Neustadt. Though the youngest of the great towns, 3.500 people lived their daily lives here, not counting the working folks from nearby villages.

Since it was the newest town, there was no greater hierarchy of traders or industrial giants established. That meant smaller business owners arrived from all corners of Astria in hopes of becoming the city's greatest supplier.

Of course, that meant different races, cultures, and ideologies clashed day in and day out on the streets of Neustadt. The marketplace echoed obnoxious traders who all dealt the same goods, but with a different coating and price. The smaller streets were full of wide crests hanging above different colored doors, screaming the same subtle secret of who's selling what.

Not all of that was bad. For example, the different cultures resulted in the most exotic streets imaginable. Each building bore a different color of the rainbow. Beautiful flowers bloomed in every window, giving the road below the feeling of a deep jungle passage.

This was one of the many reasons why a sombrero-wearing, sunglasses-sporting butler did not stand out in the colorful streets of the medieval town.

Naomi followed him a few steps behind, anxiously spying the nearby passersby. When he was sure nobody cared about the dirty vagrant he played, he reached under his dirty old rug and pulled the map.

"Left…" He whispered, barely audible to anyone but Gabriel, who stopped to stretch his limbs and let out a yawn before turning to the alley on their left.

"Simply turning left would have been enough." Naomi said with a frown.

"The art of acting is just as important as the right disguise!"

"Couldn't have said it better myself." He sighed.

The alleys of Neustadt were a maze of their own. The meshing of old and new buildings, retro and modern architectural designs caused a lot of tight roads to form between the buildings.

Some of these led to dead ends with a few empty trashcans, while others bore quite a surprise for anyone unlucky enough to end up in them…

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Gabriel asked after turning the corner.

"It's all just guesswork at this point. We got the underground figured out, but I don't know a thing about the town itself. Also, this map seems to be outdated."

"How come?"

"It says there should be a manhole on every street. Despite that, we've yet to see one."

"Interesting. I can understand the government wanting to keep civilians from going underground and dying to whatever beast lies below, but they could have used their resources to solve that problem instead of barring off infrastructure."

"Don't trust the government, boyo." Naomi spoke with cynicism in his voice. "They don't care about your well-being, only the money you can bring to 'em."

Gabriel did not respond to that. Not because he did not have an opinion of his own, but rather because something took away his attention while flying straight towards him.

"What the––?!"

It was a pair of bolas, two balls attached to a cord. It flew straight towards Gabriel who was caught off-guard by the attack, and wrapped around his chest, restricting him from moving his arms.

"Oh god!" Naomi recoiled with a shout. Not wasting any time, he began casting a pair of Tectonic Birds.

However, another pair of bolas came their way and hit Naomi's arms, wrapping them together and sending him to the ground.

"Guhh!" Naomi gasped as his back hit the ground.

Seeing his companion hit the ground, Gabriel experienced that dreaded emotion again: fear. He tried to reach his rapier, but before he could have done that a powerful punch met his face and sent him straight to the cold ground.

"On your knees!" Came a shout from the punch's way.

Gabriel was left so dizzy by the attack that he nearly blacked out. His vision was hazy for a moment, and when he could finally perceive the word again, his ringing ears met him with a harsh voice.

"Can you hear me, you pieces of shit? I got some questions for you two! Are you heroes or not?"

As the blur of his vision cleared, Gabriel could see an aged man, roughly 2 meters in height crouch before them. His wide shoulders were covered by a fur-bearing coat, unzipped in the middle so his eight-pack would show. He had a grey beard and a red kerchief covering his bald head.

As he adjusted his small, round, blue glasses, he raised his fist and roared again.

"I asked, are you heroes or not?"

As the man raised his voice, Naomi squealed. He put out his bound arms and tried everything in his ability to assure the man about his lie.

"We are not heroes!" Naomi shook his head. "I'm just a poor vagrant, I got nothing to do with the guild!"

The man gripped Naomi's wrists and pointed at the circle on the back of his hand.

"Then tell me, what is this?"

"I–I don't know!" Tears formed in Naomi's eyes as he spoke.

Another man appeared behind the buff person. He was much smaller, only around 160 centimeters tall. He wore no clothes, but instead, he wrapped his long, wavy green hair around his waists, covering his most important parts.

He looked at Naomi with a tired expression, then shook his head.

"What do you say, Faxon?" Asked the muscular man.

"He's lying, Terry." The green-haired answered.

Naomi's heart skipped a beat. Then, he could feel it pounding in his chest as the muscular man raised his fist with an angered frown.

"There is one thing I hate more than a liar!" Terry charged his fist for a punch. "And those are the kind of heroes like you––"

"That's a good left hand you got there!"

Terry's speech came to an abrupt halt as Gabriel said that. He stopped his attack just before it would have reached Naomi, who nearly passed out upon seeing Terry's fist up close.

"What did you just say?" Terry turned around.

"You're right-handed, right? I saw you did all your punches with your right hand." Gabriel's smile became ominous. "You don't use your left hand for much, do you? Mind if I take it?"

Terry was confused, and his first thought was to carve Gabriel's face into the pavement. However, something interesting caught his attention.

There was a shoe in front of him. Elegant and made from quality fabric, it most likely belongs to a royal servant. That person turned out to be Gabriel, who kicked off one of his shoes and held his foot against Terry's muscular wrist.

"What the…" Terry grunted. "Do you want to die that bad?"

"I'll take that as a yes." Gabriel winked.

Suddenly, Terry's wrist burst open as the blood in his veins solidified into a dagger. Gabriel grabbed the handle of that dagger with his toes, and as Terry pulled away while cursing in pain, he pulled the dagger and cut off Terry's left hand.

"Gahh!" He screamed in pain while looking at his wound in disbelief. His mate and even Naomi were shocked.

Gabriel kicked the dagger into the air, aiming it at Terry's throat. It was a clean attack, but it still missed his throat by a hairbreadth of space.

Terry realized that too. He quickly distanced himself, holding his bleeding wound to soothe the pain.

Gabriel reached for his rapier and as the opportunity presented itself, he too freed himself from the tight grasp of the bolas. He rushed to Naomi and freed his hands with just one clean strike.

Now that the odds were evenly matched, he returned his attention to Terry.

"W-Wait! Hold on!" Naomi stopped him. "I think we should run!"

"Have you lost your mind?" Gabriel pushed him away. "These brutes have attacked us! We have to defend ourselves. Ready your spells while I keep them at bay!"

"But I can't kill humans!" Naomi yelled.

Gabriel stopped to take another look at him. Tears flowed at the sides of his face, right down his chin and to the dusty ground.

He was serious, and Gabriel could not possibly fathom why.

"He can't kill humans?" He thought to himself. "Why is that? Is he the bearer of some sort of curse?"

However, he could not think for too long. Another pair of bolas flew their way.

"Shit!" He turned around and cut the bolas as they flew. He was successful, but one of the hefty balls hit him right in the face, causing his nose to spurt out blood.

It was a powerful blow that sent him right back to the ground.

As he fell, Gabriel could see two lines in the bottom right of his vision. They looked like information about his mana and health, the latter quickly diminishing by the blow.

[ HP: 21/28 ] –> [ HP: 17/28 ]

[ MP: 0/9 ]