“Rule number one. You will never attack or even threaten a human, unless your life is in danger, in which case you may defend yourself. Rule number two. You will not bypass the walls, you will use the gates, like everyone else. Rule number three. For the time being, you will always stay close to one of us, to show people that you aren’t a threat and so we can keep an eye on things. Rule number four. Until we allow you to move around freely, we will feed you. Rule number five. You will stay in this form while you’re in town, so as to not scare anyone. That’s how it has to be, is that alright?” I asked Hati.

“Okay! Can we go?” he said, getting up and wagging his tail for the first time.

He was excited to see a town, but I had to at least lay down some ground rules. It was probably good that today was the eighth, and the streets would be relatively empty compared to the rest of the week, as this way, we wouldn’t immediately be faced with a large group of people when we went back into town.

“Alright, let’s go,” I said, and our group started moving in the direction of the southern town gate.

Tomar and Riala were pretty happy with this outcome, while Berla, Reurig, Lilana, and Aelene still had some reservations about a beast walking into town. A decision had been made though, and we’d just have to keep going from here.

As we went on, I looked at Hati and Riala walking side-by-side and had an idea. “Hey, Hati. Would you mind if someone sat on your back while we’re moving?”

“On my back? Why would someone sit on my back?”

“Well, there are a few reasons. So?”

“I think it’s fine. I didn’t mind you sitting on my back.”

“Heh, thanks. Come here, Ria. You’re gonna love this,” I said as I picked her up and swung her up onto his back, at the height of a mid-sized horse.

“Woah!” she exclaimed in surprise.

“Hold on tight,” I told her, looking at them in amusement, neither of them being sure what was happening, and Riala trying not to fall off.

“Ohhh, this is fun!” she said after riding on him for a couple of meters.

“It is...?” Hati asked in confusion.

“Yes! Walk faster!” she said.

“Okay,” he said and accelerated slightly, leaving us behind.

“And now left!” she said. Slowly but surely, albeit a bit awkwardly, she directed him to run a circle around us. “Woo!”

I chuckled as I watched her having fun, but I also realized I had forgotten one potentially important rule. “Hati, rule six. Riala is not your boss. If she asks something of you, and you’re not sure about it. You ask us first.”

“Uh, okay,” he said, though he didn’t sound certain, while Riala kept riding circles around us.

The thought of using a wolf the size of a horse as a mount came natural to me, but I had yet to see anything resembling mounts in this world, and when you stood in front of a beast, you wouldn’t typically think about climbing onto it. Especially if nobody had ever managed to dominate a beast. If you have one that lets you try willingly though...

“By the way, do you know how long it would take you to travel to Cerus? The town that got attacked?”

“How long...? Hm... I haven’t been in the area before, but I think I could get there until a little after sundown.”

“Really...” I said in wonder.

If you traveled around twelve hours a day, at a leisurely pace, you would get to Cerus in about three days, and I had been told you could make it in half that time if you really went for it. Going by these numbers, a human’s average movement speed, and factoring in a few breaks, we were probably talking a distance of about one hundred and fifty kilometers. It wasn’t a lot if you had some kind of semi-fast vehicle at your disposal, but it was an entirely different story if you had to go on foot.

I naturally assumed that a wolf would be faster than a human, but a little after sundown would mean about five to six hours, for a movement speed of about twenty five to thirty kilometers per hour. This was more than expected. I didn’t know exactly how long or fast a wolf on earth would be able to run, but I was fairly certain that it would probably be less than that. Not to mention that Hati would use up more energy, due to his larger size. But I also didn’t know how much the mana would affect all of this. Regardless, if he said he could make it, he probably could, and if he were willing to help us out, we might potentially be able to get to Cerus and back in less than a day. That would be really convenient...

“Hey...” Berla said quietly to me with a surprised look. “You want to go to Cerus that way...?”

“I’m considering it,” I said. “Riding him, one could be back in Alarna within a day. Wouldn’t that be amazing? And we do need to go there soon to check out the situation.”

“He hasn’t even seen the town yet, and you’re already planning how to utilize him?” she asked with a chuckle.

“Of course,” I said. “It’s a golden opportunity. Though only if he agrees.”

When we were almost at the gate, our group came to a stop, as we looked up a visibly flustered guard, in a tower atop the wall.

“Lilly...” he shouted down at us. “That... beast...”

“He’s coming inside with us. Would you mind?” I said, gesturing at the gate.

“Are you serious? He’s... I mean... Please wait a moment!” he shouted as he disappeared from our view.

“Not the best start...” I muttered.

A minute passed. Then another minute. I couldn’t think of many possible explanations for what this guard was doing, with the most likely one being that he was consulting someone about whether to let us in with a beast in tow. The problem was that we were supposed to be the leaders here, raising the question of who he was consulting exactly.

“What’s wrong?” Riala asked as she looked around and saw the glum expressions on our faces, with everyone but her and Hati starting to have suspicions about what was happening.

I waved her off for the time being, but when the gate finally opened a minute or two later, we were greeted by about a dozen soldiers, standing at attention, with Grym at their head. I recognized a few faces, but nobody stood out. Conspicuously, there wasn’t a guard we were close with in sight.

“Grym, what’s going on?” I asked as we stepped a little closer.

Regardless of any suspicions I might have had, this seemed like the most natural question, without throwing any immediate accusations at him.

“We can’t let you bring a beast into town, Lilly! What are you thinking!?”

“You mean this ‘beast?’” I asked, pointing at Hati. “The one the little girl is playing with?”

“You getting smart with me again, girly!? I won’t even mention her for the moment, and how you didn’t tell us what she can do! She could kill that beast if she needed to! But the citizens can’t!!”

