I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

Lynn knew nothing about the geography of this world, but he instinctively felt that it was an extremely remote place.

"How did you manage to run so far by yourself, being so weak?" Lynn asked, voicing his doubts.

It doesn't make any sense that a catgirl with virtually no combat power could travel alone through several kingdoms carrying a backpack full of treasure.

"Being robbed by those bandits was just an accident, meow." Whitey puffed out her cheeks, seemingly dissatisfied with Lynn's doubts. "Actually, I'm not as weak as you think, meow. My intuition is very accurate, and I can avoid most dangers."

Lynn remained noncommittal.

Intuition is ultimately an elusive and intangible thing.

Perhaps she was just lucky.

The rest of the trip was spent in these somewhat ambiguous and uninteresting conversations.

The following evening, as the sun was about to sink below the horizon, the silhouette of a magnificent city appeared on the horizon.

"We should be approaching Order City soon, meow!"

Excitedly, Cat White pulled a yellowed parchment map from his backpack and unfolded it in front of Lynn.

"Great! I can sleep in this soft, fluffy bed tonight, meow!"

Lynn looked at the markings on the map and breathed a sigh of relief.

These past two days, he felt like his ears were about to be calloused from all those soft, sweet "meows." Being able to go into the city to rest for a while was definitely a good thing.

The city walls are made of huge gray-white rocks, reaching tens of meters in height, and appear to be indestructible.

At the city gate, a team of guards in standard leather armor were checking pedestrians coming in and out.

Upon seeing Lynn approach on his magnificent unicorn, a young guard immediately stepped forward, ready to conduct a routine interrogation.

"Are you stupid?!"

The much older-looking veteran next to him pulled him back and scolded him in a low voice.

"Don't you even look at what kind of horse that is? Do you think we can stop such an important person?"

The young guard was taken aback by what he was told. When he looked over again, Lynn had already ridden his unicorn through the city gate without any hindrance.

Upon entering the city, the streets instantly widened, paved with smooth bluestone slabs, and lined with all sorts of shops and taverns, bustling with people.

Lynn stopped in front of a hotel that looked fairly clean.

"You go in and get a room first," Lynn said to the cat Bai Bai in front of her. "Remember to get one for me too."

Upon hearing this, Whitey the cat obediently jumped off the unicorn, then turned around and stretched out her delicate white paw to Lynn.

"Give me silver coins, meow."

"What silver coins?" Lynn raised an eyebrow. "I drove you for two days, isn't that enough to pay for the room?"

He leaned forward slightly, getting closer, and lowered his voice.

"If you really don't want to open another room, we can sleep together, I don't mind."

"Meow..."

Cat Bai Bai seemed to have had its tail stepped on, and it took a step back abruptly, its little face turning bright red.

"What...what are you saying! Who wants to sleep with you, meow!"

She left those words behind, turned around, and stormed into the hotel.

As Lynn watched her retreating figure, her mood inexplicably improved.

Teasing this little cat girl is indeed one of the few joys of the journey.

His gaze shifted from the hotel entrance to both sides of the street.

From the moment he entered the city, he noticed that there was a beggar every so often along the roadside.

Most of them were children, all of them pale and thin, with numb eyes.

If it were just ordinary begging, Lynn probably wouldn't have paid much attention.

But the children's limbs were clearly broken intentionally.

They use the abuse of children to gain sympathy and extract profits.

An unnamed rage slowly rose from Lynn's chest.

He thought of Anna.

Anna would stop for a "cursed child" who was about to starve to death on the streets.

If she saw this, she would definitely not stand idly by.

Lynn dismounted, tied the unicorn's reins to a wooden post at the inn's entrance, then took out the black invisibility cloak from his pack and draped it over his shoulders.

The figure vanished into thin air in an instant.

He found an inconspicuous corner and quietly waited for night to fall.

As darkness fell completely, the number of pedestrians on the street gradually dwindled.

The beggars who had been huddled in various corners stood up as if by unspoken agreement, dragging their broken bodies and limping towards the same direction.

Lynn followed them silently.

After passing through several dark alleys, the beggars finally stopped in the backyard of an inn.

The hotel's signboard bore the words "Hollow Inn" written in crooked handwriting.

The name is just as sordid as the things it does.

In the huge backyard, there was only a dilapidated livestock shed, which emitted a foul stench.

The beggars entered the livestock shed with practiced ease, sitting or lying on the ground covered with dry grass, waiting for something.

Not long after, a man dressed in gorgeous silk clothing, surrounded by two guards, one tall and one short, entered the livestock shed.

