Chapter 178: The Purge: Hook and Ruffus
Half an hour later, Hook and Ruffus arrived at the town center. Somehow, they had slipped into the courtroom to watch the magistrate’s trial. They tried to be inconspicuous by staying in a hidden corner at the back. They also disguised themselves so no one could identify them.
The trial of Magistrate Torices was already underway.
Hook’s eyes narrowed, jaw tightening as the final witness took the stand. His blood ran cold.
It was her! The young woman whose first time he took away!
Hook cringed when he saw her kicking his groin area, and not satisfied, she even hit it with the leg of the chair. The magistrate’s blood had soaked the floor, and the silence that followed was the sound of justice echoing through the room. Hook could not take it anymore, and he slipped silently out of the courtroom and out of the Magistrate Building, Ruffus trailing behind.
Outside the courthouse, Ruffus muttered, voice low and unsteady. "Hook... I’m done. I’m leaving. Tonight. If you’ve got any sense left, you’ll do the same."
Hook didn’t respond. His mind was spinning. That woman’s face, the anger it contained, the way she looked through the magistrate—he shivered.
"That woman was merciless. She looked familiar, though." Ruffus continued, his voice growing distant. "Wasn’t she the one you kept on the third floor? The one you bragged about?"
Hook’s pace quickened, strides growing longer. The ghost of the magistrate’s screams played on repeat in his head. Then came the memory of the blood—dark, warm, and pooling fast. The hair on his arms stood on end.
Ruffus was right. He could not stay. The women he defiled would surely haunt and castrate him, and there were many of them.
When they reached the restaurant, they didn’t stop to eat or speak. Instead, they climbed to the third floor, past locked doors and silent rooms. Inside a dim chamber, they slid aside a heavy bed and pried open a hidden compartment beneath it. They took out the silver and gold ingots.