Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The monotonous and constant dripping sound of blood pulled on the taut nerves of the people present.
Lifting up his sleeve to wipe his face, Ian calmly threw the torn flesh in his hand to the side. It randomly dropped somewhere in the group of tied up people, near a few who acted strangely before, and the ones close to it screamed in horror at the closeup gory sight.
They were staff working in the kitchen. Handling jobs from washing dishes to preparing the ingredients to cooking. They have all seen the tongues of animals before when prepping the materials and cooking them. Sometimes, they would even purchase a live animal, like a pig, and butcher it, cutting up all its body parts to be used for cooking recipes.
All of them were long used to seeing blood and the dismembered body parts.
But they were animals. Not humans.
Now in the present, seeing this bloody scene that cannot be compared to the bleeding during the dismemberment of an animal, all the kitchen staff felt nauseous and scared out of their wits.
Unspeakably, some of their pants at one time developed some wet stains.
They felt like the animals they butchered.
This wasn't the end.
Ian couldn't care less about the fear emanating from everyone around him. He merely wiped away the excess blood pooling on his face.
"Shade, get some writing paper for me," Ian said as he once again approached the fallen, bleeding man.
"Yes."
Shade quickly left and came back with pieces of white paper and a pen.
Ian used the blood-stained disposable gloves to take the papers, leaving red splotches that contrasted sharply with the pure white color.
Taking the pen as well, Ian nodded to Shade and went back to focusing on the now tongue-less man.
"Lift him up," Ian commanded two trembling servants to hold the man up as the latter had no strength to sustain such a position himself.
Putting the pen with impressed blood marks in the man's shaking hand, unknown if it was from pain or fear, Ian laid a piece of paper on the floor. Tapping it with his pointer finger, a crimson dot painted itself there as Ian said with his usual polite and innocent smile, "Why don't you write down everything you know."
The man shook. The pen rattled in his hand.
Seeing this, Ian did not get angry. Instead, his smile widened as if to show his harmlessness and he looked worriedly at the man. But all the man saw was the twisted and laughing look in Ian's eyes that seemed to see not a person but an animal for their entertainment.
All the pores on the man's body seemed to open as sweat oozed out like crazy. Unimaginable terror and dread haunted him when he looked into Ian's eyes that did not resemble that of a child's. Everything he did appeared to only entertain him, the other not caring about how inhumane his actions were and unbothered by the silence of the perpetrator. The man felt death looming over him.
"It seems you don't have the strength to even hold a pen properly. Or if you would like, you can use your own blood to write, I don't mind. As long as you tell me everything you know."
Ian acted considerately as he reached out to take the pen back.
Hearing these words from the innocent-looking young boy in front of him who looked young enough to be his son, the man who worked as a kitchen chef in the Everett family stared at the other with wide eyes filled with fear and regret, unable to speak or make a sound. He couldn't believe that someone who looked like this could have a personality so far from his appearance.
He regretted that he was so greedy. He regretted that he dared have the guts to help them poison the Everett family.
If he had known this would happen, he wouldn't have done this no matter how much they sugarcoated his future and threatened him if he didn't comply.
Although still shaking, the man gripped the pen as tight as possible, afraid it would slip out of his grasp and he would have to drain his own blood to write. He understood that Ian was not joking with any of the words he said.
The man shakily started writing on the paper everything he could remember about the deal he made with the ones who came to find him for him to poison the soup. He also knew who else was in on it. He wasn't the only one who was sought out to spike the food. Every chef in the Everett family was in charge of a different dish, for example, he was responsible for cooking soup while others were responsible for other dishes. This was to prevent someone from escaping responsibility once they tried to mess with their master family's food.
Although knowing that his ending might not be pretty even if he confesses, the man still holds onto the tiny hope that at least he won't die a painful death. Remembering the shocking pain from when Ian pulled out his tongue with no mercy or feeling, the man could not help but shiver, causing his last word to look even more wobbly than the other ones. He never wanted to experience that again.
Taking the paper from under the man, Ian quickly skimmed through it.
Not a lot was written on the paper. The other party hid pretty well, they did not reveal their name to the soup maker or their purpose, they only instructed him on what to do in exchange for a large amount of money and other benefits. But from the small details they told the man in order to gain his trust, Ian figured out which gang they were from. Additionally, the soup maker outed his fellow colleagues who were also involved in this scheme, not that Ian needed to know as he already knew who were involved. Apparently all of them were in some kind of debt, whether from gambling or a debt caused by family members, that's why they took the risk to do this.
However, those debts felt too deliberate, like they were designed to pull in those chefs to take the fall.
Before their hiring, Angus had someone check their background and found nothing about debts and bad habits so they were hired, but now this? Something's up.
