance of the old man?"
"Hmmm.. I'll show you." Bram's form then started to shift slowly. His final appearance looked partly like Holmes' disguise but without the hunchback and the cane. He was a ramrod straight disguised Holmes, so to say.
"Not familiar. I've seen the faces of almost every famous nobles here and he's definitely not one of them."
"Maybe they're just newly transferred here? I remember a carriage back then that transported a family to the palace near the middle of the city. Do you think they live there?" Bram said as he slowly reverted back to his form.
"Highly likely. Where else would they live? That's only recently built and with their timing, I'm guessing they're the ones who rebuilt it."
"Alright. So, what do you think? Do you think it's worth it?"
"Maybe. Try to track their movements first. If they have tight security, I won't allow it. If it's pretty lax, you can try to move. Remember, if you get caught, we have no relation whatsoever!" Val sternly declared.
"Rest assure, I won't rat you out. Besides, when did I ever fail this job? Don't worry, as an extra precaution, I'll try to look for information first. I'll try to scout their place and familiarize myself with the old man first. It seems like the old man was someone they heavily trusted, hehe." Bram smiled and left.
It wasn't his first job in this business. He was actually one of the few people that work for Val and is assigned to lure the children outside. He wasn't well-versed with combat, but he takes pride in his disguising skill. In actuality, his disguising skill is way inferior to Holmes', but his skill is enough to be called proficient by normal people.
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Zeke and company went home just as the sun went down. Holmes didn't ask anymore and he just planned to speak of it when their daughter will bring it up.
Esteban, however, asked Zeke as soon as they were alone.
"Young Master, can I ask what you did to the young man back there? You killer the old man, but where are the two of them?"
"Mr. Esteban, one at a time, please. Also, it's alright to report this to my father, I'm sure he'll take my training seriously."
"Training?"
"....oh, so that's how it is." Esteban recalled what Charles tasked him to do.
"I killed both of them." Zeke calmly stated.
"B-both? But where are their corpses? Did you put it in the spatial ring? That's right!"
"No. Although I could do that, the place would be messy."
"Then how, Young Master?"
"It's my secret. Can I ask you to lie to them about this, Mr. Esteban?"
"T-that... I couldn't..."
"Don't worry, Mr. Esteban, it's not a bad secret. You can tell them I killed both men, but please tell them you were the one who cleaned it up. Just a white lie, Mr. Esteban. No harm intended." Zeke smiled.
"*sigh*, alright Young Master. May I say something?"
"Sure, Mr. Esteban. What is it?"
"Why do I feel like you're not young anymore, Young Master? It feels like you're only young by body but not by your mind. *sigh*, even I don't quite understand what I'm feeling when I'm talking to you, Young Master."
"I get it, Mr. Esteban. Matter of fact, you can act like I'm already a teenager. It would make things easy for you too, Mr."
"Alright, Young Master. I'll go in first and report to them."
"I'll rest in my room for a bit. See you later, Mr. Esteban!"
Zeke and Esteban parted ways after entering the house. Esteban went into the study room to talk to Charles, while Zeke went in his room.
As Esteban recalled the events to Charles, he couldn't help but be utterly surprised by his son's actions. From how he saw the situation to how he handled it, it didn't match his son's age. How could a 3 year old think that meticulously? To take advantage of his enemy's blind spot and attention to directly stab their neck with no hesitation whatsoever. His son wasn't like a normal child that time but more like a trained assassin in his mind when he learned from Esteban.
However, he soon calmed down as he already knew that his son was very different than others. He was very matured, and everything he did was very unbelievable for someone his age.
"I see. I've long known that my son's very different from others. I will certainly try to pry his secret. The only thing I worry about is if my son's secret is related to something evil or demonic. Even though he's rapidly improving, I'm afraid evil techniques cost something equivalent to what it offered."
"I understand. It's certainly possible if it's an evil art, but where would your son get that? He's technically at your side ever since he was born, right?"
"T-that... yes, but I still cannot rule it out. Remember that he already has his mana core this early. Even though he started early, he still should have achieved 60 to 70% of his mana core at most but look at him now, he already has it and is already aiming for peak low tier 1. Hmmm, did one of my books contain some sort of demonic teaching? I'm sure I checked all of it..."
"There's no need to bother, sir. We will know it sooner or later."
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you, Esteban, I arranged a training room for Zeke starting this month or the next. Since my son had already killed someone, I can assume his mind is already that of a teenager. I mean, how can a 3-year-old unhesitantly kill AND in a brutal way? Remember that you haven't seen how he killed the other man, who knows if he died in a more brutal way than his father? *sigh*, I should be admonishing him now but I can't seem to stop myself from getting happy for my son. I'm happy that he's improving very fast, but I'm slightly uncomfortable about him killing already. It just strengthens my belief that he practices something evil."
"You don't need to worry sir. From my experience with him, Ezekiel might be matured a lot but he still has his childish side, and he only goes serious when it's about training or the like. I think it's just because of his innately high maturity at such a young age that he can kill without hesitation. Also, don't you think it's better for your successor to be like this? Someone that knows how to act decisively and knows how to cut weeds and eliminate the roots. If your son let the two off, there's no guarantee they will not take their frustrations out on the old woman. In my opinion, he did it taking into consideration the future of the old woman."
Esteban slowly explained to Charles.
"... I see. By the way, could you try to find the old woman and ask her what my son did to the other one? I assume she is shocked by what happened, so bring some compensation for her."
"I'll try to find her before this day ends." Esteban bowed and left.
The person they're talking about, Zeke, was sitting happily on his bed, looking at the gains he got from 'cutting the weeds and eliminating the roots'.