"Vincent… my sister is the same as me, but she will never confess as I did. Can you... give her a chance? She is a very caring and gentle girl. She will not betray you either. Emily will be loving you even more than I do." said Emma quietly in his ear as she glanced at stunned Emily.
"...We will be in this town for some time before the envoy arrives. She has this time to make a choice," answered Vincent as he also glanced at Emily.
"Go and sit with Anna and Annie. We still haven't finished our food. I nearly forget to gather my 'loot'." said Vincent and released her from his embrace while ignoring the crowd's gaze on them, he moved to 11 corpses behind him.
Emma nodded and came to the side of his two girls. She already accepted him for who he is and his twisted worldview. If she's not, then she would never say what she said.
Annie moved a bit and gave her space between them.
"Thank you for your support, I will not disappoint you," said Emma to Annie and Anna as she quietly sat in that place.
"You still didn't know our family's secret, but you will today. Your past nor your origin is not really important to us. If you betray him or us, you will regret it deeply, I can guarantee you that." said Anna calmly as she moved her beautiful eyes to look at Emma who was a few centimetres from her left side.
"I understand," said Emma seriously and nodded.
Meanwhile, Vincent already began to gather his loot from bodies under the stunned gaze of the crowd.
'They are really members of rich families. 20 gold… and most than half of it comes from Liam alone. He also had this with him.' thought Vincent as he kneeled and checked the last corpse, Liam's. He found a strange object that looked like a grey stone.
'This thing contains quite a lot of earth element particles in it, and I can say that it has even more at first. Looks like Liam absorbed some part of them from this stone. What a waste of good resources. Wait… I feel some earth element coming out from Liam's corpse, but it comes from a certain spot and not from the entire body. It's coming from his...spine?' as Vincent noticed this spot, he turned Liam's corpse to check.
Vincent lit up his right hand and burned clothes on the corpses' backs.
'What is this psycho doing?' thought the crowd as they watched Vincent's action.
Vincent makes the fire even more condensed on fingers as he slowly inserts them in Liam's flesh. With fingers of his right hand, he grabbed his spine on the back while his left hand broke the spine spot near his skull. Then he began to break each rib bone connected to his spine. When he finished, he placed his right foot on Liam's pelvis-bone and grabbed his spine with his right hand and began to rip it off
*Crack!*
The spine spot that connected to his pelvis broke as his spine was completely ripped off.
Vincent stood up and looked at the spine carefully.
'So it's coming from the spinal cord. Here elemental particles are the densest. It looks like all absorbed elemental particles are gathered and contained hereafter our death. This has basically become an elemental resource. I can sense that it is dissipating slowly. With this speed, it should take around a week to be fully empty of all elements since Liam was not even a 1st ranked magus yet, so the quantity he absorbed is very low. At that time, this will become just a human bone, no more, no less.
I wonder how long will it take for a spinal cord of 6th ranked magus or higher to be emptied? What about WE(world essence)? Will it also be contained in the spinal cord after death?
Also, since it became a resource, what if I…' thought Vincent and broke the spinal cord in half and colourless liquid began to drop out of the cracked spot.
Vincent moved his hand up and opened his mouth.
*Gulp*
He began to swallow the Cerebrospinal fluid.
*Badum!*
Crowds' eyes went wide, their hearts trembling in horror as they looked at the act of cannibalism in front of them.
*Hit* *Splash*
A lot of people in the crowd fainted on the spot while others vomited. This was just too much.
As fluid entered his system, his eyes narrowed, but then he smiled.'...ahaha. Amazing. I can feel the earth element filling my body quite a bit. Before, I didn't have earth elemental particles in me since I hadn't started absorption yet, and now, its quantity even surpassed my fire by just a few drops of his cerebrospinal fluid. He probably had only a normal affinity towards earth elements only, while others are weak or none, since I don't sense other elements in it.
He was 19 years old, but he had only this much quantity...what trash. I guess others are the same, but still, it would be a waste if this 'resource' will not be taken, right? ' thought Vincent as he stood up. He threw the now useless spinal cord away and did the same thing with other corpses.
After 4 minutes, he finished.