"… so it was the Gudma Gang," Ian muttered to himself. But why would they do this? They're just a small gang who have no relation or grudge against the Everett Mafia Group.
Ian smelled something suspicious.
'I don't think it was them behind this incident. I have a feeling that they are the true culprits.' Ian's eyes flashed. Has their plan started already? But what would this incident accomplish? 'This didn't happen in my first life. Did my regression change things?'
'It doesn't matter. I just need to be more on guard for their covert moves.' Ian looked at the serving staff and kitchen staff around him. 'And recheck their backgrounds and change staff.'
Coming out of his thoughts, Ian shifted his attention to the other people he found guilty of attempting to poison him and his brother.
The ones eyed by Ian tried their best to shrink their body and lower their presence, but Ian wasn't having it. Like the man before them, they also regretted their deeds. Who would've known that the younger brother of their employer would be so sharp to the taste of poison and notice something wrong with the food prepared by them. Not only did he look fine after ingesting some of the fatal poison, his brother didn't take even a bite!
Now they were in big trouble.
Like with the now tongueless man, Ian had them tell him everything they knew about the people who bribed them, not hesitating to act heavy-handed once they refused to admit to their participation. Fresh blood constantly sprayed onto the dining room floor, covering them in a layer of red. Quickly enough, they realized that Ian had already judged them as guilty with not a trace of doubt, so the remaining ones quickly spilled to prevent themselves from suffering the same tragic fate as their predecessors.
Ian nodded. He finally got everything he wanted to hear from them.
Ian changed to look at the cowering man still held up by the two servants. The other did not dare to look at Ian, averting his eyes. Ian did not care and called the bodyguards to come here, waving his hand, he had them take the half dead man away. The man instantly started to struggle with all the strength he had left, knowing his ending would not be good if he was left in their hands. After all, the Everett family and their men were not ordinary people, they were all part of a mafia group. Not to mention he tried to poison their head and his family.
To the trained bodyguards, however, his struggles were nothing more than the wriggles of a worm.
Ian turned around, about to command the servants and maids to clean up the mess.
At this moment, figures appeared at the doorway to the dining room.
"…What is going on here?" One of the figures stepped forward.
From an objective perspective of the scene in the dining room. Blood stains dyed the floorboards red. People could be seen trembling and shaking with fear and submission on the floor, either kneeling or tied up. Bodyguards dragging a bloody and tongue-less man away. A group of grown men were tied up and covered in blood with some having their limbs twisted into weird and unnatural shapes. And adding to the effect, a detached human tongue had been casually placed on the floor.
The scene was confusing for anyone who walked in randomly.
Recognizing the person who spoke out, Ian's face immediately brightened up and a smile popped out.
"Brother! I knew you wouldn't miss dinner with me!" Ian exclaimed with joy as he ran towards his brother, forgetting his current impresentable and murderer-like appearance.
Patting the hair of the puppy-like Ian with blood on his face and hair, Angus observed the entire dining room area and didn't comment.
It was Levi who spoke out. He had come back with Angus tonight to mooch dinner off him only to see such an interesting sight.
"Ooo, what happened, Ian, for such colors to be decorating the house," Levi asked as he flapped his fan, causing his hair to fly in the air gently.
"Mas-, I mean, Levi, it's nothing. Just some traitors and I already dealt with them," Ian explained nonchalantly as he turned to face Levi, almost accidentally calling him master.
"Hm, is that right? How did you know they are traitors though?"
"I—" Before Ian could say anything, he was cut off by Doctor Isaac who rushed in with his medical supplies and a messy appearance. It could be seen how much of a rush he was in trying to get here as quickly as possible, his usually prim and proper hair was windblown and his ponytail had hair sticking out of the hair tie. He didn't even wear his white doctor's jacket.
He was the same doctor who had seen to Shade on the night Ian brought him back.
"Where's the emergency!? Who got hurt?!" Panting, Doctor Isaac quickly asked as he tried to even out his breathing, taking out his supplies and equipment to examine the patient.
Hearing this, Angus furrowed his brows. He had a bad feeling.
Ian stepped out. "I'm sorry for making you run here, Doctor Isaac. But I'm fine now."
Doctor Isaac looked surprised. "So it was you. Still, let me give you a checkup just in case."
Doctor Isaac persuaded Ian so much that Ian caved in and agreed to a checkup.
"Ian, what do you need a checkup for? What happened here?" Suddenly, Angus, who had been silent, asked with an authoritative voice, demanding to know everything.
'Oops.' Ian thought as he wondered if he could fool his brother. Angus was going to be furious once he found out that his beloved little brother got poisoned. Not to mention by his own staff.
Ian didn't want his brother to be worried about him and get angry which would harm his health.
The bloody men on the floor and the tongue-less man being dragged by the bodyguards nervously gulped. They had an inkling that this was going to be a long night.