Florida Man Denies All Allegations of Hiding Murder Victims' Bodies in Storage Boxes, Claims Contents Were Organic Food

Chapter 18 - Florida Man Denies All Allegations of Hiding Murder Victims' Bodies in Storage Boxes, Claims Contents Were Organic Food

Roland disclosed the complications of his family and the feud between his noble house and his rival family, the Turo House. He also revealed how Jane got the scars on her body. 

The feud began a decade ago. 

At that time, Jane's parents sold her to a criminal organization in Aero Academy City, which trained her to become cannon fodder. A year later, Roland's troops discovered the unlawful business and destroyed the criminal gang, coincidentally rescuing her. 

Adam, who led a cleanup squad to rescue the gang's victims at that time, discovered Jane in a battered state. He treated her like the other victims. In the aftermath, most victims either returned to their hometowns or decided to find a new life in Terra City. However, Jane failed to recover as quickly as the others due to the accumulated injuries she received over the years.

The investigation revealed that the gang belonged to Bill Turo, who actively sponsored the Aero Academy. Jane was trained as a war slave to be dispatched as a disposable pawn for Turo House. 

Pitying her, Adam and Mary adopted her and let her serve the Lundop House as a maid. Unfortunately, Jane got used to the war slave lifestyle and couldn't adapt to housework and ordinary chores. She was transferred to Roland's intelligence unit, helping him gather information and secretly protecting his family members.

After the raid incident, the relationship between Turo and Lundop Houses hit rock bottom. An unspoken war broke out between the two families. Skirmishes between their children and servants became frequent. Jane, who had recovered from her previous injuries, tirelessly worked as Valley's bodyguard. She managed to take down assassins who infiltrated the mansion. But every time she succeeded, she received new wounds and scars.

Today, Jane received a direct order from Roland to monitor Felix, as everyone was afraid he was another assassin hired by Turo House. In the end, it was a misunderstanding on Roland's part. 

Hearing everything from Roland, Felix smacked his forehead. He thought he was overly paranoid, but this family outdid him.

"So, you sent her to seduce me to feel me out, and those guys might be Bill Turo's men?" Felix summarized what he understood.

"Again, we're sorry that we implicated you," Roland lowered his head again.

Roland's past actions and demeanor were rude, but Felix overlooked them. After all, the old man did everything he could to protect his family.

"Seriously," Felix couldn't stop facepalming, "Y'all are stupid. If I wanted to kill you or abduct your granddaughter, I would have done it when I visited your mansion."

Roland was ashamed. He laughed dryly and attempted to change the subject, "I'm curious. Are you really a mage? As a mage myself, I can't sense your mana."

Felix shrugged, "I never told anybody I'm a mage."

"…I see. But what about the spatial magic?"

"Consider that my secret."

"…Understandable. Haha!" Roland laughed for the first time.

Felix had heard enough cringeworthy stories. He clapped his hands, controlling the conversation flow before Roland sidetracked for too long. After all, Felix had unfinished business in the woods.

"Do you mind if you wait here for a bit? I need to clean up some mess."

Roland was puzzled, "Clean up some mess? Oh, you mean cleaning the bodies? Shouldn't we hurry and leave before they bring more men? I'm sure Bill Turo will find out anyway."

"It will be quick. It will be done in… maybe five minutes? Just wait here, okay?"

Without waiting for the family to respond, Felix returned to the woods where he fought the men.

...

Returning to the crime scene, Felix sat next to the corpse of a dead soldier in chainmail armor. He glanced at Jessica.

"Can I convert corpses into mana?"

That was his purpose. If he could turn a monster corpse into mana, wouldn't he be able to convert these men and their belongings into mana as well?

<Yes, you can.>

"Alright!"

Felix rubbed his hands and licked his lips. Grabbing a corpse and shoving it into his inventory, he navigated his system window and opened his inventory menu. The corpse occupied one inventory slot, and there was a disturbing option - Dissection.

Taken aback, Felix stroked his chin and commented, "Whoever created this system is a psychopath. Anyway, the design is very human. I like it!"

Throwing away his humanity, Felix pressed the dissection button as an experiment.

*DING*

All belongings of the corpse were unpacked into several new items in Felix's inventory. A damaged chainmail armor, a chainmail coif, a crimson tunic, and an assortment of equipment filled all blank slots. 

Aside from a pile of equipment, clothes, and hidden weapons, the organic parts were collected into one unit. The high-resolution icon of the body parts was so detailed that Felix almost hurled. He quickly ordered Jessica.

"Convert those… body parts… no, convert everything into mana!"

<Will you convert the local currency into mana as well?>

As the soldier carried a pouch of silver and copper with him, Jessica requested Felix's permission first.

Felix caught on, "No. Always separate gold, copper, and silver coins from now on. Oh, by the way, can we get a dedicated inventory slot for currency?"

<You can put the local currency coins in same inventory slot. Do you want me to sort it automatically?>

"Yes, please."

Jessica sorted the inventory slots. The first slot became a dedicated room for local money - gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins. After sorting the money, she proceeded with the previous request, extracting non-currency items into mana.

<You have extracted 3.2 mana from the dissected organs.>

<You have extracted 6.4 mana from the collected blood and fluid.>

<You have extracted 1.6 mana from the equipment and clothes.>

<You 8 have extracted 0.8 mana from throwing knives.>

Surprisingly, the corpse yielded 12 mana. Felix was satisfied with the return rate. Proceeding to the next body, Felix harvested his loot, including the dead soldiers Jane had killed. The mana gain was inconsistent, but Felix's mana balance grew richer. He also got 195 silver coins and 256 copper coins for his trouble. 

After recovering some of his losses, Felix checked his status once more.

.

Name: Felix Ariel 

Bloodline: [Unknown] 

Magic Element Affinity: Fire, Metal, Void 

Authorized Level: Super Democracy Pass (F) 

Level: 6 

Energy: 260/476 

Mana: 476.711 

.

His level had risen to six, and his maximum energy pool increased to 476. The inventory slots, as usual, increased by five. Finished with what he was here to do, Felix returned to the carriage to resume their journey.

...

While Felix was busy converting the corpses into mana, Roland, Adam, and Mary gathered in the carriage for a discussion.

Adam solemnly gazed at Roland and spoke his mind, "Master, is that man trustworthy?"

Roland crossed his arms and glanced at Jane, his expression complicated. Unable to answer the doubt, he shifted his attention to Jane.

"What did you get from him, Jane?"

Jane sat up and drank a mouthful of fresh water. She replied, "He is definitely not part of Turo House. I saw him kill Bill Turo's men with my own eyes."

"What about his personal life and his personality? How was he? Did he molest you or reveal anything?"

Jane thought of the incident in the forest and was inwardly ashamed. Instead of investigating Felix's goals and character, she was busy chasing after his pants.

Molest her? 

No, it was her molesting him!

Jane hesitated to expose Felix. However, since he had saved her, she decided to speak of him as positively as possible, "He is naive, innocent, and quite honest. He's different from young adults in the cities or the mercenaries from the guilds. In short, he's an honorable man."

"What about his artifacts and secrets?"

"I… don't know. He never said anything about his magic."

"Hah. You're sometimes useless," Roland grumbled and complained. 

Jane bitterly smiled and retorted in her mind.

'I did everything I could, though. I really want him as my husband! Those guys suddenly appeared out of thin air! Why did you scold me when I worked really hard!? Should I just quit my job!?'

Jane glanced at Mary, wondering if she should consult with her mother.