Return of the Youngest Son with SSS-Rank Talent-Chapter 68: I am from the Medici clan

After listening to the waitress about the death of the pregnant woman in the village, Kael and the others ate quietly, as if the news had not affected them in the slightest.

The reason they were in that village was to investigate the abnormality of the beasts that had been ravaging several villages.

They continued eating the beef stew in silence. It was hot, perfect for the rainy weather.

"Young master. Now that we know that a person died from a wild beast attack, what shall we do?" Lydia asked after finishing her meal, even though she didn’t particularly like it.

"We’ll talk to the husband of that deceased woman," Kael replied, bringing a spoonful of beef soup to his mouth. He chewed and then took a piece of semi-hard bread.

All sorts of murmurs reached his ears, but they were all irrelevant to what they were doing in the village. It seemed that no one wanted to talk about the deceased pregnant woman. Even so, the atmosphere was quite somber.

After finishing their meal, Kael asked the waitress where the husband of the woman who had been attacked by the wild beast was. After paying for their meal, they left the inn.

Outside, they were greeted by heavy rain that seemed endless, and they headed toward where the dead woman’s husband was.

As they made their way through the flooded streets, mud covered their boots up to their ankles. The stagnant water stank of manure, old blood, and decay. The town, though still intact, was already beginning to smell of death.

They left the inn without saying a word. In the distance, they could see a rotten wooden house surrounded by broken boards. Inside the fence, several starving animals—plucked chickens and a couple of goats with ribs showing—staggered around like ghosts.

Next to the house was a muddy pool, probably used as a fish farm. The water was stagnant, dark as ink, infested with larvae. On the shore, dogs barked furiously, straining against the thick chains around their necks. They were skin and bones, their eyes bloodshot with hunger.

When they finally arrived, they saw him.

A man, covered in mud up to his elbows, was digging with his bare hands next to an old dying apple tree. His fingernails were broken. His skin was torn. Every movement was clumsy, almost automatic, as if his will had died before his body.

Next to him lay the dismembered corpse of his wife, scattered like animal waste. A fleshless leg hung from a root. Exposed ribs protruded like whitish blades.

A little further on, wrapped in a dirty blanket that could no longer hide the decomposition, lay a baby. The umbilical cord still hung, dark and limp, like a broken rope. The child’s skin had a pale, bluish hue, and his open eyes looked like two empty beads staring at the sky.

No one was crying. No one was screaming. Only the hollow sound of hands against the earth, the gasps of a man digging a grave he couldn’t finish, and the heavy rain pounding loudly in everyone’s ears.

Kael walked calmly, indifferent to the stench of blood and the two corpses lying in the mud. His black eyes fixed on the hunched figure of the man covered in mud. He was on his knees, digging with his mangled hands. Broken fingers, torn skin, nails hanging like strips of rotten flesh.

The man wasn’t crying. He had no tears left.

Noticing a presence, he slowly raised his head. His dull brown eyes met Kael’s.

Kael said nothing.

"Who... are you?" asked the man. His voice was barely a whisper, soulless. He looked at his bloody hands. Raw flesh, splinters embedded. And yet he continued digging.

"I am from the Medici clan. I came to inspect this village," replied Kael. His voice, distorted by the mask of coins, was raspy. "Answer me. Did you see which way the beast that devoured your wife fled?"

Nothing else. No consolation. No words of encouragement. Just the demand for information.

The man blinked, confused. His mind, shattered by the trauma, took a moment to understand the words. Then he lowered his head. The mud was already up to his chest. He dug desperately, as if digging his wife’s grave was the only thing keeping him connected to the world.

"I... I didn’t see. I just ran. I hid..." He whispered. Then he raised his head, desperate. "I tried! I tried to save them! But I couldn’t! I couldn’t! I couldn’t!"

Kael stared at the headless body for barely a second. Then, without saying a word, he turned away. It wasn’t worth wasting time.

"Search the surrounding area. If you find any clues." He ordered in a neutral tone.

Lydia and Eren nodded without hesitation and scattered into the rain.

Kael entered the area surrounding the ruined house, moving slowly but precisely. Raindrops pelted his bamboo hat like liquid shrapnel, and mud stuck to his boots with every step. His eyes scanned the terrain like blades, registering everything.

The house was on the verge of collapse. The roof had already caved in, and part of the interior walls had rotted away until they were as soft as wet cardboard. The only thing left intact was a photograph on a cracked shelf: the man was smiling next to his wife. Happy. Radiant. As if they believed that happiness could protect them from the world.

Kael looked at his for a moment.

He kept walking.

A worm-infested crib briefly stopped him. The wood was rotten, the mattress ruined by moisture. White larvae moved among shreds of pink cloth, and a sweet stench rose in the rainy air.

There weren’t even any remains of the baby.

Only decay. freewebnøvel_com

And silence.

The rain kept falling.

Kael continued his search without altering his pace. After a long search, he finally found a useful clue: footprints deeply embedded in the mud, leading into the forest.

Too much time for something so simple.

But the storm had erased almost all traces. Even his talent met resistance in the face of the natural fury of the environment.

The sky remained covered with gray clouds, so thick that the sun seemed like a forgotten memory. It was the fourth day without light, and the mountain was beginning to suffer.

The streams were on the verge of overflowing. Entire fields were turning into mud pits. The farmers, bent over like beasts of burden, dug ditches with their bare hands and broken nails, while their children helped them.

Kael didn’t look at them.

Once reunited with Eren and Lydia, he pointed toward the thicket.

"The tracks lead into the forest. The beast that devoured the pregnant woman must be nearby. Let’s go."