Chapter 350: More Roaming

———Wiina———

<11: 03 am>

I walked into the bar, gaining some curious glances before they quickly retreated. I suppose in this environment keeping to one self is ideal. This place is on the hinge of being completely lawless. The place is quite dirty and everyone is haggard to some degree.

“Get me whatever is the best seller.” I said after sitting at the counter. I can still sense the gazes from the others even if they were trying to be more subtle with their observation.

The bartender didn’t say anything as he poured me a glass of alcohol. Quick with a shaky movement. I suppose he is quite wary of me at the moment and would rather not cause a fuss in his own establishment. There is no doubt that a new presence like myself can create quite the paranoia.

*Sip*

…Certainly not of the highest quality, but all I’m looking for here is if they’ll do anything fishy or not. That is always the fun part when it comes to exploring a new area born of the chaos magic brings. I want to know how bold they’ll be, and as of right now, nothing notable. No poisoning, ambush, or any sense of malice just yet. Perhaps this is one of the more peaceful areas.

I was expecting more for an area that looks like it came out of one of those wild west films, but reality is often more boring and mundane. Maybe it’s because of the sword I put on my back. It’s large, has a scary purple hilt, and the only thing making it look like I’m not going to swing it around randomly is the bandage I put on it for aesthetics. It’s still going to kill anyone who gets in the way of it.

“Here, keep the change.” I give the bartender a hundred dollar bill before getting up and ready to leave while checking the reaction of others. Getting some strong emotion coming through.

I walked out of the bar and observed the current situation. The buildings are all rather worn down, some broken lighting panels and many areas in disrepair. The electricity works, so does the internet. It’s still quite salvageable for these folks, at least.

“Oh dear.” I said with a sword kissing my neck. I didn’t even take that many steps after getting out of the bar and this is what I’m greeted with? “Is this how the locals greet a newcomer? How dreadful.”

“Who the hell are you?” The person who held the blade close to my neck said. Certainly a paranoid one. We’re not even out of the public eye, still in the open street.

“That is not something you need to know,” I calmly answered. Obviously I look quite ominous at the moment, wearing a black hood over light black armor that completely obscures my face and even general body shape, looking more bulky and taller than I usually am, not even needing to shapeshift, just a bit of lighting trick. “Move. I have no interest in someone looking to be important.”

“You think you can say stuff like that!?” He shouted out with other people noticing the commotion but did nothing but observe or go on their way. “What’s your purpose, why are you here!”

“It does not concern you.” I tell him flat out. He is a brave one, commendable if obviously way over his head. His power isn’t lacking and he no doubt knows his place within this town’s hierarchy, an unknown like me would make him feel uncertainly and make blind judgment.

*Swing* *Bounce*

I moved and the moment he swung his sword with the aim to make me swallow my words, it harmlessly bounced off as naturally someone of his strength cannot hope to scratch me. In fact, he can’t even do that to any of my classmates.

“Wha-!?” He is naturally bewildered by what just happened. He didn’t expect the gap in power to be so large that a clean hit like that wouldn’t inflict any damage. I turned around and stared at him for a moment, scrutinizing his appearance which is on the ordinary side. I raised my right hand and opened my palm.

*Launch* *Crash*

An invisible force came out and launched him right into the closest building. Just a love touch, anything more than that and I would look like the aggressor.

He didn’t faint or start to bleed out from the retaliation. A decently sturdy body but otherwise just above average.

That certainly caused quite a bit of commotion. I didn’t mean to start anything so soon on the trip. At least no one else is willing to approach, so I’ll simply leave this area for a while and go observe other parts of this town.

I simply walked away while the others were attending to that guy, now I didn’t find any place of note in this town specifically. No popular shops or tourist traps or anything. Just a rather humble town, kinda like ours before that happened, at least on the surface level.

Even a pawn or gift shop would be enough. I always gift Karra with at least one souvenir from a trip like this, flexing my freedom a bit.

…There’s one right there, about as worn down as other areas and not looking all too appealing as a place for an outsider to visit.

“Eeek!” The shopkeeper screamed out and ducked under the counter. I know I look like a headless figure with the shroud of darkness covering my face, but that’s a bit much ain’t it?

Really, if this isn’t a place with such a bad reputation then I wouldn’t have to design my disguise like this. I want to look around without much interruption. Maybe one or two, but no more than that. Looking around while invisible isn’t any entertaining.

“Calm down, lady. Do I look like a debt collector or something?” I said before walking around the store. She is noticeably calmer once hearing my voice, the one thing I barely modified, simply lowering my pitch by a tad bit to sound older and gruffer than I should be. “...Do you not have any local specialty or anything like that?”

