Just as the tension grew thicker and the two of them looked ready to come to blows, the enforcers who had gone into the tavern's kitchen and basement to search came back out.
He gave Sheriff Marcus a slight shake of his head, indicating that he had found nothing.
That gesture made Vander relax at once. He even raised an eyebrow at Marcus with a trace of smugness.
That was it—Marcus, who had come here full of expectation, immediately lost it.
His face was livid. "You people from the undercity are all the same. You all think arrogance is courage. You think you're defending justice, do you?"
Marcus turned and challenged everyone in The Last Drop.
"But every single person here knows damn well that not a single coin in this place is clean!"
Then he turned back again, staring at Vander. "You're nothing but a piece of trash, lying in a hole the whole world abandoned..."
At that point, mere verbal humiliation was no longer enough to vent his fury, so Marcus simply swung his baton and smashed the wineglass on the table.
Bang!
Liquor mixed with sparks from the pipe, and ghostly blue flames sprang up across the bar.
"One day, your rotten lives will end in my hands!"
After making his threat, Marcus stormed out with several of his men, slamming the door behind them. All he left behind was Vander, silently watching the flames before him, and the drinkers staring at him with the same fury in their hearts, waiting for him to make a decision.
These people were all Vander's followers. They had fought alongside him in the undercity to build this foundation in Black Alley.
In his youth, Vander had been the kind of man who dared to lead a charge against the upper