“Sometimes just doing the simplest, most straightforward thing works better than all sorts of complicated schemes and traps.” - Scipius Cornelius Barca, famed General from the Republic of Caroma, circa 51 FP.

Redrum Mulder, better known as “Mord” by the people of Pesoris, mostly lived a life of leisure.

Publicly, his identity was known as a cousin to the current Baron Pesoris’ grandfather, a half-elf who had lived for over a hundred years. In reality, however, he was actually an abandoned child adopted by the Baron from four generations back, the current Baron’s great-grandfather, and raised to become a loyal killing tool for the house.

The corruption in the Barony of Pesoris was not a new phenomenon. Many generations of the family had squeezed out everything they could get away with from the region they ruled. While at first the amount they took was lower and more manageable, over the past two generations greed had overtaken caution in the minds of the Barons and they left barely anything for the people to survive with.

For the most part, it was their relatively isolated and unimportant location that was the reason that the corruption went on undeterred. Regions that were more important or closer to Sabaya or the western territories controlled by the Veros clan would have been caught long ago. The Barony of Pesoris was just the right combination of remote and unimportant for the powers that be to pay much attention to them, busy as they were with the rest of the Empire.

While some officials would inspect the region from time to time, it did not happen particularly often, maybe a couple times a decade. More often than not, officials sent to inspect such a remote region would be lower ranked or otherwise out of favor. Those types of people were far more receptive to bribes, which made them turn a blind eye to what they saw and allowed the corrupt nobility to go on as they always had.

In the few cases where they refused, it wasn’t too hard to bribe their subordinates instead while the actual inspector was met with an “unfortunate” accident. Arranging such incidents, as well as taking “care” of people who were a threat to the Baron’s family’s rule of the region, were the main jobs Redrum had to do in the past.

Recently though, the new Baron – a youthful, impetuous brat not even forty yet – demanded that Redrum increased his activity. In the ten years since the new Baron took over the Barony, Redrum had disemboweled at least a thousand people and left them to be found dead as an example, leaving the alias he was told to use at the crime scene.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

All for “crimes” as minor as saying anything bad about the Baron.

During the reign of the previous Barons, Redrum was typically deployed only when some people were planning a resistance movement, or were planning to report things to higher authorities elsewhere. They had not cared about mere words said by drunken people. It was only the most recent Baron who demanded that he execute everyone who said as much as a single bad thing about him.

Redrum himself had not cared much about the additional work. It was messier and more complicated, but he was used to that sort of work, at least. Neither had he cared about the people who perished slowly and agonizingly under his blade, as to him, instructions from his liege was all that mattered. What did annoy him was the frequency with which he had to do it.

Even loyal killers wanted to take a break from time to time, after all.

At least in recent years he had not had to deal with too many targets, unlike the first couple years of the new Baron’s reign. He last dealt with a loudmouth drunk over a week ago before the current assignment, which apparently involved some woman trying to send out a letter to higher authorities. The order he was given was to take care of the woman, as well as whoever else lived with her.

As was his habit, he waited until a few hours past midnight, when most people slept the deepest. When it was done right, a disemboweled person could survive three to five hours, which was generally enough time for someone to find them, but likely not soon enough to save their life. Not that it would have mattered anyway as any healer worth a lick was under the Baron’s supervision and would not dare to save the people that had been made examples of.

He entered the room at the inn noiselessly through the window, and for a brief moment felt a pang of regret that he didn’t have time to play around with his victims. Two of the three women in the room were quite beautiful and he would’ve liked to sate his lust on them had he had the opportunity. Such was life, however, and Mord soundlessly unsheathed his dagger and approached the women, prepared to begin his grisly work.

Before he entered the room, he had blown smoke from burning certain weeds inside. The smoke had a strong sedative effect that should have rendered most people insensate for a good hour or two, depending on their constitution. They would fall into a sleep so deep that not even loud noises would have woken them during that time.

What Redrum “Mord” Mulder had no idea about was that unliving people like Aideen, Celia, and Kino were pretty much immune to such things. Even if they breathed the smoke into their lungs – many of them no longer bothered to breathe anymore unless it was for speaking or the likes – the sedatives wouldn’t be absorbed into their bodies, which rendered it useless.

As such, he was entirely caught off guard when he pounced towards the tallest of the sleeping women in the room and suddenly found his wrists caught in the woman’s vice-like grip. Before he could make a sound, another hand covered his mouth from behind as another of the women stood up and gestured at him to keep quiet with a finger before her lips.