Chapter Nine: Throat Cutter – Soren
The next day. When Vivian opened her eyes, a bit groggy, rubbing the corners of her eyes, she prepared to get up and make breakfast.
In front of her was a bowl of fragrant oatmeal already prepared.
Then there was Soren’s smiling face; he held an iron pan, looking a bit amusing with his apron tied around him, as he seriously cooked fried eggs.
“Brother.”
“Isn’t this a bit wasteful?”
Vivian took a hard sniff of the oily aroma, reached out her little hand to hug Soren’s neck, and, standing on her tiptoes, gave him a light kiss on the cheek. She also quietly sniffed at him and indeed detected a faint smell of bl**d. Since she was very little, she had been unusually sensitive to the smell of bl**d; if Soren was covered in bl**d, it was hard to conceal it from her.
The clever little girl didn’t ask too many questions.
She just lamented a bit, “Brother, you put in too much oil.”
“You only need a little oil to fry eggs. Next time, let me do it.”
“Look at all the oil you wasted.”
After saying this, she also wrinkled her little nose.
As if smelling the aromatic oil rising from the pan, she already felt very satisfied.
“All done.”
“Little manager!”
Soren placed the not-so-good-looking fried egg into the bowl, rubbed Vivian’s little head, and said helplessly, “Next time, let you do it, okay?” It was a very abundant breakfast.
The fragrant oatmeal tasted great, and the fried egg placed in the bowl immediately formed a layer of grease on top, along with a few slices of smoked meat.
Just looking at it made one’s appetite surge!
This was a breakfast only nobles and wealthy merchants in the city could afford; Vivian hadn’t eaten such good food in a long, long time.
After enjoying this hearty breakfast.
The little girl began to tidy up and clean the room, and Soren’s clothes needed washing as well.
Outside, faint voices could be heard.
It seemed some faces had deliberately walked past this street many times. Soren sat at the door, carving something with a dagger, looking very serious.
“Lord Soren!”
Finally, a guy who didn’t seem like a good person came over, fearfully saying, “Savi thanks you for helping him solve a troublesome problem!”
“So I bring a gift.”
He waved his hand behind him, and two muscle-bound guys timidly approached, holding a gift box.
Soren looked up at them, then signaled Vivian to accept the gift and said slowly, “I will accept this item.”
“I’m not interested in the affairs of the slums.” “Whether those streets can sustain themselves is Savi’s business, as long as they don’t come to disturb my life again.”
“Is that okay?”
His voice grew colder, and the dagger in Soren’s fingertips turned into a remnant shadow.
The leading thug wiped cold sweat from his brow, feeling a chill around his neck, stuttering, “N-no problem!…”
“Savi thinks so too!…”
………………
In one night.
The core members of the rival gang were completely wiped out!
When Savi received this news, he was almost overjoyed, thinking that those foolish guys had provoked some terrible enemies.
But when he learned that the one who acted was Soren, Savi’s expression immediately turned ugly.
“Boss!”
A clever thug rushed in, panting, “I’ve already found out.”
“It seems Cole threatened Soren and even sent someone to try to capture his sister as a hostage!”
“Everyone on Donggou Street knows Soren values that sister more than his own life; Cole set his sights on her, which led Soren to strike against them!”
“He rarely acted before, I didn’t expect Soren to be this powerful.”
“Now they call him Throat Cutter in Crossroads Alley; even people in the docks have heard of his reputation. Eleven elite gang members were all found with their throats cut, bl**d soaking the entire room.”
“Boss.”
“Should we do something about him?”
A one-eyed guy looked at the others, hesitating, “Although he’s strong, he’s just one person.”
“If we let him grow stronger, we might not be able to swallow Crossroads Alley.”
Clang!
Savi grabbed something and threw it over, hitting that guy in the face, leaving him covered in bl**d, his face turning pale, “Deal with him?”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“He could take down so many people including Cole head-on; if he launched a sneak attack, we’d all get killed!”
“Don’t act rashly for now.”
“Send Doghead to bring over a gift and see what he means. Since Soren is so powerful, he will eventually leave the slums.”
“A person like that wouldn’t be content to stay in such a godforsaken place!”
“Also.”
“Send someone to keep an eye on Crossroads Alley and see if Soren has intentions to take over there.”
“If not.”
“Make sure no one else snatches it away.”
The group of subordinates began to busy themselves, only Savi, with a grim expression, hesitated for a moment, and then called someone, “Let Doghead come over first; I’ll prepare the gift myself.”
Since Soren could k*ll Cole and his subordinates in the night, he could probably take out Savi as well.
Someone like him was too dangerous!
Better think of a way to please him. Savi climbed from a street thug to the gang leader simply because he was adaptable and never tried to show off.
No living soul left.
Such a method would even make him, a ruthless gang leader, feel a shiver, as street fights generally didn’t result in many deaths; they would still try to avoid having their men d*e.
If all the men were dead, who would work for them?
Don’t think those ruffians in the slums are mindless; if a boss’s men keep dying, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to join.
………………
It was a quiet morning.
Of course, this was only in Soren’s view; after receiving his reply, Savi was ecstatic, ordering his men to gather forces to prepare to seize the streets around Crossroads Alley. Since Soren declared he had no interest in the slums, then whoever had the capability to take over the territories near Crossroads Alley would have it. Savi gathered several hundred people today; although most were just there to make up numbers, truly capable of wielding weapons and going to fight were over a hundred.
As for how many of these hundred had received professional combat training and learned real killing techniques.
Well, don’t hold out too much hope!
Gang fights in the slums were unregulated; as long as no major disturbances occurred, it didn’t matter if a dozen or so people died. So when Savi gathered enough people, he quickly took control of the Crossroads Alley turf.
This place was far inferior to the docks.
Since the docks governed nearly half the wealth circulation of Amber City, changes in territory there could easily lead to a hundred deaths overnight!
That would be something to shake the entire Amber City.
The slums?
That place was dilapidated and had nothing worthwhile to focus on!
Yes.
Truly powerful people don’t care about the slums, but in recent days they had occasionally heard that a strong character had emerged from there.
It seemed to be named ‘Throat Cutter’ Soren!
It was said that all his enemies had their throats cut, and he had high prestige in the slums; although he had not joined any factions, all the gang leaders in the slums held him in awe.
Time quietly passed for two days.
Even Vivian sharply noticed something was off. The people around her seemed to show a hint of awe and spoke to her a bit timidly.
As for Soren, those people didn’t dare face his gaze!
“Brother is much more impressive than before!”
Vivian swept fallen leaves with a broom, glancing outside and murmuring, “The one who brought the gift that day was one of Savi’s subordinates.”
“Why would he bring such an expensive gift?”
“I heard Cole’s men were all wiped out.”
“Were killed by someone called Throat Cutter! That Throat Cutter should be my brother, right?”
“It sounds really intimidating!”
“Brother has become much more powerful.”
Yesterday, when she passed that grocery store around the street corner, the chubby store owner who had hit her with a stick on her back turned pale when she saw her.
Once she confirmed that she was Soren’s sister, the chubby store owner immediately knelt in front of her, desperately slapping her own face until it was swollen, promising that she wouldn’t hold the past against her, and only then did she gratefully stand up. The store owner even specially prepared a gift, putting over ten silver coins in the box, saying it was to calm her down!
They were in fear.
Although they feared ‘Throat Cutter’ Soren, this feeling of fear also allowed Vivian to enjoy a bit.
“Lalalala!”
The little girl hummed a tuneless song, happily cleaning the room: “We are the bad guys! We are the villains!”
“They fear us!”
“No one dares to bully us anymore!”
