Elena hurriedly pulled up her cloak’s hood to hide her face.
Damn. I’d let my guard down and failed to notice the pair sooner. Both boys seemed to be about as old as we were, but Elena and I didn’t actually look our age, so I knew it was difficult to be sure from appearance alone—especially in the case of the long-lived dark elves.
I moved to shield Elena from the boys’ line of sight. The Krus boy noticed and gave the dark elf’s shoulder a light pat.
“Come now, Camille, don’t frighten the girls.”
The dark elf, Camille, turned on his heel without changing expression. The Krus boy shrugged theatrically, pointed, gave us a wave, and chased after his companion.
“Alia...” Elena said warily.
“It’s okay.”
They were a strange pair. Both were still young, but I could tell they were skilled. They’d been wearing cloaks that covered their bodies head to toe, so it was impossible to Scan them properly; likely, that was the reason they’d dressed as they had in the first place.
But, judging from their attitude, they didn’t seem the type to spread the word that there were two Mercenian girls in town. Elena seemed to concur as well, as her wariness wasn’t directed at them. Rather, I’d been sensing people watching us from the moment we’d set foot in this building. Though we couldn’t see the adjacent “Adventurers’ Guild” building from here, I knew there were likely people there trying to size us up.
From their perspective, we were probably quite the suspicious pair ourselves. It was hard to gauge what kind of reaction they would have, but that boy had probably been trying to warn us about the possibility that we would be targeted.
We had to connect with one of the four factions, but allying with a gang or a mafia was out of the question, so now what was left was to determine which of the two remaining groups—the Hogroth or the Kiluri—would be more advantageous to us.
First, we were going to see how the Hogroth Trading Company would treat newcomers like us, then decide how we felt about them.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“All right.”
As we left the building, I could sense several people tailing after us. We didn’t make it very far before they caught up to us.
“Hey, you two,” came a man’s voice. “You come all the way here and just walk right out without saying hi? Not very nice.”
Three men had followed us—two Krus and a dark elf. Based on this and the two boys from before, it seemed clear the people of this land didn’t shun dark elves as demons. The trio was equipped in light armor made of insect carapaces, with thin outer garments worn over it to protect against sunlight. Each of them had combat power exceeding 350, meaning they were about Rank 3 and intermediate-to-advanced in terms of skill.
“What do you want?” I asked.
One of them—a Krus man wielding a spear who stood between the other two—pointed out, “You sound young. We don’t get many newcomers around here besides merchant caravans, so word gets around. You caused trouble at a tavern, didn’t you? Sure, you might be able to take down a guy or two, but you’re still new here. Don’t act like you’re better than the rest of us.”
Back at the tavern, I’d killed grunts working with the Reezan mafia, which didn’t discriminate based on race. These guys were probably also with them, then.
“I hear strength is king around here,” I said.
The man barked out a laugh. “Ha! Exactly. You ask me, it serves those idiots right for being all talk. It’s exactly why here, power is in the hands of—”
“State your business already.”
The dark elf standing to the right of the man I’d just interrupted snarled in annoyance, and he reached for the twin blades at his waist. When he stepped closer, I could smell alcohol on his breath. “Do you know what happens to mouthy little girls around here?”
I ignored him and turned my gaze back to the Krus man at the center, who was flashing his white teeth in a grin. “Join the Reezan, girl,” he said. “Adventuring around these parts is for dwarves, and the Munza only take beastmen. Other races can’t make a living as adventurers here unless they join us. Besides, we control the pleasure districts. I’ll even train that little lady there myself.”
Elena gasped at the man’s words while the others laughed.
“I see,” I said.
In this town, the dwarves and beastmen tightly controlled matters related to violence. But that didn’t mean other races just took it lying down; the Reezan mafia was recruiting other races to try and break that pattern. In a way, this was a legitimate proposal. By working with them, one could make a living as an adventurer. And, for women, there were other paths available.
But we were never going to accept the offer in the first place.
“The answer is no.”
I activated Boost immediately, purifying my aether through my Level 5 Aether Manipulation. With my enhanced strength, I struck at the dark elf’s jaw with my palm, causing his head to tilt back. Before he could react, I grabbed his head and slammed it into the coarse stone floor.
That was just the kind of place this was. By threatening us and reaching for their weapons, they’d become our enemies. And even if they hadn’t resorted to violence, I would never let anyone even think of laying hands on Elena.
A squelching sound like a melon being smashed made the Krus man on the left snap out of his shock and reach for his scimitar. Before the blade ever cleared its sheath, I used my enhanced agility to fire a crossbow bolt from within Shadow Storage. It pierced through the man’s left eye into his brain.
“What?!” the man who had initially approached me shouted, having watched his Rank 3 companions be killed in an instant. He readied his spear. “You little bastard! We’re with the Reezan—”
“What are you doing?!” rang out a voice loud as a gong from behind the Krus man.
A one-eyed mountain dwarf emerged menacingly from the Hogroth building, his steps thudding on the sandstone. He had dark skin and a bone-white beard that reached down to his waist—I figured he had to be older than Galvus. The elderly dwarf was clad in magic iron chain mail and had a massive magic steel halberd over his shoulder.
“Jilgan,” the Krus man muttered, taking an unconscious step back.
So that was the dwarf’s name, then.
▼ Jilgan
Species: Mountain Dwarf♂ (Rank ?)
Aether Points: 220/220
Health Points: 438/454
Overall Combat Power: 1,413 (Uniquely Boosted: 1,707)
He’s strong... I thought, figuring he had to be either on the upper end of Rank 4, or perhaps lower Rank 5.
Jilgan glared at the corpses, then at me, then raised an eyebrow, then directed his one eye at the Krus man.
“What are you, Reezan grunts? Listen here, boy. If you’re an adventurer, I don’t care who you work for. But...”
“W-Wait, plea—”
The moment the man tried to back away, the dwarf’s halberd swung as lightly as a twig swaying in the wind. Its blade plunged into the man’s stomach, and his upper half went flying across the street.
“No one’s gonna lay hands on adventurers while I’m here!” the dwarf bellowed at the man’s lower half as it collapsed onto the floor. “Hey! Someone come clean up this mess!”
A group of young dwarves came rushing out to collect the corpses as passersby screamed at the sight.
Jilgan’s gaze slowly turned back to me. We glared at each other without a word, and only the fearful gasps of the cleanup crew could be heard as the surroundings fell into a tense silence.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Alia,” I replied curtly.
Jilgan’s lips curled into a smile and he turned his back as he shouldered the halberd once more.
“Strong ones are welcome here. But...”
He let his words hang in the air for a moment, and I could sense an intimidating—but not necessarily threatening—aura radiating from him.
“Don’t misunderstand what this was about,” he said finally.