He pinched his nose and looked at these "beasts" with disgust.

"Hand over all of today's harvest."

The beggars dared not neglect him and piled the copper coins, black bread, and even some trinkets they had hidden in their pockets at the man's feet.

There was only one boy who looked the youngest, kneeling on the ground, trembling, with his hands empty.

"Lord Francis...I...I didn't get anything today..."

The tall guard stepped forward and glanced at Francis.

Francis nodded expressionlessly.

The guard immediately grabbed a thick wooden stick from the wall and lashed it hard across the boy's back and legs.

"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

The dull thuds echoed through the barn, and the boy let out a painful howl before curling up on the ground and falling silent.

"Lord Francis, I was wrong, I will be able to beg tomorrow... I will be able to beg tomorrow!" the boy cried out with his last bit of strength.

"Yes, you'll definitely be able to beg tomorrow."

A cruel smile appeared on Francis's face.

"Take off his remaining leg and hand too, and we'll definitely be able to get the money."

The livestock shed was completely silent.

The rest of the beggars all lowered their heads, and not one of them dared to utter a sound.

A faint sigh rang in their ears.

Francis was about to turn and leave when a hand suddenly appeared out of thin air and precisely grabbed his neck.

The invisibility effect disappears instantly upon physical contact.

Lynn's figure appeared out of thin air in front of Francis.

Francis and his two guards were dumbfounded; they hadn't even seen how the man had appeared.

Lynn's fingers slowly tightened.

"You deserve to die."

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Blood of Nobles

Lynn's hand, which appeared out of thin air, caused Francis's obese body beneath the luxurious silk to struggle violently.

His two guards reacted quickly and drew their swords from their waists.

"Who are you? Release young master Francis at once!" the tall guard shouted sternly, his knife pointed directly at Lynn, yet he dared not actually step forward. "His father is the Lord of the City of Order!"

The city lord's son?

That seems a bit short-sighted. Making money by begging? Isn't there a more respectable way?

Lynn's grip on Francis's neck did not loosen at all.

This world, from top to bottom, is indeed rotten to the core.

The church leadership treated the saints as expendable commodities, while the kingdom's nobles treated the common people as livestock.

"Release these children." Lynn tightened his grip, and Francis's face turned red.

"Cough...cough cough..." Francis frantically pounded on Lynn's arm, "You...you two good-for-nothings...release them...release them now!"

The two guards exchanged a glance, and the taller guard, steeling himself, waved to the beggars huddled in the corner of the barn.

"Didn't you hear me? Get out! All of you, get out!"

However, not a single child moved.

They simply watched in terror. Long-term abuse and hunger had extinguished their instinct to resist, leaving only fear and obedience to their abusers.

“Ha…haha…” Francis forced out a few strange laughs from his throat. He laboriously raised his hand and pointed at the motionless children. “You…do you see clearly…? They…they are doing this voluntarily…I didn’t force them…”

Lynn was somewhat surprised.

In his previous life, he had read about feudal society and slavery in books, and had seen terms like "Stockholm syndrome".

But he could never truly understand how a person could be so oppressed that they lost even the courage to run away.

This is different from his situation in Windbreak City; being enslaved and being hated are two completely different things.

"Entangled by the tide."

Lynn didn't even bother to say another word.

Three azure threads formed from water elements appeared out of thin air and instantly entangled Francis and his two guards.

Lynn released his grip, and Francis's obese body slumped to the ground, panting heavily.

Lynn didn't look at him again; he walked straight to the little boy who had just been beaten with a wooden stick.

The boy was curled up in the haystack, his body still convulsing and his breath faint.

Lynn crouched down, stretched out her hand, and a soft white light enveloped the boy's body.

"Healing spell".

The wounds on the boy's back healed at a visible speed, and his painful groans gradually subsided.

After doing all this, Lynn raised her head and calmly looked into the boy's empty eyes, which were filled with pain and fear.

Do you hate them?

The boy's body trembled slightly; he seemed not to have expected Lynn to ask such a question.

After remaining silent for a good ten seconds, he finally made up his mind.

"hatred."

Lynn nodded.

He stood up, walked to the tall, bound guard, drew a dagger from the guard's waist, then walked back to the boy and handed him the dagger.

"From this moment on, their lives are in your hands."

The boy, holding the dagger, stared blankly at Lynn, seemingly unable to comprehend the meaning of those words.

The other children in the barn also looked at Lynn with a confused and frightened gaze.