'Not bad… My fire, earth, and water elements should already meet the requirement for 1st rank magus, while wind, light, and even dark elements are also raised in quantity.' thought Vincent as he threw the last spine away after absorbing its fluid from inside of it. With this, he will need only a few months more to raise those last 3 elements to 1st rank. I can already start to create my spells, but without comparison and guidance, it will take a bit more time to learn.
He again washed his hands clean from the blood before going back to his seat.
He completely ignored the terrified crowd, but suddenly, he heard the voice when he sat at the table.
"Stop the fight or there will be the…consequences." Cora, with Ava beside her, entered the cafeteria. They thought that the fight was still ongoing, but…
As both of them entered, they saw a dozen or so bodies nearby. Blood was everywhere on the floor. Some of the corpses were even beheaded.
"H-how has this happened…? Oh god, who did this!?" said Ava with a shaking voice.
"Who could tell me clearly what happened here!?" said Cora loudly and a terrified girl comes to her from the crowd and starts to tell the entire story with a shaking voice.
As Cora and Ava finished listening, they turned to look at the boy at a certain table.
"Vincent, you… what have you done?" said a shocked Cora.
Vincent takes out his pouch and throws it to her.
"There are 6 gold coins as my fine," said Vincent calmly to Cora before looking at the 3 girls that looked at him with confusion from his previous actions.
"I will explain to you later about that. Let's finish our food and go to a fire lecture," said Vincent calmly and smiled lightly at them. He will tell them about this little 'discovery' of his.
Cora caught a pouch but didn't look inside.
"Why did you kill them? I don't believe that you couldn't win without killing them." Cora said with anger to Vincent.
Vincent and his 3 girls finished their food and stood up.
"Emma, you attend fire element lectures too, right?" he asked Emma. Ignoring Cora's question.
"Em, yes. I'm training in fire and earth elements, but my affinity is only normal so I'm still quite away from reaching requirements for 1sr rank magus," answered Emma softly as she looked at him.
"I see. Then let's go to a fire lecture. It will soon begin. What about your sister?" said Vincent.
"She has different classes than me," answered Emma as she shook her blackhead.
"Vincent!! I asked you a question!" Cora yelled at him.
Vincent and the girls left the cafeteria.
The crowd began to mumble between them. They will never forget this day in their entire lives.
After 2 minutes as they left, a few deacons arrived. As they looked at the floor, their hearts dropped.
After hearing the full story, they fell silent.
'12… 12 deaths of members of influential families. Even though Vincent is untouchable right now, they are not. They failed to protect them, and they will be asked for it since they can't touch Vincent.
'God… what should we do??' thought deacons to themselves as despair filled their hearts.
…
Vincent and the girls arrived at the class lecture.
The lecture was already filled with students as they waited for deacon Damien, especially some of the girls.
Damien was a handsome guy of around 25 years old. There are even rumours that he is in relationships with Mara, the school staff, and even with some of his students.
He is from a common family, but he has a high affinity to fire and he is already a 1st rank fire magus. This is more than enough to tempt a woman.
As Vincent entered, everyone turned to look at him. The news about him cruelly killing 12 people and even eating them, is known by everyone already.
"Vincent, you are popular. Look how scared they are of you," said Emma and giggled lightly.
"This is how it should be," said sweet Annie from the side.
"Let's find a place to sit," said Vincent calmly and moved to the left side in the middle of the lecture sitting area.
All people around them moved elsewhere, no one wanted to sit close to the cannibal.
Vincent sat up. Annie and Emma were on the left side of him while Anna at the right.
"I already want to go home to... 'cultivate'." said Annie with some irritation as she glanced at Vincent and his lips and remembered how he 'trained' her to become a warrior faster.
Emma looked at her and her expression, and then at Vincent. She was not an idiot, she could understand a lot of things. Especially if the person is in love.
'So this is their family's secret… incest.' guesses Emma as she saw a lewd look in Annie's eyes. 'This is uncommon these days, but not very rare either. As long as this is mutual, then I don't mind it.'
'Today I will lose my virginity to him and become his woman. I'm curious how it feels though. Will Emily come to a decision by herself or should I help her?' thought Emma as she looked at Vincent as was sitting quietly with closed eyes.
"Good morning, students. There are some issues in the school, so this will be the last lecture for today." said a handsome man in a grey robe that entered the lecture scene.
....
___________
Author's note: "How was it?"