''Fredi, huh?'' Avendial mused, seated in the back of a hall filled with hospital staff and visitors, all looking at him and the lifeless body lying before them.


    He was nked by four guards, guns aimed at him, his hands steady and eyes closed—not in prayer, but in the knowledge that they would not dare to pull the trigger.


    After all, they were bound by thew, unlike him.


    Instead, he focused on the gains of the day, particrly the removal of an obstacle named Fredistian.


    Of course, until the staff members had cried out Fredi''s name after his death, Avendial hadn''t even known the man''s name.


    Yet, Avendial could clearly remember the faces he had seen in a past life, including this one: the ambitious man who had allied himself with witch doctors—a race notorious for using human organs to augment their strength.


    Many people who had ced their trust in Fredi had vanished. Acting as a middleman between the witch doctors and himself, he had secretly begun smuggling organs.


    In doing so, Fredi had killed several and betrayed even more.


    Naturally, Avendial was not the type to catch him red-handed and mete out punishment; there was simply no need.


    He found himself in a position of advantage, unlike when it came to dealing with the royal family or the princess.


    In the free city, he had immunity for killing simply because he was a nobleman. There was nothing the local or supreme courts could do to him.


    So, he killed Fredi.


    At this point, the most Fredi''s allies could do was lodge aint with the royal court about the murder, armed with what evidence they could muster.


    A representative from the central government would be dispatched to the royal court, and even then, it would take another two years to establish his guilt—of course, only if Avendial did not hire a royalwyer to defend him.


    It was evident that the royal family would never punish someone of Avendial''s rank for killing a meremoner.


    Despite the system of titles having undergone transformation, the nobility still held sway, while the citizens of the free city remained little more than pawns in a vast game.


    Their pleas were little more than formalities.


    After all, the public believed the royal family was dedicated to justice, even going so far as to punish noblemen, but what they didn''t know was that the nobles who faced repercussions in the free cities had already been marked by royal ire for some slight.


    Avendial, on the other hand, was untouchable—if he were to be punished without solid evidence, he could easily retract all his investments and funding, crashing the stock market and influencing the GDP of the Arinphiam Empire.


    Right now, he possessed a sufficient amount of shares in the whole GDP of the Empire.


    Indeed, when he first arrived in the past, he hadn''t worried about the royal court at all; he could manipte the evidence as he saw fit and would have destroyed Patric Vrandin in court by hiring a whole army ofwyers.


    However, at that time, the real danger had been Sebastian, who had no intention of dragging either of them to face the royal court.


    Instead, he had resolved to eliminate Rivia, the strongest support Avendial had against assassination threats.


    Naturally, if someone possessed enormous wealth like him, it was inevitable that royal heirs would try to court his favor, whether through genuine interest or by force. There were instances when, in their quest for his support, some of them dispatched assassins into the Croceaus territory solely to intimidate him into alignment with their interests.


    However, he never truly felt threatened. Rivia always handled those acting as a front line of defense, which was unyielding. Ultimately, he maintained a wariness of the royal family only when he was within their realm. Outside of their territory, he had numerous measures to ensure his safety.


    After all, a single scratch on his body would be tantamount to a scratch on the economy of the Arinphiam Empire.


    Many would assume—especially the strategists within the royal family—that he would shy away from taking such drastic actions simply because he was summoned to the Royal Court. However, Avendial had be indifferent to his own affairs. If matters escted, he would not hesitate to retreat, even at the cost of burning his own money, which would soon be invaluable.


    Thus, for six months, he resolved to remain as controlled as possible, investing wisely, leveraging his future knowledge to generate greater wealth. Eventually, he nned to exert his influence on the market by withdrawing all his investments in a single decisive move.


    "Why don''t you all attend to patients instead of wasting time here?" Aecilia remarked, as she settled into a seat beside Avendial, folding her legs elegantly. She pulled out her phone and began concentrating on her work, primarily checking updates about the search and tasks she had assigned to the Sertsul family regarding Lin Diego and Doctor Etrinia.


