It was late at night. Tristan tied Connor up with his chains and brought the golden-haired hero towards the dungeon hidden beneath the town hall. After ensuring Connor was tied up tightly, Tristan splashed a glass of cold water onto his face, waking him up.

Before Connor could even fully regain his consciousness, Tristan had started asking questions.

"Tell me, what happened to the previous Mayor? Did you kill him?! Why? What are you planning to do with the orc lair?"

Unfortunately, the golden-haired adventurer did not do so much as utter a word.

The guard then started to hit the man continuously. The adventurer merely sat there without trying to retaliate, and the way his body swayed as the guard kept hitting him resembled a punching bag.

Connor's was already full of bruises, and blood stained the tip of his lips, but he was still silent.

A few hours went by but the torture apparently ineffective against this man.

But Tristan must keep going on with the torture. He could clearly see that this guy was hiding something important. There was no way an adventurer alone would dare to do all the things he did.

Another thing that bothered him to be hasty was the fact that he was concerned about Serene safety.

With it He finally decided to take the chance and lose more of his blood essence.

[1300 Blood Essence required]

[28% chance]

Blood sealing this guy would take such a huge amount of essence. He might lose 2000 or more because of the low successful rate. Once more, he checked the blood essence amount he has.

[7210 Blood Essence]

For him, Blood Essence is life, and letting it fall to zero means his strength would be sapped and he would be in big trouble.

However, with each passing moment here, Serene's life would be in even greater peril. There was no time to waste.

In the last fight, he managed to obtain 790 Blood Essence. If he didn't blow up the few adventurer bodies to pieces with his fireball, he could have obtained more.

That fight reminded him to be more careful and think twice about using that spell next time.

[Blood seal]

[Proceed?]

"Yes!"

A cloud of red mist appeared from his body and slowly entered through the golden adventurer's nose, mouth, and ears.

Tristan hoped he could successfully seal him on the first try. He made sure the guy was really beaten up within an inch of his life to increase his chances. Unfortunately, as expected, luck was not on his side.

[Blood Seal failed]

Just like that, he lost 130 blood essence. but before he was able to cast it one more time, he realized Connor had spasms and he struggled to breathe.

His body shook, and his eyes bulged out. He screamed and screamed in pain, a contrast to how he looked so stoic as Tristan beat him up. In his eyes, Tristan could see clear, pure fear.

"Please… Help… Me… Please… I'll do anything… he… he… It's him… He…"

His eyes cried tears of blood, blood trickled down his ears, while his mouth started to emit a foul smell as Connor spat out chunks of red flesh. Just like that, he died with eyes open.

"What the fuck?!"

Tristan stared at the dead body in confusion. Did this guy die because of him? It can't be a side effect of his blood seal, can it…?

But, if that was not from the effects of his blood seal, there was only one more possibility. There was someone else strong enough to be able to make Connor die like that.

A person who is powerful enough to know Tristan was trying to force information out of Connor, and was able to kill him from afar. The thought of such a person existing definitely bothered him.

Tristan kept the idea in the back of his mind, but unless there are possibilities of such a person getting involved in his affairs, he should not be too concerned.

This Connor could have died because of anything. He might have died because something happened in his last battle, or he ate something wrong. A little too many cholesterol could kill men as such.

There was nothing else he could do. He decided to just extract the adventurer's blood essence.

[1100 mixed quality blood cells found]

[420 blood essence extracted]

"This is a satisfactory extraction indeed."

Tristan decided to leave the body and walked out from the underground dungeon before resting for the day.

The next day, he woke up right as the sun started to rise, and he dressed up accordingly before walking towards his seat in the hall. While he was about to look at some papers, the anxious Uriel ran towards him. It seems something urgent just happened.

He looked up from his work and listened to the mayor.

"Tristan, was it true?! Did Connor die last night?"

"Yes, he did." Tristan answered casually.

"Did you kill him?"

Tristan looked away for a second and sighed.

"I am not really sure, actually… I probably did, but I have my doubts. What is with the questions?"

"Tristan, listen to me." The mayor glanced at the door. "People are enraged, and they are protesting outside. They accused you of killing their hero without cause."

He was still half-asleep, and he didn't find this such an urgent matter.

"I am telling you now, if you don't do something about it, Tristan. I am afraid it will lead to revolt and anarchy."

"How bad will that be, Uriel?"

"Very bad. It will badly affect the coin storage, and lives will be lost. In addition, the things that happened here might also catch the attention of the Arcadian King."

The mention of that annoying king's name instantly soured Tristan's mood.

"I guess we can't let that happen, can we? Then, what is your suggestion, Uriel? What should we do?"

Before he heard an answer, he glanced at the door, where he saw Karra and Astrid had returned. With their return, he suddenly thought of a solution for this problem.