For an adventurer city where all sorts of people mingled, any kind of commotion was only natural. But for Lucia, a fledgling adventurer and student, it was worth paying attention to. After all, she was a member of the Discipline Committee. By professional habit, she was completely different from adventurers who sought profit and avoided danger.
Ivette did not think registering at the Adventurers' Guild was anything urgent either. After noticing Lucia's questioning look, she gave a slight nod, signaling that she could go take a look.
Unlike the clean and orderly Truth City, the air in Adlock's alleys was always filled with the sour stench of rotting garbage and a faint smell of mildew. As they walked deeper into the alley, dim light squeezed through the eaves of the wooden and stone houses on both sides, casting fragmented patches of light across the ground.
After passing a corner and looking to the side, the two saw three men in burlap robes, their faces painted with strange patterns, cornering two children huddled in the shadows.
The older one was a boy of around ten. His clothes were ragged, his face bruised, and he protected a smaller girl behind him like a little beast driven into a corner. The girl trembled violently, and the suppressed sobbing came from her.
"Ezra, stop resisting." The tall man at the front had a hoarse voice and a strange accent. "Your father's sin must be washed away with the souls of his blood relatives. This is both the price and your honor."
"We don't want any honor!" The boy named Ezra spoke with a trembling but stubborn voice. "Father did nothing wrong. He was right to take us away from that damned place. You've all gone mad!"
"Blasphemy!" another burlap-robed man with painted markings on