“N-No.” She meekly answered. I scrutinize her form and see no signs of physical abuse, so verbally threatened at most, or simply naturally paranoid. There are signs of struggles everywhere on the streets.

“...I’ll take this.” I said before picking up a store brand product. It’s either going to be a neat or nasty surprise for Karra if she decides to eat it on stream. It’s just a normal bag of chips with rather normal flavoring, so most likely little reaction either way, but I had to buy at least one thing now that I visit it. I’m not short on money anyway. “Here, keep the change.”

“T-Thank you for the purchase…” She blurted out due to the generous tip.

So that shop didn't have much of anything… Before I go check out other places, I need to clear up that little mess first. It shouldn’t take too long.

“Gah!” The guy I pushed back not too long ago is now cornered by a few other people. Looks like he has a few enemies already, looking to strike when he is vulnerable.

“Hehe. Looks like you push your luck too much, brat.” The big guy of the group said, wielding a spiked bat. Got ambushed the moment I left the area. It’s only natural for someone bold enough to hold a sword at someone’s neck to make a lot of enemies.

Normally I wouldn’t interfere with personal business like this, but being a factor leading to someone’s death leaves a bad taste in my mouth, especially as I didn’t intend it to go in this direction.

“Alright, boys. Enough with bullying.” I said as I approached the scene.

“Huh!? Why the hell are you interfering, old hag!” The big guy shouted out. My voice doesn’t even sound anything like that.

“Let’s just say I’m not a big fan of someone else exploiting my hard work. How about all of you call it quits for today?” I explained.

“And what if we don’t!?” He said and the members of his gang all shifted their focus to me.

“...In that case.” I said before brandishing my greatsword. “We can play.”

They clearly weren’t expecting me to actually double down like that with their surprised expression and some of them taking a step or two back.

“Y-You sure are confident!” The big guy said despite clearly also being intimidated. It’s hard not to be when comparing his spiked bat to a greatsword the size of my body.

*Swing* *Chop*

“Geh!” He tried to swing at me with that bat that I easily cut through with this giant sword, leaving him bewildered and quickly took a few steps back in panic. “Don’t mess with me!”

He then pulled out a gun and aimed it at me. If I was an average fighter that would cause me some trouble, but I don’t know any average fighter walking around like I am.

*Bang* *Bounce*

“Ah!” The bullet bounced off harmlessly and almost hit one of the gang members. Speaking of them, they don’t seem to have the gall to attack me as well.

“What the hell are you all doing, get her!” The big guy shouted out as he took a few more steps back. I guess he wasn’t planning on fighting me alone in the first place.

*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Duck* *Swing* *Evade*

No doubt intimidated by their leader’s command, they ran at me with their weapons and tried to attack me to no avail. I easily dodged their attacks even as they attacked from multiple angles. There is more than enough time for me to react.

*Strike* *Bash* *Punch* *Strike*

Hitting them back and causing them to collapse from the pain, using only my fist and the flat side of the sword, now only the leader remained.

“You useless lot!” He screamed out in anger before suddenly turning to look at the injured young man leading on the wall. He has taken some damage from them after I left him alone for a moment.

*Bang* *Block*

He tried to kill him since trying to fight me wouldn’t be fruitful. Too bad for him, I’m not going to let him actually go through with that. Getting between the two and blocking the bullet with my giant sword.

“Enough of that.” I proclaimed before raising my sword.

*Slash*

“Heuk!?” All I did was cut the handgun in half, but he’s panicking as if his hand was gonna be chopped off. An easy mistake to make.

“Don’t make me repeat myself. Leave.” I said with a more assertive tone. His expression is now more clearly filled with fear than it does arrogance.

“Y-You, don’t think this is over, do you not know who we are!?” I see, so it’s that kind of scenario.

“It doesn’t matter.” I flatly said. Looks like he is part of a bigger gang then. That doesn’t really concern me. “Now, will you leave, or shall I cleave you in half?”

He didn’t say anything else and simply chose to leave. Guess he doesn’t have the guts to stick around after all. Ultimately it is a smarter move than being stubborn.

“Alright then. Try to not get into any trouble.” I said before placing a potion next to him and walking away. He’s on his own at this point.

———Lerim———

<11: 57 am>

“Another mysterious figure…” I muttered while looking at photos taken.

“Is this even the same guy as before?” Evari muttered, clearly finding it hard to believe with so many of them popping up for many months.

“I don’t really know. It’s interesting, but also not a solved phenomenon.” I replied. One of the weirder mysteries that at least hasn’t proven to cause any real problem. I mean… It could always be Wiina in a cloak, it wouldn’t be the first time, but can it really be the case all the time?