    She was hardly concerned that the security personnel wielding guns might pull the trigger; after all, if they did, it would lead to instantaneous death.


    Among the hospital visitors were women from the same family known to carry diminutive hidden poison-dipped guns—special designs made using the principle of a crossbow, yet so small that they resembled lipstick and could fire with the speed and lethality of a bullet.


    Thus, if any guard hesitated to pull the trigger, he would quickly learn that old weapons with cartridges don''t provide protection from members of the Sertsul family, who would—without a second thought—eliminate him.


    "Y-you...." Seeing the nonchnt behavior of both individuals, among whom the man had just killed someone, was clearly confusing them and also making them hesitant to take any action given how they appeared from an influential family.


    Not just because of their clothes, but the way they acted,posed and their bodily features. Everything was directing toward it, causing the security guard to feel hesitant as they looked at each other. Before long, they loosened their grip and ced the guns down, feeling that things would escte, and they just needed to call the police.


    Otherwise, with the death of Doctor Fredi, it was clear that it could not be reversed and what if they, who were just doing their job, ended up on the bad side of people who were definitely not random killers. It was why the security personnel only stood there, keeping an eye and not pointing the guns, as they felt anxious about offending someone like those two.


    "P-police have arrived?!" The moment the sounds of sirens reverberated inside the ce, all the people instantly looked toward the ss window where, from the vantage point of the bystanders and hospital visitors peering through the ss window, the scene outside unfolded like a tense movie.


    The police cars halted abruptly, their sirens still echoing faintly, and one by one, the doors opened.


    A line of officers emerged, but these weren''t just any ordinary policemen.


    At the front was a high-ranking official, instantly recognizable by his neatly pressed uniform and the numerous badges that gleamed in the sunlight.


    Yet, despite his outward disy of authority, the anxiety was palpable.


    He wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, his hand trembling slightly as if the weight of the situation pressed heavily on his shoulders.


    Behind him, more figures followed—prosecutors in formal attire, their faces set in unreadable expressions, but their eyes darted nervously from side to side.


    The group exuded an odd mixture of authority and unease, their movements calcted, as if each step closer to the building brought them deeper into something they were not prepared to handle.


    "Phew~ we are safe now," During the arrival of the police, the atmosphere started to be less tense among the individuals standing in the hallway, since the moment this event happened, making at least 10 minutes, already horrified to the point of tearing their wits out given a dead body was lying, and it belonged to none other than a doctor who was the son of the owner of this hospital.


    Standing under the same roof as a psychopath who killed someone without hesitation using a pen as a murder weapon, this was just too shocking.


    "Oh, Sir, there those two are," One of the guards swiftly moved, opening the door as several individuals in formal attire entered in front while behind them, the police officers in uniform followed, wearing gloves.


    "Yes, those are the ones who dared to kill someone in front of everyone," An olddy wearing several pieces of jewelry stood, also pointing toward both Aecilia and Avendial. Given how she was horrified seeing the murder, even more so since Doctor Fredi was about to talk to her but due to the nurse''s words moved to their direction and ended up getting himself killed.


    But as she spoke, she felt someone pulling her, making her notice it was a woman police officer. As she was about to open her mouth again.


    Smack


    "Kyaa—Thud?!" The olddy got a p directlynding on her face, throwing her on the floor as she grabbed her swollen, reddened cheek, Hoggish instantly looked upward towards the policewoman who, ignoring her, moved past her.


    Before the other apanying the policewoman could move, she arrived just a few steps away from Aecilia, who was busy with her phone. The woman then swiftly bowed 90 degrees and greeted, "Apologies for the dy, My Lady, and greetings to the Marquess!"


    "Wee to City A, Marquess Croceaus!" Even though slightlyte, those apanying her swiftly bowed, showing their determination as all of them disyed a ny-degree bow toward Avendial, greeting him as their foreheads were filled with sweat, given how they had, for the first time, seen the well-known rumored figure, Marquess Avendial Croceaus.