Chapter 04-The Town of the Beast People

When Lixon opened the door, a bustling place greeted him. He observed the people walking on the street, but he was astonished that they were not people; to be precise, they were mystical creatures.

Beautiful elves were walking past him. Some were even bargaining from street vendors who looked like half-human and half-animal. They have tails, and some of them have ears like a dog or cat.

“Beast people,” he thought.

Then he remembered that he had a mission that he needed to accomplished. So he approached one of the vendors who looked like a half-cat.

“Excuse me. I just wanted to--” Before Lixon could finish his sentence, he saw a fruit-like peach threw at him. He practiced practical self-defense before, so evading it is not a problem, but seeing this reaction made him flabbergasted.

“I DON’T SELL TO HUMANS! GET OUT!” The vendor with tail and ears like a cat shouted.

All of the other nearby beast vendors stared at him with menacing looks. Then, he heard some elves murmured, “What is a human doing here?”

Lixon stepped back when he saw that they all took fruits from their stall, and he was not an idiot to knew what they planned to do. Before the first threw happened, he immediately took a turn and ran as fast as he could.

“Damn that owner. He did not even warn me of this.” He cursed through his breath. Then, after a few minutes, he stopped and looked back. He made a sigh when he noticed that no one was following him.

He observed his environment while catching his breath. There were some stores where he was, but there was no living soul.

“Ever since I entered my novel, the scenes that I encountered were becoming bizarre. But why did those beast people reacted that way?”

He closed his eyes and tried to remember the content of his novel.

It is the haven of the beast people. They were free from the discrimination and cruelty of humans. In here, no one will experiment with them or made them do things that they hate. They hated humans to the core, enough reasons even to kill them.

“Naporia?” He was stunned for a few seconds, “Really now, no wonder I nearly died.”

He looked up and saw hanging signage of the store where he was: Ghost Grim Store.

“What a unique name.” He then noticed a small piece of wood plastered on the door with the following written words: We don’t discriminate. Whether you are a beast, a human, or other, you are very welcome.

After reading this, he immediately pushed the door. But when he opened it, his heart almost jumped from his throat. What welcomed him was a headless lady wearing a black dress standing at the center of the store.

“Oh, you startled me!” Lixon bumped his back at the door and held his chest.

Seeing his strange reaction, the headless lady seemingly came to an understanding. It momentarily left him and took something from a plate placed on a small cabinet at the corner. It was the head of a young woman with blonde hair and a face of a porcelain doll.

With him as a witness, it quietly placed its head on her severed neck. Then Lixon heard a melodious voice from the headless lady earlier.

“Did I scare you?” The lady asked with some concern.

He breathed heavily before answering, “You did not only scare me; you nearly killed me!”

“I apologize.” The lady bowed towards him.

“I told you not to take your head and scare our customers, didn’t I? You will make me lose my business!” It was an aged voice of a lady.

Lixon followed it and saw an old lady coming out from a room. Her face was full of wrinkles and warts. She was wearing a black robe, and her gray hair was tied in a bun. She was walking with a stick, and her back was slightly bent.

“I will apologize on her behalf, young man. Please take a seat.” The older lady gazed at Lixon signaled him to sit.

Both of them took their respective seats. The blonde lady served them cookies and tea before standing behind the old lady.

“My name is Tia Morgan, and this is my assistant Rose,” the old lady introduced the both of them, then she queried, “How did you end up in this place?”

“My name is Lixon Rayver. I only came here to buy something, but those beasts nearly killed me.” He explained.

“Buy something?”

“Here it is.” He reached his hand to give her the list, and the old lady quickly ran through it before looking back at him.

“Tell me, did that punk Damien sent you here?”

“Ah, yes. Sir Damien told me that if I can buy those, he will accept me as his store assistant.” He answered.

The old lady clicked her tongue, “No wonder. Damien is the only irresponsible person that I knew that would send some humans to this place.”

Tia handed the piece of paper to Rose and instructed, “Find those for this young man.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Then she quickly left them.

Tia observed him for a while before asking.

“Do you know what this place is?”

“Naporia,” Lixon responded immediately.

“You know, and you still came?”

“No, I only realized it when I was standing at your doorstep, ma’am. If I know, then I would think twice before coming here.”

“Right, you don’t like an idiot that would do something like that. Give me one gold, and that would be enough payment.”

Lixon immediately took one gold coin and gave it to her.

“How did you met Damien? Did he con you?”

“Grandma, do you have an enmity with him?”

Tia snorted before responding to him, “Nope, I don’t like him, that is all.”

“It’s a pure coincidence.” He spoke while nibbling his cookies, “I stumbled to his store after I came from the Dead Forest. I even met the knights of the Luton territory and—”

“Hold!” Tia interrupted his rambling, “Did you say the Dead Forest?!”

“Hmm”

“Did you also mentioned the knights of Luton?”

“Ah, yes.”

Lixon heard the older woman heavily sighed.

“You…Did you do something bad? Why are you so lucky to encounter those dangerous entities? And you are still alive?”

‘Ma’am, stop cursing me.’

“Well, I can’t believe my luck as well.” He shrugged his shoulder.

“Oh, poor soul, you’ve been through a lot. If Damien does something terrible to you, tell me, and I will spank him.”

Lixon smiled, “That is reassuring. Thank you, ma’am.”

A while later, Rose returned to them. And with her is a basket full of different kinds of herbs. “I brought it, master.”

She then gave it to him. Lixon stood from his seat and bowed towards the old lady.

“I’ll be going. Thanks for your help and hospitality, ma’am.”

“Ah, wait a minute.”

Lixon stopped his track and waited for her.

“Once you exit from here, turn to the right. When you reach the second block, you will be able to see a black door. Open it, and you can safely return.”

The young man bowed again and left the store. He followed her direction and reached the location of the black door. He lightly pushed it, then found himself at the familiar store.

“Ah! That’s him!”

“What?” Lixon thought, then turned his head to the voice.

There he saw the guard that he encountered at the gate earlier that day. There were also several men wearing armor. He also saw the store owner at the counter area. Lixon stared at him, and his eyes were asking what was going on.

“They came here looking for you,” Damien answered.

“So, you are that fraudster.”

A musical voice came from a woman whose back was facing him. She stood from her seat and looked in his direction. It was a gorgeous young girl with red hair. She was wearing a long white robe with wide sleeves paired with leathered boots. She was also holding a sword in her right hand.

“What did you say?” Lixon asked, but his face showed some annoyance.

“Opportunist,” The girl spoke with some arrogance, “Not only that you use the name of the guardian family, but you also stole our medallion just to enter the city.”

When Lixon heard the word guardian, he almost rolled his eyes.

‘Oh, Come on, give me a break.’