Punishment from association

A certain cheerful young woman with a sole -shaped bruise near her left eye was returning home with the groceries.

Without the uniform, no one would be able to say she worked as a croupier in the arena that recently burnt down in the nearby city,

The young woman was greeted by her neighbors and acquaintances and responded with a professional level of friendliness and a happy smile.

"Jacob~ I've got an amazing deal on the trouts from old Jerry! Could you come help me with…?"

Upon reaching a cozy-looking hut on the outskirts of the village, she opened the door with gusto and called out to her brother.

"JACOB?!"

Only to let out a horrified scream upon seeing him strapped to a chair, half-naked and severely beaten.

The young woman dropped the basket with groceries that spilled everywhere and rushed to the barely conscious youngster without paying any attention to her surroundings.

It was the house that she and her brother grew up in, after all.

The same house that their parents left them before dying from the Foul Reaper.

Their house.

Their home.

A genuine, safe heaven.

"Oh my god…! Jacob! Jacob?! Please say something! No…! No! No! No!"

*click*

The young woman kneeled down, unable to decide whether she should untie her brother or start tending to his injuries first, completely missing the sound of the door closing and locking without her doing any of it…

"Ja…."

"Isabelle."

As she was about to cry out again, someone interrupted her by speaking out her name.

"?!?!"

The girl flinched and looked over her shoulder, freezing up at the sight of…

Her employer, the owner of the ruined arena…

"M-mister Wolf… GANG!?"

She mumbled in confusion, but that soon turned into her calling out in panic as two thugs she knew well from being the bodyguards of other croupiers moved towards her from the sides and grabbed her, forcing her up and turning her over properly to face their boss.

"Isabelle… oh, Isabelle… I thought better of you. Hiding in your family home after causing such a mess? What were you thinking?"

"I… I wasn't hid-UGHAGH…!"

The tall man with short, reddish-blond hair shook his head at this employee… slapping her the moment she spoke out of turn.

"Wasn't hiding? Then why the FUCK did you leave the city without telling anyone!? Why the FUCK that BITCH of a failure of the brother of yours try to cover up for you and claim you aren't here? Those aren't things that happen to someone innocent, Isabelle…"

The girl's boss laughed only to grit his teeth and hit her each time he cursed before calming down again and pointing out while the girl's head slumped down and drool began dripping from her broken jaw.

"Huh? Is she conscious? Hmm... Oh, yeah. Good."

The boss furrowed his brows and questioned, leaning down and nodding to himself after confirming that the girl was looking back at him through tears with complete fear in her eyes.

"You know, we did a lot of investigating what the hell happened back then. It made no sense. The puzzle pieces didn't connect at all. There was no reason why some fat fuck who won the bet and tripled his money would suddenly decide to burn my FUCKING ARENA DOWN!"

"BGFUGH!"

The man walked a few steps, pacing from side to side before losing his cool again and slapping the girl again, causing her head to jolt to the side as an unrecognizable gurgle left her mouth after a couple of teeth fell out as her saliva was dyed red with blood.

"But then a daughter of the Southern Crime Lord, young lady Bianca, generously showed up and gave us the pieces that we were missing! That fuck clearly had a grudge! She even warned good old Eddy that something was wrong, but he ignored her. Don't worry, he already paid for ignoring her."

The man continued pacing back and forth, gesticulating lively to almost every word he said.

"That, in turn, made me wonder, what could that be? And then a few people actually claimed to remember that after an outburst of joy, that fat fuck rushed over to you and suddenly wasn't so joyous anymore as you pulled the record book away from him. He rushed to the toilet right after. Immediately after. And then set himself AND MY ARENA ABLAZE!"

"...!?"

As her boss revealed and roared, the girl flinched in shock, not understanding why it seemed that she would be blamed for some psycho's rampage.

"And that's when I finally decided to check your records book. I should have done that from the start. I mean, look. I SAID, FUCKING, LOOK!"

The reddish-blond-haired man unexpectedly reached into his clothes and pulled out the slightly trampled records book and opened it, only to lose temper, grab the girl's hair and pull her head up only to slam the book into her face.

"YOU! YOU CHANGED HIS FUCKING BET! SEE?! YOU CROSSED OUT THE DEATH PART AND PLACED A MARK FOR THE CHANGED BET! AND EVERYONE WE QUESTIONED SAID THAT FAT FUCK DIDN'T ASKED FOR THAT!"

"!!!"

The boss howled, causing the girl to tremble in fear and confusion.

If she was able to speak up properly, she would have said that she didn't change anything…!

But then, even through the haziness and tears, she could see that her boss wasn't lying about the change in the recorded bet.

Only that she, Isabelle, didn't do it…!

"You know… if it was any other FUCKING case, I would have praised you for messing with the record book. That arena exists to make money for me, not anyone else… But this time… this time IT MADE ME LOSE MY WHOLE FUCKING WAREHOUSE! YOU WORTHLESS BITCH! EVEN IF I MAKE YOU SELL YOURSELF YOUR WHOLE LIFE, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO REPAY ME EVEN A FRACTION OF WHAT I LOST!"

The girl's boss completely lost his temper this time, closed the records book, and began relentlessly hitting the girl with it, stopping only when the bloodied pages loosened and got thrown all over the room.

"...haaa… fuck it, burn this whole dump down. Untie that other fuck, throw the two of them on the same bed together, and break an oil lamp next to it."

"Y-yes, boss!"

The reddish-blond-haired man breathed out before straightening his back and declaring, making the two thugs flinch and obey immediately.

"When the villagers will find them together like that, it will either be the talk of the town or the taboo they will never mention again. Either way works for us. Get on it."

"B-boss…?"

The man added with a scoff, but then, surprisingly, one of his thugs spoke up nervously,

"Hmm? What? You have a better idea?"

"N-no, it's just…"

The boss raised his brow and asked, making the thug flinch mutter.

"...it's just… didn't that guy say that he was a trainee for the Royal Guard? Like… he trained in the Royal Castle… wouldn't there be a problem? I mean… investigation…?"

The thug asked without even attempting to keep eye contact.

"Yeah. They will. That's why we're making it seem as if those two were in an incestuous relationship. Once the investigators discover even a hint of that shit, they will bury the case faster than they do headless prostitutes found in a ditch by the castle."

"Oh…? Oooohhh…!"

The reddish-blond-haired man shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes before explaining, making his underling let out a gasp of understanding.