I really wanted to respond with another snarky remark, but I did my best to hold back, given how Grym typically reacted to even indirect ridicule.

“I understand your concerns. But is that how we should operate? Keep absolutely every single potential danger out of town?”

“Of course! That is literally our job!”

“Right... Tell me then, if a single Fighter decided to go on a killing spree one night, how many citizens and even guards would they potentially be able to slay before they’re stopped?”

“What...!?” he asked, bewildered and angry.

“I’m posing a hypothetical question. This beast can be dangerous, I won’t try to argue against that, but have you ever thought about the power dynamic in this town? Know that I’m not criticizing anyone here for their Calling, but fact is, every single one of you standing there is potentially just as dangerous as he is. Also, even a normal citizen can be very dangerous if they decide to take up a weapon and attack someone with it, as you know all too well.”

Berla and Reurig hadn’t been able to give us exact numbers about the crimes in town before we came here, but after looking into that topic during the past couple of days, we learned that, while serious crimes like murder were relatively rare, they naturally did happen, which essentially made every single citizen a source of danger.

“Are you comparing us to beasts!?”

“I’m saying that it’s not about how dangerous someone can potentially be. What matters are the decisions we make. Unfortunately, our view on beasts has been skewed by hundreds and thousands of years of living in fear of them. This ‘beast,’ Hati, is not a mindless killing machine. Just like you aren’t. Just like we aren’t. Say hello to the guards, Hati.”

“Uhm... Hello,” he said, sounding unsure of himself.

Prompted by this, the guards immediately started talking to each other in hushed voices, and I could vaguely make out that some hadn’t believed that these beasts could actually talk, or that they wouldn’t understand what we said.

“By talking to him, we learned the identity of these new kinds of beasts. We learned what their purpose is, and how many there are. We learned a little about how beasts hunt, how they think, and how our little Hati here apparently loves rabbits. We also learned that he is scared of humans, similar to how we are scared of them. In the little time we’ve had, we learned more about beasts than anyone ever knew about them before! Just because we decided to listen to him for a little bit! He’s a good guy, and he doesn’t deserve to be treated like a monster!”

“Even if I was to accept this ridiculous idea,” Grym said, “he would still be an enemy, who just attacked this town!!”

“We were enemies of Alarna as well, Grym! Just a couple of weeks ago, most of us were criminals! Then, from one moment to the next, we weren’t! You and I were enemies too! Do you believe that to still be the case!? Do you still think I don’t have the town’s best interests at heart!?”

Grym looked at least a little bit conflicted. Of course this idea sounded ridiculous on a surface level. Letting a beast into town, when you usually would try everything to keep them out? A beast that was assumed to be too strong for normal Fighters to beat no less? And after it just attacked people? If that was all you knew, you might wonder who would come up with such a nonsensical plan. However, context mattered, and Grym wasn’t an idiot. He understood my arguments.

“Come on, Grym!” another guard whispered to him from behind. “Say something! We can’t let them in! We shouldn’t even have opened the gate!”

Evidently, there were members of the opposition in this group in front of us, which was hardly a surprise. Though I was curious when he had gotten rid of the guards who were in favor of us and gathered these ones here instead. It couldn’t have been in the couple of minutes before the gate opened, so there must’ve been some preparation beforehand. There would’ve been more than enough time while we were talking to Hati though, and while Grym was only criticizing our plan to bring a beast into town right now, this probably wasn’t the whole story. Maybe the idea had even been to simply lock us out, while the guards took back control.

“Grym... Is someone on their way to the prison right now?”

“Of course not!”

I felt like he was telling the truth, though it was mostly because he wasn’t the type to lie. He also wasn’t the type to be pressured into such a stunt though, so he must’ve been a willing participant, even though he had given us six months.

“Did our actions shake you that much?” I asked. “What exactly is this here?”

He didn’t respond. The other guard had apparently been against opening the gate, but he had done it anyway, so Grym was presumably still sticking to his pledge to some degree. Maybe he had suspected that we would try to bring Hati inside after seeing us with the beast, and that was simply too much for him, or maybe he had a weak moment and just thought that this would be a great opportunity. Whatever the case, he didn’t seem so sure anymore.

“Tomar,” I said, and motioned for him to come with me. While the others waited at the gate, barely inside town, we walked up to the guards. Some of them seemed flustered, some scared, while others moved to ready their weapons. We came to a stop just two meters away from them.

“I don’t know what exactly brought this on, Grym,” I said, “but by this point, I believe you understand that we’re trying to do something good here. Trust that we wouldn’t risk a single citizen’s life. Bow to us and we’ll forget about this.”

His grimm expression barely changed as we locked eyes with him. It must’ve been a weird sight, seeing two unarmed teenagers stare down an older, burly Fighter. Not only considerably larger in frame, but also slightly in height. It took a few moments, but eventually, he relented, and got down to one knee.

“Grym, what are you doing!?” the other guard asked in a panic, glancing at us with fearful eyes.

It was quite obvious that he had been hiding behind Grym, and that he had hoped that others would do any potential fighting. Slowly but surely, the others followed Grym’s example and took a knee as well, until even the one remaining guard got down with a “Tsk.”

I really wanted to do a quick poll about how many of them reacted this way due to our new auras, but unfortunately it didn’t seem like the most regal action right now.

“Very well,” I said. “We will all be entering the town now, so please step aside.”

As I waved the others over, the guards scrambled away, and we finally started making our way up the main street. I threw an occasional glance behind us, but it seemed like they had given up for the moment.

“That was impressive...” Hati said. “You didn’t even have to growl.”

“Right!? Miles is amazing! He just talks to people and they do what he wants!”

Hah... Somehow...

“Riala...” Tomar said admonishingly.

““Miles?”” Hati and Aelene said in confusion.

Oh...