Everyone wore the same look of sudden understanding.
Only Annan leaned over and asked Olin quietly, "What does 'Mixed Blood' mean?"
"An illegitimate child born to a servant or commoner, someone who isn't a noble."
Annan's understanding came a beat late. No wonder Yisa had chosen to leave no one alive... The conflict between purebloods and mixed-bloods ran deep.
And Mongsong had actually thought he could control this "mixed-blood."
The killer had been caught. All that remained was deciding what to do with him.
Janice said the Ceremonial Affairs Department would hold him for now. Since both the victims and the killer were from the Rikaner Kingdom, the case was delicate, and Yisa would probably be sent back there.
Isa, who had obeyed without protest until now, raised his head and struggled. "You can't send me back! They'll torture me to death... Annan! I killed them for you. Let me go to your city! I know plenty of the Kingdom's shameful secrets, too—"
Everyone looked at Annan. After a brief silence, he said, "Do you think I'm going to thank you?"
"What...?" Isa froze.
Had Mongsong and the others deserved to die? Perhaps not. But Annan's objection was simpler: he hated murder by ambush. And there was something else—
"I despised the sort of man Mongsong was, but he trusted you, didn't he? Right up until you killed him from behind, he believed you could do it."
Isa went rigid. Then the veins stood out on his forehead as he roared, "Annan! You're no different from those nobles! You bastards, what gives you the right—"
Janice cast a spell to silence him before he could say anything worse.
Olin looked a little surprised. "I didn't think you were that kind of person..."
"That speech? I lied to him." Annan shrugged.