I'm back.

Aldred opened his eyes and got up. He rubbed his eyes a bit as he looked at Skaal. "Did you find anything?"

Yes. The Count is connected to the bandit raids. They also kidnapped many children. Skaal answered.

"Slavery?"

No, there were news of a Quadruple-Affinity and the Count wants to take advantage of it.

"Oh...a Quadruple-Affinity...that's rarer than my No-Affinity status. So, where's the Quadruple-Affinity?"

The Count couldn't find one yet. They think the child hasn't awakened yet.

"Oh...so what happens to the other kids? Is he going to kill them?" Aldred asked. Seeing Skaal nod, he muttered. "I thought so."

I marked the bandit leader with my poison. It will be easy for us to track him.

"That's good. Let's get some dinner first."

Aldred opened the door to his room and walked downstairs. Cayla was busy doing some calculations on today's gains and losses and Lila was busy serving hot food to a group of customers. When Lila finished, she saw Aldred walked downstairs. She smiled and walked over to the boy.

"You need something Aldred? You hungry?"

"Food." Aldred nodded. "Extra meat."

"Haha, okay. You're a growing boy. Do you need my help to bring the food to your room?"

"No need."

"Oh...okay."

Aldred smiled his most innocent smile and waited for the cook to make his food. Suddenly, he sensed some killing intent...though small, but was still detectable. He sneakily glanced around and scanned the customers sitting by the tables. There were two burly men close to the door. They wore leather armor and had one-handed axes strapped on their waists. From the corner of Aldred's eye, he could see the two men eyeing him greedily.

Skaal, who was situated in Aldred's right pants pocket, glanced at the two men and grunted. "They probably think you're a rich boy and an easy target. Watch out, they may want to mug you."

"Hmph! They'll soon regret it."

"Here's your food young boy." Lila said as she brought out a platter of food for Aldred. "I've put in some extra meat. It's a bit heavy...are you able to carry it all?"

Aldred saw Lila eye his missing arm and understood her intentions. "Ah, don't worry. I trained myself so I have enough strength to at least lift this much."

"Oh...okay. Well, if you need anything, just tell me."

"Alright."

Aldred brought the food upstairs to his room. Obviously he couldn't finish all this food by himself, however, he's sharing the food with Skaal. After finishing the food, Aldred and Skaal quickly left the inn.

..........

"See. There he is." A man pointed as he looked over a corner towards the young boy that exited the inn.

"You sure he's a rich brat? He's dressed up so poorly." Another man replied.

"Haha, Second Brother, don't worry. You should have seen his coin bag...it was practically full of coins."

"Is that so...yea you're right...this will be easy-pickings. Look at him...he's even missing an arm."

"Exactly, like taking candy from a baby."

"Alright enough talking, let's follow him."

..........

Those two men from earlier are following us. Skaal reported.

"Hmph, time for a little after-dinner exercise." Aldred grinned.

Aldred slowed down his pace and waited for the two men to catch up to him. The two men quickly surround him with their axes drawn. One of the men pointed his axe towards him.

"Give us all your valuables if you want to live." The man snarled.

"Haha, with just you two? You idiots overestimate yourselves."

"What did you call us?!" The other man shouted.

"Hmph! Are you stupid? What can a kid like you d-?"

Aldred dove underground before the man even finished talking. Even though he had only one arm, he was still able to dive underground. Though his digging speed had deceased by more than half, it was still more than enough to deal with these small fries.

"Huh? What happened? Where did that bitch go?"

"First Brother! Look out! Behind you!"

The First Brother turned around at the warning and saw Aldred emerge from the ground. The young boy slashed out with his right arm and left five deep and bloody wounds on the man's chest. The man died in shock and confusion...how did he die...how was this boy so strong?

"First Brother!! Bastard, you'll pay for this!" The remaining man cried out as he lunged towards Aldred with his axe. But he did not go far. His whole body started going numb...what happened? His legs trembled as the strength in his body left him. Dropping his axe, the man fell to his knees. "W-what happened? Did I get poisoned? H-how?"

Seems like Skaal poisoned him while Aldred was handling the other guy. Aldred walked up to man with an eerie smile. "Shouldn't have messed with me."

"S-spare m-me!"

"Ah, I want to...but I can't. Don't want people to know about my abilities. Just blame yourself for messing with the wrong guy." Aldred replied as he thrust his hand into the man's chest and pulled out a still-beating heart.

"Kurgh...urk...haaa....."

Dropping the heart, Aldred stared at the dead man. He knelt down and searched through the two dead men's clothes. After looting the bodies and taking the axes, Aldred said. "Skaal. Let's get going."