After finding the posion I needed, I didn't want to stay near Rea any longer. I swiftly closed the bamboo pipe with the cork, making sure not to touch the posion. I didn't know if it could affect from the skin. I planned to read the scroll I'd copied before using this poison on anyone.
I kept the container which was as long as my middle finger inside my money pouch. After tying it tightly around my waist, I donned my T-shirt.
My rod made it a bit difficult to walk quickly. Still, I made my way outside the room. Gently closing the door, I looked behind me.
The corridor was red, empty, and silent. The coldness seeped through my bones as I walked to the other side.
The only thing I needed to do now was to escape from here. No way I could pay after bedding two expensive prostitutes.
'The fees might be over 20 gold kins,' I had a valid reason to think of that.
I didn't believe for a second that that brothel keeper was the true owner of this inn. To keep Rea in check, there should at least be a rank 7 practitioner here.
Trying to fight my way out alone, in this state, was a really foolish idea. Obviously, I was going to leave Hu Shuo here. He was meant to be a decoy for my escape, if the guards ever found what I had done. However, to escape from this place was tricky.
'If I knew where this brothel was located before I came here, I'd have planned an escape route. Let's see... maybe I can escape from those windows,' I settled for a quick rough plan.
I had seen the open windows of this inn earlier. I was at the third floor. With my rank 6 body, maybe I could land without getting too hurt.
'I'll use a rope if I find one.'
Quietly, I walked on left side of this corridor. The rooms on this side had the windows which faced Hai Long street. I'd have escaped from Rea's room but there was no window on it's walls.
I lightly pushed the doors of the 4 room I came across. They were all closed except for one of them. I didn't rashly open it and walked ahead instead. I pushed other doors until I again came before Chae Wong's door.
The smell of blood was thicker than before and the lantern was still burning. I pushed the door but it didn't bulge. I was about to turn back. I thought it was also closed but then I saw a marble stuck between the door and it's sill.
It was placed at a strategic point which made a careless visitor think the door was actually locked from the inside.
I couldn't pull it out so I kicked it with my clog. The marble went inside and the door creaked open. Promptly getting in and closing the door, I didn't let the yellow light from inside illuminate the corridor for long.
Looking back, I saw no one inside. The bed was on the right side and a cupboard similar to what I'd seen earlier on the left side. Opposite to me, a large open window let in the cold air. I went near it and looked outside.
Above my head, I could see the sky stretched like a dark canopy, pierced by numerous twinkling blue and white stars. There was no moon in this world to overshadow these stars with her light.
I looked down, Hai Long street was still busy. The open door of this brothel disguised as inn was a few meters to the right.
'If I jump from here, people would surely know about my landing,' I stepped backwards and fell into a long thought.
The inn's outer wall didn't have any support for climbing. To reduce the impact of my fall, my only choice was to somehow hang from the window. Again, I needed a strong rope.
I walked in circles for sometime before I had a crazy but viable idea. I immediately went near the bed and pulled its sheets. Just as I was about to reach for the cupboard, a splashing sound stopped me.
I looked down, my right foot was half under the bed. Water was... No no, it was blood that I had stepped on. I pulled back my foot. The clog I wore was red.
I didn't need to use my half spirit sense to know that there was a dead body under the bed. I bent down and gazed at the hidden corpse.
She was naked, bathed in her own blood. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide open. It felt like she was staring at me when I looked at her.
The light of the lanterns couldn't fully reach under the bed. Still, I saw the weapons with which the killer had murdered her.
Long needles. Exactly the same as Rea had, there were at least 17 of them on just her neck. Most of the blood was coming from her head. Her scattered hairs were dark red, soaked in thick blood.
I got up from the floor and took the large bed sheet near the open window. I didn't have the time for speculating about the cause of this crime.
Seeing how tense the body was even after the person had died, I could figure she was paralyzed before being killed. With these details, I was more than 90% sure that this was done by Rea.
Shaking my head, I opened the cupboard. A similar set of clothes were inside. Rather than examining them, I simply pulled all clothes out and threw them on the floor.
'Anything else? Oh, that scarf...' I threw that on the floor as well.
I supposed that much cloth was enough to reach the bottom of second floor. I could land quietly from that height.
I sat down near the clothes and started tying them one by one. Indeed, I was going to make a rope out of them. This wasn't the first time I'd done such a thing and it probably wouldn't be the last.
Back on earth, I was an expert at such craft. Other than being an occasionally hired assassin and a full-time scammer, I was also a part-time robber. Burglary was just the part of my job.
I knew I had to make every knot the strongest I could. In doing so, I also couldn't use too much clothing or the rope would become too short. Every cloth measured the longest diagonally. I had to carefully identify which order of clothes made-up the longest combination...
After I was done tying the clothes with one end of the bedsheet, I threw half of this makeshift rope out of the window.
As for the other half, I tied it's end on the bed's leg which was nearest to the window. The bed was heavy enough to support my weight.
'Alright, only one thing is left to do now.'
I held the rope with my both of my hands. This seemed to be Chae Wong's underwear... I was going to depend on it tonight.
Hoping that the tailors hadn't done a sloppy job, I stood on the window for a moment. Without glancing at the street this time, I quietly slipped down with practiced familiarity.