Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
When Zane hadn't chosen the offensive path, Fork was cursing him.
But the moment pain and blood appeared, the real Fork came out and used everything he could to invoke mercy inside Zane for him.
And one such tactic was to use his kid.
"Please don't kill me. I have a kid! Who will look after him? Have mercy. Spare me for the kid."
Zane gritted his teeth, clenched Fork's hairs with more force and peered deep inside the very soul of the man.
"So you finally remembered your crime."
Fork's lips still trembled and since he was also a gutterborn like Zane, he knew what to say. Even if it was a lie.
"Yes. I remembered it. I remembered my crime. Spare me. I will not do it again."
However, Zane was all too familiar with such tricks.
"You remembered it? Tell me then. Why am I thrashing you?"
Fork's face went pale and as hurt as he was, his mind still worked. Zane had only bruised him below his neck and not enough for the man to become brain dead.
The man recalled a few earlier seconds when Zane had first said that the man had finally remembered his crime.
Fork thought about his statement which made Zane say that to him and in no time, he found it.
And when he found it, a frown appeared on his face and instead of looking at Zane's chin like all this time, he looked at the young man's eyes.
With a confused face, he asked: "Is my crime related to my kid? Are you doing all this because of my brat?"
Zane saw the change in Fork but he remained unchanged. "Yes. It is related to your kid. Your first crime was giving birth to a kid when you don't deserve it. And if I forget that, you made another crime far worse. And that second crime is why you are bleeding in public."
Fork's hairs were still in Zane's grip and as everyone heard the young man's words, their cheers stopped.
Fork made a face of disbelief and without being afraid, he looked at the surrounding people.
"Did you hear him?" He asked.
They all nodded and just after that…
"HahahAHahahaHAHAHAHA!!"
Laughter erupted outside the prostitute's shack.
Every man standing laughed out loud and Zane was clueless.
Fork was also laughing as if he was never scared of Zane.
The laughter continued and as time went on, those sounds made Zane's skin itch.
He jerked Fork's head in a circle with his hairs as he barked:
"Why are you laughing? What is so funny about this?"
Fork kept laughing.
Zane gritted his teeth and used more force to pull his hairs.
Fork groaned but while laughing.
Fortunately, for Zane, the man finally used some words.
"At first, I thought you were one of us trying to steal money from me. Then I thought, you were someone sent from the church or the Halocrats dressed as one of us to punish me for something, but I was wrong. In the end, you turned out to be a moron! Hahaha!"
The crowd laughed along with Fork.
There were some women too and instead of laughing, they were shaking their heads and clicking their tongues.
Seeing all this, Zane figured only he and the children didn't know what was going on.
So this won't be easy. No wonder I got a quest.
Zane took a deep breath and the next second, he let go of Fork's hairs.
Fork fell face first on the ground again, not laughing like before but still laughing.
Zane got up from his knee and made Fork sit on both his knees as well.
Zane ignored the crowd as he was doing for all this time and focused only on the man.
That's when he noticed one of Fork's eyes was whiter than the other. He wasn't able to see it because of his anger before.
Nevertheless, he couldn't care less about it.
He needed answers first.
"Explain yourself." He said.
Fork sighed. "Where do you live?"
"Ashen."
Fork quivered his brows. "You live there and you still don't know what we are talking about? How old are you?"
"Eighteen."
"Your parents?"
"Dead."
"How old were you back then?"
"Five."
Fork chuckled. "No wonder you don't know what's happening."
Zane flicked the stick. "That's why I am asking you to explain."
Fork laughed. "There is nothing to explain, kid. I know what you're talking about."
The man turned his head to Zane's right.
"Hey little shit. Come here."
He called someone and without any delay, a person came forward.
Zane's brows shot up as it was Mickey.
The kid knew Fork was calling for him even if his name wasn't taken.
Zane clenched his fist.
"He is not little shit. Don't make him accustomed to that term!"
Fork laughed again. "Exactly. This is why I am laughing."
Zane didn't understand and Fork finally said in clear terms.
"We are making fun of your kindness, boy."
Zane's eyes widened.
Fork scoffed. "You are beating me because I stabbed his eye, right?"
"Yes!" Zane yelled.
Fork shook his head.
"I am hyper sensitive to pain. A fingernail grazing me feels like a sword piercing me. And you vent your anger on me with that stick, you can't imagine the pain I felt. And yet, I am right here, laughing. You can imagine how ridiculous your reason sounded to me to make me laugh right now."
"What's your point? How can you do something to your own child for some money? How can you laugh at this?"
"He is my kid. I can do anything I want with him. I provide for him. He is mine to use. That's what happens here."
Zane's jaw clenched.
Blood ran profusely inside his body and he didn't know what he should do to vent everything out.
He opened his mouth to say a point but Fork spoke first.
"Hey Walter," he shouted. "Tell him about your daughter."
"Huh? Alright."
The man with yellow teeth took a sip from his bottle and said:
"I sold her to the Brothel in the capital right after she was born. I received 2 Silver Lumens for her. Sadly my wife died because I tried to make her pregnant again the next day, so I couldn't produce more prostitutes."
Zane's pupils widened.
Fork laughed and shouted again:
"Ragar. You tell him."
Another man's turn came as while tapping his bald head, he said:
"I had two newborn sons and when I found out that the foreskin of such new kids is highly demanded, I cut it off from them and sold it for 1 Silver Lumen. But my idiot brain thought, if their foreskin is so expensive then their whole dicks would be more valuable so I cut off their dicks as well. But no one wanted it. It was a waste of time and waste of two beggars as they died right after that."
The crowd laughed at Ragar and seeing their laughing faces, Zane's entire body shivered.
His scalp numbed as a cold sweat ran down his spine.
Fork scoffed.
"That's only two of the cases. Every one standing here has done something to make a heart like yours tremble till death."
Zane slowly moved his head at Fork.
Fork smirked.
"You have put me around a tire to punish me for my kid. But if you are so kind and a justice crusader, do the same with them. But, mind you, if you really found the compassion and strength and time to punish them as well, then I swear on the dirt of the slums..."
Fork leaned forward and this time, he peered inside Zane's soul.
"You will run out of tires."