Chapter 28: The Lies People Tell
Yul found his first contradiction while watching the town’s apothecary.
He was tracking a man he’d seen earlier—a man who had claimed to be a merchant but had been seen whispering to a local thief behind the granary. Yul was convinced he was an agent for the Ma Clan.
He watched as the man entered the apothecary’s shop.
"I have the medicine," the man whispered, handing a small, mud-stained satchel to a young woman behind the counter.
The woman looked frantic, her hands shaking. "My father... he hasn't moved in two days. Is this the right one?"
"It is," the man said, his face hardening into a mask of stoic calm. "I stole it from the Magistrate’s estate. It cost me two fingers to get past the guards. Take it to him. Do not tell anyone where you got it. If they ask, tell them you bought it from a traveling herbalist."
Yul stepped out from the shadows, his hand on his ironwood stick.
The man turned, his eyes widening. He saw Yul—the boy who had been watching him since the square.
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"Thief," Yul said, his voice cold. "You lied to her. You told her you bought it, but you stole it. You are a criminal, and you have compromised the safety of this shop."
The man looked at the woman, who was clutching the medicine to her chest, tears streaming down her face. He looked back at Yul, then let out a tired, dry laugh.
"I lied to the Magistrate’s guards, boy," the man said. "And I lied to her so she wouldn't feel the weight of knowing her medicine was bought with blood. This isn't crime. It’s a transaction of mercy."
Yul froze.
The lie had protected the woman. It had spared her the guilt. But the lie had also made the man a target.
"A lie can hurt," Yul muttered, the logic fracturing in his mind.
"And it can be a shield," the man said, turning back to the shop. "You think the world is built on truth? The world is built on what people need to believe to make it to the next sunrise."
Yul watched them. For the first time, he did not reach for his weapon. He simply stood there, his mind echoing with the sound of the man's words.
He had come to find a killer, but he had found a man who had traded his safety for a stranger's hope. The simplicity of his survival instinct was beginning to fail him. The world was not just predators and prey. It was a complex, tangled mess of people hiding the truth to protect the ones they loved.
Yul turned and walked back into the night, his pace slower than usual. The knot in his mind was getting tighter.