Heaven's Greatest Professor

Chapter 39  The Promised Reinforcements

Warden got the entire story from Tifan as they proceeded to bury the dead. Apparently, some villagers stole a beast core and decided to leave the village in the hope of renewing their life somewhere better. Unfortunately for them, they came across the bandits halfway and spilled the beans.

The bandit crew really tried to avoid bloodshed if it could be avoided. The system didn't look warmly towards heedless killing. From the villagers, they learned some adventurers hunted the monster and left a good share of the loot for all the things they lost in the attack.

With that, the bandits quickly decided it was a chance they shouldn't miss and came to the village as soon as they could. The rest was bloody clear to Warden.

Still, it was nice to learn the system didn't tolerate heedless killing. Thankfully, Warden hadn't noticed any ramifications of his actions. Perhaps the system stood right by his act.

Tifan dropped the last beheaded corpse on the heap after stripping away all the valuables. A few meters away, Warden almost finished digging their grave. He borrowed a shovel from the village and went a good distance to bury the bandits.

"What do I do with all their stuff?" Tifan asked, the battleaxe of the chief in his hands. "I fear you won't let me keep them."

"Hmm, that looks like it would fetch good money," Warden considered. "I thought about leaving them with the villagers for them to deal with any problem that might occur, but from how it turned out with beast cores, it wouldn't be wise to leave anything valuable that might catch others' greedy eyes."

"So?"

"I'll take them," Warden said from the burrow he created. There was only one big hole, no individual grave for the bandits. They simply didn't deserve for him to care.

Tifan clicked his tongue but didn't complain.

With a leap, Warden climbed back next to the heap of corpses. "Now let's finish this. I'm so freaking hungry."

They began dropping the corpses and the heads one by one into the pit as if disposing of rubbish. They almost finished with only one severed head and the corpse with a hole in the chest left when a voice boomed from behind.

"Hold!" n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Warden turned to find a group of adults and teenagers coming their way, led by the man that asked them to hold. All of them were armed with some weapons or sort, swathed in fine cloaks and attire. Half of the dozen men looked to be the same as a group as Kiara and Liam, while the other half were the experienced bunch.

Could these be the reinforcements Liam and Kiara promised, finally coming after he dealt with all the problems?

He considered the situation from their perspective: a couple of men disposing of a corpse in broad daylight—undeniably suspicious no matter how one looked at it.

"What are you doing with the dead bodies?" the leading man asked again.

"Umm, disposing of them," Warden said. Finding many frowns directed at him, he decided to explain, of course, after dropping the corpse into the pit. "You see, these were bandits who came to loot the village. Now, how could I let them pillage the village and harm the innocent?"

"So you killed them?" asked a teenage girl with chestnut hair, gasping.

Warden shrugged. The leading man came to look into the pit as his expression changed, observing the number of dead bodies and severed heads.

"All of them are bandits?" he asked, suspicion growing in his eyes.

Warden nodded. "There were rapists among them too, and perhaps some other criminals as well, but they didn't give me time to ask."

Many others approached the pit to check as well, their expressions simultaneously hardening.

"Why should I believe you?" the leading man asked. "Do you have anything to authenticate your claim?"

Warden frowned.

"What guild do you come from?" another adventurer asked. "Show us your Arcane Society badge?"

"That I don't have," Warden said slowly, watching a few of them clutching their weapons in alarm. "But for evidence, you can ask the villagers. I'm sure many of them will testify."

"Professor Walt, should we..." the chestnut-haired girl began.

The leading man, or rather Professor Walt, snorted. "From how I see it, you two could be the bandits who killed the villagers and are now here to dispose of the evidence. Without the legal badge, how can I believe anything coming out of your mouth?"

"Yes, that guy certainly had the look of a bandit in him," added a guy, gesturing at Tifan. "I'm certain you don't have a badge either?"

Tifan was speechless and could only turn to Warden.

"You won't consider the words of hundreds of villagers just because I don't have some stupid badge?" Warden asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I don't like the look in your eyes." Professor Walt met his gaze as well.

"How can he not show even a semblance of respect towards someone of Professor Walt's esteem?" one of the teenagers admonished. The others began gossiping among themselves as well.

Walt raised an arm to silence them. "For all I know, you could have threatened the villagers to testify for you. It has happened before. I don't see why it can't now."

Warden could only sigh. "So, how are you going to go with this?"

"Naturally," another man spoke. "We'll take you two captive until we get evidence with or against you. If It's against, you can already guess what the result will be, but you have nothing to fear if what you said is the truth." "But you won't take the words of the villagers as evidence," Warden protested. "That depends," the other man said again, in place of the professor. "If we can make sure they are speaking the truth, not spitting lies in fear of you." "And how'll you make sure of that?" "Of course, taking you into custody," Professor Walt said, bringing out thick-framed handcuffs. "After the villagers see how powerless you are to harm them, they wouldn't bother to hide anything from us." 

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