"Old Ghost, you're one of the old hands among the mixed-bloods. It hasn't been easy for you to survive until now."
"Why insist on making yourself suffer?"
"A laborer ran away—what does that represent? First, rebellion against Witch City's rules. Second, a threat to Witch City's coming order."
"Look, because of that criminal, three patrol squads have already been sent out to investigate. How much manpower and resources has that wasted?"
"Tell me, why couldn't you take precautions beforehand? Why didn't you step in to stop him? Even knowing his whereabouts would have been enough—it would at least have made it easier for the patrols to capture him."
"And what happened? You did nothing. You just stood there and watched the criminal escape."
"You say there was nothing you could do, but it doesn't look that way to me. No matter how I look at it, your actions seem more like harboring resentment—just like that criminal who chose to run away instead of coming here for labor."
South City, a massive construction site!
Countless people in ragged clothes, with sallow faces and gaunt bodies, filled the place.
One after another, they performed tediously grueling labor, carrying stones weighing several hundred jin back and forth across the site.
There were men and women among them, old and young alike, all different from one another.
Yet they all shared one unmistakable trait: their witch blood was extremely thin, making them mixed-bloods.
There was a raised platform at the construction site.
A bloodied man hung from it. His already simple clothes had been whipped into tatters, blood dripping from his toes and pooling beneath him. Clearly, he had been tortured for quite some time.
It was the old man—the one who had pointed Li Su toward a clear path.
Already frail and bent