Blood Assimilation

"It seems like he has finally left. What a strange human. First, he kills one human man ruthlessly without any hint of emotion simply to save that human girl, and then proceeded stay in her village for a week before leaving. Why do something like that? I don't understand. He could've simply left after receiving their gratitude, but he didn't do that for some unknown reason." The beautiful woman muttered to herself with a pondering expression. 

She then supported her head with her right hand as she sat on her throne in deep contemplation.

'All this time, I had been observing him in hopes of finding out about his motives for coming to the forest, but there was no development. All he had been doing these past few days was getting unusually along with the villagers even though they were aggressive toward him at the beginning. Then again, I wonder why they suddenly changed their attitude toward him. If only I could hear what they were saying, but sadly, I could not.' 

'But judging from their reactions at the time, it seemed like that old man somehow understood that young man's seemingly strange language which might be different from the common language widely used in this continent.' 

'Then, did that young man come from another location outside of the continent to this place? Is that why there was that unusual spatial fluctuation when he arrived here or is there another reason for his sudden appearance? And more importantly, how was he able to traverse the vast distance with simple spatial transfer magic? No, this has to be the work of some high-ranking spatial magic or an advanced spatial magic formation. If that was the case, then what is his true identity? Why come to this place in first place? Who did he come here for? Or was he escaping from someone?'

'Haa… I didn't think that I will get that much curious about a mere human. But there's indeed something very strange about that young man. But I just can't put my finger on it for now.'

'I wish I could observe him more and see what he was hiding, but…' 

"...Anymore observation from my end would only attract the attention of those people, so I cannot monitor his actions once he arrive at the nearby city. But with this, I can now confirm that he truly did not come here for me. So I guess there's no need to monitor him any more than this." She suddenly said out loud, concluding her thoughts.

With that concluded, she turned her attention elsewhere, ignoring the strange young man, and then continued monitoring any changes within the forest. 

However, she was not constantly monitoring everything in the forest. Instead, whenever something odd appeared in the forest, she would be alerted, just like how she quickly found out about Randy through his sudden appearance in the forest. 

And also, she was observing those armored men who came to the forest at the time, so she was able to tell when Randy arrived in the forest right away, which led her to monitor his actions closely afterward. 

…

At the same time.

Randy, who had been walking away from the village, suddenly stopped in his movement. He proceeded to turn around to look in the direction of the forest for a brief moment as if sensing something, and he sighed in relief shortly after when he noticed that the uneasy feeling that had been tormenting him these past few days had suddenly disappeared. 

He wondered if the other party had given up on him or whether he had escaped their domain of influence. Either way, he was glad that he did not have to be on edge all the time. 

Although Randy managed to keep his calm while staying in the village, he could not shake off the feeling that the entity was still monitoring him. 

At this point, his only clue lied in that dark region within the forest, but he was not stupid enough to confront the other party without knowing how strong they were beforehand, and thus he ultimately gave up for now.

With that out of the way, he turned around again and started walking away from the direction of the village with various thoughts in his head. 

'It seems like they had indeed lost interest in me. But who could be observing me this whole time? Whatever, I need to head to the city and then register as a dungeon hunter since that is the only way to make money quickly in this world. Now that I think about it, I guess it is somewhat similar to my world in that aspect.' Randy thought in conclusion, and he then picked up his pace.

As there are more pressing matters, Randy put these thoughts aside and decided to pick up the pace as he quickly walked in a certain direction based on the map that he had received from the village's chief. 

After walking for a few hours, Randy suddenly saw a reinforced city in the distance. The name of this city was— Alpheotus City. 

Seeing the moderately grand city in the distance, Randy smiled in delight as he was now feeling hungry and parched after walking for a few hours straight. 

Although he took a break along the way here and even ate the food that he packed and brought with him, it was still not enough to satisfy him, so he was instantly thrilled that he had finally reached the city.

Very soon, he reached the main entrance of the city. However, the moment he arrived there, he was immediately blocked by the guard of the city's gate. 

"Who are you? You don't look like a citizen of this city. Do you have an identification card with you? If not, then you'll have to pay the entrance fee of 1 gold before you can proceed to enter the city." The guard indifferently said to him. 

Randy had been prepared for this situation beforehand since he had learned from the old man that he needed an identification papers or card to enter a city. But Randy did not have anything of the sort. 

Although he had his awakener's identification card from his world, it was not like he could give that to them. That would be too stupid if he did.

But he had another solution in mind, and without hesitation, he reached out into the pouch on his waist and then took out a golden card. This was the currency of this world. It was simply a card with patterns engraved on it, and it also had this world's numerical values relating to the amount of money at the corners of the card. 

When Randy first saw this card, it instantly reminded him of poker cards in his world. However, the cards here were not a source for entertainment or playing around. Instead, it was this world's currency for exchange.

At this time, Randy had walked toward the guard before handing to him the card in his hand.

"Here you go. 1 gold.. Can I enter the city now?" Randy calmly said afterward.